Moem's Journal
It's not Myspace...wait, it's not even LiveJournal.
Recent Entries 
readme.txt
Hi! You've found me. This is kind of an experimental / placeholder journal, since the way LiveJournal has been changing recently worries me.
You can find me there under the username m03m. That's m-zero-three-m.

Since I'm (for now) primarily an LJ user, these entries have been copied from there. Some have even been copied from MySpace first!
That causes some problems with linkage. And if there's something about site changes and other ongoing events that makes you go 'huh?' because it doesn't seem to make any sense, it's probably about LiveJournal, not Scribbld. I apologize for any confusion and other kinds of inconvenience.

Oh, and copying the entries from elsewhere means losing all comments, as well.
20th-Apr-2009 03:29 pm - Leaving NZ sucks
avatar met molen
And so does having to say goodbye to friends and to an awesome Convention.

Getting back home, on the other hand, is likely to be very nice indeed.

Another nice thing: free WiFi.

Moem, hailing from gate 4 at HongKong International Airport, thanks to the small but mighty Eee-quivalent
16th-Apr-2009 11:48 pm - Mixed emotions
motor in wadi
We arrived in Christchurch safely. I'm a bit sad that our bike trip is over; on the other hand, the Convention is going to be great. In fact it already is (we just had a lovely pre-Convention dinner).
It's all a bit confusing. I'll sort it out later and go to bed now.
15th-Apr-2009 09:45 pm - Short impression of the Crown Range, a mountain road
avatar met molen
The yellowing grass, side lit by the afternoon sun, made the hills look like they were clothed in rich folds of golden-coloured velvet.
The road, meanwhile, twisted and turned, dipped and swerved. And we were having a grand time.

We managed to leave Queenstown at half past four with new rear tyres on both bikes, and we are now in Omarama. After a meal of couscous with green beans and a nice big salad, we're feeling rather pleased.
13th-Apr-2009 06:51 pm - Slight change of plans
motor in wadi
We're not in Invercargill; we're actually in Alexandra, visiting Futurecat's parents. We now know why Futurecat is such a lovely person. It's all in the genes.

More soon.
11th-Apr-2009 07:29 am - Back on our wheels
motor in wadi
We have the blue bike back!
Today, it was drizzling, but we got fed up with being inside and immobile, so we decided to walk to the garage where the AA man brought the bike with the flat tyre, and ask about it. It was a 3 km walk along the main road.
When we got there we were told that the bike was ready, it had actually been ready since yesterday evening, but they couldn't get hold of us. And the AA guy could not simply bring it back to us because it needed to be paid for.
It started to rain instead of drizzle by then, so we went for a cuppa in the cafe at the other side of the road, and it was obviously weekend = bike riding time, a group of bikers stopped there to eat a bit and get out of the rain.
By the time our tea was finished, it was practically dry so we headed back to the camp site to get our bike gear.
We returned together on the yellow Suzuki (me riding in front, Gummihuhn riding pillion since it wasn't my bike that had a problem!) and paid 230 $ NZ by credit card. Since the hire comes with roadside assistance insurance, I'm assuming I'll be reimbursed for that later by the good folks at City Motorcycle Rentals in Christchurch.

We are now celebrating with a beer (me), a bottle of Phoenix organic apple-feijoa juice (Gummihuhn), and a bag of lime-black pepper flavoured Kettle chips. Tomorrow, we'll be back on the road again!
9th-Apr-2009 10:33 am - Another short update
avatar met molen
This one will be really short because I'm typing on the Libretto today and the keyboard is seriously small. But I want to tell you very quickly what we're up to, and make some notes that I can use for a decent write-up later.

Arthur's Pass was excellent, even though the weather was not. After leaving the mountains behind us, we got some fairer weather, and we reached the west coast without much of a ceremony, the road just sort of bumped into the shoreline.
We went to a town (will fill in name later, map is in tent) to shop for rum, plastic bags to keep luggage dry, and a cup of tea. We found all of that and Internet, the rain radar told us the north was worse than the south. So we skipped the pancake rocks and went south.
The 6 is a wonderful road, lots of rainforest. Some rain, too (only logical). We finally decided to camp out at Okarito beach, after a serious hailstorm.
Lovely spot to camp and nice travellers to talk to.
In the morning blue skioes and the sun creeping down the palm trees. Time for tea. We went to the beach to greet the ocean and look for nice pebbles. I brushed my teeth in the ocean and they got seriously clean.
Today was spent riding the twisties down the coast, and getting my luggage rack welded (it broke). Brilliant weather. Stopped at Bruce Bay for a while, the striped stones stacked up in piles were very special. The rocks had silvery spots where they contained mica.
Eventually we reached Haast, found a camping site, and found that Gummihuhn's bike has a flat tire. We'll take care of that tomorrow. Rather tired now.
7th-Apr-2009 09:53 am - Vewwy quick update
motor in wadi
We left Christchurch around 12, in lovely summery weather and actually riding at the proper side of the road. The bikes were purring along like happy cats and felt so light you could write your name on the road with them.
First came a bit of flat land*) which was great for getting used to things, and a wonderful roadhouse with a talking cat.
After that the mountains that were looming in the distance gradually crept in on us.
We've been riding through the mountains to Arthur's Pass and it was all kinds of wonderful!

Then, when it started to rain, we found, in this order:
- a place to have tea and a sandwich
- petrol
- reliable weather advice, telling us the rain would not stop today
- a honesty box operated bunk house with internet and hot bath!!!!!
(Which is where we are now, being the only guests.)

This last concept will keep me grinning all the way back to Christchurch.

*) Note to self: don't forget about the ever-changing smells from the different trees. Eucalyptus and the Other Ones.
6th-Apr-2009 06:41 pm - NZ trip: a short list of facts (so far)
avatar met molen
  • The first flight was OK even though we couldn't really sleep.
  • The short visit to HongKong was amazing and utterly worth it, and so were the noodles we had there.
  • The second flight was delayed because the plane was broken and they had to put us into a different one and it took them several hours.
  • The other plane was a similarly old clunker (while the first one was fine!) as the one that we would have been on if it hadn't been broken. However, we did manage to get moved to a seat with leg room for Gummihuhn.
  • We did, of course, miss our connection in Auckland and no one told us what to do so we ran around the airport like headless chickens but ended up on an Air NZ flight which was amazingly comfortable. The purser took one look at us and put us next to the emergency exit. Leg room!
  • We had breathtaking views on NZ during the flight.
  • It was great to be greeted by familiar faces and picked up from the airport.
  • We hardly fell asleep on the scenic drive Lytteltonwitch and Futurecat took us on.
  • We loved the tacos but were quite happy to go to bed right after dinner (=tea).
  • We slept well and felt a whole lot better in the morning.
  • Today we went to pick up the bikes and they're sweet. Handling is great. They feel light as a feather and the bike shop folks were really friendly.
  • We're going to bake a nice big stack of Dutch pancakes for tea (=dinner) now.

More later!
2nd-Apr-2009 11:00 pm - Off to New Zealand for the Convention
motor in wadi
Tomorrow is the day! I can hardly believe it.
Bye all, I'll do my best to be in touch.
See some of you soon!
30th-Mar-2009 12:58 pm - Test test
motor in wadi
This is a test entry, made using a puny little old subnotebook called a Libretto 100 ct, which I intend to take to NZ. It seems to be working well but the keyboard is so small that I'll need to clip my nails really short.
I had my mind set on using a HP Jornada which is even smaller, but it runs on Windows CE, and not much else does.

The Libretto is running Win'98 and feels quite solid and stable. It has my own favourite browser and all my e-mail. It has its quirks though... see that button right of the screen?
That's the mouse and the mouse buttons are on the back of the screen. Yeah, takes some getting used to. Quite cleverly done, though, back in 1998.


13th-Jan-2009 01:08 pm - They've cancelled what?!
molletje leest
Okay, I thought we were all settled with regards to the tickets for New-Zealand, even though buying the tickets was an experience that left me underwhelmed.
Now it seems Air New Zealand have cancelled the flight we were booked on, and I have been informed that if we accept this we'll be flying out one day later.
With the trip being as short as it is (for such a long distance), I'm even more underwhelmed than I was before. I can has moar whelm plz?
So I called De Vliegwinkel (the travel agency) and they'll try to get the money back (the e-mail I got states that this should be possible) and book us on a flight with a different airline instead.
I do hope they'll be able to come up with a reasonable solution. They'll call me this afternoon. Fingers crossed...
13th-Jan-2009 01:08 pm - They've cancelled what?!
molletje leest
Okay, I thought we were all settled with regards to the tickets for New-Zealand, even though buying the tickets was an experience that left me underwhelmed.
Now it seems Air New Zealand have cancelled the flight we were booked on, and I have been informed that if we accept this we'll be flying out one day later.
With the trip being as short as it is (for such a long distance), I'm even more underwhelmed than I was before. I can has moar whelm plz?
So I called De Vliegwinkel (the travel agency) and they'll try to get the money back (the e-mail I got states that this should be posible) and book us on a flight with a different airline instead.
I do hope they'll be able to come up with a reasonable solution. They'll call me this afternoon. Fingers crossed...
12th-Nov-2008 11:16 am - How not to sell airline tickets
motor in wadi
This was a comment but I actually think it merits an entry of its own. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: my experiences with De Vliegwinkel.

[info]futurecatnz  wrote in a comment: I always think buying the tickets is one of the most exciting bits of any trip - suddenly it's not just a vague dream, it's actually going to happen.

She's right.
Unfortunately the experience was spoiled a bit for me because the travel agency was bumbling...

When I went to their shop in October, a nice lady told me to come back on November the 10th, as by then they'd have the fares from all of the airlines for April, and prices might well be lower then. So I did, but prices weren't really lower; that wasn't her fault , of course. But it all went downhill from there.
First, they quoted me a great price and put it on reserve for me so I could talk to [info]gummihuhn , since I was buying his ticket too.
Then, when I came to actually book, it turned out they could not really book it at that price because they'd made a mistake and applied the wrong airline's taxes.
Then I was handed the receipt and the price on that was a whole lot higher all of a sudden! Turned out they'd made another mistake and given me the 'normal' fare and not the 'low' fare I'd been promised. If I hadn't noticed, I'd have ended up paying hundreds of euros more.
And when they finally got everything right, the pin machine wasn't working and I had to go home and pay by electronic banking.
I'd imagined this part to go smoother... and I'm not going to recommend this company if anyone asks.

But hey, we've got tickets... and we've got a stop over in Osaka on the way back!
Only tricky bit is that we'll have to be at the airport in Christchurch at a ridiculous hour on the way back. It's probably best if we just stay awake.
Oh well... it's all going to work out in the end I'm sure.


11th-Nov-2008 09:32 pm - This makes me happy, part II
avatar met molen
Not long after writing the previous entry, I went into town to meet [info]stoneshop  who was coming from work. He gave me something he'd found somewhere. It was a small embroidered iron-on patch. It consisted of the following text: "I'm Happy".
And he hadn't read the entry yet.

Oh, and I'm now the proud owner of four, count 'em, F O U R  fire-bellied newts. One of them is a climber, she likes to climb the plants that grow on the little island. Piccies soon; I've never seen a newt do that before and it looks silly.

Also, I bought tickets for NZ. Yay !!!
10th-Nov-2008 02:57 pm - This makes me happy
bedrijfslogo
  • I just sent a price quote for an interesting art project. Fingers crossed that I'm within their budget, it involves painting with glow-in-the-dark paint and it sounds like fun.
  • I found a shop that sells fire bellied newts, it's so close that I can go there by bicycle, they have three newts at the moment and they're open tomorrow.
  • An acquaintance I just painted something for gave me, as a sort of tip, 50 euros that are meant to go into the BCX 'Hairy' fund. Which means that that one is now ahead, with 9 days to go.
  • [info]stoneshop  is coming home early today.  Yay.
  • I did a bit of cleaning up. I put on some music as I was cleaning, and cleaned and danced at the same time. No, I do not look like Freddy Mercury in the video for 'I want to break free'. And my Teasmade hasn't exploded either.
  • There's a BookCrossing meeting coming up in Amsterdam, next friday. Since I have to be in Utrecht the next day, I'm thinking of going. And we're having one in Nijmegen on Thursday. I'm going to that one for sure.
  • When cleaning, I found about 100 euros that I'd forgotten I had.

29th-Oct-2008 01:13 pm - New geek toy coming up!
motor in wadi
As some of you know, I'll be travelling to New-Zealand in April, to be at the BookCrossing Convention 2009. Of course, it's silly and a waste to go to NZ for just a weekend, so I'll be going earlier so I can rent a motorbike there (yay!) and do some exploring. All very nice indeed.

I've been thinking about what to bring. Going without any kind of computer at all doesn't sound nice to me. I'm an internet junkie after all. I might want to e-mail or blog every now and then. But bringing my laptop... well, if it's packed well enough to be shock proof (as it needs to be while on the bike) it takes up a lot of space. Almost an entire pannier. Also, it's another thing to worry about; it could get stolen or damaged. And I wouldn't want to have it for just the Convention weekend, and leave it somewhere during the bike trip.

So I'd need something smaller if I wanted to bring anything at all. Okay, the new Eeepcs look like they could do the job; but I haven't got one and frankly, they're too close to my laptop and there would be functional overlap. They're... too much of a computer I guess.

So I thought about the Africa trip. I had a nice little e-mail device then: a HP 320 LX palmtop. It's still in working order, and it's a neat litle machine. No colour screen, but it's OK for text; runs on two penlight batteries, which is utterly practical.
Only trouble is, it was outdated when I got it almost ten years ago, and it's pretty much obsolete now. It's got a PCMCIA modem that allows it to dial in; but in NZ, where would it dial in to? It might be possible to get a normal network card or a WiFi card for it, but is it really worth the trouble?

However, the 320 has a sibling: the Jornada 720. It was almost available when I made the Africa trip (it came out a few months later), but would have been way too expensive for me to consider. Now I can buy one used, with all the accessories I'll need (and even some that I don't ) for a price below 100 euros.
It's still small: about the size of a book. it's still got that familiair rugged clam shell exterior. And it can still dial in (built-in modem, no less). But it's got a nice colour screen, more storage space (and it still takes CF cards like my old 320 does, which makes it really easy to get software on to it), a faster processor and new connectivity options.
And we're picking it up this evening. I can't wait.Go on, you know you want to see them. )
22nd-Sep-2008 02:34 pm - You folks surprise me
avatar met molen
It doesn't seem to matter much what I post about: someone is bound to have something or other to say about it. Obviously a lot of you actually read what I post. And I appreciate that. A lot.

But is there really no one who has anything to say about our BCX funraising action? I was bracing myself for a couple of 'you must be out of your mind and you're not getting a single [insert small coin of your preferred valuta] from me's, but I wouldn't have expected total silence.

*tumbleweeds, crickets*

...hello?
19th-Sep-2008 09:41 am - Fundraising and hair (or lack of it)!
avatar met molen
Now that I know I'm chosen to be sent to New Zealand for the 2009 BookCrossing Convention, fundraising for that has my renewed interest... after all, there's nothing that motivates quite like self-interest.
So here's what we're going to do.
We're offering people the change of deciding whether or not we ([info]discoverylover and I) shave our heads.
That means, we're accepting donations both 'for' and 'against', and depending on the amounts that have been donated, we will or will not lose our hair!
So much more interesting than your everyday, run of the mill sponsored head shaving, isn't it. We're hoping this way of doing it will add some more excitement and suspense to the whole event, and possibly a spot of competition, allowing us to rake in more dough.

Read all about it here.
And if you feel strongly either way about the two of us keeping or losing our hair, please vote with your wallet!

As a teaser, here are some pics representing us with or without hair. It's really up to you!

OR

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