Internet, visitors and England

As usually, I've been neglecting you for far too long again, which means it'll be a long post (again). Let's start at the beginning: Easter at my parents was nice and relaxing, after which a short workweek followed. Thursday evening I went to Café Stevens with Monique for some lovely food and lots and lots of chatting.

Just a nice picture to cheer you up. It's far from perfect (can't seem to get the macro function working properly on my camera), but still lovely.

Fridayevening I was supposed to have dinner with Eric, my former neighbour from Diemen, but that didn't go too well.... Since we were supposed to meet at 18.30 I first had a few beers with a collegue of mine, Rogier. It was very nice and as we Dutchies say 'gezellig'. I ended up staying a bit late, texted Eric I was going to be a bit later, finished my beer and set off at about 7 in the pooring rain to find the pub were I was supposed to meet Eric. Since I didn't know exactly where at was (somewhere behind Dam square), I called to ask for directions. No answer, so I texted. Still no answer, so I left a message on his voicemail. And another call attempt and another text message. Sooked by then I coincidentely (finally) ended up at the right pub, but no Eric inside. Hmmm. So I called and texted again. No answer. Till 19.45: a message that he left at 7 to go home after waiting for half an hour. He was very pissed off. OOPS. But he knew I was going to be a bit late and just left without saying anything, or calling to ask where I was... hmmm. Sorry I missed him, but a bit weird reaction from him as well. If you're pissed off, just call and say you're leaving, don't let me wander around for more than 30 minutes in the pissing rain...

Saturday Judith, an old friend from highschool, came to visit. We discovered a bit of Haarlem and went to the Frans Hals Museum. A very nice museum in a lovely old building. Good collection, big enough to keep you entertained for a few hours and small enough not to become overwhelmed and bored. Ofcourse we had a look around the shops and enjoyed the lovely weather. After a non eventful week at work I went to Groningen during the weekend. Friday evening I spent at Karlijn and Woodan (the dog)'s place. Lots of food, a bit of wine, loads of talking etc. Always nice to catch up! The next morning we set off for a serious day of shopping! We actually went to H&M, which is a disaster on Saturdays, but we're still alive and even bought some nice clothes! Unbelievable.... but good results. Gwendy joined us for H&M and a bit of walking around a few other shops, but left to go home and get some more sleep for the evening out we had planned. Karlijn and I went to the home improvement and furniture shops, where I bought a nice lamp and a gift for Karlijn's birthday. We ended up in Ikea, Karlijns favorite shop. NOT. haha. It was'nt too bad though, cheap drinks and a few accesoires later we left satisfied. I got so much stuff that Karlijn offered to drop them off the next weekend in Haarlem, since she had to go to Amsterdam anyway to catch a flight. Such a sweety!

That evening I stayed over at Marieke's place. We had dinner, lots of talking and dressing up planned after which the evening could begin. First a few pubs and ending up at 'Het Feest' where we danced around and Karlijn got offered XTC (the guy probably thought we needed it to keep dancing. the idiot. as if. hahaha). Ofcourse she didn't take it, but it was a first for me to experience such easy access to drugs. I never realised it was that openly available. Hmmm. Not so good. After a very relaxing, lazy Sundaymorning I went back to Haarlem again.

It looked like it was going to be another uneventfull week... BUT on Wednesday my boss told us that she was leaving us. We were all flabbergasted (and some very very happy, but not me). This SUCKS. I like my boss and we have the same way of thinking and working, which makes life a bit nicer as there is enough trouble already at work. We'll just wait and she who'll be her replacement. If that's not a good replacement I'll go and look for another job.... plenty to do around Amsterdam anyway...

Last weekend Gwendy visited me in Haarlem. From Fridaynight onwards it was all holiday talk :) We booked our flight and reserved a car, figured out where we basically want to go and booked the first camping as well! Whoohoo! England here we come :) From 9 till 23th of Juli I've ordered nice weather in England and Whales, so lets hope they deliver ;)

This week not much happening, Thursday evening my new housemate Gillian is celibrating her birthday, so a good opportunity to meet the other housemates as well.

OOOH I almost forgot... the internetsoap: I finally managed to get internet on the 1st of april (no joke!) but lost it again the following weekend due too an electrical storm where all the power went out in the house and the modem died.... Hmmm loads of fun, after 2 months I finally manage to get internet, I only get 3 days of user time.... 30 min on the phone with my provider later I managed to organise a new modem for free, which only took a week to arrive this time! So after loads of irritation, calling, wasting money etc I am now finally back in the virtual, online world called internet!