Russian Circus

So this evening we went to the circus. For me it was a mighty long time ago, I think I was about 8 and went with my parents. For Jola, it was a little bit shorter ago. In my memory the circus was much bigger then, but I also could have grown.
Was it nice? Yes, but also too short.
So what did we see?
Of course, some acrobats. And as I already foresaw I, Jan, was drawn out of the public to perform together with the clown, some magicians and some wild animals. Highlight for Jola and me were the motorbikers. They drove around in a very small, iron globe at a very high speed. They started with only one, which was already impressive, but they ended driving with four of them in this small globe (scary). Here, some action.

So again we had a nice evening, although it was too short and not as big as I imagined.

Justice online

Just a funny link in between. On this site you can search for court cases of among other famous celebrities, just click search and type for instance Jeniffer Lopez.The Smoking Gun

Traffic information

Two new initiatives in NL. On this page you see realtime traffic info for the NL based on a map of the country and its highways.Verkeersinformatie.
Here, you can see a statistical overview of traffic jams on the highways of the NL. Based on data of the past you can choose which time you don't wanna be on the road. Filemeter

Birthday & last summer day

On Sunday we celebrated my moms birthday. All the family was present including my uncle and aunt. I think it was about 27 degrees which is incredible this late in the year. Here, my brother in law Henk probably eating. And here, my father attempting to play darts. Jola enjoying the sun and Henk attempting a idiot-look-alike contest. My sister, Anna, looking into the scores, and Rebecca her daughter looking from the side and wondering what these grownups are doing, and Thyrsa who keeps the scores.

So you can see we had a lovely day with lovely weather and company.

Bloemendaal

After our shopping we went to Bloemendaal where we relaxed a little at one of the beach pavillions. Lucky us... it was their last open day so they gave a huge party with free food and drinks. Here some pics. pic1, pic2, pic3

Saturday... buying other stuff day

And the quest for new stuff for the new house continues. On Saturday we drove to the lovely town of Alkmaar where my nephew works in a great shop where they sell stuff with little box damage.
So this is the first thing we bought (for a much lower price). My dream came true, we own a huge 42 inch plasma tv!

After that it was time for a lovely American fridge. A nice fridge with crushed ice and icecubes :-)

Friday evening... buying furniture day!

And again on friday evening we went for furniture. This time to Wormerveer... to Morres Meubelen. A huge furniture shop with nice and less nice things.

It already started nice, we were welcomed by the Morres people as were we special guests. Happened today to be the day that they introduced their new catalogue and invited some special customers to visit them. Not knowing this all and never been there before we got free drinks and snacks on the way.

And we succeeded!!!! After walking around a while we saw these
lovely chairs that we bought. It's special ones... they're made out of bananaleaves!

And then we found our further furniture. A cupboard for glasses, a nice a low cupboard/dressoir, and a lovely low table.

Now we have to wait another 12 weeks and it will be in our new living room together with the couch we bought already.

We started to decorate our new house now (even on paper) and it starts to get really exciting.

Hoom! Maps and Walking Directions

Ever wondered how Frodo Ballings really got to Mordor? He just used this web map planning system.Hoom! Maps and Walking Directions

fidius.org: What's My Pirate Name? (1/3)

Friday afternoon and waiting till I can test a website here. So I found out what my name would be if I were a pirate... it's Iron Jack Flash!!!fidius.org: What's My Pirate Name? (1/3)

My accident on tuesday evening

And then suddenly something happens and you forget to write about it on your weblog. I guess I still don't have the automatism to work with it the way I should. And also, something happens, I have my camphone with me and forgot to take pictures.

But here is the story, on tuesday at 19:00 hrs I step in my Seat Leon and aim for home. At the first t-crossing I encounter (coming from the opposite direction!) I see a .motorbike coming from the left with a girl and a boy on it. Without wearing helmets. The moment I cross them, I see that she is not able to control the bike and instead of making a turn she just drives straight ahead and bumps into my car.

After that, of course, I stop the car and she that she is lying on the floor, trembling and not being conscious. Another girl/witness from the car behind the motorbike stops and gives her first aid. I call 112 and call for an .ambulance and the .police.
After about five minutes they arrive. I guess when you're waiting in such a situation it always looks to last longer, but I think it was five minutes. And then the hassle begins.

First, the boy says he was driving the bike and that they were wearing helmets, which indeed were lying on the motorbike being brought there by a friend of them some few minutes after the accident. Looking at her injuries, he was quite unhurt, the police wonders why the helmets are undamaged and soon he confesses that they were helmless. Soon after that he also confessed that the girl was driving.

Why this? Well, she had no driver's license!!!!!

So what really happenend? The girl had asked her boyfriend whether it was possible to once ride his motorbike. He said yes, but wanted to choose a quiet location (our industrial area). She was just for about 1 minutes on the motorbike when she had to make her first turn and brake. And then she probably got confused. She forgot to steer and instead of breaking I think she gave some extra power to the bike with as a result an uncontrollable motorbike flying over the t-crossing in my car.

After that we filled in some papers, and I had to go to a garage to get a replacement car, because the rear side of my car was really damaged. Rear window broken, rear door completely damaged, rear of the car enormous scratches & rear wheel damaged. Will take some time to repair I guess (if they repair it) and in the mean time I drive this one.

The story continues...

Money & car gone whilst on the loo

In Dutch, but still a nice article about a poor guy who needed to go to the loo on a German highway. He sat down and started doing a business when he saw a hand appear under the door and grasp for his wallet and keys in the trousers which were round his anckles. The moment he stood up... put his trousers back on... was just enough for the thief to steal his car.nu.nl/algemeen nieuws | Geld en auto weg na toiletbezoek

Sterrenbeurs has started

Interesting concept. A new game (originally from the UK)... Combination tv & internet, an exchange for dutch celebs. You can buy and sell shares of dutch celebs here and see what the market does. Is there interesting news about a start... its share will rise or fall and you can make profit. From your profit you can buy celeb goodies at the Internet shop.
Who do I have?
Beau van Ervens Dorens (presenter of RTL Boulevard) +0.51%
Birgit Schuurman (singer/actress) +1.84%
Edwin Evers (Radio538 presenter) + 0.27%

interesting concept

Mobile phone with camera... bad effects

Unfortunately a Dutch article. But this weekend a young guy has been arrested because he used his mobile phone to take sneaky pictures of an older women who was changing her clothes in the changing rooms of a swimming pool.nu.nl/internet | Vrouw bespied met gsm

The weekend

And so what did we do the rest of this weekend?
First on saturday we went to MediaMarkt in Amsterdam and looked for nice huge plasma tvs.
After that Villa Arena was the one. Where we saw a lot of nice furniture and especially a lot of nice ideas.


Later that evening we went to my parents in Valburg and there we had a lot of fun with my parents and my uncle and aunt. Here on the picture Jola and my uncle Piet.

As is a tradition with our family after some beer and/or wine, it was time to play some golden oldies on the guitar.

And on sunday we had a lovely weather, we had a nice walk and later in the afternoon we played some darts in my parents'garden.

So in the end, we had a nice, relaxed weekend with drinks, furniture shops, plasma tvs, fun, music and more.

We bought our 1st furniture

Today we went for SeatsandSofas to look for a couch. What a dissapointment. But luckily they had neighbours, Poppeliers, and there we found this lovely couch and we bought it (mind you the price you see is not the price we paid unfortunately). And now in ten weeks time we can sit on our lovely new couch.

Websites for people with a handicap

This is an interesting video if you are interested about what handicapped people encounter when they visit an average website. Unfortunately it's in Dutch. Drempels Weg

Turtle with cracked shell gets fiberglass patch from auto shop

Sweet story for the friday afternoon.Turtle with cracked shell gets fiberglass patch from auto shop

Got a Light?

02:00 AM Sep. 12, 2003 PT Smokers trying to quit may be able to throw out their nicotine patches if a British doctor's plan to use blinking dots to quell cravings works out as hoped. Dr. Jon May says certain visual tasks reduce cravings by distracting the brain. His team is working on a handheld computer program that displays a grid of dots that flicker randomly about 1,000 times per second. The blinking dots make "it harder to see (the cigarette) in your mind," May said, so the brain can't create images that strengthen the craving. Cravings last a while, he said, so "if you can get it early -- within 15 seconds -- you may have broken the cycle." source

Fool.com: 10 Top Winners Since 9/11 [Commentary] September 11, 2003

So not everything went wront since 9/11 or 11/9.Fool.com: 10 Top Winners Since 9/11 [Commentary] September 11, 2003

Rechtspraak.nl

Cool, although they have removed names of persons out of the files, here a link of all court decisions in The Netherlands.Rechtspraak.nl

WORLD DARTS TROPHY - program

Hmmmm, every day on SBS6 there's no our national sport nr.2 with Raymond van Barneveld... darts. On the official website is spoken of Holland's own darts championship which can compete with the Embassy World Championship, but when I look at the schedule I'm not so sure, why don't they even show the results!

First comments of someone on my log

And guess who it is? It's my girlfriend, my lovely Jola.

Mediafact

A cool weblog of a friend of mine who gathers all kind of information about internet, marketing, etc.. Mediafact

Collegue's going away

Just a short message about this... Sebastiaan is going to leave our company Variomatic and start somewhere else as a sysop. I wish him well, both personally as with his work. This is his photolog.

Blogger offers free features.

And this is cool news. Last week started my log and doubted whether to go for Blogger Pro or for free. Chose free and now they offer the Pro features for free to me. Cool guys! Thanks!

Comments available

I'm curious... just installed comments on my weblog. But do they really work?

Example of own picture

What was his name again this Iraqi minister of Truth... and where did he get my name from? goog.dk - Make you own pics.

GooG.dk - Make your own pictures!

Want to make your own picture with a famous person easy? GooG.dk - Make your own pictures!.

166% more gsms sold with camera

And it is cool... always your camera with you and always able to make a picture of that one special moment.The Register

Czech - Holland :: 3-1

A whole nation mourns, because of a red card in the beginning the team had to play 75 minutes with ten men and lost 3-1 to the Czech Republic. Now, we have to go the play-offs and hope for qualification for Euro2004 in Portugal.
De officiële KNVB website. - Oranje - Nieuws - Laatste nieuws - 11/09/2003 8:18:25 AM

Albert Hein

Imagine this... because of fraud in some of your companies your shares go down about 90% and your company is almost bankrupt. Being the most popular company in your country you have a lot of explanations to make why they lost their carefully saved money. And guess what's your solution... a new chairman... old IKEA boss Anders Moberg and he's going to earn almost € 10.000.000 a year. Fokke & Sukke - Cartoon van de dag

nu.nl/algemeen nieuws | Meisje (13) twee keer zwanger door 'papa'

The Internet is unfortunately not only a medium with happy news. This one I really don't understand... how can someone do this to a 13-year old girl who is the daughter of your girlfriend.nu.nl/algemeen nieuws | Meisje (13) twee keer zwanger door 'papa'

What did I do this weekend?

Well... weekend started off with a game of squash/racket ball. Very funny experience, where I tried to run after every ball and my girlfriend kept telling me that I should return the ball within close range because otherwise she would get out of breath.
After that a lovely dinner at restaurant Kastanjehof restaurant Kastanjehof where we had lovely fancy dinner.
On saturday we slept very long and after that went looking for furniture in Hilversum and later bought a lovely mountain bike for my girlfriend (Snel Bike shop). And this is the one. In two weeks time we can bike fanatically :-).

In the evening we went to visit my parents and watched of course the Dutch football match. Click here for story.

On sunday we visited my sister and family and after that had a lovely meal at The Goudreinet in Kesteren. Here some pictures (1, 2).

And now back to work again.

The US Open 2003 - Grand Slam Tennis - Official Site by IBM

And yes, Dutch tennis player Sjeng Schalken reaches into the quarterfinals of the us open.The US Open 2003 - Grand Slam Tennis - Official Site by IBM

Fokke & Sukke - Homepage

Always a good link if you want to see a good, funny Dutch cartoon.Fokke & Sukke - Homepage

Justin's NIKE history page

And another Nike fan who wanted to put his adoration of the brand online Justin's NIKE history page

Got a lovely new Nike shirt from my girlfiend

As I am not working at Nike, as my girlfriend does, I sometimes get from her a nice present. Today a lovely Cortez t-shirt and this made me wonder about the Nike history and esp. the Cortez history. John's Swoosh Page | Nike History: Swoosh, Goddess Nike, Timeline, Mission, Objective, Qoutes, Products

22Shirts.com

Into retro? Or just like the shirts from old soccer teams in the world? At this site you can look at shirts from the sixties, seventies and eighties and immediately order them online. But how inflation has increased the price since then! 22Shirts.com

FogScreen inc.

I don't know whether this is real, but it looks cool. TV or computer screens projected in a small screen made out of artificial fog.FogScreen inc.

Global Rich List

Confronting and surprising. Always wanted to know how rich you were compared to the rest of the world?Global Rich List

Onet.pl

Not that I really understand what's on the page, but I'm learning! This is my kochanie's favorite start page.Onet.pl - Polski Portal Internetowy

FOK! - Petitie: red het 3FM kuiken!

Listen to 3FM sometimes? The plan is to modernise the station and therefore the logo has to go. If you think this is a petty, please follow this link. (in dutch).
FOK! - Petitie: red het 3FM kuiken!

Surprised by his arrest

Guess you write a virus that completely brings down 50% of the Internet and this is your reaction:

PARSON: “I was very surprised! To me it came completely out of the blue that I was going to be arrested and charged with this offense”
click here

Sterrenbeurs

Silly country, silly world. An exchange for Dutch starts. Vote for your favorite dutch celeb and see how your celeb shares are doing. With your "profit" you can buy goodies at the webshop. This project starts on tele half september and is the hottest news in dutch tv-land. But what is it really all about? Sterrenbeurs

And here's where I work

A small cool, nice, growing, evolving, developing Internet company in Amsterdam.Variomatic

Welcome for people@Nike.com

Just got the message that I might expect some visitors from Nike at my site. Nike.com. Please, don't be disappointed about the sloppiness of this site and apologies for the last three dutch postings. I'll do it in English again.

CheckStat : stats for one's site

Not that I really expect an exploding growing number of visitors, but it's always nice to see who and when is visiting this site. So from now on, I also have some icon on my page on which I can for free see my webstats.CheckStat : Teller en statistieken voor je site

Alpha Hypotheken Website

Everyone is advising to compare mortgage offers. So here a link to the other party we are dealing with with regards to the finance of our domicili.
Alpha Hypotheken Website

Waltmann & Co, makelaars in onroerende goederen

Here a link to the people who are willing to investigate a good offering for the financing of our new house.Waltmann & Co, makelaars in onroerende goederen

Welkom bij Hillen Makelaardij

Vanochtend het voorlopig koopcontract van ons nieuwe huis getekend bij de verkopende makelaar :: Hillen Makelaardij. Nu alleen nog de financiering rond krijgen en 3 november kunnen we in ons nieuwe huisje.

Shopping in Poland

Every time we go to Poland we have to shop here at Auchan. A big, very big supermarket where we can buy everything really cheap compared to Dutch ones.

KUDOWA ZDROJ

One of the places we visited in Poland. A lovely spa resort. KUDOWA ZDROJ

Days in Poland

Been away for a little while... but here a brief update of what happened.
On thursday we had a funeral in Poland, this meant we drove wednesday night to Poland and it took us only 7,5 hours for 900 kilometers.
On friday I did some work and the rest of the family went shopping, hair dresser etc.
On Saturday we had a lovely walk in the Stone mountains of Poland (hope to find nice pictures soon).
And on Sunday we had to go back again.
In other words, a nice short holiday, but tiresome.