That Amazon serves in two other countries within Europe—France and Germany, besides the uk—was lost on me until recently. (No excuses for failing to notice Amazon.com’s footer.) While prices of new books weren’t any different, I found it interesting to know that a range of choices among used ones did exist. And by simply comparing prices from the list of used books across three domains (Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, and Amazon.fr), I was able to save €20.-.

I suppose the minor annoyance of not being able to read French naturally¹ was worth the saving.

1. I just translated the page via Google Translate.

With morning rush and evening slogs, it’s rarely possible on weekdays for a little indulgence—be it cycling, running, or letting your frisbee go flying—with kids.

Our regular haunt for flying frisbees is the open football field—a few hundred yards from our place. It’s technically possible to play in the backyard, and we often do, except that we can’t let that plastic disc go flying as high as we’d much like it to. And we’ve already lost one good frisbee, and nearly another to the thick foliage and an inaccessible canal flowing behind our fence.

I dragged myself from bed early this morning, just so I could keep my promise. We arrived at the football field only to be dismayed—to see it soaked damp, and muddy from the morning dew and last evening’s game of cricket.

We played a just bit before the sandy, muddy frisbee began hurting our cold numb hands, and soiling our clothes. In the end, we quit. Lesson learnt: never go on a damp, muddy Sunday morning for flying frisbees.

The Ferrari Pitstop Challenge is one of those happening events on my campus this time of the year. Teams of five compete to re-fuel a real Ferrari Formula One car, and replace one of its tyres. The quickest team wins.

The contestants are not those pros in top form that you typically see on race tracks, but rather my normal office going colleagues like Alice and Dilbert. Now, you’d think they’re no match for the pros. I thought so too. That was until last Friday when the winning team clocked—hold your breath—3.40seconds!

The pitstop challenge is about focus, coordination, and teamwork. What better way to share and propogate that idea in the work we do everyday?

But 3.40seconds?! Incredible!

This is interesting because it clearly shows the mode of transport that wins hands down—in terms of time taken, weather, and other influences. And I wish it wasn’t so obvious.

Of course, getting a good geared bike is paramount for cycling in a country like India. Or else, it doesn’t take long to shoot your Vastus lateralis beyond flagging levels, thereby rubbing your enthusiasm the wrong way.

My visiting parents are awed by the way the Dutch cycle—not just the young, but old, and some very old folks indeed. A couple in their 60s and 70s riding together is truly inspiring. While unsure of their balance, they promised they’d try after all these years.

What’s needed now, and direly, is some infrastructure. If every town hall in every town, and city could take the initiative to construct uninterrupted cycle paths and amend/reinforce some safety laws helping cyclists, then there’s no stopping people from having fun, saving money and get some exercise in the bargain, while helping ease the oil burden on the state.

Silhouettes come alive in the works displayed at Royal Delft. With those flying sails, that intricately crafted bow, and you can almost smell the sea and the varnish. This wall-sized depiction of one of Dutch East India Company’s ships in porcelain is a sight to behold. I was simply blown away.

“It is a fairy tale setting, you’ll like it” is how the owner of de Harmonie described his village, as we were renting bicycles from him. For a moment I thought he was kidding, because the only ones I had seen until now were either in the creations of Disney and Pixar, or in Albert Uderzo’s drawings.

The first known inhabitants apparently were refugees from Mediterranean regions who settled around 1200. While cultivating their lands, they found large quantities of horns of wild goats that had drowned in St. Elizabeth’s flood of 1170. They called their settlement ‘Geytenhoren’ (Goathorns)—known today as Giethoorn.

The difference between Uderzo’s little Gaulish village, and Giethoorn is that one is a lucid imagination set in 50BC, while the other is a blissful reality today. Oh, there’s another. Uderzo’s village didn’t have canals, whereas Giethoorn is abound with them. It is not known as ‘Green Venice’ or ‘Venice of the North’ for nothing.

For a place—that can easily give Venice a run for its money—there’s little publicly available information, that it is surprising. In fact, we only learned about it via the word of mouth. Like Getafix’s magic potion, this is perhaps the best kept Dutch secret getaway.

We spent a whale of time cycling, boating around a large number of interconnected waterways in an electric eco-friendly boat.

Beulakerweg 55, 8355 AB Giethoorn, NL.