27.5.07

this old church

it's not the best name, but the new blog has been started:
this old church

26.5.07

like on the A-Team?

no, that was just plain old face. this is facebook, some new-fangled contraption the kids are on about today. for what it's worth, i've joined the revolution as well.

and now that i'm up in powell river, i will have to start a new blog. i'm going to try to work on that this weekend.

20.5.07

i'm baaaack!

bowing to pressure, i am writing a new entry. apparently people are tired of me constantly returning from malta. as i think everyone knows by now, i am back home in vancouver, the result of a carefully-planned surprise attack. since i told no one of my impending return, i booked a couple of nights at the ramada hotel which also conveniently houses my favorite bar, the morrissey. i am still 'of no fixed address' but will be heading up to my brother's church in powell river on monday from whence i will write further.

19.4.07

t+342: malta

have just returned from a fascinating week in malta. i had been thinking of croatia but couldn't really find any cheap deals. i went into a travel agent who told me that the cheap deals to croatia haven't quite started yet, but how about malta? smack dab in the middle of the med, temples older than the pyramids, a 3 hour flight direct from amsterdam and only 500 euros for a week including air, hotel & breakfast. how about malta indeed!!

arrived mid-afternoon and experienced my first bout of HMHGS: High Maintenance Hotel Guest Syndrome. unbelievable i know but like most unbelievable things, completely true. i insisted on viewing 3 rooms before (rather predictably, i thought) settling on the original. by this time, it was late afternoon-ish so i tootled around the town of bugibba which is your pretty standard resort area (aka tourist ghetto), yet pleasant enough. and i was staying a 4* mercure hotel which would lead me to expect a fairly high standard. however, the bar decorations of banana tops made into dolphin heads leaping out of a pools of blue curacao and joyfully holding maraschino cherries in their mouths might lead one to suspect differently. and let's not mention the live 'entertainment' this evening. suffice to say, he's no paul weller. he's more on the lines of a shabby nearly neil, although it must be admitted that he has the most majestic comb-over i've ever seen. but, i shouldn't be too hard on the place. it is a family holiday type of place. in fact, vaguely neil has given way now to the children who are doing the 'hands up' dance. not so long ago, it would have been a gaggle of 20-something females circled around their handbags doing the same thing. only very, very drunk. this version is infinitely superior.


first day of the vacation was warm but a bit cloudy so took the opportunity to head inland to the medieval walled city and former capital of mdina. also known as the 'silent city' owing to the fact that cars are forbidden within the walls, it definitely lived up to its nickname. even though there were several cruise ship groups trolling through the streets, it was still easy to find quiet avenues and keep away from them. the cathedral is very impressive as well. and the maltese are no slouches when it comes to religion and churches. the island where st. paul the apostle was shipwrecked has a population of only 400,000 people and encompasses an area just over 300 square metres, yet it is possible to go to a different church every day of the year. of course, some of them are only open one day a year so choose wisely.

malta is actually a group of 5 islands so i hopped a ferry to the second largest, gozo. this is reportedly where the locals go on vacation and, although much smaller than the main island of malta, also manages supplies most of the fresh produce. not much to do here but loaf and enjoy the scenery. sign me up! took the local transport to the coast and the azure window. not much else to report except more 'went here, did that, saw this' type of stuff. best just to look at the pix which i'll be posting to an album later today, along with barcelona.

10.4.07

t+333: newsflash! scientists perfect bacon butty!!

the good ol' bbc news service, always bringing us the stories that matter. and let's not forget those inquisitive young minds at leeds university, striving to make the world a better place.




perfick!

8.4.07

t+316-324: barcelona & manchester

NOTE: it's a loooong entry today. many apologies for any abject boredom that may ensue.

first stop: barcelona

got into barcelona fairly late in the evening saturday so saskia and i had a fairly early night of it and jumped on a metro to the ramblas mid-morning sunday. waaaaay too many people, but there was starbucks, much to saskia's delight. after a caffeine respite, we got off the overcrowded ramblas and into the narrow alleys of the barri gotic where we managed to catch the tail end of a parade with the craziest giant puppet figures. not sure why it was but there it was.

after some sandwiches at a fairly cool cafe, we headed up to parc guell, designed by antoni gaudi and filled with the most incredible art and architecture. and at least one naked guy lurking among the agaves. yes, that is correct. full frontal. quite a strange occurrence. saskia and i had hiked through the park and climed to the top of this lookout area partaking of the view over the city when we saw some movement in the bushes. as we looked closer, this man stood up and revealed himself in the most revealing manner. a little disturbing and as there were quite a few people up there, including families, i was a little surprised that some outraged spanish papa hadn't thrashed the chap yet. but maybe he had just got there. we didn't linger too long and as we hiked down, were asked by another woman if there was anything to see at the top. 'why yes!' said saskia, 'there is a naked man lurking in the agaves!' she and her teenaged daughter seemed very intrigued by this and her husband did offer to stay behind with their young son if they wished to go up. i'm not sure if they did.

then, we hit la pedrera, an apartment building designed by gaudi. the queue to get in was fairly substantial but we really didn't have to wait too long. a truly incredible building, inside and out. the attention to detail is truly incredible. it was originally designed as an apartment block for the mila family and although there are thousands of visitors, it appears that at least some of the apartments may still be inhabited, either by individuals or businesses, i'm not sure which.

dinner had to be tapas, of course. found a great little place and swallowed the yummy vittles down with great lashings of tasty red wine. happily though, the only one suffering the next day was the sink. ask saskia.

decided to try out the very cool camper hotel for coffee monday morning but were thwarted by the elitist swine who apparently only open their hotel to paying guests. we were highly offended by this outlandish snobbery but managed to find a suitable caffeine dispensary in a nearby square. undeterred by this height of pomposity, we still deigned to shop at the camper shoe store near the pedrera. as luck would have it, saskia and i bought the same shoes. good thing i'm leaving for canada soon!

by this time, we were fairly famished and made our way for some more tapas. at least, we thought that it must be tapas from the incredibly tiny prices and were very surprised when we saw the sizes of the portions that arrived at our table. we rolled out of there uncomfortably full and i had the vague idea that a revival of the roman vomitorium might well be a viable business opportunity. no dinner for us that night!

tuesday, our final day in barcelona and saskia's birthday (see pic). weather was a bit naff (apparently, it always rains on her birthday) so we took the opportunity to hit museums and la sagrada familia, gaudi's crazy church. first stop was museu d'historia which is an excavation down to the roman ruins of barcelona. very, very cool. enroute, we stopped by the incredible palau de la musica and stopped in at a cool cheeese shop run by, oddly enough, a scottish woman. after museu d'historia, we were lured into a cool clothing store, run by yet another scottish woman, where we each bought the same dress. very, very good thing that i am leaving soon! by the time we had lunch and made it to la sagrada familia, it was really too late to go inside. we thought that it closed at 8pm but it closed at 6pm and as it was 5pm by this point, we wouldn't really have enough time for a decent visit so contented ourselves with the outside which, despite all the cranes, is extremely impressive.

next stop: manchester

headed to the airport and arrived amsterdam around midnight. saskia went home but i decided to stay at the airport as my flight to manchester was at 9am. i was unfortunately unable to stay in the post-security areas so spent a basically sleepless night by a coffee kiosk near the check-in desk. morning came at long last and i arrived manchester an hour late. sadly, the same could not be said of my luggage, which arrived not at all. and my cel was all but dead so i was not able to get hold of rich who was hopefully still waiting for me outside the gate. and, of course, his ciggies were in the suitcase. his feeling of unease would not have been alleviated when he heard his name paged over the intercom. anyway, made it to his place at long, long last, had a much-needed shower and fell into bed for a proper sleep. bliss!

headed into downtown manchester the following day and managed to get a shop to charge my phone for me (yay!) and also found the coolest leather jacket in the very cool affleck's palace, a rabbit warren of shops, for only 45 quid. and the airport called and my suitcase was being delivered to rich's office. things are looking up for the kid! it was refreshing to be able to communicate effectively with the locals and not feel as though i was forcing them to converse in a foreign language. i had, however, become very accustomed to tuning out surrounding conversations like so much white noise so it was strangely unnerving to be able understand everything being said around me. tmi! tmi!!! met up with rich for dinner and tried to go to vera duckworth's pub (corry reference) for a swift one but were instantly repelled by the appalling karaoke party occurring therein. retch.

friday was another grey manchester day, so a little more shopping ensued before i met rachele at the train station. we headed over to rich's mate george's house for some pre-concert libations. steven was supposed to come with us but was reportedly on his death bed, hence george's inclusion for the fourth ticket. we got to the gig to the strains of echo & the bunnymen so i ran in to have a gander while george queued for drinks. rich & rachele were on the floor but we had seats in the stands. it was a bit difficult to see properly from where i was stationed (gads! how i hate stadium shows!!) but as far as i could tell, ian mcculloch did manage to remember all the words to 'the cutter' which was not, i am told, the case when they played vancouver.

somehow, george spotted some people he knew on the floor and conspired to get their wristbands for us (good man, that george! thx again :) highlight of the show was probably when paul weller came on stage and sang 'a town called malice' with the charlatans. he is looking especially hot with his silver hair these days. let's not mention the tight leather jacket. my, my. *sigh* full review & pics


the following day, we rose late and headed to the pub for lunch and some dog hair. rachele and i had the giggles all afernoon, before we had even consumed any libation. yikes! i managed to shame steven into rising from his deathbed and come to the pub to see me. he even brought his girlfriend natalie with him (or rather, she brought him). rich hadn't even met her yet. apparently, she has already met the rest of the family but was (let's face it, understandably) reluctant to meet uncle rich. fortunately for rich, he paled mightily next to me and rachele on this sunny day. the soft cock! ;)

sunday, rich and rachele went to his parents' diamond anniversary celebration and i headed to the airport. there seemed to be hardly any queue for security so i indulged in a burger and some emails before heading through. i should have known. what i saw was only the tip of the iceberg and as i went through the doors about 30 minutes before departure time, i saw a queue that looked as if it could easily take 3 hours to get through. so, i barged into the fast lane and still had to run to get to the plane. luckily, i was not the last person to board as i had feared. it was a mercifully quick flight, i landed safely and, joy of joys, was reunited with my luggage in amsterdam.

since returning, i've puttered about utrecht. a little yoga. a little pilates. a couple of movies: music & lyrics [don't bother. see 'the wedding singer' again instead. although hugh grant does have some cute dance moves, it must be said.] and 'hot fuzz' [absolutely must see at least once!] and even my first dutch 'lock-down' at cafe belgie. i also went to a travel agent and have booked a vacation to malta.

happy easter everybody! :)

23.3.07

t+315: he's from barcelona


or rather, she's off to barcelona, home of manuel. who in reality is, of course, a german. but don't mention the war.

saskia & i depart tomorrow afternoon for a few days r&r in celebration of her birthday coming up on tuesday. we've got a cheap flight and a swank hotel and will be leaving greg holding the baggage in the form of the pups & the bakery until saskia returns on tuesday night. it will be good to get away as i must admit that i've fallen into a rather stagnant habit, not doing much other than generally hanging around and going to yoga.

after barcelona, i'm off right away to manchester to visit rich & steve and see the versus cancer charity concert on friday which should be a stellar night out, if i am any judge of lineups. and i flatter myself that i am. i rather suspect that there may be a little more blog fodder as well, as you, gentle reader, will be happy to hear.

however, i don't think there will be any updates until after i return as i will be handing the laptop in to have the dvd drive repaired and lord knows how long that might take. yikes!!

21.3.07

T+313: lions & tigers & bears!!

well, not really. it's more like thunder & lightning & rain & hail & sleet!! just when i thought spring was sproinging, some groundhog somewhere made the colossal mistake of peeking behind him and saw his shadow, thus treating us to a little more winter weather. fortunately, however, these storms seem to be quite short-lived. in fact, the day usually dawns quite pleasantly and if one is quick, one can dash out and get a few errands accomplished and be back home, safe & sound, before winter pounces once more.

8.3.07

T+300: songs for under the floorboards, or wherever

yes, it is T+300 today and what better way to celebrate than sitting in the sunshine listing out songs to play at my funeral. and before you ask, no, there is nothing i am not telling you. as it happens, i started out quite innocently, sitting in the sun celebrating with the saturday diabolical sudoku that still remains unsolved. i also happened to have the ipod on shuffle when the camera obscura cover of 'modern girl' came on and i thought to myself, 'this is actually a very good version of this song. i never liked it when the vile sheena easton sang it but this, i quite like. in fact, i think i would like it played at my funeral. if ever i should die, that is.'

this line of thinking gave rise to further thinking along the lines of 'if i don't write this down, someone is sure to play 'candle in the wind' or similar which will cause me much rolling over in my grave (or, more likely, urn - haven't quite decided yet). so, to make things easier, i started a playlist. [i suppose i should also start a do-not-playlist as well. a good place to start is this bbc article: verboten!! definitely none of those.]

however, i am working on the playlist. thus far, i have only two songs: the aforementioned 'modern girl' cover and 'a minor incident' by badly drawn boy. i toyed with 'video killed the radio star' by the buggles, but only because it was the first video shown on mtv. had i been program director, it would not have been my choice (too obvious); however, i was not. perhaps that's a better reason to leave it out. it will be conspicuous in its absence and the playlist will remain a work in progress, as (i am very happy to report) do i. in fact, i will be off very shortly to what i hope will be a very yummy dinner in celebration of day #300 :)

26.2.07

T+290: cooking dangerously

ever had one of those moments where you're out with friends having a good time and all of a sudden, you think you left something cooking on the stove and you have been gone from home for hours? well i have, and it was just last night.

i was at greg & saskia's for dinner (roast lamb - yum!) and as i was searing it in the pan (there's no free dinner at their house ...), i suddenly had a vision of the chicken breasts i had set on my own stove to poach earlier in the day. i was pretty sure i had turned off the flame but as i had left in rather a hurry (forgot that i had left my bike at their house the night before so instead of leaving a little early, i was actually late because i had to walk), i wasn't really 100% certain. so, out of the house i dashed to hop on my bike and nip home to check.

but where was my bike?? it was still outside their house when i arrived only a few hours earlier, but now it was nowhere to be seen. it was just like being in a nightmare. i couldn't make it up if i tried. it had definitely been locked up, but not attached to anything so i supposed that someone could have picked it up locks and all, but why? don't get me wrong, i love sparta piet but honestly, i wouldn't have thought him worth stealing, especially when he's bound with two locks (he likes it, trust me ...) saskia and greg and the dogs were all out on the street with me as well as their next door neighbors who were either just arriving home or just going out, and who suddenly said "oh, is this your bike in our house?" they had, for some unknown reason, picked it up locks and all and put it in their bike storage. granted, my bike was perhaps a bit closer to their house than to saskia & greg's but still, why on earth would someone take an unknown & locked-up bike into their house? and what if they hadn't just happened to be outside when i went to get my bike? crazy dutchies!!

anyway, in what was by this point full panic mode, i pedalled a frantic 4km in the rain back to my house. 4km that despite my heavy exertion, labored breathing and desperate pedestrian avoidal, seemed to take absolutely forever. happily, there were no flames licking the sky as i arrived. however, unhappily that also meant there were no hunky firemen milling about outside either. one can never win.

as i opened the door and raced (or as near to 'raced' as i could manage being as my legs were now quite jelly-like from the journey) up the stairs, i also could not smell burnt chicken, only the delightful aroma of perfectly poached chicken breasts cooling delicately in their broth of beer, shallots, garlic and rosemary. i promptly took the opportunity to collapse on the bed and although i really thought i might, successfully managed not to vomit. that could be tmi, but there it is anyway.

the rest of the evening was refreshingly anti-climactic. despite the continuing rain, i enjoyed a much more leisurely journey back to greg & saskia's where i savored a rather delicious sunday lamb roast and today, i am very much looking forward to partaking of my poached chicken. chicken whose delicate flavour, i think, will be made all the more sublime owing to the associated potential danger involved in its creation.

who knew danger could be such an essential pantry item?

20.2.07

T+284: just can't get enough








sweet things: official cake supplier to de gouden kooi, or what? here's the cake commemorating the 100th episode.

18.2.07

T+282: a star is born?












it's not the best photo perhaps but yes, that is saskia (sporting a pink 'sweet things' t-shirt) on 'de gouden kooi' (the golden cage), the dutch reality show that apparently spawned the big brother franchise. something else to thank the dutch for ... she was on the show monday showing the inmates how to make cakes for valentine's day.

check it out! (make sure you scroll down. way down)
saskia shows 'em how it's done

5.2.07

T+269.5: 53% and rising!

can you feel it? it's definitely getting badder around here ... and now my blog is now mostly evil >:) up to a solid 53% evil quotient. "but how?" you ask bewilderedly. why, by some diligent cheating, a little chicanery and a soupçon of jiggery pokery. how else can i be expected increase the evil quotient of my blog? rest assured, i will continue to strive for more evil content. stay tuned ... :)

T+269: and now my website has been tested

and found sorely wanting. only 37% evil according to the infallible and inscrutible gematriculator :( clearly, i have my work cut out for me. my street cred has once again turned to street crud!

2.2.07

T+266: i've been tested so it's official

see test results to the right. yep, that's me. supergirl. you can tell from the blond hair, although i distinctly checked off an adamant 'NO' to the question 'do you like to wear a cape?' i note that robin comes in at third on the list but - and please correct me if i'm wrong here - isn't he a sidekick and not an actual superhero? discuss. and please, get back to me with your own personal quiz results. i like to know who's in my posse :)

one of my superhero tasks at the moment is a tex-mex party tomorrow night because: 1) i have a terrible craving for a pulled pork sandwich, and 2) there is an appalling lack of decent mexican food in utrecht. i'm just off to the shops now to pick up the ingredients which is definitely a job for supergirl because here, you can't just pop out to the IGA to pick up a bunch of que pasa tortillas, some salsa and refried beans. american premium hot dogs? all day long! but mexican fixins? not a hope. it's all gotta be made from scratch. even the tortillas; however, i think i'm going to cheat & just buy a couple of dozen rotis from one of the shawarma places instead. wish me luck!

signed,
supergirl
lean, muscular & feminine
honest & a defender of the innocent
(and secret tortilla cheater)

18.1.07

T+251 & 1/2: i'm not dead yet

as some of you may have heard, there have been terrible windstorms in northern europe resulting in several deaths here in the netherlands. fortunately for me, mine was not one of them. i took the solid advice of staying indoors, aside from a brief foray to de poort for an afternoon repast and to yoga, although i must confess that it was quite a bike ride to the yogastudio: one minute, i could hardly pedal going down hill because the wind was against me and the next, i had the wind at my back and was practically putting on the brakes going up hill (and i use 'down hill' and 'up hill' here in the absolute loosest forms. think 'vague inclines' ...), all the while humming the hurricane music from the wizard of oz ...

T+251: good news & bad news

the good news is that i've managed to upload almost 300 more photos to the photo site. the bad news is, you (if you so choose) have to wade through someone else's boring slide show of "what i did last summer" ;p

the good news is that my back seems to have healed nicely. the bad news is that i also had another injury that was somewhat overshadowed by the slipped disc that has not yet healed. it seems that i also a stretched nerve which is causing numbness down my leg. not exactly painful most of the time, but the numbness is highly annoying and every now and then, it shoots out a wee jolt to let me know it's still there. apparently, the only thing for it is time & exercise and try not to make it too angry so i've decided to get back into yoga.

the good news is that i have tracked down a yoga studio that gives classes in english here in utrecht. the bad news is that it is twice as much as the yoga studio around the corner from my house but gives classes only in dutch. another reason to figure out this damn language!! :)

10.1.07

T+245: 2007, here i come! but let's just catch up on the rest of 2006, shall we?

despite the fact that i didn't really do any 'traveling', december was a decidedly eventful month to end a most decidedly eventful year in the life of bk. the normal day-to-day things occurred as usual: dutch lessons continued, cappuccinos & biertjes consumed at de poort and various other locations around utrecht (but mostly de poort) and all of a sudden, the trees were bare owing to a little rain and a lot of wind. the mundane was, of course, spiced up by some significant events, the first being maren.

since arriving in utrecht, i had been looking for a decent french press or stove-top espresso maker. the dutch, it seems, run more to tea grannies than the coffee demons i am used to on the west coast. as such, the proliferation of tea pots, types of tea and various tea paraphernalia is somewhat staggering and far outweighs that of even the most basic of decent coffee requirements. they do have the standard range of electric coffee makers - which i despise - as well as an adequate selection of high-end espresso makers, but hardly anything by way of a good, reasonably-priced french press. at last, however, i managed to track down a proper bialletti stove-top espresso maker that didn't cost a small fortune. joy!

and then, i made the mistake of showing maren how to operate it. she, who had hitherto been used to the gentle caffiene of nescafe instant coffee supplemented by the relatively innocent cappuccinos of utrecht, was presented with an italian-style jet fuel available at all hours of the day and night and completely under her control. oops.

although maren was enjoying utrecht and her time here, she was still homesick and on the morning of 21 november, i awoke to a maren who had been up all night and had consumed 6 POTS of espresso - and would have had more if she had not run out of coffee grounds! please note: each pot is the equivalent of 6 shots of espresso meaning she had consumed 36 shots of espresso in about 9 hours. by the time i woke up, her poor pupils were buzzing around in her irises and she had already booked a flight home departing that evening.

fortunately, she came back on 1 december and shortly after she arrived, her two friends alice and anna also arrived to spend the weekend with us and see kaizer's orchestra (a norwegian band playing at a club just up the street). unfortunately, the trip home didn't make her feel any better about staying in utrecht and on 5 december, she went home for good. that was a very sad day, but a nice one as well. we went to de poort for coffee and tostis and after, finally climbed the dom toren to have a look around utrecht from on high. after the dom, we met up with our friend donna (from dutch class) for a pint and then i went with maren to schiphol to see her off :(

of course, i saw her again only a couple of weeks later when i was in sandnes for christmas. my first christmas in norway was very fun despite the fact that i was in some fairly excrutiating pain owing to a slipped disc that i suffered in my lower back shortly before i left for norway. i could barely walk and of course, i had booked the cheapest fare with klm which was thus non-changeable and non-refundable and although i begged, cried and otherwise pleaded with them, they would not change anything. no way, no how. the one concession they did give was that they had a golf cart waiting for me at schiphol to ferry me through schiphol and a wheelchair - complete with young viking to push it - waiting to receive me in stavanger. needless to say, when she came to pick me up at the airport, kari laughed without mercy as soon as she saw me sitting in the wheelchair. to add insult to injury, i caught a virus from casper on my second day at kari's house and was up all night hobbling between my bed and the bathroom. it was mercifully short-lived and all over within 24-hours but needless to say, i was far from a happy camper being basically confined to bed and having to take painkillers to get through both day and night.

but, i saw a physiotherapist who advised that movement is good and that i should try to get some exercise so i pushed myself to walk and was actually able to get to the mall for the last shopping day before christmas to finish my christmas shopping. it was not my finest hour in a mall though: i plotted my shopping attack based solely on a bench-to-bench strategy rather than a more prudent sale-to-sale or type-of-shop thinking. basically, if a shop had a bench nearby on which i could rest, that's where i would shop. or rather, hobble to the bench first for a short respite, then a brief foray into the shop to snatch at some goods and wait the interminable minutes for the lazy clerk to ring up the sale and wrap the gift, then back to the bench to to rest some more and spy out the next bench. i swear, i was this close to mugging an old dear for her walking frame! pride & vanity, of course, being the only things keeping me from it.

christmas eve - and present opening - was spent at anne-karin's and was extremely festive, as you might imagine. i thought casper would burst with the excitement! we were even blessed with a visit from a julenisse bearing gifts but unfortunately, casper must have been taking a nap or something because he missed the whole thing. maybe next year. [note: a nisse, or julenisse at christmas, is a typically norwegian creature (swedes call them tomtes). please see the wikipedia article for further description: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomte ] the visit of the julenisse was followed by yummy food, dancing around the tree and much present opening and general christmassy festiveness.

by the time i left sandnes, i was hobbling around pretty well (albeit with the narcotic assistance) so i flew to oslo to meet jonne and spend a few days driving back to holland for new year's eve. yes, at last, i have gotten to the new boyfriend. saving the best for last and all that. many of you have already heard rumors of him via conversations over the holidays but finally, here is photographic evidence. he may be as tall as bigfoot but he is infinitely more real and able to operate heavy machinery. or at least a volkswagen passat wagon.

we spent one night in oslo and set off for sweden the following morning which just happened to be an incredibly sunny, crispy and frosty day, full of white trees and complete with a thin layer of ice on the sea. unfortunately, no photographic evidence of this because i had stupidly left my camera in sandnes. we spent a couple of nights in southern sweden (gothenburg & växjö) and arrived at his cousin's house in groningen (in northern holland) late on 30 december. new year's eve was a fairly quiet evening in the countryside, peppered with a few explosive blasts of fireworks from the neighbor across the canal. quiet, that is, until midnight when the whole country exploded. greg & saskia had warned me that the dutch are mad for fireworks on new year's eve but even with forewarning, i was still unprepared for the full extent. and this was the quiet, sleepy dutch countryside! the entire sky was filled everywhere you looked and before long, the smoke & smell of fireworks enveloped the whole country. jonne and i took a walk to the end of the street to take a better look towards the town and i was absolutely terrified: drunken revellers all around us had explosive devices in one hand and lit lighters in the other. not exactly a winning combination. i'll admit that i was cowering behind jonne as i limped along the street, petrified that at any moment i would feel the burning sensation of a poorly-aimed roman candle up my backside. or perhaps it was well-aimed? hmmmm ...

i managed to emerge from the event unscathed and we headed back to utrecht the afternoon of new year's day at which time seasonal stress, long nights/short days, and homesickness finally conspired to get the better of me. ah well, nothing that a good cry and some nice chats with everyone back home didn't fix up in short order.

a couple of days later, i was back in oslo for a visit with tante lita who i hadn't seen over christmas because of my back. i also caught up with maren again who very kindly brought my camera with her from sandnes so i was able to take photos once again. i'm now back in utrecht and ready to take on 2007. but more on that later as i must dash to the shops to buy more toothpaste.

fyi, i am also uploading more photos to the photosite so check there soon.

2.1.07

T+235: happy new year!

a very happy new year to everybody and many apologies for not updating the blog during december. very remiss of me to be sure but apparently neither santa claus nor sinter klass were too put out by it as they were both incredibly good to me. or it could be that those photos of them being naughty with the elves actually paid off. either way, it was a very good christmas season despite being so far from home. i'm working on a full update with photos; unfortunately, i left my camera in norway. i'm off to oslo on thursday to retrieve it and will dish the dirt soonest.

in the meantime, i missed everybody terribly and can't find words to express how much the cards and messages really meant to me. love you all tons!! xoxoxox bk :) *sniff*