Thursday: Two short trainings

The first training was Bow Tie training. I haven’t worn a bow tie since my Ph.D. thesis defence, and I didn’t even own one until this week.

A Dutch Ph.D. thesis, by the way, to steal the words of this blogger, “The ceremony is incredibly formal, fairly succinct and the party that follows approaches the level of a wedding reception. The scale and grandeur of the event is a fitting marker of the accomplishment of completing a doctoral degree.” At that event, my “paranimfen” and I were wearing a full tuxedo, as is required at such an event. Formally, my “paranimfen” (usually good friends or a colleague) are the only persons who are allowed to wear a sabre during the examination, so they could defend me in case the commission attacked me. We refrained from that right, however.

So that was my last bow tie wearing of 16 years ago, in this room to be precise:

But on Saturday I have to go to a ball with Romana, who got herself a beautiful dress for the occasion. I could of course wear a suit and tie but I would feel as if I was going to work. I craved for something that was acceptable to the occasion but also has a fun and party air to it. So the bow tie.

The training took 30 minutes and I went from zero skills to being able to tie an acceptable tie.

The second training was 40 minutes of strength training. Nothing special. Just my weekly routine. This time without a light steady state to precede it, because it is low volume week.

So on Saturday I will be dancing at the Ball of the Olympians. Something like this, but with Olympic medal winners (and us).