So, there it was: The mandatory picture that every successful Kilimanjaro climber wants to brag with. And I am no better (or worse) than any of my predecessors. Of course, I want to show that I’ve conquered well over 13 % of the world’s Seven Summits.

What did I see from the summit? A new release of MySQL? To be honest, my mind was completely off business. I was contemplating the most basic human needs. I wasn’t feeling explicitly tired nor cold (except for my hands! I had taken off the gloves to take pictures). But I was completely out of breath, as the air is very thin at 5895 m above sea level. 

Now, I’m back home, tending to an inbox of over 400 emails personally addressed to me (and an unknown amount received through mailing lists). 

Luckily, I couldn’t access those emails from the hotel in Tanzania where we stayed after the climb, so instead, …

If you send me an email during the rest of February, you are highly unlikely to get an answer. However, I promise not to spam you with an “Out of office” auto reply. I dislike receiving those messages, as they seemingly have little correlation with when the person actually will reply to the email.

My excuse for not responding is that I won’t be around my laptop and that connectivity is bad in rural Tanzania anyway. I will make an attempt at conquering Kilimanjaro, one of the Seven Summits, and to twitter while doing it — to the extent there is sufficient SMS coverage, blood sugar and my fingers aren’t numb.

I also hope to take some pics, which will illustrate a blog hopefully titled “Over 14% of the Seven Summits …