Oracle 10G: Build J2EE Aplications Ed 1.1 Certificate

In February of last year I was facing a thought decision. I was given the choice to go and take a 1 week formation in Toronto or California? Doh?

I chose the later and had an amazing stay at Sofitel in Redwood Shore for 8 days with a car rental. My classes were located 5 minutes from the hotel and were just beside my employer's headquarters. Had a chance to meet and lunch with people I only new by e-mail, putting a face on them was pretty cool.

You can have a look at a few pictures of that trip!

So I did all the tourists stuff on the first week-end, biked around San Francisco, went on the Golden Gate bridge and then rode in Sausalito which was really a nice place to visit. I met a couple there that were biking and they showed me around. Visited Alcatraz, Chinatown, Russian Hill, Twin Peaks, Market street, fisherman's WARF, ...
During the week, after class I would go for a run at the beach in half Moon Bay, the surfing spot is best known as Maverick one of the best big waves on the west coast. Too bad I didn't get the chance to grab a board and be destroyed by one of those waves. I was convinced by one of my coworkers to go and see 2 plays; a drama entitled Mortality and Morbidity and a musical on Sinatra, being in California I guess I had to attend at least one show right! I had the chance to enjoy some of the Bay Area fine cuisine and here is a small list:

• Cliff House San Francisco
  
• Crab House @ Pier 39 San Francisco
• Tamarine @ Palo Alto
  
• BAY 223 @ Redwood City
  
• Calzone on Colombus Ave @ SF
  

Cliff House and Crab House were very good but a little overpriced ... when your expensing ... Tamarine was by far the best one and I had a great evening over there with people I met from Stanford.

On Thursday night I went to have a look at Mark Farina's residence the Ruby Skye which almost made me feel like I was back to Ibiza.

On Wednesday 1 meter of snow fell in the mountains and I have always dreamt to Ride Lake Tahoe so that was were I was heading for a 4 hour drive to Heavenly on Saturday. One of the best Snowboard days of my life, my legs must still hurt from all that powder!! Next time I have to try Kirkwood or Mammoth.

Road Trip through Eastern Europe

Lets make a long story short ....

If you prefer pictures to this long short story click on this hyperlink

On August 10th, a terrorist attempt was dismantled at London Airport. Dammit, that had to happen the day I left for France. Going through customs was a nightmare, Air Transat sent people in karts to get us through customs and in the plane. How lucky was I to have a direct flight, else I would of never gotten in Nice on the next morning. I finally got there in time, Max and Franky waiting for me at the airport with the "GrosTorseMobile" a Poegot 205 17 years of age ready for a great journey through Eastern Europe.

We drove all the way across Italy with a first stop in Verona, the city of Romeo & Juliet for a great snack ended with a good gelato. Then we took the road again for a well-deserved sleep in Venezia. We had a little bonus with an outdoors show from Roger Waters, singer of Pink Floyd on la Plaza San Marco were we took our first Jack of the trip.


We just had time to grab a espresso and hop we were gone again direction Zadar Croatia for a little halt before we would go to Pag Island for a few days. When we got to Novalja, all hotels were booked so we had to knock at some local’s door to find a place to stay and we found a cozy place with and old mama that took good care of us. There is a little beach on Pag called Zrce just beside Novalja which is trying to label itself as the next Ibiza (not quite) but still it runs 24 hrs, there are Jacuzzis and pools in the clubs ... We didn't rest much during that stay especially when we lost both car keys in a rain storm at 6 in the morning after a long night and I had left the key of our room in the car. Luckily after 15 minutes in the rain trying to open the window and after being soaked and wet, Max finally found the key in his chest where you basically can find anything since it is humongous, there was probably even a peace of Pag cheese hidden in there. On our last day on Pag we took a boat ride to the islands to end up on Rab where we rented a scooter to visit the island.

Again we hoped in the car direction Plitvice National park for a quick one-day visit. The setup was magnificent with waterfalls and lakes everywhere. The park was the strategic location where Serbs and Croatians first started to fight in the Croatian War Of Independence in the 90's. Then we headed up North to Hungary because we had to be in Budapest on Friday to meet friends. We stopped at lake Balaton for a night in a small town called Keszthely were we had a great night at a local pub on the beach trying to talk a mixture of German and English to communicate with the locals.

So here we go again to Budapest and meet TBo and the Danish with his 10 or so other friends at a 4* Hotel downtown on the Pest side of the city. Nice! Big weekend, with some well deserved relaxation in Budapest thermal bath's finest! After that it was time to think going back in Antibes France for good French food. On the way back, we stopped for 2 nights in Ljubljana the capital of Slovenia. There was something special about that place. The city and the women were so nice, people were friendly and the atmosphere was so chill. I would definitely rate it as one of the finest city I have had a chance to visit. So that was about 3500 K's without a single problem with the ride, except maybe closing the hood, not bad for an some car so close to retirement.

Pictures
Alex has all the pictures from Budapest Here

Intro

This blog will be a mixture of facts & events related to jipp's Inc do's and don't. Absurdity should be a must. A minimal percentage of the blog might also be reserved to serious issues like finance, software, science and whatever the jipp in question might be interested in.