I somehow thought 2011 would be a more relaxed year than the past years, but that seems to have been wishful thinking. The past months have been at least as busy as last year, work wise but also privately. I am more relaxed in my day to day work after leaving the CEO position at Spil Games Asia, but I am still spending way too many hours behind my laptop or on the phone. That in combination with a lot of business trips with major jet lags (I would need to check this blog to see how many times I have flown to either Europe or the US this year already, if all trips are even on here) means that I feel physically tired. I still do a lot of sports and am in decent shape (I ran 15 km on Tuesday morning before going to the office for example), but I feel I am ready for a holiday to recharge my batteries.

So that’s what I am going to do! In about 2 weeks I am taking the family to Europe for a few weeks of rest & relaxation. I will combine it with a bit of work of course: I can’t let go completely, I learned over the years that not checking and answering emails makes me feel more stressed. We’ll likely spend some time with my parents and we plan to spend a week on the Cote d’Azure where we’ll rent a nice villa with pool (and fast wifi…). I like the south of France, a nice climate, excellent food and a good supply of great wines. With Spil Games I will spend a few days on the Dutch island of Vlieland, where the company outing will take place – haven’t been there in years, looking forward to it. And with the family we might also visit some other places in Europe (maybe Luxembourg again?).

I plan to do some more writing during my holidays as well, I have an outline for several online game and entrepreneurship related articles in my head that I want to put on paper (or more precisely, on the Internet). I just need a few quiet hours for them, but I don’t seem to find that time in China. And of course more sports: on November 6 my dad, sister and I will run the New York marathon, so I need to start running longer distances more regularly. In China I mainly run indoors which is not only relatively boring (well, at least I get to watch some movies while running) but it also can’t really prepare you for a long run on asphalt with some elevations. The half marathon I ran about 2 months ago in Yangzhou caused me quite some muscle ache the days after because I am just not used to running on asphalt on my Vibram FiveFingers.

I am now also preparing a list of books that I want to read. Mainly thrillers and some new literature, haven’t made up my mind yet but will do so over the next couple of days. I don’t want to bring any physical books (with 2 kids we already have enough luggage), but luckily most books are available on my Kindle as well. Or if there is only a paper version I just buy or order the book(s) in Holland, then I don’t need to bring them over from China.

Writing this blog post already puts me in a holiday mood, I am looking forward to the trip in July!