Kiteboarding is echt verslavend. Na een paar lessen van Adriaan heb ik gisteren bij Oostvoorne m’n eerste volle slagen gemaakt (en de nodige wipe-outs). De foto is van Terschelling afgelopen woensdag, m’n eerste succesvolle waterstart. Klik op de foto voor nog een paar foto’s en foto’s van Adriaan aan z’n kite.

Lekker dagje strand met Adriaan.

My parents invited Mayke and me to join them on their orchestra tour of Budapest last week. Budapest has changed lots since my last visit (about 8 years ago), the city seems to have turned into a fun culture-rich and fashion-aware modern capital. Highlights were (of course) the thermal baths (Gellert and Széchenyi) and the impressive statue park with impressive socialist statues, and excellent restaurants! (Dio as top-pick).

A daytrip by car to Eastern Eger, a small town surrounded by vineyards, was also rewarding, although the weather was less cooperative that day. The Hungarian motorways are top-notch, the coutryside is beautiful and they make good wine!

Click on the photo for some impressions.

Xuly, Marc, Floris, Luuk en Yoshi laten zien hoe het moet op de trappen van de Muzentoren en in het skatepark op het Malieveld.

Spent the past three weeks travelling around Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh together with Mayke. India is a very special country, full of contradictions. A lot of beauty that goes seemlessly together with a lot of grime. It took a while to get used to the busy traffic (incessantly hooting at everything that moves) and the unavoidable cows, cowdung and litter. Once we got the hang of things we started to fall in love with this beautiful country though. See some photo impressions here.

Further on in his speech it becomes clear that there is currently no centrally-coordinated European financial supervision. This strikes me as a bit odd, put mildly. The telecoms industry has seen a concerted European approach since around 1996 but the financial system is left to each individual member state to treat however it sees fit? Somehow, in light of the European Monetary Union (the Maastricht Treaty precedes telecoms regulation by a few years) I have so far taken for granted that a harmonised approach would be in place. Not so.

Overigens verwijst hij naar een artikel uit de New York Times van 30 september 1999 dat precies de neergang van Fannie Mae voorspelt:

The action [...] will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans.
[...]
In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980’s.

Je zou dus kunnen zeggen dat de Clinton administratie al heeft gezaaid wat nu wordt geoogst. Overigens denk ik dat als Bush de nationale schuld niet van historisch laag naar historisch hoog had omgetoverd er wellicht weinig aan de hand was geweest.