We Crossed Oceans To Find Each Other

Yesterday we celebrated Queen’s Day. I have gathered some articles having pictures of this event in the city that we live in. Click here and here to find the articles.

Leann had a haircut appointment last Saturday. In the picture(s) you will see her new hairstyle. Click on the picture to get to see more pictures.

Although it was supposed to be an easy day today, things took a weird turn last night. I felt out of touch with what I have been doing the past few months. One of my strengths is the wide interest that I have in things. I can’t settle for just one thing. Variety has always played a big part in my life. The downside of that is that I completely loose track in what I do from time to time. I decided to sit down and draft an outline for a plan to be written today.

This morning I started to work down the list, when one of the people I follow on Twitter mentioned that they moved to a new location in Hoorn. The location is an old factory of Philips in our town. Philips closed the location years ago and a local developer thought to build office space in the factory. I ended up being invited for a tour, which I went to. It was nice being able to see the location and to talk to the people there. It also gave me the inspiration that I needed to get to things. I managed to finish the plan that I wanted to write and finished a brochure that I need for Nederlands Praten.

The inspiration helped to get things going for me again

It’s an easy weekend so far. We got our groceries in the early morning and then we went for our haircut appointments. It turned out that Leann got her hair cut a little shorter than she really wanted I guess it’ll grow again.

It’ll be Queen’s Day in The Netherlands on Monday. The film crew of the national TV will come by again and we’ll be shooting another episode about how patriotic the Dutch are sometimes. It being Queen’s Day helps to shoot that subject in the streets of Hoorn. I look forward to it.

Right now I am enjoying a few movies and series and watch that. Tomorrow it’ll be another easy day.

Last weekend after seven weeks of negotiations between three political parties an agreement for a package to solve the financial crisis in The Netherlands completely failed. The House of Representatives took matters in their own hand after that and managed to get a package ready within 2 days. This is a-m-a-z-i-n-g! Why? Our political system is divided. Right now we have eleven political parties in the House, all having their own views and beliefs. A majority is necessary to pass legislation. Usually a coalition is formed, but with the latest election results this was very difficult. The three parties involved in the current coalition couldn’t work it out. The House, with all their different views, did.

This saves us from severe penalties from the European Union and brings The Netherlands back on course out of the financial mess that we keep being in. Although the measures are harsh and the package will financially affect us deeply, I am happy that the Government actually took action. The political party that I favor was one of the leading parties in putting this package together. This makes me even happier.

It appears that our nation made it to the news in the New York Times. In this article it is explained how a train crash happened yesterday in the early evening. Around 130 people got injured in the head on collision. About an hour ago the news brought that an 68-year old woman died from the injuries that she suffered. A few pictures of the crash have been shared here.

The accident happened on a track that Leann and I usually use for going to Amsterdam. It happened close to the central station of Amsterdam.

It appears that Walmart has been trying to keep a corruption scandal silent. It is claimed that Walmart in Mexico tried to bribe people to expand their businesses there. It even made it to the Dutch headlines.

The past week and a half I haven’t felt really good. I wasn’t really sick enough to call in sick from work, yet it was aggravating enough to come home really tired. I have tried to get it done and over with with some medicine. On Thursday I thought it would kick in, but that was just temporarily. This weekend I plan to switch over to some new medicine, hoping that this will do some work. If not, I plan to get to a doctor soon enough and ask them for advice.

Things are going well here. I have bought a new router that works better with the ISP and connection that we have around here. It also allows me to separate some networks. I can now offer a ‘guest’ network to my guest, not having to worry over them seeing too much of my local network and files that I have there. It’s safer for everyone. My Dad is in need of a new router, so I plan to give our old one to him.

My main goal for this weekend is to clean up a little and finish my administration. I have slacked behind in that a bit and there’s paperwork pretty much everywhere. Another goal I have is to get over this sickness. It needs to stop now. I have to see if we could visit my parents. I haven’t seen them in a while.

On the bright side of all this: Leann is really spoiling me

The trip from Austria back home went pretty well. We got pictures taken with all the people there on the platform of the railway station. The trip went okay and I was up by the time that we crossed the Dutch border again at 5:30am. I have had a blast in Austria. Right after we arrived in Amsterdam, we had to get a picture taken with all of us in front of a new building that my employer is wanting to buy. The City Council of Amsterdam is evaluating plans for the location that is for sale and my employer hopes that they will get the building. We had to cross a canal to get to the building using a small ferry. The ferry colored all orange. At some point the captain of the ferry had to stop more of ‘us’ boarding, so we crossed in two batches.

The day of arrival from Austria was not a regular day off. I did take the day off, though and the Wednesday, too to recover from the trip. I think that was a wise idea. I just have fallen sick a little and it appears that a lot of co-workers fell sick, as well. A lot of co-workers reported sick this week.

Leann and I used part of my days off for buying vegetables. Leann is wanting to grow her own vegetables and I thought that would be a good idea, as well. Today Leann planted the blueberry bushes (see picture). In May she’ll get to the rest of the things. I hope things will work out.

The weather has been nice out here. Today it’s actually sunny and we have decent temperatures. I hope that this is the start of a lovely spring. It’s been cold before and I am ready for the summer to kick in. I have started watching MLB games again and I look forward to see some ballgames in The Netherlands, as well.

Work is still a challenge, but I am less worried these days. All in all things look up.

Today is a super beautiful day weather wise. We got up with sun. I wanted to take advantage of that and go up in the mountains with the lifts to take pictures. That worked awesome. Leann decided to stay on the first stop, because the chair lifts were a bit too iffy for her. At the top more lifts were going, but first you had to go down, before going. I didn’t want Leann to have to wait that long, so I didn’t do that. The pictures turned out very pretty. Clicking on the picture will take you to the rest of the pictures.

After that we went to some places where we had a good overview of the town and the lake. We also went to the banks of the lake to take more pictures. Leann found it funny to lift some mountains and have her pictures taken with that. Later we came back to the hotel, to do the final packing. I also had a few drinks with one of my co-workers while Leann took a shower.

We got some groceries and now we’re pretty much ready for an early dinner. After that we’ll get back to the station and then go home again. It has been an awesome Easter weekend in Austria for us.