Brilliant! Had a local tv person visit me and shoot an item on my lock disappearing. This caused me not to appear at work till 11:30 but hey, fame for anything right? Then halfway through the day I noticed I had made the front-page of the local news-site with this article. (Which in Dutch tells the story of my lock being replaced). Had a good laugh about that one.

Halfway through the day somebody decided that a rape-case was more interesting than a stolen lock so I got moved off the frontpage but still, I've already been a headline and I'm only 28!! And then as the piece the resistance, I got an e-mail from SBS (country wide tv) that they wanted to film an item on me.

Gave them a call but unfortunately they could only be there in the morning and I didn't really feel like walking into work at 11:30 twice in a row. Got dumped! Booh! Hiss! Still, I believe I've already had 150 euro's worth of fun. After all tv-coverage is expensive :-)

Still as puzzled as ever about who opened my door. Then McR told me that his mother thought she had seen an item on something likewise on the local radio-station. Sent them an e-mail and got a reply that they had never done an item on people changing locks on people's doors, would I mind having a radio reporter over?

So this evening I had a radio reporter over, who asked me loads of questions and then took off again. Finally got round to popping by the police station, where I was told that there actually wasn't anything I could file a complaint about. It wasn't break and enter because I couldn't prove that anybody ever entered, and it wasn't a whole lot of other offenses either. In the end after pressing on a bit, the only thing punishable by law was apparently theft of my lock and police lady claimed that even this was a bit of a shady one.

At least with the radio people over I've already had my money's worth of fun. Did I mention that tomorrow morning at 9 am a tv crew will pop by to do an item? Seriously, apparently local tv and radio are dying for items :-)

Finally got round to visiting the police. A very helpful bunch, though possibly a bit clueless here and there. Then they did claim that they had not been around when my lock was replaced (apparently officially police has to be there, when you're not around personally). "Did you talk to your landlord yet, sir? He's allowed to make improvements to your place without your consent". Fortunately they didn't give the obvious reply when I asked:"How can me not being able to enter my house be an improvement???"

Watched DiG! to calm me down (it arrived in the mail yesterday). Thought it was brilliant.

Then somebody had the brilliant idea that maybe my neighbour downstairs at 15a had attempted to get his locks replaced but that they had thought:"15a or 15c", what's the difference. Unfortunately no, that's not it either. So tomorrow I get to call my landlord, I guess I'll keep you all posted. Or probably not, when I find out tomorrow night that my locks have been replaced again.

Woke up at 7 am because I was going to the Essen motorshow. Had decided earlier that last nights snow and ice-storms weren't going to affect us at all. May have been somewhat wrong in this department, seeing as the 2 hour drive to Essen ended up taking us about 4 and seeing as the last 30 kms where very icy, we may have been wrong there.

Saw shitloads of cars all day, with the 3 themes:"Cars, cars and cars". (Oldtimer, new and pimped). Amazing, but after a while you get the same feeling you get after watching 10 hours of porn videos (sensory overload). Not that I've ever watched 10 hours of porn, obviously. Eventually left home dead tired from stumbling through all the halls all day.

Went out for drinks with all the usuals at night and was supposed to hit the clubs afterwards. Decided after spending 45 minutes in a queue that

1. I was still dead tired from the night before.
2. I'm not cool enough to spend 45 minutes in a queue
3. That nobody in his right mind queues for more than 10 minutes when there's loads of other clubs around you can step into without problems.
4. No matter what Nicktor tells me, I'm not going to wait for another 20 minutes, screw you people, I'm going home.

Then missed the night-bus and found out that it's a 45 minute walk from the Rotterdam city centre to my place. Useful information! Bed, bye!

Oh, more news about my door, I knocked on some neighbour's doors at night (before going out to Rotterdam) and the neighbour nextdoor heard them replace a lock (they first knocked on her door), because she doesn't speak Dutch (her husband told me), she was afraid to open it though.

A most interesting day, because of major snow storms the whole Dutch road-network got jammed. 800 kms of traffic-jam (where 200 is usual on a Friday) and people stuck in traffic till after midnight. Strangely enough I wasn't affected at all and managed to drive home within the hour. Had dinner at my parents place then took off for home, turned the key....

And nothing happened. Checked whether I held the right key, spent half an hour trying everything possible to open my door and failed miserably. As it happens on days like these, I had forgotten my phone in the morning, so I made my way to the nearest phone-box, called my dad to drive up to my place and bring tools.

Waited half an hour in front of my door, let dad in, who decided that I wasn't necessarily stupid and that my lock had probably been tampered with and walked through the police-station to ask what to do and whether they knew the number of a locksmith. The good news was that they did, but they asked multiple times whether I knew that it would cost me loads of money. Wonder whether many people say:"Oh, didn't know that, forget about it, I'll sleep in my car".

Spent 45 minutes in a bar, having a drink, while waiting for the locksmith (who claimed he'd be there within the hour) and then spent 1.5 hours waiting in front of my front door before the locksmith arrived. Note to self:"leave games in car to play while waiting for locksmiths, without games life is pretty boring".

Eventually the locksmith arrived, he opened my door, replaced my lock and told me that the old lock had been replaced earlier that day. (And it did look completely different to me). Strangely nothing had been stolen (the what thief replaces the locks) and even more strangely, nobody had left me a note to tell me that he had replaced my locks and to tell me where to pick my my new set of keys. Typical!

The costs of a night spent with my father:"5 euros for 2 beers + tip" and 145 euros for lock replacement. Next time dad and me will hopefully just drink beer.

Drove to work in the morning, found an empty parking spot so close to work that I was actually shocked. ....Then somebody stormed up to me claiming that he'd deflate all four of my tires if I wouldn't move my car from this public parking spot in front of his home straight away. Wished him good luck and took off for work.

Major traffic jam at night, so bad even that me and my colleagua Arthur decided to go out and see Tim Burton's "the Corpse Bride" instead of traffic-jamming. Cool film, even though I found it a bit slow from time to time.

Any evening spent with pizza, girlfriend and Crissy on the internet is probably a good one. At the same time multitasking is hard :-)

Arinso meeting + drinks afterwards. Dead tired on the way back home, I wonder why.

Unpacked my bag, did laundry, switched my duvet for the winter one. One of those days Lorraine doesn't want me to tell you all about, I guess.

Slept in till late, packed my bag and eventually got dropped off at the bus-stop in front of the train-station, where magically enough buses for the airport left from. Landing, train, subway, home. Boohoo!

Promised myself not to buy anything for the next couple of weeks to win back all the money I spent in Finland an promptly bought "DIG" on the internet. Guess that counts as a massive fail. In my defense:"I've been wanting to see this one ever since I first read about it 2 years ago"

And now my memory for Finish names deserts me. Woke up early(ish) and took the train somewhere, where girlfriend told me the had a castle. She was right! For those handy with google, they had an artillery museum as well. Visited the castle and found out that it probably is one of the best heated castles in all of the world. Walked around the town with the missing name for a while and eventually took the train back home for food and staying in.

Slept in till an irresponsibly late time. Holiday is great! Eventually made our way to Suomenlinna, a fortress 15 minutes off the coast of Helsinki. Also apparently a world heritage site. Had our limbs frozen off for the sake of world heritage for a couple of hours before taking the ferry back.

Got to see the latest Harry Potter at night and was promised a scene, just like Dawn of the dead, only with the zombies replaced by drunk Fins. Was a bit disappointed at this, yes, there were drunk Fins, but nowhere near as many as I had been promised. Apparently not a good night for drunk Fin spotting. Harry Potter was cool though.

Girlfriend is cute, she actually does a little bounce and moves closer to me whenever she introduces me as the boyfriend person. It must be a Finnish thing because I've never seen her do this at home.

Slept in till late and then did another tour of the city, that is, drinks in a bar somewhere up high, followed by lots of sights whose names I can't remember (Finnish doesn't match with my sense of letter-combinations, I fear), followed with me buying a belt and a sweater. Really needed the belt, seeing as I somehow managed to break one on monday by stepping on it, had been living in fear of having my pants drop ever since.

Wine and food at night at girlfriend's place.

Woke up far too early for a day off (6:30 am), took the train to the airport, managed to avoid a strip-search by not reacting to a customs-lady addressing me as if I was a 5 year old and eventually popped up in Helsinki.

There I got jumped by girlfriend, who confided in me that I'd be sleeping with South Korea for the next couple of days. Later I found out that this had to do with the mini UN-conference girlfriend will be taking part in in January. She's South Korea. Guess I'll be having the guilty pleasure of bragging to all my mates that I've slept with all of South Korea now :-)

Did a quick tour of the city at night and had dinner in a somewhat eclectic restaurant (food-wise, that is). Found out that Finland is cold

Stayed at home, packed bag, watched tv, I guess I'm all set for my trip Finland-wards!

Only 2 more days before I take off Helsinki-wards. Spent the evening chatting with girlfriend on what to bring. Had thoughts about packing my bag but decided against it in the end.

Took off Utrecht-wards with Sabrina, McR, Marlies, Nicktor, Bianca and myself to see the Frames play in Utrecht. Found out why navigation systems are brilliant when driving through Utrecht (which is a maze). Eventually had dinner, saw the show (pretty good, even the opening act (Tracy Bonham) was good) and drove back home again.

Out clubbing with Cindy, Shiwa, Janneke and the guys. Managed to club till late, I'm not old yet! Found out that it's just as fast to bike from the city center to my place as it is to take the car. Interesting :-)

Interesting situation at the petrol station, where for some reason they made the guy in front of me pay for my petrol, which caused them to panic slightly when I tried to pay for mine. "But the guy in front of you already paid for that one". Apparenly:"Cool, have a nice weekend" wasn't the proper answer. After waiting for 10 minutes while petrol-station lady was arguing with the Polish guy that was about to leave. Then for some reason she couldn't get the cash-register to accept my company-card to pay for my own petrol. Ended up getting billed for 35 euro's worth of oil instead. Typical.

Bought both a scarf as well as gloves. Now I'm all set for Finland next week. Starting to think more and more about buying a proper bicycle. (As in one that can be used for biking a bit further than the other side of the river without falling apart straight away) Need more cash!

Being one of those people that does 101 different things while chatting on MSN I'm kind of amazed that Skype has become so popular. How on earth do you vacuum the house while skyping??

Cindy lost a bet a couple of weeks ago and she still owed me dinner. Got together to eat said dinner at "de Smaak van Afrika" in Rotterdam. Had a brilliant meal and loads of fun at the same time. Thanx, Cindy! :-)

Spent the night chatting with Crissy. Long time ago that I got round to doing just that. Apparently we still get along. *yay!*. Got rudely disconnected by MSN in the end just when we were about to discuss Crissy's new logo. Now I still don't know whether 50's/early 60's feel was my fault or her intention.

Aaargh! Massive hangover. If I really did drink as much as today's hangover tried to signify then I couldn't even have picked up the phone to call girlfriend. Looked through my medicine cupboard for painkillers and found that the closest thing to a painkiller was a pack of Fisherman's Friends. Aaaargh. Spent most of the day either asleep in bed or half asleep on the couch, watching TMF summerbase (don't ask). Went to bed at 10.

Martina's birthday party. Came, saw, conquered some beers and had fun in between. Left the place with my trusty driver Nicktor and a severe case of the hiccups. Tried calling girlfriend to tell her this and to let her know I was thinking of her, unfortunately she appeared to be believing I was drunk. Obviously I deny this.

Main shock of the night was discovering that McR is even more house-trained than I expected him to be. The main point to prove this:"He switched off the porn when Martina told him to". Yes, that's right, there was porn playing on the tv and he switched it off and played a dvd with fish instead!!!

Stuck home alone. Apparently all you need to entertain yourself is a playstation and a book. Cleaning the living room? Will do so soon.

Last week I was all set on writing a piece on me, Crissy and us knowing eachother for exactly 8 years. Then in the morning I read her diary and noticed that according to her, that Thursday we had already been together for 8 years and 2 days. ... and then I completely forgot to do the "yay!" thing, and everything that comes with the territory. Let's just shout:"Happy late anniversary, Crissy!" :-)

Decided to start work early so that I could leave a bit earlier. Unfortunately somebody had decide to crash his car on the A13, which caused a 10 minute drive to take more than an hour, followed by another pretty lengthy traffic jam. Yep, it's fall again. At work at 9:30. Maybe I should stop whining about traffic, it'll only get worse from now on.

Got my hair cut at night.

Apparently there were no trains running, so I dropped off a colleague at his place, unfortunately that forced me to drive a direction with even more traffic jams than usual. Home slightly late-ish. I fear it's autumn again.