Last weekend was a lot of fun. My friend Peter ventured up here for the weekend at short notice. Peter who?
I shared an office with Peter at Google in Mountain View for about three years between 2002 and 2005. We listened to each other's CDs, watched episodes of The Office and Ali G, shared company gossip, discussed our post-IPO plans, reviewed the day's Tour de France stage... shit, we were even known to work on the same project together. Rarely did we piss each other off.
Yes, I could have done a lot worse for an office mate, and so it was with a broad smile that I headed towards Schiphol airport Friday evening to pick him up. Peter lives in Zürich now, having moved there from Mountain View just a month ago to work in Google's Swiss office.
Peter's still very much a Google employee in heart and soul, whereas I have only token Googler status these days. He's probably more motivated in his job now than at any time during the period in which we shared an office (a causal relationship?). For me, on the other hand, Google feels very much a part of a bygone era. I harbour vaguely romantic feelings for that phase of my life, but it's all wistful nostalgia and doesn't feel real any more.
Anyway, apart from talking about the good old days, we spent the weekend walking around Amsterdam and drinking plenty of good coffee.
On Monday, we drove to Zandvoort and went for a walk on the beach. In spite of the freezing temperature, it felt relatively mild, as there was very little wind. Later in the day, we drove to Haarlem and had a look around the city before dropping Peter off at the airport on the way home.
It was nice to have a visitor for a few days, especially since we know so few people in Amsterdam these days. Human contact rarely goes beyond interaction in shops and cafés. Sad, but true; we need to put some effort into changing that.