Really advancing on the book-reading now. Until Nicktor gave me a call that he had moved into his place. Popped in to have a look, and eventually ended up back at my place, playing with my ps2. Woohoo!

Spent the day badly missing girlfriend, reading a book at the same time. Had dinner at parents' place at night, with Kaz & Martin. More book reading at night. Drank port.

Had McR pop by to take my mind of girlfriend being away. With my livingroom clock broken, we managed a gaming session till 2 am. Big fun, apparently :-)

Dropped off girlfriend at the airport, then took off for Rotterdam to pick up a new driver's licence copy. (Which in the Netherlands mean I've now had one for 10 years). Got a pasport photo made that sucked somewhat less that the previous copy (even though it's still not great, see below). And where usually you spend an hour and a half waiting in line, I managed to get mine within 10 minutes because I one can make appointments in Rotterdam *yay Rotterdam*

Spent the evening playing Tony Hawk's underground 2, which I had accidentally bought while walking through town.

Girlfriend's last day in the Netherlands. Popped by to hold hand and watch her shed 6 kilos from her suitcase after I borrowed her neighbour's scale and found out that it was a bit overweight. Girlfriend also made me cookies! Hope they'll last me till she gets back home.

Out for dinner with girlfriend, her father, her sister, her grandmother and Walter. This means I had indonesian food twice within one week without my mother cooking it. Typical!

With girlfriend visiting a friend in Alblasserdam, I visited the parental unit and then read a book at home.

A nice and easy day, some sitting in the sun, some reading a book, some time at the beach playing football, a trip back home. And then a bunch of birthdays at Paul and Myra's place.

I'm starting to doubt that Nicktor is male. Where most men tend to over-estimate the size of anything (I've read this in girly-mags), Nicktor apparently under-estimates. Found this out when he more or less managed to hit the garden-fence with his car (starting at the rear bumper, hitting the whole side of the car, the wing mirror and the front fender). *ouch!* Note to Nicktor:"Yours is wider than you think"

One bruised ego and some silenced giggles later (never over-bruise a friend's ego on the first day he substantially damages his car, there are still years of jokes left to make up for the ones missed on the first day), we spent the day walking the beach, eating pannekoeken, and having a barbecue before we all took off for Renesse for a night out in the town.

Renesse is more or less the Salou or Lloret of the North, for all my readers on the other side of the big pond (Hi Crissy), this means the place you go to on holiday when you're between 14 and 16, drink yourself silly and pass out in your little tent. I had been there 10 years ago (I know, that was at least 2 years late) and it was exactly the same. Drank loads of beer, had fun, failed to fit in the cab back home and got to walk for an hour, with McR and Arjan, while Nicktor apparently was talking sex with the female part of our group.

Girlfriend's photos of the whole weekend to be found here.

Woke up and noticed that my mouth tasted like I had eaten a whole kebab place. Lots of brushing teeth afterwards.

Spend the morning finding out that there was no reason on the planet that I had to wait 8 weeks for my parking permit (as I had been told on the phone). Quoting the parking permit person (yay alliteration) "waiting for 8 weeks? We hand out all our permits within 5 days". Gaaah! The PPP found out my permit had been sent to the wrong address, he printed out another one and everybody was happy. Oh, before getting to the parking permit people, somebody managed to nick my bike, boohoo!

Spent the afternoon driving towards Burgh-Haamstede (where Annemarie's parents live) and touch churches with Arjan and McR. According to Arjan I was still smelling of garlic. Food and drinks at night untill we all(Arjan, Nicktor, Annemarie, girlfriend, McR, Martina and Sabrina) passed out in Annemarie's parents garden shed. Pyjama party!!! :-)

The plan for the night was to meet up with Lorraine with all my friends. First got taken to "Look" by girlfriend. Look is a garlic themed restaurant, which will surprise you with garlic in most its dishes, varying from chicken with 15 cloves of garlic to garlic ice-cream. Managed to survive the "chicken with 15 cloves of garlic" Hmmm... garlic.

Noticed that all my friends stepped back in horror after we teamed up with them for some drinks at "Melief Bender". Fun!. At the same time McR and I appear to have promised to strip at Lorraine's wedding, which according to her diary appears to be next year.

Popped by the disabled kids-camp I helped out at last year to spend some time with Anna-Marie and her mum (they sounded like they needed the company of Nicktor, McR and me). Had fun (and Indonesian food). Nicktor needs to work out how to work the lights of his car.

Saw war of the worlds, it kind of sucked, I fear. Probably one of my last free movies (girlfriend quit her job at the cinema).

My bad... what could be more important than having Lorraine pop by to admire my new place and spend the evening catching up? Had fun, a beer and got given an Engrish t-shirt Lorraine found me in Japan. "Chance is made by the chair" :-)

I really did do something, honestly, I even really did something with girlfriend. But at the same time I kind of can't remember. Can somebody refresh my memory?

Visited girlfriends' mothers. Apparently they now want to get married. Girlfriend appears to be in shock.

Cuddled the cat, slept in till 1 in the afternoon and then took off for parents' place to cuddle the cat. Spent night once again in bars, saw girlfriend down loads of baileys and then zigzag back home.

Drinks with McR, Nicktor, girlfriend and others in "de Oude Haven", big fun.

The day that girfriend returned from her holidays. Picked up girlfriend and Annemarie and went out for dinner in Scheveningen. Lots of fun.

Somewhat worried about the 2 engine management lights blinking on my dashboard. Will my car explode any minute now or did the engine management sensor break?

It must be summer, seeing as they've started doing "wednesday night skates" again in Rotterdam. Seeing as none of my friends are capable of staying upright on a pair of rollerskates (well Arjan can but he decided to go skate in Dordrecht), I got to go all by myself. At least until I bumped into my kid sister, that is. 10.000 people, loads of fun.

Spent the remainder of the night chatting with Crissy.

Bought a laptop for girlfriend. Spent most of the night playing with the laptop.

For a change we were supposed to go kite-surfing tonight. For a change we didn't because of no wind. Popped by my parents' place to cuddle the cat instead. Cat still wraps all 4 legs around me when it sees me. Awwww...

Woke up at a pretty silly hour because for some reason Cindy and I had decided we wanted to go to what used to be Sixflags Holland. Picked up Femke (who also appeared to be suffering from waking up early) and drove on towards Cindy, where we teamed up with McR and Arjan.

After arriving at the park 1.5 hours later, we teamed up with McR, Nicktor and Jasper and had loads of fun. For some reason it was both brilliant weather and very quiet, which meant plenty of time to do all the rides multiple times. (Did consider throwing up once or twice). For the interested ones, check Arjan's photos. And if you plan on only watching 1 of his films, then opt for this brilliant one of me and McR in the X-press (which used to be called:"Superman, the ride")

All left the park somewhat dizzy and drove on towards Harderwijk for a brilliant outside dinner. Silly moment of the day:"Nicktor pouring his water bottle over my head when I mentioned that I wanted to do something envolving water."

Bought trousers, cuddled the cat, fixed a bicycle I had found in my basement. (I'm now the proud owner of 2 bicycles) and played more Jak II. I know, a bit of a dull Saturday but apparently I'm suffering from old age :-)

Bought Jak II for my dvd-player. Spent the rest of the night playing Jak II on my dvd-player. Platform games are cool!

After a meeting in Rotterdam, I popped by my parents' place to cuddle the cat. The little gigolo pretends I'm his no. 1 favourite person only whenever my parents are on holiday. Thought I'd make use of this.

Was once again supposed to go kite-surfing. Kite-surfing cancelled very last minute. Boooh! Hisss!

Popped by my aunt's place to look at her two new red kittens. The red part is apparently the essential part, seeing as my aunt's last 5 cats have been of that colour. Cute. Also returned the grinder.

Seeing as the parents are on holiday I'm now supposed to cuddle the cat once in a while. Popped by my parents' place to do just that. Dragged some books back home.

Spent most of the day at the Metropolis Festival (which is held almost in my backyard), together with McR. Managed to bump into Bart somewhere during the day and spent most of the day with McR, Bart and Anneke (one of Barts friends).

Great fun, too bad they're redecorating the park, which meant that the stages were a lot further apart than usual. Saw loads of bands I had never heard of (not too weird seeing as their tagline is:"The best you've never heard of"). Definitely highlight for me was:"Hayseed Dixie" (Any band playing blistering AC-DC, Aerosmith and others rock-band covers country music-style deserves a loud *yee haw*)

Spent the night playing games on my PS2.

Actually somehow ended up at work on a Saturday morning. Booh! Hiss!

Eventually appeared back home and spent most of the day either watching live-aid or sleeping. I'm getting old!

Had a "fun and games"-night at McR's place with Nicktor and Martina watching from the couch. X-boxes are cool!