Mondanity in Eindhoven

A surprise party has been organised that celebrated my birthday! I have been surprised and happy to meet with all these people who claimed to be my friend. The company was very diverse, and represented surely the best that Eindhoven society can distill: physicists, mathematicians, pedagogs, musicians, engineers, architects. People came from all over the world, we counted more than 10 nations and 2 continents. It was just fantastic. A man in the logistic business defended the dutch way of playing football, whilst a ferocious debate concluded that monarchy is not the perfect form of democracy. While listening to the sound of a salsa band playing Felicitaciones, we drank sicilian wine, and dined deliciously. Some people could not attend, their fame blocked them elsewhere. A former manager phoned to congratulate me; a Vice-President sang happy birthday in Turkish to me (ikku kuddu....), he and his wife got trapped by climbing Arhem's mountains. A phylosopher left a message in my mailbox. A banker, unfortunately ill, left a message in my answering machine. A dancer sent an SMS, as did a former secret agent. A painter sent a messenger with presents, as a journalist did.

Presents were marvellous, including mp3 players, postcards, oils, books, money and sex. I want to thank all these persons, and especially the President who secretly and succesfully organised this.

(*) For clear reasons of discreteness, I avoided mentioning names.