Dinner at the Feijens

The event I write about happened nearly two months ago, so my memory of the details are a bit hazy. I should have written about it earlier -- it was a wonderful evening and I would have liked to have record of all of it. Its never too late though, and I will write about the most memorable events of the night, lest I forget them as well!

Wim Feijen, the soup chef!

On 12 December 2005, Wim and Rina Feijen hosted a dinner at their home which is 30 minutes away from Eindhoven. The party included Jeremy and his visiting friend Sarah, Rob Hoogerwoord and his friend Irma, Mrs. Dijkstra, Arjan Mooij, me, and the hosts.

Wim lives in a very rural area and he keeps livestock including goats, hens and cats. Their house is a cozy, rustic place which is decorated very tastefully. We arrived at 1630. Mrs. Dijkstra drove us (Jeremy, Sarah, Arjan, and me) there. We started off in the sitting room with drinks and snacks. There was some delicious cream cheese with crackers. It went really well with the red wine I was drinking. I have do not recollect any details from the conversation that went on. It was more or less general talk of the kind one tends to forget after a while.

We then assembled at the dinner table while Wim prepared his soup and Rina Feijen prepared the rest of the meal. 12 December was a Monday, and we were told that Wim had spent most of the weekend preparing this soup, so I awaited it with anticipation. It turned out to be quite good, I certainly enjoyed it.

While Rina Feijen was preparing the rest of the meal, Jeremy and Sarah decided to give an impromptu recital of some music for piano and flute. Jeremy is a skilled pianist and Sarah is flutist by education, and their music entertained us while the food was being prepared. The also played a part of the first movement of Mozart's piano sonata K.331, which is one of my favourite pieces of music. Mrs. Feijen was certainly thankful to them since it took pressure off her as everyone's mind was diverted off the food and on the music.

Jeremy and Sarah

The piano is in Wim's study, and while the music was being played I took the opportunity to have a look at some of the books. It was nice to see some of the personal notes by Dijkstra and others in certain copies of the books. I am not sure that Wim approved of my reading them though. Alas, I should have asked beforehand!

Wim seems to love taking pictures and he suddenly got a grand idea of taking pictures of Jeremy and Sarah's feet while they were playing. So down he went, crawling under the piano to take these pictures. I have pictures of him under the piano, but I will not post them here. It was certainly a source of a lot of laughter!

Finally, dinner was ready and off we trooped back to the dining table. It was a splendid four course Dutch dinner. As an appetizer, each of us were served with a salad comprising of bacon and pineapple amongst other things. It was delicious.

The main course consisted of grilled meat with gravy and sauce, boiled French beans, boiled potatoes, and a mushroom dish. Dutch food is not spicy, but it certainly has a distinctive salt-pepper kind of flavour which I cannot quite classify. I definitely enjoy it though. All the food was cooked perfectly and presented in an impeccable manner. I thought I was eating at a five star restaurant! Here is a picture of the dining table, courtesy Sarah :

From left to right : Rob Hoogerwoord, Irma, Wim Feijen, Ria Dijkstra, Apurva Mehta, Arjan Mooij, Jeremy Weissmann, Rina Feijen.

Now, Wim is a huge fan of the Volkswagen Beetle. He has four of these cars I believe and often hosts gettogethers of Beetle enthusiasts. His house is also sprinkled with scale models of the Beetle. So, in his honour, the dessert was custard pudding with whipped cream and peaches, modeled in the shape of a Beetle! Check it out :

The Beetle!

After we had finished off that huge tray of dessert Wim said he would take the tray to his cats for them to lick clean. On his way out of the dining room with the tray, he stood straight up, held the tray by his side, at shoulder level, on the upward palm of his right hand. He folded his left hand behind his back, stuck his chin upward and marched out saying "Jeeves!" -- a tribute to that venerable butler from P.G. Wodehouse's books. It is a scene I will always remember.

After the dessert tray was duly disposed of, we remained at the dining table for coffee and sweets. There was a wide assortment of chocolates, candy, cookies, you name it! And all that after a huge dinner. I indulged myself with loads of coffee and loads of the sweets that were on offer. I think coffee miraculously provides one with a large appetite!

That brought an end to a wonderful evening. I had a great time and will always remember these incidents with fondness. Wim and Rina Feijen were wonderful hosts and I take this opportunity to thank them once again.

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Pleasure is ..

Pleasure is playing a hard and satisfying game of football for one and half hours at -2C and then stepping into a hot shower with lovely music playing in the background. It can't get better. (well, unless there was a girl involved I suppose ;-)

WOW!

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Then and Now

I landed in the Netherlands at around 2300 on 23 October 2005. That means tomorrow will mark three months since I arrived. Looking back over this time, I am pleasantly surprised to see what a difference three months has made to me. In this article I record my mathematical development. I do this for two reasons. First, such an article will be nice to read a few years down the line. Second, it always feels nice to record progress.

Lets dive right in.

I used to struggle while reading several (mathematical) works, but now I am a whole lot more fluent with the same material. I used to barely mumble out sentences (at least that was my impression!), but now I find myself talking a lot more confidently about mathematics. I am less hesitant about asking questions and more willing to provide my opinions.

Earlier, I could barely understand certain fundamental mathematical concepts, and any proof which appealed to them was very hard for me to grasp. Now these same concepts (monotonicity anyone?) are second nature to me and thus a whole class of proof techniques and heuristics have been added to my mathematical toolkit.

My ability with formal program derivation has finally materialized. I now can read formal derivations and understand them and also perform my own derivations with a certain comfort. However I still have a long way to go and there are many techniques to learn and programs to create, but I have got a foothold on the cliff and I love the view from up here.

My appreciation of science, technology and mathematics has become more refined. Especially in the last few weeks I have been doing a lot of introspection about what I am studying and its utility in the production of software systems. I am now convinced more than ever that these methods and this training has potential to boost programmer productivity and software quality like nothing else. It really addresses the core concerns as far as I see. As a result of these insights I am more excited than ever about what I am doing and I have a stronger justification as to why it is worth it.

I have been exposed to mathematical writing the like of which I have never seen before. Wim Feijen and Netty van Gasterens book "On a Method of Multiprogramming" is probably the best book I have ever read (and this includes Dijkstra). They way it seperates concerns and utilizes mathematics to bridle the complexity in the extremely complex discipline of multiprogramming is a joy to behold. It is an inspiration. I can't contain a smile while reading it and often it induces me to let out a low whistle. Such is the beauty. Additionally, seeing Wim Feijen talk and work has allowed me to gain insight into the kind of discipline in thought that is required to write such a book. I have tried to pick up his habits up in the hope that one day I would also be able to produce writing of this standard.

So much for my mathematical development. I have more to write about personal and social development, but I will leave that for another time.

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The ETAC Chronicles

(ETAC = Eindhoven Tuesday Afternoon Club)

A pictorial walk down memory lane.

1981

From left to right: Ronald Bulterman, Maarten Boasson, Rob Hoogerwoord, Martin Rem, Frans Peters, Alain Martin, Wim Feijen, Edsger Dijkstra, and Netty van Gasteren

1986

From front to back: Lex Bijlsma, Edsger Dijkstra, Netty van Gasteren, Wim Feijen, Carel Scholten

1990

During the celebration of Edsger Dijkstras 60th anniversary in May 1990.
Standing from left to right: Martin Rem, Maarten Boasson, Jan Tijmen Udding, Edsger Dijkstra, Rob Hoogerwoord, Jan van de Snepscheut, Netty van Gasteren, Anne Kaldewaij, Alain Martin, and Mohamed Gouda. Sitting: Wim Feijen.
Everyone in the picture was a member of the (E)TAC for some period of time.

1993

From left to right: Carel Scholten, Frans van der Sommen, and Ronald Bulterman.

2002

Standing from left to right: Frans van der Sommen, Netty van Gasteren, Ronald Bulterman, Arjan Mooij, and Wim Feijen. Sitting: Gerard Zwaan and Edsger Dijkstra.
This was Edsger Dijkstras very last appearance at a meeting of the (E)TAC.

2005

This was the last ETAC session headed by Wim Feijen. For the occasion, chocolate balls were eaten and the colleagues and secretaries of the daprtment were invited.
Standing from left to right: Riet van Buul, Hanneke Driever, Ronald Bulterman, Jaap van der Woude, Gerard Zwaan, and Arjan Mooij. Sitting from left to right : Apurva Mehta, Jeremy Weissmann, Wim Feijen, Rik van Geldrop, Rob Hoogerwoord, and Tom Verhoeff.

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View all my pictures.

I have uploaded all my pictures to the dotphoto.com website. You will find the link to my albums on the right hand side in the "Links" section (duh!). Now all of those who demanded more photos cannot complain anymore.

I will upload a new album after each trip and will link to the new album from the corresponding blog entry.

Enjoy!

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