paulotaylor.net blog

winds of change...

2007-12-18T22:48:00.000+01:00

I've recently moved the blog to this new page: http://www.paulotaylor.net/home/Blog/Blog.html

See you there!

I am'sterdam

2007-11-22T12:50:00.000+01:00

It's "funny" to see how we - humans - work, it's so easy to have the things we have for granted left unappreciated. Friends and loved ones are probably the most common, internet, electricity, running water and I could go for hours...

Lately I realized how lucky I was just for living in this wonderful city which sometimes I admit that I don't give enough importance.
Since I moved to my new apartment I take the metro and walk for about 15 minutes to get to the office and I actually noticed how beautiful this city really is and how privileged I am to be walking on the streets of Amsterdam everyday.
I leave you with some pictures of my day to day walk from home to office. Here are a few:

Time flies

2007-11-05T15:43:00.000+01:00

I can't believe that December is just around the corner and it looks like last Christmas was just yesterday!
There's still so many things I said I wanted to do this year but as I look to this year's calendar it's obvious that I won't make it. At the same time I did achieve a lot of things that I hadn't planned so that's not so bad but what really fascinates me is how fast time has gone by.
In Amsterdam you start noticing the Christmas lights on the streets, the stores with the seasonal decoration, the days are much shorter and it's cold!... I guess it's time for me to start planning this Christmas!

By the way, do you know what day is today? Remember, Remember the 5th of November...

Here it is!

2007-10-31T09:11:00.000+01:00

Hello everybody!
For the curious one that haven't seen my new apartment yet I leave you here with this movie that gives you an idea of how it looks! I hope you guys enjoy it :-)

If you can't see the movie click on this link. I hope you like it!

Growing pains

2007-10-30T17:35:00.000+01:00

Finally things are starting to find some shape! Since I started the process of moving to my new apartment more than two months ago I've been running around from one side to another non-stop. Everything happened at once, new house, new life, new relationship (gone bad!) you name it!

Lately after these last few tormented months I've been able to find some time for myself. I got the chance to realize the things I really miss in life like a nice vacation at the Sun, my old friends that now unfortunately I don't have the chance to see them that often, my family with whom I was used to spend a lot of time, little things in life that I've always been used to and I'm currently deprived of and believe it or not can have a lot of influence in one's (or anyone's) well-being.

Basically I think I've become much more sentimental lately, I even cry with more ease like the other day when I noticed I was crying like a baby watching TV, and that's not very easy! Maybe it's just part of growing up and I guess that when I finally bought a house and became almost established I simply came down to Earth and had a reality check.

Looking back it makes me very proud of what I've achieved until today, but more important shows me what I didn't achieve yet. Unfortunately doesn't show me how to achieve the unachieved (it's part part of life I think...) but it's a good step forward it helps me to put my focus back on track and hopefully in a few years that list will become shorter... and shorter... and shorter... and shorter...

Lucky Number Seven

2007-10-11T17:36:00.000+02:00

History tells that seven is a special number. The bible says that the world was created in 7 days and there are 7 deadly sins. There are 7 days in a week, 7 colors in the rainbow, 7 wonders of the ancient world, 7 seas and the list goes on.

In the end of last September I celebrated seven years since I first landed my feet in Holland. Seven great years if I may add, I had lots of good moments, new opportunities and life changing experiences, loads of new friends with whom I shared most of this.

I spent some of the best times of my life in Amsterdam and it's probably also why I finally decided to buy a house because when I leave Amsterdam I know I'll always have a place in this wonderful city to come back and I'm sure I'll always feel welcome just like it happened in the first time!

Now lets see what this next year has to bring...

I feel green

2007-10-02T15:41:00.000+02:00

Finally I don't have any more ties with the previous apartment I was renting before. I delivered the keys so now I can only focus on getting the new apartment ready which is taking a lot more time than expected.

Still getting used to the new routine, it took me more than a week to find out where the trash bin was which happened to be alongside the storage rooms in the building's basement, an immense maze that can easily compete with the Overlook Hotel garden from The Shinning - The fans know what I'm talking about :-)
The paper and glass recycling bins (which are hard to find in the centre of Amsterdam) are outside right next door so now I can actually do something for the environment and somehow that makes me feel good, a bit friendlier to the environment! How about you, when was the last time you did something for the environment?

First Glance

2007-09-17T11:07:00.000+02:00

Still lots of things are missing in the new apartment but still I've officially moved in!
A couple of chairs are still missing, the pillows for the chill out area should also come soon and the sofa will probably only arrive in two and a half months (!?) but all the rest should be ready.
So I'll leave you here with a few shots so you'll get an idea of how the apartment looks like but remember, it's not ready yet!

The Bar	The Lights
The Bedroom	Living Room

Update

Of course that I can't get tired of mentioning how important was the role of Joana Silleman and Claudia Esteves that took this project with their heart and soul and despite all the issues, delays and everything that comes along with a project like this, in the end, they did a wonderful job and I think you can see it for yourselves - and I'm not saying this because it's just my apartment, although it helps a bit :-)
I can't thank them enough and I leave them here lots of kisses and hugs because they really deserve it! xxx

It's almost time

2007-09-13T14:54:00.000+02:00

I'm having a bit of a nostalgic moment here.
Right now I'm in the process of moving, the house is almost empty and all it's left are the memories that I'll keep while I was living here! It was a hell of a ride, lots of great moments with the best friends I could ever ask for! All I can do is thank all of them for providing me all the wonderful moments we shared together but I also leave here a note, get ready because the next ride is going to be even better!!!!

OK, I'm going to finish the rest of the packing now (not much left) and finally I'm gonna get to see the apartment ready, or maybe tomorrow, I still don't now! Can't wait until I put my eyes on it and start enjoy my brand new home sweet home.

Wish me luck ;-)

Spreek Je Engels?

2007-09-03T00:00:00.000+02:00

According to this article, Amsterdam is still the city in the whole world that has the most variety of nationalities (177) and about 1/3 of its population is not Dutch which makes it quite easy to be an expat in this city.
Without trying to excuse myself, it helps to understand why after all these years I'm still not fluent in Dutch since most of my friends are not Dutch (usually expats themselves), I've always worked in international environments and - of course - I'm also extremely lazy which can also have some influence :-)
I also never had a Dutch girlfriend and I heard that that's the best way to master the language so I guess there's still hope...

Tot later

Weatherman

2007-08-30T10:19:00.000+02:00

Amsterdam, 30th of August 2007 forecast, showers 18C max / 12C min!
Do I need to say anything else?
The other night at home I had to grab something to cover myself with and the central heating was on! Did I mention it's August(?!) how depressing is that?
One thing is for sure, I wouldn't want to be the weatherman in this country, it's probably the most monotonous job in the Netherlands and I wouldn't want to have the reputation the one that brings the bad news every day!

... never go back

2007-08-20T15:31:00.000+02:00

Today I bought my first Apple desktop. It was 2 and a half years ago when I had my first experience with a Apple computer
Back then I bought a laptop, a Powerbook.
A couple of my colleagues were starting to switch from PCs to Macs and didn't want to stay behind so I thought I'd give it a try, since I work with Java which is available for almost any platforms.
So now what happened? I'm stuck with it! I was impressed by the ease of use of the machine itself and the software running on it and since then I bought another laptop, a Macbook.
Between all this time I kept a desktop PC running at home but today I bought its replacement, the new iMac 24''! It's my first Mac desktop and I think that I won't miss my old PC!
Bare in mind that it's also not perfect, I've had my share of crashes and undesired reboots with my Apple laptops, but nothing compared with what I had before with a PC running windows and now thanks to Parallels I can even run Windows my Mac seamlessly (in case of an emergency!) so get I can say bye bye to my PC for good!

There's also of course the design point of view which in my opinion Apple leads in front of all computer manufactors and think that it will blend perfectly with my new house and like what it's happening with the furniture it's going to take a while until it's shipped and delivered but what can I say, waiting 4-6 weeks for this beauty is nothing ;-)

I guess now it's adquate to say "Once You Go Mac, You Never Go Back"...

"Szervusz" Budapest

2007-08-08T00:45:00.000+02:00

Looks like this year I'm not going to Budapest. Although I think I'm going to disappoint some of my friends that are actually going this might be the best decision after all!
It's a real pity though because last time I had a blast specially when we found out by accident that the Sziget festival was just happening, but I've been quite busy with work and my new house and even though I need some time off it's not the right moment.
Actually my initial plan this year was to travel a lot this year but I think I'll have to postpone that at least for now.

One thing is for sure, I still have to spend some days frying under the sun because this year I didn't have any luck with the weather on my previous vacations and there's not many things I love more than sun and beaches. Also the summer in Holland isn't looking good either, only last weekend, with the Gay Pride Parade, we had some sun worth mentioning (which was fantastic by the way) so I really need some days to relax but when the time is right...

New house, new life

2007-07-19T11:35:00.000+02:00

OK, so it's official, all of you can now congratulate me because as of Wednesday I'm a proud owner of an apartment down at the Amstel river.
It wasn't a pretty process, I have to say! The amount of obstacles I had to overcome to get to the point where i signed all the damned documents was very upsetting!
It got to a point where I just wanted to give up on the house and get rid of the whole thing! But I was strong to my intuition and kept fighting for it but could not have done it if it wasn't for a few people that helped me all around the tedious task of getting a mortgage in the country of the Low Lands.

But that's all water under the bridge, it's now time to look forward and think about all the nice things that will come with it, which should be actually quite exciting! I've never really owned a house so finally I get to plan a nice interior design, buy the whole furniture and make it just like I want it to be! Painting, moving all those things that come with the new house can also be a big hassle, but damn it, it's my house and I'll do it with great pleasure!

Then of course comes the expression "New house, new life"!
I guess that includes me and I just hope it's a better life then the one I got now :-)

Back in Time

2007-07-04T21:19:00.000+02:00

Last time I was in Portugal I couldn't notice that my parents had bought a really nice printer with scanner and all that, I have to say that I was very impressed!

Anyway, it was there on top of the desk but not installed of course, guess why they insisted so much for me to go there? :-)

It was obvious that they couldn't install the printer and I never had a printer with scanner so I was very excited and I started to test it. Then I thought how should I test the scanner? Then I remembered, why not scan my old pictures when I was really young? - I thought I was a great idea so I started working on it and this was the result! Enjoy :-)

You'll find more here :-)

Happy Birthday Bernardo & Pedro

2007-06-25T16:42:00.000+02:00

I don't even know where to start, trying to describe these last few weeks that I've been away from the blog.
It was a cocktail of emotions some bad but most of them were actually pretty good, just how I'd like to keep it!

Roland and Tinne got married, the ceremony was very unique like I've never seen and I had a really great time!

I went to Portugal for a week and it was of course great to see my family and long time friends again although the weather was somewhat out of season!
It rained almost every day which is far for normal in June so I was very unlucky regarding that aspect which only left me one thing to do while I was there: eat and drink! :-) even had time to injure myself playing soccer!

Back in Amsterdam the weather conditions got worse, as if we were in Autumn or something like that while in Portugal the Sun is back which leaves a little smell of frustration in the air :-(

To compensate all this, Martina came to visit me from Croatia and we had a great weekend together and who knows, maybe there's many more are to come!
We went to a couple of parties including Bernardo's and Pedro's double birthday party and what hell of a party that was! It was so nice to be with most of my friends and I had so much fun! It's definitely a weekend I won't forget soon! if only the weather would have helped a bit more it would have been one weekend really close to perfection! I promise I'll put some pictures as soon as they are ready!

Ciao

shhhhhhhhhh!!!

2007-06-07T12:19:00.000+02:00

Wonderful concert at Paradiso yesterday! The idea was all from my ex-girlfriend Aline to whom I still have a profound friendship and hope to keep it like that forever.

Unfortunately the only negative thing about the concert was the audience itself.
I already had the idea that the Dutch are quite noisy, just go to a restaurant and you'll see what I mean, only the Spanish can beat them, but when it comes to concerts I'm not sure anymore!
Bebel plays a very mild kind of music, very chilled out but in several parts of the concert I could barely hear her, the whispering and laughter could surpass her voice! Very indecent! Once in a while you could heard a sporadic "shh!" but that never really had any effect!

I have nothing against the Dutch but if they read the damn audience etiquette the world would be a better place :-)

Tonight it's Roland's bachelor party, he is getting married Saturday so you can imagine what's going to happen! See you soon... if I survive tonight ;-)

Music + boats + food + (2 x drinks) = ...

2007-06-06T17:46:00.000+02:00

I've been pretty busy but I can't omit my feelings about the last Spiegelgracht Concert sponsored by eBuddy!

It was a phenomenal party, everyone that was there enjoyed it and the whole week I've been receiving compliments about the party so we (as eBuddy) should all be proud of this and ourselves to be party of such a wonderful thing!

The boats, the food, the drinks and finally the gathering at our office was a tremendous success and I hope we can top it again really soon!

More pics available here
Update: official pictures here!

Tonight is concert night! Bebel Gilberto is in town and I'm going to see her live tonight!

Cocktail Thieves

2007-05-29T16:29:00.000+02:00

Another great weekend gone by, lots of interesting situations that I most definitely won't forget but I will tell about this peculiar one that happened to me on Vitor's party last Saturday @ The Mansion, a place that is supposed to be all posh!

Edward, a colleague from the office kindly offered me a nice long or colorful cocktail, very sweet in taste, I couldn't have asked for a nicer one at the time.

After a while, with my glass clearly more than half, this "dude" working at the bar collecting empty glasses puts my cocktail on his tray and leaves!
I was indignated so I followed the man until he stopped in the corner of the room and starts drinking from my glass!
Is this normal?! Maybe in The Netherlands but for me this is an outrage! You should have seen the face of this young man when I confronted him with the situation. He didn't know what to say which frankly he couldn't say anything.

Anyway it all got sorted after a while and I got another cocktail but I did find out later that it was his first night at the job!!! Now, who the hell does thing kind of thing (in his/her first day on the job)?

I learned my lesson this weekend, never leave your glass out of sight! I usually have my eyes opened to this situation (that's why I caught him) but now I know I gotta just a little bit extra careful otherwise it will end up being a really expensive night out ;-)

Great party by the way Vitor, congrats!

Home Sweet Home

2007-05-16T18:22:00.000+02:00

It's official, today I signed the contract of the apartment I want to buy!
It's the initial step, still lots of paperwork and mortgage deals to wrap up but only if something goes very wrong then I won't be able to keep this apartment.

As any person that have already bought a house knows it's not an easy decision and my case wasn't any different. There's lots of variables like to choose a house in the center or not, old building or new (not so common in Amsterdam) etc., so I've found one, one that I thought it was meant for me!

It's a house in a nice and quiet neighborhood in Amsterdam (Omval) just in front of the Amstel river in Amsterdam, behind the Amstel Station. So it's not in the heart of the city... so what? It's also not that far away and it has great connections via trams and trains so that's not a big problem for me. Believe me, I've been living in the center of Amsterdam for too long and it's a great danger for your health and your wallet so in the end it's a wise decision :-)

And the most important of all, it's a new building (1997) it actually has concrete separating the apartments unlike the common thin wooden walls we find in buildings in the center of Amsterdam were you can even hear the neighbors farting and more...

I would also call Omval "Little Manhattan". It's one of the areas in Amsterdam that have buildings compared to skyscrapers in Manhattan. There are two huge towers coming out of the ground and they just sit just a few meters from where I live.

So, like someone once said. "Start spreading the news..."

My Almost Niece

2007-05-09T12:19:00.000+02:00

It happened, I'm an almost uncle. David Lopes, my almost brother, and Raquel my almost sister in law are now very happy parents.
Margarida Cardoso Lopes was born on the 4th of May and if it depends on me she will be the most spoiled baby on Earth :-)

Gotta go buy some nice presents for her, in June I'll be in Portugal and I'll have the chance to see them together for the first time!

Once again, congratulations David and Raquel!

Bye bye Sun...

2007-05-07T11:06:00.000+02:00

I've been pretty quiet but that doesn't mirror what actually has been happening around me, I don't even know where to start.

I got myself a new Nokia N95! What a monster device it is, I love the GPS features but the battery... pfff, it's a real pain but I can live with that.
There was Queen's Day of course and what a party it was this year!
My Vespa was stolen once again, this time right in front of my house!
David called the other day in total ecstasy, his daughter was born (on 4th of May I believe) so that makes me an (almost) uncle. I'm still waiting for some pictures, I'm sure I'll have them soon!

And today I'm not feeling very good! The weather is changing again, the rain has come to stay! It not only leaves me a little bit depressed but the sudden change in the atmospheric pressure leaves me with giant headaches (aka migraines).
It's a little bit like what happens when you fly and your ears feel funny, gives you that uncomfortable feeling and sometimes just snap! I feel a little but like that but in my head (!?!) so I think I'm going to relax the rest of the day.

Catch you guys later

Another nomination!

2007-04-19T00:05:00.000+02:00

Once again ebuddy.com was nominated for The Next Web Awards.

For me, just so see ebuddy.com as a nominee is already a great achievement which makes really proud of myself, my partners and the whole ebuddy team!

Under the Social category ebuddy is paired with other big web phenomenons like MySpace, Windows Live Spaces, Facebook, Linked In and even with the new sensation site Twitter.

So ladies and gentleman, start your engines, go vote and may the best one win :-)

What a weekend...

2007-04-17T19:24:00.000+02:00

What a hectic weekend this one!
The summer just sneaked for a couple of days and it was wonderful!

I spent Saturday and Sunday at the Vondel park enjoying the early warm weather, you don't get this very often in the Netherlands so I did the best I could to appreciate it and couldn't have done it with better company actually.
I spent a lot of time with Vitor and his girlfriend (is it safe to call her that Vitor? :-P ) which is always a privilege and Marjolein as well - a sweet sweet woman always with her tough look and her invisible shield up that she thinks it's impenetrable but that actually makes her special, that's probably why she says things like I'm her favorite "waste of time" and I can still like her :-)

Every thing changed now, it's cold again although still sunny but I'm expecting a nice rest of week! I will be desperately waiting for Vitor's Birthday party this Saturday but actually today it's his birthday so I have to go now and meet him for a nice quited dinner with some friends, it's like I told you I suspect that rest of the week is going to be like last weekend, just great! :-)

Happy Birthday Vitor!

Amsterdam vs Las Vegas

2007-04-13T17:40:00.000+02:00

Until today I was living a very dramatic dilemma.
I was appointed to attend a conference in Las Vegas. It's a very important conference from Microsoft and being ebuddy.com a very important player in the MSN domain it would make sense if I, or at least someone in within the company, would be there.
The problem is that this conference clashes with one of the biggest party events in Amsterdam - Queen's Day.

The thing is that I was really counting on going to Las Vegas, I've never been there and from all the stories I heard I wouldn't even be thinking about Amsterdam once i got there. The fact is that the conference is totally sold out so, not even our best connections could arrange us with one single voucher that could enable us to get attend MIX'07.

So I was a bit disappointed but thinking about it why should I?
Some of my best friends are coming to Amsterdam and come from all over the place just to party the whole Queen's Day weekend, they come from Portugal, France, Germany and we are still 2 weeks away from that weekend so I can only expect more people to join :-)

So, not going to the conference in Las Vegas might be a bummer but on the other side it might be that I could also loose a great weekend with the people I most admire and enjoy being with!

After all, I didn't loose a chance to go to Las Vegas, Las Vegas lost a great opportunity to have me as a guest but I not dead yet... if you know what I mean ;-)