Jungle expedition

What a weekend. Wow.
It started on Friday (what a surprise!). I came home from work at 2 o'clock and found the Rockhouse Brothers Live CD lying on my doormat. *JUHU*!!!! I packed some final things for the weekend, while the cd was playing in our laptop (for it didn't want to play in my cd-player, ok I think the player is too old...) and waited for Martin to get home. In the meantime I got called and told I wouldn't have the job I applied for... Damn... They had some reasons for it, some I could understand, others not. For instance: They were thinking I was a solist, not a teamplayer. They were missing some team-spirits in me. What?!?!?! Nonsense. Well. I was sad for a little time, but I wasn't going to let this news going to spoil my weekend! We were having a little holiday and we were going to have fun. So I put the worries and thoughts in the back of my mind and at 3 o'clock we drove off.
Martin had quickly put the RHB cd on our MP3 player, so we could hear it in the car (we don't have a cd-player in our car; we can only listen to radio, or connect our mp3-player with an oldfashioned tape to our radio). Rock 'n rolling through some traffic jam we arrived and settled down in our beautiful cottage. Oh, I forgot to tell the reason for this weekend. Martin had the brilliant idea to have a little holiday together, it was his birthday present for me. So we booked a cottage at Center Parcs "Het Heijderbos" two weeks ago. And actually we really needed this. To be away from home, relax and be together without others, without computers and internet and without whatever else can be disturbing when you are at home.

I'll show you some (panorama) pictures of our cottage:


In the evening

Next day

From the outside
And now you all want to know what we did during this weekend. To tell you the truth: not much. We went swimming every day (on Sunday even twice). There is a beautiful swimming pool!! But I'll tell you about it later, because we have made pictures with an underwater camera, and as soon as they are developed I'll scan them and put them online here. Besides the swimming we've been sleeping a lot and we watched some movies on the Canal+ movie channel, cause we don't have that at home ;) And, we visited the Jungle Dome, where you can have a lot of fun when you've got kids, but where you can have as much fun if you haven't. Some pictures:


You Tarzan,
me Jane!!!

*aaauaaa
aoaaaoaa
aoaaauaa
aaaaoaaa
oaaaauaa
aaoaaaua*


The weather was unbelievable! End of October, but we could walk outside without jackets and swimming in the open air wasn't cold at all. The sun shone and made the pretty autumn colours even prettier. The wind felt like a summer breeze. And with these temperatures, we needed an icecream. Jummy...........!!


Thank you Martin, for this fantastic weekend. *love ya*

+note+ Underwater pictures hopefully next week! +note+

Present mood: relieved & restful

I'm sooooo glad it's over! What a job interview. I was so nervous! I almost couldn't eat all day and at the end of the morning I visited the toilet every 15 minutes.

But, it didn't went that bad, actually it was just ok. I don't know if I convinced them totally, but I said the things I wanted to say, could find anwsers to most questions they asked me, and asked them the things I wanted to know. Now wait and see. They'll call me soon. I don't really care what they say, right now I'm just so glad the inteview is over.

But first, I'm going to enjoy next weekend. We are going swimming, relaxing, sleeping, walking, .... Tell you about it on Monday.

*watching the WG-SN-DVD and won't be doing anything else today anymore*

Present mood: stressed & nervous

Today I had a chat with my team coordinator at my present job, and the chance for me to be able to stay there is almost zero. He pities it as well, so do all my collegues :'( It's all because the organisation I work for is in financial troubles and they are not giving away permanent jobs so easily right now. So I really have to find myself a new job.
Tomorrow is going to be a big day. I'll have a job interview for a permanent job elsewhere. I'm already so very nervous.......... I really want to make a good impression there. So please wish me luck! I'll have the interview with four people *eeeeek!!* and according to some inside information I received (an ex-collegue of mine is working there now) one of them is really nerve-racking and likes to have a big discussion. I'm already sweating and stammering... I really hope I'll do well.

Corine 2005

Dass ich (jetzt seit anderthalb Jahren) mehr und mehr deutsche Leute kennengelernt habe, und mich mehr und mehr mit der deutschen Sprache beschäftige, ist für keinen von euch eine Überraschung. Die Wise Guys sind an allem schuld. Aber dass ich noch tiefer in die deutsche Kulturwelt durchgedrungen bin, wusste wahrscheinlich keiner von euch. Ich habe das auch absichtlich nicht veröffentlicht, weil ich nicht unbedingt bekannt werden möchte. Aber jetzt dachte ich, es ist mal Zeit, euch alles zu erzählen. Ich habe genau gesagt mal Lust dazu. Also: der Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels war auf der Suche nach einem Namen für den Internationalen Buchpreis. Und tja.... wer ist im Moment so ganz international beschäftigt und hat einen wunderschönen Namen? Ich. Sie haben sich dann an mich gerichtet und ich war natürlich ganz stolz dass sie meinen Namen benutzen wollten. Es ist ja auch ein sehr sehr schöner Name, sag mal selber ne? Und schau mal selber wie schön das Markenzeichen geworden ist:

Schöööööön, oder?

Jetzt hier, auf diese Weise, möchte ich ein paar Leuten danken: Danke Papa, danke Mama für meinen Namen und danke Oma, dass ich nach dir benannt bin. Ich habe euch lieb! Und vielen Dank auch an die Wise Guys denn sie sind an allem schuld.

www.corine.de
;)

Poffertjes bakken

What will you do if your friends give you this for your birthday.... Poffertjes pastry mix!! MMMMMmmmmmmmmm!!! Really easy, just add milk and eggs and make poffertjes!!!!

I really like poffertjes, it always reminds me of a restaurant in Gouda where we used to go quite often when I was a little kid. There, we ate pancakes or poffertjes, and you could see a man baking your poffertjes, and he was so very quick turning them around!! Amazing!
Wait! [...]
*searching* [...]
YES!!!
They have an internetpage!
The restaurant is called De Poffertjeskraam. Check out the pictures, wow. I wanna go there again! Oh, and you should really watch these movies!!! Especially where the poffertjes are being turned. I really don't know how he does it!

Ok, sorry. Offtopic. I've never made poffertjes myself, because I don't have a poffertjes-pan. So I just decided to buy one. For else, this gift would be useless. And, it was an special offer at Trekpleister this week anyway. Only 5,50 euro :) And with this pan, I can make 15!! poffertjes at once. Haha.

And this is what it looks like. We found out the pan needs to be really hot, and you've got to use a lot of butter. Our first try was terrible, the pastry was burned to the pan right away and we couldn't turn the poffertjes over. Our second try was better, and we made many many poffertjes. We first took only half of the package flour, but soon added all. The package says it's good for 150 poffertjes........would that be too much? Eh... yes. But 75 was too little.

Here they are turned over. Mmmmmm, doesn't it look yummie yet? After making a batch of pancakes we ate them, before they got cold. So while I was making the next 15, Martin was eating his 15, then I ate mine and Martin could make his next 15 poffertjes *lol* and so on and so on. What a team work. We hardly had any time making some pictures in between. Add a lot of icing sugar and enjoy! Forget about the vegetables and fruit and healthy vitamines. This is delicious!

By the way, according to the paper that we got together with the poffertjes-pan, the English word for poffertjes is "Dutch pancakes". The German is "Holländische Kräpfchen" and the French word is "Beignets Hollandais". Does this mean poffertjes is something really Dutch? I didn't know!


To all my friends who don't live in the Netherlands: If you want to make poffertjes at home, check out this website and get started. Don't you think it's amazing what things you can buy online these days?? Don't we all love the internet! ;)

Volley adventures (2)

Won the game tonight, 3-2 victory!
But we didn't play that well actually. We should have won the game with 4-0....
But anyway...

Funny detail:
After the game was over, the arbitrator/referee (?) comes over to me and asks me: "From where did they get you?" I took that as a compliment ;)

(I've been playing in this club since summer '04, and I'm in this team since januari '05, but I've been playing volleyball from my 6th untill my 16th when I was living with my parents.)

Now I'm pretty tired, but I won't be able to sleep soon I guess. Balls are still flying through my mind. The screaming "I get it!!!" "YES" "GO!!" etc. is still echoing in my ears. I love this sport :)
But I need to go to sleep cause tomorrow I have to work. Good night.

Muddled thoughts

Sometimes I'm wondering about my purpose here on earth. Why am I here? What do I matter? What is this life good for? What's the purpose of life? If I wander on for a while I feel really terrible, useless, small and innocent. Imagine yourself, in your home, in your country, in this world. Imagine earth in space, which goes on and on forever. Take a look at the stars and think about the infinity of the universe. Don't you feel small and useless? Ok, I don't think about that too often. It depresses me sometimes. But for some of the questions I just wrote down, I do have an anwser.

Right now I'm enjoying the autumns prettiness a lot, together with a terrible cold, a lot of sneezing and coughing, ok.... But it is a beautiful season, right? I love the colours in the trees, especially when the sun is shining, which it does a lot lateley.


@lena: Mein Herbst vor meinem Fenster ;)
(naja, nicht direct vor meinem Fenster, aber doch nahebei).

I'm also enjoying the fact I'm living in such a prosperous country. What is this life good for? Enjoying it! I'm enjoying the fact I can do (almost) anything I like. Just take a look at my lists of concerts I'm going to visit this year. OK, I know people with a much much longer list.... Martin and I have a lovely house, a beautiful life. I'm wealthy! .... eh.... well, not really, but wealthy enough to live life the way I like it. And I want to keep it that way.

Why am I writing this down?
*wondering*
[...]
*thinking really hard*
OK, I know. I've got to get active to find myself a new job, for my recent job is going to end on 31-12-2005. Damn it!!!!!!
I don't think I'll be as happy as I am now if I don't find myself a job for 2006. So, if I want to stay happy I'll have to find myself a job. Can it be clearer?
Then why am I not motivated at all?
Because I want to keep my recent job.
*sigh*

What will I do now?
...
Yeah, I know. I'm going to order the RHB Live CD right away. 'Cause I've been too busy to do that last week. And I'm going to reconsider this job-thing tomorrow again.

Warum sind Flamingos rosa? und eine nervige Dose Hustenpastillen

Gestern hatten wir mal wieder Lust spazieren zu gehen. Zusammen mit Martins Mutter und seine Schwester sind wir nach Zwillbrock gefahren. Weil das in Deutschland liegt, nochmal ein Bericht hier auf Deutsch *hehe* (lena, könntest du vielleicht nochmal korrigieren?)

Das Zwillbrocker Venn ist ein schönes Gebiet wo ganz viele Vögel leben: verschiedene Sorten Enten, Möwen und Gänse, Haubentaucher (mein absoluter Lieblingsvogel), Kormorane und eben Flamingos! Ich hatte immer gedacht Flamingos leben nur im Tiergarten oder in ganz warmen Ländern, aber hier leben sie auch. Aber eigentlich kann man sie nur im Sommer oft sehen. Im Moment halten sie sich wahrscheinlich schon in ihren Überwinterungsquartieren im südwestlichen Holland auf, denn wir haben sie nicht gesehen. Wüsstest du eigentlich warum Flamingos rosa sind? Sie erhalten ihre ausgefallene Farbe durch ihre Nahrung (vor allem Kleinkrebse).

Der Spaziergang war sehr schön. Ich liebe die Geräusche im Wald, die Vögel und den Wind in den Bäumen. Das Wetter war toll, die Sonne schien immer noch und es war warm. Und das am 15. Oktober! Es war wie Sommer! Aber, die Natur sieht schon ganz herbstig aus. Wir haben - wie immer - ganz viele Bilder gemacht. Vor allem Bilder von den schönen Herbstfarben. Wow! Wir haben viele Pilze gesehen. Rote mit weißen Tupfen, braune, und weiße Pilze. Gelbe, rote und braune Blätter flogen durch die Luft. Echt Herbst!





Mehr über Zwillbrock findest du hier.

Nachdem der Spaziergang zu Ende war sind wir nach Hause gefahren und ich hab den ganzen Rückweg im Auto geschlafen. Denn eigentlich bin ich ein bischen krank. Ich habe ziemliche Halsschmerzen und bin total müde. Wir sind dann zu Martins Mutter nach Hause gefahren und da hab ich weiter geschlafen bis zum Abendessen. Danach sind wir nach Hause gefahren. Heute geht es mir gut, aber meine Stimme ist fast weg. Ich kann kaum reden und das Husten tut so weh. Aaaarg.... ich will nicht krank sein, ich soll doch auch morgen wieder arbeiten gehen! Ich glaube, ich werde heute nichts mehr machen. Ich bleibe zu Hause und trinke Tee und esse Hustenpastillen. Öhm... wenn´s klappt. Denn ich hatte ganz leckere Hustenpastillen, aber die Dose ist ein bisschen nervig.... Auf der Rückseite steht: "Deksel met een lichte draaibeweging openen" (Deckel mit leichte Drehbewegung öffnen). Aber das klappt nicht!! GRRRRRRRRRRRR. Folge, mit Gewalt geöffnet:

Volley adventures (1)

Somehow I managed to play damn well last night in our fourth volleyball match. I don't know how, it just all went so well! Wow, what a great feeling it was. The match was exciting, except for the last set where we totally messed up. We lost that one. But, we had won the first three sets which gives us a 3-1 victory. Untill now, we've been performing very well together. Let's keep an overview here:

Esch Stars D1 - VC Hengelo D1: 1-3: WON
VC Hengel D1 - Rosstars D2: 3-2: WON
WVC Volley D2 - VC Hengelo D1: 4-0: lost
VC Hengelo D1 - Akku-Fit/Savicao D6: 3-1: WON

Our position in the competition can be found here (it will be updated every monday).

I hope we can continue just like this and I hope I'm not just having a lucky week now. It feels so good. I've never played any better. And that, after a week full of busy things and stress. I think I hit it all away. The ball is my worries and I'm just gonna kick them away, yeah! ;)

Happy birthday to me

.. years old now ;)
Some people make a wrong guess of my age.
Mmm...what do you think?

On Sunday I celebrated my birthday. I invited family and friends to come over, about 10 people also stayed for dinner, so I prepared several different yummy things, like filled tomatoes. We had a good time, but it was a very busy weekend all together. Friday (my actual birthday): Working and playing a volleybalmatch. Saturday: preparing dinner, tidying up the house, having my brother + his wife + my parents over, Rock4 Concert Sunday: Preparing for dinner, visitors from 11.30 untill 23.00. This week I'm working every day (except for last Tuesday, so luckely I could finish writing my Rock4 report). Busy busy busy. Quite a lot of stress at the moment actually....

A cappella Addict

I'm an a cappella addict. I admit. Admitting an addiction is a start to cure, right? But I don't want to cure!! Mmmm...where does this contradiction come from? I don't know and I don't want to know. But, the reason I'm writing this is I found out I'm really crazy. I found out after last Monday's conversation with Steini, on icq, starting at 21:39. Don't mind the Rechtschreibfehler bitte.... es war ganz schnell getippt. And I apologize for my double language use, I can't help it.

Steini: Corine??
Corine: ja?
Steini: hast du von Steffi/ Sarinchen ne SMS bekommen?
Corine: k.A. mein Handy ist ausgeschaltet. Mal gucken, moment. hat sie denn mein Nummer? *g*
Steini: ja seit heute schon. sie ist ja ganz groß im überreden zur zeit *lach* und dann will man ihr den spass ja nciht nehmen
Corine: haha
Corine: ich hab hier ein bericht von Steffi, aber das ist nur halb.... sie sagt:
"mitbringen? wir sind dann 17. Würde mich sehr freuen. LG, Steffi"
Steini: *g* ja also. Also es geht darum ob du mit zum Konzert in der Johanneskirche kommen willst.
Corine: da fehlt etwas haha. aber das Konzert in der Johanneskirche.... wann ist das genau?
Steini: Sonntag, 29. Januar 2006. Ab morgen ist VVK für das Konzert. 16.00 Uhr Beginn - Euro 17,
Corine: Oh man... und du werdest Karten kaufen?
Steini: genau ich hole morgen Karten
Corine: ah, jetzt hab ich auch SMS-Teil 1
Steini: *g*
Corine: oh man.... das ist geil....
Corine: öhm.....
Steini: ich lausche gespannt deiner antwort :)
Corine: ich überlege.... *g*
Steini: *gg* ok überleg du ich werde noch einige stunden online sein :D
Corine: oh man!!! du!!! warum fragst du mich nicht ein paar Tagen früher! hahaha
Steini: na ja weil wir nach und nach die liste durch gegangen sind also besser gesagt sarinchen beschwer dich bei ihr das das so spät kommt
Corine: wer kommt schon?
Steini: also wenn du wissen willst für wen ich alles karten hole das sind so ein paar ...
Corine: ja?
Steini: Sarinichen, purzl, Miri, Solli, Clementine, Serena (auch wenn die nichts von ihrem glück weiß), Bloody, Flocke, Mella, lena, Lena, Lulu, Nini
--6 Mintuten später--
Corine: Martin sagt das ich total verrückt bin aber ich komme mit! So viele Leute vom KusS, das wird bestimmt toll!!
Steini: *freu*
Corine: *JUHU*
Steini: dann schreibe ich dir jetzt noch wohin ich geld für deine Karte bekomme oder kommt Martin auch mit?
Corine: nee, er bleibt zu hause.
Corine: ok, ich muss jetzt gehen. oh man, was hab ich jetzt getan hahaha. Wir verrückten..... :P tschöö

In less than half an hour she talked me into this! I'm really addicted. Well, but I just have to say it will be a lot of fun to see all these people again! I'm really looking forward to it!! Wow, it will be great. Only knowing I'm going makes me smile. BUT, I have to say that this concert will probably be the only Wise Guys concert planned untill summer 2006. That will kick the habit!! On the other hand, I do have another Rock4 concert planned in February '06 and a Montezuma concert in March '06, so I won't be completely without a cappella feed.

To be continued...

Nasse Schuhe in Aamsvenn

So! Weil wir heute ins niederländisch-deutsche Grenzgebiet spaziert sind, mach ich mal einen Bericht auf Deutsch. Und auch weil ich das Tippen auf Deutsch mal öfter üben möchte. Also. Auf Deutsch. Wenn es noch Schreibfeher gibt, bitte sag mir Bescheid.

Heute waren wir im Naturschutzgebiet "Aamsvenn", südöstlich von Enschede. Wir hatten mal wieder Lust spazieren zu gehen, und eigentlich sollten wir das viel öfter machen, weil es einfach immer Spaß macht und es so viele Naturschutzgebiete gibt die schön sind. Das Aamsvenn ist ein wunderschönes Moorgebiet. Es war ganz nass, wir mussten uns manchmal einen Weg suchen durch oder an Pfützen entlang. Wir begegneten zwei Menschen die zurück liefen, weil sie es zu nass fanden und nicht weiter laufen konnten. Na, was für ne Aufgebers! So schwierig war es gar nicht. Es war eigentlich ganz komisch, ein bisschen survival. Toll, oder? Das Wetter war aber erstaunlich gut, die Sonne schien und es war gar nicht kalt. Weil das Gebiet so nass war, waren da aber ganz viele Mücken, aber die haben uns nicht wirklich gestört. Unsere Route, die wir aus dem Internet ausgedrückt hatten, erzählte uns von der Umgebung. War aber manchmal ganz komisch, denn was ist denn ein "verstärkter Bauernhof"? Früher sollte da einen verstärkten Bauernhof gewesen sein, jetzt war da nur noch eine verfallene Scheune. Aber wir hatten schon ein Bild im Kopf von einem Bauernhof mit meterdicke Mauern mit Zinnen und einem Burggraben rundum...

Ich frage mich übrigens, wie viele Bilder ich hier hochladen kann. Ich hab nirgendwo gelesen dass es ein Limit gibt... auch komisch...

Dennis' en Linlins wedding

The wedding yesterday was beautiful. Many different people were present, from many different countries with different cultures. We spoke English mostly, but German was also possible for some people, and of course Chinese (but that's just a bit too hard for me *hehe*), especially the Mandarin....
Funny fact: Chris (a German from Schwitzerland) knows the Wise Guys! Well, he didn't ever hear or see them, but he'd heard of them.
Let me show you some pictures:

Dennis and Linlin:

Mark and Jane played some beautiful backgroundmusic:

Martin & I:



Martin and Mark jamming some improvisation:


The weather was ok. It was cold and windy, but at least it was dry! No rain at all. The ceremony in the cityhall was nice. I had to film the whole thing, which I'm not used to do, but I've seen the results already and can say "hey, I'm not that bad at all". The ceremony was in Dutch and in English.
After the ceremony we had a party with champagne, coffee and tea, later a beautiful cake. There was a delicious buffet in the evening. In the beginning it was a bit odd, for there were so many people I didn't know and I didn't know which language to use. "Hallo, who are you?" "I am some unpronounceble chinese name, nice to meet you" haha ;)
But later on, I had a really really good time.