I suddenly realised that I've never posted anything about the trip to NZ I took with gummihuhn in April. I simply never felt like it. I loved New Zealand, but I don't like writing all that much!
Still, here's a short episode I thought about today... so why not write it down. The pictures are Gummihuhn's.

( Click to read it... )

For a different perspective: compare gummihuhn's story... it has more pictures. And if you ever find yourself wanting to rent a motorbike in Christchurch or Auckland, head to the good folks at City Motorcycle Rentals and tell them I said hello.

Our hacker conference / geeky summer camp was a whole lot of fun. Hard to believe it's over.
I'll be writing more about it but first I want to tell you about a fun project I did: a Leela costume.

Leela is a character from the cartoon Futurama, drawn by the same guy as the Simpsons. She looks like this:

( Click to see how close I got! )

All in all, I had a lot of fun making this... and wearing it!

Remember when gummihuhn , aka_phoenix , Raffizack, stoneshop  and I went to the Chaos Communication Camp in Finowfurt, in 2007, and set up a temporary OBCZ there?
Well, maybe not. Here's an article on the BookCrossing site to refresh your memory.

We had a wonderful time, handed out a lot of books and made new friends and members from all over the world. So this year, we're doing it again.
This year's version of the conference is called Hacking At Random 2009, and it's going to be held in Vierhouten, the Netherlands, from August 13 to 16.
We're likely to be with a smaller group of BookCrossers this time, but Raffi is coming, so that's good. And we'll be bringing our laptops, lots of obsolete-but-fun hardware, and plenty of nonsense with LEDs on it. Oh, and books.

Ticket presale is open until July 20th, so if you want to get in for the lower presale price, you'd better start packing. The event's website can be found here.

...but I've just ordered a SheWee.
It's a plastic device that allows women to pee standing up, while keeping their pants mostly on. Yes, I guess you could call it a substitute penis. Only for one of its functions, though, obviously  :-)
I thought it would come in handy while travelling. Especially when out on a bike ride: there's always so much clothing you need to take off before you can get to the bare essence, so to speak.


Being Dutch, frugal and not inclined to buy the first thing that comes along, I did a little research and found several similar products, all with really silly names:
the P-Mate is not reuseable, the Whiz Freedom (also known as Whizaway) and the Freshette were fairly expensive especially with postage, and the GoGirl, while cheap at a modest 5 dollars, isn't even available outside the North-American continent. [insert really smart pun on 'continent' and 'incontinent' here]
The SheWee, however, could be mine for a mere £11  (about  €12  or $16) which seemed fair.
So that's the one I ordered.
I can't wait for my newly bought freedom to arrive so I can, pardon the pun, give it a go.

We had a wonderful time there but typing it all in feels like homework! So I'll just tell you a tiny bit about it and leave the rest to the imagination. ( Under a cut for your friends page's sake )

Okay, this one is really hard. Maybe all y'all can help me think.

See, gummihuhn, stoneshop and me were going to visit a biker's meet on Dartmoor (*waves at miketroll*). And on the way we would stop to meet a BookCrosser or two, and pick up a teapot for my Teasmade, which I bought on E-bay (or actually, gummihuhn did the buying on my behalf).
But there's a problem. stoneshop cannot get many days off from work, so his time is restricted. And he figures it's a lot of kilometres in rather few days, to meet a group of people he's not all that involved with. We'd be on a rather tight schedule in order to make it to the ferry on time.
I can see his point, and even if I couldn't: if he doesn't want to go, I can't make him go, and I wouldn't want to if I could.

So if he stays home, why shouldn't I go? After all, I've been looking forward to this trip for quite some time.  Therre's going to be campfires, and greenlaning, and lots of biker's stories being swapped. It sounds like a lovely outing and I know that gummihuhn and I make fine travel companions (everything went quite well on our trip to the BookCrossing convention in London).

Well...
it's just that stoneshop and I haven't been on a proper holiday since I don't know when. I'd really enjoy a few days out and about together. Doesn't have to be just the two of us, can be in a group; but I do want him to be there or it wouldn't be the same.
Are there other things I'd like to do with those days off? Well... I've always wanted to go to Prague together. It's my favourite city in the whole world and I'd love to show it to him. Of course, that's about the same distance... but there are no boats involved, so we wouldn't be on such a tight schedule. We could even travel by bus and sleep on the way.

So what's a girl to do? Go for the fun bike trip, get down and dirty on the moor, drink lukewarm beer around a campfire with total strangers and probably have a whale of a time?
Or go for some quality time together with the big guy, in a city which I know I really love, and he may well love it as well?

Dear LJ, I know I've not been around much lately, but don't forsake me now that I come to you in my hour of need. Please advise.

Last year, stoneshop, gummihuhn and I went to Finowfurt, Germany, on a nerdy version of summer camp. (Some of you may remember that.)
Since we were volunteering to help running things (they called us Chaos Angels... doesn't that sound nice?) I made several cardboard signs, telling people not to climb the bunkers, not to step on the fiberoptic cables or not to let their dogs (which shouldn't have been there in the first place) roam the site and pee on people's tents.

Now all of a sudden this picture of one of the signs I made pops up on a 'funny stuff found all over the internets' site, and is spotted by someone who then posts it on a motorcycling forum I read.
I never intended this sign for the internet. it was simply a sign, made for practical reasons, and I tried to make it a bit silly so people would notice it more and not think we were nagging about the rules.
This must be how memes are born.

Monday evening, we got back from a long weekend of camping and motorcycle riding in Luxemburg. And a great weekend it was!
No scary adventures, this time. Just great weather, lovely scenery, and good company.
I've said it before: Luxemburg is bikers' paradise. Lovely roads and cheap petrol, what more could one want?
And we were so lucky with the weather, too.
As we left on Friday afternoon, it was OK; had a drop or three of rain on the way, but mostly it felt like we'd just missed a shower by fifteen minutes or so. Everything still wet, but no rain in sight.
We arrived after dark to find our friends around a blazing campfire, so we quickly put up our tent and then made our supper by the fire.
The next day, we all had breakfast in the sun, with tiny white clouds chasing each other in slow-motion across a bright blue sky. We were camping in a meadow on the banks of a brook or small river, the water as clear as glass. All around us the birds were singing their little heads off.
It was a great day for a ride. So stoneshop and I went off together. We had some shopping to do since the night had been colder than we'd expected, so we wanted to get some cheap fleece blankets, and a legging or some long johns for me to wear during the night. When I got up to pee early in the morning, all the bikes had ice on them.

We had a lovely ride. There's nothing quite like the ever-shifting view from a bike, in a landscape full of hills such as this one; every second, something new comes into view. You'll be rolling down into the valleys, through the cool, dark woods, and then back up a mountainside again; as the road twists and turns and winds itself around the mountains, you'll see old farmhouses next to brooks, houses painted blue or yellow, and every now and then a castle overlooking the valley. The grass is a bright, translucent green and dotted with spring flowers in yellow and white. You can actually smell all the different crops on the fields, and the pine trees. Like the view, the smells are constantly changing. And the air feels cooler as you're passing under the trees, then warmer as you're climbing up a hillside again, feeling like you're getting so close to the deep blue sky you could reach out and touch it. The bike itself sounds like it's having a good time, purring along like a happy cat.
It's impossible to experience all of this and not be put in a good mood; in fact, it all made me want to smile and wave at everyone we met. All other bikers seemed to feel the same, since they greeted one another as if to say: Hi, isn't this great? Are you having as much fun as I am?

Stoneshop taped a small digital video camera to his helmet and tried to shoot some nice footage while riding; it turned out he'd mainly managed to get a nice view of the bike's instrument panel. The camera obviously hadn't been directed at quite the correct angle. Next up, he taped it to the bike and this yielded much better results. Coming very soon, to a web page near you!

The only thing I wasn't very happy about was the fact that my bike's gear shift pedal had come loose (again). This wasn't easy to fix, as it was the axle itself, that it was attached to, that had worn so much you couldn't screw the pedal on tight enough for it to stay put.
So the next day, we tried to get it fixed in a quick and dirty way: by having it welded on. Unfortunately, this was Sunday so we couldn't find anyone willing and able to do it. Eventually, I ended up going back to the camp site to read, sit around in the sun and drink some wine (oh, what hardship!) while Stoneshop rode around a bit more and shot some more video.

On Monday, it didn't take Stoneshop very long to find a garage 5 kilometres from the camp site, where we could get the bike fixed. We left around one o'clock and spent the whole afternoon and part of the evening in two-wheeled bliss, going back home.
What a perfect little holiday.
 

(if only because I'm going to the BookCrossing Convention in London on the 18th!)

My mother and I arrived in the afternoon, rather clueless as to where we could find our hotel. We couldn't look it up because the keys to my mother's suitcase were nowhere to be found. We figured it would be easiest to find the hotel first and then solve the suitcase problem.
A bus took us into town from the airport. And we got off at the right stop. Several utterly friendly Portuguese folks helped us to find the hotel, which turned out to be really nice!
The room was lovely. And someone from the staff  picked the lock on the suitcase for us. So that was one problem taken care of.
We headed into the center on foot, walking along wonderful boulevards, dressed in our summer clothes. It was warm and sunny! It felt almost subtropical.
We ended up finding a nice place to eat and it wasn't even expensive.

The next day, we went and bought a three-day ticket for public transport, which turned out to be a very good deal. Here's a short list of things we went to see and do during those three days:

- the National Tile Museum, which was much more interesting than you'd think
- the Monastery of St. Jeronimo, very impressive
- the city quarter named Belem, where we had tea and the traditional pastry
- the river. We took the ferry to the other side especially to see it, and the Bridge of April the 25th.
- the Cathedral
- the streetcars, especially line 28, the so called historical line
- the funicular to the higher part of the city
- the lift. See the pic and you'll understand
- the city quarter named Bairro Alto, which is where people go out, and where the artists live
- an antiques shop where they sold original tiles from people's houses
- the castle, but we didn't go in. We've seen castles before.
- the Museum of Modern Art and its spectacular gardens. We had tea with two local BookCrossers there, which was very nice!
- the tiles and the architecture. We spent a great deal of time looking up.

Furthermore, the food was great. We had lovely fresh fish, orange juice, lots of great coffee (and decent tea served in generous amounts), local pastry, roasted sardines, local wines... Lisbon is full of great flavours. The people are very friendly and helpful, and almost everything you see is adorned with decorative patterns. Even the subway stations look like works of art.
It was a great little holiday. It's a lovely city. In fact you should go there and see for yourself.


Oh, and my mother ended up finding a spare key for the suitcase padlock on the same keyring her house keys were on.

In fact I came back tuesday evening.
I'll be writing a bit about the trip soon; for now, the pictures I took can be found here.

I won't  be posting here for a couple of days... my mother is taking me to Lisbon for a short holiday!
Be good while I'm away... or not, suit yourself  ;-)


Reminder to self:
when I get back, post about that dream about a book about a book. Or was it a story?

As Christmas was approaching, we realised no one had invited us for a Christmas meal. Last year, we had family over for dinner; that was nice, but we didn't really feel like doing that again this time. So we decided to spend a few days away from home this time.
I found a nice short trip arrangement on the Stayokay, which is the former youth hostel organisation, website; as we are former youth ourselves, that seemed very appropriate.
I inquired whether or not there was room for us in the inn, and (also very fitting) it was almost full, but they had a room for four which we could have at a small extra fee for the empty beds, which they would not be renting to anyone else. So we had a room for four to ourselves. The downside of that was, of course: bunk beds. But I was sure we'd find some way around that.

We were going to Terschelling, which is one of the islands that form a string to the north of the Netherlands. It's 30 kilometres long. It's possible to take a car on the ferry, but that's fairly expensive, and besides, what for? There's nowhere to drive to.
We decided to take our bicycles instead, and get some exercise.


Of course, we also took our laptops and a small stack of books to release.
And since we knew about a BookCrosser who lives there and sometimes feels a bit left out (because it's much harder for her to attend meetings or hunt for books) we also took a banana box full of unregistered books, so she'd be able to release them all over the island, and possibly net a few new BookCrossers that way.

Aaltsje (that's her name) was waiting for us when we got off the ferry, and her eyes lit up when she say the full box!

It was already dark, but we found the inn quite easily. We had a nice dinner, a short walk around the village and headed for bed. Don't tell the staff, but we put the matresses on the floor. We're not used to sleeping in separate beds.

The next day was Christmas day. We spent it exploring the island by bicycle, which is nice, but a bit windy. We found a very nice old windmill, the one on the picture above, that is now a great place to stop for coffee and tea (although the tea tasted a bit salty!), and later on we stumbled upon the Wreckage Museum, which was full of things found on the beach or while diving. Very interesting and well worth a visit.
I took a few pictures that day, and you can find them here if you're interested, or click on the pic.

(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)
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'.

(Originally posted on MySpace)
Now that spring's definitely here, I've started making holiday plans.

The main part of my plan is that I'm definitely planning to have a holiday this year. I didn't really have one last year, although we went to a nice bikers meet in Germany. Oh, and my mother took me to France for a week, but that was more of a working holiday since we were there to help decorate an old farm house and I painted all week long, except on those days when I put up the kitchen tiles. I did have a good time, though. But this year I want to:
So when I heard about CCC2007, that sounded like just the thing.
Apparently, it's an international hackers convention, going on during five days in the beginning of August, near Berlin (Germany, of course).


I know I'm no hacker and only half a nerd, but I had such a great time at WhatTheHack two years ago that I don't think I'd want to miss this. WTH was just like summer camp. A kind of freaky techno summer camp for grownups.
And it might even be fun to stay there a bit longer, say: two weeks, and help them setting things up, and running the event.
So I sent an e-mail which went like this:

---

Subject: Hello, we'd like to join the circus please

Hi,
We read about the Chaos Communication Camp 2007 and we would like to be part of the crew.
In return for admittance we are offering two weeks of our time, and our mAd sKiLLz:

-one of us is a sysadmin with 25 years of experience, especially non-Windows
-the other is a professional signwriter and decorator since 17 years and occasionally builds websites
-language skills: Dutch, English, German
-we both enjoy and are good at tinkering, fixing things and building stuff
-we are easygoing, love to improvise and brush our teeth fairly regularly.

If you're the wrong person to send this to, could you please forward it to the right person? We had a hard time locating a contact address on the website.

Looking forward to August,
yours sincerely,

---

Now, what German hacker in his right mind could possibly resist us?
*flutters eyelids seductively*

Here's a pic of my tent and bike at WhatTheHack: