Last day before holiday today but SPT stays open

Today is the last working day for me before the summer holidays. I have exactly 19 minutes left before I leave. SPT stays open though, to handle any and all urgent customer requests.

I will of course still be available on mobile phone and e-mail throughout my holiday. You may however catch me while performing random acts of home improvement should you endeavor to contact me telephonically before my return to the office on July 19th. What I'm trying to say is that I'll answer my phone and read my e-mail but may not be able to respond to all requests.

I have put in a request for 4 weeks of uninterrupted sun shine during day time and temperatures in the range of 20-25° C. The occasional nightly thunder to clear the air is also welcome.

I now take the opportunity to thank all our customers, partners, suppliers and co-workers for all their efforts so far this year. The market seems to be improving - we certainly have been busy lately - and we hope it will continue to improve after the summer.

I wish you all a nice summer and a restful holiday.

Productivity thanks to arson

Yesterday morning I woke up at 6 a.m. as usual. Only with a severely blocked nose and the mother of a headache. I went straight for a walk with the dog. This is my standard morning ritual, by the way, except for the blocked nose and the headache.

Anyway, as I exit the garage I notice that the whole area is covered in fog, or smoke. I couldn't smell anything so it was not so easy to determine which. But sure enough, after a few minutes of walking I saw the smoke column about 1,5 km away. So I fished out my iPhone and looked up the local news. Turns out that the gym hall at a local school was on fire. The smoke was really thick.

Well, at 7.30 I dropped my daughter off at kindergarten and walked back home. I wanted a few words with the builders who are now ridiculously late in finishing the construction of my conservatory and garage extension. I was gearing up to take the motorbike to work while complaining to the workers about their slowness when they rang from kindergarten. They had received orders to close all schools and kindergartens in town due to the poisonous smoke. So, I had to go pick up my daughter and spend the day at home.

So we stayed at home yesterday, me and my daughter. Oddly enough, I must say that I have a feeling that I got more work done than I normally would during a day in the office. After lunch it was time for my daughter to take a nap. And what better way to get children to sleep than to read a Nemchinsky article on plasma physics to them? I read the article "What we know and do not know about plasma arc cutting." Fascinating stuff. And the average 3 year old will fall asleep by the 3rd paragraph.