December 25, 2006

• Monday 25 December 2006
  Amsterdam, Netherlands

  
  

  I don't really 'do' Christmas. I used to... as a kid I loved Christmas time. Not for any religious of philosophical reason really, but simply for the lights, the atmosphere, the decorations, the TV shows, the food, the presents. Exactly the things that Christmas should not be about. And judging by the stuff that's on sale in the shops I'm not the only one who was going for that, rather than for religions celebrations of to contemplate the deeper ponderings of life.

  
  

  Then, some ten years ago, I decided that Christmas really was not supposed to be about wrapping paper and chocolate, so I tuned it down a bit in my own home. No more Christmas tree (although for some years I mocked the season a bit with my inflatable Christmas tree - don't ask), no more extravagant amounts of food and sweets. And I must say I'm quite happy with that change. Christmas for me now is a lot simpler. And still a nice time for reflection, watching the Queens (Queen Beatrix' Christmas Message at 1PM, Queen Elizabeth's Christmas Broadcast at 4PM), and... for washing my windows.

  
  

  Washing my windows? Uhm - yeah. You see, today was The Cleaning Of The House day, for when my family is over tomorrow. So that meant that I've been hovering, cleaning, scrubbing, dusting for most of the day. Not that I minded - with some nice festive music, or some old Queens speaking in the background, it was actually good. I'm quite pleased with the result. At the end of the afternoon I was doubting whether I should be going into town, but I decided not to. I stayed in, fooling around on my computer a bit, and also studying the manual to the machine in the picture above a bit more. It's my newest camera, a Nikon D200, and I'm very happy that I bought it. I'm quite impressed with the initial results and hope that next year I'll be able to post quite a lot of pictures on my blog that were made by the D200.

  • 10:34 am
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