The Bean is Back

Party last night in Tisbar.
Baby Marc gets the prize for the person most people wanted to take home with them and Perry for the best outfit. There aren't many who can get away with combining their prettiest ski-socks with their kilts but he pulled it off admirably. Tim and Isabella were keen on learning the finer points of pool but we decided they'll have to gain some height before they'll be trusted with a cue. Carin and Julia had a lesson later in the evening but I suspect it'll take a lot more to catch up with the years of practise I had with my Dad.

Anne Frank Huis

A few months ago I read The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank and decided to visit the Anne Frank house again. Janneke and I (and rather a lot of schoolclasses) went today.

Boek en Trein dag

Trains and reading - a perfect combination. To promote both, the Dutch bookweek includes one Sunday when everyone with a copy of the BookWeekGiftBook (free if you spend at least 12.50 in a bookshop during the promotion period) can travel anywhere in the country at no cost. I met up with Riny and Janneke at Utrecht and we travelled together to Maastricht. Once there Riny went off with her friend who's just moved there to see her new house and Janneke and I went in search of the Bookshop-in-the-Church.











After having coffee in the cafe there Elly showed us around 'her' city and we ended up in a bakery with its own watermill where we had tea and 'spread your own' sandwiches. With ham from Livar pigs. (I don't eat pigs unless I know where they come from so it was a treat to have this delicious stuff from a source I've read lots of good things about.)





We took the train to Den Haag hoping to see the sun set in the sea at Scheveningen but it was raining by the time we got there so decided just to head back home. Finished the book I'd had with me just before the last train to Soest. I could quite happily sit all day on trains, as long as I have enough to eat, drink and read with me. Occasional passing entertainment such as the man who should have been on a different train and the father/daughter who'd been shopping for new clothes before tackling her German homework. Got in the door just in time for the last half of the Archers. Fine end to a good day out.
























(I'm less than impressed by how my new brouwser apparantly won't let me arrange text and photos in this blog the way I want to have always been able to do before, but will see what I can change about that another time...)

First read the book, then see the show

The book is almost always better and so was it with this too tonight in Baarrrrn (where Fransje Bauwer wears a morning robe rather than a bathrobe according to the man in the audience ;-). Not that I don't admire him for being able to churn out so much endless text, a lot of it improvised on the spot or from things in the news from the past few days, around a few central points in the book. But for me there was too much of that and not enough about running, which he deals with in much greater depth in the book. I suppose he sells more tickets on the strength of Dolf the Cabaretier than as Dolf the Runner so it was more my expectations which were misplaced. And at the end he sold and signed a good pile of books - with all of the money going to Sister Claire in Lima (as he explained briefly, just as it appears as a 2-line announcement at the end of the book). Doing good by stealth I think is the expression. For all his professional cynicism he's a good (half) Irish boy pleasing his ma...
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Note to self: next time I go to a stage thing in the Speeldoos ask for tickets in the balcony, row 12, seats 1 + 2. We had other seats at the end of a row but these 2 were set apart like an opera box and unoccupied so we sat there. Best place in the house. Probably not so great for a film mind.

C0mb00000nati0n...

For weeks now I've been looking forward to the moment when the Combo would reach the 200,000 kilometer milestone. (Ha, get a life woman! ;-)










Of course I managed to miss The Moment when all the 9s clicked over into 0s but did manage to find a safe place to stop to take a picture of them.

Jarige Jop

One of the boekgrrls had a bookswap afternoon yesterday to start celebrating her approaching Significant Birthday. Such things are well established with our online reading group but her other friends and sisters were a bit bemused by the whole idea at times. Exclamations such as: 'But this book looks like new!' They couldn't quite get their heads around the idea of giving 'good' books away. (For advanced classes in disposing of books see the bookcrossing site...) I disposed of a shoeboxful of recently read stuff and left with 3 books for myself, one for Riny and a cd.
Home in time for a sunset walk with Dusty (+ current book, also visible above my newly acquired books).

Hanging On

And when the tulips have finally hung their heads put the ones that are still holding on to their petals in a jar above sitting-at-desk eye level so that you can look up at their downturned 'faces'.