Ok, lets see how I am doing on my New Year resolutions: loose weight not much to see there. I think it is mainly because I am not going to the gym enough and haven’t started mountain biking yet because of various illnesses. But I am teetotal now, so that should make a difference in the future. use my motorcycle more that is a no. I blame it on the weather. ...

This is the second list of podcasts. These are all the talk, radio and video podcasts I listen too. At the moment I have a bit of a problem of lacking behind. This is a sign of me skipping the gym to often. It is a mix of news, technology, documentary and comedy. Most of the podcasts are from the BBC Apple Keynotes rss www Book Reviews With Simon Mayo rss www Broadcasting House rss www Daily Mayo rss www Digital Planet rss www Discovery rss www Documentaries rss www Excess Baggage rss www From Our Own Correspondent rss www Gastrocast rss www Global News rss www Great Lives rss www H&M Fashion TV rss www In Our Time With Melvyn Bragg rss www iTunes: Meet the Author rss www John Cleese Podcast rss www Jonathan Ross rss www Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo’s Film Reviews rss www Men.Style.com: Fashion, Gear & Style for Men rss www One Planet rss www Open Voices: The Linux Foundation Podcast rss www Open Web Podcast rss www Pods and Blogs rss www Radio 1 Stories rss www Radio 4 Choice rss www Russell Brand rss www Science in Action rss www Snowmail Podcast rss www Start the Week with Andrew Marr rss www Stephen Fry’s PODGRAMS rss www The Economist rss www The Film Programme rss www The Moth Podcast rss www Thinking Allowed rss www World Book Club rss www You and Yours - Environment rss www

View Larger Map I returned yesterday from a four day trip to Amsterdam. As I met my Cat there we tend to go every February and celebrate our anniversary. The last years we stayed at the Winston Hostel in the red light district, but last years experience was so bad that we looked for something new this time. We found the Sunhead 1617, which is a nice small B&B in the centre of town. I tried to book the red room, which has views of the canal, but because of some confusion we ended up in the yellow room. I suggest you book early and get the red room, because our room contained some kind of boiler which was extremely annoying. And bring backpacks instead of a suitcase, because the stairs really are steep. Otherwise the B&B was perfect, the rooms was nicely decorated, the bed comfy, the breakfast was very good with home made jams and fruit yogurt. Our host Carlos was also very nice, even though we annoyed him on the first day by getting up at eleven for a very late breakfast. ...

Today I went to the eZ International Winter Conference here in Barcelona. Mainly because it was local, free and I quite liked the last PHP conference I went to. The location was the old centre of commerce near the Estacion Francia. It is a beautiful location and I am glad I was able to see it from the inside once. The conference room was certainly fit for the G7 or signing of peace treaties. (I will try to find some pictures on flickr later). ...

Yesterday Cat and I returned from our week long snowboard trip to Laax. First we flew to Stuttgart and visited Marion and Bernd in Balingen, where we met up with the other guys who took us by car and van to Laax. The weather on the way looked a bit disappointing, with not much snow until the last corner to Laax. We were staying at the same hostel as last time, it is the Mountain Hostel Laax. It is situated in the middle of the ski area at the first stop of the cable car. The accommodation and food is basic, but you don’t really need much more anyway. This time we had a two bed room, which was a lot nicer than the sharing with four people of last year. The room could have done with more changes of towels or linnen though. ...