I'm available.

No I'm not.

Let me explain. I had the privilege to have two of my tracks (recorded in the early 80's) included on the Trumpett Days lp (yes, as in vinyl).
But it turns out it's already sold out right after the release! Only 520 copies and it will never be 'repressed' :-)
You can listen to a clip on the Enfant Terrible site or on the VPRO luisterpaal (but I think it will be gone soon).



If I get some more listens on my MySpace page I will put up some new/unreleased tracks there. I also take requests ;-)

Ninety-eight!

Our 'auntie' Elsie from the Ilse of Wight celebrates her 98th birthday today.


The pictury is from july this year, although I understand the weather's not too bad on the island at the moment.

Proud mother

Last weekend my mother received the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice, which is the highest Catholic Church award for "distinguished service to the church by lay people".



For almost 35 years now, she has been working as a volunteer in a nursing home to help people in wheelchairs to attend mass. My brother set things in motion to apply for this award, so he got the honour to pin up the medal. The person on the left is the director of verpleeghuis Prinsenhof.


Pictures by Pastor L. Kaserer

Birthday Girl, anyone?

You know the movie, right? Well, I really had a laugh while reading this message that for some reason was not marked as spam. I mean, who believes this stuff?

Write to you the woman from Russia. My name is Olga. And I'm 26 years old! I want to find the man for serious relation in your country. I am ready for creation family and want it very much. I cannot find the man in Russia for myself because it very difficultly in Russia. It is a lot of men in Russia who drink alcohol much and I'm not like it. I want to create family and to live in your country because the government to care about people. I want to live and be sure in the future. In Russia it is not possible to live easy.
I want to tell about myself a little. I live in city Yoshkar-Ola. It's 1000 km from capital of Russia Moscow. My city small and very beautiful. I work as the seller in shop home appliances. I'm cheerful woman who like to go for sports and do all what like are usual peoples. My history: I'm with my girlfriend were going to go in your country as tourists for search of men for serious relations. But my girlfriend could not go with me. She had problems with your family. But very soon I will receive visa and I don't want to lose a chance to arrive in your country. I will receive visa in 7 days for your country. Now I'm in Moscow also and waiting for reception of my visa. It will be great if you can meet me and we can to have relations with you. I'm understand that it very strange, but probably it's desteny for you and me. I understand that you will ask me "Where did you get my e-mail?" I'm right??? ;) Ok, I got your e-mail through internet dating agency in my city. I gave them my letter and they told me that they will send my letter for 4-5 men. And I will be very happy if YOU will answer to me.
I will be very happy you will write me and we will have our meeting very soon. And it is possible we a meeting in 7 days because I can arrive to you.
Please tell to me about yourself a little! What is your full name? Your age? City?
I send to you my photo with hope that you will like it and answer to me back...
I will wait your answer so much...
Write to me on e-mail : olga********@**.ru
Yours new friend Olga

There's nothing decent on the TV page

I've been working on a way to know in advance if TV series we follow are really new or that the channels switch to re-runs in the middle of the season (something our commercial channels are known to do a lot, even with hit series like CSI).
Luckily the tv guide lists the episode name (sometimes a lame translation to dutch) and thanks to all the episode guides on teh interweb most of the times I manage to have a timetable ready for the week.

I started out with a bunch of hyperlinks (bookmarks) but wanted to have them available on other computers so I created a html page. Next I made things neat using a table structure and links to the IMDB because there you can directly link to the season. Handy, because there I link to the season that we are watching at the moment (a lot of the time the channels start with a number of reruns when series are resumed and I hate to start watching only to find out it is vaguely familiar and getting more so by the minute).

Anyway, now I've started working on the page I will probably be working to get it to looking better and better. I think finding out about CSS is the way to go.

Meanwhile, take a look here.

Nice movie

Thanks to the 'AH Filmweken' we went out to see a movie again, with the kids. It was The Bourne Ultimatum and is highly recommended if you like a good movie with a lot of action. We all jumped in our seats a few times (a good sign).
After we came home we pulled out the previous 'Bourne' move (The Bourne Supremacy) because we were a bit confused by the story. Not that the story matters that much with a movie like this, but it turns out that the story of the third movie actually starts before the end of the second one. For instance, the 'incorrect' date of Jason's birth (an important clue in the third movie) is already mentioned in the second movie.
Anyway, just as with the old James Bond movies (I think 'Never Say Never Again' was basically a remake of 'Thunderball') this does not take away any of the fun.

The End of an Era

Daniel did his last paper round yesterday. After more than two years, it was time for a change. Here he is loading the last stack in his bicycle bags (the bags were collected this afternoon by the next 'victim').

Back to school, bringing back presents

It sure was a long summer this year but finally our kids went back to school again this week. Merel is in the final year of the VMBO-green and as her profile is 'flower' it looks like she will bring home a boeket of flowers every week :-)

Merel made this boeket yesterday, it got the best grade of the class (9 out of 10, graded on exam level).

This was made three days ago. I postponed making the picture to this morning and as you can see (if you click the picture to enlarge), some flowers are already losing their freshness.

Venting pipe for the tumble dryer

About six months ago our old faithful condenser tumble dryer broke down after 16 years of service. We opted for a new dryer without condenser option as in general they are cheaper and dry better. As it was winter we didn't bother with fitting a vent on the roof, we just hung the sleeve out of the window and when it got really cold we used an indoor condensor kit (one word of advice: avoid).
Anyway, last week we finally got round to doing it right thanks to the help of Freek who volunteered for the job.Before I was able to think about getting my camera ready, Freek had climbed out of the dormer window and started handing me roof tiles. It was a bit of a puzzle to work out the place of the hole. It's not so easy as there is something like 30 centimeters of space between the tiles and the inside of the roof. We opted for working from the outside, although most instructions tell you to work from the inside. In our case we thought it was better because you can plan the outside hole to perfectly fit under the special tile-with-a-hole and then drill through there to make a hole to the inside (one of the other reasons we did it this way was because I don't have a 30 cm drill...)Here Freek is making things fit on the inside. When both holes were ready we could push the pipe through and make some (small) adjustments so that it would be completely vertical. Time for some coffee and and smoke (for Freek) and to take a look from the outside. You can just about see the pipe peeping through.That was the most difficult work done. Just before closing up I saw this view from the inside and told Freek to hold it there for a few more seconds.He was not wearing his shades to look 'cool' but to avoid getting dirt in his eyes. Anyway, then it was time to put the special roof tile in place, put the cap on the pipe and start replacing the rest of the roof tiles (with directions from Daniel who was looking up from the garden).This is what it looks like from the inside. It would have been nice if the pipe was 10 cm longer, it juuust about fit.And finally the completed look from the outside. Thanks again Freek!

This blog is rated G

Mingle² - Online Dating

Daniel has passed his finals!

The phonecall just came in: he has passed his final HAVO exams.
Here he is, ready to dig in :)

Windmill day

Today was dutch 'national windmill day'. We have a number of mills in our neighbourhood, one (called very unpoetic 'Molen C') which was burned down over two years ago.
Last year the rebuilding was started, a few weeks ago the thatchers finished covering the last bits and today a big milestone was reached by placing the top.

We start with how it looked two weeks ago, with the thatchers still at work (a picture I took early in the morning, on my way to work).


This was the view when we arrived this morning. There was some delay as the spindle hadn't arrived yet.


The spindle was just delivered as we approached, here it is going up.


Without the slightest hint of 'effort' the spindle was placed in one go.


Added into the mix: some kind of gear thinghy to be put on top of the spindle (actually, that thinghy is about man-size!)

'The man on the top' stands at the ready as the crane-guys figure some things out.

Cables are attached.

Wow! There it goes.

Despite the strong winds today (probably the best kind of weather for windmill-day) the top went up without a hitch. Here it is hovering just above the mill.

Time to leave the builders to do the last adjustments. I hope I can be present when the 'wings' are placed.

Girls sleepover birthday party

We're recovering from the sleepover party that Merel had yesterday (she turned 15 two weeks ago). Four girls watching movies, eating sweets and talking non-stop...
Now just trying to think of the good things:

A winning photo!

No, I did not win a big prize or anything, just the honour. Our department (IT) went to Artis a few weeks ago with the assignment to make pictures on the subject 'animals and motion', everyone cound 'send in' three photo's and then choose the best ones (but not your own).
Of course the most important part of the afternoon (and evening) was to have fun and enjoy ourselves, but as there was serious competition of 'guys with big cameras' I did my best to come up with something good. I think the drinking monkey came out nice (also thanks to the nice sunny weather and some patience).
I had to share the first prize with Astrid, who also used a relativly simple camera. That picture is here.

Now my back would like some rest

The paving of the terrace at the back of our house was very much in need of 'straightening out'. It has been lying there for over 15 years without much overhauls. Last year (actually a year and a half ago) we removed the small shed ajacent to the kitchen to make place for new window-frames all around our house (and sliding doors from our livingroom to the terrace). I never did a proper job of the paving near the backdoor and the rest (as I said before) was in need of a big overhaul. So, up and down with the 40x60 cm stones I go. But in the end, it's the result that counts:
Notice the nice brickwork on the fence at the back. No doubt this needs repair more sooner than later! How about a view from the other side I hear you say:
Notice how nice the parasol-foot is embedded in the paving :-) (click on the pictures to see a bigger size).

Now this was finished I water-cleaned the wooden tiles (it was a nice warm day so it was a good opportunity to the get the garden hose out of the shed!) and placed them. Like so:
And finally, a view to the back of the garden to show the disappeared path on the right (obviously you can't see it because it is removed) and the 'new' playfully placed stepping-stone-path. I filled up the old path with the pieces of grass that made way for the stepping stones and some pieces of border that had to be cut anyway.

Damn Small Linux

Good, small image (50MB). So I fired up the laptop again. Had troubles booting, at first I suspected the pcmcia (so booted with 'dsl nopcmcia') which got me further but would hang eventually. So I tried to boot with 'lowram' which did the trick. As by now I suspected the laptop is 'old' I choose the 'Xfbdev' option for the 'X setup'. After this there are the usual questions about mouse and keyboard and then I get the message 'modprobe: Can't locate module fb0' (and the startup aborts there). It looks like the setup wants to start X but can't. Anyway, by now I changed to manual install: startup with 'failsafe' and then follow the script on the DSL wiki. This works like a charm and after this my X display WILL start.
Resolution is good, pcmcia card is detected, Firefox works: it looks like I'm in business :-)

Tried another Linux distro

As the old Toshiba Tecra8000 laptop was/is doing nothing anyway I thought why not.
I downloaded the 'Debian 3.1 R5 network install' cd and fired it up (it's the easiest way as the iso is something like 100MB and therefore fits on a rewritable, everything else will be downloaded at request; the website has something like 14 iso's for this release and I have no intention to find out which ones I would need). I chose the 'put everything in one partition' option because the laptop has a small 6.5 GB disk and there will be a lot of stuff to download (to be honest, this installation is the second try so I knew what was coming: during install of the downloaded stuff the 1.9GB partition was full).
Installation of the base system went smoothly enough and after the first reboot even my PCMCIA network card was recognised without missing a beat. The system started to download some necessities and then asks for the kind of software: 'desktop' looks about right and downloading continues for a few hundred MB's (still a lot better then any couple of iso's).
After doing some shopping I came back to find the system waiting for my okay for using the 'vesa' driver for it's X server (it sounded familiar so what the heck). Mouse detection is no problem and then the system asks all kinds of stuff about the display. Fortunately, I had found that out before. After that there is more unpacking going on (the harddrive is purring for about an hour). Finally it's ready, the screen becomes a blur and it's the 'fingers crossed' moment while I wait for the login prompt of the graphical interface. It works and I get the familiar looking desktop. So far so good, but exploring the system will have to wait until I have nothing better to do.

Old fashioned tape recorders anyone?

I thought I finally would get round to dusting off some old reel-to-reel tapes and transfer my 80's music noodlings to cd, but noooooo! Both my taperecorders are on the fritz and it looks like there won't be an easy way to fix them.
Yesterday I transferred some of the stuff (I did some quick and rough mix-downs to pc) I have on cassettes for my faithful Tascam Portastudio 244 (at least that one still works after 20+ years) but it's only a fraction of everything I ever did. Fortunately I have copies (or I should have copies) of all my stuff on cassette and I want to start tranferring those (I have not heard this stuff in YEARS) but unfortunately that's an extra tape generation that I could do without.

Nice trip home yesterday

I really shouldn't have travelled to work as there were warnings all over the news that there was going to be a big fat storm yesterday. But because I thought (like a lot of people) that it wouldn't be as big a deal as it was going to be I hopped on my bike towards the train station thinking to myself that there was almost no wind at all. Getting of the bus at work I understood the storm was picking up after all: using an umbrella was useless and a waste of the umbrella.
During the day there was more and more news about falling trees, cranes and of buildings losing bits and pieces. At about three o'clock (too late) I decided that it would be wise to try to get home if I wanted to get home today. The first part of the journey was an indication of things afoot: the bus had a flat tire at the first stop so I decided to walk a bit. After a few hundred meters I saw a bus from another line and quickly hopped on that one to take me to the train station. So far so good, but the crowd of people outside the Haarlem central station told me that there was no good news: and indeed no trains would be going anymore.
A quick decision was needed and as the prediction was that the wind would still be picking up at end of the day I decided on a bus as they were still in operation. Of course there was a ridiculously high number of people for the few busses that were just going their normal route (I never saw a sign of the NS having some sort of plan to utilise busses which is normal procedure if the trains are out of service). I was lucky to stand at the right place at the bus stop and get in the bus using the back door which is otherwise forbidden but the driver was okay with it. So we travelled packed like sardines and safely arrived at Beverwijk Station where we would be able to take the next normally scheduled bus to Alkmaar. At the station there was (as expected) still no sign of NS busses so we waited for the bus to Alkmaar, which arrived but the driver stopped his bus halfway the stop so that the last people to arrive were first in line to get in! This driver also took care to close the back door and to check everyone's tickets (in his words: "I don't drive for the NS"). Anyway, again I was lucky to get in and enjoy the touristic route this bus takes. When we got close to Heiloo I was even able to sit down until we reached Alkmaar station. At the last phase of this journey there was talk that trains would be resuming service after 18:00 hours but it seemed unlikely to me (I was proven right). There was a bus about to leave that would take me to Alkmaar Noord station and after a short and fast ride on my bike (with the wind in my back, making record time) I was, finally, home. All things considered the journey was still reasonably okay, looking at the news with people that got stranded at Amsterdam Central station.