36 going on 63...

Zaterdag ben ik jarig. 36 Jaar geleden werd ik geboren op de verjaardag van mijn moeder.
Ik ben nooit zo bezig met mijn verjaardag en ik vier het ook zelden. Ook dit jaar zal er geen feest zijn.

Mijn moeder heeft onbehandelbare alvleesklierkanker en dit betekent dat 1 juni waarschijnlijk de laatste keer zal zijn dat mijn moeder en ik onze verjaardag samen zullen doorbrengen.

Ik wordt 36 en mijn moeder 63. Deze omkeerbare leeftijden waren anders misschien aanleiding geweest voor een leuk feest maar ik heb dit jaar minder zin dan ooit om mijn verjaardag te vieren. Eigenlijk zie ik er vooral heel erg tegenop.

Het klinkt misschien gek maar ik heb tot nu toe niet heel erg emotioneel gereageerd op de levensbeëindigende kanker van mijn moeder. Wellicht is het nog steeds niet volledig tot me doorgedrongen. Wel zijn er steeds meer momenten die je onvermijdelijk met de grimmige realiteit confronteren en onze verjaardag is denk ik "the big one".

Tot die tijd zoek ik maar afleiding in werk, sport en op vrijdag me vrienden in de Efteling.

When in Budapest...

So, when you get to go to Budapest for a conference it seems a shame not to stay a few days longer to enjoy a short holiday. So that’s exactly what I did, just like last year in fact. That time I made the mistake of taking the holiday before the conference by flying out Saturday before it started. This meant I had the Sunday and Monday to myself but this has two major drawbacks: I hadn’t met anyone in Budapest yet and on Monday most museums are closed.

Having learnt my lesson, I decided to stay on two days after the conference this time and fly back Sunday evening. However, because I had a massive brain fart when booking the flight, I ended up flying back on Monday evening instead, so I'd have to spend another Monday in Budapest this year, but it turned out quite well in the end.

At memoQfest I met some of the people that were in the training last year and with whom I’d hit it off. Because this year I stayed on for the entire conference, instead of just the training held before the conference proper, I was now able to attend all the networking events in the evenings and this way I got to talk to more people – I think I mentioned interesting characters.

Fear and Soaking in Budapest

So when the conference finished, I had three days left in Budapest. On Saturday, I met up with Raisa and Simon, who work for STP Nordic and whom I’d first met last year. We spent the morning at Terror Hazá (The House of Terror), which contrary to what the name might suggest is not some sensationalist faux-museum of torture equipment, but a rather though provoking look at the reign of terror of both the Arrow Cross party (Hungarian Nazis) and the Soviets. It was all pretty bleak but nicely presented and with an evocative use of music.

After a seriously historo-cultural start of the day, Raisa and Simon treated me to a wonderful lunch, after which I treated them to towels at the Széchenyi baths – a rather paltry thanks you but they seemed to appreciate it. 

Twitter works!

After spending the afternoon soaking in the pools and saunas of Széchenyi, my companions had to catch a flight back to the UK, so I was left to my own devices. This was when I first realized how powerful social media can be. After I tweeted about my day with Raisa and Simon, I was contacted through Twitter by Susan, one of the other attendees of memoQfest, whom I’d had a chat with walking back to the hotel on day 2 of the conference. She was also still in town and we agreed to meet up for dinner. This is when I was contacted by Istvan of Kilgray, who’d also seen my tweet and was just walking home along the very street my hotel was on.

In the end we first had tea at the fanciest (and only, but it was very fancy) tea houses I’ve ever been, followed by Indian food and whiskey: a very good evening/night indeed and all thanks to social media!

And the Romans walked everywhere on sandals...

On Sunday I decided to go to Aquincum, the remains of the roman capital of this region of the empire. The museum itself is not very big but it just so happened that they had a special event called a Floralia, which meant there were both Roman and Celtic re-enactors recreating life in roman times.

 Then in the afternoon I had planned to maybe take a stroll through City Park or lay about but since the sun had disappeared by then and the wind picked up even more, I decided to go to the Museum of Fine Arts. Never do two museums in one day; this will result in very sore feet in the evening.

In the evening I met up with Susan and Istvan again and on the latter’s instigation we went to a restaurant where all tables had a built-in monitor and mouse so you could place your own order through their interactive website. You could even pay directly through the website using online banking. Sadly, this proved to a gimmick and the food was uninspired. 

Cold War and warm baths

So the next day, another Monday in Budapest rolled around. This time I did find a museum that is open on Monday, though: The Hospital in the Rock, which is a WW2-era hospital set up in the cave systems below Buda castle. During the Cold War part of it was converted to a nuclear bunker and hey've kept it more or less like it was in from 1944 to 1966. 

Last year I only used the spa facilities of the hotel the conference was held but didn’t bother going to any of the thermal baths that Budapest is famous for. This time I managed to strike two of the list and Monday afternoon I spent a Lukács baths. This meant I had a very relaxing end to my stay in Budapest.

Top tips: social media can work and when in Budapest, spend at least as much time in thermal baths as you do in museums.

Conferencing and the greatest country in the world

Last week I attended memoQfest, a user conference for the CAT tool memoQ. The event was held in Budapest; in fact I'm writing this blog post from my hotel room in that very city.

The conference was my first (translation) industry event, so I had no real idea what to expect.

The venue was spectacular: the Gundel restaurant (oh the sumptuous lunches...).
Everything also seemed very well-organized, though some sessions could have been a bit better moderated.

The conference was attended by freelancers, translation agencies and corporations that out-source most of their translation. This means that the audience is very diverse but can also have quite divergent interests regarding the future development of the software. As it was, in some sessions these interests conflicted and some of the audience probably felt their concerns were insufficiently addressed.

What made the event a success for me, though, was the chance to meet memoQ users from many different countries and types of companies. While we may all be using the same tool and sometimes face similar problems, we also bring some unique problems an solutions to the conference.
What I take away from the conference, is the need to really make the most of the server solution by automating more of our processes. This will take time and effort to investigate but it will be both useful and needful.

Overall, it was an inspiring event and I feel reinvigorated for my work, though it remains to be seen how long that lasts when I return to the office...

memoQfest attracts a very laid-back crowd and I met some very nice people and interesting characters:

"I am Kaspars Kļaviņš from Latvia, the greatest country in the world"

Next, I'll post about my time off in Budapest.