Finally, after a year and a half, all the training I've put into girlfriend is starting to pay off. As you can see in the photo, she now salutes me when it's needed. I wonder what else I can make her do :-)
Woke up at a reasonable time and set out to explore the Versailles castle. (For those wanting to see all the photo's I took during our Versaille trip, check out my Flickr-page) The moment we walked into the castle square, we spotted a pretty large queue and a sign saying:"Wait from here is 90 minutes". Fortunately we were bright enough to go and check what everybody was waiting for, the reply:"Well... if you want a day pass, just walk over to the coach museum, nobody goes there". And owners of a day-pass could skip all the other queues as well. Now that's 20 euro's well spent :-)
Did loads of castelly-stuff before eventually walking back home again and eating.
Saturday, June 3
Friday, June 2
Versailles, part 1.
I know, it's not the picture that should go with a Versailles-trip. But I still needed to show you all a shot of my back after Cuba. While on the boat trip, I quickly slapped some sunblock on my shoulders and then managed to burn the rest of my back. Apparently the sunblock did it's work :-)
Day consisted of a 5 hour drive Paris-wards, followed by at least an hour and a half being stuck on the Périphérique. Note to self:"Arriving at 4:30 on a Friday afternoon is not your brightest idea ever". Then mis understanding sattelite navigation and being forced to drive 3/4 around Paris instead of just 1/4 probably isn't exactly bright either.
Fortunately found a camping before we even started thinking of looking for one (the Versailles camping is really pretty great, a short walk away from both the station as well as the castle, it's one of the better campings I've stayed on in the past couple of years. Okay, festival campings aren't that hard to beat and nature campings in Australia are pretty easy to beat in the facility-department. But it did beat many Italian campings hands down :-)
Lots of Baguettes and cheese at night.
Day consisted of a 5 hour drive Paris-wards, followed by at least an hour and a half being stuck on the Périphérique. Note to self:"Arriving at 4:30 on a Friday afternoon is not your brightest idea ever". Then mis understanding sattelite navigation and being forced to drive 3/4 around Paris instead of just 1/4 probably isn't exactly bright either.
Fortunately found a camping before we even started thinking of looking for one (the Versailles camping is really pretty great, a short walk away from both the station as well as the castle, it's one of the better campings I've stayed on in the past couple of years. Okay, festival campings aren't that hard to beat and nature campings in Australia are pretty easy to beat in the facility-department. But it did beat many Italian campings hands down :-)
Lots of Baguettes and cheese at night.
Thursday, June 1
Fatboy! Yay!
Two things happened to me today, digital tv, which is still having some problems playing nice with my internet connection, and a Fatboy suddenly showed up in my livingroom.
Seeing as digital tv is basically just tv, only a tad sharper, I'll focus on the Fatboy, which is *Huge* (It looks a lot larger than in this picture) But at the same time it's the most comfortable thing I've ever sat in. And all thanks to mum and dad, who decided that they wanted to give me one. *Yay mum and dad*
Had a homeowners-meeting in the evening. Managed not to get elected into any committees.
Seeing as digital tv is basically just tv, only a tad sharper, I'll focus on the Fatboy, which is *Huge* (It looks a lot larger than in this picture) But at the same time it's the most comfortable thing I've ever sat in. And all thanks to mum and dad, who decided that they wanted to give me one. *Yay mum and dad*
Had a homeowners-meeting in the evening. Managed not to get elected into any committees.
Wednesday, May 31
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
Tuesday, May 30
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 :-)
Monday, May 29
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 :-)
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 :-)
Sunday, May 28
Queue
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.
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.
Saturday, May 27
Proper Cuba
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 :-)
After loads of walking, girlfriend decided heat really wasn't her thing and we drove back home in 3- hours (wrong turn somewhere
Friday, May 26
Cars, cacti and Cardenas
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.
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.
Thursday, May 25
Exploring Varadero
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??
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??
Wednesday, May 24
Boat trip
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 23
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.
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.
Monday, May 22
Holiday!
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!
Got my hair cut in the evening and am now all set for Cuba. Will be back next Tuesday!
Sunday, May 21
The invasion of the mother snatchers
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!*
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!*
Friday, May 19
Holiday!
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!*
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
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.
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.
Thursday, May 18
Fully Certified
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!
But hey, apparently I rule! It really feels like it's finally holiday-time again!
Wednesday, May 17
Tuesday, May 16
Girlfriend, Help!
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.
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.
Monday, May 15
Sunset at my place
Sunset at my place
Originally uploaded by selmerv.
Me with the sun in my back
Originally uploaded by selmerv.
Now can somebody tell me why Flickr can set subjects to my blog-posts and why I can't?
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