there are few days in Amsterdam which can be called hot

And today is one of them. The forecast last night and this morning said high of 27 and thunderstorms developing in the morning and lasting all afternoon; it's now nearly 5:00pm, and there's been no rain, and it's already 28. We're trying out our fancy new fans in the office; it's so fancy, it has a remote control! But nevertheless it's still pretty hot and sultry, and Olivier just announced that he was going to the grocery store for some ice cream, if any of the rest of us wanted some. I'd already been thinking of suggesting to Joel that we stop by our grocery store on the way home. :)

I gave a summary/end of year presentation this afternoon on the stuff that the Friday morning reading group has been translating; I had most of the reading group people show up, plus Joel and Benedikt and a few others, which was quite pleasing. We were in a room which is always hot even when the rest of the building is cool (it has no windows), and it gets even hotter when the beamer is in use. My talk lasted about 45 minutes, which is about what I expected, and by the end of that and the question period it was getting really stifling!

Good thing it's Friday afternoon and we can all slack a bit.

here's our storm!

It'd been thundering for about 15 minutes, and now the rain has come. The cool breeze wafting through the windows into the office is delightful.