Catching up…presenting and taking part in Challenges

I regret not being able to write new things more often, but in fact it only means I am OK: very busy with work, doing private stuff (which is important since life is not all about working), enjoying the three young kids and trying to achieve some good results in track and field. And for that last goal, I can say I did. After a few months of struggling to find a tiny piece of shape comparable to last years shape, just in time I found it. I won the gold medal in the Dutch Championships 400 metres hurdles. OK, be honest, for the ‘older’ men (40+). Still, my time was certainly not bad and about 2 seconds ahead of all other competitors of 35 years and older. And it brought me back in the top 30 of all Dutch 400 metres hurdles runners (Juniors and Seniors) in 2010. Nice. Just as nice was that I met Alex Nuijten (Amis) who volunteered there and even wrote about it on this nice blog. Thanks Alex.

I had a great two weeks listening to Cary Millsap, Jeff Holt and Tom Kyte

The past two weeks were nice! I had the opportunity to attend two classes presented by three of the most experienced and talented Oracle specialists in the world. January 19-21 it started with “The Masterclass 2009”, organized by Miracle Benelux and hosting Cary Millsap and Jeff Holt. This was a unique opportunity. I believe it was years and years ago that they visited Europe and they never did a presentation before in The Netherlands.

One of the main reasons for this Masterclass was to honour Lex de Haan.

A week later, on January 25-26, Tom Kyte came to Oracle The Netherlands in De Meern. I think nearly 100 people, mostly Dutch but at least some people from abroad (of which a few familiar ones from the week before) could listen to a lot of information on Oracle 11, storage techniques, rebuilds and good comments on binding.