A pretty relaxed week, starting with still being away in Luxembourg, and me doing some work in the latter half. The contrast was sharp, and I had to take it slow and solitary to be able to do some work.

This week I

• Enjoyed our visit to Metz on Monday, and especially the Centre Pompidou there.
• Also enjoyed our relaxed lunch in Maastricht on the way back home Tuesday.
• Took it slow Wednesday still mostly in vacation mode.
• Did the bookkeeping and VAT returns in the second half of the week.
• Found it hard to interact with others about work, getting pulled into things I didn’t choose, feeling I had lost my sense of steering. So pulled back and then reengaged on my own terms.
• Watched the opening of the Olympic Games, which was fun
• Together visited the 14th century castle at Muiden, which I found much more interesting than I had anticipated. I had never visited before, but is an iconic building in the Netherlands. When I was in primary school I was very taken with the notion of what was called the ‘Muiden circle‘ a salon of people gathering at the castle around its 17th centiury resident P.C. Hooft, to discuss science literature and culture. In actuality Hooft mostly invited various friends to stay with him at the castle during the summer months, when he was staying there himself as part of his work as a bailiff. The romanticised notion of a salon was created around it in the 19th century. But the notion appealed enormously to me when I was 10-12, the way it was described and also depicted on a large print in the school. To host at home fascinating conversation partners and deeply discuss interests and the things that made you curious. It sounded awesome to me as a kid. Still does, really. Our unconference birthday parties, the BlogWalk salons I co-organised 15-20 years ago, fed the same need I felt in primary school.

The Muiderkring meeting, depicted by Jan Adam Kruseman, 1852, hanging in the main hall of Muiden castle