Anyway, had a great time, ate my share of herring, patatje met (french fries) and kroketten, i.e the typical Dutch fast food which I find difficult to resist, and had a few beers with friends.

In between i managed to take a few shots which i included below. They are all available in Flickr as well.

Flying into Schiphol	The dunes of Noordwijk
There is a lot of sailing being done in Noordwijk	More dunes in Noordwijk
Amsterdam with a “spanish corner”	Obviously you want to take your pet with you when you cycle through Holland. These small bicycle extensions let you do so.
Amsterdam from above	Amsterdam
One of the main newspapers in Holland: the peoples paper	Amsterdam
“hofje” in Haarlem	The old town square “Lindenplein” in Noordwijk
Eating herring in Haarlem	Typical shop in Haarlem
The town council of Noordwijk	Just a typical house in Noordwijk
A “hofje” in Haarlem	Nice vintage volvo in Noordwijk

Finally i started to introduce myself into the world of sailing. To be honest I just took a small shy step, but then, you have to start somewhere !

The objective is to obtain my sailing license for boats up to 12m, named Patrón de Embarcaciones de Recreo (PER) in Spanish or Vaarbewijs in Dutch before the end of the year. After that I will have to start looking at ways of actually sailing a boat, which is by no means cheap, but we´ll see how to do so when we get to that – i am optimistic !

Navigation by Motor

As a start i bought myself the book “La Navegación a Motor” from the collection Guías Glénans and am looking at what the various sailing schools in Madrid have to offer.

The book is a nice introduction to all related to motor sailing. However if you are not familiar at all with sailing, a lot of terms will sound like Russian, the book is missing a list of terms and expressions, and i think i will look for an even more basic book about sailing and then re-read this one.

Having said that the book is easy and fun to read and the comments from the autor do give me the impression that it was writen by an expert; the book gives some funny comments about real life situations and possible errors to avoid.

All in all i enjoyed reading the book as a first introduction to navigation by motor. There are some other interesting titles in this series which i will have a look at.

Sailing Schools in Madrid

The following is a list of sailing schools in Madrid with some basic information on each below, now i just have to choose [if you have any related information or experience with any of these, please let us know !]

1. Nautivel
2. Baluma
3. Cenautica
4. Altamar
5. Avante
6. Nautimar
7. Luis Moreno
8. Al Través

Obviously it is also possible to prepare the PER exam yourself. The titulosnauticos web site has links to books in PDF format for free as well as tests for the exam. People recommend reading the problem resolving book from Moreu Corbera and the information and help found in message boards on internet to complement your study.

Nautivel

		Address: c/ Corazon de Maria 72, 1B, 28002 MadridTel: 91 415 26 79Web: http://www.nautivel.comPrice: 823 Euros
The price (including taxes or IVA) includes theoretical classes (490 Euros) for the title PER as well as practical classes of sailing and motor (340 Euros).

Baluma

		Address: c/ Colombia 43, local bajo, 28016 MadridTel: 91 350 98 91Web: http://www.escuelanauticabaluma.comPrice: 735 Euros
The price (including taxes or IVA) includes theoretical classes (410 Euros) for the title PER as well as practical classes of sailing and motor (330 Euros).

Cenautica

		Address: c/ Menéndez pidal 19, 28036 MadridTel: 91 350 12 74Web: http://www.cenautica.comPrice: 1172 Euros
The price (including taxes or IVA) includes theoretical classes (685 Euros) for the title PER as well as practical classes of security (226 Euros) and practical classes of sailing and motor (261 Euros).

Altamar

		Address: Avda de Europa 1, esquina Avda de España, 28224 Pozuelo de AlarcónTel: 91 351 79 11Web: http://www.escuela-altamar.comPrice: 850 Euros
The price (including taxes or IVA) includes theoretical classes (490 Euros) for the title PER as well as practical classes of sailing and motor (360 Euros).

Avante

Nautimar

		Address: c/ Princesa 10, 28008 MadridTel: 91 548 21 10Web: http://www.nautimar.net(their site needs re-doing, best viewed with internet explorer) Price: 610 Euros
The price (including taxes or IVA) includes theoretical classes (450 Euros) for the title PER as well as practical classes of sailing and motor in Madrid only (160 Euros).

Luis Moreno

		Address: c/ Juan Bravo 66, entresuelo, 28006 MadridTel: 91 401 40 20 Web: http://www.escuelanauticaluismoreno.comPrice: ? Euros
The price (including taxes or IVA) includes theoretical classes (? Euros) for the title PER as well as practical classes of sailing and motor (350 Euros).

Al Través

		Address: c/ Pedro Muguruza 6, 28036 MadridTel: 91 703 05 54Web: http://www.altraves.comPrice:895 Euros
The price (including taxes or IVA) includes theoretical classes (545 Euros) for the title PER as well as practical classes of sailing and motor (350 Euros).

The Patrón de Embarcaciones de Recreo Exam

After having finalized your classes, the Patrón de Embarcaciones de Recreo (PER) certficate in Spain is obtained via an exam organized by the ministerio de fomento and in particular at the Dirección General de la Marina Mercante for Madrid.

The price of the exam is 49,69 Euros.

The Patrón de Embarcaciones de Recreo (PER) allows you to:

Gobierno de embarcaciones de recreo, a motor o a motor y vela, hasta 12 metros de eslora y potencia de motor adecuada, en navegaciones realizadas entre la costa y la línea de 12 millas paralela a la misma. Asimismo podrá realizar navegación interinsular en los archipiélagos balear y canario.

Links of Interest

• http://www.titulosnauticos.net – para la preparación de los títulos náuticos para el gobierno de embarcaciones de recreo
• http://es.groups.yahoo.com/group/TitulosNauticos – grupo para la preparación de los titulos náuticos
• http://www.marviva.org
• http://www.adriaticanautic.com – la oferta más amplia de chárter en Croacia
• http://www.yachtbooker.es – alquiler un barco en cualquier sitio del mundo
• http://www.vetus.nl – todo para su barco

I will keep updating this post in the process of looking for work.

According to Right Management, the outplacement company that was made available to us, the process of finding a job can be defined by the following steps:

1. Evaluation of your strengths and how to communicate them
2. Investigation of the market
3. Identifying the right job for you
4. Interviews and Negotiation
5. Management of your career

Evaluation

The first step in finding the right job is evaluation of ones strengths. This can be done through various methods like:

• Performing a Birkman test
• Performing a balance of your professional career
• Identifying what you value in a job

Investigation

Investigation the market is the second step. By performing this step you will be able to better identify the jobs and companies you are interested in, it will allow you to identify which media (on-line job sites, local traditional newspapers) to use for your job search, as well as managing your references.

What helped me in this step was the list of great places to work in Spain for 2008 provided by the international Great Place to Work^® Institute, Inc.

And regarding salaries, Michael Page perform and publish their salary studies every year on their web site.

Besides, a very important aspect of this step is making use of your network of friends and colleagues to get a better picture of the market as a whole. Networking will not only help you in the process of searching for a job via your contacts, but will also help you in understanding the market and how you with your particular experience fit into that market. I think networking is a great way of investigating the market and of actually finding the right job – and the great thing is it mostly happens by helping out other people finding people or a job.

The following are a few of my favourate networking sites:

• LinkedIn
• Xing
• Plaxo

Recommending people and obtaining references is a part of networking that is very well integrated in sites like LinkedIn, a not always easy task; Have you ever had a moment, when you wanted to recommend a colleague, but did not have the appropriate words in mind? This endorsement generator could be handy: use with care hehe – thanks for the tip Carlo.

Dont forget to use the LinkedIn tips & tricks given in this Blog all about LinkedIn.

Identifying the right Job

To me this is one of the most important steps in the process. Performing the first step of evaluation your strengths should have helped a lot in defining the right job for you according your experience and career objectives.

One of the first things to do is to find the right way of communicating your experience and know how. Obviously via getting your CV right, but also as a previous step making sure you can summarize your experience and what your are looking for in a 30 or 15 second pitch that you can add to your LinkedIn profile, use in elevators or use as an introduction in your emails.

• 15 Second Pitch
• Linkedin email Signature

Now that you have your 30 second pitch and CV right, you can start your job search. These are a few of the sites i used.

Job Search

• LinkedIn Job Search
• Xing job Search – you need to be logged-in
• Infoempleo
• InfoJobs
• Monster
• Spacejobs – as the name suggests, specialized in the space industry
• Catenon – worldwide executive search
• Startupers – the jobsite for innovative startups

Professional Recruitment Consultancies

• Michael Page
• Accetis

Jamie Cullum´s roots are found in Jazz, but what i like so much about his music is the way he mixes Jazz with so many other styles like dance, rock, pop, funk and even classical music.

To me all his CDs are a pleasure to listen to and i can only highly recommend them if you get the chance.

For now, enjoy the videos below.

Discography

• Heard it all Before
• Pointless Nostalgic (2002)
• Twentysomething (2003)
• Catching Tales (2005)

Oumou Sangaré es una cantante del genero Wassoulou, y su álbum Moussolou es una joya si te gusta el genero world music y no te asustan los ritmos africanas.

Si quieres leer mas echa un vistazo a este articulo en El Mundo, en la web estación tierra y en la pagina dedicada a ella en el sitio de su label World Circuit. Pero lo mejor es escuchar a temas como Ah Ndiya, disfruta !

Oumou Sangaré: Moussolou [World Circuit, 1995]

1. Djama Kaissoumou

2. Diaraby Nene

3. Woula Bara Diagna

4. Moussolou

5. Diya Gneba

6. Ah Ndiya

A mi me gusta especialmente la producción del álbum de Duffy. Duffy tiene una muy buena y correcta voz, aunque en mi opinión la falta agarre y alma que si sabe transmitir Amy. Pero, el sonido de Rockferry, que suena a sixtiespop in la tradición de los Walker Brothers y donde el productor Bernard Butler, el guitarrista de Suede, llena el álbum con un sonido dramático, a veces me recuerda a el “muro de sonido” (wall of sound) de Phil Spector que en canciones como Warwick Avenue ó Stepping Stone resulta una combinación perfecta con la voz de esta cantante de Wales. Por el momento  estoy disfrutando mucho escuchando al álbum de esta chica.

Como comentaron en el periódico de Volkskrant, Amy es todavía la reina, pero la heredera se llama Duffy.

Duffy: Rockferry [Polydor, 2008]

1. Rockferry

2. Warwick Avenue

3. Serious

4. Stepping Stone

5. Syrup & Honey

6. Hanging On Too Long

7. Mercy

8. Delayed Devotion

9. Scared

10. Distant Dreamer

]]> http://arnoplug.wordpress.com/2008/07/23/la-reina-y-su-heredera/feed/ 0 arnoplug http://arnoplug.wordpress.com/2008/07/21/yahoo-strikes-back/ http://arnoplug.wordpress.com/2008/07/21/yahoo-strikes-back/#comments Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:11:31 +0000 Arno Plug http://arnoplug.wordpress.com/?p=37 ]]> *“Activists Test Silicon Valley – Icahn Is Latest Investor Trying to Unlock Value In Technology Industry,” The Wall Street Journal. Pui-Wing Tam and Vauhini Vara. October 20, 2007.

Yahoo! takes on Icahn

With only 11 days to go until Yahoo’s annual meeting on August 1, Yahoo takes on Icahn on its home page with the title of this post. The post lets stakeholders vote for the re-election of the current Yahoo! board of directors and the post shows a list of public companies Icahn has been involved in lately and how their stock price have evolved – obviously most of the companies stock prices have seen a considerable hit since Icahn’s involvements: well done Yahoo !

too bad the link has been removed already from Yahoo! .com home page.

The 28 Malagasy children touring Spain are part of a project of the Fundación Agua de Coco . With this tour Agua de Coco wants to draw the attention to children rights around the globe in the fight against children exploitation and social exclusion.

In may 2007, the people from the ONG Bel Avenir, on request from a social worker from ASHOKA, realised various visits in the south of Madagascar in search of incapacitated people. Among the various places they visited, they were impressed by a small centre that barely covered the basic needs of food and hygiene of about 30 children with visual incapacity.Their surprise was even greater when, at the moment of saying goodbye, the children wanted to entertain them with a song.

“We were over taken by the extraordinary beauty of their voices interpreting a gospel song, how was it possible that so much talent was hidden and at the margin of its own surroundings ?”

From that moment the “Malagasy Gospel” choir project was formed together with a group of girls from the Ankalika school.

The Choir in the spanish press:

• europa press
• RTVE (their debut in Spain)

más, aqui:

• ¿A qué escritor hace referencia el término “dantesco”?

• ¿Cuál es el quinto mes del año?

Ok, besides Kraak & Smaak (a dutch expression meaning something is fresh and has flavor) being formed by 3 DJs of which Wim Plug is my nephew, i really cant ignore their new album. After their debut “Boogie Angst” from 2006, they toured the USA, supported Faithless in Europe and made over 200 performances, and now they are back with Plastic People ( 2008 ) and are touring the Dutch scene.

“The new album is a bit more grown up than the first album” says Wim “We’ve worked with some of our heroes and that’s had an effect. We still want to write tracks that rock it on a dancefloor but we’ve also done an incredible cinematic track with Carmel who was a famous jazz singer in the 80’s.” “Our dream collaboration is still Thom Yorke from Radiohead though – so if anyone can hook it up we’re ready and waiting” interjects Mark.

If you like party, break-beat, funky & dance music then check them out. Their “Squeeze Me” video from their second album is included below, you can also see them live the 3rd of July at the Festival Cruilla de Cultures in Barcelona, enjoy moving your feet !

Note that the albums referenced above link to my favourate music store “Plato” in the university town of Leiden, Holland. You can listen to the abums on their site if you ask for an account by writting an email to harry@plato.nl.

External Links

• www.kraaksmaak.com
• www.myspace.com/kraaksmaak