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.

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 The back metal strip that's acting as a spring and relays the power from the wheel to the chassis has been replaced by a stiff piece of copper wire and attached with a huge blob of solder.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

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.

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.

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.

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'.

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.