I’d like to take a moment to thank two people, Gabe and Brenda, for their new and continuous friendship. They hail from the Netherlands and the pair are two of the nicest, funniest, and fun loving people I’ve met. I was first introduced to them in person earlier this year in Cannes, France during the VMworld Europe 2009 virtualization conference. Gabe was attending as a VMware user and Brenda joined him to study conference attendees in their preferred habitat, as well as for some sight seeing. Being from the U.S., I was quite out of my environment while traveling for the first time in France but they made me feel welcomed, teaching me some of the local customs as well as bits and pieces of the French language: “Merci beaucoup” – “Thank you very much” – a valuable phrase for a clueless tourist to individually thank each person for their assistance.

I met up with them again at VMworld 2009 in San Francisco, CA. This time they treated myself, my wife, and my kids to a nice Italian dinner Thursday evening after the conclusion of the conference. In addition, they showered my children with authentic Dutch gifts. Gabe and Brenda, if you are reading this, we very much appreciated this – Thank You! I hope one day we will meet again so that I can reciprocate. Chances are good as I’ve mentally committed to attend at least one VMworld annually, expending whatever efforts it takes to get there.

Where can you find this dynamic duo?

Brenda maintains a very interesting blog called Virtual Gipsy which offers an Anthropologist’s perspective of a tight knit virtualization community. Follow her on Twitter: @b_renda

Gabe runs an excellent virtualization blog called Gabe’s Virtual World and is particularly good with video editing. Follow him on Twitter: @gabvirtualworld

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