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!

Holiday!
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

Fully Certified
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!

Yay
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

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!

Moved all the heavy things with McR, Nicktor, my dad and my aunt's van. Found out that washing machines are kind of heavy. Still... now we'll only have light things to move tomorrow :-)

The parental unit has spent the past week making preparing the new place for me and they've done a great job at it. All floors are now in, all the holes in walls have been filled and many other things have been fixed as well... Yay! Parents!

A company-meeting, followed by drinks, followed by us taking off to a bar, eventually leaded to me running up and down my staircase 20 times because I realised when I got home that I still needed to move all carpets outside for them to be picked up in the morning. Not something you want to do at 1 am, I can assure you :-)

Had girlfriend over in the evening and spent most of that evening removing carpetting from my place and packing things. never thought that I could have so much stuff to fit into boxes ;-)

Still not feeling great in the morning but dragged myself to class anyways. Started feeling better and better through the day and had enough energy to start tearing up my old place after I got home.

I'm now living in a fish-bowl because I took down most of my curtains (except for the bedroom), hoping they'd fit a window somewhere at my new place. This turned out not to be the case when I eventually dropped them off there. Also made the mistake of taking over the case of beer on my balcony. Now WTF do I drink after a hard evening of work???

Also Landlady wants me to remove all carpetting before I move out so I tried doing this with all the furniture still in place by moving it all around. After a while I got the bright idea that this would probably work out better with girlfriend's assistance tomorow morning.

As for the new place, dad's got the week off and mum and him are working full time to whip the place into shape. 90% of the flooring is in, lots more painting got done, all give me a big *yay parents!* And stop the sarcastic giggling Lorraine, we can't all afford to actually pay the people decorating our house :-)

Woke up at 10:30, walked to my computer and wondered for about 20 minutes how it could take me an hour and 10 minutes to get there. Eventually I realised that I had missed all news on daylight saving time. Attempted to do some painting, then decided that I still felt ill. Still took apart some stuff in my old place before I passed out again.

Eventually girfriend's motherly instincts pulled her towards my place, where she did her best at Florence Nightingaling me back into shape. (Which is not a seedy comment, readers, shame!!!) Once again passed out at 9:30.

The keyword to the past couple of days?? House, I fear. It's almost starting to look like a house now. The hole in my wall now looks nice again, and when I walked in on Friday, I found out that dad had already had made plenty of progress on my new floor. And on Saturday he already managed to fix the livingroom, while Martin (Kaz' boyfriend) put an extra lock in my door (note to self:"Give girlfriend the other key") and Kaz and I fought to think of silly little jobs that needed doing.

Then made plans for at least hitting a pub on Saturday night but passed out ill instead around 10.

More time spent behind computer in underwear. Eventually moved to the office to pick up my new laptop (with wireless, *yay!*).

In the evening bought 500 kgs worth of flooring and stacked most of it in the back of Arjan's car (my boot appeared to be just a tad to smart to be of much use. Got to walk hundreds of stairs. Tiring!

Am spending this week doing an e-learning module. For today this meant sitting behind my computer in my underwear wearing headphones. For the record, I was working from home, I did not scare away any colleagues :-)

Managed to pop by the electro-shop to pay for my refrigerator and friends and to make an appointment to have them Thursday next week. *yay!*

More painting, the people joining me today:"McR, Nicktor and my father" I need my life back!

Guess what I did in the daytime?? Marlies joined me for a while to do loads of painting but I'm definitely in need of more weekend! Then only 2 weeks left before I move.

At night McR demanded that we'd visit the bar round the corner from my place because I had never been there in my life. (With reason, I have to say) Ended up playing billiards with somebody who claimed to have been in prison in Panama (probably true) but who spiced it with so many hard to believe stories that we had our doubts here and there. Still a fun night.

I definitely need my life back. A whole week filled with classes (yay!) and house (definitely *yay!* in a couple of weeks but currently all a big blur)

Mum and dad took the day off so I had to be all self sufficient at the new place. Or actually, loads of friends popped by and alltogether we managed to finish most of the painting (Well, there's still loads to do but at least 90% of the walls have been painted, and the doorframes and windows aren't doing too bad either. Al thanks to McR, Nicktor, Sabrina, girlfriend and Annemarie.

Spent the largest part of the day working at my place (what else??). Including carrying far too many things down 40 steps so that my dad could take them to the dump, Kaz spraypainting most of my radiators and girlfriend painting walls.

Had a highschool reunion at night, which I had really been looking forward too. Unfortunately it probably was one of the worst highschool reunions ever, all the old classmates that showed up were people I had told to go (because I see them on a more or less regular basis and don't need to see them at a reunion).

The highschool reunion 5 years ago was fun, with loads of unexpected people, not many happy thoughts will come from this one. Or actually... Rainier is going to do his housewarming sometime soon!

Found out that the Ford Fiesta I got as a replacement car sucks somewhat. Usually when I hit the accelerator pedal at 120 (kms, not miles) an hour, my little car accellerates. Not my new Ford. Have to adjust my overtaking-technique to avoid getting killed.

Looked at furniture at night. I fear I may be growing up, I haven't seen a bar on the inside for weeks, I'm looking at furniture on my Friday nights and I spend my weekends home-decorating. Eeek!

Oh! And suddenly I do remember what happened on Wednesday. Dad broke down the kitchen wall and the little hall between my livingroom and the big hall. And ever since I've been telling people that they're more than welcome to take a look at "my hole"

I must have done interesting stuff on wednesday, if not then at least I got my hair cut but I can't remember much more. Maybe I even did house-related stuff.

Wait a sec, I didn't even get my hair cut, that didn't happen till Thursday. Hmmmm... And on the same day I picked up the floor that will end up in my kitchen (they're look like proper tiles but they're actually laminate).

Seeing as I didn't feel like carrying 18 square meters of tiles up 40 steps, I invited Nicktor along to share the pain and then things took off a bit. Having quite a few tiles in my trunk, I decided to park on the pavement but found a bit of an awkward angle to hit the curb. The end-result:"A flat tire as a result of the tire-wall tearing". Gaah! Nicktor managed to give McR a call before even all the air had left my tire.

And then for the interesting news... Apparently Audi decided that spare-weels were for girls and they equipped my car with a handy leak-filler bottle + compressor. A brilliant idea but not when your tire-wall is torn. Got to call a tow-truck to tow away my car and ended up driving a replacement car. It took me a lot longer than it looks in that sentence, the time from the flat to me getting back home in my replacement Ford Fiesta was 3 hours. Did get some more work done at my place though.

At the same time all say:"Yay!" for company cars and the resulting free service and replacement cars :-)

Introductory Java-class, followed by me painting more of my new place. Now more than half my toilet has been painted as wel. *yay!*

More work with mum and dad. Loads more cleaning, loads more painting and then my uncle popped by and knocked over a wall (intentionally). There's now a big hole where my kitchen wall used to be. Wooh!

Silent night in with girlfriend at night.

Woke up fairly early (9:00-ish) to start work on my new place, girlfriend did not like. Apparently it's not supposed to mix well with going to bed at 3. Failed to notice this, I was excited after all.

Did loads of painting at the new place with mum, dad, girlfriend and sister. Well, I did loads of painting, the others got loads of cleaning done.

Spent the evening, at girlfriend's place with Nicktor and a headache. Strange, I usually don't do headaches!

The big day. Spent most of it at work and then moved on to sign the final documents and get the keys to my new place. Biked back home... and then stuff got interesting.

If found a terribly un-professional looking yellow piece of paper dated on the 28th of February telling me that I hadn't been paying for my rent and that if I wouldn't pay within 2 days that they'd remove all my stuff from my appartment. Obviously this letter was by a rental agency I had never even heard from and I had been paying my rent but I figured it might be a bright idea to give the person who sent the letter a call before he'd remove all my stuff a day ago.

Got somebody on his mobile who didn't speak the language (at all) but who managed to tell me that he'd look into it. Left for my new place to do some stuff and while in the car got a phonecall that I had been a bad boy, that mr rental guy was now standing in front of my place and that I'd better pay my rent or.... Tried telling rental guy that I really had been paying my rent (impossible), that I was not going to turn round my car to argue with him and that I'd like to see some somewhat more legal documents before he'd start removing stuff from my place. Private rental agencies in Dutch big cities aren't exactly known for their subtlety. Somehow the conversation ended in threats that he'd come and visit me some other time soon.

And then 30 minutes later the phone rang again telling me:"Whoops, I had to be at 19c, not 15c". Gaah!

Spent the night at geek Ronald's new place with Remco and Marjoleine, playing with his eye-toy and wondering how somebody can keep his house as incredibly tidy as Ronald does. Brilliant place though.

My last day as a none home-owner person. Loads of interesting stuff will happen in the next couple of weeks, eek!

Visited parents for food and ideas on the new place.

Girlfriend and new Eels dvd. Both:"Yay!"

Not much special happening today

Visited aunt and uncle (uncle had the blueprints for my new place, which I wanted), mightily amusing night. Aunt and uncle had re-found loads of old family pics, which were mightily amusing to look at. Also loads of funny family-stories, apparently my mum used to whisper to me all the time when I was a baby, which made me scream whenever my grandfather visited (he was deaf and talked loudly). Gladly she managed to correct that in the end :-)

Uncle gave me loads of new ideas for the place, let's see if I'll do anything with those. (Probably depens on my dad's will to break down stuff )

Worked, visited the Hague (work business) and spent the evening watching tv with girlfriend.

Slept in, thought of house-stuff and visited parents.

Was supposed to be in Cologne, celebrating the carnival but all my mates chickened out (well, Sabrina, Marlies and Nicktor did) so girlfriend and I ended up needing to do something on a Saturday afternoon, before all hell'd break loose. Last night we had decided that it would be Luxemburg, last minute I found some places to visit in Luxemburg on the internet and after 3.5 hours in a car, we found our first castle in Luxemburg, then moved on to a second castle and an Abbey. (Must have accidentally stumbled into the:"Castles in Luxemburg"-website. Had loads of fun and eventually made our way back home past Brussels and an Indian takeaway restaurant.

Note to self:"Next time do this in summer and camp somewhere overnight, driving 800 kms in one day is a bit silly". Still, I had never been in Luxemburg before so I can cross that one of the list now :-)

Found out why there are no Buena Vista Social Club-cds in my cd collection. Still a free concert (tickets provided by employer), so I shouldn't complain. And at least now I know what to expect in Cuba :-)

Girlfriend made pancakes, I chopped stuff.

Looked at lots of paint, and other DIY-stuff, while preparing for next Friday (when I'll finally officially get hold to the keys of my new place). Then chatted the rest of the evening away on the internet.

Visited parents' place to cuddle the cat. Did just that. Got told off by neighbour for not closing the kitchen cupboards. Blamed sister :-)

Kid sister blew up her car. Actually the throttle got stuck, which made driving it somewhat interesting. Got appointed as:"Drive me from garage to parents' place so that I can steal mum's car"-guy. Did well. There may be a career in this for me if my current job ever falls through ;-)

A great moment in history, today I filled the first cardboard box to prepare for me moving in a month and a half time. I bet I'll be needing my cds within the next 2 days now :-)

Went to girlfriend's grandmother's 80th birthday party with loads of people I had never met before. Fortunately most of girlfriend's family members appear to be meeting eachother only once every 5 years and they all appeared to be spending most of their time re-introducing them to eachother. Amusing.

And in other amusing news, we're apparently attempting to go to the carnival in Cologne next weekend. At first we were going to sleep over but all hostels were booked, now I volunteered as the driver in exchange for all the drinkers helping me out with painting my new place but we're 1 place short. All sorts of tactical games are now played to: 1. Assure a place in the car I'm driving. 2. Make sure that they're not the people who have to drive the other car back home :-)

Am starting to get more and more anxious about the moving-thing. Just sitting and waiting till I can finally do something is starting to get somewhat annoying. Spent the largest part of the afternoon staring at furniture, I guess I'm now able to form opinions about certain types of furniture (wahoo)

Another night in, watching Crackerjack

Got to take the train to the Hague for a project meeting. Found out that I'll probably be spending some more time there over the next couple of weeks.

At night girlfriend and I spent the night in with me playing San Andreas and she reading book. Managed to progress quite a bit futher.

Mystery solved, last night I was somewhat annoyed at the idea that while I had been trying my best to save loads of money, my bank-balance was exactly the same as last month. During the night I remembered that I had to make a 250 euro advance payment for my house, this afternoon I found out that I had actually made the payment twice. This means that I'm doing even better in the saving money department than I had expected. *Yay!*

Visited girlfriend at night and.... Am writing this while still at girlfriend's place so I may have to fill you all in on any highlights still happening after pressing "publish"

Was supposed to go out and see Spats Malone (Arnold's band) play. But got a last minute phonecall that their gig had been cancelled. Had McR and Nicktor pop by instead and made loads of progress in San Andreas. Well... at least I got out of the Ghetto and at least I got dumped in RedNeck county :-)

Am inclined to admitting that installing "Monkey Island" on my PDA was one of the highlights of my day but obviously girlfriend would castrate me for saying that seeing as it was valentine's day. Then... waiting for the lava-lamp I bought her as a present was more fun than I should be admitting.

And back to the classroom again. This weeks classes are a bit dull, especially when you just spent the past year and a half doing exactly what you're getting taught this week. Or do I really have to start worrying about bikini-season??

Had a bit of a suit-situation, where the trousers weren't exactly fitting anymore. Amazing how they shrink when they're not being used. Mum managed to fix this one but is now afraid that they might rip. All keep your fingers crossed for this Friday when I potentially prance around half naked in front of a customer in the Hague :-)

Urgh! Hangover! Managed to appear almost lifelike and even did useful stuff such as measuring my kitchen (it's apparently 6x3 meters). At night drove towards Almere and didn't even throw up or fall asleep. Pretty proud of me :-)

A pretty productive day. In the afternoon I had planned on dragging my mum along to decide on some colours for my new place. Have to say that I failed somewhat in that department. We did buy a kitchen floor though and we also bought a clothes dryer, a dishwasher, a stove, and a refrigerator. Or actually, mum bought them, I just pointed and said:"Want that"

At night it was Annemarie's party at girlfriend's place, loads of drinks, me going wild with girlfriend's camera (check over here for the result) and McR showing his behind on camera. *yuck!* Lots of fun!!

Highlight of the night for me was Nicktor's party trick of accidentally stabbing a knife through a bottle of coke while he tried to cut a net of lemons. His reply:"Hmmm... Guess I'm Sticky Nicky now"

I'm pretty convinced that I did plenty of stuff the past couple of days but then I kinda drank too much tomorrow and forgot all about it. The only thing I can remember about last week through the alcoholic haze is that my geek friends dropped by today, we chatted, drank lots of beer and had the neighbour downstairs bang the ceiling. And we weren't even that loud!

More course... and then even got round to working at night. *Eeek!*

The first day of my new course, left a bit on the early side (say 2 hours before everything was supposed to start) and was making a record time towards 's Hertogenbosch (without traffic jam it should take me just under an hour). And with only 12 minutes of driving to go on the PDA, I hit some traffic. Better said, I spent the next 50 minutes staring at a PDA which was telling me that it would only take me 12 more minutes. Arrived just in time and learnt loads of new things. *Yay courses!*

At night I found out that girlfriend is unwilling to write her bachelor thesis about me. Booh! Hiss!

Woke up, lazed around for a bit and eventually kicked into gear. Accomplishments of the day:"Emptied the paper recycling bin, did my laundry, visited parents, shouted at them for telling my cousin not to get me a hamster for my birthday and entertained myself for the rest of the night playing with the python programming language. Python is a really cute language to program in, both quick and readable, wooh! Does this mean I'm a geek now?

Visisted a book fair with girlfriend. Bought a dictionary and Umberto Eco's "name of the Rose" for the next time the urge to read books in dead tree-form pops up. After loads of calculations girlfriend had decided that tonight would be our 1 year anniversary if she hadn't gone to Helsinki. Always a good moment for a celebration I'd say. Celebrated. I'm now the poud owner of my own custom fortune cookies. *yay!* girlfriend!

Also matched the guardian top 100 book-list against project Gutenberg to see what else I should be pulling off the net. Then girlfriend would probably complain that I'd mention an evening of romance and books in the same entry. Apparently I need to sign up for romance-classes, ever since my romance tutor took off for Siberia I've had to figure out everything myself, I fear :-)

Sat on couch, read (e)-books. Project Gutenberg is brilliant once you combine it with a PDA with a good resolution! Yes, I may still need to pay for any new books I'd like to read, but now I get to brush up on my classics for no cost at all!

The book of the moment is How I found doctor Livingstone by whom other than Stanley himself. The hardships of the African jungle tend to get a bit repetitive after a while but who wouldn't be intrigued by an expedition into the inlands of Africa where one of the main concerns still is how much cloth and how many beads to bring to give to the African tribes. Apparently even the kind of bead matters, some beads are highly valued by one tribe, while they would be near worthless at the next tribe. And there's plenty of other brilliant books out there for example how about Thomas Steven's book about how he rode around the world on a bicycle in 1884?

I'd kill for commutes like these for the rest of my life! Made some sort of roadmap to go with decorating my new home. Next saturday I'll start having ideas on colours :-)

At night picked up a monitor for girlfriend at Sabrina's boyfriend's parent's place. (They had a spare). It turned out to be a pretty nice one as well *for free*. Seeing as girlfriend's monitor had more or less imploded, she's now a happy camper again.

First day at the new project, which is only a 10 minute tube-ride away from home. Woohoo. Then this did make me realise how frustrating it is to have a copy of the key to my new place, to know that it's currently empty and will be until I move in and to know at the same time that they'd grab you by the nuts and run around the block twice if you'd start decorating before you "officially" get the key.

Yep, for some reason it takes about 2 months to get all the paperwork to work out and I don't get the keys till the beginning of March. And I'll have to move out of my current place before the first of April. That leaves me only about 3 weeks to get the whole new place up and running. *gaah!*. Fortunately my dad will have 2 weeks of in March so with a bit of luck he'll be able to get some work done for me woohoo!