Can somebody please come and help me?
I need a towel.
I need hot water.
I need soap.
I need a bucket.
I NEED TO VOMIT and clean up the mess I already made.

*explicit words inserted here*

Let's be clear here:

People who donate money, and then ask if you have donated already, do not care about the cause, but only about letting the world now that they are better than the rest. And YES I AM TALKING ABOUT HAÏTI.

On a related note: People who show grief and sadness when a celebrity dies, do not care about the celebrity, but only about letting the world now that they are better than the rest. (Michael Jackson, Lady Die, etc... )

Do you really care? Then give your money, your goods, your dog if I care, and shut the F up. Hell, you can even feel good about it! But don't bother me with your blather, your whining, your TV shows, your radio programs, your one million newspaper items, your internet spam, your ANNOYING PRESENCE. You make me vomit.

Yes. Maybe I care about the cause. Maybe I don't.
The fact is that you will never know. And I wish that you would extend the same courtesy to me. You and the rest of you.

Now I'm off, donating food to myself.

Today I had the pleasure of visiting the Delta Lloyd head office in Amsterdam, near Amstel station. Carrying my phone around I took the opportunity to quickly take some snaps from Amsterdam through the window.

Looking North, you will look into the Rembrandt Tower, and have Philips pretty close up on the left. Amstel Station can be seen down below on the right, and in the distance on the left, over the river Amstel, you can spot the Dutch National Bank.

Looking South you can follow the rail tracks of the metro and trains towards Spaklerweg metro station, past the Amsterdam Prison, towards the towers of Amsterdam South-East, which are fading in the distance.

I like nice views :-)

People say adding or not adding www at the start of a website address doesn't matter. As a matter of fact, they claim, not using www is the best way!

However, the KNMI (Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute) has a whole different opinion about that, it seems.

Please have a look at the 'actual weather' page at their website.

First, let's use http://www.knmi.nl/actueel/:

Second, let's use http://knmi.nl/actueel/:

Seems like using www points to today. Not using www points to yesterday.

How rare!

Am I the only person who gets absolutely sick from the self-centered way of the Dutch media? The screenshot is a perfect example again:

Dutch people wounded by earthquake in Haïti

What the f*ck?
An earthquake in Haïti, 7 on the Richter scale, has probably caused the death of thousands of people, and all they care about here is "OH MY GOD SOME DUTCH GUY GOT A SCRATCH!!!!"

*vomit*

Sometimes, when reading a book, they speak about the fire in one's eyes. It could be anger, or love, or ambition. But what does it look like? Today I finally received the answer to that burning question, when a decent looking headscarfed Muslim girl sat down opposite me in the train and looked me in the eyes. I guess she was Moroccan, but that doesn't really matter. The thing is that her eyes were alight. Like little flames dancing in her dark irises and pupils. I don't know which emotion was attached to it. She seemed loving or caring. Anyway, the fact remains I was like 'WOW. Those eyes... They're on fire!'
I'm happy to know it actually does exist :-)

From Prague, I wish a Merry Christmas to all.

Life is good in this amazing city. I didn't really make much photos so far, because I'm too happy to just walk and be here with Veronika. Maybe tomorrow I'll get off my pretty bottom and go wander while the day is still light.

Last night we went to the Christmas mass in church. We went to the Kostel Nejsvětějšího Salvátora (Sint-Salvatorkerk / Jesus Christ the Saviour church) which is a rather large traditional Catholic basilica church. It's the church in the picture above. They say that the Czech Republic is the most atheistic country in the world. But for such a Godless country I was amazed to see so many people in the church. To be honest I've never seen so many people squeeze into one church before. The people were everywhere. All seats were taken, and people were standing all the way from the entrance at the back of the church to the altar and around it. It was freezing cold, so I admire those many brave souls who have been standing all service long.
The service was great. Everybody, and there must have been a couple of thousands, was welcomed personally by Tomáš Halík, a famous Czech. Veronika was like WOW I MET HIM! :-) And he did little parts of the service in English so I even understood some.

It's Christmas :-)

And if you don't celebrate Christmas: have a jolly good time anyway, as you should always.

Byebye. Next update probably from the depths of the Czech mountains around new year!

Sometimes it's good to have a small drink...

...just because a big drink would be a bit too much!

What a nice Johnny Walker Blue Label magnum!

I liiiiiiike.

Fujitsu started a new billboard campaign here in The Netherlands for their laptops. Check out the poster. It's in Dutch, but I'm sure you'll understand.

"Fujitsu advices Windows Vista Home Premium!"

"New laptop with Windows 7"

"Windows Vista Home Premium"

"With Windows 7 Home Premium you can do this that and the other...."

riiiiight.....

Bye bye, love.
Bye bye, happiness.
Hello, loneliness.
I think I'm a-gonna cry-y.

Bye bye, love.
Bye bye, sweet caress.
Hello, emptiness.
I feel like I could di-ie.
Bye bye, my love, goodby-ye.

And then I said bye bye to my Reigate home for an undetermined long period of time. It's completely empty now. The keys have been handed over to a letting agency to look after it. Bye bye, love. See you much later.

As I start the processes of clearing out my English home, for either rental or sales, because I'm not using it anyway at the moment, I think about the thing that connects the west and the east: nature.

I am aware that it might seem absurd, but as I grapple to understand the emotions that a ripe cornfield or a herd of cows or even a tractor on the skyline provoke in me, I can find no better - or more honest - term than love. (...) If you have ever caught your breath at the natural world, if you have ached to be by a favourite stream or meadow, or grieved at the violation of a forest or copse to make way for an airport or housing estate or bypass, if your heart soars when you see a hawk hovering or a skylark on the wing, if the bark of a fox or scream of an owl stops you in your tracks, if you are mesmerized by a hoar frost or falling snow, if the moan of a high wind or the muttering from a thunder cloud fills you with awe, then you will understand that the term love in relation to rural England is not as ludicrous as it might at first appear. Anyway, I felt at home in Yasnaya Polyana.

This is a quote from Jonathan Dimbleby. English reporter, writing from Ясная Поляна (Yasnaya Polyana), the former home of Leo Tolstoy, in Russia.

In my case, I'd only alter 1 thing in that quote to make it mine:

'Anyway, I feel at home in Eastern Europe.'

For example. Check out this one that was driving through Apeldoorn (NL):

(To the English speakers out here: "Duw an" is basically Dutch for "push car from behind to start" ;) )

Op de KVK website staat een interessante powerpoint presentatie over hoe pinpas betaal automaten, zoals in veel winkels gebruikt, gemodificeerd worden om te skimmen, en hoe je ze kunt herkennen. De moeite waard om even door te nemen, en bij het pinnen op te letten!

Click hier voor het document!

...maar gelukkig maken ze wel geld!
- collega bankier

Today I encountered 2 interesting musical items.
First, Mr. Michael Gorbachov has produced a CD with the songs his wife liked most of all. She died 10 years ago. And the songs, are sung by himself. Actually it's very nice. Listen to track one of the CD here. It's called "Old letters" in Russian:

And my little tall brother informed me about the following "NOS Zomercolumn". What is the most populair pop-song in Russia!? It's in Dutch though, so sorry to you English speakers. However, I'm sure you will recognise the music!!!

Shizgara for ever!!!

This is a picture that depicts a scene during World War 2: The Siege of Leningrad. The city formerly, and now again, known as Saint Petersburg endured one of the longest and most destructive sieges of all time. It lasted 2.5 years, and cost 1.2 million people their lives. This is a multitude of the death toll caused by the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and only superseded by the enormous amount of casualties at the Siege of Stalingrad, during the same war.

Reading about the Siege of Leningrad I feel astounded by the tremendous suffering of the people, but also by the spirit that somehow survived, even though all hope seemed lost forever. It is astonishing to what length the population had been driven in order to survive the German and Finnish assaults and everlasting blockade.

The Soviet secret service NKVD intercepted many letters from people trapped in Leningrad. And it is those letters that remain today, and which give us an insight in their private feelings, and life. It is merely heart-breaking....

With every day that passes, life in Leningrad gets worse. People are beginning to swell up because they are eating patties made from mustard. Flour dust, which used to be used for making wallpaper paste, cannot be bought for love nor money.

There is a terrible hunger in Leningrad. We go to the fields and the scap heaps and gather all sorts of roots and dirty leaves from animal feed... and even that's a rare find.

I was witness to a scene when a cabbie's horse collapsed on the street from malnutrition. People ran over to it with aces and knives and began cutting it up into pieces and carting them home. It's awful. These people had the look of executioners about them.

Our beloved Leningrad has turned into a heap of dirt and corpses. Trams have long since ceased to run, there is no light, no fuel, the water is frozen, the rubbish isn't cleared. And, most important, we're tormented by hunger.

We've become a herd of hungry beasts. You walk along the streets and come across people swaying like drunks, collapsing and dying. We've become used to seeing such sights and pay no attention because today they are dying but tomorrow it will be me.

Leningrad has become a morgue, the streets have become avenues of the dead. In every house, the cellar is a dump for corpses. There are cavalcades of dead bodies lining the streets.

One of the people living in this time was Dmitri Shostakovich. A great composer. Recognized in his country alongside Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky. By judiciously avoiding public criticism of Stalin he had survived the worst of his Terror, and had remained in the Soviet Union. Such was his love for the Motherland, that when the war with Germany started in 1941, he applied to join the Red Army on his own accord. He was twice turned down, because of his poor eyesight. However, he was accepted in the People's Volunteer Brigades.

Only by fighting can we save humanity from destruction. - Dmitri Shostakovich

His international reputation was so great, that he appeared on the cover of Time magazine, dressed as a Soviet firefighter, ready to defend Leningrad against the German Panzer divisions that were on course to obliterate its very existence.
However, it was not this, but his majestic music, that would contribute most to the morale of the nation.

During the siege Shostakovich wrote his 7th symphony, and he dedicated it to "my native city." Generally known as the "Leningrad Symphony" a writer for the Observer by the name of Ed Vulliamy vividly described the extraordinary occasion of the first performance of the Leningrad Symphony in the besieged city itself. On that 9th of August 1942, by a scratch orchestra of starving musicians.
As Vulliamy relates the story, Shostakovich wrote the Adagio by candlelight in what was clearly a frenzy of creative inspiration while Leningrad was under bombardment by the Luftwaffe. However, he was forced to finish the manuscript in Moscow a little after Christmas 1941, because he had reluctantly obeyed the party's instructions to evacuate his native city.
The symphony had its premiere in Moscow in March, and after a microfilm score was smuggled out to the west, it was performed in America to huge acclaim.

But a premiere in Leningrad was harder to accomplish. In 2001 one of the last surviving members of the Leningrad Radio Orchestra of those days, Victor Koslov, a clarinettist, recalled what it was like to endure the winter of 1941-2 and what he saw when the snows began to melt in the spring of 1942.

Some were dead, some were half-dead, sometimes from injuries they had done to themselves. People were cutting off and eating their own buttocks. We only really saw what winter did when the snow began to melt.... Decomposing, dismembered corpses in the streets that had been hidden under the ice. Severed legs with meat chopped off them. Bits of bodies in the bins. Women's bodies with breasts cut off, which people had taken to eat.

It was at this time that a light plane from Moscow, flying over the encircling German army, dropped Shostakovich's score into the city. The symphony orchestra was re-formed and rehearsals started for what was to be the most important concert ever held in Leningrad.

Another last surviving orchestra member, Edith Katya Matus, recalled her arrival at the first rehearsal:

I nearly fell over with shock. Of the orchestra of 100 people, there were only 15 left. I didn't recognize the musicians I knew from before, they were like skeletons.... It was evident we couldn't play anything, we could hardly stand on our feet!

The now forgotten conductor Karl Ilich Eliasburg took to the rostrum and said "Dear friends, we are weak but we must force ourselves to start work", after which he raised his arms to begin, but, according to Martus, no one had the energy to move:

The musicians were trembling. Finally those who were able to play a bit helped the weaker musicians, and thus our small group began to play the opening bars. And that was the beginning of the first rehearsal.... I remember the trumpeter didn't have the breath to play his solo and there was silence when his turn came around. He was on his knees, poor man.... Everybody did his best, but we played badly, it was hopeless.

Gradually... week by week... they found the strength to persevere. Many of the musicians collapsed from hunger, and four died from starvation. As some fell out, others took their place, until, reinforced by musicians from military bands serving at the fromt, the orchestra was finally ready to perform.
Conductor Eliasburg announced the event on the radio, declaring: "This performance is witness to our spirit, courage and readiness to fight. Listen, comrades!"

On that August evening, the entire population of the city was reportedly in the Philharmonic Hall, or sitting by their radios in ruined apartments, or listening in their trenches at the front line. An artillery-man called Savkov described sitting with his comrades, listening with closed eyes: "It seemed that the cloudless sky had suddenly become a storm bursting with music as the city listened to the symphony of heroes and forgot about the war but not the meaning of war." The German invaders too were able to hear the great work, either because their guns had been silences by an unusually ferocious barrage on the previous night or because they could not resist listening to the message of musical defiance wafting across from loudspeakers directed at them from the Russian trenches.

The surviving citizens were suffering as never before, but the German grip on the city was already slackening. However it would take another dreadful winter, 18 more months and see many more deaths. But Leningrad was not throttled and would not succumb....

The image at the top of this article is a diorama of the "Leningrad Blockade" by Sergey Nemanov. It is on display in the Museum of the Great Patriotic War, in Moscow. It is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License.

This article is an adaptation of an exceprt of Jonathan Dimbleby's profoundly intriguing book "Russia - A Journey to the Heart of a Land and its People"

Check what arrived in the mail today: Creedence Clearwater Revival - Absolute Originals.

Woohoo!!! All 7 Creedence albums, in Super Audio CD format.

Ohhhhh I can feel the love.

\o/

During the past 3 weeks I have been away to Russia for 10 days and nights. And BOY was it wonderful. I've discovered a different world. To me: a new world. A world which has many things that most people here in the west will describe as bad, and outdated. A world which has many things that people overthere also find rather unpleasant. But also a world that harbours so much beauty. A world where the people are proud of their Motherland, their origin, and their being. A world where tradition and true social values are respected and upheld, unlike the ironic mask of fake social behaviour which is seen here in the west everywhere and propagated by the leftwing self-proclaimed 'socialists' who lost complete track of what that word actually means.

I met a number of people. Every one very interesting in their own way. I have been utterly impressed by the female part of the population. The way they work so hard. The way they show their ambition. The way they care about life and everything. The way they are so very kind and welcoming. And ofcourse the sheer and utter beauty of the younger (my) generation :-)

The very positive experience has urged me to go and learn more about this fabulous place. I definitely want to learn the language, and much more about the history of this all, to understand the people more. A good start for this seemed to me the book "Russia - A Journey to the Heart of a Land and its People" by Jonathan Dimbleby, a British tv & radio presenter. He spent a long time in Russia, making a crosscountry journey of 10000 miles from Murmansk to Vladivostok. He made 5 films about that, and wrote this book. From the part I've read now it seems a compelling psychoanalysis of Russia and the Russians, and it makes me more eager to learn more. This... is only the beginning.

Spying the huge territory on google maps, you can spot soooo many interesting things. Just one of many curious things I spotted so far are the markings made in the bottom of the Arctic sea:

Click for a larger version. This map shows the Arctic sea north of Russia, between Svalbard (top left), New Foundland (right) and Lapland (bottom left). And you can see there are many markings there, in patterns that are too regular and too geometric to be of natural origin.
What have those Russians been doing!???

That time of the year when postcards are send a lot!

I think I'll stick to electronic stuff. As usual :-P

Obama knows definitely where to look! And Sarkozy's grin tells more than a 1000 words. Priceless!!!
:-))

1. Teaching Maths In 1970
A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is 4/5 of the price.
What is his profit?

2. Teaching Maths In 1980
A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is 80% of the price.
What is his profit?

3. Teaching Maths In 1990
A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is £80.
How much was his profit?

4. Teaching Maths In 2000
A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is £80 and his profit is £20.
Your assignment: Underline the number 20.

5. Teaching Maths In 2005
A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and
inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the
preservation of our woodlands. Your assignment: Discuss how might the birds
and squirrels feel as the logger cuts down their homes just for a measly
profit of £20.

6. Teaching Maths In 2009
A logger is arrested for trying to cut down a tree in case it may be
offensive to religious groups not consulted in the felling licence. He is
also fined a £100 as his chainsaw is in breach of Health & Safety
legislation as it is deemed too dangerous and could cut something. He has
used the chainsaw for over 20 years without incident, however he does not
have the correct certificate of competence and is therefore considered to be
a criminal. His DNA is sampled and his details circulated throughout all
government agencies. He protests and is taken to court and fined another
£100 because he is such an easy target. When he is released he returns to
find Gypsies have cut down half his wood to build a camp on his land. He
tries to throw them off but is arrested, prosecuted for harassing an ethnic
minority, imprisoned and fined a further £100. While he is in jail the
Gypsies cut down the rest of his wood and sell it on the black market for
£100 cash. They also have a leaving BBQ of squirrel and pheasant and depart
leaving behind several tonnes of rubbish and asbestos sheeting. The forester
on release is warned that failure to clear the fly tipped rubbish
immediately at his own cost is an offence. He complains and is arrested for
environmental pollution, breach of the peace and invoiced £12000 plus VAT
for safe disposal costs by a regulated government contractor. Your
assignment: How many times is the logger going to have to be arrested and
fined before he realises that he is never going to make £20 profit by hard
work, give up, sign onto the dole and live off the state for the rest of his
life?

Time to dust off the golden rake again and prepare for job-hunting in London-town!
*yahoo* \o/

здравствуйте! (zdrazdvudye!) = hello there!
привет! (privyet!) = hello!
как дела? (kak dlya?) = how are you?
до свидания! (dozvedanye!) = good day! (bye!)

:-)

Slowly learning a little bit of Russian pronounciation here. It's fun! And Skype is cool. Had a converstation on Skype with 4 ladies and 1 guy in Russia yesterday (at the same time). Also introduced my parents to the wonders of Skype too, so it was one big group call. Loads of fun! :-D

Note: The faces have been 'criminalised' for privacy reasons ;-P *muhah*

*yahoo!* :-D

Look at the size of my bathroom! :-P

Sooo..... the contractors tried to remove 1 brick from the bathroom wall, and then the whole thing fell down. Meaning that they'll have to rebuild it, and redo the work they did on lowering the ceiling so far. Oh well.... :-)

Amazingly interesting reading material!

Finance is the art of passing money from hand to hand until it finally disappears.

AMSTERDAM, NL		16/02/2009		6:26		OUT FOR DELIVERY
...
SHANGHAI, CN		14/02/2009		14:18		ORIGIN SCAN