Breakfast at around 11 at A&J’s: 2 boiled eggs (4 minutes) and toast.  Lunch at the house (simple salad, some foie gras however), little cheese.

Apple juice and a Twix on the plane back to Brussels.  A “Dr. Oetker” Pizza (Marguerita) when I got home, with about a liter of juice.  More or less “well done” .

So I’m in the South, working on a couple projects.  Here’s what went in my face today:

• late breakfast (bread, croissants, with butter and jam) + a coffee at around 11am
• meeting in one of Monaco’s older café’s: a coffee again
• late lunch (bread with goat cheese and jam) and, you’ve guessed it, a coffee at 4pm
• homemade bread (kudos to John and the breadmachine) with butter at around 6pm
• late dinner (10ish) at Pourquoi Pas (yes, again, I really wanted this): another burger with fries and salad.  This is a sin but we had been working very hard and needed lots of food.  We finished with a coffee each (I had a deca) at Café de Paris, at the Casino in Monaco, around 11pm.

Tomorrow’s another flying day: I’m flying back home to Brussels.  Hope I can take it easy foodwise.

got up at 5:30 am, left home without eating anything.

• fresh orange juice at the airport (bloody 4,5 euros and so not worth it)
• coffee and a mars bar on the plane
• got in the house in France and went straight for lunch at “pourquoi pas” with Bo, Charles (and Cornelius), Anny and John: a fresh burger with fries and salad, sparkling water and a double coffee
• onion pizza at carrefour back in Monaco
• Dinner at the house: shrimp with whiskey sauce entree + glass of bubbles, steak with potato, walnut cake (resisted the cheese) and a decaf coffee

Too much for an ordinary day.  And badly balanced.  But days on which you fly don’t count. Right?!

New year’s day doesn’t really count, does it, but still.
Here goes.

• breakfast at 1:30 pm: 4 toasts with butter and jam, orange juice and cheese plus a coffee.
• ice cake at grandmom’s
• some (very little) cheese at other grandmom
• peanuts at Her grandmom
• Huge dinner: apetizers with prune juice, shrimp with spinach, cake with creme fraiche

Yes, I’ve gained a couple kilo’s these last few months. Got on the scale on Christmas day and the news was terrible: 98 kg. My new year’s resolution for 2010 is to get that down to at least 90 or, even better, 85.

So, starting today, I’ll be blogging everything I eat, daily. If that won’t give me peer pressure, I don’t know what will. So, get down to the category “onmyplatetoday” and “support” my cause.

The justice department of the Belgian federal government decided to rollback some very important decisions made in the past concerning the software platform they run internally.

I was so proud a couple years ago when I heard our government dared take the step towards open source software. The city of München had done so before, and even in Belgium there were a couple important steps made, amongst others by the city administration of Schoten.
Not only did they choose OpenOffice (as did the justice dep.), but also Asterisk for all telephony. And the results were satisfying.

Regional judges’ offices all over Belgium (in cases of domestic violence or small disputes) we already running Suse Linux, OpenOffice and the likes and an internal report said that project was running smoothly and the users in the field were happy with the solution.

As always, going for an open source solution means you need the necessary know-how within the IT department (or through consultancy, of course) and apparently, that’s where it went wrong at the justice department: they are now moving entirely towards Microsoft’s solutions again: Microsoft Exchange for mail, Windows 7 for the desktop and MS Office as content editor.

Did these people forget the track record of Microsoft in the past? The EU has repeatedly confirmed unlawful commercial practices and fined Microsoft hundreds of millions. Yet our government chose this manufacturer to do business with.
The fact that Microsoft Consultancy Services (not real MS people, but guns-for-hire!!!) are taking care of the entire move back FOR FREE should ring a bell, though. And how about the rest of us, who are selling their services (non-free)?

Open source software, given away for free has the advantage that the customer is not limited to one supplier to provide him with support. The decisions made when developing the software are also not driven by economics but by what the community decides should be created. A very important difference!

Disappointed and ashamed I am in this matter. And eager to see the outcome in the long run.