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Diary, April 1997

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Tuesday, April 1, 1997

Heart beat

Today, we found out that the heart beat of an embryo of only 11 weeks old can already be heard.

(follow-up)

Grave of my father-in-law

Last week, we received a picture of the grave of my father-in-law, which only contains his ashes as he has been cremated. In China it is an honour if you have many children and grand-children, and for this reason they have the custom of putting their names on the grave. Because we also contributed to buying this grave, our names are also listed on it. Their is even some space left for our second child, and for my brother-in-laws wife and child (if they get one).

Thursday, April 3, 1997

Passport

Today, we received a letter from the Justice Department that Li-Xia has been granted the Dutch nationality. Right after dinner we decided to go to the town hall, which is open on Thursday evenings until half past 7. When we arrived at 20 past 7, there were a lot of people waiting. When we pulled a ticket it turned out there were only three people waiting for us. We made our request for a passport and were told to wait for it. Then we realized that all the people waiting, were also waiting for their passport (or similar documents) to be ready. It was around 8 that we could get the passport (as the very last persons to be served), but the waiting was worthwhile.

A strange sensation that Li-Xia now has the Dutch nationality. We immediately made some copies of the passport to send them to China, as they may be help for the visa application.

Monday, April 7, 1997

After shave

In the months before we got married (which was yesterday three and half year ago), we visited several perfumeries, looking for perfumes which we might give as presents to some of our friends in Hong Kong and China. I was given several samples for men, and I did try these during the days before our marriage. I have forgotten which one I used on the big day itself.

Yesterday, I found these samples again in my bed cupboard, and I put on some `Red for men' by Giorgio Beverly Hill. A description says:

I have been `wearing' this one today as well. I have noticed that just a small drop is enough to smell it the whole day. At the end of the day you only smell it once in a while, but somehow this makes it interesting. Tomorrow, I might try one of the other two.

Tuesday, April 8, 1997

After shave (Cont'd)

Today, I am trying Obsession for man: (I wonder whether this name is correct. It is sold by Calvin Klein, but of course, he might have changed his name. Kleir is an existing surname, but rather rare, there are only 3 entries in the PeopleFinder telephone book. Their are at least 10 Calvin Klein's.)

Monday, April 14, 1997

Two and a half

Today, Annabel is two and a half year old. She recently started to refer to herself with `ikke'. All Dutch children tend to say `ikke' instead of `ik', which means `I' in Dutch.

Video Art

This afternoon, the video art production `Naar het licht vissen - talking about what's outside the house' by Karin Bosch was presented. `Naar het licht vissen' means something like `fishing after the light'. I did talk with Karin when the first video art production was presented.

It is a really nice video art production she has made!!

Yesterday

My mother had her birthday yesterday. We drove across the country to visit her. We went back around eight after I had seen my first episode of ST:Voy (rather different from ST:NG). Due to day light saving time, it was still light when we left, but it gradually became darker and danker. There were grey clouds high in the sky, like a kind of blanket rolled out. I felt very clear and thought about many things, for example about what heaven would be like. Is heaven more real then living on earth, I wondered? Should we view sufferings as a blessing (as a means to learn new things) or not? Often people say that heaven must be a boring place?

Wednesday, April 23, 1997

Java...

Yesterday, I wrote my first Java program. And it was not even an Applet! Indeed, programming in Java is fun, but I do not see why Java is so much better than C++ (judging all the pros and cons). Yes, it is true that Java does not have pointers, but it has `Object', which is almost as bad.

Morse Alphabet Reordering Puzzle

Today, I got an email from Eric Angelini, telling that he will publish the 48 solutions I found (if I don't mind) in September in the Belgian newspaper 'Le Soir' where he has a column about strange French words and puzzles "Bestiaire ebloui des lexies teratoides". The puzzle was posted by him in rec.puzzles under the subject `morse puzzle'.

(link.)

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