Managed to visit the IKEA in Amsterdam. I feel a project coming on to visit all IKEA's in the Netherlands. Still not entirely sure what to buy furniture wise. Aaargh.

Girlfriend had to work early in the morning, so I decided to go and have breakfast at the Euromast. While walking around there, I somehow got pulled into the Space-Tower all by myself. Unfortunately Karlijn cut short my plans for breakfast by calling me that she was going to drop off a refrigerator at my place.

Had a pretty dirrrrty refrigerator delivered and went on with the rest of my life.

Spent the night dropping off Nicktor in Eindhoven. Nicktor needs to drive around town more often, he currently can't even find his own place when he's in the city center. Indian food for dinner.

A day first spent at IKEA, trying to get opinions on furniture and discovering that it's probably a good thing that girlfriend and I are not moving in together (saying our tastes in furniture are somewhat different is probably an understatement). Guess that if we ever do move in together we may need loads of rooms so that we both can have our own decorated rooms.

Now do have an opinion on furniture but with new items popping up in my house every other day (mum and dad are fortunately slowly slowing down), I decided to wait a couple of days. Spent 54 minutes in the afternoon fighting an IKEA wardrobe with girlfriend. (It's now standing and we only had one (slightly essential) piece of wardrobe left over.

Pub at night with Nicktor, Annemarie, Sabrina, girlfriend and Annemarie's sister.

With girlfriend working all evening and McR in Stockholm, I spent the night entertaining myself. Eventually did leave for girlfriend's place spent some time chatting with Annemarie and then went to bed.

Ended the work-day in the pub with colleagues. Apparently pubs and company cars combine badly but still had a fun time. Fortunately when we're doing the end of project night out, they'll be arranging a hotel for us.

Then drove on to girlfriend's place who I took out to take a look at my new home. This meant popping by my parents place first to beg for the key (mum still won't let me have it) and fortunately she did let me borrow it... if I promised I'd give it back to her before tomorrow. Still, I do have good hopes for eventually obtaining my own key.

Finished the evening watching team America , which was really entertaining. Home late.

A standard day in the office. Came back home to find all kinds of domestic supplies stacked up in the hallway. My parents appear to be taking me moving out a bit too serious, they decided to pay for the vacuum cleaner, for some closets, for the laminate flooring in one room and there appears to be no stopping them. May I add that tomorrow they're going to start cleaning my apartment while I don't even have a key yet? Apparently I can have a key when they're done playing Actually, that's not entirely true, mum just hasn't had the time yet to have a copy made. (I know, I could ask for my key, but I don't want to spoil the generous mood my parents are currently in )

Signed the contract for my house in the morning, with an ? 790 downpayment. Apparently I'm elligible for government subsidies because I didn't earn much money in 2003 (was too busy traveling round the world). So when I asked about applying for those, she replied:"I have told the appartment owner that you won't because it's too much hassle for him" Not too sure about the how and why here but something fish appears to be going on. Decided not to push too far until I had left the place with the contract in my hands. I'll pursue the subsidies later on.

Went to see The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou at night with girlfriend. Not too sure what it was all about but it wasn't too bad.

Can't remember doing much today. My parents did pick up my apartment key (yes, I've got people for that)

Actually didn't really do much besides laze at girlfriend's place. Spent the evening playing guitar at loud volumes.

Went to Amsterdam with McR to see the Donnas play. Great concert, may have to mention that McR appears to be on the rebound pogo-wise. Last december he looked like a 90 year old granny crossing the road but I can now proudly anounce that McR could out-pogo all 14 year old girls in front of the stage. But there's still room for improvement.

Paid Fabienne a surprise-visit afterwards. Fabienne appeared to be surprised.

Tried getting to terms with the:"Whoa, apparently I' ll be moving out somewhere in the next couple of weeks"-thing. Decided that responsible people with their own apartments must shop at IKEA so headed in that direction after work. I'm afraid I can't do furniture though. I walked around, I looked at furniture, I thought "furniture!" but that was about it. It may help that I don't have a clue what I still need in the furniture department, seeing as my mum and my kid sister appear to be gathering items for in my new place at lightning speed. Left without buying anything. (Well.... a Swedish hot-dog, but that probably doesn't count furniture wise)

After a short diversion past Zuidplein (a mall near my new home, which if you want to look it up on an internet navigation thingo is located at "de Walchersestraat 15c". Eventually stormed into girlfriend's place, singing IKEA-songs, where I also managed to book a plane-ticket into Rome on the 1st of May. Crissy, this means that unless we can't find Siena, Bart and I will most definitely be at your wedding. Any gifts you'd like to receive?

Interesting phonecall on the way to work. Apparently I'm now moving into an appartment starting the 1st of March, apparently this will cost me 300 euro's and apparently the bastards want me to pay 790. 40 euro cash in advance. (Nope, you can't transfer this by bank). (The 790.40 euro is 300 euro rent, 300 euro deposit and 190.40 euro administration costs. Apparently there's shitloads to administer on houses)

Somehow mum volunteered to pay for buying loads of furniture from the girl who used to live there. (Couch, Freezer, Washing machine, etc. etc.). And sister offered me half the stuff currently vacating her house and a fridge (she's apparently moving in May). If stuff keeps coming in at this rate, then I won't even need to buy any furniture myself. Oh well, I've already got the essentials (computer, guitar and bed), right?

Managed to book a plane-ticket back from Italy at night while visiting girlfriend. Yes Crissy, you read that correctly, I somewhat failed to book a ticket into Italy but I already know that I'll be flying out from Pisa on the 21st of May

Gaaah! Very busy day at work. Passed out in my hotel-room while watching a football match afterwards.

Another night spent in a hotel. Spent most of the evening trying to figure out how my new phone works. This is apparently less easy than it sounds, even for me. Oh well, finding out how new toys work is about half the fun of it, right?

St valentine's day. During my birthday abduction thingo a couple of weeks ago, girlfriend spoke the mysterious words. "You don't need to do anything about it, but it would be nice if you dit" followed by the even more cryptic:"And this is without subtext". Almost shorted my brains trying to figure this one out and because of this (actually I blame girlfriend taking me porn-watching yesterday), I ended up without a present on the day itself. I tried to claim yesterday's euromast membership as an early present but girlfriend still made me pay for dinner as punishment as obviously she had found the time to get me a present.

Lorraine, I'm in desperate need of more girlfriend tutorial-classes. Please come back home!!!

Dinner at "de Waag", hiding in a souvenir-shop during a hailstorm and finally some drinks in what claims to be "Amsterdam's oldest pub" before I took off for my hotel so that I could pass out on my bed.

Woke up at girlfriend's place and got dragged into a Japanese porn exhibition in "de Kunsthal" in Rotterdam. Okay, apparently it was vintage Japanese erotic art but IMHO it was done in such a graphic way that my porn-collection hidden under my bed appears to be somewhat childish. Filled with joy that girlfriend takes me out to watch porn with her. Somewhat fearful that girlfriend may find me a barbarian that doesn't understand art.

Moved on towards "de Euromast", where I made girlfriend become a member so that she can visit the restaurant whenever up there whenever she feels like it. Not my fault, I felt Lorraine-inspired.

Helped girlfriend and Annemarie getting the shopping done for their party in the evening, then hit the town, where I somehow managed to get myself a new phone (a Nokia 6670 if you're wondering). As for the "why", I needed a non-prepaid phone, that I could upgrade with GPS-stuff in the future. And this one could. Oh, this does mean I now have a new phone number (+31 6 23471520)

At night had a dinner party with lots of people. Somehow got asked to wear suit. Found out that I hadn't even worn the suit I got in September yet. Interesting night

Went to see the Spongebob movie with girlfriend. Big fun, a bit scared by how much Spongebob and Patrick remind me of McR and myself. Onwards to Korean food afterwards.

Visited Bart (who I hadn't seen for years) to plan our holiday to Italy in May. Well... actually all the planning was done in 5 minutes with just picking the startingpoint and endpoint (Rome and Pisa) and saying:"We'll see what happens in between". At least I'm sticking pretty closely to my round-the-world way of trip planning

Did find out that I hate " the Hague" when I missed my turn-off on the highway and had to try to get back onto the usual 1km by 1km map internet trip planners spit out. I may be in need of a GPS-system in my car.

McR' s birthday, also my haircut-day. Rushed back home, got the haircut and drove on to McR' s place where the evening was spent with football, playing the X-Box he nicked from his girlfriend' s brother and talking about porn. (as usual) A quick dash-in dash-out appearance by Lorraine, who' s flying out tomorrow towards sunny Siberia. She will be missed (as usual)

Also have to note that our idea of "Live monopoly" probably will be happening somewhere this summer. (We want to play 1 round of the monopoly board with some people while actually visiting all the places on the board) That could be an interesting episode :-)

A night spent watching tv with girlfriend. Watched Simpsons and other fun tv programs. Also getting somewhat brainwashed by ' the Libertines' . Currently that' s the only cd in my car. Note to self:"Find more cd' s for in car in the evening". My problem appears to be that in the morning I wake up, think:"Should I bring cds??" and then think:"Who cares about cds, it's early, life sucks anyways". Which then gets punished during the 2 hour commute back home (I usually only listen to cds on the way back home, the morning is spent listening to the radio. (if you really want to know)

Got a parking ticket while being parked at girlfriend's place. And I did even pay for parking this time(!!!!) as opposed to last week, when I got a 50 euro parking ticket I kind of deserved. Hope I'll be able to claim back the money for this one.

Spent the whole evening updating the wetouchchurches site with the birthday-photos.

After waking up fairly late, took off for Amsterdam to do some work, teamed up with girlfriend and set out for her grandfathers birthday. Interesting experience. Girlfriend has got a large family and somebody had briefed them all on me, they knew what I had studied, what I had done in life (not much) and where I was currently working.

Watched ghost world at night at girlfriend's place.

Mum really appears to be jumping at the opportunity to kick me out. Found myself actually looking at a 3 bedroom appartment in the afternoon. For the price the place appears to be pretty okay, the girl currently living there is paying ? 240 in rent, which is supposed to be upped to ? 260 this year. I'm willing to pay ? 300 at most, now there are only one thing keeping me from actually getting this place, the owner might still decide to sell it, no way that I'm buying a place in the area the appartment is in. (For those familiar in Rotterdam, it's in de "Walchersestraat", near Zuidplein.) Should be an okay place for living for one or two years but not much more (famous last words??) I believe fingers crossed. Oh, the girl living would also sell me most of her furniture (including a refrigerator, a couch, a washing machine, etc. etc.)

Eventually took of for Zeist to celebrate sinterklaas with friends. Have to say that there was a disproportionate ammount of porn for what' s supposed to be a children's feast. Some really mean sinterklaas-poems written by McR, Martina, Lorraine and I fear me alternated with a pretty friendly one by Arjan. He may still need to learn.

After everybody took off ended up hitting the clubs with Arjan + Marco (one of Arjan's friend). Spent most of the night chatting up 14 year old girls and texting girlfriend every 30 minutes to make sure she wouldn't fall asleep. Girlfriend appears to be unaware of the possibilities the off-button offers on mobile phone but does start sounding more and more agitated, the later (or earlier) it gets.

Decided I might give the place a shot after finding out that saying "yes" to mum wouldn't necessary mean I'd have to take the place. I only said yes to being proposed as an inhabitant, I could still chicken out. Still a bit freaked by mum's enthousiasm trying to kick me out of the house.

Finished work and went out for dinner with girlfriend. Somehow ended up in Zandvoort in what must have been the restaurant with the slowest service in the whole Netherlands. (Asking for the bill alone cost us 20 minutes). Actually this was an anniversary dinner and I somehow even managed to remember this in time. Girlfriend tremendously proud of this achievement.

Note to self:"Laughing apparently is not the right reaction when girlfriend gets mad at you".

Checked out of hotel in the morning and drove through traffic jams to girlfriend's place. Spent the night watching tv.

Came home to bouncy mum who told me:"I found a home for you, I need to know now whether you want it." Apparently she wants me to leave. Managed some time, only have to tell her tomorrow.

Hi I am Selmer and I have a problem with pornography. Spent a large part of my evening walking into sex-shops, staring at walls full of vibrators, while trying not to blush and/or start giggling/stuttering. Only partly succeeded. The hard part appears to be flicking through the porn dvd's while looking like a pro. I just can't do it!

The reason why I needed porn has got something to do with Sinterklaas this weekend. And let's just say that I'm now all porned-up. Woohoo! May need a bit more practise at buying porn though. Maybe I should make this a more regular activity :-)

It's great to be able to wake up, stumble down for breakfast and be in the office all within 30 minutes. Nights in hotels are definitely recommended to all of you thinking of spending some time somewhere.

Night spent in hotel room trying to recall whether I had already seen Ocean's eleven on my laptop's dvd player. Still not convinced I have. More poetry written.