kees

dear postman

noreply@blogger.com (kees) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 15:24:00 +0000

Another week's gone past, and most of the time I didn't even leave the house.

Saturday I went to Danny's birthday party at Mulligans; walking towards town I saw the lights on the 'skinny bridge' were on.

magere brug

Monday and Tuesday at work I was still busy with the Annual Report. One of the authors who was commissioned to write a review chapter has decided he'd rather go skiing in the Jura and told us not to expect his article. We now miss four pages of our first chapter, and they're four of the most significant pages, too! The whole editorial team was running around in circles trying not to panic.

Coming home on Tuesday I walked along the Ringvaart where the ice was melting. This bird looked like it was walking on water.

jesus bird

On Wednesday I just had a short walk along the Amstel; I wasn't feeling too well.

boats on the amstel

Thursday and Friday I was home with an throat infection. I went out only once to get some groceries. At Hartog's they were offering 'recession bread baking lessons'.

recession bread baking lessons

Saturday I was feeling much better. I needed to do some more shopping and thought I'd walk to the AH on Wibautstraat. Here I saw a new graffiti, probably made by somebody who likes cheese.

typical cheesy dutch graffiti

I walked along the Amstel towards the AH when I got the idea that I needed to buy new jeans. The ones I was wearing were getting dirty and the other ones I had at home were all too large!

clouds over the amstel

So I set out for my now favourite shop on top of Nieuwendijk. I crossed the Amstel and walked along Stadhouderskade to Weteringschans.

stadhouderskade is being resurfaced

By the time I got to Reguliersgracht the sun was out in full force.

reguliersgracht

One aspect of winter time I like is that you can now actually see the houses on the canals; in summer time they're mostly hidden behind the trees.

the house with the stork

I walked through Kalverstraat, which is still a madhouse on Saturdays. The constant start/stop you have to make to avoid bumping into people is not very good for my feet. I prefer a constant speed so I took a left turn into one of the alleys leading to the Nieuwe Zijds Voorburgwal. The Magna Plaza shopping mall (the old Main Post Office) looked great.

magna plaza

At the moment the Palace on the Dam is being worked on. I don't know what it is exactly they're doing, but the back of the building is fenced in. I saw this note on the back door. I can now imagine the Queen coming to the door in housecoat and slippers, curlers in her hair, to pick up the morning paper from the doormat.

"Please deposit the mail and the Telegraaf newspaper in the Palace's mailbox at nr. 147."

The name of this street intrigued me, "Oude Braak". It translates literally to "Old Vomit", but I think it could also mean an old break in the dike, as 'braak' can also mean 'broken'. The houses in the little street were nice looking.

oude braak

Around the corner of Old Vomit is the jeans shop. I told the sales guy I was wearing a 38. He handed me a 36 and told me to try it on. It fitted. That's another inch gone. If I keep this up much longer I'll be wearing children's sizes. If I can do it fast enough I'll be giving CERN a run for their money to see who is the first to produce a black hole.

I escaped the shop with a 36 in the bag, crossed the Rokin and along the back of the Beurs, the old Stock Market building. Having looked at a lot of steampunk websites lately I was fantasizing a new use for this building. It looked like it would be suitable for Her Majesty's Ministry for Time Travel…

Her Majesty's Ministry for Time Travel (beurs van Berlage)

I walked along Warmoesstraat, through the Nes and to the Oudmanhuispoort.

oudemanhuispoort

Then along Kloveniersburgwal, across the Amstel and into Mulligans for a cup of coffee.

mulligans on the amstel

Two coffees later my feet were rested enough to start the walk home again. I walked down Nieuwe Herengracht, along the Weesperstraat and Wibautstraat. I stopped off at Hartog's for a loaf of bread, walked down the Oosterparkstraat and then home. I bought my groceries at the AH downstairs. All together this was a 9.4 km walk instead of the quick 'go to AH' trip I set out to do.

nieuwe herengracht / amstel

Today, Sunday, the weather was sun, rain, sun, snow, overcast, rain … I stayed home.

the pope defeated

noreply@blogger.com (kees) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 18:06:00 +0000

According to Nicole, her mother was getting distressed because I didn't update my blog on a regular basis. Since I don't want to be responsible for Vicky running around with a hatchet in Adelaide killing people here's an update on the happenings of last week. I dedicate this one to Vicky.

At work the foundation for our new engine room is progressing; the concrete floor has been poured and they're now working on setting up the walls.

pouring concrete

Work this week has been mostly on the Annual Report (what's new…) and the cosmology booklet. The AR is almost finished now; I only waiting for two articles and the introduction. The director promised me to have the introduction ready on Monday. He also said not to beat him up if it wasn't ready since Monday is his birthday. I promised to hit him only softly as a compromise.

On a few occasions I walked home when my feet weren't hurting that much. Most of the time I took the bus, though. Tuesday I went past Frankendael just when the sun was setting, which threw a golden light over the pond.

frankendael sunset

At the Ringvaart a woman was feeding the birds. Seagulls and ducks were flocking around her trying to get at the food. The animal care organisations have asked to give birds a bit extra this year since it has been colder than average.

bird feeding

Thursday evening I was meeting Collins for a Chinese meal in Restaurant Tong Ah near Leidseplein. I left work early and decided to walk most of the route, walking a bit in circles around Amsterdam. My feet were feeling great, so I first set off to the Oostenburgergracht where I saw a bridge going nowhere.

bridge to nowhere

At the end of Oostenburgergracht I took the bus to Central Station. I got off at the Schreierstoren (Weeping Tower), so named because this is the spot where according to tradition sailor's wives would wave their husbands good bye. Again according to tradition this involved a whole lot of weeping.

schreierstoren

The North-South Line Metro diggers have broken up their installations on the Damrak so once again we can see the water and the houses which are built straight on the water with no quay in front of them.

damrak

Dinner at Tong Ah was very good. Collins is a regular there but for me it was the first time. He usually gets the Gong Bao Chicken but wished that he could get something more spicy. I like spicy food too, so we discussed ideas with the owner who came up with "beef and chicken in a very hot sauce, just leave it to the chef". What came out of the kitchen later was beef and chicken in a very hot sauce, prepared with Mme Jeanette chillies. Very hot, indeed. Yum.

After dinner we went to Dan Murphy's on Leidseplein for a drink and talked about Collins' upcoming projects. We bounced a couple of ideas back and forth, but I don't think that night had one of my 'once a year great ideas', as Collins puts it.

After two drinks we split up and I started to walk home. I only made it two tram stops from Leidseplein before I caught the tram. The longish walk earlier had done its damage and my feet now seriously hurt. Taking the tram was the best option.

leidseplein

Friday I attended a conference for physics teachers which was organised at work. Several people were giving talks on what was happening in 'big science' with it's 'extreme machines'. Very interesting as they didn't throw too much mathematics and Greek around so I could follow it easily. One of my colleagues, a physicist with a PhD confessed that even he learned from the talk about entanglement in quantum mechanics. This reminded me of a Richard Feynman quote: "If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics."

Today, Saturday I slept late. After my morning coffee I went to do the weekend shopping. The community centre in Joubertstraat is nearing completion. The building has two very large windows in the façade. I looked inside to see what they were building. It turned out to be a mosque. I like the idea of a Dutch-style mosque; one of the things that tourists always notice is the large open windows in Dutch houses where you can see the family sitting in their living room. It looks like the designers of this mosque took that idea and implemented it here.

mosque

The tunnel under the railroad has been painted with graffiti since I don't know when. Years ago the council told the local graffiti painters to do their best and supplied them with the paint. Miraculously, it has not been overpainted with other graffiti much. Most of the original is still there. What is new, is the 'Escher' swans on the sign. It used to have words on it (which I have forgotten). I like the re-use of graffiti in this way. It gives it a feeling of continuation and renewal. Graffiti is one of the non-static arts. It keeps evolving. You can see it here.

transvaal graffiti

Those who don't like graffiti are warned by a sticker I saw on the old 'Volkskrant' building.

warning

I got my exotic coffee blends for the Senseo at the AH on Wibautstraat and bought a small jar of Dun Peas which I ate tonight with onions, pickles and a meatball. For tomorrow I got a Mozarella salad.

loading up at AH

When I got home I saw on on of the FaceBook games I play, Mafia Wars, that Miss Jo and I had defeated the Pope. I didn't make any money from it.

the Pope defeated

that was the week that was

noreply@blogger.com (kees) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 19:03:00 +0000

Another week's gone past and the light is slowly returning in the sky. I worked basically non-stop on the annual report and a cosmology booklet, typesetting equations. I was happy the weekend came since that meant it was time for the Viking Winter Banquet. Most years we go to Oerlinghausen in Germany for the banquet but this year it was a home match: the Archeon in Alphen aan de Rijn.

archeon: old houses, young girl.

The banquet was organised by Martin and Rona and was a great success. The food was excellent and so was the company. I went there with Marion and Danny in Janneke's car. Janneke couldn't make it to the banquet as she had other commitments that weekend.

skoll!

The weather (which had been lousy the last week: rain, rain and more rain) had picked up considerably. The sun was shining all weekend and the temperature was well above freezing. The old houses of mediaeval 's-Gravendam looked fresh in the sunshine.

's-Gravendam

More hours of daylight also mean that I now leave the house in the dark, but slowly walk towards the sunrise in the morning. By the time I get to Muiderpoort the streetlights are switched off and by the time I walk into the gate at work the sun is up.

morning light at Muiderpoort station

Two years ago the HiSPARC cosmology experiment wanted to change their website from the one I had made to one driven by a content management system (CMS). They would do all the work themselves. Now, two years later, the CMS still doesn't work properly; they can't integrate the data acquisition and analysis into the CMS and the database interfaces don't work. Today they asked me to 'please take over again and make it work.' I told them I'd think about it and would discuss it with management since I don't know what other work they've got lined up for me. I do like to work on HiSPARC, though.

When I made my escape at 16:00 the sun was still shining. I walked along the Amstel to Hartog's bakery where I hadn't been in a few weeks due to the weather. I did some more food shopping on the way home and decided that dinner would be tiny today. I had eaten too much at the banquet, so today I only had a Soato soup (spicy chicken and bean sprouts) with a little rice from the Surinamese take-away down the road. With two mandarins and a pear it made enough for a healthy dinner.

afternoon light at the amstel

My weight has been steady over the last three weeks. I'm bouncing between 95 and 97 kilos. According to my dietician this is normal and could last up to two months. I think it is caused by not enough exercise in winter time and eating more than normal to keep my body stoked in the cold. I have to do more cycling on the exercise bike, I think.

no rioting, please!

noreply@blogger.com (kees) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 13:55:00 +0000

Ok, stop, I submit. I will update the blog. Whether you like the contents or not I don't know…

Here's the batch of photos I made in the last week. I made a few more, but they were not fit for publication due to unsharpness, movement or general uninterestingness. As you can see from the photos, I walk to work in the dark. The last week the sun has started to rise a bit earlier again, so now I usually see sunrise somewhere along the route. One morning the sky had lovely shades of red and pink when I was coming through Frankendael. I experimented a bit with the settings on the camera and here's the result.

sunrise in frankendael

When I got near the stand of trees the clouds were looking very streaked against the rising sun.

more sunrise frankendael

I tried to catch the same colours at the villa, but by that time Aurora had left the building…

villa frankendael just after sunrise

When I got to work I saw a tanker truck delivering more clouds to our sister-institute AMOLF. They ware getting a load of liquid nitrogen which always makes for nice little clouds.

delivering clouds

I didn't go out in the evenings this week; I stayed in, chatting and playing Dragon Wars on FaceBook. Work was mostly editing the Annual Report. This will last for another two to three weeks by which time it should be on its way to the printer. The most boring part has yet to start: the publication list. This is a long list of articles which have appeared in peer-reviewed journals. The titles typically look like "Measurement of cos2β in B⁰→ D^(*)h⁰ Decays with a Time-Dependent Dalitz Plot Analysis of D→ K_s⁰π⁺π^–", which is hell to type set. I'll be doing that job at home so I won't be distracted by colleagues walking into my room.

Friday afternoon I went to Enschede, near the German border. One of our graduate students, Jeroen, had to do his PhD defence at the Univerity of Twente. I drove up with Frank, who was on the promotion committee. Jeroen and I had worked in the past on the data acquisition and data storage for the HiSparc astrophysics project and we also have spent quite some time drinking pints of Guinness in Mulligans. I also designed the cover for his thesis and gave advice on some of the figures in the thesis. All in all a good reason to go to his defence.

He passed with flying colours and is leaving for Geneva one of these days to do a post-doc at CERN where he's been made a CERN fellow. That is a signal honour since there are very limited places for CERN fellows and typically there are more than 20 applicants for each place. To get selected means you know what you're doing.

Frank dropped me off at the train station in Almere on the way back where I caught the train to Amsterdam CS. By this time it was already 19:30 and I was getting really hungry. I got myself a falafel at Maoz on Mint square and then went to Mulligans for a drink.

Jeroen was giving a party later that evening in Café van Zuylen on the Singel. I walked there around 21:00 and came past this brightly lit house opposite the University Library.

singel at night

When I got to van Zuylen there was nobody there whom I recognised; it was crowded like hell and the music wasn't to my liking. I went home. I had already had my 'bitterballen' in Enschede, so I didn't feel too guilty.

Saturday night I went to Mulligans to hear Daithi Rua and Ed Veltrop play; a good gig. I had two whiskeys with Danny and then walked home.

follow me to facebook

noreply@blogger.com (kees) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:22:00 +0000

The darkness of the Dutch winter prevents me from taking photos. Also, my feet are hurting too much for long walks when there is light, so that is the reason for the prolonged silence in the blog. If you're really keen on finding out what I'm doing, join facebook and let me know what you're doing, too.

on yer bike...

noreply@blogger.com (kees) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:14:00 +0000

The last couple of days I didn't make any photos because my feet were hurting so much that I took the bus to and from work. This morning at 08:30 the doorbell rang and the delivery guy from the mail order company brought my exercise bike up the stairs.

I had ordered the thing way before Christmas, so I was happy to finally see it arrive. I started unboxing it immediately.

the box

The body was the biggest part to come out of the box. It has an 11 kg fly wheel.

the body

I placed all bits and pieces on the floor to see what was what. The big black box is not part of the bike, but will be my 'new' linux server. It's an old Dell 8300 which I bought from work.

the parts

The whole bike is put together with only two tools, a combined allan wrench / philips screwdriver and a little spanner.

almost finished

When I got to the last part, the ergometer computer, I couldn't find the bolts to fit it to the column. I went down the stairs to the hardware shop around the corner and got 4 M5x10 bolts for the princely sum of €0.75.

When I tried to find the bolt holes to put the bolts in it dawned on me that there were already bolts in the holes… All other bolts had been wrapped separately and were chromed. These were screwed on and black on a black background. €0.75 waisted…

ready for entertainment…

After setting the computer's time and reading (part of) the manual I dressed down to shorts, t-shirt and sneakers and gave the bike a whirl. Forty minutes later I was sweating like a pig and gasping for air as if it was my last breath.

I read the rest of the manual. It turned out I had selected a program for 20-year old athletes in top condition. I should have started with a 5 to 10 minute easy program and build up over time. Oops. Luckily I didn't die on the spot of a heart attack.

One thing I have noticed: it is a lot easier on my feet than walking. And, with either a documentary on the laptop or my own music on the stereo it is also a lot more comfortable than in the gym.

the wake

noreply@blogger.com (kees) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:46:00 +0000

This morning it was still dark when I got to work. I didn't sleep too well, but a cup of Abdul's ~~asphalt~~ coffee cured that quickly.

I worked on a few articles for the annual report. Monday morning is our next review meeting and I wanted to have as much ready as possible.

When I left work I took the bus to Amstel Station and walked home from there along the Ringvaart, which is now completely frozen. There were people on the ice teaching their kids to skate in the traditional way: by holding on to a chair.

traditional lessons

After dinner I went out again; I had to go to the wake of a colleague of mine, Jef Colle, who had died last Sunday. Jef was a physics teacher at the Amsterdams Lyceum and worked part-time at Nikhef on the HiSPARC experiment. When that experiment was starting up I worked with Jef on putting the web site together. Jef was a very enthusiastic teacher and well loved by his pupils. Quite a few of those are now studying physics or working at Nikhef, due to his influence.

The wake was in the auditorium of the Amsterdams Lyceum. I guess there were about 200 people there, both pupils and colleagues. I met a few people I hadn't seen in a long time. Jef was a man with a love for living well, so his wish was for a wake where people would gather for a drink and some finger food. As a result it was more like a party than a sad occasion; a good way to say good bye.

gevulde koek

noreply@blogger.com (kees) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:31:00 +0000

First of all, my apologies for not updating the blog the last few days; the only excuse I have is that I've been pretty busy lately.

Sunday the weather was bad, so I stayed at home. No photos.

Monday was the first day back at work after the two week holiday. The morning started with shaking hands with ±250 colleagues and then working like mad to get the bid book finished; it had to go to the printer today to be ready to be mailed by registered post tomorrow. I got the last bits and pieces around 13:00. By 14:00 it was uploaded to the printer's server.

Monday was also the day the mail order company was supposed to bring my home trainer bike in the evening. They didn't show up.

Tuesday I worked my butt off to do the layout on a number of articles for the Annual Report. I also received a box with a few bid books; the printer had sent them by bicycle courier. Just in time for the post.

Both Monday and Tuesday I had forgotten to bring my camera, so no photos.

Tuesday I phoned the mail order company to ask where my home trainer bike was: "we tried to deliver at 14:00, but there was nobody home". I said that my preferences stated "delivery in the evening". They said they only did that for small packages and the bike wasn't small. When I asked if I could make an appointment to have it delivered on Wednesday during the day they said they would phone me back.

Update: In the evening I helped Joeri understand her new MacBook. I had to brave the cold and the dark, not to mention the 40 pirates who live in the cave under the bench in the Oosterpark.

Wednesday morning I woke up early and saw my doctor. I'd been a month without the diabetes medication and he wanted to see what my fasting glucose level was after the ~~days of gluttony~~ holiday season. When he jabbed me for a drop of blood I said I hoped he would measure a 'gevulde koek'. He looked nonplussed. I explained that if the glucose levels were good, I had promised myself a gevulde koek at Hartog's.

The level was 5.1; smack in the middle of the normal range. He told me to go and get a gevulde koek. I was now officially non-diabetic again! I raced to Hartog's.

breakfast at hartog's (the clock didn't work)

Walking back from Hartog, the sun had risen and the snow (did I tell you it had snowed?) was looking white instead of grey. Only in the children's playground on Krugerplein the snow was red from the firecracker papers that were still there a week after New Year.

snow

In the evening I walked to Mulligans; Margot was in a foul mood because of things at her work and needed cheering up so I got marching orders to go to Mulligans and cheer her up. Mark Gilligan was playing with Paul Martin. That didn't particularly cheer her up, but the pint of Guinness I bought her seemed to do the job.

stopera at night

Today the world was wrapped in fog. I walked to work and on Kruislaan you couldn't see the buildings across the road.

kruislaan

I did more work on the annual report. Monday we're having out editorial meeting with the first review and I want to have as much ready as possible.

The mail order company called in the morning to make an appointment for delivery of the excercise bike. They've got it planned for next week Wednesday; four weeks after I'd ordered the bloody thing! Why didn't they ask me when delivery would be optimal when I ordered?

I left early since I had an appointment with the dietician of the diabetic support. She was happy to see my weight loss graph, and even happier to hear I was taken off the medication all together. We discussed the problems I'm having with the diet: hunger and cold. We agreed that it could have to do something with not eating enough and temperatures below −10° C…

I walked back through Oosterpark where kids were ice skating on the pond. When I made this photo, the kid on the left had just made a fantastic crash landing. It took him a while to get up again; he legs kept going everywhere…

skating in oosterpark

For dinner I got a roti with beef from the Surinamese place down the road. I asked for two bags of their hottest sambal, but they must have changed the recipe because it wasn't all that hot. I ended up throwing some sambal oelek on top.

birgitte's party

noreply@blogger.com (kees) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 22:59:00 +0000

Last night was Birgitte's dinner party at Jon K.'s house. The whole set of photos is up on both FaceBook and Flickr, so here's small selection.

A lot of people brought food; Miriam had made a few delicious quiches and Mic had baked two apple pies. Marina had made two type of chicken legs, tandoori and hot chilli as well as a spinach and feta pie; all very good. Jon had produced his famous chilli chips. I ate too much of it all…

Somebody had brought chocolates in two varieties: chocolate covered almonds and chocolate covered liquorice. When I presented Collins one of the liquorice chocolates I thought he would explode; he took a bite, looked horrified and said "you could have warned me it had liquorice inside!" He then ran to the toilet.

hen legs

There was good variety in booze, too. I made a discovery: A while ago I met with Collins and Nantko in Cafe Eijlders on Leidseplein. They had only one Irish whiskey there, a Bushmills, but I couldn't see clearly what type of Bushmills it was. I liked the taste of it, though, and tried the better Bushmills in Mulligans. They weren't the one. Now Danny had brought a bottle of the normal, run of the mill Bushmills White Label. That was the one I'd been looking for. I have a cheap taste, obviously.

in the mood for booze in the hood

Dick, Mic and Sass had brought their guitars. Even Birgitte tried her hand at playing, even though she hadn't done so in a long time.

playing guitars

Everybody had brought cameras, so there were a lot of people making photos of people making photos…

making photos of people making photos

All in all a very enjoyable evening with a group of good friends.

collins washed the dishes

sashimi in the zushi

noreply@blogger.com (kees) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 20:59:00 +0000

I'd been working on Kate's web site, and she had promised to take me out for a sushi lunch as a 'thank you'. I suggested going to the Zen on Frans Halsstraat as I had been there before with Nicole and liked it very much. We were going to meet at 13:00, so I started walking towards the west. First across the Amstel.

weesperzijde

At the Sarphatipark I turned right towards the Albert Cuyp market. Here I saw a very nice riksha. I don't know if it is for rent or just an ornament for the Badcuyp Music Centre and Restaurant. Around this time Kate sms'ed me to say she'd be 30 minutes late.

albert cuyp riksha

I made it to the Zen in time. It was closed for holidays until the 13th, so I walked back to O'Donnell's on Heinekenplein for a cup of coffee and let Kate know where I was. She suggested going to the Zushi on Amstel instead. Fine with me. I walked down the Vijzelstraat and onto the Amstel, where Kate was already waiting for me in the Zushi.

The Zushi is a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. The chef prepares the different dishes and places them on coloured plates on the belt. The colour of the plate is an indication of the price.

japanese fast food

It tasted very good. I stayed on the healthy side by eating little rice and lots of oily fish, full of omega 3 and 6 goodness.

after the meal

Because I hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast at 08:00, and it was now around 14:30, I was pretty hungry. Kate looked in awe at the amount of sushi I could put away. Hey, I love Japanese food, and if it is free…

fear and loathing in amsterdam

We went up to Kate's apartment. She lives on the 5th and 6th floor in a building across the Amstel from Mulligans. From her balcony you have a grand view of the Amstel . . .

view from kate's balcony

. . . and from her roof terrace an equally stunning view of the city.

view from kate's roof terrace

I took a bunch of photos to see what could be used on her web site and left again. I walked down to Waterlooplein where, after taking this photo, I discovered I'd left my gloves at Kate's apartment.

shoppers at waterlooplein

By the time I got to the end of the flea market, my hands were freezing. I saw a stall with hand knitted gloves from Nepal, only € 1.– per pair. Best investment this winter so far. These gloves are really warm and comfortable. Better than the ones I forgot at Kate's!.

hand knitted in nepal, €1.–

I walked down the Weesperstraat and took the usual route home.

Fuyu no moya

noreply@blogger.com (kees) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 17:51:00 +0000

Since I didn't make it too late last night, I woke up at a normal time. After breakfast I went for a walk. The fog was thick over the city and I thought it would be nice to make a few photos of the mist over Frankendael.

quiet morning / the weight of snow / before the snow

The restaurant was closed, so no coffee stop here.

frankendael villa

This father and daughter were actually the first people I saw on my walk. Amsterdam was still in coma.

first steps

This is the Middenweg at 10:25. No cars, no trams, no people.

middenweg at 10:25

On Steve Bikoplein somebody had stencilled 'δεμοκρατια', demokratia in the middle of the square where the fountain once stood. The fountain was removed a couple of months ago and last week the council placed signs there for the kids that play on the square that said "don't play in the fountain"... What ignorant council member approved of that? δεμοκρατια at work…

δεμοκρατια / demokratia

The rest of the day I sat at home doing nothing much.

2008 »» 2009

noreply@blogger.com (kees) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 17:17:00 +0000

As tradition would have it, new year's eve was celebrated in Mulligans where the whole clan had gathered.

The whole set of photos is on my Flickr photo pages, so look there for more festivity.

the crowd

Barry had come over from Ireland to be with Anna; later in the night they disappeared to a party across the road.

barry and anna whispering

Danyy had knitted a Santa hat and we all had to try it on. It's was very warm, probably comfortable in the cold, but too warm for inside.

silly hat season: daniel and marion

Give Danny a glass of whiskey and she starts to giggle…

marion, danny and yours truly

Mic's wife Mickey looked stunning in her evening dress. I wished more people would dress up for these occasions; it ads to the festive mood. I was wearing my "I'm only here because my server is down" T-shirt. My server wasn't down, but it was a good excuse to go to the pub.

daniel, dick and mickey

Daniel was also wearing a nerd-shirt; check out the Flickr set for details.

brothers in arms: mic and daniel

Later in the night Birgitte walked in; she's over for the holidays from Oz. Saturday there will be a dinner for all her friends at Jon K's house.

beautiful birgitte

After 24:00 we all gathered outside to see the fireworks. The fog had lifted so you could actually see some of the larger rockets going up on Nieuwmarkt. The sound was like an artillery bombardment.

waiting for the ~~war~~ fireworks to begin

cut the crap

noreply@blogger.com (kees) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:07:00 +0000

Last night I was in Mulligans and met Collins and Marina Brekova who had been out to dinner. Marina works as a hairdresser in 'Cut the Crap'. I said that I was in dire need of a haircut again. When I do it myself I always get comments from the women that I've skipped parts. Well, I don't have eyes in the back of my head so I do miss some parts there.

Marina said she'd give me a haircut. I said she needed to do my beard too. This scared her: "I've never done beards before! My father does beards." Since Marina's father Shterion lives in Bulgaria that would be too long a trip just to get my beard cut. I told her not to fear, "if it looks horrible you can always shave it off completely". She submitted to my plea.

So today I got on the #3 tram to Haarlemmerplein where Cut the Crap has its shop.

cut the crap

Marina had told me to come around 15:15. I was a bit early, so she made me a coffee and continued to work on her customer.

marina at work

When he was ready she told me to get into the chair and got her electric clippers out.

marina in attack mode

It took Marina 45 minutes to do both my head and my beard. It usually takes me about 10 minutes, which is probably why I miss parts. I had told her to make my head look like something she would be willing to look at; when she kissed me good bye she had her eyes closed…

I liked it though, so it was a well spent trip. I walked back home along the Haarlemmerdijk.

prinsengracht

Down the Nieuwedijk, through the 'Wallen' and down Waterlooplein. Then on past the Hortus.

bridge guard's bike

From there I walked down the Roeterstraat en past the OLVG. Joeri had reminded me they had put up a large pentagram above the entrance of the hospital. Onze Lieve Heavy Metal Gasthuis or Onze Lieve Wicca Gasthuis?

onze lieve heavy metal gasthuis

I got some sushi from the AH for dinner. I had counted on eating a portion of 'bitterballen' tonight at the range in Hoofddorp, but Jaap phoned me and said he was sick, so he couldn't pick me up. No shooting tonight, and no bitterballen. If I get hungry later tonight I'll have to see what I'll do. Maybe run down to Maxwell's and have some bitterballen there.

392 kcalories…

deep freeze ducks

noreply@blogger.com (kees) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 18:31:00 +0000

Last night I went to the session in Mulligans where I met Kate. I had seen her business website in the afternoon and commented on the deplorable state of it. "It looks like some six-year old has been playing with a badly-written visual web editor," I said. "Thanks," Kate said, "I made it myself. Can you do better?"

I said I thought I could, and therefore this morning I threw a couple of hours into making a new website. It is online now (only for Kate) but I haven't heard back from her yet. Maybe she died of shock or is now in total denial en never wants to talk to me again. We'll see.

After working for Kate I went for a walk in Frankendael. It is really freezing now and the ducks in the Ringvaart must have pretty cold feet.

deep freeze ducks

The sun was low in the sky which gives everything a pretty colour.

frankendael park

I sat down for a cup of coffee in the Frankendael Villa. It was very busy there and there was only only one girl serving. It took her 35 minutes to take my order for a cup of coffee and then another 15 minutes before I got it. I drank it in 5 minutes and then had to wait 10 minutes before I could pay. Maybe they should get more staff.

When I walked out the sun was getting real low on the horizon.

sunset over damhattan

One of the ponds in the park had trees planted in it. I don't know if that is a good idea when it is freezing. Maybe they're special non-freeze trees. Or the park's designers count on global warming.

frozen trees

I zigzagged around the Don Bosco area and emerged at the Ringdijk where I saw Winston Churchill guarding a house. It has mostly been cut off by the frame, but in the original photo he's holding a .45 Thompson sub-machine gun. Who needs a guard dog when you've got Winston?

never mind the dog, churchill keeps watch

A few doors from Winston a new bar-restaurant is opening. Called the Quatpass, it is the sister-bar to Maxwell's, with the same owners. When I looked in they were still busy building the interior. Opening is on January 1st around 16:00. The owners said I was welcome to a glass of champagne when I show up. Sounds like a good idea to go and check it out. It's always good to have more 'classy' places in the neighbourhood.

bruschetta

noreply@blogger.com (kees) — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 17:38:00 +0000

A couch day today; I played around with facebook, since that is where the other half of my friends seem to hang out. I am now a member of three social networks: Hyves, where my Dutch friends hang out; Facebook, where my English speaking friends hang out and LinkedIn, where my colleagues can be found. I absolutely refuse to add another social network unless it is the one where everybody hangs out. I spend more time trying to figure out on-line what my friends are doing than actually meeting them. I am beginning to feel that I'm living in a virtual reality…

One of my friends from a virtous reality, Nicole, made a bruschetta the other day and I thought it would be nice to give it a try. She had given the ingredients on her blog and it were all things I like, such as tomatoes, red onions, basil leaves, feta cheese and olive oil.

I bought all this yesterday and added garlic and balsamic vinegar to the list.

bruschetta ingredients

I began by slicing and dicing the tomatoes, onions and scooping up the feta. I made all portions equal size, except for the basil leaves.

sliced & diced

Throw the lot in a big bowl, add about a teaspoon of garlic, two tablespoons of olive oil and a dash of balsamic vinegar.

mixed ~~feelings~~ ingredients

I toasted four slices of Hartog's whole wheat bread which were about to go stale and put the mix on top.

on toast

It tasted reasonably good. I think I made a few mistakes, though. I didn't skin the onions too well; hard pieces of the skin were left and didn't feel pleasant while eating. I had bought feta in herb oil. Next time I'll buy either plain feta or try mozarella as the cheese. The feta oil overpowered the extra virgine oil and the balsamic vinegar. It even overpowered the garlic! Still, a healthy lunch and there's bit left for tomorrow.

no music

noreply@blogger.com (kees) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 15:19:00 +0000

Yesterday I went for a walk to Betondorp, 'concrete village'. It is named that way because when it was built in the 1920's the architects prescribed concrete as the building material for a large part of the village. The village is an exponent of the 'nieuwe zakelijkheid', the 'new business style' of the Amsterdam School.

To get to Betondorp I had to walk through Frankendael Park. The restaurant in the villa was closed, so I couldn't stop here for a cup of coffee as I had planned.

frankendael gates

I walked along the Middenweg past the Frankendael Grand Cafe. Somebody had made a present of it.

the other frankendael

On the way I saw Vincent's new car (in red!).

hell on wheels

At the end of Middenweg is Betondorp, just before you get to Diemen. Half the village is built in brick, the other half in concrete. Veeteeltstraat is the dividing line. The strange building with the space ray gun on top is not a church, I think. Across the road from it is a Hindu temple which doesn't look like a Hindu temple. In Betondorp nothing seems to be what it looks like.

pow! zap! bzzz!

I emerged from Betondorp on the other side, on Rozenburglaan. By this time the sun was getting real low in the sky which gave a magnificent golden light to everything. This tree was really lit up by the sun.

betondorp tree

I made another photo of it which I turned into a black & white photo. It looks completely different this way.

betondorp tree in b&w close-up

I passed under the Gooiseweg motorway where the banks were covered in basalt-like stones. The low sun gave them a golden colour.

colour & texture

I walked along the canal to Amstel station.

damhattan

From the station I walked across Maliebaan to the Nobelweg and across the Ringvaart. One more photo of the setting sun and I was home.

ringvaart at sunset

In the evening I went to the Cave, the heavy-metal bar on Prinsengracht. I got there by 22:00 because I had heard Artery was playing. Mulligans is closed on Boxing Day and I thought a crowd of people I know would gather here. € 5 to get in because there was a band playing.

Only, there wasn't a band playing and Huby (Artery's bass player who was the only one I knew in the whole bar) told me that another band had cancelled and Artery wouldn't play until after twelve. Huby had friends over from Bulgaria and he was going to show them around the Leidseplein before his gig started. I phoned Collins to see if he was coming out to the Cave. Collins said he wasn't. By this time I was alone in the cave apart from about 50 kids who could be my grandchildren, no place to sit and very loud music I didn't really like.

I walked out the door, got a 'kroket' from the Febo and took a tram to Linnaeusstraat. I walked down to the corner of Tugelaweg where Ed's band 'Chapeau' was supposed to play in the 'Ruk & Pluk' café. When I walked up to the door I heard a man singing very loudly and badly in a terrible Amsterdam accent. People were dancing the polonaise to the music. No Chapeau… I fled home.

shopping

Today I had a good sleep-in. It was freezing cold; the weather forecast is for freezing temperatures until after New Year. Ice skating on natural ice will be possible in a few days.

I don't skate, so I didn't have to get my skates sharpened nor did I have to do practive laps at the skating track. All I had to do is my shopping. I bought balsamic vinegar, olive oil, red onions, feta, basilicum, tomatoes and all sorts of other things that might come in handy when you're hungry.

The last shop on the list was Erik's delicatessen where I had a good look at their selection of French cheeses, but in the end decided on a 20+ Leidsche farm cheese. Yum.

french cheeses at erik's delicatessen

~~Tonight I'm going to Mulligans; 'Stargazer' is playing and I'm sure I'll meet some people that I know.~~ I walked outside, froze off my butt and walked back in again. Nice and warm in my room. Maybe I'll go to the session tomorrow.

x-mas dinner

noreply@blogger.com (kees) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 10:19:00 +0000

Yesterday, Christmas day, I mostly did nothing. I got up late, surfed the interwebtubes and, through Nicole's blog, happened on Craig365's blog. There I read something about a loan system he participated in, kiva.org, and that he had been paid back. I wondered what it was and went to have a look at the kiva.org website. It out to be a micro credit system for people in third-world countries.

The site couples third-world entrepreneurs who need money (micro loans, typically under $1000) with people who have money. This goes through local organisations who extend the micro credit and then try to fund it through kiva.org. The nice thing about this system is that you can see where your money goes; you don't donate money to an anonymous NGO, but lend it to a real person who (hopefully) will pay it back while bettering their live at the same time. You choose who gets your money, based on the loaner's business plan.

I had some money floating around from my Christmas bonus and decided to put it into action. I have funded 6 persons in different continents / countries with loans of $25 each. Loans are pooled with other people, so if a loaner asks for $250 you might get 10 people funding $25 each. On the website you can see when people pay back the loan and then that money is credited to you again to either take out or loan again to someone else.

I think this is a good system for us in the developed world to help those who are not so flush with money. Sometimes all it takes to make a difference between being dependent on hand-outs or being self sufficient is a few coins. If you, dear blog reader, have a few spare coins (or bank notes) lying around, why not do the same and join kiva.org? The money will come back to you, and if it doesn't, just think that you are still better off than the poor fellow who loaned it from you and can't pay it back!

The web site is http://www.kiva.org/; if you want to look at the people I've funded you can check my kiva profile.

And now for something completely different: the Christmas dinner.

Danny and Marion had planned to make a Christmas dinner for lonely starving bachelors. Gerrit K. and I were invited. Why Gerrit was invited I don't know, since he didn't look like he was starving. He was actually getting more belly than the last time I've seen him. Maybe there is some strange fat transfer going on in Amsterdam whereby I'm loosing it and he's gaining it…

I went to Marion's around 17:00, bringing the tiramisu I yesterday wrestled out of the demographically driven AH conglomerate. I was welcomed with a cup of green tea and a mountain of chocolates, most of which were made by Marion in her chocoholic workshop.

When Gerrit finally showed up (he got lost) dinner was served immediately. The ~~sisters of mercy~~ ladies had decided on a Chinese fondue. This is a vegetable broth in which you throw more green(ish) stuff. For protein there was salmon. It tasted very good. I did find out that you don't want leave your broccoli in the boiling broth too long as they get very soggy that way.

x-mas dinner

After dinner we each had 75 grams of tiramisu, which added 205 kcalories to the meal. It tasted not too bad, though. More calories were added in the form of whiskies, wines and crackers later in the night which we spent watching a feature-length cartoon, Surf's Up, and part three of The Lord of the Rings. All very comfy, cosy, gemütlich en gezellig.

hunting tiramisu

noreply@blogger.com (kees) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 16:02:00 +0000

I had been given instructions to produce tiramisu for tomorrow's dinner at Marion's. Tiramisu, for those who don't know it, is an Italian concoction made of savoiardi dipped in coffee and mascarpone cream. I had bought it in the past at the AH supermarket downstairs from me. A big box full of it at a reasonable price and good tasting. Down the stairs I went to buy a box.

I hadn't counted on the 'Kees buys at AH' effect which states that whatever I buy at AH more than once will be removed from their shelves. I had bought tiramisu more than once at AH and therefor there wasn't any for sale. I asked the shop manager what had happened to the tiramisu and he said that due to the demographics of the area (lots of Muslims) deserts with booze don't sell here.

I thought: if AH doesn't sell any, maybe the traiteurs in the neighbourhood will have some. On Beukenplein the South-African traiteur had gone, but a new owner had taken over. "Sorry, no tiramisu, but we have cheesecake". Not good enough, tiramisu is what I need. There's cheese in tiramisu (the mascarpone), so maybe Eric's Delicatessen & Cheese shop next door will have some. The shop was filled to the rafters with late food shoppers. When it was my turn they had to disappoint me. Tiramisu? Nah.

Amsterdam-East demographics is 60-80% Muslim so the chance of finding tiramisu here is between slim and none. I started walking. First to the Saladetuin, the Salad Garden. This is one of the better caterers in Amsterdam and we use them at work sometimes. "Sorry, can't help you". Next was AH on Wibautstraat. No big boxes of tiramisu; just tiny little cups with barely a mouthful, and only three of those. Dinner is for four.

I was thinking that it would have easier to make my own, but a) I had never made any before and b) I didn't know the exact recipe [update: I have now found a recipe at cookingforengineers.com, which I'll try at a later date]. So I made it to the next AH, the one in Sarphatistraat. This is a big one, in the city centre, open on Sundays, lots of tourists, etc. If there was any tiramisu in Western Europe it would be here. They had two of the little cups. No bigga boxes offa tha stuffa. I cornered the manager: "we get stocked again after Christmas, so on Saturday we'll have lots of it".

I walked down the Sarphatistraat to the AH on van Swindenstraat. Full demographic effect: no tiramisu whatsoever. By this time I was switching to panic mode and hit every place that looked like it might have tiramisu. Bakeries, supermarkets, cake shops, coffee shops, Italian car dealers; you name it, I was there. The demographics worked against me.

I walked past the AH on Linnaeusstraat and straight into Kwekkeboom, Amsterdam's best known cake and sweets bakery. They didn't have any. Across the road in Pretoriusstraat is a C1000 supermarket. No luck either.

I thought: "what the hell, I'll give the AH on Linnaeusstraat a try. It probably won't work but if you don't try you'll never know for sure." They had one box of tiramisu. Not the old style 'big' box, but a new style AH 'Excellent' (i.e. more expensive) 300 gram box of tiramisu. Glorious tiramisu.

The label on the back says that one portion of tiramisu (75 grams) is 205 kcalories. I've walked four kilometres to buy this box. That burned 400 kcalories. Eating tiramisu is good for weight control if you live in the east of Amsterdam.

Have a good Yuletide!

merry christmas!

teflon ice

noreply@blogger.com (kees) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:20:00 +0000

I had a good night's sleep and got up late. Not much in the larder, so I ran down the stairs to the AH and got a litre of yoghurt. Mixed with my nuclear muesli from Poland (still the same I got for my birthday!) it made a good breakfast.

Later in the morning I went for a shopping walk-about to the AH on Wibautstraat and Hartog's bakery.

AH wibautstraat

I walked back through Oosterparkstraat where I got some nice ham and meatballs from the butcher. I saw a yellow Deutsche Post bike parked here. I didn't see any of those last weekend in Germany.

deutsche post

The graffiti in the neighbourhood is Copyright by the Walt Disney Company.

In the evening I heard loud music coming from the square. When I looked out of the window I saw they had installed a skating rink on the square. I walked down for a better look.

It was one of the initiatives to take back our neighbourhood from the dealers and junkies. These people don't like it when there's a lot happening in their sales area, so things are organised to attract people to the square.

It worked; no dealers and junkies to be seen on the square. What could be seen was a lot of kids (Moroccan, Turkish and Surinamese) learning how to skate. I talked to the guys who had set up the rink and heard that they couldn't afford a real skating rink with real ice, so they had brought a teflon floor and special skates. The kids were having fun anyway, learning to skate (and how to fall).

teflon ice skating

The skates had special irons, not sharpened in the normal 'hollow' way, but with a flat bottom. This way you can skate on a smooth surface such as teflon. Real ice is a lot more slippery and is better for skating, but this works, too.

red skates

I saw more kids on the skating rink in 5 minutes than I've seen on the square in the last 5 years. The project works.

trip to hamburg

noreply@blogger.com (kees) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:45:00 +0000

Reante and Torsten had invited us to come to Hamburg for a mediæval banquet, so on Saturday morning Danny, Marion, Janneke and I set off at an ungodly hour in Janneke's car to drive to Germany.

We took the Autobahn (motorway) to Osnabrück and then the A1 to Hamburg.

autobahn, germany

Renate had found us a pension in Buxtehude, a small town about 30 km from Hamburg. Another friend, Ute, lives here and picked us up around 15:45 to drive us to the banquet.

pension meyer, buxtehude

The banquet didn't start until 19:00, so before we sat and talked. The food was excellent; the chef, Michi, had started out as a hobby cook, but has gone professional in the last two years as a caterer for re-enactment and LARP events. He cooked us a mountain of food… Marion was very happy that the vegetarian section wasn't 'just a normal meal without the meat' but a special treat for her: a soft goat's cheese from the oven, topped with shaved almonds in a honey sauce. I had a bite and it was delicious!

mediæval banquet

After the banquet Ute drove us back to the pension and we were in bed around midnight.

We got up late on Sunday and, after a good breakfast, took the S-bahn to Hamburg. This metro train takes about 40 minutes to get from Buxtehude to the Hamburg Central Station.

s-bahn #3 to hamburg, danny on the right

The station was lit up with christmas decorations.

hauptbahnhof hamburg, janneke on the left

Marion spied a pink T-mobile pay phone and had to check if the colours matched her pink scull beanie.

pink phone, marion in the middle

Walking out of the station we hit the Weihnachtsmarkt, the Christmas Market. This is a big thing in Germany; every city, town and village has a Christmas market where people try to sell the most horrible looking kitsch and other people jump at the chance to buy it.

christmas market

Unfortunately, the weather was bad. Saturday was sunny and dry, Sunday it was raining the whole day. Not nice if you're walking through town. It was raining so hard the city's Christmas tree stood on an island…

christmas tree on the 'binnenalster'

The Christmas markets were all over the 'altstad', the old town. In front of the City Hall, the 'Rathaus' was one that specialised in food.

city hall ('rathaus')

A Cossack Choir from Rostov was singing on the bridge leading to the Rathaus square.

cossack choir

At one of the food stalls we bought a big bag of roasted chestnuts. I had never eaten these before; the taste was not bad, but I think it is a bit overdone to eat them every year. Once or twice in a lifetime would suit me fine.

eating hot chestnuts

After walking around the food and bling stalls for a while, Janneke —who was getting mightily bored— suggested going to Speicherstadt. This is a part of the old town that was built between 1883 and 1914 as a dedicated warehouse area. In spite of the 'old' looks of the buildings they were far ahead of their time with innovations such as electric light and electric hoisting installations long before the rest of Hamburg had electricity.

speicherstadt (storage town)

The area is home to a number of museums and exhibitions. Janneke went to the Spice Museum; this is an exhibition of what was stored in the warehouses at the turn of last century: spices. The museum has information on all the different spices, their horticulture, transport, sale and use as well as their place in the history of Hamburg.

Marion and Danny went to the world's largest H0 model railway. This railway takes up the top floors of two warehouses, all 1,150 m² of it. At this moment the total length of track is 12 km, but an extension is planned to bring the length to 20 km on 2,300 m². The different sections of the railway depict Southern Germany, Hamburg and the coast, America, Scandinavia and Switzerland. Danny and Marion loved the railway and said they could easily have spent a few more hours looking around.

The Speicherstadt is also great for photographers, as every corner yields 'gothic' industrial looks.

block g

While the ladies were soaking up culture and roofed-over warmth, I was walking through the area, looking left, right, up and down.

brookfleet

I was sorry I had only brought my dinky little pocket camera instead of my DSLR with lenses and tripod. One of these days I'd like to back and spend a day (and evening) there.

harbour sunset

After the sun had set the lights were coming on in Speicherstadt and the whole area turned into a gothic 'cité noir' set.

brookfleet after sunset

Sunset in Hamburg in this time of year is around 16:30. We met each other again at the café near the Model Railway at 17:00 and made our way back to the Central Station. Here we took the S3 back to Buxtehude in search of an evening meal. Buxtehude, since Hamburg only had Glühwein and Bratwurst stalls. All the restaurants we saw were closed!

In Buxtehude we walked from the station to the shopping area in the 'Altstadt'. We were pleasantly surprised with the number of restaurants that were open and finally decided on a place on one of Buxtehude's canals, the Labyrinth on Westfleth. It was very quiet inside, but its redeeming quality was that their vegetarian menu was fairly large, which made Marion emit little shrieking sounds like a happy hamster :-)

westfleth, buxtehude

After the dinner (which tasted good) we went back to the pension and hit the sack. The next morning (Monday) we packed our gear in the car and drove to near the 'Altstadt'.

westfleth, buxtehude by daylight

The ladies had seen a yarn shop near the restaurant and wanted to check it out in daylight. More happy hamster sounds… I walked around a bit and made some photos.

yarnaholics

After stocking up on enough wool to knit jumpers for a whole herd of sheep we walked around the old town some more. The night before we hadn't really explored, but there were lots more little restaurants than we had originally thought.

flethenkieker, sculpture by carsten eggers

The scenery of the old town was nice, too.

fisherstraße

Hamburg, of course, was bombed during WW2 and thus has a 1950s look to it. Buxtehude on the other hand still has buildings from its rich period as a Hanze town in the 14^th to 16^th century.

fuhrmannshaus, fisherstraße

One of the buildings that was built only as late as 1911 is the 'Heimat' museum, the Museum for Regional History and Art. The whole building is built in what in Germany is called 'Lebkuchen' style. The whole façade of the building looks like it is made out of 'Lebkuchen, German pepper cakes. To a 21^st century computer nerd it looks as if it is pixelated…

heimatmuseum, pixel perfect…

We had a quick lunch of coffee, 'käsekuchen' (cheese cake) and 'mohnkuchen' (poppy seed cake). By the way, this was a recurring theme in the weekend: hot chocolate with Baileys for the ladies, coffee for me and cake for all. Yummy, but not conductive to a weight loss regime.

autobahn sunset

After lunch we drove off towards Amsterdam. We made a stop in the Weser shopping mall in Bremen where Renate had pointed us to a textile shop. Janneke found a couple of meters of woollen cloth there, while Marion and Danny found more knitting wool. I found a bratwurst in the snack bar around the corner.

We were back in Amsterdam around 19:00. A good weekend.

gothic scenery

noreply@blogger.com (kees) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:24:00 +0000

Yesterday was hectic at work and afterwards as well. In the evening I had to got to Margôt's birthday party and afterwards to Mulligans to meet with Collins, Anna and Victor Lacken. We had to discuss a film script Collins had written for Victor. The idea is to enter it in a competition of the Euro-IX Internet Exchange where the best script will be awarded €25.000. They'd asked me to give technical advice as the script is about the Internet and how it works. I was home late and didn't make any blogable photos.

This morning my foot hurt, so I took the bus to work. Another hectic day; in the morning I had told the general manager I was leaving at 16:00 and at 15:55 he asked me to change a 25 page document. I told him he'd be the first person in the new year I'll do work for…

I walked to Polderweg where I saw a new graffiti. It's in a totally different style from the other graffiti you see there. This is much more thin and sketchy. The other stuff is all ballooning letters, which is getting a bit old fashioned. I wonder if this is the new style to come.

sketchy graffiti

The old church-like building on Polderweg (next to the now-gone flying saucer sports hall) looked like something from a gothic movie in the setting sun. If this was in a movie you'd expect Mad Max to come roaring out on a motorcycle any minute.

polderweg

A much more normal scene on Steve Bikoplein: a 'bakfiets' with two locks. I like these old fashioned transport trikes. They are very functional and look great, whether they're brand new of old and dilapidated.

one lock isn't enough

The next couple of days I won't be blogging since I'm away to Hamburg with Danny, Marion and Janneke. We're leaving Saturday morning and will come back on the Monday evening. Blog updates will continue on Tuesday.

marion's

noreply@blogger.com (kees) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:36:00 +0000

I followed a link on Marion's blog and here's the result:

Your rainbow is strongly shaded orange and red.

What it says about you: You are a passionate person. You appreciate a challenge. You get bored easily and want friends who will keep up with you. Others are amazed at how you don't give up.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

more than 1800 km

noreply@blogger.com (kees) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:16:00 +0000

When I woke up this morning the whole world was wrapped in a soft cotton blanket of fog. I walked out the door towards Muiderpoort Station.

maritzstraat in the fog

The other side of the railroad wasn't any better.

beukenweg in the fog

At work I did some more work on the annual report artwork. Pie and line charts of funding and expenses. Exiting…

I got the #40 to the top of Molukkenstraat and walked along the Ringvaart. It was still fairly foggy.

celebestraat bridge across the ringvaart

Walking along Linnaeuskade I met a woman who was chased by a gaggle of geese. I thought they were attacking her, but it was the opposite; the geese loved her to bits! She was bringing them food in her two AH bags. When she stopped they all flocked around her (what an appropriate verb 'to flock' is…) as well as all the ducks and seagulls in a mile around. They were eating out of her hand, the geese as well as the ducks. The seagulls were circling around her head and catching bits of food she was throwing into the air.

shopping for the geese

I read an article on the web the other day that you have to change your walking shoes every 500 miles. That's about 850 km. I had calculated that this year I've done more than that.

I walk somewhere between 5 and 10 km per day. Let's average that to a conservative 6 km. I started walking seriously in February. That's 10 months, or about 300 days. 300 * 6 = 1800 km (but probably more). I have used two pairs of shoes this year which should last 1700 km. So, new shoes are definitely in order. Maybe this is why my heel spur had started to bother me.

So, I stopped on the way at the Run-inn shoe shop to see if they had new stock that would fit me. After trying on a few different brands of walking shoes I finally decided to go with the same shoes I already have: ASICS Gel-Odyssey. They're very comfortable and feel a lot better on the heel, too.

I have spent more on shoes this year than in the last 10 years. I have walked more this year than in the last 10 years, too.

wooosh!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (kees) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:32:00 +0000

At the coffee corner at work around 10:00 this morning, most of my colleagues from the computer group had gathered wearing their warm winter coats. We were going outside where the builders were laying the foundation for the new extension to our data centre.

Since our building is in a polder and the ground is soft as a custard pudding the builders need to drive piles into ground for the foundation. This 'first pile' ceremony is always celebrated in Holland 'con gusto'.

Before the pile was driven into the ground the builders had to do a bit of welding.

welding

Normally you'd get a lot more people to attend, but today and tomorrow is also the institute's scientific 'Jamboree', so all the guys with PhDs had gone to the Zoo where they were meeting. We hope they'll let them go again after the meeting.

watching the proceedings

After some more welding and coffee the little pile driver that could finally started pounding in the pile.

pounding it in

It took only a few minutes to hammer it into the ground. Soft as butter, the ground is.

job done.

My colleague J had found a couple of bottles of Champagne and handed them to my boss, W. He was a bit scared of opening the bottles.

will it go 'whooosh!!!?'

I didn't partake of the champagne; 10 AM is a bit early for me to start swilling alcohol. I had coffee instead. I also took a 'moorkop', a chocolate and whipped cream concoction that the contractor treated us to. Yummy.

The rest of the day I spent updating the apache http daemon on our websites, rereredoing the layout on the bid book (they decided they do like the design they didn't like at first) and creating some more artwork for the annual report.

winter coat testing

noreply@blogger.com (kees) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 17:05:00 +0000

There was no wind today and it was near freezing. A perfect excuse to go for a walk and test my new winter coat. I started off by walking past Frankendael.

frankendael

I turned onto Darwin Plantsoen, where there are gardens in the little park between the street and the motorway. The gardens were closed until spring.

darwin plantsoen gardens

I walked down the western side of Kruislaan towards the Ringvaart, from where I walked to near Amstel Station.

damhattan on the ringvaart

I took a shortcut past the "Omval", and walked to the "Kaap Kot" bar along the amstel. This is a perfect vantage point for making photos of the 'Damhattan' complex.

damhattan on the amstel

Going further along the Amstel I ended up at the Utrechtsebrug, which I crossed. . .

utrechtsebrug

. . .straight into Rijnstraat.

rijnstraat / ~~scheldestraat~~ uiterwaardenstraat

At Victorieplein I turned right onto Vrijheidslaan which I followed to the Berlagebrug.

vrijheidslaan

I crossed Berlagebrug and walked a little along the Weesperzijde from where I took the short route home.

amstel

I cooked a tofu, noodle and veggie dinner with hot Szechuan sauce in the wok. I only ate half; the rest is in the fridge for later in the week.

Tonight I'm going to Mulligans for the session and to meet Danny. She has promised to have a look at my Irish sweater which needs mending. Oh, BTW, the winter coat did a great job!