Mephisto

Went to a play on Saturday with 3 good friends. We saw Mephisto from Klaus Mann and it was a good play. A bit heavy, but enjoyable with good dialogues, some dances and a little singing. Since it was a kind of birthday celebration from my side, we went out afterwards and danced till the early morning.

The Funeral

My day was ok regarding circumstances. We buried my grandfather today, so the occasion was not all that happy, but it was a beautiful sunny day with nice speeches and lots of flowers. I read a German poem from his favorite writer, so the service had a slight personal touch from my side as well. I cannot really say that it was really terrible, as he was remembered in good spirit and he joined my grandmother now, to whom he longed very much. I will miss him though.

Bert

Bert had his birthday today, but I only just managed to call him and even waking him up to congratulate him, so: "Sorry Bert, but congrats and enjoy your 27th year of life! :-)"

Funeral

Tomorrow the funeral of my grandfather will take place. He will be buried next to my grandmother and relatives in the family grave. The ceremony will take place in the big church of Edam and I expect it to be full as he was a known person. I am expected to read a German poem and I will also carry the coffin together with Joao. My other brother sent some text, but no clue if that will be read out. Did a lot the weekend, but will post about it later.

Rest In Peace

My grandfather died at 4.15 this morning. It was suring his slee and he didn't suffer.

Shoes

A friend just told me that she has 12 pairs of boots and 45 pairs of shoes... Isn't it terrible? :-)

Death

Just received a call from my dad. The hospital expects that my grandfather will die within the next 3 days. His situation deteriorated this morning and my mom left for the hospital. What a great birthday...

OMG

I officially turned 27 today... Time goes so fast. Too fast I would say. I'm working all day, so no party, no visit, no presents. :-)

National History Quiz

Today the National History Quiz was live on TV. I invited my 2 best friends to come, watch and play as well. So at 20.25 we sat in front of the TV with notebooks and pencils answering the questions the competitors got on TV as well. Now Bert majored in history and is a history teacher. Arnoud is actually the smartest of our holy trinity and I, well, I am me. :-) No need to say that Bert won with 5 of 12 correct, Arnoud got second with 4 out of 12 and I only had 3 correct. In the final the 2 remaining competitors got open questions and here with us Bert knew most of them as well. He should have been there, although his 6 correct answers wouldn't have led him into the final. Was a nice evening though, with some birthday cake my parents brought and a few drinks.

Hospital

Went yesterday to my grandfather in hospital and he is doing fine, regarding circumstances. He still has his strange humor, the same I have and did talk a bit, so I guess all went fine and we don't have to miss him yet. :-)

Milestone

My blog has reached its 7000 visitor. It was someone from Poland. Do get in touch. :) And if all you guys, would just tell me where you are from, I would be very pleased! :-)

Easter

From this small country across the ocean or at the ocean, I want to wish you all very happy and peaceful Easter days! I'm not a big believer, but you have to use this day for something! :-) Peace out.

Grandfather

My grandfather is in hospital again. His health is deteriorating and he needs a bloodtransfusion. Can't be the best thing I guess, but he's still with us. Not a clue till when, as he is slipping a bit, but what do you expect at an age of 90 (I think...).

Medicine test

Went to the medicinetest on Friday, but heard on my arrival that I was 4th reserve. They always appoint you by when your pre-examination was done. Mine was only done on Wednesday and for the other participants before that, so I got last reserve. No one flunked the tests on entry, so I was allowed to go home again this morning. Get one night paid, it's ok, but not the full 3 weekends I would have stayed there. Too bad and better luck next time.

Calls

I am getting calls lately from an unknown number. I answer the phone and they just hang up on me. Doesn't make any sense actually since you have to pay for the 1st minute anyway and if you don't speak I don't know who it is and what (s)he wants. So if it's you: speak up! :-)

Got a funny call yesterday though: a friend called me to wish me a happy birthday. Unfortunately, she was 3 days early! It caused some fun and shame on her part, but it's good to see that my friends do think of me. :-) Calls are welcome on Tuesday, but not between 5 and 9, since I'll be coaching then...

Drink

Just made myself a hot milk and hope that helps for my headache. It's lovely though. :-)

After training

Just got home from 4 hours of trainings in Hoogeveen and have a terrible headache. I am not allowed to take an asperine, since I have a medicine test starting tomorrow. Trainings also didn't go smoothly, so I am having an off-day... Anyone some good news?

A day in the Life of...

Got up at 9.
Showered and ate breakfast.
Turned on my pc and opened Outlook.
Had 12 new emails and answered them.
Had an email conversation with Bert.
Threw my hockeyshoes and -socks out of the window, because they smell terrible.
Had lunch with Bert and Annelies.
Prepared my writing assignment for English.
Discussed about a consultancy job and read the emails about it.
Made Blue List.
Had English course and chaired the debate.
Had dinner with Bert and Arnoud.
Watched Temptation Island V and Intolerable Cruelty.
Played 2 maps of Battlefield 1942.
Updating my blog and checking other blogs.
Going to bed and read a bit in Queen Noor's Book.

Youland and I (very old pic) 

Birthday

My 27th birthday is in 6 days and I will probably not celebrate it. The weekends around it I will probably be testing medicines and on the day I have to give trainings till 10pm... I guess no presents for me this year. I do hope my brothers call me though. Would be a nice present. :)

Blue City

Just realized that the link for the Blue City wasn't in English and there isn't one as well, so here a short explanation. My province is one of the, if not THE, poorest province in NL. To attract more business, tourists and people they came up with a plan. It basically consists of digging a big lake, selling expensive plots of land in (islands) and around it and with this attracting rich people from Amsterdam, Rotterdam etc. So after the Dutch fought (and are still fighting) against the water and the sea for centuries, they suddenly thought to give land back to the water. The people in my province are to down-to-eart for this kind of projects and we weren't that happy about it, as it costs millions and the prices of nearby houses are rising, which is not that good for locals wanting to buy a house... Will have to see what will happen and how it will look like. Starting prices for the plots (so no house yet) are around 200,000€. That's the average for a normal house here...

Very, very flat lands... 

Masters farm in the province 

Windmills at the border with Germany 

Bourtange 

Tour of my province

Last Sunday, Youlan and I went on a tour through my part of the province, which is the (north) eastern part of Groningen. It is one of the poorest areas in the Netherlands and one of the most flat. :-) On a good day you can really see for miles and miles. I owed Youlan something, because I missed out a scheduled lunch (although not my fault). So we took the train to Winschoten and took my parents' car and first went to the Blue City to look at the project. Then we went to the old fortified city of Bourtange where we wandered on the walls and the Easter market. Tea time and we went to Brodie, where we had a big pot of tea and some scones. Last stop was Nieuw Statenzijl at the sea. Driving through our drylands you can really see how deserted and flat my province is. I was happy that it was a sunny day, else it can be quite depressing. :-) Returned home where my mom prepared dinner already, so we had to stay and eat there (sweet mom!) and took the evening train back home. It was a nice and good afternoon. More visitors welcome! :-)

Kids

Is it allowed to kill a few kids during hockey training? When they are very irritating for example. Using my hockey stick for hammering on their head is also fine by me. Just a thought... :-)

Zzzzzzzzz

I can't sleep. Don't know why, but just can't close my eyes, stop thinking of things and ooze away... Wanted to get up in 4 hours, but not sure if I will make that... :-)

Jobnews

Two former colleagues from the Dutch embassy in Tirana just got their new placements. One will go to Washington and the other to Pretoria. I haven’t been in either of these 2 places, so it is a good opportunity to combine social and holiday! ;-)
More good news: my best friend Bert heard today that his review board will recommend him for a permanent position! Now only I have to find a decent, steady and well-paid job and we are all happy and satisfied.

Obtaining a visa

Obtaining a visa for me as a Dutch citizen is usually not a problem. I can either buy them at the airports where I arrive or at one of the embassies in The Hague or Brussels. The only requirement is that you pay. That is of course if I need a visa at all, as for most country I luckily don’t have to have one. On the other hand: it looks nice in my passport, so the more the better! For foreign nationals coming to The Netherlands it is a big problem obtaining one. They need a paid ticket already, state that you have enough funds to survive and pay for your expenses in NL, your friends or relatives in NL are being checked, if you are invited by someone they need an income of at least 1200€, you have to make an appointment way in advance to even be able to submit your documents and you have to (relatively) pay a lot to get the visa.
Now I am trying to get a friend from Eastern Europe to The Netherlands and I went to city hall to obtain an invitation letter. I thought that they would ask me a lot of questions and needed to see some documents, but I only had to show my ID, pay 11€ and I got a blank authorized invitation letter! Easy as that. Now I only hope that the embassy doesn’t ask for a contract that I make 1200€/month or pay slips of the last 3 months, as then we would have a problem…

Irritating

Was coming back from a medical exam to see if I can participate in another medical test (this time for Hepatitis C) and was sitting in the bus. The guy opposite to me was chewing gum. Usually not a problem, but it is when he is chewing gum with his mouth open all the time and you can hear him chewing and making nasty sounds… Some people were not raised properly or simply have no manners at all…

Photocamera

I lost my (relatively new) camera in Moldova. After iceskating I probably lost it in a cab or the restaurant where we were having dinner. Put the photo's there on a disk, but forgot to put them on my harddrive, so I don't have them now. Have to wait till someone sends them. Meanwhile, I don't have a camera and was unable to take pictures in Odessa, which I found very shitty. Trow-away/instant camera's were not for sale here, so I have 0,0 images of our election mission or my free days in the city! Have to buy a new one, but first try to get money back from my insurance.

Worldmap

My friend Rudolph came to visit me this afternoon for a cup of tea and he mentioned that the worldmap on my weblog was not up to date anymore. I noticed that already, but KLM stopped with that service and I hadn't bothered to create a new one. So this evening I made a quick search and I put a new one on. Is it any good?

Debate

Had a debate today for my English course and we lost big time. My team came up with a subject (which happened to be my thesis subject) and we had to defend it. As it is a rather controversial subject and my teammembers knew hardly anything about it, our opponents had an easy job shooting holes... Frustrating if you know that half of what they are saying is not correct... :(

Online

Finally online again after 2 or 3 days of complete lack of internet at home. The connection broke down again, so I spend more time at university online than at home. Before that the connection went on/off/on/off, so not really useful as well. Hope it will work again for a while now, since I don't pay to be offline... :-) Even more funny is the fact that I regularly drive the president of the cable company: apparently he is not really satisfied with my service... :-)