Radisson Blu Royal is pretty conveniently located hotel in the centre of Brussels — just a few minutes walk from the central railway station. If you are a first-timer in Brussels, it might be easier to hop in a cab instead of trying to find your way through Brussels maze of streets. Navigating phone or a good map helps, though.

The room was large, but a bit rundown, like the rest of the hotel. The furniture was old and worn, and the bathroom would benefit from renovation. The only modern item in the room was the minibar that was automatic (gosh I hate these things!). Fortunately the bed was big and comfortable.

Wifi connection was free and it worked like a charm for the first day, and then experienced some issues during the next. I could conduct all my business needs, but browsing for fun was not that pleasurable.

www.radissonblu.com, Rue du Fossé-aux-Loups 47 / Wolvengracht 47, Brussels, Belgium, +32 2 219 2828

I spent the previous weekend in Brussels, mingling with other CEOs, CTOs and other “C-level people” of Drupal shops in DrupalCXO meeting, organised by a few active CEOs. Bulk of the work was carried out by Kristof Van Tomme — thanks for all the hard work, it was really appreciated. The mini-conference was held in Microsoft premises — a surprise host for a LAMP open source project people — and the arrangements were very good.

I flew in with a couple of other Finnish Drupal shop CEOs on Friday, had a good dinner with about half of the participants later in the evening, and then hit the bunk at Radisson Blu. Saturday was spent in the conference and then in probably one of the slowest dinners that I’ve encountered. The diners were active, but it took more than two hours to get the appetisers served, and the total length of the dinner was more than four hours. Insane.

On Sunday we continued with the same topic until mid-afternoon, and the rest of the day was spent at the airport. I managed to crunch a few issues out from a project, shopped some Belgian chocolate, and then had peaceful flight back to Finland.

After working ten days in a row, I’m anxiously waiting for the next weekend and some time off — I and Aapo are going to visit a Lego building fair in Pohjanmaa, some 350 kilometers north of Helsinki.

I’m writing this in my old room (in which I grow up) in my parents’ house in Polvijärvi, Northern Carelia.

I’ve arrived here yesterday by train with Aapo and Niilo. The purpose of the trip is twofold; I’m consulting the local polytechnic on Monday, and boys are enjoying the company of their grandparents and vice versa.

The train trip has always been surprisingly easy, despite that it takes almost five hours. The Finnish Railroads have furnished one of the cars with a play area, and the kids spent most of their time there. I coded a couple of hours and spent time on the Internet through my mobile.

Today is a double vacation day for me: no work (except if I choose to work), and someone else is tending the kids.

We’ll fly back on Monday evening, and I’m expecting a no-hassle flight — for some odd reason boys behave way better when there’s only one guardian. Maybe they seek mental support from each others and try to help me instead of fooling around and fighting.

We spent a few nights in London, as stated in the previous update. Both me and Sanna had some business errands to take care in the city, and then we spent the remaining time wisely — mostly shopping and a visit to Cambridge to meet friends and their lovely daughter.

People have asked what we did in London, and I’ve had hardships in answering; I don’t really recall anything special, just shopping, dining, and strolling around the city. Boys behaved pretty well, the hotel was nice, and everything went smoothly. Including also the return flight without Sanna, she stayed in the city a few hours longer due to a seminar. So there was nothing special to remember. In a nutshell, it was an excellent city break.

After returning from London, we were busy working the remainder of the week and impatiently waiting for the weekend — after long pause, the boys were going to visit their cousins and spent night there. I and Sanna had a full day and night only for ourselves.

I dropped off the boys, and then we did some shopping in the city (such as a new laundry bin and other uplifting stuff). We were planning to go to movies at six, but decided to go to an earlier viewing at three. This resulted me driving like a madman from the downtown to Sello shopping mall in Espoo (something like 10 kilometers) to get tickets to the movie. We arrived to the theater ten minutes to the movie, and got the final adjacent seats in the theater. Unfortunately, the seats were so close to the silver screen that my neck hurt the rest of the day.

The movie was Inception. Excellent choice, some thinking and some action. Any less suspension, and I would have fallen asleep from the sleep deprivation from the previous week. My only grievance was the length. Why new movies are so long? Two hours and twenty minutes! I had to take a leak after two hours, and I’m not an old man yet.

This autumn is for sure a travel season. We have been busy packing our bags today and yesterday, and now we are ready for the take off tomorrow noon. The destination is the big smoke, and the trip combines both business and pleasure.

Besides the business meetings, we don’t have anything specific planned. Some shopping, a museum or two, and in general laid back time with the family. The only aim we’ve got is to find trendy fashion boutiques, we’ve been so far visiting in internationally renown brand stores, but local and/or obscure designers would be nice to find. I’ll need to start combing the web with Google soon — after I’ve put the kids to the bed.

Leaving things at the last minute is not typical for me, but I’ve been working almost around the clock the clear my calendar for the next days, so tasks wouldn’t haunt me while I’m in the UK. It looks like that this autumn is also a business season, economy seems to be picking up and customers are very interested in Exove’s offerings. Which makes me happy and busy.

Our travel season started with a trip to Tallinn on last Saturday. After playing hockey with Aapo, we drove to the harbour and sailed to Tallinn on a Linda Line fast boat.

I had some business related items during the weekend, but I could also squeeze in some time with the family. While I was talking business, the rest of the family drove around the old town with Toomas train, and then we had a happy reunion at Uusmaailm street festival — that we needed to leave early, as the boys were too hungry to enjoy the festivities.

We ate the worst burgers ever — do not go to La Boheme — and then spent the rest of the day in the hotel spa. On Sunday, we spent some time in the spa in the morning, then visited Tallinn Zoo, and did some shopping.

The zoo was surprisingly nice. I had heard a lot of horror stories about confined compounds and place looking like a Soviet style prison. Some places were small, yes, but the newer ones were really spacious and well designed to satisfy both the spectators and the animals. There was an upside for the small cages — I’ve never been so close to a tiger or a polar bear, like two meters between us. Fortunately, there were also a fence and not just air.

Sanna took boys back to Finland on Sunday evening, and I spent the rest of my trip having meetings and doing some shopping. Nothing really to elaborate. The return trip on Tuesday evening was also eventless, except that I could read a book without anyone disturbing me — some perks of travelling alone.

I’ll visit Tallinn, once again. The Estonian city is so conveniently reachable by ferries leaving every hour, and there is plethora of good restaurants, historic places, and things to do and buy in the city.

This trip is mostly for the family, we’ll probably spend some time in our hotel’s spa and then visit Tallinn Zoo. Some good food and maybe a pair of shoes or a shirt would be the icing of the cake.

The trips to London and Japan / South Korea have now been booked. The process was slow and tedious, but we managed to get decent prices for flights and good / very good prices for hotels. We’ve visited the London hotel (No. 5 Maddox Street) before, and it was awesome — prime location next to Oxford Circus, big rooms in London standards, and very nice service. The hotels in Osaka and Seoul are unknown territory, but at least they seem to be of excellent standard based on their websites and Tripadvisor ratings. Reports will follow after the trips.

In the meanwhile, I’ve reserved a couple of other trips in Finland. Early October, I’ll go with the boys to North Carelia for an extended weekend. First the weekend, and then on Monday the boys will give run for the money for my parents while I’ll be teaching in local university of applied science in Joensuu. Two weeks after that trip, I, Aapo, my brother-in-law, and Aapo’s cousin Onni will visit Lego building fair in Ilmajoki, some 300 kilometers up north from Helsinki. I’ve been busy building our entry to the fair, and the three story old town hotel is now in final phases. I’ll try to provide report and pictures from the fair.

Besided these, I’m also planning a trip to Tallinn for a few days in early September, but my plans are completely open still. I’d like to go to US for a while, but it is still a long shot. Maybe early next year, depending how well the Far East trip went.