Join the Real Community

With Facebook as a main tool to communicate with friends and stay up to date with lots of people and vocal groups around the world, this blog is slowly becoming unnecessary. My main interest at the moment is expanding my 'a cappella collection', by finding and listening to new vocal groups.

The scope of content at Facebook is growing enormously, and an attempt to do networking there, in a qualitative manner, easily disappears in the everyday flow of info about people's various activities.

So, what I need, is a site with a focus on one field of human activity: the world of vocal music. The Real Group launched a website for this purpose only and I'd like to invite all my friends in the vocal world to join this community.

Maybe, one day, Facebook will become unnecessary for me as well. And so we move on, and move on, and move on, and move on.

Camping

Despite the two hours delay on the way there, caused by a problem with one of my rear tires, and despite the storm on the first night, I had a wonderful weekend camping with friends in the dunes near the North Sea.

I'm really glad I noticed the ticking sound in my right rear tire when I slowed down because of a traffic jam and I'm also glad I decided to leave the highway to find out what it was. To cut a long story short: I needed a new tire immediately. If I would have continued driving, I definitely would have had a blown tire.
We were using the new tent of one of my friends and found out it withstands heavy rain, thunder, stormy wind and hail as big as M&M's. Our neighbour, in a caravan, told us we could always wake him in the middle of the night if things would get worse. A very comforting thought, because we couldn't imagine the weather getting much worse from there. Anyway, we stayed dry and safe.
On Saturday and Sunday it was sunny and we enjoyed the weather and the beach. Personal beach tennis record: 93! Wheee! :P

Pictures from the Azores

Azores (Faial & São Miguel) 2009

Back home from the Azores

Monday night we got back home from our holiday on the Azores. We spent one week on the island Faial and one week on the island São Miguel. Both places were beautiful! We've been exploring the green islands and saw big volcanoes, hot sulfur springs and steaming fumaroles, huge crater lakes, steep cliffs, beautiful waterfalls and about a dozen sperm whales.
The over 1800 pictures have already brought back to a selection of 670 pictures, which is still to big to put online. But we'll do our best to upload a smaller selection in our Picasa Webalbum later this week.

Half Past Nine

Movie&Movie's

With not much vocal activities right now (no choir rehearsals, no festival organization and administration, etc.) there's lots of time to watch movies in the evenings. I can recommend V for Vendetta, The Prestige, The Wedding Planner and The Holiday. The first two are really great if you love original, unexpected plots and the last two movies are more 'girls only' and should be watched with a friend and lots of M&M's.


The only bad thing about this week is that I can't go to Europa Cantat and I'll miss Rajaton.... :(

But I'm looking forward to Ice Age 3, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and G-Force!

Proud

Today I felt a bit like a kid on fathers day. You know the feeling when you made something special in school for your dad, with a little poem which said "you are the best dad in the world!" and you'd feel proud when you could give it to him.
Today I felt so proud of my dad. He came to visit us - and he came by bike. For those who don't know: he doesn't live next door, he lives practically on the other side of the country. Luckily, the Netherlands are not that big, but it's still 162 kilometers!!
After work, I was waiting for him at the end of our street, and there he was:

Borkum

And because all good things come in three: I've written another review for my website. The last one for this season. It's a review from our trip to the island Borkum which included a Wise Guys concert. Apart from the concert, we had a wonderful weekend on the island with sun, sea and beach.

Balve

I've just uploaded a new review on my website. This time an English one, describing the concert from Vocaldente in a cave in Balve (Germany) last Saturday. It's less detailed than usual, but I don't think it's short. Somehow I am not able to write short reviews. But I can write short blog posts! -end-

Dortmund

Endlich ist es da, mein Bericht vom A Cappella Festival in Dortmund zu Pfingsten! Ich weiß übrigens nicht, ob ich nochmals ein so langer Bericht auf Deutsch schreiben werde. Pfffff.... das hat Stunden gedauert! Hahahaha. Wäre schön, wenn ein paar Leute es lesen würden und mir davon berichten, ob dass es gut ist ;)

Still here

I'm still here, don't worry. Just a bit busy. June is a pretty full month this year. Our vocal festival Amusing Hengelo took place last weekend and it was fantastic. Due to this festival though, I didn't have time to finish the review I'm writing about the a cappella festival in Dortmund, which was also absolutely fantastic. I hope to finish writing it today. It's a bit hard, because my notes are too short and not so clear, and I decided to write in German which goes a little slower than English or Dutch. I'll have to dig my memory for the final details. After that I still have to select, edit and add lots of pictures, which I'm already looking forward to :) Maybe I can upload the review tomorrow...

The coming weeks we have planned two small a-cappella-concert-trips to Germany and I'm still doubting if we want to make three of it. Our summer holiday is also coming closer and we still have to think of a sunny, warm destination we want to visit. It's probably going to be a last-minute flight to somewhere south, I guess. Tips and ideas are welcome. Keywords: non-touristic, peaceful, nature, scary-disease-free and I prefer not to fly too long...

Landy

This story is bizarre. Nine years ago, my father-in-law sold the Landrover they had owned for years. The Landrover was very typical for my father-in-law, because he had converted it into a mobile home. He was a very handy man who liked to invent things. They always went camping with the Landrover and when Martin and his sister were young, they all four slept in the car. Mom and dad in the back, Martin on the front seats and his sister in a sort of hammock/bunk bed above him. A tent could be attached to the car to provide more living space. There were dozens of other funny and handy things about the car.

This is during one of our holidays together, in 1999. In the picture Martins mom and dad, my sister, Martins sister, Martin and my parents
He sold the Landrover because he wanted a camper, which would be more comfortable. At some points he was disappointed about the "luxurious" camper, and soon this vehicle was also including typical inventions ;)
Somehow he heard stories about the next owner neglecting "his" Landrover, the axis being broken and the car being demolished. He was sad about it, because he had always been very careful all these years. Maintenance was very important to him.
My father-in-law died in 2004, much to young.
We've always believed the Landrover was demolished, but today my mother-in-law discovered it in our town! She called us, we quickly went to the parking where she'd seen it - and we couldn't believe our eyes. This was really weird, there it was - dads car! A bit older, not so clean and polished as it used to be, but with many of the old attributes. We've been peeping through the windows for at least fifteen minutes. The old cupboards, the small hot plate, the curtains, the rail to attach the tent to the car, etc. Especially Martin recognized many tiny things that all remembered of his father. On the dashboard was an old compass. Martin and his mother have been searching for it a couple of years ago! They never knew it was in the car when they sold it.

Tadaaaa, here it is!
It's really weird what happened today. I wish my father-in-law could have seen it. He'd be so happy to know the car is still there.

-
Those who didn't know about our Landrover-love will now also understand the choice of car on our wedding day:

Stöckchen gefangen

Danke Dani!

Die Regeln
1. Beantworte die Fragen und füge Sie auf deinem Blog ein.
2. Ersetze eine Frage die du nicht magst durch eine neue und füge zusätzlich eine weitere Neue hinzu.
3. Tag 8 weitere Leute! Was, 8?? So viele Blogschreiber kenne ich gar nicht!

Das Spiel
1. Welches Parfüm benutzt du zur Zeit? Gar keine, ist das schlimm?
2. Song des Tages? Also heute? k.A. Blöde Frage, die streiche ich!
Meine neue Frage: Was hast du schon viel zu lange nicht mehr gemacht? Gitarre spielen
3. Was ist dein Lieblingsfilm? Lord of the Rings finde ich immer noch sehr toll. Aber ich habe letztens auch Madagaskar gesehen und The Hunting Party und und und. Eigentlich finde ich jeder Film, der wir in unserem Home Cinema gucken toll... ;)
4. Was ist dein Highlight des Tages? Die Lieferung unsere Gärtenmöbel heute Mittag. Und heute Abend gucken wir Madagaskar II :D
5. Was willst du unbedingt lernen? Technische Details der Fotografie. Ich tue nun immer nur was mir so einfällt.
7. Was hast du zuletzt gekauft? Gärtenmöbel!! Die werden heute geliefert!!
8. Was ist dein Lieblingswetter? Ich bin gegen Regen! Obwohl der Garten im Moment anders sagt.
9. Was ist dein momentan wichtigstes Ziel? Nach diesem Blogeintrag aufstehen und der Haushalt machen...
10. Was denkst du über die Person, die dich getagged hat? Ich habe sie nur einmal getroffen, war aber ganz nett. Würde sie gerne wieder treffen wenn ich in der Nähe bin.
11. Wenn du ein komplett eingerichtetes Haus irgendwo in der Welt bezahlt bekommen würdest, wo würdest du es hin haben wollen? Auf den Malediven. Und wenn, dann möchte ich auch mal tauchen lernen (Frage 5)
12. Was würdest du, wenn du könntest, an dir ändern? Höchstens etwas mehr Selbstsicherheit. Ansonsten gar nichts, ich bin wie ich bin.
13. Wenn du für die nächsten Stunden irgendwo auf der Welt sein könntest, wo wärst du gerne? Hong Kong, eine Freundin besuchen.
14. Was ist dir bei Freunden wichtig? Das man Spaß hat, auch wenn man sie etwas länger nicht gesehen hat, und das die auch in schlechteren Zeiten für sie da sind.
15. Wen würdest du gerne mal treffen? Öhm... ich habe keine Ahnung. Darf man auch zwei Fragen streichen?
16. Was ist dein Lieblingsstück in deinem Kleiderschrank? Die neue Hose die ich vor zwei Wochen gekauft habe. Aber die liegt im Moment nicht in meinem Kleiderschrank, ich habe sie an.
17. Was ist dein Traumjob? Die ganze Welt bereisen und Reiseprogramme im TV machen. Würde ich aber nicht machen, weil ich nicht so lange von Hause weg sein könnte. Aber wenn man das könnte, wow, das ist echt ein Traumjob.
18. Welche sind deine Lieblingsbands? Maybebop, Vocaldente, iNtrmzzo, The Glue, Wise Guys.
19. 3 Dinge die dir ein Lächeln aufs Gesicht zaubern: Sonne, Freizeit, Liebe
20. Was ist deine Lieblingsgroßstadt? In Köln und Hamburg fühle ich mich sehr wohl.
21. Was ist zur Zeit dein Lieblingslied? L'Elixir d'Amour von The Glue
22. Was ist deine Lieblingsserie? "24"
23. Was hast du gerade an? Meine Lieblingshose, ein T-Shirt. Ziemlich casual.
24. Was ist dein Lieblingsbuch? Ich mag ganz viele Bücher, aber "Ich bin dann mal weg" von Hape Kerkeling habe ich schon zweimal gelesen und würde ich ohne Probleme noch ein drittes Mal lesen.
25. Mein Mittagessen: Eine Brotscheibe mit Käse und eine mit Schokostreusel. Sehr Niederländisch.
26. Beschreib dich selber in drei Worten: lieb, perfektionistisch, strukturiert

Das Stöckchen geht an
Maike, Ursel, Schmetterling

Garden part 2

(click to enlarge)

More, more, more....

Vocaldente has finally uploaded sound snippets from their new album and the latest videocast is online.

I always like the Maybebop podcasts, there are 22 of them already! I just watched their latest one.

Voicemale is about to start their new show "At the movies" which sounds like fun.

Just when I think I know quite a lot of different vocal groups already, my brother sends me a link with a movie from a (new) vocal group from Israel, the VOCA people, which is awesome. First, they seem a bit weird, but the more you hear, the better and funnier it gets.

"Later" has started

That was the discovery some friends and I made yesterday. I meet these friends few times a year (because I don't live so nearby) and almost every year we are spending a weekend together somewhere in a holiday-residence. But yesterday we only met to drink tea, chat, make and eat dinner and watch a movie in the evening.

A couple of years ago, we said: What will it be like, later, when some of us have kids? Will they play together and join us on our trips and days out?

Well, the "later" has really started. Yesterday, five kids were running, crawling and lying around. It was a lot of fun. The youngest only 8 weeks old, the oldest 2,5 years old. Toys everywhere. Baby bottles, bibs, diapers, high chairs, stair gates and kitchen cupboards with child locks. Time to talk was rare, because every minute another kid was interrupting the conversation. Yep, the old times are over :)

New website online!

Later as I wanted, but still sooner as expected, is it online: My new website!! Rebuilding it was necessary, because I wanted to share so many information. The old structure of the website didn’t quite fit to that. I hope people will like the new design and content!

I want to invite you to have a look at corine.located.nl and I would love to read your comments in my guestbook.

Just a few more days.....

Somewhere in the first week of May, my new website will be online. It just had to happen now!

For those who want to have a look at the old site, here's your last chance!!

Hmpf....

...ich habe gerade entdeckt, dass wir die Wise Guys in diesem Jahr wahrscheinlich gar nicht sehen können. Ich wollte eigentlich noch Karten für das Konzert in Osnabrück kaufen (November), aber da ich an dem Abend Generalprobe für zwei große Konzerte mit 'meinem' Chor habe wird das wohl nichts. Dann gibt es noch die Möglichkeit, Ende Juni nach Köln zu fahren für das Konzert im Tanzbrunnen, aber Martin hat keine Lust auf ein Stehkonzert, ich will nicht alleine, und am nächsten Tag "müssen" wir auch schon nach Vocaldente, dann wäre das WE auch ein bisschen zu voll, mit zuviel Fahrerei.
Gibt es nur noch eine einzige Lösung: Wir fahren für ein Sommerwochenende nach Borkum, inkl. Konzert.
Eigentlich gar keine schlechte Idee.
Ein Jahr ohne Wise Guys kann doch nicht sein?
Oder?
Martin?? Können wir mal reden?

My modern grandmother

My grandmother is 83 years old and some years ago, she got a computer and I taught her how type and how to send e-mail. Her handwriting is very bad, so now she can communicate with people by writing e-mail or by writing a text in Word, printing it and sending it as a normal letter. It is fantastic how she learned this and I'm proud of her!
Today my mother had to come over, to "put a new pen into the printer" (a new cartridge). My grandmother has got a printer which can also copy and fax papers. In the printer my mother found not only blank sheets of paper, there was also a CD in it. My grandmother had tried to copy it for one of her relatives. Apparently she does know it is possible to copy CD's, but how to do it? I'm already looking forward to her next e-mail, in which she might tell me all about her attempt to copy a CD ;)

Round NL

Yesterday it was my mothers birthday, but we decided to visit our new-born nephew first. It was only a "little" detour - we didn't mind. After 450 km and having seen many relatives we got back home and found a hungry cat waiting for us :)

April

It's the 12th of April and I haven't blogged anything in April yet! It must be the beautiful weather, I'm outside in our garden most of the time right now. I've removed old leaves and lots of weeds and I've been staining the banisters (finally got that job done). In the meantime I'm working on my new website every now and then, with help from Martin. The website will be published in the first week of May! Promised!
Martin has been searching for the right cables and speakers to make our home cinema ready. A friend is coming over tonight and then we'll watch the first movie together! It's really cool :)
I've also become an aunt again yesterday! My second nephew is born and we'll go and see him tomorrow :) So we're busy and happy!

Garden

It's still too cold and wet to sit in our garden, but already there are beautiful flowers. And considering the concert free weekend I had to find something else to photograph...

(click to enlarge)

Sechs (!) Wise Guys melden sich zu Wort

Das ist mal ganz außergewöhnlich: Sechs Wise Guys melden sich innerhalb eines bestimmten Zeitraum zu Wort auf ihrer persönlichen Gästebuchseite und so tauchen sechs Bilder gleichzeitig nebeneinander auf. Dieses Bild wird es wahrscheinlich nie wieder geben - deswegen sollte es mal in meinem Blog 'verewigt' werden *g*.


Sehr interessant dabei ist natürlich Clemens' Eintrag, in dem er erzählt wie das Leben als nicht-Wise-Guy ihm gefällt.

Addition to the family

Today Piet moved in. Piet is the aged cat of my mother-in-law. Since my mother-in-law moved to an apartment last year, it was always the plan that Piet would come and live with us one day, because she doesn't have enough room for a cat. This is Piet:

iNtrmzzo

Seeing iNtrmzzo live is one big pleasure, being able to make great pics is another big pleasure! My weekend can't be better! :D


More pictures can be found on my Facebook-page (hint: join it!).

Just a little update

So what's new? Not much actually. We still have to find and buy chairs. We still have to stain the banisters. And we still have to connect the DVD-player to the TV, which is most important *cough*, because there are three (!) very nice a cappella DVD's coming up this year and I want to have them all and be able to watch them ;)
New is, that I found out how to take a shower without leaking water! The doors of our shower cabin are a bit weird, but I finally discovered how to close them properly! Very useful indeed.
I'm busy at work, because I have to catch up for the time I took off in January and I'm also doing a course about first aid and stuff. Today I learned how to revive somebody and next week I'm going to put out a fire. Also very useful.
Our free time is mostly filled with a cappella music, in many ways. Kin' de Lele is playing over and over again in the CD player and when I don't hear it I practice the "wa p t ba da da t ba ba chi ki ba tsao" from the Real Group (Chili con carne). I have to learn some songs by heart, because there are two concerts coming up with my choir with new repertoire. Besides this, I somehow planned to visit six concerts within four weeks (which is too much, but so much fun), I wrote one review and have to write another one this weekend.
In the mean time I've read 'The Kite Runner', which is a book I could hardly put down. A moving, but beautiful story! New reading tips are very welcome!
And now it's time for the weekend... in which we will also fill in the tax papers. Wish us luck!

Wasserflaschen auf der Bühne sind doof

Und Gläser mit Wasser auch. Das müssen die Jungs von theGlue wohl gedacht haben als sie ihre neue Outfits inklusiv Wasserrücksacke ausgesucht haben. Aber, ich muss sagen, es sieht geil aus. Und vielleicht ist es auch nur praktisch, während des Singen schnell ein Schluck Wasser trinken zu können.

Wie theGlue live bei diesen Bildern klingt, weiß ich leider nicht. Aber auf das neue Album Kin' de Lele finde ich hauptsächlich tolle Songs mit überraschenden Rhythmen, originellen Arrangements und geile vocal percussion. Und es gibt auch mal wieder ein paar sehr eigenartige Texten dabei.

Ich hätte gerne eine Reise nach Basel inkl. Konzertticket zum Geburtstag.
Mist... mein Geburtstag dauert noch viel zu lange...

New report at corine.located.nl

Due to moving houses I didn't find time to report about concerts we visited in the past few months. But now I've found time to write a story about the fantastic concert of Vocaldente in Marienthal! Ok, I have to admit, the report is a little longer than I'd planned... Check it out at corine.located.nl.

Chocolate-peanut-honey-cake

Or whatever it's called ;) But it's very, very nice and sweet!

Here's the recipe:

500 gram peanuts (I used salted ones)
half a packet of biscuits (+/- 120 gram)
2 bars of white chocolate (I used bars of 75 gram)
3 bars of dark chocolate (I used bars of 100 gram)
(you can always use more chocolate...)
honey, at least 150 ml


Cut the peanuts and biscuits in small pieces (1), add 1 bar of melted white chocolate, 1 bar of melted dark chocolate and the honey and stir it (2). Put it in a round baking dish or cake tin (don't forget the baking paper, else you will never get it out again). Then melt another bar of dark chocolate and pour it on top of the cake (3). Put it in the fridge for a while to cool down. Then turn the cake over - the dark chocolate layer will be the bottom of the cake. Melt the final two bars of dark and white chocolate to decorate the cake with. Again, let it cool down in the fridge for a while. And then.... yummy!

Big table

At the moment, we receive many guests who are curious and want to see our new home. A lot of friends and family came over already. Yesterday Martins colleagues had the chance to see our house and they all stayed for dinner. And because of occasions like this we bought the resizeble table, which can be this big:

Show must go on

Question: Thursday night, Rock4 is playing in Enschede. They're playing "A Night at the Opera", which Corine has seen twice already. Corine has choir rehearsal every Thursday night, also in Enschede. What would she do?

I attended the choir rehearsal! Never thought I would do that, didn't you? ;) But I just like singing so much and because I'm singing in a small choir, I don't want to miss it too often. Martin and his mother wanted to see Rock4 and because they needed transport, I had to drop them off at the theater. Man, that's a bit annoying, I wanted to go with them!

Singing with the choir was fun and I didn't regret. But when I got the chance to leave a little bit early, I left and drove to the theater, hoping to get the chance to sneak in... it was just after ten. Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to get in, because I was told that "these men only sing, without music" and I would disturb the show. Ok, I could understand, I know I might disturb them, but I just wanted it so badly! *grrrr*

Ten seconds later, Jeanine came out (she's the manager of Rock4) because she had to prepare the CD stand. When she saw me, she told me to get in. They were going to sing one more song! Show must go on! Yeah! And so I got the chance to see Rock4 with their new man. Thank you Jeanine, you made my day! :)

House make over

This is the new living room about a week ago, with our old furniture:


This is the new living room yesterday, with some old and new furniture, and with McDull peeping over the edge of his cage:


And this is the new living room tonight, with the new couch:

Home cinema / guest room

Some people are interested in our home cinema, so here are some pictures. It will take a while before we can watch movies in this room, though. This room is also the place where guests can sleep. Because my family and many of our friends don't live close by, this room will probably be used for this purpose more often at first.

Here you can see Beddinge, which is a couch but also a bed for two persons, and Klubbo, which is the table (hurray for Ikea and its beautiful names...haha), and the beautiful "cinema-red" carpet:


Who wants to come over and be the first one to test Beddinge? ;)

And this is how we'll watch movies in the future:

Wrong turn

I didn't expect it to happen so soon, but it happened today... When I drove home from work I took a wrong turn and ended up driving towards our old home hahaha.
Think I'm just tired and ready for the weekend :)

PS: The phone is working again!

Moved...

...and the internet is up and running again!! :D (the phone isn't yet, for those who are wondering why they still can't reach us.)
We've been busy the past few days, but the big, huge, enormous mess has changed into a normal mess and I'm sure it will be tidy one day. I don't understand how all our stuff fitted in our old house.
I'll post some pictures soon, for now I just wanted to say: We're doing great and we feel so much at home!

Our house - part 14

We still have an internet connection in our old house, don't ask me why ;)
Just wanted to upload two pictures before falling into bed.

These are 'some' things from the old attic that still have to be moved...


But it starts to look like home:

Our house - part 13

Moving-Day is coming soon!
It's a chaos in the old house. Right now, there are no curtains in our living room, they are being cleaned tomorrow and then hanged in the new house. The hallway is full of boxes and every time we open the door to the hallway, it bangs into the boxes, because for some reason we seem to forget we've put them there time after time. Every closet we open is almost empty and all the pictures have been removed from the walls.
A lot of boxes (at least 30) have already been moved to the new house and in the new house it's almost invisible that we've put them there, because the house is just too big and there are many closets to hide the mess ;)
Today we also wanted to move some boxes to the new house, but we had some bad luck: Our car was standing on the parking with a flat tire! Damn! So first thing tomorrow, before going to work, is going to the garage to have it fixed. Tip for everybody: Make sure the air pressure of your spare tire is correct. I guess ours has never been checked before and the pressure seems pretty low. But it'll do.
Next Tuesday our internet/cable is moving already. I'll probably be offline for a while now. Next blog-post will be from the new house! Keep your fingers crossed for us please, I hope everything goes well in the coming week. Biggest concern, because it's not in our hands, is the carpet that has to be laid on Friday...
CU! X

Our house - part 12

I'm feeling a bit sick since Saturday and it's not getting better. There's an influenza epidemic in the Netherlands, maybe this time it will get me too? I hope not, there's too much work to do! The past couple of days I was free from work and I've been busy cleaning, packing and moving small things.

Things are really going on well, but I wish I could have done it without the headache, sneezing and sniffing... *sigh*. And tomorrow I need to work again... *bigsigh*

These are some of our books, now temporarily stored in a closet in the attic of our new house:
I have to tell you that the pile of books in this particular closet has grown even more... I think we've got too many books. But as it fitted in our old house, it will easily fit in the new one.

Our house - part 11

The plasterer has done his work and this is the result:


And today we removed the floor protection and this is how our living room looks now:


The biggest thing that still needs to be done is the carpet in the bedrooms and on the stairs, but we have to wait for it another week.
The next three days I'm free from work and there are many other things to be done as preparation before we can actually move houses. The only not very nice circumstance is the fact that I'm starting to feel ill... Think I'm going to bed to have a good rest now.

Winter!

Dutch people love to complain about the weather. It's probably the number one subject for small talk. But when winter really is winter, like it is now, everybody loves it. I didn't hear any complains about it yet. Minus 15 degrees Celsius at night, wow! Snow and ice with blue sky and sunshine - it can't be better! Okay, it's cold and it took me about 20 minutes to get the car ready to drive this morning, I had to scrape the ice from the outside and the inside of the windows, the drivers side of the car was frozen and I had to get inside on the other side of the car. The windshield wipers had disappeared under 3cm of frozen snow. But who cares? It's winter! :) And eventually I arrived at work in time.
Of course, it is very clever to have the plasterer working in our new house in this week, exactly when the central heating has been removed. There are ice drops on the air vents in our house right now... maybe we'll have icicles inside tomorrow? And there's so much moisture in the house as well. I really hope it all ends well and nothing gets damaged because of cold or moisture. I'll be happy when the plasterer is done with his job! Not only because it will be so much prettier after he's finished, but also because Martin and I can't do much right now and we'd love to get on with our own work!
But instead of worrying about those things, let's enjoy the winter and its beauty. I just saw a beautiful report on TV with images of skating people on big lakes in the western part of the Netherlands, where I used to live. And although I never watch sport in TV, I'm longing, like many other Dutch people, for an "Elfstedentocht" (Eleven Cities Tour), a legendary skating marathon in the Netherlands which haven't took place since 1997.
Unfortunately the report I just saw, is not yet online... so I'll just add another video, which also suits the occasion. It's from my favorite Dutch cabaret artist (and it's in Dutch, sorry for those who don't understand).

Ice skating

Yeah!! Finally I had time to go ice skating today!! I love it :) Many people have been ice skating in the past week, but I didn't have time for it. This morning my sister-in-law and I woke up early to enjoy the last bit of ice. Afterwards it started raining and the ice is really defrosting now. But we really loved it!

Our house - part 10

Happy New Year!!!!

Because there's not much work to do in our new house at this moment, and because we were a bit lazy from last night, we decided to start packing some things. By the way: we will probably move at January 24th!