In Lisbon, when I was elected to the NCC Executive Board, I was told that I should plan to be at the EB meeting in Lillestrøm on 28 June. This would normally have been a two day meeting, and during the week, but it was to be up against an IGF meeting, so was squeezed. After some discussion with Daniella, I booked it myself on Lufthansa as it had the best pricing and i could get lie-flat seats to/from Europe in one hop, avoiding US domestic cross-country. I would only get one day home after returning from the family trip to the Big Island.
Tuesday 2025.06.24
I unpacked from the Hawai`i trip, did a laundry, and started packing my small carry-on for the Oslo run.
Wednesday 2025.06.25
I was in the Lyft at 08:55. The driver had succulents planted in the console well. The car was a Kia hybrid and she said she liked it a lot. We arrived at PDX at 08:20. The airport was empty. I stopped at Air Canada check-in because the app had not given me the boarding pass for the FRA-OSL segment. There was zero queue. Same with TSA and security. My bag set off the inspection for human remains. They were kind. I grabbed a decaf Italiano at Stumptown, plugged my laptop in at the really nice laptop tables, and tried to deal with the day’s AfriNIC drama.
At 09:30 i headed to the gate and boarded. Air Canada flight 8651 was a funky De Havilland Q400 turboprop and was completely full. I took off 20 minutes late at 10:20. I slept the ride to Vancouver, where we landed at 11:10. I went through passport control and settled in the Air Canada signature lounge to have some Hamachi and steak. There was much back-and-forth in signal regarding the RIR statement supporting ICANN I had initiated. The Vancouver to Frankfurt flight was delayed by an hour and a half.
I left the lounge at 13:30 and headed to the gate. I boarded directly and settled in. Air Canada flight 838 was a DreamLiner 787 in very spicy shape. I think it was pretty full. At two o’clock we we’re ready to take off when someone decided they didn’t want to fly. So we got another 15 minute delay while they found their luggage in the cargo. We finally pushed back at 2:30, and took off at 2:45. I slept for three hours and watched bad movies. I hate the takeoff meal and the landing omelette with two cups of coffee.
Thursday 2025.06.26
We landed at 9:05 and we’re at the gate by 9:10. I had to go catch the bus over to the gates which I did at 9:20.. We were at the gate and I was in the passport queue by 9:30. I was through passport control by 9:40 and at the gate at 9:45. they were still disembarking from the inbound flight. They started boarding at ten o’clock. I was in my seat by 10:05.
Lufthansa flight 860 was an AirBus 320neo in pretty good shape. It appeared to be pretty full. I was actually pretty awake and feeling OK. We were scheduled to push at 10:15 but did not do so until 10:30. I was just happy to have made the connection given the two hour late departure out of Vancouver.
We landed at 12:16 . I was waiting for the train for Lillestrøm at 12:40 and it departed at 12:50. It was ten minutes to Lillestrøm, and the hotel was right across the road. I checked in and was in my room by 13:15. The Scandic Lillestrøm was not posh but quite adequate. Gobble said four star, I would say three, which was appropriate for a board member of a non-profit.
I unpacked, showered, worked, and napped until 18:00 when I went down to the lobby to meet Mirjam. We ran into Hans Petter, Fergal, Ukla, Karla, Ole, etc. and gossiped for half an hour or so. Then Mirjam and I walked into the Lillestrøm shopping area and to Feniqia, a Lebanese restaurant and had a rather nice vegetarian dinner. We were back at the hotel about nine o’clock, and I crashed.
Friday 2025.06.27
I woke at six, dressed, and went down to breakfast at seven. It was your basic good Scandanavian breakfast. I worked in my room until an 11:30 meeting with Athina to cover the role, duties, and liabilities of an NCC EB member. I spent three hours with her, doing the paperwork and slide deck as planned, but then going into depth on many social, political, etc. issues RIPE faces and maybe more of NCC internals than is appropriate for a board member. I napped from four to seven, and thanked everyone on Signal and iMessage for birthday wishes.
I napped from three to 18:30, showered and dressed, and worked a bit. I then went down to the hotel restaurant for dinner with the Board, Hans Petter, Athina, Mirjam, etc. It was very collegial and somewhat multi-cultural. I managed to stay fairly quiet. Piotr, who is cute in a Polish kind of way, served as the life of the party at our end. Hams Petter and I managed to gossip a bit. Mirjam and Athina left soon after ten. Ondrej, who had hung back, suddenly grilled me about my jobs at IIJ and Arrcus and how I ended up in them. I left as we were kicked out of the restaurant at 23:30, and I got so sleep shortly after midnight.
Saturday 2025.06.28
I woke at seven o’clock, dressed, and went down to breakfast. I had put on a real collared shirt, but no one noticed. I sat with Mirjam, Ole, and Fergal. At 08:30, Sander and I tried to take Athina’s advice to go across the street to the station to Garcon for good coffee, but they were closed. So I had more bad coffee with the crew at the hotel restaurant. Then to the second floor to the meeting room for the Board meeting.
The Board meeting was highly varied. Simple procedural actions were prompt and easy. But anything which took thought rat-holed. Particularly the subject of the change from Executive Board to Supervisory Board, which I thought was very simple, got seriously wrapped around the axle. And Remko van Mook, who was no longer on the board, seemed not to have gotten the memo and tended to dominate conversation. We finally broke for lunch at 12:30.
After lunch we went into more strategy, but focused on data sovereignty, AI, and other technologies. Then we went down rat-holes of various services, charging for diverse services, … What about war, regional fragmentation, climate change, etc? The work day ended with a closed meeting on remuneration of the RIPE Chair and Vice-Chair.
At 17:30, I went to my room and napped until 18:30, showered, and met folk in the lobby, took the train to OsloTheater, and walked maybe one km to XXX and had a dinner of shellfish by the harbor.



At 10:30 or so, Mirjam and I bailed and took the train back to Lillestrøm and I was asleep around midnight.
Sunday 2025.06.29
I woke at six, showered, dressed, packed, etc., and was drinking coffee in the cafe by 06:45. They opened and seven and Mirjam met me. At 07:30 she walked me to my train to the airport. I caught the 07:50 express, which was overflowing and arrived at a minute or three after eight. I walked through the automated check, went through security, and found the lounge by 08:25.
I left the lounge at 9:10 and walked to the furthest D gate.We boarded at 9:25 and I was in my seat by 9:30. Lufthansa flight 859 to Frankfurt was an AirBus 320neo in funky shape. My seat would not recline. My seat mate arrived and it was Harald. I fell asleep instantly and slept until we landed in Frankfurt. I went through the underground tunnel to the B gates, went through a very short passport control queue, and went to the Lufthansa lounge. At 12:35 when my outbound flight was supposed to be boarding, I went to the gate. It wasn’t boarding, and it was a closed gate area that was jammed full. It looked like a Covid event to me. So I sat down outside and waited for the boarding area to clear. I was the last person through passport check and I waited for the jet bridge to clear to board.
Lufthansa flight 492 to Vancouver was a 747 that looked new. It had been years since I was on a 747. I think it was completely full. The was a delay for unknown reasons. We finally pushed at 13:45, 25 minutes late. I watched Inception which was OK. It would’ve been better with less violence. They served the best airplane dinner I had had in decades. I slept about six hours and spaced out the rest.
We landed in Vancouver at 14:30 and were at the gate five minutes later. There was a bit of walk to security, but then security took 40 minutes. It was insane. I walked to the Maple Leaf Lounge, plugged my laptop in, and had a Coke strangely enough. The TV had Fox News on, in Canada!!
I headed for the gate at 16:55, boarded at 17:10 and immediately fell asleep. I woke to the landing bump at 18:45. I did the silly long walk to get a Lyft, was on the road at 19:20, and home by 19:45 to a starving cat, or so she said.