For some mysterious reason, there seems to exist a correlation between the temperature outside and the amount of entries on my blog. A sudden and long-awaited spell of sunny weather has been making Holland happy for more than two weeks now. In the evenings I am faced with the choice between sitting outside for a little longer, glass of chilled wine in hand, waiting for the sun to set and the blackbirds to start singing — or sitting inside, behind the computer, working on my blog. What a tough choice.

It’s good to see the weather’s changing though, from downright hot to a temperature better suited for, let’s say, a conference. One week from now we’re hosting RubyEnRails 2006, the first major Dutch/Belgian Ruby and Rails event. Besides Dutch Ruby guru Erik Veenstra, some real-life Rails cases, and Wilco Bauwer presenting his Ruby-on-DotNet compiler, Stefan Kaes is doing a two-hour workshop on Rails performance. And then there’s the Rails introduction workshop Remco and I will do, coding a simple photo album application live to show how quick & easy it all is (that’s the plan, anyway!). Over 100 people have already registered. It may not be London, Chicago or Vancouver, but we do have the most historic venue of them all: a 17th century Dutch castle.