The van Reijen brothers

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I saw these on my home from work. They made a pretty shot in the low autumn light.

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I ate at Mic's parents again before squash. Daan and Erin were there as well. Here's Daan, me and mic. Mic's really a cool guy but he just has a big problem looking the part ;-)

The party

Marjolein and I went to Olf's (Mic's dad) 65th birthday. I have known them for a long time (20+ years) and I am really happy they invited me. That was just very nice of them I think. We made a small stop at Museumplein because Marjolein got a bit tram-sick. Poor thing :-/

Eventually we made it though and had a lovely time. Here's Mic, Daan, Erin and Marjolein.

The van Reijen brothers mic and Daan.

My sunshine :-)

Marjolein spotted a little froggy in the pond.

I'm re-installing Windows on my little laptop.

The great day

This is my colleague Sylvester who sits next to me at work. He has an AZ hat so we are good friends! ;-)

My colleagues Sam, Geert and Norbert. Geert is waving to a helicopter. He did that before but I asked him to do it again so I could take a picture. Had I told him it was for a picture he'd have prolly not waved again hehe.

In the evening I had a few friends over for a few games of Risk. It turned out to be very nice evening in very good spirits. Lots of laughs and chatter.

Eva, Danny and Gerrit were there...

... and Daan and Mic.

Sometimes we were very focussed too...

I did actually have Australia at some point but I was unable to win any of the three games we played. We finished at 2:30 and people were getting a bit tired.

Bye bye C128.

Bye bye old Commodore 128. I learned how to program on this beauty. Bought it off of a choir mate for 50 guilders. Lovely machine. I had it for ages, moved with me to and from Australia. But I need the space so it had to go. I wanted to sell it but it's not giving a TV signal anymore. So this morning it ended up in the bin...

A lonely door in a wall.

My friend Jon amongst his plantation. I believe he is looking quite happy there ;-)

I was kindly invited for dinner with the people that live in the building and are all friends of mine. Nantko and Daniel were invited too.

Nicole saying bye from her window.

Working far away.

I left the house at 6:30 to go visit colleagues for a meeting but their office is up shit creek... The train ride was lovely and quiet though. I saw deer and bunnies :-)

After traveling for 130 minutes I got at my destination station: Hoogeveen.

It was nice to see one of our other offices though. This was my view. It was very quiet there.

During lunch I went for a walk with two colleagues. It was warm and I got very sweaty :-/

They keyboard I was using was dirty.

The office looked shabby. It needs paint badly.

My work place.

Every room has airconditioners but none of them work and they're not gonna work either. That's just a crock of shit you know. They should work, it gets hot there!

On my way back I noticed how train information has been modernized a fair bit while i was out of the country. Very good.

I went to Nic's (= Jon's) place straight after work to join them for the Wednesday night dinner. It was a lovely out and the Mexican food she made tasted great. From left to right: Jon, George, Stephen, Daniel, Petra, Paddy, Nicole and Anna.

After glugging down a bottle of rose I went upstairs for a coffee and more chatting.

Halloween 2009

My second parcel arrived from Australia. Customs had opened it but it was all cool. it had an insane ammount of stamps on it coz at the post office in Adelaide they had ordered a few too many stamps and they needed to get rid of them so they came in handy on my box.

My dad likes stamps a bit too much so great care had to be taken to remove the other stuff.

In it were very prescious glass paintings made by an aboriginal artist. I was very happy to see them again. They mean a lot to me. From left to right are depicted: A Barramundi, a roo and a platypuss.

My sister gave me back my grandma's plant. I love the plant but it has been standing in one position too long. I will have to straighten it out again...

Early evening mic picked me up and we went to Mulligans for the annual Halloween party. We walked over the flower market.

Kees and Nantko.

Mic, Alex, Barry and Cathelijne.

Danny and Petra. I hardly recognised Petra. It was only when she was like 50 cm away from me for about a minute that I recognised her. Very well done.

Kees and Danny.

Paddy and Marjolein.

It was actually a very nice evening, not as crowded and drunk as I thought it would get. It was great to see so many friends of mine in one place. I missed that in Australia. Bring on new years eve :-)

The band was good too. Young blokes but they played nice tunes.

The move / night on to town

We drove to Amsterdam this morning. A one way Amsterdam for me. I used to work in this building at the top floor in the middle above the highway. Quite the view.

My kit with all essentials required.

The view from my new apartment.

The aboriginal clap sticks I brought with me. Traditionally used to make heart beat rhythms. I have also seen one stick being used to tick on a didgeridoo whilst playing it.

I walked to town over the Overtoom. There is a place there that offers driving lessons, espresso and old odd shit.

The fountain in front of the American hotel. I had to wait for 1000 kids to bugger off before I could take this photo so you all better enjoy it! ;-P

Leidseplein.

Random side street.

The Munt tower.

Jud was in Mulligans. He was hiding under his hat at first so I didn't even recognise him! It was nice meeting him for real because most of our contact has been through facebook.

iPhone galore: Daan.

iPhone galore: Kees.

Kees and another person I had the pleasure of meeting for the first time; Marjolein.

Nantko and Danny. Nantko likes having his hair touched. Especially by men. Especially by men wearing lots of black leather and denim. So next time you see him, put on your gear and give him a little pat ;-)

It was a great night with familiar faces and familiar music. Oh, and familiar drinks too ;-)