The swing

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Marjolein and I went to Heerhugowaard to visit her folks. It was her moms birthday this week. Now, next to the Heerhugowaard train station, happens to be the biggest model railroad shop in, perhaps, all of the Netherlands! So even though I only had 8 minutes I couldn't resist popping in. In the above picture you see three sizes of model trains. The price of the big LGB-size trains is insane! Beautiful model though.

Marjolein's folks like living on the edge. On the edge of Heerhugowaard to be exactly.

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Marjolein showed me some places from when she was growing up. This was my favourite one. It's behind the house. There is a creek and then fields. It's quiet and open. Beautiful.

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We walked a bit further and came across the old play ground.

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Hi!

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Marjolein enjoying being 5 years old. (I do this every day but for her it's special ;-)

We came across this bridge. Somebody had put the pole next to it but it appears not to have any function. Probably a practical joke. I like.

Back at the house I was showing off my skills in the "Stratego" board game. Marjolein's niece wanted to be anonymous.

Nuts

My tram driver in the morning was verrrrrrrry relaxed...

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Today was nuts at work again but we did no overtime. 3 days in a row is enough.

After work I went home, had a shower and met Marjolein, Mic, Nantko and Gerrit at Wagamama's for some good hot steamy asian food. Afterwards we walked to Mulligans for a few pints. We passed the place where the Amsterdam Apple store is going to be. There was a big photo of the late Steve jobs.

It was nice in Mulligans. I was happy to be out with my best friends and my sunshine.

Steve Jobs died

The sad news of Steve Jobs' death spread through the world like wild fire. I didn't know the man himself but as a techie and a Mac user I had great respect for him and the things he accomplished.

The day was dark and grey. More overtime was required. Lots more.

But we made good progress and at 10PM we called it a day. Unfortunately I had to wait for my ferry for 23 minutes in the cold, windy, rainy darkness, all by myself...

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... and this empty bottle that was being tossed around by the wind.

The replicator

I play a bit of Wordfeud these days. A bit in the morning and a bit in the evening. It's basically scrabble but the rules are a bit more loose. You can play against friends or random people and in different languages.

Big ships next door. They're quite busy at the moment.

Our work replicator. It only replicates coffee.

I ate pizza at work because I did overtime again.

Ira, Bjorn and Sicco were there as well. We're working our asses off at the moment to get some shit done. We're making important progress but more overtime will be required. I stayed till about 9PM today...

Autumn

Autumn is arriving, like it or not. What a shit summer we had. Luckily I had a fantastic vacation in France and enjoyed a couple of very nice times in the sun, like last weekend. Since autumn is unavoidable, bring it on!

The squash

Mic and I played squash. The score.

I think I still had a blister from cycling yesterday but didn't notice until serving very hard for 30 minutes cracked it open.

The extraordinary weather+cycle day

The weather was awesome. Marjolein and I went cycling with Gerrit. So once more we took the ferry to the North.

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The meister. I've never taken it this far and while I'm writing this I'm feeling the consequences ;-) But you just have to ride with opportunities like this...

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Leaving Amsterdam is cool. You cross underneath a bridge and suddenly you find yourself between water and fields with cows. It makes for a shocker of a return in to town though. It's almost depressing I find. Almost...

This is where I'd usually take a left and cycle a smaller round. This time we continued next to the water of the IJselmeer lake. We had a clear target for today!

There were enormous amounts of birds in the water. Never seen so many. It was mostly one kind as well.

The last stretch; the dyke that turned the island "Marken" in to a peninsula.

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Welcome to Marken! Beh-heh-heh-heh!

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Marjolein, Gerrit and myself. Typical Marken houses in the background. We made it. Or did we?

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Actually the ultimate goal was to see the light house on the far end of the island. So we made a few more piccies and took off.

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Only to run in to my mom and dad! I was too sticky to touch anybody so I'm sitting there like a bag of sand, sorry ;-P

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But then, finally: The light house. And there was a bloody gate because it was private property. So we couldn't get any closer. There wasn't much else to do really so we had ice cream and cold water and then continued to the old town to hit a terrace.

Hitting the terrace.

I tried a new, sweet and fruity beer. Can't remember the name but I liked it a lot.

There were sparrows that ate from your hand.

The old town.

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Who said the sun is round? I'm proving with this picture... that is is square!

We had to also cycle back and we were already getting tired. So through fields we went, ditching tractors and puddles and oncoming traffic.

This creature was sitting in the middle, right above my door when I got home.

It was an awesome, fantastically spent day. Seriously un-real weather for a second day of October.