The bodyguard

Today I found out that my old place is up for sale again. In the last 6 years the price has gone up by nearly 200%. Yes, the Amsterdam housing market it going insane.

Driving home was a nighmare. The short route was blocked by a huge traffic jam caused by a toppled trailer. So I decided to go the other way only to be blocked by an even larger traffic jam caused by a 5-car crash.

At home Silver dared going into our neighbour's garden to be faced by their 2 cats. The red one is Diego and he seems to accept Silver, who likes to go where Diego goes. Then there is also the black/white cat hiding in the pizza oven. She hates every other cat and started hissing at Silver. Diego then stepped in between her and Silver to show that she needed to back-off. How cool!

Bye housie

Today I sold my apartment. It's completely empty now, nothing left, feels weird. Lots of memories...

I'm a little bit sad to sell the place but I'm very happy I sold it. Don't need the hassle of maintaining it for no reason... I hope the new owner makes something very nice out of it.

Since I was very early I waited outside, looking into my street.

The Jacob van Lennepkade. Gorgeous little piece of Amsterdam. Farewell!

At work I celebrated with my colleague Hans. I bought 2 pieces of cake for us.

In the evening Simone and I went to my folks. Some other friends were over and bought them these gifts for my dad's birthday.

I think I can see some similarities ;-)

Zwanenburg

After work I went to my Mustang which resides in Zwanenburg. A little town with a bit of history.

This is the state my house is in. I'm glad it's sold.

I need a new shower...

I worked from home today because I felt like shit after a very bad night of sleep. I had a small lunch break outside.

I noticed spots on one of the walls becoming larger and more yellow...

I had a small idea what was causing this and so I had a look.

Jackpot! Wood rotting everywhere. I could poke right through. The wall is made of those big white building blocks, loves water like a sponge. Hence the spots on the other side of the wall...

So now I'm looking at replacing my shower. At least I get to pick a nice new one.

And finally I cooked again. Cantonese chicken is what this is supposed to be. It was my first bit of cookery in my new place and it was successful. I made a lot. Enough for dinner AND 3 lunches :-)

The polling place

Mason was there to great us this morning (like every morning btw). Or rather, he wants us to kick his ball all day long. So for a change we did so I could make a picture but because my hot piece of equipment called camera is just as fast as a broadband connection in this country Mason is already faaaaar away...

We had a few errands (mam: errands = boodschappen) to do so around lunchtime we ended up in a mall again. A tiny one today but with everything you need nevertheless. I got a ham/cheese toasted sandwich at this small bakery. My best one here so far I must say.

The main thing today was looking at a new bed. It has to be a BIG bed. And there cannot be a feetboard. You see, I tend to kick them off due to my height. The one that Nicole is sitting on in this picture will be ordered tomorrow. It will be KING size (200x180 I believe). It also features 2 drawers so that's quite handy.

Going to our usual mall to pin money (we pin the max. for the day and then put it into our new australian bank account) we spotted more Dutch products of great quality! It is actually the -exact- same breadbox as the one we had in Amsterdam!

Malls are fantastic but in The Netherlands they hardly exist. This is funny because with so much shit weather you'd think they started building malls in the 17th century already, no?

This sign is attached to a checkout at the supermarket. It actually means that at this particular checkout no chocolate or candy is sold. This is handy if you have kids with a high risk of whining for candy!

I bought this apple juice today. It is megatastic! No added nothing. Just pure juice. It's green, not orange and also it's not very sweet. I'm in love with this drink.

Today was another good cleanup day in the flat where we're going to live soon. Stuff has been moved around and cleaned. This corner will hopefully soon become our command center from which we control the world.

This weekend there are national elections in Australia. You never realise but how do they vote in the outback? This photo shows you how. People from all surrounding villages drive to a certain location to cast their vote. (Photo is scanned from the voting brochure)