Netherlands and more

I’ve been adventurous enough to upgrade my iMac to Ubuntu 17.10 Artful Aardvark. That’s the one that features Wayland instead of X Window and Gnome Shell instead of Unity.

The upgrade process proved to be a big challenge and took almost a week, since a regular system update resulted in a black screen. It required a complete OS reinstall from scratch in order to get it working, and then a few more weeks to have it configured my way. The thing is, settings in Gnome Shell are sometimes located at the most bizarre places of Gnome Control Center.

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The fact this year has come to an end was a bit of a surprise for me. I remember myself in July and then—bang—it’s Christmas and Sinterklaas is on his way. There’s some explanation for that though, more on which below.

And now it’s time for the traditional annual round-up!

The last has brought major changes for the better for me, in contrast with the gloomy 2016. I’ll remember the following.

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It seems I’ve found the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.

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My most bulky gadget needed an upgrade. I’ve been a devoted Toyota Prius fan ever since my first leased car. Later I’ve owned another one, which almost lost a wheel once. The latter turned eight years old last March so I’ve decided to trade it for something more modern.

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Yet another medal in your newsfeed!

It’s high time for running, so it seems: I’ve recently completed the Ijsselsteinloop and now, two weeks later, a half marathon in Amersfoort. It’s been my second time on this event.

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Another childhood’s dream has come true! I’ve been following the Polish prog band Riverside almost since its birth. Okay, I was in my twenties back then, so strictly speaking it wasn’t childhood.

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Today I’ve run yet another half marathon (21.1 km), in the small town of Ijsselstein, which is near to Houten we live in.

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I’m not really into reviewing gadgets, but in this case it’s worth doing it. Today I’d like to review Mi In-Ear Headphones Pro HD by the well-known Chinese make Xiaomi.

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What I like about the Dutch is how they manage to combine classic with contemporary, conservative with conspicuous. For instance, the modern Dutch architecture is usually quite geometrical and sober, with no gaudy elements. As you have a closer look, you suddenly spot emojis on the façade!

Vathorst, a young district in Amersfoort (where we once held our aikido demo), has recently got an apartment building with twenty-two emoticons picked from the popular messenger WhatsApp. I decided to take a look at this new attraction after I’ve read about it in the local news.

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My latest Dutch language course has come to an end. It took almost a year to get through, partly due to my entrepreneurial adventures. I’ve started the course, at the time paid by my employer ING, in July last year, and kept getting lessons long after leaving ING.

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We decided to dedicate the last day of our Sophian journey to Plovdiv, going there in the morning and returning in the afternoon.

This idea was suggested by Slavyan during the Free Sofia Tour. Plovdiv is easily reachable by bus departing from the Sofia Bus Station. The direct trip takes two hours and costs 14 leva (€7).

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There’s this country on our globe that is kind of special for Russian-speaking people, because they use the same alphabet but pretty different words. Which usually results in something either incomprehensible or hilarious.

That country is called Bulgaria, and I recently happened to visit its capital Sofia, and also to spend a day in the nearby Plovdiv.

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