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10月26日 Mijn opa
Op 16 februari 1917 werd er een jongetje geboren. Hij werd Jan genoemd, Jan Stil. 10月9日 Another day of the holidayThis time an early blog about what I have been doing during my holiday.
Not long after I posted my story about yesterday I left home and made my way into the direction of Park Güell. A park designed by Gaudi for his patron Eusebi Güell. Just like every day I took the metro but now I had to change at Passeig de Gracia to line 3. This change reminded me of a time I was in Paris, because from the platform where I arrived to the platform where I had to take line 3 it was almost further walking than sometimes between two different stations. But still I got to the station Leseppe, which is the the station to get off for the park, and as soon as I got out there was a sign saying I had to go straight ahead, and the distance to the park was 1300 meters. So I walked and in the meantime looked around at some shops, got some money from a cash machine, and walked, and walked. Then I got to the next metro station, and thought something must have gone wrong and I must have missed a sign, so I took my map out of my bag and looked what the best option would be. Since the map showed the park was on the right of the road that I was following, I decided to walk on and take a right turn a few streets further. While I was walking through the other street I noticed the entrance to another park, called Parc de la Crueta del Coll. Since the day was still young I decided to walk a short round in this park as well, and I´m happy I did so, because I got some good opportunities to take photos of birds that I heard a lot, seen a few times in flight, but never before seen sitting still enough to take a photo of them. After a short round and a few nice photos I went back onto the street where I went into the park and by checking my map again I thought it would be good to make a right turn again, right into a suburbian area, where probably very few tourists go, because people were staring at me while I walked through the streets there. At some ponit in the street there were some steps going down, and at the bottom of them I saw another set of narrow steps going up into a park, and that had to be the Park Güell, so I found a back entrance that I was hoping for. I walked through the park for some time before I found a nice open place to sit down and have a drink. In the meantime I have taken a number of photos, and after I finished my drink I walked further through the park. I noticed that at a lot of places the rocks from the mountain were looking very week, and at a few points even parts fell off when I touched them. I don´t know if this is because of the climate change or has an other cause, but I thought it was weird to see. After walking around for some time I found a sign that showed the direction to the famous "monuments" in the park, and decided I had seen a lot already, but needed to see that, so I went that way. On the way there was still plenty to see, and I took seval photos, and then at a certain point it was suddenly crowded and not possible to walk for a few minutes alone like I had done most of the time before that. This meant that I was at the part of the park where the main tourist attraction are. I spent less time in this part of the park, but made enough photos to get a nice view of what there is to find there. After having seen that part I went back to back to the metro station, and this time was able to follow the signs, so no detour anymore. I stayed in the metro until the station "Paral-lel", which is more or less at the foot Montjuic. When I walked out of the station I noticed that I shouldn´t have done that, because there was a metro going to another station a bit further up the mountain from where it is easier to get on, but I decided it wan´t worth my card to go back in and I could just as well walk from there. People who are not happy to walk should know that this is a nice walk, which leads through another nice park, but it does take time and since it is going uphill also quite a bit of energy. I did however enjoy this walk and walked up on the harbour-side of the mountain, which gave some nice panoramic views, and of course some nice photos which can be seen in my photoalbum soon after I posted this item. I walked nearly all around the fort on top of the mountain and then went into it from the back. I did not go into the militay museum, but for the rest I have seen almost the whole fort. After that I used the cable cars to get down the hill and back to the metro and from there to Maurice´s home. Maurice is back now and the story of today is finished. The photos will follow shortly after this. A calm WednesdayAfter seeing a lot in the first 4 days I decided that it was time to do something a bit calmer on the wednesday.
I took my time again in the morning, but not as long as I had done on tuesday, although I don´t remember what time it was that I left the home. I took the metro to Villa Olympico, from there I walked to another harbour than the one I had seen in the days before. This one had beaches on both sides. First I went to the eastern side, which is the less busy side of the beaches in Barcelona. At a small restaurant I had something to eat, I chose to have a similar baguette as I had on sunday at the bar in Montserrat. I walked al the way to the end of the third beach on that side and there I went for a few drinks. After that I started slowly walking back. Just before the end of the last beach I lied down for a while, took a can of beer from my bag and relaxed in the sand while watching the waves just not reaching my feet. One of the photos clearly shows how close the water had come. After lying there for about half an hour I moved on, walked past the harbour again and onto the beach on the other side. There I also sat down for a while, although it was clearly more crowded than the other beaches. After having seen enough of that beach and the people there I moved on again and went back into town. I went into the Gothic area, and decided to look around a bit more there. I went into random streets, took turns where I thought it looked nice without having a clue where I was going and saw quite a lot of this nice area.
After I had come to the same square for the third time, without having walked through the same street twice, I thought it was time to move on and I got my map out of my bag and looked where exactly I was to find out how to get to a place I wanted to go. I decided to first go to Ryans Paradis, where I had been before, to have a pint of Guinness and something to eat. After that I went on to the Ramblas hoping to get my cards posted. Unfortunately I didn´t find a place where I could do that, but I did walk into another Irish pub at some point where I had another pint of Guinness and came into a conversation with an American guy who was travelling for his work. He told me he was from Texas, and he worked for a shoe company. He was travelling around to see how fashion was developing, and would also go to the factories later to see how things were going there. He had been in a few places in Italy the days before, arrived in Barcelona on that day and the next day would make his way to Amsterdam. From there he would go to Germany and then on towards Hong Kong and China. That is another style of travelling than what I am used to and I can imagine I was listening with my mouth wide open when he told this. But at the same time it was getting later and I didn´t want to come home too late, so after I finished my pint I wished the guy a good further trip and went to the Metro. When I got home Maurice was already there. He was in the kitchen preparing diner. We had pasta and Maurice gave me some nice hot sauce which made it extra good for me. After diner we had a nice talk, although we ended up having a bit of a disagreement about the difference between freedom fighters and terrorists. I have of course quite a strong opinion about these things, and not everybody agrees with me. After that the discussion sort of broke quite abruptly, and not much later we went to bed. Today I will have a lot of walking to do again. You want to know where I go? Check back later for the next update to find out. 10月7日 Day 2 and 3 of my holiday in Barcelona On the Sunday my day started just before 11am. Then I wrote my blog item about the first day and uploaded the photos. After that I woke Maurice because we had agreed to leave to Montserrat (yes, that is how it is spelled) at around 12.30. He went to prepare breakfast, a nice little omelet for each of us, and after that we left to the metro station. We had to take two metros and then the train to get to Montserrat, which made it a journey of about an hour and a half. After we arrived Maurice showed me how to avoid the queue for the cable cars, that is by first going to the other side of the trainstation, where a nice little bar is located. On the terrace there we had a drink and Maurice also had something to eat. After about 15 to 20 minutes we went to the cable cars and up onto the mountain. After coming up we first had a look at the famous abbey, which is popular among pilgrims for the black Madonna. Legend has it that the Benedictine monks could not move the statue to construct their monastery, choosing to instead build around it. The statue's sanctuary is located at the rear of the chapel, where an altar of gold surrounds the icon. Because this statue is so famous and popular there is a row all through the chapel and even partly outside with people waiting to get to see it. We decided not to wait in the row but just go into the chapel through the other entrance and have a look around inside. From within the chappel you can actually also see the statue, and because I had my binoculars with me I could even see it a bit up close. After having seen that and walking past the huge wall of candles outside we went for a walk up the mountain. We decided to take a route that Maurice had not walked before, so for him there was something new in the trip as well. After following one of the main roads for some time I noticed some narrow stairs going up on the right and suggested to have a look where that led to. So we went up and instead of walking on a wide road we came onto a tiny narrow mountainpath that brought us to a nice viewpoint. We sat there for a while, enjoying the views and drank some water that we had brought with us before going back down that path. We than walked to another viewpoint, where a big cross is standing. This place is more well known and so there were a lot more people there. After also sitting there for a while we went back to the cable cars to go down to the trainstation again. It was quite crowded to get down and we had to let 2 cable cars go before we could get in ourselves, and then we went on the way down. When we arrived at the train station we went to that bar again to have another drink and this time I had something to eat. A typical catalan baguette with an omelet with potatoes, which was very nice. After two drinks the train was about to arrive, so we headed back onto the platform and into Barcelona. Shortly after us Maurice´s girlfriend, Mirjam, also arrived and so I also met her. After arriving back home Maurice made some nice salad which we had for diner. Because the night before was a very late one, and Maurice had to work again the next morning, we went to bed quite early. Then the monday came, I woke up while Maurice was in the kitchen preparing his breakfast, and joined him to make some coffee. After breakfast, Maurice and Mirjam soon left for work, and I stayed home a little longer, preparing most of my day with the map that I had of Barcelona. About half an hour later I also left, walked to the metro station and took the metro to the Sagrada Familia. This great church which is designed by Gaudi (who in the 1920s died after being hit by a tram) is still far from finished, although they have been building for 120 years already. The main reason why it takes so long to build is money. Gaudi wanted it to be completely financed by gifts, and not by government or church subsidies. So by paying your fare to get in you also pay a part of the work that is going on. A very interesting fact about the design of the Sagrada Familia is that a lot of the shapes that are used have been inspired by nature. There are for instance pilars that are shaped like trees, and ornaments with a shape that is inspired by the shape you see from the leaves of certain plants. I have also gone up in the towers from one side of the church, where you have a nice view over the city and a close up view from part of the building that remains distant when you are watching it from below. After I had seen most of the Sagrada I went on for my day in town. My second sight to see was the Arc de triomf. On the way there I went into a snackbar to get something to eat. Which I ate at the foot of the Arc. From there I walked past a parc towards the harbour, where I hoped to see the museum of Catalan history. Unfortunately the museum was closed on monday, so I had a change of plans. Because of this I walked into the old center, bought a couple of drinks and walked through the nice narrow streets of the city. There were a few nice game shops, which had loads of different chess sets but also hundreds of other games. If anyone who likes to play boardgames just like me ever comes in Barcelona these shops are a must see. They are situated in the area near the cathedral. My next stop was at the Placa de Sant Just, where I went into the church that is situated there. It is not a very big church, but a nice one to look around a bit. From there I walked on to the cathedral, on the way accidentaly finding a very nice Irish pub, Ryans paradis, in the Carrer del paradis, which made me have an extra stop before going to the cathedral. The cathedral itself is not as breathtaking as the Sagrada, but still worth a visit, and although Maurice didn´t even know it was possible, I have also been on the roof of the cathedral. From the cathedral I walked towards the Placa de Catalunya, where I found out the Hard Rock Cafe of Barcelona is there. I decided to have a burger there before going onto the Rambla. The Rambla is one of the main shopping streets, that also has lots of small stalls selling all kinds of things. Unfortunately among these things are lots of birds (and some other animals) which are kept in cages that are far too small for them. From a lot of them it is clearly visible that they are stressed. At around 5.30 I was at the end of the Rambla, and with that back at the harbour. There I noticed that there were options to take a short boat trip, one of them was sailing with a katamaran. And so for only 15 euro I was taken for a 90 minute sailing trip out on the sea, having a view on Barcelona from a whole different perspective. After that I went back home, where Maurice and Mirjam were already waiting. Mirjam made diner and after a few drinks we went to bed again. This morning I woke up again while Maurice was preparing his breakfast. He had also made coffee for me already. I then started writing this blog entry and in the meantime Maurice and Mirjam have left for work again. I have been thinking about going to see some museums today, which was not possible yesterday because most museums are closed on monday, but for now I´m not sure yet if I will actually do that today or do something else and leave the museums for another day this week. I´ll first have another cup of coffee and will probably decide what the day will be like when I am in the town again. 10月5日 The start of my holidayI am currently on holiday, yesterday morning I left home and late in the afternoon I arrived at the airport of Barcelona. Before the trip I had breakfast in Cassidy´s, the pub closest to my home, where they serve a good Irish breakfast. After breakfast I walked to a taxi stand. It was raining so I had decided not to go into town and take a bus to the airport, but rather take a taxi quickly. The taxi driver was very friendly and talkative and he only charged me 20 pound to get to the airport. I arrived at the airport shortly before 11 am, and had to wait for over half an hour before the check-in desk would open, but just got myself a bottle of coke and walked around around a bit. After checking in I went for a pint of Guinness and the waiting for the flight began. I had a sudoku book with me, and started a 25x25 sudoku, which is a guarantee for time to fly by. At 12.30 I made my way through security, had my bag searched because there was still a bottle of aftershave in my handluggage, bought a nice bottle of whiskey (the 400-year anniversary whiskey from Bushmills) and then went for boarding. The plane departed a little bit late, but the flight was very comfortable and as scheduled I arrived in Barcelona at 5.20. After getting of the plane had to get through security. I was wondering how that would go, because people travelling from the UK have to send their passport details before the trip, otherwise they are not allowed into the country, but there was no sign of anything like that, they just had a look at the passport, didn´t enter the number into the system or anything, and I was waiting for my luggage in no time. The wait for the luggage seemed to take some time, and when it finally came I had to see nearly everyone get the luggage before my bag came out. When I finally saw my bag coming it was lying half on top of another bag, and as soon as it went around a corner my bag fell off and landed behind the belt. I had to walk all around it to get to the bag, and was the last of the plane to go into the arrival area, where Maurice was waiting for me. It was nice to see him again after more than a year. After a quick welcome we went on to the trainstation and took a train into the city. First destination was Maurice´s home to drop of the luggage, have a drink and diner. After diner he brought me to the Nou Camp, so I could watch the Barcelona - Atletico Madrid game which was due to start at 10pm. Unfortunately Maurice doesn´t like football, so he didn´t join me and went on to a pub instead. I went into the stadium, had a ticket for the second ring and saw a fantastic game of football, that was won by Barcelona with the unbelievable score of 6-1. After the match I went to find my way back to the metro into town to meet up with Maurice again. I did have to ask someone for directions to the Metro station, but arrived there quite quickly, among thousands of others who came from the stadium. About 50 meters before the stairs into the metro station it was packed and only moving in very slowly. But still I got into the metro quite quickly, and surprisingly had some room to breath in there. After 5 or 6 stops I was at the stop where Maurice was waiting for me and he walked me to a Celtic pub, called the Celtic cross. To our surprise that pub was closed and the building was for rent. so we had to find another place. That made Maurice decide to take me to the pub where he used to go from his previous home. He showed me where he had lived before and not long later we arrived at this pub. It was a very nice place, almost like a living room with a bar in it. There Maurice introduced me to some of the staff, and some of his friends. One of his friends there was a man from Senegal, who stayed with us for a while. Since he was from Senegal I couldn´t resist asking him if he knew Baba Sy, and it was quite nice to hear he actually did. At some point we decided to move to another Irish bar, which is located quite close to the Sagrada Familia, so around 2.30 we left the place and walked our way to the Irish bar, to find it already had closed the doors, while we thought it would close at 3, so that was a slight disappointment. Because of this we decided to go to Maurice´s home, where we had another beer and after that took a few glasses of whiskey before going to bed. Today a trip to Mont Serat (or however that is spelled) is planned, and I am looking forward to that already. I will upload my photos from yesterday after publishing this blog entry, and hope you enjoyd reading this and watching my photos. More will of course follow during the week. Hasta la vista. 8月19日 What a start of the day...This morning started as usual, I got up, got ready to go to work and left home shortly after 8. I walked to work, and about half way, just outside the bar where I often have my pint in the evening, and crossed the road at the zebra crossing. Shortly before a binlorry had passed, and from the other side came a taxi. The taxi driver was distracted by the binlorry moving a bit to the right and a second later he was already on the zebra crossing where I was walking. I ended up being lifted onto the front of the taxi and from there dropped on the road. At first my leg hurt the most and I could not stand up for a moment, but after a minute or so I could stand up again, and apart from a bit of pain in my leg, my arm and my head I knew I was further ok. The taxi driver got out of his car and offered me to take me wherever I had to go. I let him take me to work, because I knew I would be fine. But I am quite shaky. A few cups of water did help a bit, and I'm sure I will be ok later on the day, but my concentration will be less than usual. I'm glad the managers at work are very supportive and offered me that I could go home whenever I thought it would be better, but I told I prefer not to go home, because at work I have more distraction. Now I will start working, and if anything further happens I will add it here as well. It was a very weird start of the day so far. 5月17日 May McFetridge
Celtic - HibsAlthough I have made that trip a few times before, this time was still special. The wind came from the back, and blew the water emerging from the engines higher up than usual. It is not very clear in the pictures, but for people who have been on the HSS it might still be visible enough. And then the game began. 5月15日 what I have been up toThe weather here in Ireland has been great over the last couple of weeks, so I spent a lot of time outside. More flowers, these I shot at the waterworks. The waterfall in the waterworks, always a nice subject for some shots.
The building site behind St Anne's cathedral, where a new hotel is being built. Three things are well positioned here, the two large cranes are standing like they are right next to each other, the red crane is just over the top of the highest point of the structure and the spire of hope is only below the small crane and does not reappear above it. The Albert clock tower, also known as Belfast's small tower of Pisa because it leans over. This element I did not add in the photo, but I just wanted a picture of the clock and the detail of the tower.
Advertisement for the Titanic boat tours on the container that is used as ticket office for these tours. A building site just outside my work, I took this photo for two reasons. A set of sculptures right next to the same building site, I walk past this every day, but never really paid much attention to them, although they are quite nice. The river Lagan with the hills in the background. A train passing on the other side of the bridge. View on the city over the river, with in the middle the Thing with the ring and through the ring the Albert clock tower. And a man in a canoe.
A nice mixture of colours by different kinds of plants next to each other. A train crossing the river, and it's reflection in the Royal Mail building. 5月14日 why I haven't added any updates in the last 9 daysSince I received a question in my guestbook why I didn't add any updates lately I hereby add a short explanation. I have been very busy at work, working late a couple of times, and when I come home I don't feel like immediately adding things to my Space and wanted to wait with that till I have time to write something good again. I do have a few things that I will add soon but this really needs some time to prepare and therefore I wait with that till I have the sufficient time. I will be off from work tomorrow and friday and may find some time to write then, but since the weather is good I might also decide differently and just leave home and be outside enjoying the weather. So for now I would just suggest to check back the next few days, because I promise the things that I want to add will be worth it. 4月20日 Where I have been4月3日 Holiday is over, back to work and back to my SpaceAfter two weeks holiday it is about time that I write something again about how I spent my holiday.
I can make this a very long story but I will stick with the most important parts and try to keep it short. The first day of my holiday was a bit special, because my plane would leave around 6.15 am and I was working the whole day before that. This meant I had to pack my luggage during the night and make my way to the airport around 3.45. I decided that it would be the best option to take a taxi at that time of the night, because around the busstation it's not always safe in the nights. The taxi arrived within 5 minutes after I called so I was at the airport well in time. The flight was easy and although I was a bit tired because I skipped the night I didn't really have any discomfort because of that.
After arriving at Schiphol airport on the "Kaagbaan", which would have given me a good view on my old home if I was sitting on the left side of the plane, I got my luggage, bought something for breakfast at the supermarket, and went on the train to Arnhem. From there the bus took me to Westervoort where I spent most of my holiday. Christel was already waiting when the bus arrived and we walked to her home together.
A couple of days later was the first major event of the holiday, after doing some shopping we went to Arnhem and took the train to Schiphol from there, where we had booked a room in the Radisson SAS hotel for 1 night. The room we had did not give us a view on the runways, but we could see the plains approaching one of the runways and it gave a good impression how busy the airport is. After having a drink in our room we took the bus to Amsterdam Bijlmer/Arena trainstation, because right next to the Arena is the Heineken Music Hall (HMH) and Nightwish was playing there. The doors were not open yet when we arrived and there was quite a big line of people waiting to get in, so we decided to have a few drinks at a bar behind the HMH first. When we went in PAIN had already started playing. They were a nice warm-up band for the occasion, not really special, but good music, and it gave us some time to find a good place. We decided to find a place on the balcony, and that proved to be a good choice. We had a great view and really enjoyed the show a lot. I made a number of photos, and the best of them can be found in the Album "Nightwish in Amsterdam". After the concert we went back to the hotel for the night, had a nice breakfast in the morning and then we went back to Westervoort. The weekend that followed was the easter weekend, we decided during the weekend that we would go to the Burgers zoo on tuesday, but due to other circumstances that had to be postponed and the visit to the zoo was moved to the saturday after that. When we decided that we would go on the saturday I went to take a look at the website of the zoo and there I found out that in that weekend the zoo celebrated it's 95th birthday, and for the occassion the entrance fee was reduced to € 9.50 p.p. during the weekend. So we were actually lucky to have changed our plans. Burgers zoo in Arnhem is quite a special zoo, because they created several different areas with special habitats for the animals, there is a bush (rainforest), a desert, an ocean and more. I was most impressed by the bush and the ocean. Of course I also made a lot of photos on that day and they can be viewed in the album "Burgers zoo". After the weekend my holiday was approaching it's end. On Monday I went to my mother, but first into Amsterdam to do some necessary shopping. I arrived at my mother's place later then I wanted because I needed a bit more time than expected, but we had a good talk and a nice evening. Tuesday morning I had to get to the airport early again (not as early as two weeks earlier, but still had to leave my mother's home at 7.30 am).
The plane was supposed to leave at 10.05, and until I arrived at the gate things seemed normal. At the gate I already noticed the plane was not yet there, so I thought it would be delayed. But it went all different, at the time it should have departed (probaly because at that time everyone was at the gate) it was announced that the flight had been cancelled. After a few minutes it was told that everyone would be booked into a later flight to Dublin and buses would be arranged from Dublin to Belfast Airport. This meant I departed not at 10.05 but at 13.10, and after arriving in Dublin I also had a bustrip of a couple of hours and arrived at Belfast International Airport around 5.30 pm, almost 7 hours later than the original schedule. From there I also still had to go home, but as soon as I got home I went online, had a chat with Christel, my mother and a few (ex) colleagues. But because I was very tired after the trip I decided to go to bed early and so it happened that I was asleep at about 10. The next day was the last day that I was off (a rota day off, so officialy no holiday anymore). That day I was working away my backlog in my games at jijbent.nl and yourturnmyturn.com. This took me a couple of hours, the rest of the time I spent chatting and shopping (of course that also still had to be done after being away for 2 weeks). Around 5pm I had to leave home again, because that evening Nightwish was playing in the Mandela Hall in Belfast. I first went for something to eat and then walked on to the Mandela Hall, where I arrived around 6.15. The doors opened at 7 and I had a few drinks at the bar before going into the hall (it is not allowed to drink alcohol inside the hall when an event allows access to people under 18 years old). Well before the start of the show I went in and found a place about 4 rows from the stage, just right of the middle. This gave me a good view and a good opportunity to make better photos than those from Amsterdam. The Mandela Hall is a lot smaller than the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam, so the show was smaller as well (no fireworks and other special effects), but a small venue makes it more intimate and has a completely different atmosphere, so although the show was less spectaculer it was a great experience to be there. The photos will appear on my Space soon, but because some of them are very good I want to mark them as copyrighted first, so a bit patience is required. Now it is another day, and I am back at work. My new job is about to start big time tomorrow, because today I am too much needed in my old role, but I am really looking forward to my new role as a Customer Excellence Specialist. So far for now, more items will of course follow in the near future. 3月3日 Snow again...It is march already, last couple of weeks showed spring was on it's way, but when I left for work this morning I saw the hills were partly covered in snow. Also some cars, probably from people living a bit higher up the hillsides, had snow on the rooftops. This came to me as a complete surprise, so I don't have any photos of this (yet), but if the snow will still be there on the hills when I walk home from work tonight I will probably go for an early morning walk tomorrow and get some pictures. So hopefully ... to be continued ... 1月5日 A hectic start of the new yearJust thought that I should write a bit about how things are going here in Belfast again.
After having worked on Christmas day and boxing day I spent a lot of my time in the evenings and on my days off at home, listening to the top 2000 on Dutch radio station Radio 2. I love to listen to that because a lot of good songs come by every year that bring back memories of all kinds of things.
While listening to that, sad news came to me. That was the death of Motherwell captain and former Celtic player Phill O'Donnel, aged 35, after collapsing during the game against Dundee United. This player had a slightly unfortunate career, with lots of injury problems. Otherwise he would have become one of Scotlands legends, according to the people who followed him from the start of his career. Just 2 weeks before his death he had said in an interview that he would play for Motherwell a couple of years more, because he missed so much in his career and he wanted to compensate that by playing longer. Due to this a number of games in the SPL had been postponed, including the old firm match Celtic-Rangers, which was scheduled for the 2nd of January. New years eve brought the big final of the top 2000, with Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody being the number 1 (again). Apart from listening to the top 2000, I spend the evening on Messenger with Christel, so just like the year before we could celebrate new year twice (don't you just love the time-difference?).
We didn't stay up very long after midnight, Christel was very tired and I had to work again on new years day. New years day went by rather easy, not much special happened and it was just like working on a sunday, and the day after that I had a day off. I had been looking forward to my day off on 2 January, because it would be the day that Celtic would play home against Rangers, but as mentioned the game had been postponed, so I just stayed home all day, chatted along with Christel and for the rest not much happened. Than the 3rd of january came, a day full of surprises, some pleasant, some not. At work there was some bad news for a number of people. Microsoft is reorganizing it's support and that means that the German and Italian team will be moved to a support centre in Argentina. So all the people in those teams here will lose their job, including one of my best friends, who's in the German team. Also the UK phone team will be taken away from our centre, I haven't heard where they will be located after that. Another contract working in this centre, Excalibur, will be completely taken away, so quite a big number of people working here will lose their job over the next couple of months. So far about the bad news at work, in the evening when I was on my way home, it started to snow lightly. I didn't think it would be much, because it didn't really look like a lot, but when I was home later on a friend said she had just made a small snowman, so I decided to have another look and it was getting white everywhere. I took a couple of pictures, and uploaded them here. The next morning I left home early and took my camera with me to make some more photos. Because it was not light yet not all of them became a success, but as you can see in the photoalbum some of them worked out pretty nice. Now on the 5th nearly all the snow has disappeared again, only the hills around the city still have their white cover, so maybe I will go for a walk in the hills tomorrow, although I might also want to stay home to watch some football, but first I'll go to see the Belfast Giants play tonight, after 6 wins in a row, including back to back wins against the two teams leading the competition, it will hopefully be another good game. For now, that's a short update about things here. I will write more later. 12月10日 December holidayIn the first week of december a holiday was planned, Christel would come to visit me from 1 until 7 december.
So on the morning of 1 december I stood up early and departed to Dublin to pick her up from the airport. I arrived at the airport at about half twelve, an hour before her arrival. Celtic was playing that day at noon and I hoped to see a part of the game at the airport. Unfortunately the airport had no Setanta channel, so they could not show the game there, so it was just watching the English game that was on, I can't remember which one it was anymore, until Christel would arrive. About 15 minutes before the estimated arrival I went to the Skyview bar so I could see her plane landing and take some pictures of her arrival. Right after the plane had taxied out of sight I went back downstairs to wait for Christel to come out. That took a while of course, but when she came it was a pleasant surprise to see she had coloured her hair dark and she was wearing a beautifull black dress underneath her long coat.
We went to one of the bars at the airport to have a few drinks before heading back to Belfast.
In Belfast we first went home and than visited the Continental Christmas market before continuing to my favorite pub in town, Fitzgerald's, to have a few drinks and celabrate the start of the holiday. That concluded the first day.
For the sunday I had two plans. One for good weather, and one for less good weather. We decided to go for the second option, because the weather looked like it would get better the next few days. This option was to go to town, see a bit of the city on the way and from City Center taking the City Sightseeing tour.
After first passing the Albert Clock and crossing the river Lagan we drove by the Harland & Wolff shipyard, famous for building the Titanic in the early 20th century. From there the bus drove on to a new part in the tour that wasn't part of it when I did the tour before, Stormont, where the Northern Ireland government is located.
If it was up to me that would not have become a part of the tour, although the building looks ok, but the government should be in Dublin.
After a couple of minutes to get back to the city centre the tour continued along the same route as before, past St Anne's cathedral, Carlisle Circus, Crumlin Road courthouse and jail to the Shankhill.
For me this is without being on the tourbus or in a taxi a no go area, and again the hate and mistrust people in that area have for others was easy to feel, even Christel could feel it while she was there only for the first time. Many murals there show the aggression of the people there by showing support to the forbidden paramilitary organisations. Some other murals are about the queen, some woman that got control over a country by just being born from particular parents and is paid for that by taxpayers money.
After the Shankhill the peaceline between the Shankhill and the Falls is shown and the tourbus goes into the Falls. A much more calm area, although the Falls are known to have seen a lot of violence throughout the years of the troubles it looks like they have actually learned from the history and they are trying to make their area a nice place to live where people feel they are judged for who they are and not just for being not part of them. The murals in the Falls do show respect for the people that have fallen during the troubles, a lot of them are about the 1981 Hunger strike which killed 10 people, including MP Bobby Sands. There are also a number of murals showing support to other areas which are occupied by other countries, like Palestine and Iraq. From the Falls the bus makes a turn into Broadway and drives towards Queens university. One of the most beautifull buildings in Belfast. After that it heads back to city center where we got off the bus at the Crown Bar. A very beautifull bar although the atmosphere often is a bit boring, but for it's interior it is a must see for anyone visiting Belfast.
After having a drink in the Crown Bar we also visited Belfast's oldest pub, White's Tavern, which is nearly 400 years old, and Kelly's Cellar. Both pubs are in the center and very nice places for people who come to visit Belfast. In the evening we were going to see Andrea Rice singing in a bar called The Beehive, which is on the Falls Road, or so we thought. When we arrived at the bar there was some band setting up it's gear, which meant that Andrea was not there. We asked the bar staff and he told us the performance of Andrea had been moved to a bar in Ardoyne. Since I didn't get the name and don't know the Ardoyne area very well yet the barman offered to call a cab for us, which we of course accepted. He instructed the cabdriver where we had to be and not too long after that we arrived at the wee bar where Andrea was already playing. We saw Fee already outside having a smoke, and heard that they only were informed the day before that their show had been relocated. We enjoyed the show a lot, Christel seemed to have become a fan of Andrea straight away as well, and a little fight right next to us didn't affect having a nice evening there. At the end of the show Fee and Andrea gave us a ride to Carlisle Circus from where we walked to Fitzgerald's for a bit of fun and from there we went home and to bed. On monday morning after another good night of sleep we went for a walk to Cave Hill. I knew this would be tough for Christel because it is at some points a very steep climb, so we left quite early so we would have plenty of time for the walk, and I brought my foldable chair so we could have a break at any time it was necessary. After the first part up to the castle we already had a short break on the bench at the top of the large field. A squirrel was gathering food on the field, that was the first of wild life apart from the common birds we saw that day. Unfortunately the weather was not very good, but Christel agreed to walk on and see the beauty of the hill. After the first part of the climb, which is a quite heavy part, Christel was not sure if she would make it further, so we had a break, she sat down on the chair for a couple of minutes and when I told that it would be less heavy further on she decided to try and go on anyway.
With a few more short breaks on the way we came to the place shortly before the cave where you can chose to walk further up or start going back down towards the zoo. We chose to the the last, because that part of the hill is also very beautifull, and further up is nearly only grass and rocks. Also for Christel going down was the best option, because it had been quite a walk already. Alongside the zoo we have seen and heard some of the zoo-animals, and I pointed out a couple of places that I had earlier showed to Christel on photo or video.
After getting down to the road again we took the bus into town to arrange the trip for the next day and after that we had a nice well-deserved drink in Kelly's Cellar.
Shortly after 5pm we had to leave there again, because we had to go to the Suffolk Inn in West Belfast to see another show of Andrea Rice. There Christel got a signed cd from Andrea as well, and they gave us a ride home afterwards. Than it was tuesday. We had to get up early in order to get the bus for a tour along the North Antrim coastal route. We arrived in town at the Belfast Welcome Center at 9.10, which was 5 minutes before the expected departure time. After waiting for a while someone from the Welcome Centre came to us and told there were only 5 people for the tour and the organisation wanted to wait to see if more people would come. It was suggested that we would go to have some coffee and come back at 10. We decided that this would be better than waiting all the time outside and went for a nice cup of coffee to Starbucks. After the coffee when we came back there was still no sign of the bus that would take us on the tour until quarter past 11. Then finally the bus arrived, we got on and drove out of town. Then the busdriver said it was the bus straight to the Giant's Causeway, the £12 Causeway Express and not the £16 Coastal tour. When I asked the driver about this the other people on the bus said they also thought they were on the coastal tour which they paid for so the driver called the office to ask what he should do. Because with the late departure he could not do the full coastal route anymore, so he probably agreed with the people at the office that he would just make a few short photo stops at the main attractions of the coastal route, being Carrick a Rede, and Dunluce Castle to compensate this. But whatever it was or if this was normal at the Express we never found out, because he didn't say anything about it. The bridge at Carrick a Rede was out, so there we only missed the nice walk towards the bridge, but missing the whole coastal route and the explanation about things that are to be seen there was not compensated at all by these two short photo stops. When we arrived at the Giant's causeway we had plenty of time to walk and look around there though, and that was still a very nice thing with the sea being rougher than I've ever seen it before we enjoyed ourselves quite well for the time there. After walking around we bought some souvenirs and had a cup of coffee before getting back on the bus. In the bus back again nothing was said about taking out the part of the tour that we had paid for. We decided to go to the office after arriving back in Belfast and ask for a refund of the difference between the price of the two tours.
When we arrived back in Belfast we were told there was nobody anymore from Minicoach travels, and that if we wanted to see someone we would have to come back in the morning. But the next morning we would leave Belfast already way before they would come in, so there was no chance of being there than. This means Minicoach has stolen £8 from us just because they didn't have a bus full of people. I have done the trip four times before and also know there is another company which does the same tours, which we have also seen departing that morning, so from now on when I do the tour again I will take that other company and will tell my contacts as well. Minicoach gets a big 0 from me. In the evening we went back to Fitzgerald's bar, because Celtic would be playing for the Champions League in San Siro against AC Milan, and it would be the game that would decide if Celtic would qualify with the last 16, so a very important game. Kick off was at 7.45 and although it was not as crowded in the bar as I hoped we saw a very exciting game of football and even though Celtic didn't get the necessary draw the 1-0 loss was still good enough to qualify because Benfica won in the Ukraine from Shaktar Donetsk. After the match we talked with some people about our plans for the remaining two days before we went to another bar with Margaret and Gerard. After a few more drinks there we went back home to watch a dvd and go to bed.
On wednesday morning we had to get up at 5.30 because we were going on a daytrip to Glasgow. We would have the ferry at approximately 7.00 with a bustrip from Stranraer to Glasgow and back. When we arrived at the Stena Line dock we were already told that there was an hour delay because of the windy weather and the rough sea, and that we would get free coffee if we wanted to. With that coffee it was not too hard to wait that hour and that hour went by quite quickly. After we got on the ferry it was quite easy to find a nice place to sit in the front. With drinks nearby and the knowledge that it would be a "bumpy ride" we knew we would have a nice crossing of the Irish Sea. Shortly before getting into open sea we went to the back of the ferry so Christel could have a smoke and she could see the immense power of the HSS Stena once the engines start running at full power. We stayed there for a while enjoying the view before getting back to our seats at the front. After the just over 2 hour trip we arrived in Stranraer where the bus was already waiting for us. During the bus trip we enjoyed the view, mainly the first part of the tour showed us some very nice places of Schotland. When we arrived in Glasgow the first thing we had to do was almost run to the toilet, we both had not gone before leaving the ferry, and I had a short stop during the bustrip but for Christel this was not possible, so she was under some high pressure to get into the toilet. When this was done we had to look for a bank, because I needed to get some money and Christel needed to change some more euros to pounds. A bank was not so hard to find in the center of Glasgow, so that was arranged pretty fast, but than we wanted to see Paradise, also known as Park Head or Celtic Park, and how do you get there when you don't really know the city? A bus? Than you have to find information on which bus to take and where to find that bus and hope that bus would go soon enough. So we decided to look for a taxi. But it was not so easy to find a taxi there as I am used to in other cities. So at some point we asked two policemen that walked by if they could give us information on where to get a taxi. They told us the best option was behind the bus station, which was were we had just come from. So we went back there, and found taxis there. The taxi took us to paradise and we went in for the stadium tour. We were the only two people at that time so it was a private tour, which gives better opportunities to have questions answered and get a better view at things, so that was quite an enjoyable tour.
After the tour we bought some souvenirs there, Christel bought me a Celtic Whiskey glass with a small bottle of Celtic Whiskey and I bought for myself 3 dvd's and a larger bottle of Celtic Whiskey. And then it was time for a drink, we walked to the bars where I had gone on the days when I went to a match, but they seemed to be closed so we walked on a bit and found another bar that was open. We went in there and it looked bad. We did have a drink anyway, but it really was like a bar in the suburbs of a suburb of one of the worst areas of the city. The woman behind the bar was very friendly though and the drink tasted good enough, but after the drink I was happy to be out of there anyway, and although Christel hasn't said it it wouldn't surprise me if she was as well. From there on we had to get back to town, because at 4.30 we would have to be in the bus back to Stranraer. After we had asked someone where we could find the bus into town we walked to the busstop and waited for a bus. The first bus that stopped was not the one that would take us to the bus station, but the driver told us which bus we needed and just a few minutes later that bus arrived. When we arrived at the bus station we first went to the toilets again, just to make sure we wouldn't have the same problem as we had in the morning, and then we went into the bus that would take us back to Stranraer. During the ride to Stranraer we saw less of the country because it was already getting dark, so we were happy that we had taken some photos in the morning. After arriving at the Stena Line dock in Stranraer we were told there was still about 45 minutes delay. We more or less had expected that, but we didn't expect that there were absolutely no facilities at the waiting area apart from a couple of machines with sweets and drinks, so it was a very uncomfortable waiting time there. When the ferry finally arrived and we were back on we first went for something to eat, which we would have preferred while we were waiting, but we were glad that we finally got the chance on board. On the way back the sea was rougher than it was in the morning, we had a lot of fun seeing people trying to walk and walking ourselves. After arriving back in Belfast we went to Fitzgerald's again and participated in the wednesday night quiz. We won the music round which gave us a free drink. After the quiz it was time to get home and get some sleep, it was a long but good day. On thursday we wanted to go and see Long Kesh, the prison where the Blanket protests and the 1981 hungerstrike had taken place. Unfortunately when we woke up that morning Christel her knee was still hurting pretty badly, and she thought if we had to do more walking that day it might turn out to become worse and might even cause serious damage. So we decided to skip that trip, although we both wanted to go there very much. We stayed the day at home, watched some movies, and for the first time this holiday Christel got her chance to cook diner for us. On friday the holiday was coming to an end, after making sure everything was packed again we had to go back to Dublin for Christel to get the plane back home. This time it was nice for her that we made the trip at daylight, because the week before it was already getting dark on the way, but now Christel could see a bit more of the country.
At the airport we still have had some time together to finish a good week, and when it was time to leave we said good bye and Christel moved on to security. I stayed at the airport to see the plane depart and then made my way back to Belfast again. This way a good week came to an end, and the next day I had to get to work again. 8月12日 First day of holiday... visit to De MortelThis report requires a bit of an introduction for most people.
In the last couple of months I have followed a nest of peregrines in Holland which was shown live on the internet.
Because this season was a very moving and emotional season a lot of people bonded on the forum and friendship grew. Regularly people went to the place where this nest was to see it for themselves and when I went on holiday I decided that I wanted to go there too, together with Christel. My holiday was from 14 july until 1 august and we had announced on the forum that we would go to De Mortel, where the nestbox was, on 20 july. Shortly before the start of the holiday the reports told that there was less activity from the peregrines everyday because the juveniles were growing up and did not rely on the adults so much anymore. I decided to say on the forum that I would like it if it was possible to go to this place as well on the day of my arrival, but that transportation was required because Christel and I had no option to arrange that for ourselves.
Very kindly Marjanne, who lives close to Christel, offered to do that and so we got a chance to go that day too. So here is a trip report from the first day of my holiday...
The trip and visit to De Mortel, 13th and 14th of July 2007
It was Friday the 13th of July, 6.30 pm local time in Belfast when I left for work with 3 bags in stead of one. I already spent some hours tidying and packing my bags because it was the start of my holiday. Because I had to get the 5 am bus the next morning I had asked at work if I could work during the night so it would be easier to get through the night. I was glad that this wasn’t a problem and so I arrived at work at 7 pm. During work I had my laptop standing next to me for some music, which was possible because I was the only person there that night. During the first hours Christell kept me up to date on some of the things that were being written on the forum so that I could answer to messages to me through her. For the rest of the time I just worked like it was a normal working day. At 4 am my working time was finished, I cleared my desk so it would look tidy during my holiday, and after that I walked to the bus station from where I would depart. It was 20 minutes to 5 when I arrived at the bus station, so I had some time to get over the exhausting walk dragging my luggage all the way. At 5 the bus was there and the trip could really begin. In the bus I have been sleeping for short moments throughout the whole trip to Dublin (just over 2 hours) Although the amount of sleep was not much the rest was just the bit that I needed after such a long day that was lying behind me already. At the arrival in Dublin I didn’t notice anything special, but when I came out of the elevator on the first floor it was impossible to get through the departure area of the airport with my trolley, it was completely packed with people who were waiting. I found out there was a problem with the luggage system from desk 9 up so all the luggage there had to be handled manually. Of course this caused big delays with checking in and because of that also for many of the departing flights. I had to check in at desk 7, so I only had difficulties approaching the desk and when I finally arrived there it was my turn right away. Than the lady at the check in desk told me I needed my booking reference number to be able to check in. Previous times that I had been flying I never had that with me and they just used my name from my passport without a problem, now I suddenly had to go to the Ryanair service desk to get my number and then get back to the check in desk again. I was glad that the service desk was right next to it, otherwise it would probably have cost me half an hour or more to get through again. Now it only took me a few minutes before I could check in after all. After that I finished my bottle of coke (because that cannot be taken through security) and went through security and towards the bar of the airport. It was almost 8 am at that time and I had a drink at the bar while solving some sudoku puzzles until it was 9.30. Then I went to the gate where I had to wait a little longer before I could board the plane, but shortly after 10 I had found a seat on board the plane and at 10.30 the plane took off right on schedule. After approximately an hour the coast of Holland came in sight. Unfortunately it was rather cloudy so I could not see a lot. Den Bosch was the first place I recognized, I consider that a negative side of flying to Eindhoven, because if I fly to Schiphol I recognize everything as soon as the coast comes in sight. I have not been able to see the tower at De Mortel from the plane, this can be because I had another route than the planes that usually fly past or because I was sitting at the wrong side of the plane. At about 5 minutes to 1, 15 minutes before schedule, the plane landed in Eindhoven and as soon as I got out of the plane I could see Christell standing there waiting already. Then I just had to show my passport and wait for my luggage. After greeting each other we and Marjanne, who very kindly offered to bring us to De Mortel, went to the car and drove away from the airport. With a bit of searching we found the road that would lead us to Helmond and shortly after that Gemert appeared on the signs, so it seemed like we would find our way easily. But when we drove through Helmond there were suddenly no more signs showing the directions to Gemert so Marjanne, who had been to De Mortel before but had come from another direction at that time, started to doubt what to do. So she decided to ask a cyclist that was coming by for directions. The man gave the impression that he was not too sure about his own directions so not much later we decided to ask someone else. He told that we were on the right way and not much later the tower came in sight although we haven’t seen Gemert at all.
Then it was just a matter of a few minutes before we arrived at the spotters field where we were welcomed by the people that were already there.
After greeting everyone our view was directed to the tower, where at first not much was happening. One of the young peregrines was on one of the rings but according to the other spotters this one was sleeping. At a certain moment we heard the screaming of a peregrine. It was obvious that this was not the “sleeping” falcon, and we suspected due to the volume that this came from the backside of the tower. Although we heard the screams for some time there came no other falcon in sight, even though after a while we also heard the “screaming” at a level that it sounded like it was coming from our side of the tower. Without luck we were looking over the tower several times searching for another falcon. In the time that passed I have made some more pictures.
In the meantime two other birds of prey passed over at great height. Probably buzzards but due to the height where they were (one of them was even so high that it could only be seen through the binoculars) this is not certain.
At a certain point I wanted to have a closer look at the tower. Christell was not able to walk up with me because she had hurt her knee a few days before, but Ans and Els offered to show me around the tower.
In front of the entrance to the tower we first made a left turn through the fence to have a look on the field between the spotters field and the tower and at the “Snelle Loop”.
We hardly had walked onto the field when a large bird flew past quite low. A quick look at the people who had stayed at the Spotters field made clear they all were looking up with their binoculars and telescopes so they all missed this falcon coming by so low. Because of it’s size we agreed that it must have been S2. Then we also looked upwards, because S2 was already not visible anymore from the point where we stood and we saw there two falcons flying around the tower. We have been watching them for some time and made some pictures of it.
Some time later when it got quiet again we decided to walk on. When we continued I noticed something moving before my feet. This was a very little toad. After I showed this to Els and Ans and we saw this toad jump into the pond we noticed there were a lot more of them jumping all around us and we made a picture of one of them. Unfortunately the quality of this picture is not so good but I just add this so my story is complete.
From there we walked on towards the dam in the Snelle Loop, one of the “famous” spots, so I had to take some photos there as well.
After that we rapidly continued our walk around the tower, because we spend quite a lot of time on that field and Harry was on his way to get some coffee, so the walk should not last too long. During the walk we enjoyed how beautiful the area around the tower is. I have made a number of other pictures from the beautiful nature and the tower from different angles along the route.
When the end of our walk came nearer and we were walking on the sandy road towards the spotters field shortly before we walked past the tower a peregrine came sitting at the bottom ring next to the antenna. I thought this one had to be better visible from the place where we were sitting than from the spotters field, so I made some photos of this for the people that didn’t walk with us.
Shortly after we perpetuated this peregrine Lambert drove by in his car, heading home and telling us the coffee was already gone in the meantime. When we arrived back at the spotters field we found out that this falcon had been visible pretty well from there after all. Not much later we saw some movement around the tower again, resulting in 3 visible peregrines on the tower, 1 on the lamp, 1 on the 2nd ring which I have not been able to spot myself and one outside the nestbox. Once they were sitting there the show seemed over for the day, there was not much movement anymore and more and more people were going home. We have been chatting for a while with the remaining people, which was nice, but around 6.30 pm we decided to leave as well. After driving for a few minutes we came into a village. This was Gemert. So after searching for it on the way to the tower we found it after all after being at the tower. After two turns we left Gemert again and had to find the right direction to get to the motorway. Through a few more turns we drove into Gemert again and that way we saw more of Gemert than we had expected after all.
In the meantime we drove on towards home and reached the motorway A50. A few kilometres before the turn to Nistelroden I saw a big bird sitting on the wall at the side of the road which looked a lot like a peregrine, although due to the speed and the short time to look at it I can not tell if it really was one or another kind of bird of prey.
The rest of the trip home was not very interesting. Once we arrived we had a seat in the garden where we could enjoye the swallows flying and playing over our heads in large numbers. With this I also made some pictures of some beautiful clouds of which one looks like a drawing.
This was the end to a long day and Christell and me agreed that it was a very special and beautiful day. 4月21日 winter makes place for springIn the past few months I have not been doing very much but there were some days that are definately worth mentioning. So here is a wee update once more.
February and march were filled with loads of icehockey games from the Belfast Giants. The highlight of this was definately Killer's testimonial game on 13 march where many old Giants players (including Theo Fleury) played in the Allstars team against the current Giants.
Just four days after that game it was St Patrick's day. It was my third St. Patrick's day since I live in Belfast but only the first time that I had the day off from work, so I went into town to watch the parade, which was pretty nice, and after that I went to the Falls Road to a pub where Andrea Rice would be singing. I arrived there shortly before the start of the Rugby match Ireland - Italy for the six nations tournament which I watched and at 5pm Andrea's show started.
Halfway the show she always takes a short break and this time that was filled with an Irish dancing group. I have seen a bit of Irish dancing on a dvd about Northern Ireland but this was the first time I saw it live so that was nice for a chance.
That were the main events for march and then April came. On 7 april I went together with my colleague and friend Danny from Belgium to the game Celtic - Motherwell. That meant leaving home at 6am to get to the ferry, picked up just outside the docks by our bus and then on to the ferry. The weather was pretty good so the sea was calm and it was a very nice trip over to Stranraer. After that it was almost two hours by bus to Glasgow and than just a few drinks in a pub before going into the stadium.
The game ended in a 1-0 win for Celtic which was of course good and brought them only 1 game away from winning the championship while they were 16 points ahead of the rivals Glasgow Rangers who would win their game the next day bringing the gap back to 13 points as it was before. After getting back into Belfast we had a few more pints in my favorite bar before going back home.
That was the only main event for me in april up until today.
Today I went for a walk with another colleague and friend of mine, Patricia from Germany. We first walked to Belfast castle, where we had a wee look through the garden before getting up to the top of cave hill. After getting to the top and having a well deserved break there we went back the same direction as we came up and took a left turn in stead of a right turn just past the cave to walk down towards the zoo, and we went for a nice visit to the Belfast zoo.
It was a nice day, had only a few drops of rain and the temperature was good so I haven't needed my coat all day.
The pictures from today are already on this Space so please go ahead and watch them. There are some pretty nice ones there.
So far for this short update on my time here in Belfast.
Any questions? Just ask and I might consider answering them. 2月7日 An interesting start of the new yearThe new year is a while on it's way now so it's about time to write something about that.
I'd like to start at the beginning, new years eve.
Last year at new years eve I went to the pub and already found out that although it was some good fun it was sooooo much different than being with your family or some of your best friends that I still did miss that at that time.
This year I decided together with Christel to do it a bit different. We both were at home so we put on an audio conversation and just had a good time talking to each other and that way we even could celebrate the start of the new year twice. I enjoyed that quite well.
After that normal everyday life went on for some time, but my holiday came closer and I slowly started to get more and more nervous for meeting Christel for the first time.
After just over two weeks of working hard and trying my best to stay concentrated while doing so it finally was the 17th of January, the last day before the holiday.
After work that day I went straight home, even took the bus to not be tempted to make a stop on the way, because that often happens when I walk past one of the bars I regularly visit. And as soon as I got home I started packing my bags.
While I was selecting the t-shirts I wanted to take with me it was hard to chose, so I ended up taking more with me than I actually needed, but that way I was sure I would have a good shirt to wear every day.
When I had everything I needed in my bag I finally could go online on my computer again and spend some time talking with Christel.
We didn't talk as long as usual that night because we both would need a good night sleep in order to at least look a bit awake when we would first meet. So sleeping a bit earlier and then after a few hours the big day was there.
I packed some last things that I could not pack the night before and although I had some time left I didn't feel like waiting at home just doing nothing until it was the right time, so I took my bags and went to the city.
In the city first I went to the post-office to change my money to Euros, I was told by a friend that there you didn't have to pay any costs and you would get exactly the same amount for each Euro back in Sterling as you paid when you had some Euros left after your holiday.
When I had my money I went to the Jury's Hotel from where the buses to Dublin Airport go. I had some time left, but the bus just arrived there at the same time as me, so I could put in my bags, have a seat and wait for the bus to depart.
After arriving at the airport there was some time to wait before I could check-in, so I just went into the restaurant and had a nice Irish breakfast with a cup of coffee and took my time for that.
After that I checked in, went through security and started looking around a bit in the tax-free shops, where I bought myself a CD with the Greatest Hits of the Wolfetones and went for a last pint of Guinness at the bar. A good thing is that the bars at the airport is one of the 600 selected bars in Dublin that serve the Brewhouse series, a specially brewed Guinness which is only available in Dublin and is a different kind every few months.
At that time I also already had noticed that a lot of flights were cancelled or delayed for sometimes hours because of severe weather conditions. Of course that worried me a bit but my flight had no message behind it of any delay whatsoever. Even perfectly on time the call for boarding came so I went on board, found myself a seat, took my book of sudoku's and relaxed for the flight to come.
Before departure the captain said there was some heavy winds both in Dublin (which I of course already noticed before) and in Eindhoven, but in both places the wind was parallel to the runway so we wouldn't have too much problems from that.
During the flight not much interesting happened until we got below the clouds in Holland, it was just after sunset so getting a bit dark and it was one of the most beautifull views I have had so far in all my flights. I could see Den Bosch and some other places in that area very clearly and could also see that there was very heavy traffic on the roads, which I later found out was because of the storm.
In the last few minutes of the flight when it had to get straight in line with the runway and make a clean landing it was the only moments I could notice anything from how strong the wind was, the plane made some moves like a rollercoaster a couple of times, but just momets later the runway was there and the plane landed calmly 15 minutes prior to schedule.
After getting off I had to get through the passport-check and get my luggage. That didn't take long because I was early with check in, which often means your bag comes out as one of the first.
Than the moment was there, walk out through the doors into the public area of Eindhoven airport where Christel would be waiting for me. And yes, there she was, leaning against a pilar in the hall wearing the Team Finland hockey jersey she bought for me as a gift.
We hugged and kissed for a while and I had to take over the jersey, so I took it of her and put it on myself.
Then we had to go because she said the storm already caused problems for trains and we would have to hurry to be able to get home.
When we arrived at the trainstation the signs already showed all trains from Eindhoven had been cancelled except for those going further south. After waiting for a while and listening around to find out if there was any information whether the trains would go again or not we heared there would definately be no trains going to the west and the north until 9pm and after that it would be decided if they could start driving again.
So we decided to just find a bar and have a drink together and come back around 9 to see if we could get home.
We found a nice bar not far from the station (I was happy with that because I still had to carry my luggage with me), and they even served Guinness, so I had a Guinness and Christel took a normal lager beer. We enjoyed being together quite well and after the first beer we had enough time for one more so we did.
After the second beer it was about 9 o'clock and we had to get back to the station.
When we arrived there we found out all trains had been cancelled for the rest of the night, buses had completely stopped driving and accomodation for stranded passenger was being organized. Of course we didn't feel much like spending our first night together in a sports-centre with maybe hundreds of people, so I just decided to try something else. Knowing my father lives in Sint Michielsgestel, which is not so far from Eindhoven, I decided to call him and see if he would be able to come and pick us up.
He just got home and he would come to pick us up, so he made us very happy, and both me and Christel are still very thankfull that he and Corry wanted to get in to the storm for us even though both had some physical problems at that time.
We had to wait for another 45 minutes but there was free coffee and bread at the station and we could sit warm in there so that was not too bad knowing that we would have a warm bed to sleep in that night.
When my father called they were nearly there we went back out and a few minutes later he arrived. We greeted each other fast, put my bags in the car and went off to Sint Michiels Gestel.
There we had a drink while Corry already went to bed, had a nice talk and after a while went to bed ourselves as well.
The next morning when we woke up Corry had already left for work but my father had breakfast ready. I ate a bit while Christel only had a cup of tea. And not long after that we went for the bus because Christel also had to be home on time.
Because I had not expected to have time to visit my father during this holiday I think he enjoyed that I was there after all.
The trip from Sint Michielsgestel to Westervoort went without any problems (except for my hands and arms because of my luggage, but that is only short periods of time) and we arrived just minutes before Richard and Marco (the sons of Christel) came home.
They both greeted me politely and I got the feeling very soon that I could feel comfortable becoming a part of this family.
I don't remember exactly what we did further that evening, mainly it was a quiet evening at home and we didn't go to bed too late.
The next morning it was saturday and that day there would be a draughts competition game between my club Heemstede and Zaanstreek, which was postponed because Henk de Groot (the usual arbiter for home games of Heemstede) had passed away and was buried on the day the game was supposed to be played. I had promised to be present at this game as a bit of respect to this man who had done so much for the club and I thought that if anyone, he was someone who deserved that kind of respect.
Because the team was complete I was asked to be the arbiter that day, which I thought was a bit of an honour in memory of Henk de Groot.
It was of course quite a long trip from Westervoort to Heemstede, but I had no problem with that and arrived perfectly on time for the game.
The game went pretty well (from my point of view as arbiter) and maybe some of the Heemstede players found it a bit hard to get used to an arbiter who was more strict than what they were used to but with only a minor verbal warning to Paul Jopp (who else?) for talking everything went fine.
After the game I had a few beers with my friends from the club and then I went back to Westervoort. That day was also Marco his birthday so I really did my best to be back not too late and arrived there just before 9 if I remember correctly.
I gave Marco my gift, a book with some of the best games of Bobby Fischer and a pair of ear-plugs because he had complained a couple of times that Christel was talking too loud when he was trying to sleep upstairs.
It was a nice evening and I had a nice (but short because they did not stay very long) talk with the parents of Laura, Marco's girlfriend and of course was finally with Christel again after missing her all day because of the draughts match.
After that day we didn't have any plans for a few days and just enjoyed a quite time being happy that we were finally together.
Even being at home just being together can make a holiday really good, although this was a new experience for me.
Wednesday afternoon we went shopping in Arnhem, because I still had to buy a gift for my mother, whose birthday it would be the next day. I found a few nice books I was sure she would like and further we went to have a look at some other shops but didn't buy very much because we both had a tight budget. When we finished shopping we did go to a nice little bar for a few beers, this was a surprisingly nice and very small place in the centre of the town which I really enjoyed.
On wednesday-night there was a whiskey nosing and tasting for which Christel had subscribed us and of course knowing that I do love a good whiskey I was already looking forward to that a bit, and I really enjoyed that. We tasted 7 or 8 single malt whikeys from Islay and some of them were pretty good. One of them was the 10 year old Laphroaig. When that came I made some of the participants aware that I had a bottle of 30 year old Laphroaig with me. Because this is a very rare whiskey some people wanted to compare the smell to compare the two, and the difference was pretty obvious.
After we tasted all the whiskeys there was some time to have another try of some of them, have a chat and if you wanted buy one or more bottles. Christel bought a bottle for me and I also bought one myself, and I gave a few people a taste of my 30 year old Laphroaig.
The next day it was my mother's birthday, so we went to Vijfhuizen. We arrived there at about 4 and only Andre's sister was there with my mother and Andre so there was some time to have a bit of a comfortable talk already before it got crowded, although they had to prepare diner on time as well.
We had diner and after that Christel and I started on a puzzle that was lying on the table unfinished. While we were busy with that guests started coming in and after continuing the puzzle for quite some time we stopped that and were more in the party for the rest of the evening.
It was a nice opportunity for me to also see some family again because even while I come back sometimes I don't see many of them usually.
After everybody had left we went to bed, we spent the night in Vijfhuizen, and went back to Westervoort after a (late) breakfast the next day. It was already friday again and not much time was left from my holiday, and on saturday I had to go to Heemstede again for a draughts match.
This time it was the third team from Hiltex visiting and although I was hoping to be able to play, there was a team-member who was not sure if he could play when I was there a week earlier, that player was there and I was arbiter again. Of course that put a bit less pressure on me which was good, and I could follow all games easier, chat a bit more with other people who came to watch the game and enjoy a beer without first having to wait until my game was finished.
This day I had to get one of the spectators away from a game that was still going (although the result was obvious already) because he was saying something about the game. Another wee thing was that I had to write down on the match-sheet that from two players of Hiltex there was not a valid players-card because there was no photo and signature on it.
After the game the team-captains had that removed because it would mean a fine for Hiltex. Although I didn't really agree I also didn't want to argue with it so I just signed the form after that and things were done.
After the game was finished I went back to Westervoort and from that time on we had another quiet time mainly enjoying being together until the end of my holiday.
On tuesday it was time to go back home again. A sad day after having such a fantastic time with Christel.
After I had packed my bags we left for the airport, on the way to the bus we met Marco and Richard who just got back from school so I could once more say goodbye to them and promise we would see each other again.
After a trip by bus and train we arrived at the airport where we had a drink and did a bit of puzzling (because there just is not much else you can do at the airport in Eindhoven. About an hour before departure I had to get through security. This was a difficult moment because it meant we wouldn't be together anymore for a time which we didn't know how long it would be. We kissed goodbye, a few tears were spilled and then I really had to go. :(
The flight back to Dublin went fine and the weather was a lot better than on the way from Dublin to Eindhoven almost two weeks earlier.
After arriving in Dublin and getting my luggage I had some time left before the bus to Belfast would go, so I went to the bar to enjoy another fine pint of the Brewhouse series and then took the bus to Belfast.
Just under two and a half hours later I arrived there and that was the end of the best holiday so far since I have been in Belfast, which was on that very same day (30 January) exactly two years.
When I got home the first thing I did was of course get my laptop connected and get on to Messenger to have a chat with Christel and let her know I had arrived. I also then told her I had left a gift for her in the closet upstairs, which obviously made her just as happy as I felt at that moment because I knew we will be together for a very long time.
That's it for now, I probably will tell more about the busy period after my holiday soon.
12月12日 and now for something completely differentIt looks like the Dutch customers are satisfied at the moment. There is not much work to do and we are almost fighting when new e-mails are coming in for who gets to deal with them.
On the other hand we have no Danish agents at the moment so the Product Specialists are doing the Danish e-mails although none of them speaks any Danish and even though they are doing the best they can, they can't handle all the questions because they have other things to do as well.
I knew about this going on and offered my help, so now when I have done the questions about the products I have to do I log in to another account that was created for me and start answering Danish e-mails.
I think I'm doing quite well so far, but when a question goes just a bit beyond the ordinary questions it is quite hard to get to a correct answer when you can't write the language and have to rely on the standardized answers we have.
But still, customers are now getting an answer which is the most important thing for now. 12月8日 Another little updateA few posts ago I wrote something about a hockey jersey that was bought by my girlfriend, then not and after that it was again.
This proved not to be the end of the story. The seller sent a message the next day telling that the jersey had been damaged and offering us another jersey instead.
The pictures of the other jersey made me already uncertain because the colors looked weird so we went looking for information on whether it was a real one or not. I posted a message to http://www.cif-forums.com with the picture and pretty fast it became clear that this was not even close to an official Team Finland jersey. So my girlfriend send a message to the seller if he could send us some proof that it was an official jersey. He send us a link to a site selling jerseys with a picture he referred to that looked completely different than the jersey he was offering. So we cancelled the deal and my girlfriend had her money refunded.
A little later she found another Team Finland jersey, which was a very beautiful one, but also more expensive.
The bidding for that had only a little time left, so she placed a bid and was the first one to do so for that jersey.
When the end came closer we got slightly nervous because she was still the only person who placed a bid and we knew it was getting close.
Just seconds before the end of the bidding still no other bids but at the last refresh when the time was up it happened. There was another bid and the auction was over. That was really frustrating, losing in the last second.
After that happened there were a few days with hardly any Team Finland jerseys for an acceptable prize on eBay, but just a few days ago she said she found another one and only wasn't sure about the size because it said size 52 and not if it was L, XL or anything like that.
After having contact with the seller who also wasn't absolutely sure she asked me if I knew, and I contacted a friend of mine he said 52 should fit me pretty well. So yesterday she bought that jersey and it has been paid for today. Now it's just a matter of time until she gets it and then finally things are sorted.
This was just a wee story on how hard life on eBay can be when you really want something.
Leaves one thing to say....
Darling, I know you will read this. Please remember I will love you forever  and nothing can make this end. And don't worry about your computer not allowing you to post a reaction for some reason, you have plenty of other ways to reach me. |
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