Add Thursday, Eindhoven-day

content/blog/wk7day4.md

@@ -1,7 +1,127 @@
 ---
-title: "Week 7, Thursday:"
-date: 2024-09-12T21:55:00+02:00
-draft: true
+title: "Week 7, Thursday: Eindhoven de Gekste"
+date: 2024-09-12T12:55:00+02:00
 ---
 
-{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/todo.png" alt="Credit: " >}}
+{{< image frame="true" width="17em" float="right" src="/img/headline/sti.png" alt="Credit: Sound That Illuminates, YouTube" >}}
+
+I grew up in a small town called Best near Eindhoven in the Netherlands. My parental home, and
+therefore both of my parents, are still in the same house they bought after we returned from our US
+and UK sidequest in the late eighties. This sleepy town of Best is well situated on the busy train
+link from Eindhoven to Den Bosch (of which the original name is 's Hertogenbosch -- _the Forest
+that belongs to the Duke_). The good news is, there's a 9 minute train to Eindhoven and a 16 minute
+train to Den Bosch, and my parents live about eighty meters away from the train station.
+
+Best has changed and morphed quite a bit in the twentyfive years that I've been out in the big world
+on my own. About ten years ago, the main street that goes through the village center has been
+renovated and turned into a pedestrian-friendly zone. These last two years, our parents' street has
+been renovated, with the same objective. Personally, I think it's a huge improvement for livability,
+but of course the cars that used to drive through this street are also now driving through this
+street at roughly the same speed as before -- which is now significantly too fast both legally (it's
+a 30kmh/20mph street), but also physics-wise, as it's full of twisty turny chicanes and speed bumps
+and so on. I like it. Mom could not hate it more. Dad could not care less. Fun times :)
+
+In the morning, we have a nice breakfast together, and after the meal we do our first round of
+shopping for goods and groceries that are only found (or only properly found) in the Netherlands.
+Mom, Marina and I walk over to the village center and I take a good look around to see things that
+are the same, and things that have changed. Mostly the same - which I think is good. At _Albert
+Heijn_ we do groceries, but we carefully leave out a few vegetables, so that we can go to the
+_Groenteboer_ (local vegetable green-grocer), who knows my Mom by name, asks how my Dad is going and
+if these two people with you are the long lost Son+Daughter in Switzerland. Awwww, I love the small
+town society so much!
+
+My buddy WEiRD and I have this game that if we are on a roadtrip and not in the Benelux, and we see
+a logistics truck from a company called _Vos_, and (this important) the cabin of said truck has a
+Dutch license plate, that we scream at the top of our lungs: "HARRRYYYYYYY!!!!" - as you do. It's
+hilarious mostly if the other guy is sleeping (at the wheel, or otherwise). Believe it or not, it
+took like - forever - to fine one (1) measily Harry Vos transport truck in Germany, but look here in
+the smack dead center of Best! One is driving **RIGHT HERE**!!1 Unfortunately, I cannot scream here,
+because we are inside of the _Benelux_ :(
+
+We ran some errands for the Parents, got some tailored pants and orthopedic shoes for my Dad. We
+also got all the ingredients for a four course meal that I am facilitating tonight at my parents
+place. It gives us both something to _do_ and something to _enjoy_, as it's a good time for me to
+subtly introduce ingredients and dishes that they'd normally not really eat. Even though, as I see
+later today, they both really really enjoyed, or perhaps they're just really good actors.
+
+I have really only three things to do today:
+
+1. The groceries for both (a) what to take home to Switzerland, and (b) what to put into the four
+courses tonight in our family food festivities.
+
+1. Go to Eindhoven city by train, take a picture of the bowling pins, and then walk through the
+'old' town from the _Oude Markt_ to the far end of _Stratum's Eind_. Compare notes from my memory
+(as I went to school and university in these parts), and see how the city has changed. If you visit
+infrequently - the last time I was here may have been 10 years ago - the progression can really 
+stand out.
+
+1. Cook a four course meal for my parents, consisting of:
+   1.   Rocket salad, sliced beef tomatoes, Buratta and balsamic vinaigrette
+   1.   Chickpea soup with green curry
+   1.   Salmon, green beans with bacon bits and mashed potatoes with creamy herbs
+   1.   Clotted cream with Monchou cheese, Bastogne and cherries
+
+After lunch, Marina and I take off at leet o'clock (13:37) and catch the train to Deurne after
+Marina has a small struggle with the vending machine / payment checkin. She will happily say it was
+all the fault of stoopid Dutch banks - and actually: I totally agree because I don't want a
+divorce.
+
+We take a selfie on the platform and get into this rather nice train (called a Sprinter), and make
+our way to Eindhoven CS. There, we first exit the station on the South side and I take my picture of
+the bowling pins which are a landmark at the TU/Eindhoven where I used to study (and mostly fail
+classes) in the 90s. Then, we walk back around and through the station tunnel to the City side, and
+I really enjoy the walk over _Stratum's Eind_, a street in town which has bars and clubs on both
+sides from start at St. Catherine's Church, all the way to the back - perfect for a pubcrawl. I'm
+amazed at how clean it is, and also I'm amazed at how my _passive memory_ reminds me "oh right, I
+used to go _Blikkenslikken_ (Dutch: swallowing cans) here at the Kix, who are celebrating their 40
+year anniversary this year. And with that, mission #2 was accomplished.
+
+On the way back into town, we shared a _Smos Americain_ from _Bakker Bart_, and we took a seat on
+the market square for a drink at the _Grand Cafe Centraal_. We took the train back home at 14:45 or
+so, and hung out at home for a bit. I finished my loadtests of Neil's latest changes to the `sflow`
+VPP plugin, and sent some thoughts to the list and GitHub repo. The mail thread in the mean time is
+getting a bit complex with lots of new questions and thoughts. It's good to keep each individual
+engineering topic in its own github issue. It's going very well with the plugin.
+
+Marins has been complaining that our car is gross, and she's not wrong. The last time we've washed
+it was in 1872, and it's really in need of some deep cleaning. So I take it to the _Prowash_ car
+wash station, and drop &euro;13,- on society for a thorough scrub of the outside. Wait, my car is
+blue!? Then I attack it with the industrial vacuum cleaner, and manage to remove a few kilograms of
+sand, grit, pebbles, and various dried up jellybeans which somehow made their way onto the carpet
+and under the seats. Hearing each one of these jellybeans bounce around in the vaccuum cleaner's
+long hose was kind of rewarding.
+
+Back home, the reason for the cleaning became clear - the vinyl logo's -- in grey -- are to be
+applied on the doors. We make good work of it, and accept for a few small bubbles of air under the
+foil, we do a pretty decent job of it.
+
+Now all that's left to do is create the dinner, which we do all together in the kitchen, while
+chatting away and comparing notes on the steam oven, the cuisson of the fish, the beafiness of the
+tomatoes and the creaminess of the burrata. I'm surprised (in a good way) how long this meal takes,
+we start at around 18:30 and are finished with desert at 21:30, after which we're suitably stuffed.
+
+Marina pretty quickly decides to retire and I promise I'll be "right with her", except I finish my
+journal for yesterday and now it's 23:00. Still a pretty decent time for me, so I go upstairs and
+brush my teeth, contuing on to bed and I am 💤 about three seconds after my head hits the pillow.
+There's something about Uhi, I don't know how he does it, but I'm immediately out like a light.
+
+## Pictures of the Day
+
+{{< gallery-category >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-12/IMG_1213.JPG" caption="The Odulphus Church in Best, the Netherlands" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-12/IMG_1214.JPG" caption="We see a Harryyyyyyy Vos, except I can't yell at it because that would break the rules" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-12/IMG_1215.JPG" caption="Marina and I take a selfie at the Best train station" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-12/IMG_1216.JPG" caption="The trains in the Netherlands sure are better (Sprinter) than they used to be (Hondekop)" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-12/bowling.png" caption="The bowling pin statues at the corner of the TU/Eindhoven campus" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-12/IMG_1218.JPG" caption="Sint Katerijne Church in Stratum's Eind, Eindhoven." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-12/IMG_1221.JPG" caption="The beginning of Stratum's Eind, Eindhoven. I have spent many a night in this street as a youngling." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-12/IMG_1222.JPG" caption="We share a beautiful broodje filet americain from Bakker Bart" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-12/IMG_1223.JPG" caption="Although it's raining, we still humor ourselves with a selfie on the Grote Markt of Eindhoven" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-12/IMG_1226.JPG" caption="I am attacking our car with a vaccuum wand. It's a very powerful wand. I wonder what else I could do with it ..." >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-12/IMG_1228.JPG" caption="We have stuck an IPng logo onto the side of the car. That Cameo v5 is cool :-)" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-12/IMG_1229.JPG" caption="The opening salvo for our family feast: Burrata!" >}}
+  {{< gallery-photo fn="2024-09-12/IMG_1232.JPG" caption="I am performing my loadtests for the VPP sflow plugins to give feedback on this iterattion to Neil and colleagues" >}}
+{{< /gallery-category >}}
+
+{{< gallery-modal >}}
+{{< gallery-script >}}