Koninginnedag

Queensday today.

R. got home at 3 last night from "a job interview and just a few drinks with the boys".
A. went to the Koninginnenach in Den Haag and I was at home getting bored.

This morning I bought oranje tompoucen and that's about all the excitement i'll have today.

Is he a boy?

Don't know what's wrong but this is my 3rd post today. Probably coz I've known my man for almost 14 yrs now. I mean you hear about couples not communicating anymore and then find yourself in the middle of it.
(R. before you take this one seriously too, I still luv you !)

T.'s got this dog of her parents at the office. Iggy, as in Iggy Pop. A miniature schnautzer.
The other day she was taking him for a walk and a boy asked if he could pet him. Sure T. said.
Then he wanted to know if he was a boy.
Can't you tell? his sister said.
He's got a beard.

True story.

Office troubles

Been rebooting my laptop practically the entire day.
This last week i've had the most weirdest popups and got stuck every 2 minutes when i tried to link something through.

J. said he would re-install the whole lot while he was installing our new server, but today i couldnot take it anymore and started to try out things myself.
I discovered something called diskclean.
And after that ran Ad-Aware. Turned out i had over 400 "new critical objects".
Huhh??
Next hour or so i was watching things go by like C:\windows\PCHealth\Help\Ctr\binairies\cplt98646
Don't even ask.
And then I had to decide which one of those 400 something needed to be thrown out.
Right.
I threw out everything.

And guess what, sofar everything i click on still works. * claps*

Something completely else;
how do these professional models cope?
i mean, with summer approaching, i work myself through 3 liters of tea/water every day.
But...
One minute i'm in an interview and thinking I'm going to make it, the next minute i find myself saying; excuse me and crawling with crossed legs to the bathroom.
I've never heard of Kate Moss leaving the catwalk for a pee.

Expressions I want to use any day soon now, so be warned

Any day soon now.
Seized the opportunity so you don't have to worry about that one.

Ad nauseum.

So you're a rocket scientist. That don't impress me much
Been to the hairdresser (to be continued) yesterday where Shania rocked.

So you're Brat Pitt.
Right.
I wish I could say That don't impress me much. But it does. I'm afraid I couldn't control my jaw from opening and dripping on the floor.
A few weeks ago Richard Gere (Richard Gere ppl !!!) was in Vlaardingen of all places, to receive some award for his work in Tibet.
O ja, de Geuzenpenning. Anyway, T'.'s father being a decorated veteran, got 2 invitations. She went with him to the church and afterwards to the reception where she saw women totally losing control and imposing themselves on him with the most stupidest excuses. Everybody casually trying to take a picture with their phones.
And she said, you know what; even when I had a severe attack of plaatsvervangende schaamte, I still wanted to go to him and have my picture taken too.

90-61-90
In case B.P. asked for it

All we need is..wiet tatatata

Wiet is the dutch word for pot and as most of you probably know, it's allowed and relatively easy to get in certain coffee-shops overhere.

But apparently it's getting out of hand. Everyday we hear of people growing hundreds of plants on their attics or in their sheds and the police and especially energy companies are dismantling (?) those coz ppl use all sorts of illegal and dangerous installations for watering and lighting the stuff.
Anyway, around the corner of our office there's this strange 'office' (music impressario it said on the door, well, they seemed to have only reggae musicians on their list if you know what i mean).
This morning T. parked her car in front of it and saw police officers walking in and carrying all sorts of things out.
Turns out we had a real hennep kwekerij next to us !

I've only smoked one joint in my life ever.
We had a dinner party, yrs ago and were ending the evening with a game where you had to throw a dice and depending on the outcome of the dice, could pick your favorite item on the table.
One of us had brought this joint and baby's as we all were, NONE of us had ever smoked one and we all wanted to give it a try.
It was a total disappointment.
Everyone took a trekje (draft ?) and while we were anxiously waiting to see purple rain or people with 3 arms or so, nothing and i mean nothing happened.
We didn't even get a headache.

So who's bringing the coke next time?

It looks like we bought a van

This morning we went to see a guy who sells his van, just like this one but in red. As we need one pretty soon now, his' looks rather OK and the price is only slightly over what we had in mind (1oK), we'll probably do it.
We're looking into grijze kentekens now, and if anybody has experience how to get one (I tried the Belastingdienst site but apart from general info couldnot find any specifics) please let us know.

Yesterday evening the whole gang came over to try out R.'s coquilles St. Jacques and his lamb (the 10 of us ate about 3 kilo !). M. made arrangements to sleep over at D.'s and in general we set all the holiday plans in action. Only now the guys want to have their thing too! Dublin or Edinburgh (meaning Ireland or Scotland, meaning whisky, meaning getting drunk) it will be apparently, although when it comes down to actually organizing trips like this, us women are more determined i find.

And to show you how utterly cultured (new verb) and usefull my weekend has been; that very morning we visited Sassenheim, where T. lives (R.'s mother).
Sassenheim, Lisse, Noordwijkerhout etc. is know by most tourists because of the flowerbulbs. Unfortunately as R. grew up there and in his early teens worked picking flowers and putting bulbs in a box (I have no idea what he did), he can't stand the smell or sight of them anymore and i have never seen het Bloemencorso for instance. Up till yesterday that is. A. and all the kids stepped into the rented Twingo and although we had to wait for about 1,5 hrs and T. got ill, I had a very pleasant day.
I really like doing these things. Not only to show A. typical Dutch things, but for myself too.
It's probably on the other end of being hip, but i find that sort of funny too.
I am so old school.

It may occur to you

that i just made up a (catchy? I hope) title of my blog and went on rambling like all the others.

And you are right.
Partly.

But i have also send P. 11 pages (dubbelzijdig) of comments and RFC's.
After the demo 2 wks ago I didn't know what to think.
Well no, i was disappointed. My baby looked like the meatmarket i was trying to avoid and i think this came because they had to buy and use a datingprogram as source.
Part of me was also trying to be realistic, coz they really needed the other program and this was probably the best there was.

I sat down and tried very very hard to personalize the outcome into what i had always had in mind. Hence (ooh, so glad to be able to fix that expression in) the 11 pages.

But the fat lady hasn't sung yet. (Sung???)
I've got to test the adjustments they made, i've got to test the payment procedures (those were not ready yet) and i am just not in the mood for it.
Testing drives you crazy. If you change something here, you need to follow it till way up there.
And you are making up situations that are most unrealistic, coz you need to know the boundaries.
Arghhh, HELP

On the other hand, i have collected a couple hundred addresses and i really cannot wait to put them into the database and send out an invitation to visit my site. But i want to be proud of it then. I don't want a crappy thing.

And i need to do it asap, coz during the summer holidays lots of students and aupairs will go home and there's no need to go looking for friends anymore.

Pfff, I'll keep you posted.

Oh, and for anybody who is reading my blog (zegt het voort) Pleazze.. Leave a comment.

Want to know what you look like at 65 ?

Try this site .

Oh, could this really be the beginning of Spring then? Today the sun is finally back and i long for some warmth.
My legs are so embarrasingly white i could really snowblind someone i am afraid.

I have enrolled M. & T. in a ski class for the first week of the May holiday. For 5 days in a row they'll have 1,5 hr ski-lessons and the last day everybody receives a diploma.
All for the good cause of next year's skiing holiday !

Got to go back to work now. We've got 2 requests from de Lotto, one from Woonbron, one from Ahold and one from SPS so we're really looking for an intern now. Someone for 3-4 days a week, preferably available for at least 6 months. If you know anybody, send us an email pls. No kidding.
And while i am at it, we're also looking for a van. Tried several adds, but were a bit too late each time. Airco and preferably 6 seats is all I am asking.

Back to normal

Well it must have been hectic times in Rome but here in Rotterdam we've had quite some eventfull days too.
Saturday night A. & i ended up at the huisartsenpost after her seizure. The doctor ran some tests but couldn't find anything. I on the other hand know a lot more medical terms now.
And I have a good tip; if you walk into a full waiting room, where there is about an hour delay; faint.
R. had to wake her up that night to see she wasn't unconscious. Thank God she wasn't.

And this Monday one of my colleagues needed a day off coz his son in law was one of the 2 people who got severely injured during the riots between Ajax and Feyenoord hooligans.
He was sitting in the stadion when someone from the ring above him threw down some homemade firework that hit his face and exploded. A scarf went in through his lefteye and got stuck in his skull.
Is this unbelievable or what?

I am glad to say A. is doing fine at the moment !

April doet wat 'ie wil

And as a result we have had rainy days for the whole last week.
It stinks. I was having my summer wardrobe ready to come in, but everybody is back to winterjackets and longsleeved t-shirts again.
Good thing about it though; waxing adventures can be delayed. I mean i can just about stand my legs, but i am still plucking up courage for my armpits, let alone a bikini-line.
A. and i booked an arrangement for a spa in May. I won entrance tickets thru an internet thing. Anyway, we were looking into the brochure about the treatments and you could also have your back (huh?) waxed.
Man.
I am not blessed but this is serious trouble.
Come to think of it, I once saw an episode of the Swan where there was this woman who had to shave herself.
And the trouble with getting older is, hairs appear where they were never meant to be.
I remember oma Rie's chin (God save her soul).

This has become a strange story. I wanted to say something about the lousy weather.
The trouble is, this happens in my professional life too.
I start at A, manage to get to B in the right order, but make a sidestep to D, come back to C, get lost at R, etc.
Of course i could also say I have a creative mind.
Or i'm just living up to my sterrenbeeld. "Zij hebben een goed verstand en een snelle manier van denken"
Enough BS

R. was supposed to get called by ADP (not even worth linking) this week. They didn't.
Apart from the fact that it's a bummer, it is just so rude.
How can these big companies get away with such an appaling customer/employee behaviour?
I am serious.
R. should hear from them last Tuesday. He called Thursdays. No the concerning director was abroad, but would be here again that evening and his secretary would make sure he would call R. on Friday.
Not.

We can manage money-wise.
But we're going to need a car soon.
Second week of May we're going to some place in Noord-Brabant. M. has gotten his aanhangfiets and he and i need to practice in order to be ready for this summer when we go to Burgundy. And i seriously need to improve my condition.
At the moment it has come to a point where I can barely reach our 2 stairs without oxygen.

But when R. gets a job, it will most probably be one with a leasecar. Damn.
No use sticking our heads in the sand. We got to by a car and then hopefully have 2 soon.

True Confessions

I've found the most interesting site; called postsecret.
Apparently this thing has been in the news, psychiatrists (? difficult word) refer to it etc. You mail a certain Frank a preferably homemade postcard (which for starters looks beyond my capacities) with your secret written on it and he posts that card on this site.

Wouldn't you just loved to have thought about this and to have been the one to start it all?
I sure would.

And everybody has secrets.
I have. Not all that big, but...
And the problem here is this is a semi-private blog.
Y'all out there don't know who i am and probably couldn't care less. But in my own litte circle everyone looks thru the d.'s and t.'s and r.'s

On the other hand if i have to live my life worried what others may think of my private ramblings i am not getting anywhere.
So.

R.'s favorite tv-show is Everwood.
Hahaha.

Ok. On a more serious level than.
A few weeks ago r. and i had our last therapy session.

Pff..
I'll mail my other issues to Frank.

Maastricht

After some serious discussions with R. trying to convince me not to go, I went to Maastricht.

Friday morning hawkeye Always Right picked me up and together with G. and D. we headed south where we arrived around noon. Had a great lunch and went on our shopping mission. After 1,5 day i can solemnly swear we did the best we could.
I got home with presents for the kids, 3 pairs of shoes, 1 black doorschijnbloes (which they made me swear to wear on the evening of the 23th when everybody is coming to our place for dinner), 1 cookingbook and a sweater for R. 2 pairs of earrings, 1 bracelet and 1 broche and 2 sweaters for the boys.
And of course all of the above without fitting coz my back didn't allow me to bend too much.
Girls thanks again for carrying all my stuff and D. in particular for not smashing me on the back at night coz i was snoring :0

But the best part of it all was: we made cunning plans (can you tell i love that expression?) about this coming year in which we all become 40.
It's strange. I know some of you reading this must go like: 40 !!! my god, she is OLD.

And i KNOW you are right. But I can write about this topic without any shame or fear or whatever. It's just too surreal.
I mean, I remember my mother becoming 40!
And i KNOW life is clearly over by then.
Now i admit thinking that too when i became 19, but i am sure most of you would agree with me on the 40 story. FOURTY !!!

You know what is even worse.
41.
Can't really say why, but with 40 you still can show some pride coz it's a special year. Like 21 or 30. Going the wrong way ofcourse but hey, 41 is definitely over the top.

So.
D. is the first of us to celebrate and we decided to start our jubileumyear by going to New York!!
Yippie, Yahoo !
Just for a few days, *nose in the air* to do our Christmas shopping.

Then during the springbreak holiday of the kids we all go ski-ing in Austria. We rent a big house, hire a Dutch ski-instructor for the kids (we can fill our own class by then) and maybe persuade A. to bring a friend so we can have an evening off for dinner out. TTYL about that one A.!

And as i am the youngest one, getting 40 in June 2006, we top it off with a birtday party somewhere in a house with a pool where everybody can invite friends and family. Ladies, help me out; was this the house in Tuscany or are we going there for the summer holiday?
Anyway, we're going to see lots of each other the coming year, we're going to celebrate life, we're going to have big dinner feasts, and in generalgoing to spend a lot of €'s.

D. and I are in the NY organisation group. I think A. is doing the skiing and G. looks at the house in June.

Great, great, great.

It's official

i've got a hernia.
Shii-iiit !

It;s R.'s birthday today and i haven't got him any present.
We are supposed to go out for dinner tonight and i was going to go away for the weekend shopping in Maastricht with the girls.
I so want to go.
I haven't been shopping in ages.
But it is true; after about an hr or so of sloooowly walking i can't do anything else.
Shit shit shit. (ever noticed how it is much easier to curse in another language? I remember R. and I teaching A. Dutch cursewords and although we had to laugh a lot, some words i could almost not say. In english there is no internal thing holding me back from ff-ing the whole time. Ofcourse the actual f-word is not forbidden here on radio or television so maybe that also adds up to our feeling of it being a "normal" word. If anyone is interested in some real dutch cursewords, let me know, i'll set up a dedicated post.)

Anyway, as of from yesterday i'm having pills to relax my muscles (remember the wobbly head, well don't even know what to call this state anymore. Swaying i suppose), pills to ease the pain (the doctor started by offering me valium ! i swear, but that was a bit too much for me, Although after stepping down out of his office i cried for at least 10minutes coz i just didn't know how to step into the car again), pills for my thyroid gland ( looked that one up) and powder to make a drink concerning my intestines. And i still consider myself healthy. I do, there is nothing wrong with me. Usually.

Got to go. I am going to stuff myself with birthday cake.

Remember what the Pope looked like just before he passed away?

Put him in trousers and you got me.
Wobbly head, bent over and no coherent speech.
Don't know what is wrong but since Sunday evening i am a mess.

This whole pope look-alike-thing started right after i learned he was dead.
B. (aka Truth Ruth) had come over after her dj-ing adventures on 109.7 (cable).
As it turned out she's been doing this since July, but thought she was uh-ing too much and didn't want to let anyone know before she had that under control. Apparently this was that time coz she textpaged/sms-ed me that she was going to play a life version of Patti Austin for me.
This girl has gotten herself a number one fan ofcourse !
Anyway we were discussing black schools and what to do about it, degrading norms in general, Teri Schiavo, B.'s new job; the usual Saturday night stuff, when the church bells from the (Polish-Dutch) church across the street began to ring.

That very night the bending down started.
I shit you not!
R. rubbed my back for about half an hour but it didnot really help. (speaking about backrubbing, this is no joke; have you heard about the Pope and this revue girl, some 75 yrs ago ?!)

The next day we had 2 eating appointments;
1 very pleasant lunch with friends we hadn't seen for too long and on which i overate.
On the way back home i felt strontmisselijk and together with the back pain started to loose it bit by bit.
I think i somehow managed to nod at the appropriate times in the restaurant that night and squeezed out a laugh when needed but when we stepped into the car all bravoury was gone.
So.. Monday was spent (o something on the side; as you may have noticed i have a problem with d's & t's in english; i usually mean past tense) in bed.

This morning, i felt quilty about letting T. run the office on her own, dressed up, tried to keep my head stil and got the laptop.
To make a long story a wee bit shorter; C. did me in. She came over and i lifted her from one side to another, getting totally out of balance and broke my spine.
Or that's how it feels now.

Ok then. To change my misery for someone elses; R. rode the Ronde van Vlaanderen Saturday.
Not the professional edition (256 km!!) bit still 150 kilometers on kinderkopjes !! *claps*
For those of you who are not familiar with the word kinderkopjes (literally children's heads); they're bricks. Small bricks, usually unevenly laid.
So.
Imagine you're riding on a way too small saddle.
On kinderkopjes.
For 150 kilometers (it took R. 6 hrs and he's trained !!)
Those of you with imagination see where i am heading.
The private parts ppl !
Apparently what the professionals do is: take a big jar of vaseline/lubricant and smeer it from your bilnaad till the front where you can't go any further.
I'll bet you'll be looking a whole different way at Lance Armstrong this summer !