Saturday, January 21, 2012

Out of vases.

The bridge at the Elandsgracht was finally open again a few weeks ago. It's been closed for over half a year.

I went for a little walk around the hood hoping I'd find new shoes but no. Nothing appealed to me. I may have to go to the shopping street from hell...

At least my walking boots were ready to be picked up from the shoe-maker. I had new soles put under them. let's hope they will last a while.

In the afternoon I went to see what was happening at CLC. it was busy!

Nicole is now officially out of vases...

Back at home I started repairing the tiniest of my locomotives. It was sold to me with a big fat discount coz it wasn't going anywhere.

I quickly figured out the problem.

The power is being taken off of the wheels by a tiny little copper spring pressing against the backside of the wheel. At least, that's where it -should- be pressing!

But it wasn't. Someone must have taken it apart without really understanding how it works and put the wheels back with the spring against the front of it.

I fixed it and now it works again :-)

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Then I played a bit more World of Warcraft. I'm quite enjoying this game again at the moment, I find it relaxing.

I met the Earth mother.

Friday, January 20, 2012

The train repairs

Early morning I went to check in at Cake loves coffee to see how things were going and they were going well.

I had a chat with mom and dad on Skype. They're coming over on Sunday.

Then I went out again to get little lights for in a model train locomotive. In the shop they were selling a tiny milling machine and when I started a little chat about it with the shop keeper she gave me this brochure which is very interesting because apparently there is a whole range of "mini" equipment for sale that I would loooooove to have in my workshop!

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I also ran into this... whatever it is. Maybe the person played too much WoW and started making shoulder pads....

At home I wanted to repair a model train that I bought as a defect. It was a mess indeed. Someone has been poking around in it with a soldering iron.

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This was the worst... The back metal strip that's acting as a spring and relays the power from the wheel to the chassis has been replaced by a stiff piece of copper wire and attached with a huge blob of solder.

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I replaced it with a new spring I cut off another un-used part and soldered it on very nice.

After I put the train back together it was working again :-)

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Cake loves coffee is open!

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Today Nic's shop "Cake loves coffee" opened its doors for the public! She opens early and I wanted to be the first customer, and I was!

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All the gorgeous cakes were displayed nicely and the shop looked great. It was good that I came early because we could give the register a good test run.

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I had a few coffees and some cake and hung around for a while. Petra stopped by pretty early as well.

I had to do something about my very old plant that grew all crooked after I left to Australia. I have cut off the (straight) tip and put it in a vase with water. It ~should~ grow roots now... The remaining stem should grow several new branches at the place where it got cut. We'll wait and see...

In the afternoon I went to my sunshine :-) I fixed the little shed that's slowly rotting away and falling apart. It received a lease on life ;-)

It also got a new lock.

After dinner we went to see a movie called Tyrannosaur. I liked it. It's drama which I thought I hated but the opposite seemed true.

It played in an art house cinema.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

The frisbee cookies

One day to go till Nicole shop "Cake loves coffee" opens. It's very exciting!

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Yesterday I put up a few last things for her. makes the whole place look nicer.

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Mic came by with Noortje.

It was a blessing that they did because Nic's new fridge was delivered just before they arrived and I couldn't get it in just by myself. Mic helped and i spent an hour getting rid of the packaging!

In the afternoon I wanted to bake cookies. I'd never baked cookies before so I just put them on a tray like this.

This is how they came out. Love it!

I still had dough left over so I made 2 more cookies. Kinda like, giant frisbee-cookies, hehe.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

My crow durid.

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I played more World of Warcraft today than in the past 4 months. It was nice. WoW is still awesome in every single way.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Gardening

I had some old bread and thought the birds would like some. Oh they did! There were hundreds!

I finally did up my garden a bit. This is before...

... and this is after. Can you see the difference?

I helped nicole with a couple of things in the shop and witnessed the first cake being made!

Early evening my sunshine needed me so I jumped on a train to Haarlem.

That's where I was goin'.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Cycling to Spaarndam

... takin' the bus to Haarlem to meet my sunshine for a bit of outdoors activity today.

Windmill along the way.

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We cycled to Spaarndam. We stopped a few times along the way to check out the local wildlife.

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Not too wild but nice nonetheless.

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My sunshine :-)

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There were the most amazing clouds.

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And also warm rays of sunlight.

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Old fortress.

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Concrete house boat.

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The little town of Spaarndam.

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Back in Haarlem we had a drink in town.

In the tram home this little doggy came to say hello to me.