Having spent a lot of my adult life traveling and working abroad, I’ve usually make an effort to try different airlines when I can. And because of that I’ve been on some interesting, stressful and adventurous flights… but the worse experience in recent memory has been the service I received on Air France. You’d think … Continue reading Dear Air France – It’s not my fault.
(Sanary Sur Mer – about a 4 hour highspeed train south of Paris along the Mediteranean Sea) Just got back from Paris this morning and, boy, am I tired! Haven't experienced jetlag for over a year and its a little difficult to get use to. It was a wonderful place and we were lucky to … Continue reading It's true, France is full of wine and cheese
These days, it’s not often I get asked for my GIS/mapping skills – maybe it’s just because “making maps” aren’t as interesting now that there are so many tools at our disposal. But sometimes, just sometimes, there are some questions that a simple map with dots can’t answer. So when a request came up to … Continue reading How to calculate urban population by country using satellite data
There’s something about getting real mail, letters in particular, that can’t be replaced with emails, tweets, WhatsApp messages, SMS, etc. When my friend Joya asked me last summer if I wanted to participate in ‘The World Needs More Love Letters‘, I thought sure why not. I wasn’t in the right state of mind to be … Continue reading The World Needs More Love Letters
This is a tribute to my wife Muriel who passed away too soon from post-partum depression. It gives a taste of what a wonderfully smart, talented, passionate, and loving person and mother she was to her family, friends and to the world. Below is the English adaptation of a tribute that was published in Mieux … Continue reading In Memory of Mon Amour
It might be hard work but there isn’t really a down side to food. We all need it. We all have our own tastes. We can love or hate making and eating whatever we cook. It induces memories and is a visual feast that triggers other senses and emotions. While food tickles our sense of … Continue reading Food+Music can make anyone happy
In the last few months, Ebola has been on people’s minds especially those who are working to curb the spread of the virus and providing humanitarian relief to the millions of people that could be exposed in the three main countries: Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. $13.5 million from CERF is largest for single crisis … Continue reading Media: Thanks for the news about Ebola – now what do I do?
I’ve written a lot about traveling to the south of France in the last few years as I’ve been spending a lot of time with my extended family. It’s a straight shot from Geneva to Marseille – a 3-hour hop on the TGV, France’s high-speed railway, which can go over 300km/hr, and then a quick … Continue reading Believe whatever people say about SNCF
It’s been a while since I’ve been unemployed. There’s been two other times in my recent career path where I’ve taken significant time off between contracts/projects – once was in 2008 when I had about 4 months off and the other was in 2010 when I had about 9 months off. The key to taking … Continue reading Taking time off work is a great sanity check
Great cuisine is an art form with a purpose – to make us feel good and full. I had this amazing dessert in a Les Oliviers in the South of France over the Christmas holidays. It’s made of pineapple, passion fruit, cream, sugar and probably plenty of other ingredients – each of them are simple … Continue reading Infographics: the gourmet or fast food version?
