A mental month. Had to finish off loads of projects of Philips before taking an enforced three-month sabbatical (Completely unnecessary, although those three months are June, July and August, so it could be worse).

I was therefore writing loads of video scripts, putting together case study stories on how modularity helps improve efficiency in manufacturing, finalising a booklet about Philips Design, working on presentations for the Experience Lab at the High-Tech Campus (pictured)…

For UEFA.com I’ve been, as usual, following the progress of Dutch clubs – as well as the national team – in European competition. This season’s journey by Ajax to the semi-finals of the Champions League is the most epic I’ve encountered so far.

And, I have to say, the most heart-breaking. Being denied a place in the final by a goal in the dying seconds was horrendous. No Madrid for them, or me.

Spent a considerable amount of time this month working together with a former clinical doctor who is now at Philips. He wanted me to write a narrative (a foundation story) for a complex data language system Philips offers hospitals.

Our (my) challenge was to describe this thing without using any of the dense and unintelligible jargon you frequently encounter in similar publications (e.g. ‘a future-proof, open-standards-based interoperability software solution for informatics which enables data integration across the enterprise,’ or other such gibberish).

I think we succeeded. We came up with analogies ranging from plumbing systems in a house to toolboxes to help describe what was going on.

Don’t normally put comments on this website, but for these ones I’ll make an exception. “Have you read the story? Dude! It’s excellent." “Describes both the essence and scope.” “Love the analogies.” “I think we really have something here.” “It’s unlike any other Philips paper I have ever read.”

I was the writer in an international and multi-disciplinary team developing a narrative around the Philips HealthSuite platforms. I have to confess that after taking part in the initial briefing telco I was thinking: WTF??? But the team was full of helpful and very enthusiastic people, who enabled me to understand the extremely complex subject matter. In the end I/we came up with a pretty easily-accessible story. It was presented at the HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) conference in Florida, and evidently went down a storm...

One journey is usually pretty draining, two consecutive ones is a big ask. So three in a row? Piece of cake…

In the space of three weeks I accompanied two journeys in Morocco and then a third one in Catalunya. Each for a different company. Had two days in Las Palmas between the first and the second, and only one day in Barcelona between the second and third. Went remarkably well; energy levels were no problem and I didn’t run out of ink.

In total we took well over 200 people through the process of personal and leadership development. Three books to write now – so please leave me in peace in May.

Back on Champions League duty. This season my club was Anderlecht, so that meant three two-day visits to Brussels to cover their home matches. The first one was against Celtic. Apart from reporting from the press conferences the day before the game and covering the actual match itself, one of my tasks is to go into town to get an impression of the atmosphere ahead of the kick-off. This means taking photos, speaking to fans and making observations, all of which is posted onto the uefa.com website. While at the Place de la Bourse I met my old neighbour from East Kilbride. Good to see you again Stevie! Interviewed Kieran Tierney after the game.

Kicked off the process of putting together a structure and contents for a booklet that will describe the Philips Lighting design language system. I really like this kind of stuff; coming up with ways of describing the framework that will be used to design all Philips Lighting propositions in the coming years. Joining me on this adventure were Hans van der Pluijm, Senior Consultant & Project Manager, Design Director Paul Bas and the esteemed Paul van Vorstenbosch of Skon.

July was a month of many guidelines. (For those of you desperate to know, guidelines in this context are documents which help folk like designers communicate about products and the brand). I worked on the content of licensing guidelines (covering things like TVs and gaming accessories) for Philips. And I also spent a lot of time developing and then writing digital content guidelines for Philips Lighting, which included a number of all-day working sessions at their headquarters in Amsterdam.

In cooperation with TripleDouble I worked on the Cannondale European website. The challenge was to take text already written for the American site - which appears to have been generated by one of the turtle dudes in Finding Nemo - and to rewrite it in a way that was suitable for us continentals. Away with the superlatives (‘best road bike on the planet’), out with the California speak (‘shred the trail like an electron-fuelled God’) and technical jargon no more (‘a custom Ai chainring moves the chainline outboard by 6mm, lining up perfectly with the extra-wide, extra-stiff 157mm rear hub’). I also improved the SEO.

Got involved in a project for Triple Double, the big sports marketing agency here on Strijp S. I already did some incidental work for them last year but this was more substantial; co-developing guidelines and content for a social media campaign for Under Armour, the sportswear brand. While researching this I discovered that Under Armour’s CEO had openly supported Trump and so I thought; there’s no way I can help promote this company. However, I then found out that the folk who work at Under Armour published an open letter saying they disagreed with their boss. I’m with the workers! And so I’m still involved...

New role for me; working on the logistics side of a journey. This meant visiting Scotland four times in four weeks; first of all to scope the route, then to prepare the client, after that we had our own team preparation, and finally the journey itself. In between a couple of visits to London and a few nights on the overnight train from there to Fort William.

An incredible experience all in all, and an extremely intense one. Moving car convoys, transporting luggage, buying supplies, arranging all kinds of transport, setting up supply stops in the wilderness, a midnight evacuation of a remote campsite, trying to find 15 ice cream cones in Mallaig in early March… The whole thing was a hoot from start to finish. Had a blast with (and was extremely well supported by) the dudes from Skye Adventure.

January saw me & the team back in Thailand for a journey with the top 60+ leaders of Worldpay. This was the first time I took my new Canon XF200 video camera to film during a journey, and it didn’t disappoint. Some really brilliant shots in low light, a funky timelapse of sunrise in Bangkok… Also did the usual interviewing/writing thing for a book.

I was the writer for a four-day workshop in Amsterdam about Philips’ Coffee business. It was a really diverse team, populated by people from marketing, brand, trend analysts, graphic designers, product managers, regional representatives (Eastern Europe, China), business leaders, product designers… you name it. At the end of it all we had agreed upon a direction for the messaging. And I’d learned loads that I can put to good use when writing the brand experience playbook (a kind of handbook explaining exactly how to visually & verbally communicate anything to do with Philips Coffee) in early 2017.

Champions League duty; Bayern Munich were visiting Eindhoven. This season things have changed again, so now I go to press conferences the day before the match, watch the away team's training session, report on the match and interview players afterwards (this time Robert Lewandowski). For the Bayern game I also went to the youth league match in the afternoon. In addition to all this, I produce a constant stream of tweets, comments, postings on Tumblr and photos that appears as a feed on the UEFA.com website...

Another journey - my 11th I believe - this time to Catalonia with the Worldpay 'class of 2016'. A really good and energetic bunch of people, not frightened to get stuck in and take whatever was coming their way.

As usual I was working together with the mightiest of photographers, Vincent van den Hoogen. My role during the journey was to document the process, interview participants and, in general, collect enough input so I can write a book that will be distributed to all 40+ participants.

During July I spent a lot of time on a massive redesign & update of the Philips/Saeco coffee website. I had to generate a lot of new text, optimise existing content for search purposes, make sure all the stuff was aligned and consistent… Basically everything you should do if you want your website to be good.

Another new client; Verisure Securitas Direct. Based in Malmö but with operations in 14 countries throughout Europe and Latin America, they offer home security solutions. Did a lot of work on the content for their corporate website this month; looks like there’s plenty of other stuff in the pipeline.

Started working together with Bovil on a large, ongoing project for Philips Healthcare customer services. So far I’ve been attending seminars, interviewing folk, writing blogs, researching & writing a White Paper on big data and generating other content used in presentations and online.

A pretty varied month. Worked on lots of relatively small projects, including the Philips brand guidelines (writing), interviewing the Belgian national football coach, writing videos scripts for emerging lighting concepts, taking part in a strategic workshop for an agency pitch, developing point-of-sale materials, refining claims for a leading coffee brand and helping someone structure a keynote presentation for an event in Singapore.

Together with Vincent (who was filming) carried out approximately 25 interviews over the course of two days for a client of amaseu in Amsterdam. The interviews - with a very broad cross-section of managers and leaders - took place out on the street in the evening, in the Olympic Stadium and many places in between. The intention is to make a movie out of the material we shot.

Champions League nights are as hectic as ever - although in the knockout stages I don't actually have to write the match report; that's done from the newsdesk in London. Instead I write contributions for the live blog, tweet, take photos and also interview players afterwards and put together a follow-up. This time I spoke to PSV keeper Jeroen Zoet, who was voted player of the week ahead of Messi et al.

Product designers from all over the world were invited to this three-day workshop at the High-Tech Campus in Eindhoven to explore how to bring greater harmony and recognition to all Philips products. I was there as well to help folk express ideas, formulate proposals and act on the feedback generated.

Third journey of 2015 was in Croatia, and even though this was my fourth trip there - wow. The autumn colours were stunning, and the air was so clear. Woolly hats and gloves, no swimming in the sea unfortunately, but to compensate the most amazing sunset I think I've ever seen, seconds after dolphins leapt out of the water in front of the yacht I was steering. Narnia moment.

Did more filming than ever this time, some of it with a GoPro, and also the usual interviewing & describing. The subsequent journey book was produced in record time; five weeks including printing and delivery to Helsinki.

Philips is right at the forefront of a movement often referred to as urban farming. By growing crops far closer to where they will be consumed, in carefully-controlled environments, it's possible to produce fresh vegetables in a way that consumes far less energy, without pesticides, all year round and in places which were previously considered unsuitable. I was heavily involved with the messaging and the communication around the launch of this initiative.

Back-to-back journeys for the first time. The first was in Catalonia, a wonderful mix of Barcelona culture, walks in deserted forests, mountain biking and rafting. After a short break in Madrid it was on to Croatia for another fantastic five days.

I'll be writing a book for each journey, plus in Croatia I did a lot of filming which will be used to make a short movie and also as part of a follow-up program.

Worked up in Amsterdam for a number of days at the Philips Design studio with Ally Cane & Adam Murphy of the brand design team as well as Sean Carney, CDO of Philips, to develop a manifesto and script celebrating 90 years of design at Philips.

It was great to be involved, especially because 10 years ago I spent a huge amount of time - months in total - contributing to the epic 800-page book commemorating 80 years of design. Very reassuring to still be involved at the highest level with such an interesting client.

Took part in a workshop called Working People Light in the Desso building in central London, right opposite this pub. The workshop was attended by various designers, architects and the like, with the idea being to discuss various topics and generates insights about the future of lighting in the workplace. I'm busy writing a book about the outcomes of this and similar workshops which took place in Paris and Berlin.

Finished helping write a very interesting positioning paper on the Connected Bathroom for Philips Design. Analytical toilets, toothbrushes that gather DNA samples, showers that recognise you and remember your favourite settings, electrical devices that charge without cables, mirrors you can converse with... oh yes, and did you know that we spend, on average, more than 18 months of our lives in the bathroom? (I'm sure my daughters have passed that milestone already)

An exclusive interview with the best player in the world and maybe the best player of all time. How sweet is that! I spoke to him after the Ajax Barcelona match in the beginning of November. He'd just scored twice to equal the all-time Champions League scoring record, so all the assembled media were desperate to speak to him. He gave just one interview - to me. (Not because I'm anything special, simply because I work for UEFA and that's the deal). Did it in Spanish too... You can find it here.

October was when I really had the feeling that my first-ever commissioned novel was coming together and nearing completion. I was asked to write the book by Erik-Jan de Rooij. It's basically a business book, in the form of a novel, which explains what goes on during journeys - and the benefits. I intend to deliver the first draft, approximately 160 pages, before Christmas.

And then, out of nowhere, I open my mail and find a contract from the BBC. I suspect it's because I was recently asked to contribute to a live radio show looking back on the World Cup, but it was still a major surprise - and a very welcome one at that.

For some reason I never got round to posting a link to the stand tour I presented for Philips at the IFA in Berlin last September. So here it is. We had a real laugh trying to cram everything into a clip lasting less than four minutes.

The book of the Thailand journey was printed this month. Approximately 160 pages of predictably superb photos by this dude, plus interviews, quotes, observations, explanations and other relevant information written by yours truly. If I may say so myself, it looks brilliant. That's the sixth journey book I've done so far…

Now here's something I'm incredibly proud of; interviewed the one and only Johan Cruyff because he was receiving an UEFA President's award from Michel Platini in Amsterdam. Talked to him for about 20 minutes, and everything was filmed by a TV crew over from London. The interview itself will be somewhere on UEFA.com, although I have to admit the last time I looked I couldn't find it…

I chaired a panel discussion as part of the Philips Sustainability Day. It was a fascinating session, involving representatives from the UK National Health Service, the Ellen MacArthur foundation, a food expert from Wageningen University and Philips’ head of sustainability. One hour was unfortunately too short to discuss all the ins and outs of the circular economy and the future of healthcare, but nonetheless there was tons of very inspirational input.

Accompanied another journey to Thailand. As usual I was there to gather and generate input for a book that will be given out to the approximately 90 people who took part.

I also carried out filmed interviews with many of the participants, including this one on the deck of a beautiful old wooden sloop gently gliding through the warm waters of the Andaman Sea. Once again, it was a privilege to be involved and an absolute blast from start to finish.

I'm busy updating my website at the moment. I haven't got all the content ready yet, so please bear with me. But almost all of the information that was on the old site is also on this new one, so hopefully you'll find what you're looking for.

Teamed up for the umpteenth time with Jos & Remko from the Mute Zone to cover the first-ever Philips Innovation Drive, which took place in Eindhoven's iconic Evoluon. I carried out 20+ filmed interviews with various participants, and also did a load of pieces to camera on the various innovations being showcased there. The material will be used throughout the Philips global organisation. If it manages to escape into the wider world, I'll put a link here. 

Back to the Ukraine for the second time this year. Visited Donetsk on behalf of Philips Lighting to do some filming in and around the impressive Donbass Arena. Interviewed the 35-year-old CEO of the stadium; a really sound and cooperative guy. Also had a pitchside viewpoint during the game (between the press photographers) - superb! Will add a link to the movies once they are finished.

Accompanied a magnificent journey to Jordan (although the first day was in Rome). Camped in Bedouin tents in the Wadi Rum and the Jordan Valley, and finished up with a visit to Petra after a 12-km hike through the wilderness. The most enjoyable journey far; the scenery in the desert was out of this world, there was a really good group of participants, and the nosh was wonderful. Also did some filming for the first time.

Another Champions League season, another Ajax - Real Madrid encounter, another thrashing for the home side. At least they managed to score this time. Here's the match report I wrote and here's a link to the post-match interviews. As you'll see, got to stare into Kaká’s dark, dreamy eyes from close by; shame I couldn't understand a word he was saying at the time.

Presenting for Stork Prints again, this time at the LabelExpo in Chicago. Did an average of six shows a day for three days, explaining the virtues of the new DSI label printer to the assembled masses. The stand was really busy during the shows, and I managed to sufficiently moderate my accent so the Americans had a chance of understanding what I was saying (so 'modularity' goes from moj-lari-i to mod-you-lah-ri-tee...).

For the third year running did several days filming at the IFA in Berlin at the request of Philips. Made lots of videos, for example about the new home cooker Philips developed together with Jamie Oliver (who was also at the press conference), the funky original radio, the new wake up light and the latest-generation Sonicare toothbrush. We also, as usual, did a general stand tour. Brilliant fun. 

I was in Kharkiv for the EURO 2012 as UEFA TV reporter for the Dutch team. This meant interviewing (or being on standby to interview) players, the coach and visiting VIPs, before/after training and matches. Our footage was used worldwide. What a blast - both in terms of the work and the R&R we had in this great city in eastern Ukraine. Click here for more details, photos and links. 

Just back from a marathon job at the Drupa, the world's largest printing exhibition. It takes place at the Düsseldorf Messe once every four years and lasts for 14 days. On every single one of them I was on the Stork Prints stand, presenting the DSI digital label printer for anyone - potential customers, professional printers, casual visitors, people from neighbouring stands - who cared to stop and listen. (It was the same machine I did the James Bond thing for in Brussels last October). In total we did our show 62 times...

Wrote the Euro 2012 preview on the Dutch national team for When Saturday Comes. Will the team do any specially-rehearsed goal celebrations? Which players appear in a TV advert as superheroes? Will Edwin van der Sar in his new role as pundit talk about raindrops dripping from the crossbar again? Get yourself a copy of the latest WSC and all may be revealed...

The secret is finally out. Between November and January I worked intensively on a fascinating project; writing a book to commemorate the 10 years Gerard Kleisterlee spent as CEO of Philips. The thing is, he didn't know anything about it, so I couldn't mention it here until after the book was officially presented to him when he retired at the end of March.

Went on another journey, this time accompanying a group of 54 managers from a company headquartered in London. That's where we started, but we ended up in Morocco and spent six days there in remote mountain camps, out on sand dunes, in Jeep convoys and in a traditional fort-style hotel situated within a camel's spit of the Atlantic. I'm currently writing the book of the journey.

Spent two days in Barcelona presenting a total of 10 short movies about various new product releases from Philips Consumer Lifestyle. Here's the general overview film, and you can see all the individual product clips here.

My first-ever women's football match and it was great. A total of 815 spectators turned up on a horribly wet Wednesday night in the village of Dessel to see Belgium draw 2-2 with Northern Ireland. No playacting or feigning of injury, just two teams going at it hammer and tongs (especially Northern Ireland). And after the game the players I interviewed were polite, willing, enthusiastic and without any pretension whatsoever. A refreshing change...

Received a copy of the 'Tackling Malnutrition' booklet I recently wrote for Philips Design. Tackling Malnutrition is the latest Philanthropy by Design project, and examined how to develop extremely low-cost and easy-to-use 'toolkits' that will allow healthcare workers and families to better understand and recognise the symptoms of malnutrition. One of those projects that you really feel privileged to work on. Get a hold of the PDF here.

The 180-page book about the leadership journey to Croatia I accompanied in June was completed and printed just before Christmas. It was a combination of my text and superb photography by Vincent van den Hoogen. Unfortunately the book is intended for the company whose leaders went on the journey, so I can't go into detail about the content here. However, if you want to know more about this amazing project then please get in touch.

My first visit to the very impressive Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen for the Europa League match between Schalke 04 and FC Steaua Bucureşti. The crowd of 53,000 banged out a fantastic atmosphere, and I managed to interview Klaas-Jan Huntelaar after the game. You'll find pictures, stories and video here and here.

Carried out two filmed interviews, with Dutch international Kevin Strootman and Swedish international/PSV captain Ola Toivonen, at the PSV training ground just north of Eindhoven. The footage was then used in a couple of features that appeared on UEFA.com.

Took part in a two-day workshop on the 18th floor of the Ij tower in Amsterdam for Philips Design. We had been asked to help develop strategic messaging for a Belgium-based healthcare company who are pioneering a new form of cancer treatment.

In October I covered three matches; Ajax and FC Twente in the Champions League, as well as the wonderful Holland v Sweden qualifier for Euro 2012 (4-1!). Quite pleased with myself; in one week I carried out post-match player interviews in four languages; English, Dutch, French and German.

Spent four days at an exhibition in Brussels dressed up as James Bond - together with four Bond girls and ‘Q’ - presenting Stork Prints’ new digital label printer. I reckon close to 1000 visitors must have come to see our show in total. Click here for more details and photos. Here's the video link.

Did three days of filming at the IFA in Berlin for Philips. During that time we (me and the video production company The Mute Zone) interviewed Philips personnel, visiting journalists, consumers and even jazz saxophone virtuoso Benjamin Herman. We also recorded short clips on the star products, and made a 10-minute long stand tour which is intended for use both inside Philips and on Internet. Loved it! 

Just like last time round, my first assignment of the new football season was a Champions League qualifier in Belgium, this time between Genk and Maccabi Haifa. Genk were lucky to still be in the tie after 90 minutes and especially after extra time, but they breezed the penalty shootout. You can read the match report here and the post-match analysis and player interviews here.

Another new client; one that takes employees of other companies on ‘journeys’ during which the participants achieve ‘personal development through self discovery’. I accompanied a journey for five days in Croatia, and experienced everything from sleeping in a tepee in heavily wooded (and bear-inhabited) highlands to sailing and swimming in the Adriatic. A book will follow...

A new client - NXP - and straight in at the top level! I interviewed the CEO plus seven members of the management team to get input for a story I wrote about the (cultural) changes taking place at the company. The intention is to distribute the story to all 28,000+ employees.

Recently finished writing the text for a 60-page book on Philanthropy by Design; a Philips Design initiative which offers expertise - free of charge - to help the more fragile categories of the global population. The book explains how this works and looks at three examples from countries like India, Kenya and Malawi: a low-cost, low-tech stove for healthier and more efficient cooking; an inexpensive microscope kit for improving malaria detection; and a breath counter for rapid and inexpensive diagnosis of pneumonia. I'll post a link to the PDF here once the book has been published.

Over the past few months I spent quite a lot of time - together with Philips Design - working on a project to help communicate the way forward for a business unit within Philips Healthcare. Unfortunately, as this was an internal project with high strategic value, I can't go into any more detail! What I can say is that the client was delighted with the result, saying it was 'fantastic' and inspirational for the 400 people it was presented to.

On Champions League duty again, this time in Amsterdam for Ajax vs AC Milan. Good atmosphere and a pretty absorbing contest, especially in the first half. Afterwards I managed to interview the man of the match, the evergreen Clarence Seedorf, who received a standing ovation from the home supporters when he was substituted with five minutes to go.

I was privileged to present a tour of the huge Philips stand, on camera, at the IFA (the world's largest consumer electronics and home appliances exhibition) in Berlin during the first week of September. The film was posted on YouTube and also used on the Philips intranet.

My first assignment of the new football season was the Champions League qualifier between Anderlecht and Partisan Belgrade in Brussels. A fascinating encounter with four goals, loads of chances for both sides and a penalty shootout. The home side blew it as three (!) players ballooned their spot kicks high over the bar. You can read the match report here and the post-match analysis and player interviews here.

In May, June and July I wrote a series of articles about key global markets in which Philips Consumer Lifestyle is active. This involved interviewing (unfortunately only by phone) people in Brazil, Turkey and China and then writing up the stories, which were published both on the Philips intranet and Internet.

Wrote an article for the August issue of When Saturday Comes reflecting on the pretty brutal behaviour of many Dutch players during the World Cup final. Also did a number of previews for the games involving Holland in the group phases and knockout stages for the WSC website.

Recently finished working on an 'experience flow' for Philips Lighting. This flow, depicted in a 6 m long poster, visualises and explains the issues people face when buying lighting for the home. I was part of a multi-disciplinary team at Philips Design which created it. I did all the writing plus a bit of user research as well.

Went to Wolfsburg in mid-March to cover the Europa League clash with Rubin Kazan. The home side scored in the final seconds of extra time to progress to the quarter-finals. You can read and see the post-match interviews and match review here. The hotel had an outdoor swimming pool situated in the nearby (partly-frozen) harbour, with the gargantuan Volkswagen factories resplendent in the background. Superb.