I spent this weekend in Brussels. I'm a travel freak, I live to travel. Trips away from the quiet screen-based existence of my office are marvelous for time to reflect without the distraction of housework and IM. Each trip gives me opportunity to see different things and meet new people. Meeting people and working with them is something I miss from my teaching days. It might sound cheesy, but I still love it when I'm able to convey a difficult concept to someone and they actually get it and use it to improve their life in some way. When I taught at a college in Manchester, I worked with people from really tough areas of the city, providing them with skills to either get a job or move on to uni. Working with talented people and see them produce amazing things with some of the few skills and knowledge you've imparted - there's really nothing that compares to it.
In my current job and in the visits I make for training purposes, I particularly enjoy the opportunity to meet people who are using Confluence or learning to do so. Each time I visit people for training sessions, I get a new insight into the way people interact with the system, their reactions, their fears and questions. Each visit changes some small aspect of my approach. It's a constant system of change and refinement. There's new things to learn and incorporate as a result of each training session.
I haven't been to Brussels since I did my masters, part of which was International Law and Diplomacy. It was a trip to the EU to get us ready for our careers in Diplomacy. The weather was pretty gray then, even for me, a lass from the rainy north of England.
Here's the view from my hotel window for this trip.
Mid summer in Brussels
I spent some of Saturday having a look at Brussels and trying out some of the local delicacies.
Mmmmmm Frites.
And yes, they were as bad as they looked and ended up in the trash. I guess for fries, they weren't bad, but because I'm still in training for my epic bike ride, I couldn't face them.
Out of keeping with the healthy living was the Belgian girls beer I tried. I couldn't resist. Pink beer girls! And it tasted like a beerpop. In a lady's can size too.
Beer for girls.
Apart from that here's the plane I took there and back:
And the interesting illustration of what to do in the event of crash landing while carrying the elephant man as a baby.
Badly drawn baby
I wish the camera on my phone was able to capture the full extent of the badly drawn nature of this illustration.
