(Originally posted on MySpace)
Look what I got.

(Originally posted on MySpace)
Or actually, I was entered into a prize drawing because I filled in a survey.
Or in fact I filled in the survey because it said you could win a watch, and then I was never asked for my e-mail address or any other personal data, so how could anyone ever win it? That's what I asked them in an e-mail, and they answered me, saying: Hmm, you may have a point there.
(Sounds familiar? Check this older blog entry. Am I the only one that notices these things?)
And so they decided that they'd let me win the watch. Either that or I'm the only one they had an e-mail address for.
Today it arrived! And they haven't been cheap about it. The watch looks great.


Yes, I know that it's a men's watch. I don't care. I'm going to have the strap shortened and wear it with pride.
Go, Läkerol!

(Originally posted on MySpace)
...as I went for a short walk in a city park.
There was really just enough snow to give that nice 'powdered sugar' look, and to turn the trees into white lace. Actually the freezing mist did that.
It all looked really pretty, and made me think of Christmas, but in a nice way. We'll be spending Christmas on one of the islands to the north of the Netherlands, I do hope it won't rain!

You can see the pics in my PhotoBucket album by clicking the thumbnail. They're not all that great, but they will give you an impression.

(Originally posted on MySpace)
Here's another animation. It's quite different from the previous one. In fact it's weird, rude and I love it to bits. If you don't like puns, singing meerkats, sexual innuendo or bad language, don't bother clicking on the pic. If you do, go ahead and enjoy!

(Originally posted on MySpace)
I've just gotten myself a Christmas tree, but since it looks much the same as last year's tree did, I'm not going to bore you with a picture. Instead, I'll post a wonderful Christmas themed video of the Little Mole.
The Little Mole is the brain child of Zdenek Miler from the Chzech Republic, and I've known him since my childhood. Short films like this one were and are shown on German television in the 'Program with the Mouse'.
Without further ado, here he is: the Little Mole and the Christmas Tree. Enjoy.

(Originally posted on MySpace)
Here's a bit about Saint Nicholas traditons, the way I know them:

In the period before the festivity, children are encouraged to leave their shoe in front of the open fire (nowadays, central heating works, too. Those Black Peters are smart!) with something for Sinterklaas' horse: a carrot or some hay.
It's best if they sing a song or two, so Zwarte Piet can hear them through the chimney, and tell Sinterklaas that these are good kids who have sung him a nice song. In the morning, there will be a tiny gift or a piece of candy in the shoe.


Bigger gifts are given on the evening of the 5th or 6th of December. The gifts are all supposed to come from Saint Nicholas and are often packed in a big cloth bag.
They are left on the doorstep by a friendly neigbour who rings the bell or knocks on a window, pretending to be Black Peter, and then hurries off before the kids get to see him. Sometimes, he'll throw some candy into the room first, making sure all the children get to see is a gloved hand!
If there are no neighbours, all of this happens while father or mother just had to pop out for a small errand, and when (s)he comes back Black Peter has just left again so they have miraculously missed each other!

The mysterious bag is respectfully brought inside, and usually people will take turns unwrapping a present. There are gifts for the grown-ups, too. Most of the gifts will be accompanied by a poem or rhyme, signed by either Sinterklaas or Black Peter; the poems often make fun of the receipient of the gift, but in a friendly way. They are all read out loud.
Some of the gifts are packed in such a way that they resemble an animal, an object or even a person; your gift may be wrapped in cotton wool and covered in something sticky, like syrup; or the package may be very hard to open, or contain nothing but a note telling you to go and look in the fridge where your present will be hidden. These 'trick packages' are called Surprises, pronounced Surpreezes, and making them is one of the most fun traditions surrounding Sinterklaas.

As soon as children don't believe in Sinterklaas anymore, they become a Hulpsinterklaas, or Sint Nick's Helper: they make or buy presents for the other members of the family. So during november and early december, it's not uncommon that a parent will not be allowed into a kid's room, because 'surprises' are being made inside, and no one should see them before the big event.
It's often a bit sad to find out that Sinterklaas en Zwarte Piet aren't real, but on the other hand, being a Hulpsinterklaas makes you feel really grown-up!

If the group of participants is too large to make a gift for each, names will be drawn, so each person has to get a gift for just one of the others. Sometimes, groups of grownups celebrate Sinterklaas this way with no children present at all. Usually, there's a set (and low) budget: Sinterklaas isn't about getting expensive stuff, it's about creativity, silly rhymes and fun.

To me, celebrating Saint Nicholas Day is one of the nicest traditions we have here, and it's a shame that many people drop it in favour of putting presents under the Christmas tree.

(Originally posted on MySpace)
Then you'll apreciate the special trick packaging I just made for a Saint Nicholas gift. It looks like a Great Tit. The present hidden in its belly consists of fat balls to be used as bird food during winter. So please look at my lovely tit:





I'll tell you a bit more about Dutch Saint Nicholas traditions some other time, if I can be bothered. For now, try this site.

(Originally posted on MySpace)
It's been a while since I posted about books. And that was because I've been reading some Dutch books which many of you haven't heard about. I have not made a list so I won't name them all, because I can't be bothered to remember  ;-)
But lately I've been reading the popular First Ladies Detective series by Alexander McCall Smith, and enjoying them. It's light reading, funny, feel-good stuff. A bit on the predictable side, and a bit too goody-goody for my liking; but nevertheless nice for a change.
Here are the books in the series that I've read so far, and excuse the images from Amazon with the ugly 'Look inside!' lettering on them:


There are more, and I'm sure I'll get my hands on them and read them sooner or later. For now I'll just say that I recommend them as a pleasant, light read.

Just yesterday I finished something very different: the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon. It's a story as seen by an autistic 15-year  old, which makes it very different from most other books, and that's interesting. The book is well written which makes it believeable and captivating. This is not a very pleasant or light read, but I liked it very much even though it's hard to explain why. Just try it and see for yourself.

(Originally posted on MySpace)
This is a Very Good kind of day. My big project, that I've been working on since April, is finished!
As you may remember, it consists of four murals in Amsterdam.
For now, I'll just post a pic of the last one, that was finished just yesterday, and then I'm off to celebrate  :-D


You can probably understand why I'm proud of this!

(Originally posted on MySpace)
My boyfriend just bought himself another motorcycle. It's a little 350 cc Jawa, type 634, much like this one:


It's all the bike one could hope to buy for 80 euros. A nice project for next winter. Of course, at a price like that, it's not much of a surprise if some odds and ends are missing. In this case, the front end of one of the exhaust pipes.

So I thought: didn't I have something like that stowed away somewhere? Given to me by a friend, the way it often happens with Jawa parts, while mumbling 'you never know, you may find a use for it some day'?
I started digging in my supplies. And found:
- a nice set of pipes for my own Jawa, that I'd forgotten all about, in decent condition!
- a muffler for my Jawa, to replace the one that was ruined by battery acid this summer on the way to Finowfurt! This one's in decent condition, too.
- and last but not least... the pipe I was looking for. Not only did it turn out to be for the right type of bike, it's the right side as well. And it looks brand new. *does the happy dance*

OK, so being a packrat makes you surround yourself with a lot of rubbish... but every now and then, among the rubbish you'll find just what you need!

(Originally posted on MySpace)
Oh, the wonders of processed meat! Mainly, I wonder how people can actually eat the stuff.
See this wonderful series of macro-photographs of some popular processed meats, frequently eaten by inhabitants of the US, or so I'm told. These pictures can be used as a great diet reminder.
It's so good to be a pescetarian! Abominations like those portrayed are rarely done to fish.

Here's a nice example pic so you know what you're in for:

Originally posted on MySpace
There's not much happening on my MySpace page lately. I've been too busy with other things. Seems I actually have a Life!
I'm not the only one, though; many of you seem to have deserted MySpace for now.
I'm so glad it's not just me!

*waves at friends*
See you later, and for now, enjoy your Life!

(Originally posted on MySpace)
I don't have a lot of time right now so I'll just say that my cat Tigger has had an operation two days ago. He had trouble walking, which got worse and worse, so we took him to a vet, who found (after keeping him for some days) that he had developed bone cancer in one of his toes.
The toe has been amputated and it's needless to say that I'm feeling very relieved. Tigger's chances of survival are now good and he's clearly feeling much better. The toe caused him a lot of pain. He looks a bit silly but it's great to have him back!

(Originally posted on MySpace)
...are all over the internet all of a sudden. Either it's that or I've been living under a rock. Suddenly there's lot of 'lolcats' sites like this one or this one.
Here's my very own lolcat:


Well, he makes *me* LOL...
If you like this pic, please go and rate it here!
If you don't, there's no need   ;-)

OK... I promise I won't make a habit out of this but here's another one. I'm told this one is better.


If so inclined, please rate it here.

(Originally posted on MySpace)
Even though I love my work and the job at hand is great, I'm so looking forward to going on vacation. That's because it promises to be a lot of fun!
Not only are we going to this international hacker's convention (remember?), we're going to have a Temporary BookCrossing Zone there, we'll be setting up a BookCrossing Village, and some of my favourite BookCrossers are coming: Rubberchicken, Raffizack and Phoenix-Flight (you may know her as Phoenix).
Phoenix will even travel with us, which is going to be quite an adventure since we'll be traveling by motorcycle, not our newer bikes but the ancient two-strokes: my Jawa and my boyfriend's MZ. Both the Jawa's trailer and the MZ's sidecar will be stuffed with books, camping gear and more books!
Here's a pic of me on the MZ, even though I won't be the one riding it:

(Click makes very big)

(Originally posted on MySpace)
*does the happy dance*
Tigger is back. One of my housemates found him.
In fact, he and his little boy heard a pitiful meowing in a barn or storage building down the street. They rushed over and told us about it, and we rushed right out to listen.
My boyfriend heard it too, but wasn't sure whether or not it was Tigger. Nevertheless, he was certain he'd heard a cat, and he found an air vent that would permit a cat to get out of the building after the grid was removed.

So he took the grid off and we lied down on the floor and peeked inside to see if we could catch a glimpse of a cat, but no. All was still inside.
I figured it was best to go in there, even though that made this a case of breaking and entering. He removed some stacked-up tiles so I could crawl inside.
It took me a while to find any trace of a cat in the large space inside, but as soon as I heard a meow I was sure it had to be Tigger!
He called for me, and I answered him, but he was too scared or too confused to come to me. It took him a while to realise it was really me, and then he came to me and let me pick him up.

When we came out my boyfriend brought him some food and water immediately, he seemed much more hungry than thirsty. After he'd eaten a bit we all went home.

Tigger is now happily resting on his favourite chair, purring away, with a belly full of food. He's lost a lot of weight, but he seems healthy enough. It feels so good to have him back. I love a happy ending.
*grateful sigh*

(Originally posted on MySpace)
Tigger is missing. He's been gone for a week now.
Maybe it's because we are away from home a lot lately, for two or three days at a time. One of my housemates feeds him while we're gone, but it seems he doesn't like being home alone; the last time we were gone he didn't come in to eat, and he only came home after we did, and meowed accusingly at us for a long time.

This time he didn't come home at all.
I'm feeling guilty* but I really can't think of a better solution than to leave him home and have someone take care of him. And it's temporary. But try explaining that to an animal.

I called all the relevant numbers and gave a description of Tigger, we have walked around the block and called his name, and I think we'll make one of those heart-wrenching flyers to post around the neigbourhood.
The cat flap is set to 'catch'. But it's not catching anything.

Outdoor cats run a certain risk, I know that much. But that knowledge isn't helping much.
I miss him. He's supposed to pounce right on top of us during the night, walk around a bit, and then curl up against my hip, purring loudly.

Ten years together isn't nothing. He's my little black shadow, so to speak. Let's hope he's coming back.


* He's not even wearing a address tube at the moment. I even bought him a new one recently, but never got around to fastening it to his collar. And he's neither chipped nor tattood. There you go...

(Originally posted on MySpace)
Because it blows up in your face!

Ever since our postal service (that we lovingly used to call 'tante Pos', auntie Mail) has been renamed to TNT, things haven't been the same.

First it was the mailboxes. They replaced the mailboxes we have all known and used all of our lives by a new and spiffier model. Neat! But... where does the book go?
You see, I'm into BookCrossing, so I leave books in public places for random people to find.
Our old mailboxes had this little sign or display thingie on top, perfect for propping up a book against. I have actually hooked new members this way, by leaving books on top of mailboxes. But the newer models don't have this feature, and the top is much too slanted to put anything on top; it'll slide right off. Take it from one who's tried!

Secondly, everything turned orange. The mailboxes, the vans, the mail carrier's uniform, they all went orange. It spread like a rash. A rather unsightly rash. I happen not to like orange one bit!

Then, of course, the prices went up. Stamps for letters got more expensive, packages too. Another 'neat' improvement: some stamps have advertising on them! Usually, with advertising, stuff gets cheaper. Not so here! See this picture of a stamp with a sausage on? It even says the brand name. But you still pay full price, and it isn't even scratch'n'sniff! (Not that I enjoy sniffing sausages, but the idea in itself would be, well... kind of fun.)

We don't have media mail here, so there is no special fee for books. We just have to bite the bullet and send them the normal way.

And we wouldn't mind so much if only they would arrive! I just found out I lost another book to TNT. And a very nice book it was: 'Not just for Christmas' by Roddy Doyle. I sent it out as a bookring. It was a cute looking little book, hardcover, with a nice foil printed dust jacket. It looked like this:

(Originally posted on My Space)
You won't see me blogging much during the next few weeks or even months (not that anyone's looking). I've started working on my biggest project yet: the four big murals in Amsterdam I mentioned earlier (not that anyone listened).
It's going well and I'm enjoying it, too. There's some commuting involved, but only every other day because I'm borrowing an apartment right in the center of Amsterdam. (How cool is that? Well, pretty damned cool if you ask me.)
Here's a pic, and if you'd like to see more, see my homepage (yes, it's in Dutch) or see a whole lotta pics on Photobucket.

(Originally posted on MySpace)
Ever been able to read your name on a car that was speeding your way?
I just had that experience this weekend and it wasn't nice.

We were off to Luxemburg for a nice Easter weekend of camping and motorbike riding.
The roads in Luxemburg are excellent: they are full of bends and curves in all directions, including up and down. The tarmac is either very smooth or quite bumpy. Both are fun, albeit in a different way.
The landscape is rural and very green and pretty, you often have a lovely view from one of the countless hills and mountains.
There are many nice camp sites, most of which welcome bikers.
Fuel is cheaper there than it is in the Netherlands (which isn't very hard).

In short, it's a motorcycle rider's perfect country.

We arrived on Friday evening, it was totally dark, so we quickly put up our tent and joined the jolly group of friends seated at the campfire for a chat and a drink.
The next morning it was sunny and fairly warm, so we sat on the grass, had a wonderful breakfast and took our time to do nothing in particular. Eventually, we decided to go for a ride; a friend of ours came along, so there were three of us.

We were merrily rolling along, I was riding in first position, when we passed a curve that was on top of a hill, so there was no view of the road ahead. And when I could see the road again, I saw two cars, side by side on the exactly two-cars-wide road, coming right at me.
Whoa !!

Even my leg hair stood on end.
I did the only thing I could do: first I braked fairly hard, then I got out of the way... and off the road. I steered the bike onto the shoulder, which was not wide and quite bumpy, but I was glad it was there at all. Things got very shaky for a while untill I managed to slow down and eventually come to a stop, without even falling over.
The guys were riding a bit behind me and by the time they were able to see anything, the motorist (who was braking as well) was busy getting his car back behind the other one, and I was off the tarmac. So they didn't get half the scare I got, because by then I was out of danger. But they did see enough to be pretty sure that the driver wouldn't have been able to avoid hitting me if I hadn't acted quickly and moved out of the way.

I felt a bit shaky and we took a short break, and then continued on our way. The &*%@$ driver never stopped; I hope he got a decent scare. With any luck he may even have learned a thing or two... or peed in his pants.

I'm actually quite proud of handling this the way I did! And once more, riding a dirt bike came in handy... I felt like hugging it and saying 'well done'.