(written on 16 January 2013)

Tomorrow is Mother's Day in the Netherlands and normally that would mean that I would have gone to Limburg today to spend the weekend with my parents. Not so this year though because today Sarah celebrated a big birthday (as in forty time big!) in a bar on Overtoom and that's where I went in the evening. I had an excellent time, despite the fact that I hardly got to speak with Sarah at all. Instead I spent most of the evening with Nancy and her husband Frank. Nancy worked for our company (and was in fact number two in the staff list when the company started in the 1980s) until she... well, let's just say that very unfortunately she no longer works for our company. It was great to catch up with her, and later in the evening also with Jing, and to find out how things were going with everyone. I got home not too late so I will still be able to go down to Limburg at an early enough time on Saturday.

One fun thing about weight loss that is that I have started buying new clothes. Where I typically bought XL shirts and jumpers, these days an L more than suffices. Some weeks ago though I had bought a polo shirt in town and when I tried it on then it was just a bit uncomfortable. It was an L, but a rather tight L, and because the polo had dark and light green horizontal stripes it was rather revealing at the time of purchase. Tonight though, several weeks later, I tried it on again and lo and behold! It fit! A bit giddy I wore it to Sarah's party tonight, amazingly aware of my thinner size, and very happy about it. Soon it will be time to start buying many more new clothes, especially trousers because the ones I have now are without exception too large.

The picture shows a 'flash-mob' kind of gathering on Dam Square which I saw in the morning as I was doing some shopping. I have no idea what the occasion was but let's just say it was in honour of Sarah's birthday.

(written on 16 January 2013)

Obviously it's been a while since I took this picture so all I can tell you about it is that I took it in EYE, the new Film Museum and four screen cinema on the other side of the IJ (hence the name) behind central station. I went there on my own today, just enjoying the EYE experience, with the added advantage that it takes only about twenty minutes from door to door, and that includes a ferry ride to the other side of the IJ. EYE is a wonderful cinema and I'm very happy that it opened, and that it's so close by. What is also wonderful, of course, is that the weekend just started today!

By the way, I decided to decrease the picture size on this blog down to 640px again because the 800px pictures I tried for a week are just too wide. On smaller laptop screens that's just annoying, and even though by now I'll probably be the only writer and reader again of this blog, it's just more convenient for myself.

(written on 15 January 2013)

Today was only the second time in my life that I blocked someone on Facebook. My happiness-post on Facebook regarding President Obama's statement on same-sex statement not only got a comment from my conservative colleague but also from one of her American friends. His remarks, basically about he really couldn't be bothered with these issues (countered by me saying that they were of immense importance to me) led to him saying that I should not be so sensitive. And some other words. And that's when I blocked him. You see, it's still my Facebook profile and though I don't mind discussions of any kind, I don't have to accept getting insulted by someone who isn't even one of my Facebook friends and who doesn't know me personally. Block!

It was rather windy and nasty weather today, but I did cycle to work nonetheless. My waterproof trousers and jacket I manage to get the office in a reasonably dry state. Most importantly, my waterproofs allow me to cycle, which means I can go to the pool in the morning before work, which is exactly what I did today. My morning swims have become so regular that I actually miss them when I can't do them, and with my weight loss progressing nicely, it's important to keep the rhythm. The picture was taken just outside our office building.

(written on 15 January 2013)

The picture is of two bridges that can get seen from our 26th floor office. The bridges are way east of Amsterdam (I think) but my camera manages to get them so close up that it seems as if I could step out onto them from the office.

But that's not today's news. Not at all.

I watched a German TV program today that I hadn't seen since I was younger. Much, much younger (as in: teenager.) The program is called Aktenzeichen XY Ungelöst, which translates into File Number XY Unsolved. It's a real crime program, produced in cooperation with German police, similar to Crimewatch UK or Opsporing Verzocht, the respective UK and Dutch equivalents. What struck me most tonight was how little Aktenzeichen has changed since I was a kid. The somewhat dry presentation (this is German TV, remember?) was there. The clearly not-media-trained police officers. And the of course also the ten minute video re-enactments of the crimes that they were trying to get solved. And you know what? Those videos were still as scary as they were all those years ago! The best thriller directors and actors must be involved in getting Aktenzeichen on TV. It was excellent! I was a bit disappointed with myself that it had taken me so long to watch Aktenzeichen, or German TV at all for that matter, again. I used to watch so much TV when I was younger, and a large part of the time spent watching that wretched thing was from watching German TV. But English has taken over my life to the point that I even think in English, and German, that beautiful and hugely undervalued language was moved to the backseats in my language brain. That's too bad, and in order to correct that a bit, I wrote a status update on Facebook in German tonight. That felt good. I can still do it.

The other big, nay huge, news this evening was President Obama's announcement that he has no objection to same sex marriage. For this man to make such a statement in a tense election year, well I thought it was amazing and I started applauding behind my computer when I read the news (I know, I know, nerd.) The Huffington Post delivered the news with a funny and very apt headline (I do!) and with that I created a picture that I put on Facebook to express my joy. Almost immediately my conservative colleague from our US office posted a comment ridiculing Obama's statement, saying that the President had only made that statement because it's an election year. My counter argument that that's exactly a reason why it was a courageous statement (going against public sentiment) led to a fairly nasty discussion with arguments for and against Obama, liberals, and conservatives all flying in all directions. It got so muddy that I regretted posting about my happiness in the first place. Most disappointed I was with Anthony who commented that "it had only been a personal statement from Obama anyway and therefore didn't count" because if you can't see the relevance and importance of the President's statement (most definitely with Ant himself being a gay Republican who got legally married to his husband here in the Netherlands) then you may want to assess your reasoning and your loyalties. Nevertheless, I was extremely happy with Obama's statement. It's baby steps till there will be complete equality, but that baby took quite a big step today.

(written on 15 January 2013)

The picture is of a tree and it's the picture that has served as the background for this blog (only visible to those with a wide enough screen) for the past eight months, while this blog was inactive exactly during the same time period when my life was super active. The picture was taken as I walked back home from work. Rain in the morning had prevented me from cycling to work but I like to compensate for that lack of exercise by walking home in the evening. The tree is on Bernard Zweerskade, which is a most wonderful street in the south of the city. There are houses here, not apartments, and they are huge! And they have equally huge gardens! On all sides of the house! Probably one of the most affluent streets in this city and I get to walk and cycle through it every day. One day I will live here. Until then this picture of a tree in this street will have to do.

Amsterdam, Netherlands

It was back to the office today after a three day weekend. I can't say I've gotten used to my full time work schedule yet (in fact, I don't suspect I ever will) but there is a slight comfort in the knowledge that there are still quite some public holidays coming up in the next couple of weeks. Only after Pentecost, at the end of this month will each work week consist of five days (until Christmas) and even then I have already taken some days off, for example to go to London in June.

Weight-wise things continue to go well. Of course I weigh myself each morning, and I record everything in an app on my iPod as well as in a spreadsheet I keep on my work computer. There is still a steady decline of my weight and that's a very comfortable feeling. A couple of times, people have told me that "it'll become more and more difficult to lose those last kilograms" but so far that's not noticeable. In the week before Queen's Day I dropped below 90 kilograms for the first time, and despite a slight increase after Queen's Day, I have not returned to the 90s anymore, with my weight this morning at 88.4. It's funny how Mondays and Tuesday typically show the highest weights, with significant drops happening on Thursdays and Fridays. Let's see what the rest of the week will show.

One of the reasons for my wight loss, apart from the swimming which I also did this morning again, is my diet. The yellow pepper in the picture above was cut in little pieces, together with a red and a green paper, and was put in a box that I keep in my fridge. Every morning I compose a salad, consisting of lettuce of various types and the contents of the plastic boxes in my fridge containing not just cut up pieces of peppers, but also boiled veggies (broccoli, carrots, beans) that can be eaten cold and tomatoes and other raw vegetables. Add some salt, pepper, some seeds perhaps, balsamic vinegar and olive oil and presto! A wonderful salad for my lunch break.

Amsterdam, Netherlands

I returned to EYE, the new film museum and cinema just north of the IJ water, on the other side of Central Station. I just love the building and the type of films that are shown there. None of the recent Hollywood blockbusters but lots of vintage cinema and current arthouse films. It's great! Today I went to see Play, a Swedish film, set in Gothenburg, about a group of boys that are being terrorised by another group of boys. Rather a confrontational film, especially if you have been bullied when you were a kid. Some of the scenes were just quite disturbing. The cinematography was very special, with practically all scenes shot at a great distance from the actors, with a strong zoom lens. That was a very effective way of shooting the film, because it seemed to make the bullying all the more intimidating, as if the young (superb) actors were left on their own. The picture is of some of the buildings on Warmoesstraat, with their backs on what once was the Amstel River.

Today I also sent out an email to the person in charge of the owners' association of our building, and in the mail I asked him dozens of questions about the things that went wrong with our building. Some of the questions were of course about the upstairs neighbours, because I suspect they derailed the project by having some work carried on at the same time and by the same builder. It sounds a bit cryptic here but it's too complicated to describe in a couple of paragraphs... and probably best not vented here at all. I was glad the mail was sent out though. These things always take a lot of time for me to do, because I tend to mull over issues quite long before voicing my frustrations or objections. At least this step was taken now.

Amsterdam, Netherlands

A fairly quiet day today. It's Liberation Day, the day back in 1945 when the entire country got liberated from German occupation. And as it turns out, it's the coldest Liberation Day ever. Nothing remains of the warm weather earlier in the week. The heating is back on. Had the weather been pleasant, then I would probably have gone to the national celebration on the Amstel River, where a classical music show is performed in attendance of the Queen and - for the first time ever - also the German President, Joachim Gauck. But instead I just stayed at home, and didn't even watch it on TV.

One thing I did do today is plan my holiday in July. It's still a while to go, but as these things go, it's cheaper to book tickets well in advance. So I booked a flight to Manchester on Friday 20 July and I'll be staying in a B&B in nearby Blackpool for three nights, then I'll go up to Scotland to visit Andy and Colin, again for three nights, and then a short flight will take me to Northern Ireland where I'll stay in Belfast for another three nights, returning on Sunday 29 July - before going back to work on the Monday again. I hadn't planned on going away at all this year, waiting for my finances to calm down again, but a UK tour seems to be affordable at this moment so I decided to book anyway.

The flag in the picture above was hung out in Prinsenhofsteeg, an alley close to where I live, for Liberation Day.

Amsterdam, Netherlands

National Remembrance Day in the Netherlands today, which means that there were two minutes of silence at 8pm and a national, televised ceremony on Dam Square, just a stone's throw from my house. But before it was 8pm, there were some other issues to be dealt with, and that started twelve hours earlier, at 8am.

The scaffolding in front of the house was at long last removed last Saturday and Sunday, but there was still some paint work to be done on the window frames, and for that the builder had asked me to be at home for a day so that he could work on the windows from inside the apartment. So, I had taken today off and opened the door - and the windows - for him to come in and paint. Because the wonderful warm Queen's Day weather is long gone again, it was really quite chilly with all windows open all day, but at least there was some work being done again.

At 10:30 in the morning my downstairs neighbours also came up for a chat about the situation with the building. They, as I, are appalled by the horrible look of the façade. We talked about what had happened in the previous months. It's my firm belief that we were back-stabbed my the upstairs neighbours in a big way... but that's of course difficult to prove. It was good to have this chat though, because - if anything - there's been a complete lack of communication about some important issues regarding the house.

And as if all that wasn't enough, today also saw the arrival of a couchsurfer who'll stay with me for three days. A Brazilian guy called Luãn, now residing in Germany. He walked in at around noon, while the apartment was still a mess (not to mention quite chilly) but then left again to explore the city and come back in the evening when everything had been cleaned up again and the temperature was also much more agreeable. I didn't go the ceremony on Dam Sq because the incident two years ago, when a crazy guy started shouting during the two minutes' silence, causing a panic in the crowd, has left me feel quite uncomfortable about being on the Dam itself. I watched it all on TV and was quite relieved when the two minutes were over without incident.

Amsterdam, Netherlands

The picture may not seem very special, and it's remarkably similar to previous pictures I've posted about my living room, but there's still a bit of a twist to it. Some years ago it suddenly became fashionable to create HDR (High Dynamic Range) pictures, that were basically a merger of several pictures, taken from the same standpoint but with different exposures. By merging them together you create a surreal scene where the contrast between different parts of the picture becomes much less than usual.

Take the above picture. It was shot indoors and the interior of the flat is properly visible: the exposure was correct for the interior. Yet, typically with such a setting, anything outside would become completely over exposed, and therefore just white. From the fact that in the above picture the buildings outside are visible, you can see that I worked on it a bit. I wanted to try an HDR picture myself, but not with using some of the free applications available on the net but just Photoshop Elements. It didn't quite work, which is best seen from the dark and unnatural window frames. Ah well, I will have to give this another shot when I am willing to spend more time one this. Speaking of pictures, with the availability of a new picture format on Flickr (800 pixels wide or high) I've switched to this format on this blog as well, making the pictures bigger... but maybe a bit too big on a screen that is only 1024 pixels wide. I'll have to see if I like it... Maybe I'll switch back to 640 pixels pictures.