Helped out at Marlies' new place. Managed to paint loads of stuff.

Queens-day. Failed to do any of the usual things and ended up at a Goa-trance party at night. Brilliant fun! Managed to set a date for the 2 week roadtrip I'm apparently taking with McR and Nicktor. The only thing we now know is that apparently we'll be ending at the Lowlands festival.

Parents' birthday at night. Failed to give my father his birthday present because it got lost in the mail. There may still be hope of getting a new one.

Visited a client in the day time, he appeared to be happy with what I've been doing lately. *yay!* Found it to be great weather at night, and got to study instead of enjoy the weather. Fortunately I should be able to finish everything tomorrow!

Studying, studying, studying. Certification apparently takes a lot of your time.

Worked in Rotterdam probably studied at night.

Biked to parent's place, got hair cut, noticed that trying to keep a steady 25 km/h and headwind don't necessarily match well. Sweated a lot because of this. Got beer recipe from girlfriend. Note to self:"Make beer"

With girlfriend doubting my mental health in public, I'm a lot more conscious of my public image and I'm trying to appear more sane from now on. Almost failed when I stepped into the shower, wearing my pyjamas, but with a bit of luck girlfriend missed that one. Then she was taking a shower at the time. Still there is a possibility that she failed to notice, right??

My father's birthday, because of both him and me being busy doing exciting other things, I didn't even get to pop by.

For me these exciting things consisted of an Arinso paintball event, together with Cindy and loads of colleagues. Spent plenty of time finding out that there were two paintball tracks in the park where we got lost (yes, while using my sat-nav). But eventually we did arrive at the right place, played several paintball games and found out that Cindy's got GI-Jane blood in her. Scary!

The fun suddenly ended when I somehow ended up wearing a rabbit suit, followed by 40 colleagues. I must have set a new record on the 100m sprint.

At night Shiwa's birthday, where due to Nicktor's cocktails, I now know more about the masturbation techniques my friends prefer than I ever wanted to know. Note to self: Don't be sober at birthday parties, it makes you remember stuff you'd rather forget.

Did Friday-stuff with girlfriend. Can't really recall doing anything that should be mentioned here.

Was supposed to get my hair cut but failed miserably. Well... this wasn't my fault, my hairdresser cancelled our appointment. Read some magazines at parents' place instead and cuddled the cat.

Spent the remainder of the evening dancing through my living-room with headphones on my head, while listening to Guns n'Roses. Notes to self:

1. Don't
2. At least buy curtains so that you can close them while dancing to Guns n'Roses
3. Deny everything
   

An Arinso meeting in Utrecht. Apparenly we're doing great, apparently we're still going to Cuba and it's always great fun to chat with all the colleagues you haven't seen in a while. Great fun!

Rode my bike for a while. Definitely have to do this more often, fun!

After brunch in Almere and a visit to "Den Briel", the highlight of our day probably occured when we sat in front of the washing machine, trying to spot "the yellow sweater" for more than 30 minutes.

A plenty of fun and travel-day, followed by food at parents' place.

Studied all day, then watched a film at night.

Don't have a clue about what I did last thursday. Pretty sure that I went for a walk on Friday with girlfriend.

Watched l'Auberge Espagnole at night, probably required viewing for anybody who's ever spent a couple of months living abroad. Very recognisable.

Had another one of the far too regular IKEA-trips, this time to buy loads of curtains for in my house. Failed somewhat, but still managed to buy a bedroom curtain. This means that I can now sleep naked without somebody with a telescope in the appartment complex opposite me staring at me. (I bet there's one of those in that building)

Had Cindy pop by at night and made her food, she keeps texting me so I suspect she lives to tell the story.

Speaking of cooking, I've always been terribly at doing the dishes and now I have a confession to make, which probably shows that I'm growing into a boring materialistic old fart, but... I'm in love with my dishwasher.

It's definitely the invention since the robosuck 2000 vacuum-pump. Which I don't have too much experience with but still, it's one of the things every grown up man dreams of owning. Instead of slaving for an hour to clean all my dishes. (I tend to drop into this pattern of doing the dishes when there's nothing clean to be found anymore), I now just push the start-button before going to bed. The same actually goes for my dryer (I'm not too fond of hanging clothes to dry either). Now all I need is a machine to do my work for me (without my employer knowing about it) and my life should be perfect

Actually had my first outdoors-drink of the year today in "De Oude Haven", together with girlfriend. This while walking to the video store, past the marathon (which I once again failed to run).

Watched "Nobody Knows" at night, nice film, though a bit slow at times.

Still had power, had parents pop by to pick up loads of their stuff and to assist me in hanging up some lamps and doing some other little things. At night went to the Consul for some drinks. McR managed to confuse the bartender by asking for a "Consul Special".

Reaction: First the bartender spins around, reads the whole drinks-menu, then asks:"WTF is a Consul special". McR:"I don't care, surprise me". Still went to bed fairly early.

Started off the day calling the ENECO (water, gas electricity) company to make sure that they wouldn't disconnect me. Got into the interesting debate whether or not I had 2 water/electricity/gas meters. I was pretty much convinced that I only had one of each, ENECO-lady was pretty sure I had two. In the end she claimed that it was my fault for living on 2 house numbers and that I had to contact the city council to settle that.

City council then gave me the phone number people responsible for housenumbers in Rotterdam (Apparently we have those) , until 11:30 I got their answering machine, asking me to please call back between 8am and noon (???) and then I finally got somebody who told me that I'd need to get a building license, etc.

At this point the feeling that people might be steering me in the wrong direction crept up on me so I decided to make my problem somebody else's problem, I called the WBR (woningbedrijf Rotterdam, the people who sold me my place). They said:"This all sounds a bit improbable, we have other people living in units with shared water/electricity/gas and they never have any problems, you probably should go back to ENECO (Gaaah!)

Once again gave ENECO a call and after some more fighting, ENECO lady actually told me that it had all been their mistake. Woohoo. Still... too bad that I had to spend an hour and a half on the phone with numerous people before finding this out.

Had some people over at night for a:"We need to watch the DVD's Lorraine sent me"-session. (Johnny Safran vs. God). Funny.

Managed to both buy and lay the flooring for in my hall. Am now a happy camper. Only 99999 other things that still need finishing.

Did also find a letter to the previous inhabitant that they had dropped by to disconnect him from gas and electricity and that if he doesn't pay his energy bill before tomorrow, they'll disconnect him. Sucker! Errrm... Wait a second, Hey that means they'll disconnect me too! Eeep! Cursed loudly and will probably get to do a whole lot more cursing in the morning while trying to contact the proper people.

Girlfriend and me off to Almere for some birthdays. Eventually drove back home.

All kitchen appliances now more or less work, the stove is working, the oven works, the dishwasher works and even the dryer stopped leaking. Tried combining as many appliances as possible while making girlfriend dinner (anybody who knows how to cook using a dryer, send me an e-mail, it was the missing apliance)

Dinner at parents' place, followed by me buying some more bits and pieces at IKEA, followed by me bumping into my parents doing more work at my new place. At 8:45 my upstairs neighbour knocked on my door to complain that she couldn't hear her movie. Instead of "well boohoo!", my dad actually stopped drilling. Interesting.

A whole day spent "living". Being somewhat more awake, this meant me doing various things around the house, while girlfriend sat on the couch and read a book, besides a short trip to the old place to pick up some bits and pieces left behind.

And today we moved everything else... loads of people out to move not too many things so everything was moved within a reasonable timespace. Obviously then loads of things had to be screwed together, etc. and that took us the remainder of the day but at least girlfriend and I managed to spend the evening "living". Have to say living consisted of nothing more than sitting on a couch because we were both dead tired. Still.. I've now moved!