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Diary, November 2005


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Tuesday, November 1, 2005

Sesame Street Limburg pie

Today, is my my birthday and I ordered some cakes for my colleagues (as is the custom in our country). I ordered a Sesame Street Limburg pie from Multivlaai, which is to celebrate that Sesame Street has been broadcast in the Netherlands for 30 years this year. I also ordered some other Limburg pie, a total of 16 pieces. But this morning, it was very quiet in the office, and when it was eleven o'clock we were with only five persons, including myself. Luckily, about ten minutes later one of our students arrived, so then we were with six. I took four pieces home and discovered that Li-Xia had bought some Tompoezen.


Wednesday, November 2, 2005

Short games

Tonight, Annabel and I went to the University to Go. We looked, for the last time, at the mechanical music instuments and played with the spirograph. There was a good pen in it and we started on a clean sheet. I played against Rob and Annabel against Ton. We both resign within an hour. I resigned after my second group of stones was killed. Rob said that it was good that I tried to avoid to become enclosed, but that I failed because I let him cut my groups. I also was not making much territorium. After I watched the game between Ton and Rob a little, we went home.


Sunday, November 6, 2005

Curly Kail

This evening, I made some curly kail. I used one kilo of potatoes, half a kilo of freshly cut curly kail, five red unions, garlic, and, of course, a small bottle of gherkins. Apart from use a little too much garlic, it was very nice.

Uru: Ages Beyond Myst

This evening, I finished Uru: Ages Beyond Myst. I already finished all the other ages last weekend, and then lost the mood to finish the rest, because I was afraid that these ages would become inaccessible. Read the logbook for the details. I also downloaded the free expansion package Uru: to Dn'i.

Monday, November 7, 2005

Uru: To D'ni

This evening, I started playing Uru: To D'ni. For the details see my logbook about it.


Wednesday, November 9, 2005

Bands

Annabel and I, went to the University to play Go. When we arrived in the "Theater Café", there was a duo playing covers from Simon and Garfunkel and there were many people listening. Marcel was already there, when Rudi and we arrived. We listened a little. Ton tapped me on the shoulder when he arrived. We decided to sit somewhere else. I played against Ton with six stones ahead. He made some mistakes and had to resign in the end. He was clearly not having his day. Annabel played agains Taco, who arrived a little later. She too resigned, because she had big trouble keeping her groups alive.


Friday, November 11, 2005

Concert

Tonight, Annabel and I went to a concert by Hengelose Christelijke Harmonie. We were invited by a friend of Annabel because also played some part during the concert. The program consisted of: Gezang 21 arr. Jan de Jong, Kleine Ungarische Rhapsodie Alfred Bösendorfer, Alternance Andre Waignein, Queen in Concert arr. Jay Bocook, Leningrad Billy Joel, arr. Ron Sebregts, The Universal Band Collection: Dance Jacob de Haan, Concertino Andre Waignein, The Universal Band Collection: Western Girl, Just a Ballad, Play the Game Jacob de Haan, Firework Jan van der Roost, The Pioneers Philip Sparke, Total Toto Toto, arr. Klaas van de Woude, Washington Grace Grafulla - Mol.


Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Lost a group, won the game

Tonight, I went to the university to play Go. Marcel was the first one to arrive after me, and quite soon he invited me for a game. He got a nine stone handicap and we discussed how much Komi I should get, when comparing our strengths. I made many little mistakes and lost a large group (about 50 point according to Rudi). When we did the final count, Marcel had 48 point and I 52. This means that I won with four points. Marcel remarked that I had become a lot stronger than a year ago. But I remain an instable player. Sometimes, I play very strong moves, but I still make very stupid moves as well.


Saturday, November 19, 2005

Serenity

Earlier this afternoon, I read that the movie Serenity, which is based on the TV-serie "Firefly", was showing in a local cinema. I had read on Slashdot that this movie was coming. Because I was afraid that it would only be shown for one week, I decided to go the same afternoon. I attended the viewing of 15:35. There were only eight people in the room. I think it was a good movie, but not exceptional good. When I biked home afterwards, I felt that the movie was full of all those illogical things that one usually find in S.F. movies. Why for example, could they not directly transmit the movie to Mr. Universe? Okay, at the moment they talked with him, he was surrounded by the "enemy", but they did not know that, did they. Why is it that such illogical things only become apparent when you think about it when you think back, and not while you are watching a movie? I think that you are too much emotional involved while watching the movie that you don't question the facts as they are presented. I wonder how often this happens in other circumstance as well.

Finishing: Uru: To D'ni

This evening, I finished playing Uru: To D'ni. For the details, I refer to Session 12 in my logbook.


Sunday, November 20, 2005

The day the Dollar collaped

This evening, I watched a Dutch program which deals about the situation that the U.S. Dollar would collaped. Every day, the U.S.A. borrows about 3,140,000,000 Dollar from the rest of the world. For an estimate of the "current" dept see the U.S. national dept clock. Several expert explained that this cannot continue indefinitely like this, and that if no counter measures are taken, that the day will come that the U.S. Dollar will collapse dramatically.


Monday, November 21, 2005

DVD43

Today, we received some Lord of the Rings DVD's over the mail, which I bought second hand through the Internet. Last week, after I payed for them, I discovered that my DVD drive in my computer was not region free. But, tonight I discovered that DVD43 works perfectly with PowerDVD, and that it makes my drive "virtually" region free. It worked like a charm. I think that the whole idea of region restriction is simply stupid, because nowadays all major movies are released at the same time all over the world.


Tuesday, November 24, 2005

Lore Dijkman

Last Sunday, the movie Julie & Herman was shown on Dutch television. The movie started at 19:20. In this movie Lore Dijkman plays the role of Julie, a frustrated 15 year old girl, who has some problem with her history teacher Herman. At one point in the movie, she provokes Herman, by taking of some clothes while standing on her chair in his classroom. I saw parts of this movie on March 19, 2003. This time, I switched of the television, right at the moment she took of her clothes, but before she shot showing her breasts.

But somehow the movie stayed in my head and in the past days and I did search the internet for more about it. I found some pictures and also came across a stream for the short movie Boy Meets Girl Stories #3: Tederheid on website of the Dutch public broadcasting organisation, in which she plays a girl that lays naked in bed besides her boyfriend. The movie is just about the boyfriend tenderly covering her, whenever she becomes naked.


Swimming diploma

Tonight, Annabel got her "H diploma synchroonzwemmen" from the NCS (Dutch Cultural sport federation). Her performances were judged by three judges. One of them is a former colleague of mine. This is the first official diploma for synchrone swimming in the Netherlands you can get. This means that now she is can join in contests. I do not know whether she wants this.


Friday, November 25, 2005

Snow

This morning, we heard the typical sound of a car driving through a layer of almost melted snow. When I looked outside there was some snow on the cars and the trees.

When I went outside, it was snowing. Many road had a layed of snow slush, and several times, my legs became wet when a car drove by. It kept on snowing, but around twelve o'clock it looked like the snow melted faster than it was falling. I was complaining to my colleagues that it is always like this in the Netherlands, that it is always above zero when it is snowing and that most of the times the snow is gone before the day is over. We read on news websites that there was much more snow just 50 kilometer South of us.

In the afternoon, it started to snow stronger and it started to stay on the street. And in a few hours it grew to something like ten centimeter. We also became aware of the fact that there were a lot of traffic-jams in the region. Around 16:20, Li-Xia phoned me to tell that Andy was not home yet. Usually, he arrives a quarter past three, and not later than half past three. I remarked that the taxi might have got stuck. Then around a quarter to five, Li-Xia phoned me to tell that he was staying with some family around us. I phoned there, and heard that taxi had got stuck and that the lady, who also had a child on the same school as Andy, had taken Andy inside, because she felt sorry for him having to wait in the bus. I phoned Li-Xia to explain how she could get there.

Then we became aware that things were much worse than we thought. One colleague phoned to tell that she got stuck on the road home and had been in a traffic-jam for half an hour and that it looked it was still going to take a long time. Another colleague came back to tell us that he was going to leave his bike and walk home. When I tried to phone Li-Xia, to tell that I was going to leave and keep my mobile phone on, she did not answer the phone, and I conclude that she must have left with Annabel to catch Andy. Annabel was still playing with a friend when I talked with her for the last time. When I switched my phone on, it said there was a problem with the SIM card. I ended up taking the phone apart and tape the SIM card in the telephone. Then it was around a quarter to six when I was ready to leave. I decided to make a last phone call to the family where Andy was staying. Then while I was talking over the phone, Li-Xia and Annabel arrived, and I shortly talked with Li-Xia. I also heard that my colleague after one and half hour only had got halfway home.

When I came outside, I noticed that the snow was much deeper than I had thought, and that there was really a strong wind blowing. I got my bike and tried to ride it, but it was hopeless. I walked to the street and met some of my colleagues who were going to leave with two cars and were having some trouble getting to the street. On the street, I found that it was difficult to bike. Everywhere there was frozen slush and my wheel kept on slipping to the side. I felt down. I started to walk a little, but then I tried to bike again. Soon, I met the first cars standing still on the road. It turned out that many of the main roads were filled with cars waiting for each other, often getting stuck. I continued walking, biking, falling down, and sweating. I became wet on the outside and the inside. I did not mind, I just went on some times driving on the right side of the road, sometimes on the wrong (left) side of the road. The funny thing was that I greeted almost everyone that I met on the streets, and I stopped several times to talk a little with some people that I met, asking how they were doing and how far they still had to go.

When I came closer to home around seven o'clock, I heard that cars had got stuck in the streets near our home as well. When I wanted to go into the back of our garden, I discovered that the bush that used to be attached to the wall, had fallen down and was blocking the road. I parked my bike in the front garden and I rang the bell. It was a big mess inside. Li-Xia, Annabel, and Andy had just arrived home about half an hour ago. It had taken them more than half a hour to get home. Li-Xia had taken a buggy with her to carry Andy. When they were halfway, he started to complain and she though he was cold. So she carried him the rest of the way and let Annabel pull the buggy with his bags on top of it. When Li-Xia arrived, she put Andy inside and went back to get Annabel who was half a street behind.

Once I had locked my bike and had gone inside, I took of all my clothes because they were all wet. Li-Xia helped me to get some clean clothes. We heated some food and started to eat. I phoned several people to inform that we were safely home, and tried to contact with some of my colleagues, but failed to do so, because could not get their home telephone address.

Picture taken on November 26 The eight o'clock news talked about people being stuck on the highway, but I felt it did not really touch on the kind of problems people were facing in our area, let alone with the areas South of us which must have been much worse even. After the news, I went outside to put the bush aside, so I could move my bike in our shed. In the middle of our backgarden I measured 22 cm of snow. That is more than I have seen in many years. When I came inside, Li-Xia told me that our neighbour had trouble getting his car in the parking lot. I went outside to give him a hand. Some other came out as well. Then he pointed at a tree on the otherside of the street that had broken down under the weight of the snow. Also some plants in the front gardens had bended over through the weight of the snow. When he managed to get his car in the parking place, I went inside and started to clean the wet floor in the hall.


Saturday, November 26, 2005

Snow and the funeral of Suzanne

This morning, it was snowing again. While we got up and went downstairs we saw a young couple trying to drive their car through our street. The weels kept on slipping and slipping and everytime they had to go outside and dug away the snow.

After I had taken a shower, Annabel and I walked to the shopping center, where I bought a red rose. I also checked the condition of the main road. The main road looked okay. Getting out of our street would be the biggest problem. I cleaned away some snow from the pavement in front of our house and also around the garden. Then I spend about half an hour fixing the plant that had fell down yesterday to the wall. Next, I put on my suit and around half past eleven, I got into the car. When I tried to drive away, I did not get very far. I used a scoop to clear away the snow in front of the wheels and tried again. I progressed atmost one meter. Luckily, my neighbour from the opposite side of the street gave me a hand. About twenty minutes later, I had left the street.

Around a quarter past twelve, I arrived at the Crematoria Twente for the funeral of Suzanne. I met several of my (ex-)colleagues on the parking place, and the rest when I went inside. All had arrived home safely, but for some it had taken them three hours.

Around half past twelve we saw how the family of Suzanne entered the audiotorium through the monitors along the wall. Not much later we were invited to enter the audiotorium as well, while to song "Suzanne" from V.O.F. de kunst was playing. Other songs that were being played were "Over the rainbow/Wonderful world" by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, "Nine Million Bicycles" by Katie Malua, and "Time of your life" by Jennifer Warnes and Bill Medley. Both her father and mother gave a speech. Then two (ex-)colleagues of her gave a speech, and finally, Joost, her husband and our colleague, gave a very open and emotional speech, without becoming sentimental. They only got married earlier this year. I found it a very impressive and personal service. We were all asked to bring a red flower, because Suzanne loved the colour red. Starting from the back, people were asked to come forward and pay their last tribute to her and leaving their flowers in the two vases that were placed on both sides of the coffin. Coffee and buns were served afterwards, and finally we were given the opportunity to express our condolances to her family.

Outside on the parking lot, I had to dug my car out. Luckily, I had brought the scoop with me, as one of the few people who did. It took me about ten minutes to get out. I arrived safely at home, but needed another five minutes to get into our parking lot. The snow is melting slowly, but there is still a considerable layer. I wonder how long it is going to take before all the snow is gone.


Sunday, November 27, 2005

Cleaning-up the mess

We decided to stay home today. In the morning, we took a picture of Annabel and Andy, which we are going to send with our christmas greetings. We took the picture in the back-garden with the snow in the background. In the afternoon, Li-Xia cleared away the snow in the back garden. Then I did some cleaning in front of the house, and the street, to make sure that tomorrow the taxi could pick up Andy. Inside I discovered that I had some blisters on my finger around my wedding ring.


Monday, November 28, 2005

Schools closed

This morning, the taxi did not come to pick-up Andy. Then Li-Xia was phoned by the school to inform us that both today and tomorrow the school was going to be closed due to the snow. Then later Annabel was send home as well for two days. The snow on the flat roof of the school was considered to be too dangerous because of all the snow on the flat roofs.

The final management advise


Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Area with the most snow

Just today, I found this map of the snow height on Sunday, November 27 at 8:00 in the morning, which clearly shows that we are living in one of the areas with the highest snow level in the Netherlands. It is clear that some areas over the boarder in Germany might even have gotten more snow. That area is still suffering from a major power outage due to powerlines being distrupted.


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