Vincent Mobile Blog

Phone-cooking

2012-03-14T22:34:00.003+01:00

I did some old-fashioned phone-cooking tonight. I cooked me some lasagna.

Squashed out

2012-03-13T22:24:00.000+01:00

Some folks are stretching Christmas to the max...

In the evening I went to Mic for dinner before we played squash. Squash went well. My knee didn't hurt.

Meldpunt Midden en Oost Europeanen

2012-03-12T08:58:00.000+01:00

I went to Marjolein after work. She has daffodils.

Some of you may have heard of the filthy PVV website (Meldpunt Midden en Oost Europeanen) where you can file your complaints about eastern europeans and how they stole your job and engage in criminal activities etc. etc.

You can however also declare that you have NO troubles with eastern europeans! So I did! And I think more people should do so :-)

Sun!

2012-03-11T18:45:00.001+01:00

The weather was very nice today so I decided to go for a little bicycle ride. It was busy outside! It was also a test for my knee. It's still not well.

People were swarming the park.

On the way home I had cake and a drink at Nic's shop.

The plants in my little garden are coming alive again :-)

My first whisky

2012-03-10T22:04:00.001+01:00

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The first whisky ever that I bought for myself. I had some last weekend and liked it, almost a miracle. I hope the Dalwhinnie will like me too :-)

I went to town for a couple of things. I thought I'd have a look at the new Apple store. This is the glass staircase that's in all the stores around the world I believe. Nice.

It was incredibly busy. The place looked great but the merchandise was disappointing. I have a 27" iMac myself and will never have any other desktop system because I just love it. But really Apple sells 5 things: iPods, iPhones, iPads, iMacs and i... no, Macbook's. Oh, and server hardware but I didn't see any of that. Downstairs was for iPads and iMacs and upstairs was for iPods, iPhones and Macbooks and accessories.

There are about 100 iPads, 20 iMacs and 25 Macbooks on display. It's just more of the same where ever you look!

I'm OK with paying a lot for my iMac. But the accessories like headphones or loudspeaker systems for iPhones/iPods are incredibly overpriced.

There was also some kind of show.

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Carlos Vamos was playing on Leidseplein.

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These two buildings are called "The two sisters" I believe.

Sexy dresses.

I had a few pints in Mulligans. There was rugby on.

The container

2012-03-09T21:38:00.000+01:00

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My neighbours are renovating BIG and needed a container for their rubbish. It was delivered by a little truck. I looked up the costs and discovered that hiring a container and having it picked up only costs 145 euro! For some reason i thought it would be a lot more expensive...

They started filling it up which was quite dusty. It wasn't coming my way at least...

In the meantime I was quite busy filling up my bin with tissues. I had one of those colds that come very sudden, are quite heavy and are over in 1-2 days. Kinda insane really. You ever have those?

At the end of the day the container was picked up again. Nice.

My dinner was very yummy :-)

Sick

2012-03-08T20:31:00.000+01:00

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On my way home from work. I left with a cold. Don't think I'll be working tomorrow :-(

I had to get a receipt from the camera shop. They close at 18:00 the sign says. I got there at 17:53. I hate them. Every little thing they did for me got fucked up. I hope I never ever have to go here again...

Music on the work floor

2012-03-07T21:07:00.001+01:00

This is tea. I drink this while listening to some nice classical music tonight.

I had a rough day at work. 2 colleagues keep demanding I do not play any music at all. They claim they can't work with music. They demand total and complete musical silence for themselves, from me.

The silence drives me nuts. All I hear is sniffing, chewing and chair cracking from them which makes it hard for me to focus. I need music to obscure those sounds. The music creates a background for me to work against but they fail to understand.

So I have headphones on a lot of the time which lets me work but gives me the feeling I might as well have my desk in a closet. Cut-off from people. But I do this 4 days a week to keep the peace.

So today the other colleague who sometimes plays music himself using headphones started demanding I never ever play music out loud again.

Now THAT, shits me!

So I refused.

Ice cream!

2012-03-06T20:43:00.000+01:00

My plant at work is making new leaves again. It still loves me! :-)

Today we had the first icecream van visit of the year. The weather sucked but the die-hards (all 4...) came out. I was first ;-)

There was a lot of ship-action behind the station on my way home.

The altar.

2012-03-05T20:38:00.000+01:00

This my little "altar" now. There are little old cacti, a fish in stone from a very long time ago, a piece of pink granite from Brittany, France and a little statue of St. Vincent. The fish was given to me by my dad for which I am very thankful. St. Vincent is from France where I had a fantastic vacation with Marjolein.

Marjolein sent me this card. I like it very much :-)

The Rammstein concert

2012-03-04T18:26:00.000+01:00

Today was Rammstein-day.

I went to see them play live at Ahoy in Rotterdam with my friends Nancy, Ruud and Mic. For the first time I took a camera to a concert like this, hoping I could make a few good photos but the quality of my brand new Fuji F550 exceeded my expectations!

Here are the photos of the concert. They speak for themselves. You can click or download each one to get a 2048 pixels wide image.

Enjoy :-)

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Nancy, Ruud and Mic.

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My favourite photo.

The Amsterdam Apple Store opening

2012-03-03T19:46:00.000+01:00

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This is the Hirsch building at Leidseplein in Amsterdam. It's one of Amsterdam's landmarks if you ask me but it's been kinda hidden for years due to reconstruction work.

Today Apple opened an official Apple Store in it, next to a Mini (the car) store. Finally some classy new stores that are not clothing shops or warehouses. The location of this new Apple Store couldn't be any better for me as it's a 5 minute walk from where I live. (DANGER! DANGER!)

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I honestly wasn't expecting much of a line-up but when I got there... Oh-My-God! The line-up went all the way around the corner towards the entrance of the Vondelpark!

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A few minutes before 10AM the 300 people Apple crew gathered behind the door to welcome the first customers.

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Almost.

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The crew counting down from 10 to 1...

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And there the doors swing open.

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This gentleman was the first customer. Backpack with sleeping bag on his bag and all... Rumour has it that he is actually German and tries to be the first customer where ever in Europe a new Apple Store is being opened!

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On the other side of the building there was a lonely guard. I think he had a great time not having to do anything else but standing there ;-)

The back of the line-up 45 minutes after the opening...

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When I came home there was a beautiful little creature sitting in my garden.

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These are the tickets for tomorrow's concert I'm going to with Nancy, Mic and Ruud.

RAMM! STEIN!

The crane

2012-03-02T20:53:00.002+01:00

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I left work a bit later so I could finish something, which I did. Now it's weekend.

Tomorrow the Apple store is opening in Amsterdam. I'm gonna go have a look. I wonder how busy it's going to be...

Ehm...

2012-03-01T20:41:00.000+01:00

I forgot to make any pictures today whatsoever. Not very handy when you keep a PHOTO-blog... Well, I don't have any, it's that simple. I'm also not going to make them up. I guess this gives the blog more authenticity I guess. or not. Anyway...

I worked hard for my boss today and also for my bills and so that I can live where I live which is awesome.
Marjolein came over for dinner and we had a quiet evening together which was nice.

And then I went to bed.

Don't smoke

2012-02-29T23:21:00.000+01:00

I went to see the doctor about my knee today. If it doesn't improve I can come back and get a referral for an MRI scan. I want my knee fixed. I need my knee.

In the evening I had a meeting with the owners of the apartments in my building. It was good.

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Saw this in the metro. I like it. Sums it all up pretty much, really.

Tom poezen

2012-02-28T23:14:00.000+01:00

I bought some Tom poezen on my way to work for no reason. Don't really need one except that it had been god I dunno how long since I bought cake like that. They were good. People liked them.

Julia's

2012-02-27T23:13:00.000+01:00

On my way home from work I didn't know what to eat and then I saw this Italian food place called "Julia's" at the station. I'd been curious for a while so I thought I'd give them a shot.

Well, that's not worth my money. I bought a simple penne a la bolognese. There was a lot of penne but just enough bolognese to color it a bit read and to give it a slight tomato flavour. Hardly and mince in it. Not thrilled about it, sorry...

Hot Club De Frank

2012-02-26T23:09:00.000+01:00

I went food shopping this morning and ran in to some copper action!

Most of them had gone in already except for these 2. or maybe they had come back especially to get dressed up and get a doggie.

2 big coppers in riot gear and 1 doggie went in. Something was going on at the top floor. Dunno what really. It got boring and I walked on.

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Marjolein and I went to "Dante" in the evening to check out a band called "Hot Club De Frank". They make Swing, Gypsy, Jazz music.

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There was a photo of the late Herman Brood on the back wall. Herman used to live/work/paint upstairs from Dante.

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The bar viewed from the 1st floor. Very cool with all the bottles.

The beach

2012-02-25T22:46:00.000+01:00

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The top of the plant that I cut up in pieces (in an attempt to create a good looking plant again) is rooting! I'm mighty excited about this and very happy it's not dying.

The trunk it was once on is still standing and not drying out which is a good sign I s'pose.

The little 10 cm middle bit I also cut out seems to be having a harder time. Half is dried out and the other half that's submerged in water isn't rooting (yet)...

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I went to the beach with Marjolein and took my big camera with me. In a park close to her house flowers have sprung.

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At the beach lots of razor shells had washed up. Sea birds were having a good time finding snacks in them. The ball was put in this photo by a happy dog.

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Marjolein has wanted to be able to take good and close pictures of these little birds for a while and today there were loads. They are sanderlings. They run after the rolling waves looking for food.

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They run around the beach all the time. They're also quite fast flyers. If you want to be really stunned, look at their journeys from Greenland to Africa and back. This website is in Dutch but you can do without reading:
- http://www.drieteenstrandloper.nl/blog/?cat=34

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The weather was great most of the day. It was fantastic to see so much blue sky again.

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I photographed a few objects I found on the beach, like this little bottle.

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A Heineken can.

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Glove.

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Another big bottle.

More Boots

2012-02-24T19:54:00.001+01:00

Car. Very nice car. Porsche Panamera actually. For sale from 101,000 euros...

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Boots. Not for sale.

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More Boots.

The cnut tram driver.

2012-02-23T20:59:00.000+01:00

After work I went to a shoe shop where I bought some shoes yesterday. Because I rushed yesterday (shoes are fab though!) I went back to have a better look. They've got some BIG bargains on right now you see ;-) But nothing caught my eye so I went back to the tram stop.

The stop is in a bend. I was standing at the front and a tram 2 was there. I didn't know tram 17 had parked behind it because I can't see it... So tram 2 drives off and there's the 17! So I run towards it but halfway she closes the doors and drives up to the front of the platform. The light is red, plenty of time to let me (and others who had missed it) on. I knock on the windows at the back, where the conductor sits. He can't open the door coz the driver refuses to. So I rush to the front and stand in front of the tram knocking on her window. The bitch of a tram driver totally ignores me and then the light went white for her (= green) but since I was standing in front she couldn't drive off, hah! Almost knocking the windshield out she chose to totally ignore me. I don't think I've ever before seen such cunty behaviour by a tram driver!

I gave up after 2 minutes but this photo and a BIG FAT COMPLAINT TO THE GVB are going out tonight!

Meeting Patricia :-)

2012-02-22T20:49:00.000+01:00

On my way home from work.

Marjolein and I met up with Patricia and Martijn over a very nice Japanese dinner. It was very nice to see them again and we chatted a lot.

The birds

2012-02-21T23:48:00.000+01:00

I went to see Marjolein tonight.

On the way to her house we fed the birds which was cool. First there were only a few but at some point there was an explosion of birds!

The devil's parking

2012-02-20T19:54:00.002+01:00

The devil's parking garage is in Amsterdam.

Where else?

I went to the pub after work. Old habits don't die ;-)

Hail

2012-02-19T20:18:00.001+01:00

This was about the most exciting my day got today. 15 minutes of hail coming down during a otherwise rather sunny day!

The whiskies

2012-02-18T19:40:00.000+01:00

During my shopping round this morning I discovered gutted houses. Interesting sites for me!

Fascinating spaces like this. You don't get to seem in this state often.

Late afternoon I took the tram to the station. This little boy or girl was sitting next to me, very cute. It was only later that I found out there was another little black doggie traveling with this one :-)

First time I saw these at the escalators in the station... They tell people to stand still on the right so that people in a hurry can pass on the left.

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This is the big church in Alkmaar, where I went with Mic and Marjolein and 2 friends of her. There was a big whisky (tasting) festival going on...

This bagpiper sometimes stands on Dam square in Amsterdam.

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And then there was whisky. I don't think I've ever seen so much whisky ever before in my life.

Marjolein said hi to someone she knows on facebook, which was cool.

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I'm not a big fan of whisky. At the moment I want to give it a fair go and see if I can develop a taste for it but it's tough on my taste buds. Still, from a curiousity point of view I thought it was a very cool experience and I did get a reasonable good sense of what kinds are available:
- Kinds that burn off my taste buds within 1 second
- Kinds that burn off my taste buds within 5 seconds

Nah, seriously, I'm more for the "softer" ones where Marjolein loves the heavier stuff like the peaty whiskies.

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There were also other things to admire than whisky. Like this gigantic church organ. There is one exactly like it in the big church in Haarlem.

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Mic and Marjolein. Yeah, certain individuals got quite giggly after god knows how many whiskies tastings ;-)

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Me and my sunshine, Marjolein :-)

Bye bye ice...

2012-02-17T23:30:00.000+01:00

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The ice in the canals is almost gone.

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Bye bye ice...

Old Crafty

2012-02-16T21:24:00.001+01:00

I played a bit of WoW tonight and finally, after a few thousand fish, I have caught Old Crafty!

Paul's plants

2012-02-15T20:33:00.001+01:00

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Nice skies going to work.

My colleague Paul is a bit concerned about his plants. I don't think they want to go back to his desk because at my desk they do not get harmed by balls being thrown around! (Because I'd kill everybody who harms my plants on purpose...)

My valentine

2012-02-14T20:28:00.000+01:00

I had a date with my valentine today so I needed a few flowers of course. I wasn't the only one needing flowers...

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My valentine with her flowers :-)

Farewell Dick.

2012-02-13T23:38:00.000+01:00

Today was a sad day because we said farewell to our friend Dick de Leeuw. He died last week after a tough battle with cancer which he very unfortunately lost.

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A lot of people came to pay their last respects to him and to show support for his wife, Miriam. Kind words were spoken of this special person that he was.

Walking back to the car we passed Frosty the snowman. He was fighting his own battle with the weather.

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In Irish tradition there was a wake to celebrate Dick's life. We drove back to Mulligans with Mic, Mickey and Nantko.

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There was a very good session at the pub.

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Marjolein and Gerrit and lots of other friends and family.

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Dick's brother, Jan, in the top-left corner and Miriam just off the centre towards the right.

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Isaac and Siard.

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My sunshine and I.

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People just weren't leaving. It was a great gathering that Dick would've liked. I'm sure he was still hanging around with us and he must have enjoyed seeing us drink in his honour :-)

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And then we went to Wagamama for some dinner.

The canals

2012-02-12T22:29:00.000+01:00

Ah.. lazy Sunday. I got up slowly, went out to get croissants, had a shower and then set out to walk in to town to photograph the frozen canals. I took my old bread out to the birds.

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Today was likely to be the last day that people could be on the ice coz it will start melting tomorrow according to the weather forecasts. Everybody seemed to love the ice. Even pram-pushers....

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I loved this dog. She loved running over the ice.

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Prinsengracht.

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Westerkerk.

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Some people take their bicycle on the ice.

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I bought these games with the voucher that I got by selling my Magic the Gathering cards. I'm very happy to have my own copy of monopoly. Never played the other 2 games but people told me about them and they sounded cool!

I cooked Bobotie tonight.

The trap

2012-02-11T21:47:00.000+01:00

We bought gifts for the mice. Rumour has it that one of the 2 adult mice have been "trapped" already which is good news.

The Sebastiaan Cornelissen quartet

2012-02-10T21:37:00.000+01:00

After work I went to Marjolein. I took some piccies on my way there. It's VERY cold right now.

She used to have 1 mouse for quite some time. Then she thought maybe 2. Tonight we counted 8. Time for some action!

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After a wonderful meal that she cooked we went to the Haarlemse Jazzclub. We didn't really have any problems finding it but it is a bit hidden away in some arty complex that used to be the old tax office. A sculpturer had a small exhibition in the hall way. Quite cool I thought.

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All these sculptures are made out of 1 piece of rock.

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Neat eh?

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The Sebastiaan Cornelissen quartet was playing. Very talented musicians performing at a very high level. It was great seeing and hearing them.

The root canal

2012-02-09T20:09:00.002+01:00

No, this is not the root-canal. I had to see the dentist today for a bit of a root-canal treatment. Was nervous all bloody week. Got there too early and didn't wanna wait in the waiting room with pictures of tooth-insides on the wall explaining me what she was gonna rip out or cut in to or whatever. So I walked around a bit. Things look nice with the canals frozen over.

The root-canal went quite well, despite my dentist cheering over the fabulous discovery that my molars don't have the normal three roots but instead have FOUR. Oh joy, I was so excited... Gotta say that the whole thing was reasonably pain-free. Nothing to worry about.

Now we wait for the bill...

I did some Dutch shopping later. My life is so exciting sometimes...

It's Rudi time!

2012-02-08T19:58:00.000+01:00

After work I went out with my sunshine Marjoleintje and my mate Ruud. Drinks, dinner and more drinks! We had a great night and it was good to see Ruud again.

Pain

2012-02-07T20:42:00.002+01:00

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On the ferry home. Not much happened today. I'm counting down til I have to go to the dentist on Thursday. I can't think beyond that appointment... I want the pain in my tooth to be over, it's so tiring.

The departure

2012-02-06T22:34:00.001+01:00

People were ice skating on my canal.

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Today the very sad news was announced that a mate of mine, Dick de Leeuw, had lost the battle he fought with cancer. Every person who knew him will be deeply touched by the loss of this wonderful man. It's made me very sad and I feel so, so sorry for Miriam, who has lost an incredible husband.

Rest in peace, Dick, you will be missed.

The winter walk

2012-02-05T22:24:00.000+01:00

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Waiting for Marjolein at Haarlem train station.

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A little Robin greeted us as we started a big walk through the snowy dunes.

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The little lake has frozen over and allowed people to walk to the other side in a straight line for a change.

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Marjolen sliding on the ice.

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Everything was covered in snow.

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We walked for a good few hours and then we reached the beach.

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Beach.

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The withdrawing water left ice-shrooms on the beach. It was an awesome sight!

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The sky was stunning.

No nuking allowed by dogs!

2012-02-04T21:05:00.005+01:00

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No nuking allowed by dogs!

My back yard covered in snow.

The front was also covered in snow. Since I'm a good citizen I keep "my" sidewalk clean.

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My street. I went for a walk to make some photos around the hood.

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Swan. Possibly the same as yesterday's.

The Secret Sisters

2012-02-03T20:35:00.000+01:00

Walking to work I saw the canal had frozen over. Yep, it's cold!

While at work it started snowing. Quite hard as well. It put certain parts of the country to a stand still.

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My colleague Bjorn brought his dog Boots to work today. Boots is cool. And he's a good boy. It's very hard to get him to pose though but eventually he sat down, huffing and puffing through his little nose.

At the end of the day only 1 mini-bus was available so I let women and children go first... I had to walk through the (at some parts wet and muddy) snow with my sneakers.

I was meeting Marjolein at the station but the snow had also fucked up railroad traffic and she was 40 minutes late.

It was a nuthouse and by the time she arrived my feet were partly wet and freezing.

After a quick bite at my place we went to a concert by the English band Bellowhead.

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Their opening act were the Secret Sisters. Their voices blew me away! I bought their cd right away. It's a pity we got in so late that we missed two thirds of their concert...

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Bellowhead is a big band. Eleven members on stage. Their music was not like anything I had heard before really. This is one side of the stage...

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... and that's the other side. Very lively, energetic band. Bit odd that we were all seated...

The sunshine edition

2012-02-02T08:20:00.000+01:00

My sunshine and I went for a bite at the new Wagamama again.

Because we went to Mulligans to see a band.

The cool building edition

2012-02-01T20:06:00.001+01:00

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I took my big camera to work today. The weather was great and I wanted to make some decent photographs, possibly some I could use to create an HDR image.
This is close to my tram stop.

A ferry unloading and loading.

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Crossing the water. View to the West.

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Crossing the water. View to the East.

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Shipyard next door.

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We've got some cool buildings around where I work. Like this one.

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And this one.

A beautiful day

2012-01-31T20:28:00.001+01:00

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This morning I visited a client from work. It's a mental institution. A BIG one. People live there on campus, some their whole life, supported by staff. Some only for a year to recover from trauma until they can look after themselves again. I'm glad these kinds of places are around.

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I drove back by train through a little nature reserve.

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Nice views as the weather was freezing but beautiful

I worked from home the rest of the day. In the evening I went to Nic's cake shop to fix a few things. I nailed down this loose skirting board.

And I painted the edge of the shelves white.

Snow

2012-01-30T20:06:00.000+01:00

It snowed... a tiny bit. On cars...

On benches...

On the boats...

And in the parking lot at work.

And it stayed all day. Because it's cold. And I don't like the cold at all.

The canal tour

2012-01-29T21:19:00.000+01:00

Marjolein and I went on a canal tour today, just for fun and to make some photos. The weather was rather shit however so the photos didn't turn out too well...

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Amsterdam looks nice from the water.

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Marjoleintje :-)

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This house was build by an Italian merchant in the 1700's. Rather awesome.

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We also saw these 2 swans. Magnificent.

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Three houses on the Brouwersgracht.

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Afterwards we met with Gerrit at Mulligans and then went for dinner. When we came back there was a ghost-dog!

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The bar.

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The session.

The weather forecast... Me no happy!

Meeting Thrall

2012-01-28T20:40:00.001+01:00

I had a meeting with Thrall in the morning. But then he got kidnapped and I had to kill a hundred elementals to free him again together with his lady friend ;-) Everything went well and at the end he gave me a nice cloak!

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Cake Loves Coffee now has opening times on the window.

Happy

2012-01-27T22:01:00.000+01:00

That little red dot is my colleague Bas with whom I used to be on the ferry often. Due to my shit knee I now take another ferry and then a little mini-bus to work. (The bus is actually chartered by my work)

The new "Eye" building right next to the old "Shell" building.

There were cakes at work due to some birthdays.

Cake makes me very happy!

The ham, cheese and pesto sandwiches

2012-01-26T19:38:00.000+01:00

For today's dinner I used: 4 slices of whole wheat bread, 2 slices of ham, 2 slices of cheese and pesto.

Put a lot of pesto on 2 of the slices. The bread is dry, it will suck up oil, use a lot!

Then put on the ham.

Slap on some cheese.

Add the remaining slices and eat. It's super simple but verrrrry tasty and I like it :-)

The new plant in town

2012-01-25T19:26:00.000+01:00

My ferry view these days. I'm only doing the short route across and then I take the mini-bus to work. I don't want to walk too much at the moment because of my knee. It's had a bit too much lately I think and I wanna give it a rest to see if it will improve.

I had a little plant project going on at work. This plant was abandoned so I took it in. The pot was way too small! It nearly tipped over.

So I found 2 un-used pots with dirt left in them and put all the dirt in one pot and then put the plant in it. Now it stands strong again with room to spread out its roots. And my office has an awesome plant! :-)

The sunrise

2012-01-24T21:05:00.000+01:00

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Sunrise as I was going to work this morning.

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The train I ordered last week was waiting for me at work. It's a nice little kit. It hasn't been made for quite a while...

I'm looking after my colleague Paul's plants because he's in South Africa for 3 weeks.

My dinner

2012-01-23T21:01:00.000+01:00

Tonight there was a meat ball.

And also andive with potatoes. Bit too many potatoes really...

But it was good! :-)

Picking

2012-01-22T11:33:00.000+01:00

My mom and dad looking at the menu at Wagamam. They came with Marjolein and me after we had visited Nicole in her new cake shop.

After dinner Marjolein and I went to Mulligans for a few drinks.

Out of vases.

2012-01-21T18:45:00.000+01:00

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.

The train repairs

2012-01-20T23:30:00.000+01:00

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 :-)

Cake loves coffee is open!

2012-01-19T23:08:00.000+01:00

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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.

The frisbee cookies

2012-01-18T22:22:00.000+01:00

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.

My crow durid.

2012-01-17T21:37:00.002+01:00

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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.

Gardening

2012-01-16T21:09:00.000+01:00

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'.

Cycling to Spaarndam

2012-01-15T21:03:00.000+01:00

... 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.

The blinds

2012-01-14T21:48:00.000+01:00

This is my "street". It's a canal! And a nice one too :-) I live somewhere on the left, can't see my house.

I had no real plans today, only thing I really always *need* to do on Saturday is water my plants, which I usually do soon after I get up. I thought I'd maintain my garden a little bit but instead ended up at nic's shop where I wanted to deliver my old laptop. But since I was there I thought I fix some more things instead of next week.

So I put up this blackboard.

And some blinds.

I can't wait for the shop to open on Thursday. I wanna be the first customer and I think I want the classic combination of a cappuccino and chocolate cake :-)

Meat balls!

2012-01-13T12:22:00.000+01:00

This is my 8 year old laptop. It's rather a useless object just good enough for gathering dust unless... you are about to open a shop and just need it for streaming music and web browsing! So I have re-installed it and will give it to Nicole.

I felt like cooking so I made meat balls. They were actually very nice. I really should buy some apple sauce. God I love meat balls with apple sauce :-)

I also steamed some green beans. Very nice. I'm so glad I found out about steaming veggies.

And to not make it all toooo healthy I added over fries.

Bon apetit!

The counter part II, shelves, frames and a fire extinguisher.

2012-01-12T22:39:00.000+01:00

You wouldn't say so but I do actually have a full-time job as a software engineer that occupies me for over 8 hours a day ;-)

So in the evening I went to Nicole's shop again to finish a few more things. Starting with stabilizing the counter and putting 1 shelf in it.

Then some shelves in the little kitchen.

And some frames on the wall.

And finally the fire extinguisher.

The counter.

2012-01-11T23:37:00.001+01:00

I worked on a counter for Nic's shop.

It went very well but now I'm a bit knackered. Good thing I have next week off :-) The counter is not 100% finished yet by the way. The corner will get a bit of corner profile on it and the side of the top will be glued on as well. Oh and it also needs shelves on the inside.

"Mic"

2012-01-10T00:26:00.000+01:00

The "ship-art" has been restored to it's former glory. Now they can put it back so the hooligans can tip it over again...

This one's for my mate mic - hehe.

The HEMA office.

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When walking Marjolein to the tram stop I spotted this "person" standing on the sidewalk.

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It turned out to be the charging pole for electric cars!

Happy birthday mom!

2012-01-09T22:40:00.000+01:00

I went to the DIY store with Nicole today to buy wood for the counter. I'm having big bits cut at the shop. Should all be delivered on Wednesday so hopefully I can put it together Wednesday night. Gonna be a nice little DIY project!

Also today is my moms birthday. Happy birthday mom!

I went to Alkmaar again

2012-01-08T21:17:00.000+01:00

In the supermarket this morning, I found 5!!! packets of cake mix that were well past their due-date. I took them to one of the 8 year old employees who managed to stutter an "Oh my gawd" to her 9 year old colleague behind the counter...

I spotted this little fella holding on to one of my plants. I dunno if it's eating. I don't even know if it's still alive!

In the afternoon I visited my family. Tomorrow is my mom's birthday.

My mom and Ilse.

My dad and Cassie.

The back-ache

2012-01-07T23:02:00.001+01:00

I woke up with a little bit of back pain today. Not realising how bad it was I met Nicole for a trip to the Praxis to see how much it would cost to make a counter for her shop.
The result concerning the counter were great! I'll make her one next week. My back however got worse and worse and I had to stay home the rest of the day :-(

Bye bye Christmas tree, see you next year!

2012-01-06T21:49:00.004+01:00

The clouds this morning while I was waiting for the ferry were awesome and wild. It was still very windy.

I took the Christmas tree down at work.

During dinner i watched the last episode of Bottom.

Get some glasses!

2012-01-05T21:46:00.000+01:00

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First things first! After a year or so I finally managed to get my chef's hat in World of Warcraft. It took a lot of cooking to get it!

The cleaner's strike is still on. It's definitely getting messy now!

Someone on my ferry should consider getting glasses I think.

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I went upstairs to my old office to take a photo.

Cake loves coffee

2012-01-04T22:04:00.001+01:00

The cleaners are on strike again. Great. Just fabulous. Awesome. And smelly...

After work I met Nicole at her shop to help her put the lettering on the window.

Phase 1: positioning.

Phase 2: Testing.

Phase 3: Sticking it on and peeling off excess plastic.

Phase 4: Admiring the awesomeness that is the "Cake loves coffee" logo. I think it looks great :-)

The emergency money

2012-01-03T21:47:00.000+01:00

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Tanja put up a Jean-Claude van Damme poster today. She must be a fan. I'm thrilled for her ;-)

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Ship yard action. I went upstairs to my old office. I do miss the view. A lot more exciting than the one downstairs. I do not miss all the bullshitting though!

A lot of rain fell today. There was an enormous puddle on my way back. Kinda like a small lake had formed.

This sign says: Park your bicycle in the square.

Does it work? No!

In the evening I met with Marjolein, Mic and Gerrit in Mulligans for a new years toast. We wished people lots of health and happiness and strength. I hope it worked. Alex was there as well.

The four of us went to the new Wagamama.

I discovered a new, awesome dish called chicken donburi. It's the new No. 1.

Mic and I split this note in two a very long time ago (more than 12 years ago). The left half I keep and mic keeps the right half. It's in our wallets. It's from before the euro. It was s'posed to be emergency drinking money once.

Not busy!

2012-01-02T22:40:00.002+01:00

Business as usual today. On my way to work. This sign's been there for months. I guess they've figured out by now that it's not actually busy at the top...

My Facebook app is very confused...

Happy new year!

2012-01-01T22:38:00.000+01:00

Our hotel.

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After a very nice breakfast we went for a little walk through town. Everything was still closed. Even the water mill wasn't running.

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View towards the old city wall from the big pedestrian bridge.

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We took a train home (not this one) mid-arvo.

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I went home with Marjolein to have Indian take-away. It was pouring down with rain. Yuck.

Bye bye 2011!

2011-12-31T22:32:00.000+01:00

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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!

Chipsoft 2012 Poker tournament

2011-12-30T22:57:00.000+01:00

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!

The beermats

2011-12-29T22:39:00.000+01:00

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!

Christmas drove me nuts

2011-12-28T22:00:00.000+01:00

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Nuts.

More cards

2011-12-27T21:57:00.000+01:00

I received more cards today!

The second day of Christmas

2011-12-26T21:54:00.000+01:00

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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.

The first day of Christmas

2011-12-25T21:50:00.000+01:00

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.

The dinner

2011-12-24T21:48:00.000+01:00

I had invited Marjolein, Nantko and Gerrit over for dinner tonight. The only thing missing still were most ingredients and a steaming pan. So first things first, I went out to get me a steaming pan. The morning had been quite nice so far but as soon as i stepped outside it started pissing down...

Finally just after noon I had everything I needed and i started working. I started with 2 mini caramel-chocolate tarts.

The rest of the day I spent on an awesome fennel-tomato soup. In the evening I also made roast potatoes, steamed veggies and steaks.

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Nantko, Gerrit and Marjolein, each with their steak.

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My dinner. The steaks were 12 euro's each and I didn't have a good track record when it came to baking steaks. This one however was very nice!

The dinner was lovely and the company great. Afterwards we went to the pub.

The fantastic elastics were playing. They were fantastic indeed.

This was a very well spent day!

Visiting Antwerp

2011-12-23T22:18:00.000+01:00

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Marjolein and I took a little day trip to Antwerp today. The station is old and beautiful.

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Station's roof.

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Looking down. The station has 3 or 4 floors!

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There were trees with pressies in 'm.

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The main shopping street with all the expensive shops.

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There was a guy playing a piano.

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And an old man playing an accordeon.

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Also there were pretty things on street corners.

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And a hand...

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And there was a pretty Marjoleintje as well :-)

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The "Onze lieve vrouwe" cathedral.

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This HAS TO BE the most photographed row of houses in Antwerp; At "de grote markt". It's fantastic.

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A small castle on the banks of the river "Schelde".

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The train back got cancelled. Actually both the train there as well as the train back were cancelled. Getting there and going back was all a bit disastrous.

It was nice to see some buildings in town but I have to say that I will not visit Antwerp again in the next 10 years I think. Mostly the city is grey and dull, like many big Belgian cities...

The candles

2011-12-22T22:46:00.000+01:00

Some people like Christmas just a tiny bit too much, don't you think?

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I bought some proper candles of my own tonight.

I received 2 more Christmas cards today! One from Australia and one from Marjolein :-)

Scrooge

2011-12-21T22:35:00.000+01:00

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Candle at Marjolein's place. We had dinner before going to the theatre!

For the first time EVER I was going to see a professional production. And snce it's close to Christmas we went to see "Scrooge".

The Haarlem city theatre.

Star of the show was Erik van Muiswinkel.

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A small choir was singing carols. They moved around the place a bit which was fun.

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Marjolein at the old stairs. It looks like she's posing for a photo in a magazine.

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The staircase looks awesome.

Until the play started 2 girls were playing carols on the violin.

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Scrooge visited by the first ghost.

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The play was wonderful. Funny and touching. The decor was very warm and Christmassy and the costumes looked great. I had a great night!

A tree in a box

2011-12-20T18:17:00.001+01:00

My Christmas tree finally arrived. A bit late though so didn't have a lot of time to decorate it.

The Köf II

2011-12-19T23:20:00.000+01:00

It was very cold this morning and very slippery too! Puddles were freezing over...

Lunch was yummy :-)

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My office through the reception window which is now covered in fake snow ;-)

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I got two tiny model trains again today. There is something wrong with this model, don't know exactly what yet. We'll see once I put it on connected rails sometime in the future. It's a lovely little model of a Köf II though.

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This is the real model. The photo is taken in Switzerland. There's a webpage with technical details of this particular one that's been saved by a group of people who restore old trains.

The cloud

2011-12-18T21:18:00.002+01:00

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Dove on Marjolein's balcony.

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The orchid my mom gave Marjolein.

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Cloud action.

And then it started to hail.

The streets turned white.

On my way home I noticed past Nic's shop. She was in so I stopped for a chat but then ended up finishing all the paint work ;-)

The awesome stuff

2011-12-17T21:04:00.000+01:00

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I took my camera to Haarlem today to try out shooting in RAW format. That went quite well. I too a shot of this little coot. I liked the water around it.

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Hello Jesus.

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There was also a very big crane.

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The tree behind majolein's house.

Late arvo we went in to town for a walk and I discovered this awesome toy shop! Nothing like those converted ones where half the shop is now taken over by computer games and kiddie jewelry. No, this one had a HUGE selection of Lego, Playmobil, model cars, boats and planes. Even toy trains!

The best thing of course was this kids work bench by Bosch. I'm a fan of DIY and also of Bosch. I almost wish I had a kid now ;-)

They also sell awesome bicycles!

On the market I saw a stand selling proper pies! I will test one next time I'm there :-)

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We walked home when it got dark. Some streets were very cosy.

The line-up

2011-12-16T19:35:00.003+01:00

The line-up at the bakery where I sometimes get lunch was mental today.

My day was pretty alright apart from my Christmas tree not being delivered and neither were the two model train I ordered. Bit disappointing that was. I also worked a bit late because I wanted to finish something. At least I got that done, all's well!

When I got home I was dying for some thai delivery and emptied my wallet to see how much I had left. Exactly 1 euro short for a chicken satay AND a main dish. I was devastated!

But then something made me look in my wallet again and I found a whole whopper of a 2 euro coin! I'm saved!

Have a good weekend!

The seminar

2011-12-15T19:29:00.000+01:00

I attended a seminar on mental healthcare today with 2 colleagues Ira and Bjorn. Two other colleagues were behind a little stand to talk business. From all 5 sessions/speakers only 2 were interesting, really.

The seminar was in the World Trade Centre Rotterdam.

Bring it on!

Ira (right) and I drove back with Bjorn (left) and we were in time to meet other colleagues for food and a movie.

My boss invited everybody to the new Sherlock Holmes movie. A very nice thing to do! I enjoyed the movie a lot.

Baby Jesus is in the house!

2011-12-14T22:53:00.000+01:00

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I bought this Christmas nativity scene today. They're all there!

Dinner. Very yummy.

More cake shop DIY

2011-12-13T22:46:00.000+01:00

I had that awesome salad again :-)

In the evening I had another DIY session at nic's cake shop. She now also has her own facebook page!

Anyway, I closed off the inside of the kitchen wall with pieces of wood that were left over. This still looks crappy but it's 100 times better than looking in to a big hole there. Also nothing can fall next to the little sink now.

Dispenser woes

2011-12-12T22:34:00.000+01:00

Like this?

Or like this?

I think the dispenser should be at the sink and NOT at the shelf for 2 simple reasons:

It's closer to your hands
You'll wet the shelf if you have to move your wet hands there. And sometimes people like the shelf to be dry because they need to put something on it while they wash their hands!

It's not exactly rocket science but still a few people keep putting them at the shelf!

I walked over to Mic for dinner before squash. Somebody is working hard on a bigger and better energy bill!

Action photo of Mic trying to fold up a play-house from Noortje, his baby girl.

Rudolph's No. 1 fan

2011-12-11T22:24:00.000+01:00

Rudolph has a fan in my street!

The gifts

2011-12-10T22:23:00.000+01:00

My mom had organised a dinner tonight. Marjolein and i were invited as well as Ilse and Cassie.

The girls had bought us all presents! One was a glass ball with an angel inside.

It has a little light in it.

It makes different colours!

I like it a lot :-)

The other pressie was a candle + holder. It's very nice :-)

When I got home I got the gift of Jesus. There was a text inside that was supposed to sound scientific:

"When you see a relatively simple thing like a house, you know it's build by someone. The house didn't magically appear at some random point in time. You also see people building houses. When you look at the earth and everything on it you realise it's much more complex and it cannot be something that was randomly created out of nothing. That is because it's creator is God".

Something like that. Can you believe it? Honestly... It's fucking insulting my intelligence!

At least I also got 2 nice cards from my mom and dad and one from Ilse and Cassie.

The Central Station Christmas tree

2011-12-09T21:54:00.000+01:00

I took the mini van to work today. I waited with a few colleagues.

Central Station ha a big Christmas tree in front of it now and lots of other lights. Very nice. It's so cool that the construction there is finally over!

I took Marjolein out to dinner at Szmulewicz. It was lovely to eat there again. Very nice place indeed.

After dinner we went to Mulligans. It was an explosion of Christmas decorations inside. Good stuff!

The band was very good.

Cake, salad and chocolate

2011-12-08T20:50:00.000+01:00

Quite different from yesterday but just as beautiful were the colours in the sky this morning.

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I put up my Christmas lights again.

And I cleaned up my desk. I can actually see it again now!

There was cake too. Quite yummy cake with a shit load of whipped cream..... and no forks *grin*

Of course everybody who knows me well also knows that I am all about healthy eating. So there was salad for lunch. Quite nice salad I have to add!

When I got home my boss' Sinterklaas gift had arrived after a bit of a cock-up at the post. It's a chocolate letter. Yummm :-)

The rays

2011-12-07T20:42:00.000+01:00

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I saw the most fantastic sun rays ever today, cutting through the clouds like a hot knife through butter.

Happy birthday Sinterklaas!

2011-12-06T23:34:00.000+01:00

It's Sinterklaas' birthday today!

Candy all 'round :-)

I watched a very funny episode of Bottom tonight.

Vincent Mobile Blog

Phone-cooking

Squashed out

Meldpunt Midden en Oost Europeanen

Sun!

My first whisky

The container

Sick

Music on the work floor

Ice cream!

The altar.

The Rammstein concert

The Amsterdam Apple Store opening

The crane

Ehm...

Don't smoke

Tom poezen

Julia's

Hot Club De Frank

The beach

More Boots

The cnut tram driver.

Meeting Patricia :-)

The birds

The devil's parking

Hail

The whiskies

Bye bye ice...

Old Crafty

Paul's plants

My valentine

Farewell Dick.

The canals

The trap

The Sebastiaan Cornelissen quartet

The root canal

It's Rudi time!

Pain

The departure

The winter walk

No nuking allowed by dogs!

The Secret Sisters

The sunshine edition

The cool building edition

A beautiful day

Snow

The canal tour

Meeting Thrall

Happy

The ham, cheese and pesto sandwiches

The new plant in town

The sunrise

My dinner

Picking

Out of vases.

The train repairs

Cake loves coffee is open!

The frisbee cookies

My crow durid.

Gardening

Cycling to Spaarndam

The blinds

Meat balls!

The counter part II, shelves, frames and a fire extinguisher.

The counter.

"Mic"

Happy birthday mom!

I went to Alkmaar *again*

The back-ache

Bye bye Christmas tree, see you next year!

Get some glasses!

Cake loves coffee

The emergency money

Not busy!

Happy new year!

Bye bye 2011!

Chipsoft 2012 Poker tournament

The beermats

Christmas drove me nuts

More cards

I went to Alkmaar again