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!

Bye bye project, bye bye long commutes, bye bye lots of people I've spent the past 1.5 years of my life with, bye bye 1.5 hour commutes both ways. Yep, mixed feelings on the last day of work at ING. Loads of people popped by to say "goodbye" and the whole ARINSO team gave me a painted toilet seat decorated with a dartboard (so that all my guests will have something to aim at when they're drunk).

Saw "Habana Blues" at night with girlfriend. Cool!

Only 2 more days of work to go at ING. Popped by my aunt and uncle at night to once again borrow their grinder (lost my bike keys again)

Went for a bike-ride in the afternoon on the bike I got for my birthday (dad finally managed to make it all look like a proper bike). First conclusion:"Really cool!"... and then I realised that I had biked for quite a bit with the wind in my back, after turning around, I found out that it was friggin' cold and even worse.... very windy! Add me sweating a bit to that and you'll probably understand why I was feeling a bit cold on the way back :-)

Saw the Posies play at night. They pretended it to be the last show of their tour and goofed off for most of it. (Very funny) Actually it turned out to be their last but one show. Still big fun!

Attempted to get some ideas on kitchen flooring in the afternoon. Succeeded.

At night Nicktor popped by, had some drinks and then went clubbing. I stayed behind under the new savings-act that went into effect somewhere last week.

Weekend!!! Watched It's all gone Pete Tong with girlfriend in the evening. Cool film!

Kick-off meeting for the course I'll be starting on the 6th of february. Really looking forward to that one. Managed to get loads of paperwork done at night. Realised that I may need to cut some expenses here and there to make the transition to my new place a bit smoother. Unfortunately girlfriend doesn't allow me to mention cutting expenses :-)

Still... I fear I won't be seeing too many clubs over the next couple of weeks.

Whoa, birthday time today. Failed to get girlfriend to wake up enough to realise this and to wish me a happy birthday though.

After a full day of work, I got back home to already find my parents at my place who apparently were afraid that my place would be too messy to show to relatives. Got joined by girlfriend and after that the whole place quickly filled up with relatives. And while my family is pretty small, my living room turned out to be even smaller. Guess I really need that larger place :-)

Only 1 more day left before I turn 29. Only 1 more week of work left at ING. Found out that my next work-project will be at crawling distance from my new place. Actually if you're willing to wear kneepads, it could be crawled from my current place as well, I'd rather take the bicycle and do the 10 minute bike-ride though :-)

Got my hair cut! Apparently my hairdresser is thinking of making me grow a mullet.

After buying a house, I'm trying my best to spend as little money as possible. I'm doing pretty well this far I believe. I fear I'll be pretty dull for the next while though.

Showed girlfriend around my new place in the morning. Girlfriend appears to like. Then took off for my place where McR and eventually Nicktor showed up. Nicktor is weird, he was supposed to show up at 2, at 5 past 2 my phone rings and he tells me:"I'm 10 minutes behind schedule". So I ask:"So you're at the front door in 5 minutes". The answer turned out to be:"Well... errrrm... no" as it took him another 15 to show up.

Were supposed to go straight to Ruben's farewell party (he's leaving for Signapore) but got sidetracked and ended up at my new place again (this time with Martijn).

As for Ruben's party:"Loads of Whiskey *hic!*, Rainier and some of Ruben's sisters who were 4 to 6 years old the last time I saw them. The scare part:"Nowadays I could date them" (Please don't mention this to Ruben or girlfriend)

Walked back home with Nicktor at night who claimed to be annoyed that we were trying to hook him up with Rubens 14 year old sister. He should count his blessings, after all it's only a 2 year wait :-)

Got to show my new appartment to parents, kid sister and kid sister's boyfriend. Lots of good ideas coming from all of them, unfortunately they all mean extra work. Main idea:"We're nog going to break down 3 walls instead of only 1". Well.. we're breaking down 1 tiny wall and we're making holes for doors in two other walls.

Spent most of the afternoon walking through DIY shops wondering how much stuff I'd need. Still clueless on this.

Went to McR's place at night to play Dance Dance Revolution. Currently I'm the (almost) unbeaten king of DDR in my circle of friend. Unfortunately you look like a complete arse while playing this :-)

Food at Shiwa's place. *Yay food!* Obviously lots of talk about the new house, I'm still scared!

Visited the estate agent to sign my contract (16 times). And I had to do this thrice. Guess you can say that I can now add:"Experienced autographer" to my resume.

The estate agent had told me that I could borrow the key but that they wanted it back before 5 because I really wasn't supposed to have it before my mortgage is approved. How can I live without access to my place till that time?? Well... let's just say:"Yay for locksmiths! ;-)".

Still not over the whole:"I just bought a house"-thing. Got round to finally reading my contract, I'm actually buying a house. Do you people think it matters that I can't exactly remember what my house looks like?? I bought a house! I bought a house!

... and back to work we go. Spent most of the day shouting:"I just bought a house! I just bought a house!".

Visited girlfriend's mothers at night (while still shouting:"I just bought a house! I just bought a house!"). For those of you wondering why, read yesterday's entry :-)

Found the preliminary contract in my mailbox when I walked in late at night. Scary stuff!

I fear that today I more or less bought a house, the papers haven't been signed yet but after a quick talk with mortgage-guy this morning and a quick:"WTF does this mean"-session with my mum at my parents' place, I managed to get myself a mortgage at a pretty good rate, it will kick up my monthly cost of living by at least 200 euros a month but I guess I'll survive. Guess I'll have to start working extra hard to earn myself a nice pay-raise :-)

Slept in, then visited uncle's birthday party in the evening. Played with my PS2.

Went clothes shopping with girlfriend, she needed clothes, I tagged along. I thought that I got bored quickly while clothes shopping, girlfriend already announced that she wanted to go and do something else while I was stil kind of enjoying the whole process. I fear my mum will have to buy my clothes for many years to come :-)

Out clubbing with Cindy, Shiwa and Nicktor at night. Fun!

Long day of work followed by a night of X-Box games at McR's place. Got an interesting phonecall from Nicktor, who had forgotten the name of the street he lives in (???). And he wasn't even drunk!

Only worked the morning because me and my mum were going to take a look at an appartment which sounded interesting. Mum was supposed to tone down my enthousiasm but failed miserably at this, we both walked out shouting:"We want this house" Made an appointment with mortgage people on Monday, if this is going to work out then expect things to go quick.

Visited girlfriend's dad to pick up stuff girlfriend dropped there before she left for Finland. Amazed at how much junk fits in my little car :-) Very misty on the way back home.

Two days best combined using 1 word:"Stress!"

After waking up in a hotel and a quick walk at the beach all hell broke loose again, worked from 7pm till 11.

An early start of the weekend when my standby-phone started ringing at 8am to tell me that there was trouble at work. Tried fixing stuff till 1pm, then rushed to the Arinso NewYear event in the Hague.

The good news:"We're going to Cuba for our annual Arinso holiday!!" The bad news:"Got a call again and had to rush from the party to quick fix stuff again between 11 pm and 1 am.

Worked till far too late because I somewhat forgot about the backup-system. (I needed to work click on just two more things but those 2 things were crucial for this weekend) Visited parents for (somewhat late) newyear's wishes.

On standby all weekend because my colleague is ill. Arse!

Had a mini ping-pong night at Nicktor's place. Also had to work till late. Sucked at pingpong.

Was supposed to pick up girlfriend's stuff at her father's place but he turned out to be ill. So, made girlfriend dinner and watched her fall asleep on the couch.

Back to work again. Had food at girlfriend's place at night. Expect her to be somewhat of a theme for the next couple of weeks :-)

To wake up on New Year's morning without a hangover is an interesting experience, last time that happened was in Hong Kong, but then the guy spent NY eve with ran away with the hookers, so that may have been a hangover as well :-)

Got a phonecall from McR to check whether he needed to have sex with Nicktor (apparently McR always has sex on Sunday mornings) I told them to masturbate in seperate room so that my group of friends won't go odd.

Spent the rest of the day with girlfriend, fetched her tv from my place, went for a walk and had pizza for dinner. Yay! For girlfriend being back!

The return of girlfriend. Spent the morning cleaning up me and retrieving lots of things that girlfriend might want to have, then eventually picked up Annemarie, drove to Schiphol airport and picked up girlfriend. She still recognises me and wasn't wielding a Finnish boyfriend called Yari *yay!*.

Got blindsided by Annemarie when I had to drive past my place to pick up girlfriend's bedsheets, right before I closed my door, she apparently asked me:"Bring weed". Which, if not expected can apparently be a pretty puzzling sentence. Spent a whole car-ride trying to decide what she wanted me to bring. In the end decided that she probably did say weed, after a quick visit to a coffeeshop and a quick check at girlfriends' place it turned out that I had missed a whole conversation about smoking pot on NY-eve.

Did the first part of my NY-eve in Rotterdam and then took off for Leiden with Nicktor and McR. (Girlfriend didn't feel like coming and we had already decided that we were going). Great party, loads of drunk people, McR managing to spoil Nicktors chances with every girl (and guy) in the room and me sober for the whole evening. Still wondering how that happened, after all I had already arranged for my car to be taken back by McR. A phonecall around midnight to girlfriend taught me that all the weed had already been smoked (the phonecall consisted of 20 minutes of laughter from the other side).

Eventually drove back home, tried to drop off McR at his place, failed, then dropped him off at Nicktor's place and drove girlfriend-wards. Strangely enough she hadn't even passed out :-)

My last night as a single person, well okay, semi-single. At least... girlfriend returns tomorrow. What did I end up doing? Well... there was this weather alert with loads of snow and I already had loads of trouble making it back home through said snowstorm. (The closer to Rotterdam I got, the harder it became to drive in a straight line). Spent another night with my Playstation.

At the same time all the trains in the Netherlands stopped running, Kaz' friend Katherine (who was visiting from Paris) got stuck in Amsterdam with her boyfriend and had to pay 250 euro's for a night in a hotel. (Yes, that's somewhat steep)

Had Cindy over for food, drinks etc. Great fun.

Spent the whoe evening playing San Andreas.

Fabienne has been back in the Netherlands for a while and with all the roads people-less due to the Christmas holidays it even sounded like a feasible plan to pop by right out of work. (She's staying at her parents' place somewhere in the east of the Netherlands)

Nicktor (who works more or less around the corner) joined in for the fun as did McR who would be bringing Lorraine and Arjan. Eventually all made it to Fabienne's place (even though Lorraine looked a bit shaken from the car-ride). Had food, had fun and then drove back home again.

Christmas at aunt's place. More presents, loads of food and loads of fun. Did forget to bring back a grinder for my bike-lock though. Arse!

Christmas! Weird, it feels a lot less christmassy when you wake up all alone in a house without christmas decorations. Threw all the collected christmas presents in the back of my car and took off for parents' place to replace them with new gifts. Got lots of clothes a book with household tips ranging from the useful to the blindingly obvious to the almost surreal ("Do you unexpectedly find yourself without a leather maintenance product?") *Yay!* presents.

Also now the proud owner of 3 packages with girlfriends' name on them. One is cylinder shaped and feels soft-ish, one is square, flat and soft and one is box-shaped and by the feel of it contains a cardboard box. Girlfriend come home, there's presents for you here!

And then Kaz and Martin took off and I got a sympathy christmas dinner from my mum because I didn't have nowhere else to go :-)

And tonight somehow Ellen made me cook her dinner. Ellen always makes me do things I'm not particularly good at (from riding fun fair rides and almost puking afterwards to ordering me to make food for groups of 30+ people). Nicktor joined in for the fun and I managed to make a passable Thai-ish curry. Got joined by Lorraine, and Sabrina later on and celebrated an early new year's eve. (Especially early seeing as the champagne bottle already got opened at 11pm)

Seeing as both Ellen and Lorraine are in the country, we all descended on "Sorgh and Hoop" for food and drink. Even Ruben showed up, Nice to have everybody together again. We are all getting old though, before 1am Ellen, Nicktor and me were the only ones left, with Nicktor being half asleep.

Distressing news of the day: Lorraine hasn't forgotten about the bet I have with her boyfriend about being the fastest to ride a skippyball from her parents' place to mine. I should start training for this match but how does one train for a skippyball contest without receiving the laughter from everybody out on the streets?

Girlfriend is currently in Lapland, she can text me but she can't receive text messages from me. She's taking her time realising this herself, while texting more and more agitated text-messages on the way. Thought this was cute.

Then tonight girlfriend gave up and decided to give me a call to check whether I was dead yet. Failed to pick up the phone in time but got to tell her in the end that I was probably still alive.

Had a meeting in Rotterdam which ended at 7:30 and then I realised that all shops were open for Christmas and that there was nobody walking around. Completed my Christmas shopping in less than no-time, which means I won't have to fight people all day on Saturday in overcrowded shops. *yay!*

Game Time! Spent the whole evening killing dealers, shooting gang members and running over innocent bystanders. Playing San Andreas does make you wonder why everybody in the US started rioting when they heard there were pornographic images to be seen if you modded your game.

Got asked by Erwin to join his pub-quiz team in Leiden. I'm one of the guest players whenever the usuals can't make it. Failed to make a good impression this time though. I did suspect that the suez-channel didn't have any locks but couldn't back it up so got overruled and the only question I knew that none of the others did was the title of the Brian Adams greatest hits album. And let's just say that I wasn't too proud about knowing that one :-)

Didn't even have to work on Sunday *yay!* Unforunately did have to do Christmas-shopping. Managed to spot some of the gifts I needed to buy but then decided that the queues were far too long and left town again. Actually.... the only gift I did buy was a copy of Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. But then that one was for me, and one can never have enough mindlessly violent games in ones gaming collection, right?

Popped by parents place and then failed to game all night because I ended up chatting with girlfriend. (Who was having her last day in Helsinki before taking off Lapland-wards for christmas)

Worked from 9 till 6:15, on a Saturday. Not the best idea ever, I have to say. Had food at Bianca's guest-parents place. Bianca is au-pairing in Rotterdam at the moment, lovely house, after which we hit the clubs in Rotterdam.

Had an interesting night trying to install cable internet at McR's place. Had loads of fun with McR and Arjan trying to get everything to work, at one point we even used a vibrator to check the network cable. (Arjan could work as McGyver) All brilliant ideas to get everything to work turned out to be useless in the end, Mcr had thrown away the letter with the internet-passwords.

Today and yesterday, two more days of business, followed by sleep. Really, there isn't anything else to say about it, I fear.

Good news, had my half yearly evaluation with my practice-manager. They still like me at work, they're letting me stay. Didn't do too bad in the pay-department either. All in all a happy camper. Celebrated by staying at work till 8. Note to self don't check something when you've almost left the place, it will turn out to be broken and you'll have to fix it before you leave.

Cocktail-parties suck, mixing drinks is stupid, hangovers end up somewhat massive. Urgh! Let's just say that I got out of bed at 14:30 and leave it at that.

Out for a team-dinner at night. All did a DIY cooking class, where we had to prepare food for eachother and then all eat it. Apparently the keyword was garlic. Glad that I didn't have to kiss anybody or anything when eventually I made my way back home :-)

The weekend should be for sleeping in... not tod though. Somebody had decided that it would be a funny idea to ask Nicktor whether he'd have food for us if we'd pop in at 7 (yes, that may have been my idea). And sacrifycing ourselves for a good joke, McR and I indeed showed up at Nicktor's place at 7 (am). Unfortunately the promised pizza and chinese food weren't there so we had to improvise him some breakfast. Nicktor looked a bit puzzled, I have to say.

Went back to bed afterwards, bought tickets for the Posies concert in Rotterdam on the 29th of januari. And eventually showed up at Nicktor's place for his birthday cocktail party. My little:"Hey, let's coordinate the alcohol everybody brings"-plan worked out great, many different cocktails were had by all. Amazed by Bianca's talent to think up weird:"Bianca special" cocktails. Also nice to see Oliver again after years and years. Stumbled back home late. Yay for cocktail parties.

Games night at McR's place, with Nicktor. Gamed till late.

Wednesday and thursday were very much alike, so lets put them in one entry. Work till late, home late, not much afterwards. Busy??? Why? :-)

Somebody at work decided that we should try out the stress thing. Interesting but I prefer life without. Home late, straight to bed.

Had the annual "cheese fondue on Sinterklaas"-day with parents, sister, Martin, aunt and uncle. Great fun, found out that 1 of the headlights of my car wasn't working. Have to get that fixed tomorrow.

The magic word of the day:"Sleep". (And trying to find back my bicycle-keys). Succeeded at the sleep part, failed miserably at finding my bicycle keys. I wonder where they are. May have to borrow the grinder again.

Left a chocolate letter in my neighbour's shoe at night (a Dutch tradition, chocolate letters, that is, not leaving them in neighbour's shoes). She'll be puzzled, I guess.

Still feeling far from super. Spent the morning looking at houses on the internet. Not that I'm in that big a rush to buy a place and move out of the current one still it doesn't hurt to keep informed. At the same time I wouldn't be terribly suprised if I were to buy myself a place before the end of this year. Obviously you'll be some of the first to know :-)

Bought a christmas present for my father in the afternoon, did some food shopping, had dinner and watched Madagascar. Not a big fan. Went to bed ridiculously early for a Saturday night. Seeing as Nicktor didn't pop by, I suspect he's out having plenty of drinks, while I feel like I a 29 year old. That's not fair! He's the 29 year old, I'm only 28! Guess I'll go to bed now.

Still not feeling great, unfortunately I get 2 days off extra next year if I'm not ill this year so I'm not going to skip any days of work in December because of me being ill :-) On top of that... When I get up at 6:30 in the morning I'm usually too asleep to notice that I'm even feeling ill :-) Eventually made my way back home and stared at the tv all night.

Startef off pretty well, then at the same time I something which felt half as if I was getting a cold and half as if I had the flu came up. Obiously that's the moment things got hectic. Drove home on autopilot and fell asleep at 9.

While yesterday I got out of work at 8 and found out that the only thing I could have for dinner was a terribly basic pizza with onions, ham and piles of garlic stacked on top of it, today I didn't get out till 7 and had to do my shopping by the:"Dash through the supermarket-method". Yes, I know that getting out of work at 7 isn't that shocking, but once you combine it with the 1 hour absolute minimum commute, your working days do get kind of long.

Oh well, at least I didn't have to eat pizza tonight :-)

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.