Saturday, December 31, 2011

Bye bye 2011!

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We went to Maastricht for new year's eve. For some reason I totally did not feel like staying in the Dam this year. I just wanted to be away. It's funny because every other year I've been wanting to be surrounded by friends. Not this year. Maybe because I've been too busy.

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We had a fantastic 4 course dinner in a very good restaurant.

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Then I bought each of us a 15 euro coffee cup with very good champagne that we could take outside ;-)
We watched the fire works from the river Maas banks.

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Above us.

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Happy new year in Maastricht!

Friday, December 30, 2011

Chipsoft 2012 Poker tournament

On the ferry in the morning.

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On the last (working) day of the year ChipSoft organises a Texas Hold'em poker tournament. Every year more people sign up. I started at table nr. 2 with Esther as dealer. Esther is one of 4 professional dealers dealing for us today. The dealers play big tournaments themselves as well and some have worked as croupiers in casinos.

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The whole room had 4 poker tables in it.

I brought a hat and my sunnies for a change. It didn't help. I got knocked out fairly early.

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Table nr. 1.

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Table nr. 3.

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Table nr. 4 with Rolf "Ace" Slotboom as dealer.

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The final table. 9 players left. 7 players will go home with cash. The nr. 1 player is taking 800 euros home tonight!

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Eelke on the left and Wander on the right playing against each other.

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Final shot. Wander became the best player of the day!

Thursday, December 29, 2011

The beermats

After work I met Marjolein and we went to a games shop called The Gamekeeper. They had looked at my collection Magic the Gathering cards which i wanted to sell and offered me a 100 euro voucher for their shop. I took it but now I have to decide which games to buy...

The Wagamama in the Amstelstraat is now open! We met up with Gerrit and had dinner there. They were having trouble getting their orders out on time and Marjolein and Gerrit's teriyaki salmon took so long that they got their mains for free! Nicely dealt with I must say. I'm very pleased with a Waga's so close to the pub ;-)

A bluegrass band called Cousin daddy was playing in Mulligans which i wanted to check out. Thank god I was in the great company of Marjolein, Gerrit and mic, who joined us later. The music was NOT a reason for staying to be honest...

We stirred up Garreth, one of the bartenders. He hates it when you turn the beermats upside down. He then wrote beautiful poetry on them. Very classy stuff.

To furthermore show what a classy establishment Mulligans is; here is Mic eating his crisps at the bar.

When i walked home around 1:15, I was pelted with hailstones. They hurt me and I had to seek shelter!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

More cards

I received more cards today!

Monday, December 26, 2011

The second day of Christmas

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And on the second day of Christmas we went to visit Marjolein's folks. At the station in Haarlem were a few curious Jackdaws.


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The roof of the station.



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Marjolein bought her mom some tulips.


The other day in Antwerp, I bought this raven staff. I'll make some close ups soon and make a separate blog post about it.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

The first day of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas.... Marjolein and i went to visit my folks. My mom cooked a lovely dinner which all of us enjoyed.