what happened?

Right, so all of you are wondering what I'm always blabbing about on the index page in the first paragraph? Well have I got the solution for you both! Here, I will keep a little archive of what I've written in exactly that paragraph. For your reading pleasure, I will try to put everyhthing on here one month at a time. The oldest post of the month will be at the top. When you have no idea what I'm talking about, go back a few days and everything should become clear. Whenever I think it's worth it, I'll add a link to the more interesting things I mention. Try to expect not too many links.

June 2003

1 - Sunday - 11:04
Yurika, who's studying in London for a year, is currently in Holland, and yesterday we went for a stroll around Leiden, which was great, because the weather was so nice. Maybe a bit too nice though, seeing we were both quite burnt by the sun. We had a great day however, and the plan for today is the beach again, with a big group of people.

2 - Monday - 01:29
Well, Yurika's back to London unfortunately. We went to the beach today, along with Wouter, Marije, Daan, Roos, Jet and Justus, and what do you know, we had a great time. My room is so hot now, I have to keep a fan pointed at me all the time now, because if I don't, I'll pass out from the heat, it really is that bad.

2 - Monday - 10:19
This happened quite a while ago. When I was in Huis ten Bosch, on break-time, I was together with my beautiful colleague Kanami, and she was drinking water out of a cup. every time she swallowed, she made this amazing swallowing sound like you hear in Japanese commercials. When she was finished, she hopped through the room in joy, saying "Aah, that was so good! So good!"

3 - Tuesday - 22:58
Tremors was on TV today, and although I've seen that movie quite a lot of times now, I couldn't pass it up. Although it's from 1990, it's such a good, good movie. I love the combination of suspense and humor in it, and Kevin Bacon is just so cool. Today I said goodbye to Erik, seeing he'll be flying back to Tokyo in about two days. Good for him. Now I need to get there again too.

4 - Wednesday - 10:54
I got an email from Yumiko this morning, in which she wrote down a lot of sentences in english featuring the word 'dutch'. Needless to say, in these sentences that word always had a not so fortunate meaning. That made me think though. Is our country really that bad? I'd opt for 'no'. Just about every foreigner I know who was in Holland, really liked this country, even though the people can be a bit rude.

4 - Wednesday - 18:22
When I was in Tokyo last year, I went to a jazzbar in Jiyugaoka, where Coco's band played. They invited me to play along on the piano, and we decided to do a blues in F. We recorded it too, and you can listen to the mp3 file by right-clicking here. Just save the file to your harddrive and enjoy! Without any practice, it sounds pretty good. Here is a picture of that evening, which I received not long ago.

7 - Saturday - 03:15
It's been a while since the last update, and I feel I have to apologize for that. The thing is, I've been busy. Nothing that would interest you, but there've been a lot of things on my mind. Anyway, I met up with Ruud again today, which was good as ever. I'll be studying hard the next couple of days, for a couple of tests which are coming up soon.

7 - Saturday - 11:47
I was looking through my site stats, and I noticed that the blues mp3 has been downloaded twenty times. So what did you think of it!? ...would be my next question. I'll be posting new pictures on this site, but first I need to study. The plan for today is to study lots of kanji. Am I going to succeed? My goodness, I certainly hope so.

8 - Sunday - 01:31
I spent most of the evening today with Ralph, my housemate. We watched a couple of funny dutch tv programs, snippets of movies on tv, and we discussed some important things. I got quite some studying done too, so it hasn't been a bad day. Now I'll go to sleep, to be up early in the morning again. More kanji...

10 - Tuesday - 09:14
I know for a fact that a lot of people would pay good money for the feeling I'm experiencing right now: a constant adrenaline rush throughout my whole body. As for me, I'd rather not have it. I'm just nervous for two exams I have today, which would explain the adrenaline. Hopefully I'll do well. I studied for it, so who knows...

12 - Thursday - 01:46
Today I finished my Japanese Business Program exams, so at least for a while, the stress and nerves that go along with those kind of tests will be gone. It's kind of late now, so I'll go to bed right after writing this. I'll put on a George Carlin album, and fall asleep laughing. Expect more updates again! See ya soon.

12 - Thursday - 11:04
It's a dreary day. Just about perfect for studying, so that's what I'll be doing. Although I don't have any tests coming up soon, I like to be prepared. And I also have to write a lot of papers. Boring, eh? Anyhow, I just talked to Niels, and we decided it's time again to play Seiken Densetsu 2. As for me personally, I'm going through Chrono Trigger again. Wonderful.

13 - Friday - 02:26
The dreariness, if that's even a word, of this morning cleared up pretty well, and by the time I had to start teaching, the sun was shining again. Just as a test, I included a weatherpixie on my site, and she'll show you what kind of weather we're having over here near Amsterdam. It's a nice concept, but the colors are so not coordinated with the rest of my site!

13 - Friday - 13:04
How does one move a really heavy piano from one place to the other? I don't know. Still, I have to do it very shortly. I've been trying to contact all kinds of companies, but none of them have given me a satisfying answer as of yet. This is really getting on my nerves, as I know my cousin, who has the piano now, is not getting happier with me as long as he still has the monster.

14 - Saturday - 01:51
Wouter and his lovely girlfriend Marije honored me with a visit tonight. For an upcoming event, we collected music. A lot of music. We've gotten up to about 200 songs right now, so that should take us quite far. Now the arduous task for me is to put everything onto separate CDs. Thankfully, there's Nero, which will help me getting everthing organized.

15 - Sunday - 03:30
I just added an article on my site, which was first published by Playboy Magazine, back in 1955. It's written by Dave Brubeck, and it's about the changes gone through in jazz up until that time, and also about the way the audiences have changed. It's a mighty interesting article, so why don't you go have a look? On the downside, there won't be any pictures of naked girls...

16 - Monday - 09:34
Yesterday, I bought a second-hand keyboard, because I wanted to practice playing the keys. I found the keyboard on Marktplaats.nl, probably the best site for Dutch people who are looking for stuff. I went to Rotterdam to pick it up at the previous owner's house. It was cheap, and it's not a piano, but hey, at least I can practice some chord changes now. Today is going to be a busy day.

16 - Monday - 14:13
You won't be nearly as happy as I am, but I passed my Business Japanese course tests! Very good for me, this was a pretty big burden, and now it's gone. As expected though, more problems are piling up. Wouter told the truth when he said that you might as well stick with one problem and not solve it, seeing more will come after that.

17 - Tuesday - 08:13
Today, I'm heading off for the little town of Warns, located in Friesland in the north of Holland. There, we'll have a get-together with eleven people and the plans are to eat, drink and have fun. All the preparations have been done. We've made 10 mix-CDs, and for the scheduled two and a half days, that should be enough. I'll make pictures, too!

18 - Wednesday - 23:21
The bad thing is, I had to come home early due to an exam I totally forgot about. The good thing is, I know that I'm going to pass the exam anyway. My teacher already told us that he's going to make it easy on us, so that we can all pass. Friesland was wonderful, I had a really good time. Tomorrow is a big day, with a lot of things to do. My kind of day.

19 - Thursday - 17:11
The day is not over yet, but a lot of things have happened, and they were all good. At least for me that is. My piano was moved from Lemmer to Leiden, and it has found a great new home at my professor's house. That's an enormous burden off my shoulders. I also made a test, and I think I've passed it too. Now, I'll be off to teach English and Dutch.

20 - Friday - 02:08
With the piano being moved to Leiden, it feels really good to know that it'll be appreciated there. When it's used to the temperature and the humidity of the new surroundings, I'll have it tuned, so that it'll be in great shape again. I've been watching the movie 'Phone Booth,' and man oh man what a fine movie that is! Genuinely exciting, and well filmed. Recommended!

21 - Saturday - 16:09
I passed yet another test, which is such a relief, as it was a pretty important one. Now all that is left for this year is to make papers and reports. When that is all done, I can concentrate on maybe graduating next year. What comes after that is not sure, but I'll go for having a good time. The weather's great out, it's just a shame I'm having a big hangover. That'll cure though.

21 - Saturday - 23:37
Today was the longest day in Holland. It'll also be the shortest night. As a matter of fact, it's now about 23:30, and it only just went completely dark. During summers in Holland, it's still light until really late in the evenings. I spent this evening watching a tape from Hans Teeuwen, a dutch stand-up comedian who has the greatest sense of humor.

22 - Sunday - 18:30
I've been practicing on my keyboard, and I can finally play Dave Brubeck's 'The Duke' in one go now. I used to have some problems with a couple of passages, but now I've ironed out those obstacles. What a great tune that is. Going through all the 12 keys in the first 8 bars, it has a totally relaxed beat. Now I'll have to practice to be able to improvise on it.

23 - Monday - 00:56
Seeing some pictures of the Morning Musume today, I realized once again that a man like Tsunku, their creator, is a genius. He made a bunch of moderately pretty girls famous in Japan and outside, and he made them into a group that's constantly changing, adopting new members, a group that's constantly on tv, and a group that's basically making huge amounts of money.

23 - Monday - 14:01
The weather is getting darker by the minute, so I'll get out quickly before it starts to rain. I'll have some pictures developed today. The cool thing is, I've kind of forgotten what pictures I took, so it's going to be a bit of a surprise. Anyway, as soon as I get them I'll know more, and they will most likely appear on this website too. I'll be off then. Pictures are good.

24 - Tuesday - 00:32
What a nice roll of film that was! There were pictures of London, of Yurika in Holland, of Friesland, Leiden and of me with my beard! I don't know when they're going to be on my website, but they will be on there, that's pretty much for sure. Today, Wouter and I made a Powerpoint slideshow which he is going to use during a speech he's going to do this thursday.

25 - Wednesday - 13:20
I will be in Best on the 7th of July. Why? Well, I'll be explaining some aspects of the Dutch culture to a Japanese couple. Ad got me the job, and I just called the company which takes care of the whole programme. Fortunately for me, the person I talked to was very friendly, which makes things so much easier. I'll be updating the Take Five article today!

25 - Wednesday - 23:27
I'm so excited! A colleague from Philips has come to the Netherlands to work here, or in Germany to be more precise. Mr Itoh helped me get my camera, and he was definitely the 'coolest' ie most relaxed person at the office. I just saw Star Wars episode 1, and it was a lot better than my impressions of it after seeing it once long ago.

27 - Thursday - 19:37
Doh! I knew I had forgotten something. But here is an update. My bike is broken. That'll be the first time that I have to get rid of a bike by my own will, the rest was all stolen. It proved to be quite nice though to walk to Leiden, seeing it was more than warm today. I did a lot of shopping, and now I'm taking care of business at home.

30 - Monday - 23:40
Yurika was in Holland this weekend, and now she's back to London. That's the way things go around here. But what a great time we had, in Maastricht and Amsterdam. Marije, Robert, Wouter and I played a good game of poker tonight, and Marije so won. If everything goes right, we'll have a poker evening tomorrow at Marije's place.