Vanilla Ice Cream with Strawberry Sauce

Was out of the house on time today for a trip to Delft to attend a presentation at the office of our regular (read: favourite) travel agent on Japan, a country neither of us have been to but are curious about.  Only I attended while AW preferred to tend the garden.  The talk lasted about 1.5 hours, 10.00-11.30, after which I decided to drive north to visit the tulip fields there.  What a traffic jam it was as I approached Lisse and Hillegom, two villages that owe their existence to the growing, marketing, and sale of flowers.  Luckily, I wasn't planning to visit Lisse in particular, which is where the Keukenhof is.  Instead, I took an early exit on the N207 and went to Lisserbroek and Abbenes instead, and there, along the road, were some pretty fields.  Naturally, I wasn't the only one.  Cars lined the edges of the fields and when I stepped out of mine to join the other admirers, I heard about a dozen foreign languages all at once.  There are a couple of extra shots.

Back to the subject of Japan -- it's quite an interesting and unique country, no other like it in Asia.  You're not allowed to tip, everything is so spic and span and neat and orderly, they're not too strong with English but this is slowly changing, public transportation is punctual almost to a point, and private transportation is expensive.  One can expect to find the best sushi and in many lodgings, you sleep on the floor Japanese-style.  It is on our list, has been for some time, but I think I'll put it off some years more.

Back home at about 16.30 and basically just relaxed the rest of the day.  I've noticed lately that the more I have to do these days, the more I deliberately take the time to de-stress.  The housework isn't a problem, that's all going well.  It's the work at work which I have to do partly at home that's a problem.  Again, the way it sounds from colleagues, I'm not alone.  Last Sunday evening, for instance, I was busy preparing for the coming week and opening some mail, when a message came in from a colleague asking about something.  I promptly replied, to which he responded with his thanks.  I realized right away that I wasn't the only one busy on a Sunday evening, and that it was a Sunday evening.  On the other hand, I shorten my own working days if I can, as doing that seems to be the only way at the moment to avoid creeping too near the edge.  Does management know this?  What do you think?