Birthday girl...

My aunt's birthday. Fun with family was mainly themed about a screaming match between my sister, my uncle and me about why my aunt and uncle had our Bert and Ernie LP's stacked besides their couch. (They've been lost for the past 15 years) Most puzzled look was by my aunt

Back to normal

... and today was a normal workday again. Failed almost completely to do jetlag (except for feeling a tad sleepy in the afternoon). Still plenty of chat going on in the office about our holiday :-)

Back home

Slept for most of the plane-ride before arriving back at home and finding out that my parents had been working their behinds off at my place again. A window sill appeared out of nothing, a painting appeared I've now got 4 extra doormats and probably hundreds of other small things I'm just forgetting at the moment. *yay parents!*

After a bit of sleep, buying a concert ticket for the Lowlands festival this summer (yay! I'm going) and replying loads of e-mail, I spent the remainder of the night watching tv till 1 before I passed out in bed (there was an interesting progam on, I didn't dare to switch it off :-)

Queue

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Originally uploaded by selmerv.

One of the downsides of free company holidays is that most companies don't like having all their staff stuck in foreign countries for weeks and weeks (actually, they were already really generous with the whole week) so today we're flying back.

Or actually, today we spend first doing origami with money for our room-maid (who had folded us a nice towel-swan), then sitting on a bus for hours and hours (Havana again), then queueing, queueing and more queueing before finally taking off homewards.

Proper Cuba

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Originally uploaded by selmerv.

Woke up early, drove to Havana (which turned out to be a 2+ hour drive) and spent a pretty large part of the day exploring the city. Guess I could live there for a couple of months. This would require me to become somewhat more heat resistant though, this would also require me to find a way to scare off all the street salesmen :-)

After loads of walking, girlfriend decided heat really wasn't her thing and we drove back home in 3- hours (wrong turn somewhere ) Strangely enough we had cocktails at night before going to bed :-)

Cars, cacti and Cardenas

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Originally uploaded by selmerv.

Decided to spend far too much money on renting a car and drive around for a couple of days (well, exactly two, because two days from now we'll be flying out of Cuba again). Sadly enough most really cool sites are a pretty far drive away from Varadero but tomorrow we'll make it to Havana and today we spent driving around exploring Varadero and popping by Cardenas.

Cardenas turned out to be pretty dirty and poor one of those times where you feel you're really out of place, instead of "just one of those tourist people". Back in Varadero we managed to do the cactus-walk, where we learnt both very interesting details about cacti and also that the cactus walk was pretty crappy. Still a pretty cool 500 year old cactus at the end of the walk.

Also visited a cave with plenty of bats before eventually making it back to the resort.

Exploring Varadero

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Originally uploaded by selmerv.

Didn't really have much planned for the day so we ended up exploring the premises of the resort we were staying in (large, swimming pools with bars) and walk into Varadero.

After finally seeing some of Cuba other than water or bedroom, the first thing that struck us as interesting were the Dutch buses riding around everywhere, even with Dutch city-names still showing on the signs. While girlfriend got mightily excited when she saw a bus displayin Almere (her home city), I'm still somewhat puzzled by the busses showing the:"Not in service"-signs, while transporting people :-)

After a very lengthy walk, we realised that Cuba is hot, humid and that we were sweating pretty badly. So took a Coco-taxi back resort-wards and after food and plenty of cocktails, I ended back in bed again.

Did I mention yet that all the other Cuba-photos reside over at my photo site??

Boat trip

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Originally uploaded by selmerv.

What better way to start your holiday than a day long catamaran trip along Cuba's coast? Can't think of one either. Did the whole boat-thing for most of the day, with stops for swimming with dolphins, snorkeling and obviously food. Found out that while they aren't near, girlfriend is trying to take a firm stand on dolphins, she softens up quite a bit once they're near.

For those at home trying to get a cheap "swimming with dolphins"-experience:"Put on your rubber boots, sit in the bath-tub and then close your eyes and stroke your boots". Yes, dolphins have a pretty rubbery feel to them :-) Btw, make sure that you lock the door, your family/roommate/boyfriend/girlfriend my think you're a bit weird for sitting in the bathtub, stroking your rubber boots :-)

Eventually got overtaken by a thunderstorm and managed to get soaked in the 20 meter sprint (swim??) to the bus.

Big party at night, which due to the rain couldn't be held on the beach. Bummer! Still had a lot of fun in a silly club, where one of my colleagues actually took over the DJ booth. Found out the downside about the hectic travel schedule when eventually tried to find my way back to the hotel. Seeing as I hadn't yet been able to do any exploring of the surroundings, I was completely clueless about how to get back home from the club. After first finding myself standing on the beach, wondering:"Where on earth am I??", eventually I did manage to find back my bedroom.

Planes, trains and queues

After taking the train into Schiphol, checking in, waiting for quite a bit and then almost being stampeded by loads of colleagues trying to board the plane, we were on our way to Cuba. Main observation during the plane-trip: girlfriend is the most impatiant person I've ever sat beside in a plane. I may have to consider performing a B.A. Baracus on her next time we're flying.

Then after picking clearly the wrong queue at the Cuba customs and after a 1.5 hour wait, we were finally properly on Cuban soil. The wait could have been worse, apparently a colleague had the same 1.5 hour wait a couple of days earlier, only to see his queue changed in a VIP only queue once he made it to the end.

Busride, hotel, dinner, cocktail and then bed.

Holiday!

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Originally uploaded by selmerv.

The last day of work before tomorrow girlfriend and I take off for Cuba. Took it fairly easy (a quick trip to the Hague, after which I worked from home for the rest of the day).

Got my hair cut in the evening and am now all set for Cuba. Will be back next Tuesday!

The invasion of the mother snatchers

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Originally uploaded by selmerv.

Worke up feeling lightly vague but nothing too bad, spent most of the morning playing with my Playstation (something which I found McR doing when I eventually woke up), all great fun. Then Nicktor called and for some reason made me throw up. Seriously, he called, I suddenly felt ill and threw up in my toiled while Nicktor was listening on the other end. Called back later to check if this was now my standard reaction to having Nicktor on the phone but fortunately no.

Eventually exchanged McR for girlfriend's mums (no more throwing up, fortunately), who popped in to admire my new place and to give me plants. (The total plant count has now gone up with 200%) Eventually had Mexican food for dinner *yay!*

Holiday!

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Originally uploaded by selmerv.

After Thursday's certification, I spent the day walking through Rotterdam, looking at stuff without really buying anything. Girlfriend hates doing this but it's actually one of my favourite pastimes. Eventually did buy two books to read on the plane to Cuba (T.C. Boyle's Drop City and Jared Diamond's collapse) before ending back at my place.

At night visited Sabrina's birthday party. Because McR kind of forgot about this happening and not being able to take the last train back home again, I ended up with McR sleeping on my floor. Also managed to get soaked by the rain and probably drank too much *hic!*

Film

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Originally uploaded by selmerv.

A silly start of the day, after brushing my teeth and opening the tap, I suddenly realised that I had seen a note telling me there wouldn't be any water this morning due to maintenance. This left me with a mouth full of toothpaste looking for water everywhere (found some in my Senseo eventually)

In the evning Shiwa visited by because we still needed to take eachother out to the cinema for our birthdays. Saw:"The lucky number Slevin". Very cool film. Also ended up eating chicken from "the Kip Gallery". Definitely the best chicken in town. Had loads of fun.

Fully Certified

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Originally uploaded by selmerv.

Apparently I now know the contents of these binders by heart. Together they measure around a meter in information but today I finished the last certification of the 2 I needed to do . Fortunately I passed (80% score) because I really don't feel like doing any more studying for this summer. Combined with the uselessness of the questions, the whole exercise just feels pointless.

But hey, apparently I rule! It really feels like it's finally holiday-time again!

Yay!

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Originally uploaded by selmerv.

Apologies for the bad photo-quality, it was a bit hard to find a more optimal angle. Still, as you can see, it's now upright!

Girlfriend, Help!

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Originally uploaded by selmerv.

If you're having trouble telling, it's called Expedit, it's made by IKEA, my sister helped me get it (she had a stationwagon with her, from work) IKEA tells you that you need two people to put it together. They're wrong. Being cooler than IKEA thinks I am, made my penis grow with at least two inches, while progressing with the assembly.

And then a problem occured... I needed to get it upright (the bookcase, not my penis), it's 90 kgs (once again, the bookcase) Apparently I can't do this by myself. So now I've been using my hallway to get from my livingroom to my kitchen (glad we broke through the kitchen wall). Now tomorrow I'll have to beg girlfriend to help me get it upright (hopefully the bookcase, penis optional)

For those wondering, my penis is half an inch smaller than usual now.

Sunset at my place

Sunset at my place
Originally uploaded by selmerv.

Me with the sun in my back
Originally uploaded by selmerv.

Another work-week has started, only 8 days left before girlfriend and I fly to Cuba, only 3 days left till it's certification time. So I'm trying to do as much studying as possible. (unless I get distracted by sunsets, obviously )

Now can somebody tell me why Flickr can set subjects to my blog-posts and why I can't?

New couch

New couch

Yes, I should clean up before taking photos of my place but for those interested... This is a photo of my new couch in its new place. Yes, it's huge! :-)

Played with my camera and my washing machine in the afternoon.

Celebrated Mother's day at parents' place in the evening, took more pictures. Still need to figure out how to easily blog multiple pics.

Duisburg

Drove Duisburg-wards, with a car full of camping gear and was surprised once again by how accurate satellite navigation is. Arrived a bit on the early side, so did a bit of walking, then waited a bit in front of a closed bar before eventually teaming up up with girlfriend's friend Jennie and her boyfriend. If you noticed the camping gear in the back then you probably also realised that this was supposed to be a short camping-trip. Unfortunately the weather sucked so badly that we decided:"Screw the camping, we'll drive back home." Still had plenty of fun.

Girlfriend


Originally uploaded by selmerv.

New camera

Kenny

With plenty of holidays up ahead, I ended up buying a camera (Powershot A530 + 512 MB of memory + plenty of accessories for those interested) Plenty of interesting functions like the:"Black and white except for 1 colour"-one. Shown here

Wedding in the evening, failed to take photos.

Spent the whole week studying in the evening and working in the daytime. Made an attempt at giving a course on wednesday and did pretty well (apart from technical problems).

The studying got made harder by blistering heat for most of the week. Only gave in once when McR kept pestering me to come out and have a beer with him. (I'm not coming, I'm not coming, I'm not coming. Okay, where are you??)

Got sent some old photos of my grandfather in Indonesia and my mum + siblings in the 1940's. The bald guy with the glasses is my grandfather, try working from there :-)

After going to bed at 3:30 am this morning, we woke up at 9 because Karlijn had decided that I needed to go and check out a couch in Den Helder (thanks, sis). For the foreigners among you:"Den Helder is a 1.5 hour drive away from my place" Fortunately sis was right about the couch."

On the way back home, girlfriend bought me a tv-cabinet. At night we all had drinks in "De Oude Haven". Apparently it's summer again :-)

Wedding-party day. All ended up on a boat, partied, probably the same disclaimer here as on the wedding-day (both picture as well as description wise). Parties on boats are fun! (Nightly drives back from Almere get old quick though)

And today was the big day where girlfriend's mums got married. Drove to Almere (for a change), saw both of them get married. Follow girlfriend's blog to see photos (which will probably show up over the next couple of days).

In the evening went out for dinner to celebrate. For details about the wedding also follow girlfriend's blog, I'm a bloke, I'm not too good in having opinions on dresses.

Spent a whole afternoon preparing for tomorrow's wedding. Actually, I didn't really. Still, there was a wedding tomorrow, I must at least have done some mental preparation

Visisted Bianca in Den Bosch (she's studying there), together with Nicktor. Had pancakes for dinner, hit some pubs and then Nicktor decided that he was old and tired Didn't go to bed before discovering some German-ness on her laptop. (For example more David Hasselhoff songs than I even knew he had recorded

For those who failed to notice: I took pictures of my place