Vanochtend vol goede moed begonnen om mijn auto te ontdoen van zijn sneeuwjasje.
Hij staat op de hoek van de straat nog steeds onder een volle deken sneeuw.
De sneeuw van de weg is naar mijn wielen geschoven dus die zitten goed ingepakt en vanaf de stoepkant hebben de bewoners voor een zelfde wiel bedekking gezorgt.

Maar naar een tijdje ploeteren was ie sneeuwvrij, op de wielen na dan.
In die tussentijd heb ik verschillende mensen door de straten zien glijden in plaats van rijden.
toch maar even mijn projectmanager gebeld. Nee hij ging niet hij werkt maar 3 dagen per week op het project.
De andere collega is er alleen maandag en woensdag dus dat betekend dat ik er alleen zit... als ik er al kom.

ik heb maar afgesproken met de manager dat ik pas ga rijden als het licht is en er meer mensen over die weg zijn geweest.
Hij was zo vriendelijk om ook nog even te wijzen op het feit dat ik maar een oud autootje heb... maar wel eentje die trouwe dienst verleend.
nog twee weekjes en dan krijg ik die nieuwe maar dat is net te laat voor deze sneeuwbende op de weg.

Dus mocht het zo beter gaan, onderneem ik de tocht naar schiedam anders werk ik gewoon weer een dagje thuis.
Tot het moment dat het licht is werk ik thuis.

Zoals goede hollanders betaamd hebben Anastaszia en ik de stoep voor ons huis sneeuwvrij gemaakt.

Nou ja sneeuwvrij. In de meest ruime zin des woords dan. Een paadje van een halve meter breed naar ons huis en middenvoor een even breed pad zodat de mensen veilig langs kunnen. Erg leuk om dan te zien dat mensen speciaal opzij stappen om naast ons pad verder te lopen. Zucht! Daar doe je dan je best voor.

In de achtertuin hebben we ook een pad vrij gemaakt. Zo kunnen we naar de vuilnisbak en houden we het grootste deel van de sneeuw mooi.

Tja. En dan doet me dat ergens aan denken.
Alleen jammer dat ik geen AT-AT's hier in huis heb.


Shurf

* We take you live to our snow clearing championships where our contestants struggle with the next challenge: snow that has frozen to the sidewalk. Harry, what's happening with you?

- We're standing here at the edge of the practice field and as you can see behind me, contestants are warming up. We see several contestants, aged 25-40, warming up for their runs in the field. But where this field just has the loose snow, rumour has it that the finale field has the snow frozen to the surface underneath. As you probably know, loose snow is easily shoveled, it being just a matter of bloody singlemindedness and putting your backs into it, whereas the frozen to the tiles-variety needs additional concentration and minute coordination in order to break the icey snow's grip on the tiles beneath. These contestants are clearly in for a challenge later today. Back to you, Jim.

* Sounds like a challenge indeed. We now go live to William at the edge of the finale field, where contestants are ready to clear this challenge.

% Thank you Jim. They're in for a fight today, as you can see behind me. The board indicates a roughly L-shaped field must be cleared, from the fake front door, running behind the cardboard cars down to the 15 meter-mark. This is a difficult challenge, as neither the cars or the door can be touched by snow or shovel, and both must remain accessible. The two Dutch contestants in lane one and two are ready to go.
And they're off! Jane in lane #1 is taking it slow, but NoKey in lane #2 seems to be suffering from cold fingers. Yes, he's changing gloves before going on. The suede light-weight gloves are off, and the real sportsmans gloves appear from his jacket pocket.
Meanwhile, in lane #1 Jane is taking off her gloves. Her face is quite red, she seems to be struggling with the conditions, but she doesn't appear to be cold like her countryman in the next lane.
As a difficulty bonus for this challenge there are stuntmen ambling about, trying out the cleared field and checking its desnowification values.

* Sounds exciting, William. The contestants seem to be coping so far, though. But what is this?

% Oh, Jim it's a disaster. The snow shovel - of NoKey - has broken! The handle just snapped off right next to the iron blade, and he's looking at it dejectedly. I fear this means an end to this round... yes! The umpire has blown his whistle and the competition is paused! Paused!
This must be the most exciting endgame I've seen to date.

* We'll be right back after this message from our sponsor.

My mailman is a inventive guy. He left his bike at home and used a children' s sled instead.

A new species has arrived... They look friendly enough most of them are smiling in a way. They come in all shapes and sizes, some of them wear clothes others not. A family of them closed off my street for a while. the park is filled with them.

This morning I found a small one on the stairs to my appartment. it made me smile.  

a big happy snowman in the park

 

 
the little one on my stairs :-)

I gave him an opinion... 

Hopefully the winter stays for a while. I like the sound of the snow under my boots. Maybe more snowmen come to town.

Ze hebben snowy bruut vermoord. In tweeën gekliefd. Het is verschrikkelijk.

Dit was hij gister. Als de sneeuw vanmiddag weer plakt zullen we een nieuwe maken. Nog groter. En ditmaal in de achtertuin, veilig voor de sneeuwpopkiller.

De hele ochtend bezig geweest om naar mijn werk te gaan.

Om kwart over 7 stond ik buiten om de auto uit te graven.
Dat ging op zich goed,net als de rit naar mijn werk. De hoeveelheid ijs op de weg in Houten was wel wat minder, maar dat zal in de loop van de dag wel minder worden.

Alleen die parkeerplaats op het werk. Prachtig maagdelijke sneeuw van een centimeter of dertig diep. Maagdelijke sneeuw op die plekken na waar een auto had gereden en nu vast stond. Ze kon niet  naar voren en niet naar achteren. We zijn drie kwartier bezig geweest om de auto weer vrij te maken en hebben toen besloten dat dit niet te doen was. Zelfs al zouden we de auto's in een parkeervak krijgen, dan zouden we ze er nooit meer uit krijgen. En vanmiddag gaat het weer sneeuwen.

Ik ben dus maar weer omgekeerd en ben nu net weer thuis. Vandaag werk ik wel vanaf hier.
Ik heb ook direct een inlog aangevraagd voor onze Citrix server. Als dat  werkt heb ik ook thuis de beschikking over alle software waar ik op het werk ook mee kan werken.

Voorlopig doe ik het wel met de webmail en de FTP van het werk.

Shurf

59707 / 84563 words. 71% done!

It's progressing nicely, if I may say so myself. Last week's bad news can't stop me from making this manuscript all shiny and perfect. I've had another little fight with Word, something about spaces, haven't been able to fix it yet. But the content, the language, the story makes me happy. I have identified a problem somewhere in the ending, and I'll fix when I get there. Right now I'm polishing the relationship between Jareth and the Countess, and the way Jareth gets along with Topaz. When I'm stuck, I just drift back to the roleplay session a few weeks ago, and the faces of my gracious players just make the story happen again before my eyes. I miss you guys... And the wonderful evening you granted me has not been for nothing, I assure you.

Anyway... I don't have the patience yet to work on a real synopsis and a cover letter, that will have to wait until after the holidays when I've calmed down a bit. First I'll have to call my editor and have that talk... And there is just no way to put it nicely...

On the menu this week: Tonight is Weekend Heroes. I hope Remco gets home in time... Tomorrow: a day of Legend of the Five Rings roleplay, and possibly another evening on Tuesday. We will spend Christmas Day with Remco's parents, Saturday we will have to ourselves, and on Sunday we'll be with my parents and my brother and his wife in our old town.

Happy Holidays, my friends. I'll be working though.

Let it snow, schreef ik eerder deze week. Ze hebben geluisterd, de weergoden. En hoe...

Omdat groter worden vanzelf gaat maar opgroeien optioneel is heb ik net lekker buiten een grote sneeuwpop gemaakt. Kas hielp me uiteindelijk wel mee, maar zonder mij was hij er niet gekomen. Hihi. We hebben de grootste van de straat, maar als het buurmeisje hem ziet duurt dat niet lang denk ik. Maar misschien is ze te druk met de oude slee van de jongens die we haar gegeven hebben.

Het meel voor de oliebollen staat te rijzen. Njomnjom.

Geweldig!
Het sneeuwt en het sneeuwt! er ligt hier in de straat zo'n 30 cm en het wordt alleen maar meer.
De buurt komt helemaal tot leven. Iedereen loopt op straat en breken spontane sneeuwballen gevechten uit. superlevendig.
Ik zal het niet snel zeggen maar Den haag kan heel gezellig zijn.

Vanmorgen ben ik door de sneeuw lopend boodschappen wezen doen en overal wordt druk gewerkt aan de grootste sneeuwmannen. De turkse buurman die zijn auto sneeuwvrij probeerde te krijgen werd van de wal in de sloot geholpe door de jeugd die er weer sneeuwballen boven op gooide.
Hij vatte het positief op en trakteerde de tieners op een dik pak sneeuw in hun nek waar door er weer een nieuw sneeuwgevecht uitbrak.

In een van de bovenhuizen was een dame haar balkon sneeuwvrij aan het maken en zag kans om vanaf het balkon haar man en kind de volle laag te geven die beneden een pop aan het bouwen waren. waarna ze snel weer achter het balkonmuurtje dook. en hij maar afvragen waar de sneeuw vandaan kwam :-D

Toen ik terug kwam van de boodschappen had de buurtjeugd en enkele van de papa's de handen ineengeslagen om een enorme sneeuwman midden op de weg te bouwen. Intusen staan er vier van die mannen op de weg. Met gewoon sneeuw was het al lastig in de straat nu met die poppen kom je er niet meer in :-)

iedereen is buiten en je praat met mensen die je anders nooit ziet.
sneeuw is geweldig!!!

Alleen morgen naar mijn werk gaan zie ik nog niet helemaal zitten...
we zien het wel, eerst genieten!

Well, I know many people who own a car can name numerous reasons why snow is not fun. But I love snow, even if I have to stand outside in the cold waiting for a train or bus that won't show up!

However.

I do wish people were to clean at least 'their' part of the sidewalk. It's snowing like crazy here now, but I'll go downstairs and outside to do my part once it stops! I can manage on the slippery, trod snow, but the elderly can't!

And!

Having snow on the ice will seriously insulate the ice. The KNSB (Dutch skating union) says on their website it's frightfully dangerous to go onto the ice. It's far too thin, it doesn't grow when there's snow on it, and you can't see how thick it is.
And I'm a little bored now that I don't have a business to run anymore. Big black hole after stressful period anyone? Yep, that's it.
Ice skating would have been the perfect pastime. I'll bet you a thousand euro I can't get NoKey outside in what he would no doubt call a blizzard. I would like to build a snow-man though.

Poor NoKey, he gets cold so easily.
But yay! Snow!

ETA:

DE BILT - De hevige sneeuwval heeft het verkeer in Nederland zondag grotendeels platgelegd. Het KNMI gaf daarom zondag rond 10.30 uur een weeralarm af. (...)
Spoorbeheerder ProRail heeft zondag iets na 10.00 uur een negatief reisadvies gegeven voor treinreizigers. Diverse vervoersbedrijven hebben zondagochtend besloten de bussen in de garages te houden in verband met de weer.

Translation: DE BILT - The heavy snow has mostly lamed traffic throughout the Netherlands. The Dutch Metereological Institute KNMI announced a weather alarm on Sunday around 10.30 am. (...)
Rail manager Prorail also gave a negative travelling advice for train passengers around ten o'clock on Sunday morning. Various public transport agencies have decided this Sundaymorning to keep their buses in the garage because of the weather.
From: Winterweer legt Nederland bijna plat on Nu.nl.

Het was nog spannend om van het hotel in Naaldwijk, weer terug in Den Haag te komen. De bus reed gelukkig, en hoe...glijd glibber glij. Aangekomen op de overstap halte bleken de trams niet te rijden, teveel sneeuw in de rails. Dus werd het met een andere bus, waardoor ik nog een stukje door de sneeuw mocht stampen om thuis te komen. Onderweg heeft menig bord van mij een sneeuwballen barrage gekregen (kijk! in deze straat mag je maar 0 kilometer rijden :P). Een nu lekker met een kopje thee thuis, helemaal geen slaap.

As announced on this Journal, we had a photoshoot in the snow on Thursdaynight. I had hoped to find a lot of big flakes falling softly, drenching the world in cold. Instead, the wind caused the snow to be too tiny to really notice in the photos, the poses hard to maintain ("There's snow being blown into my eyes!") and the weather being overall too cold for people.

NoKey was the only one who got really cold though, because he was the only one not in costume (or maybe despite being the only one not in costume?).


The Models: "Snow white" (alhandra_s) on the left, "Spirit of Christmas Past" (steelweaver) on the right, and "Mistletoe" (janestarz) in the center.


( Follow us inside, to see the best of the pictures )

When I went to the dentist this morning, the first thing that happened was that my train was cancelled. The railroad traffic is having huge problems with all of the five centimeters of snow we've got. I'd like to quote the spokeswoman from ProRail who said this morning on the radio that this only shows how vulnerable both the railways and the roads are, when they are stuck or filled with traffic because of a bit of snow and ice.

The second thing that happened today was that someone sat next to me on the bench, turned towards me, and said. "Hoi. Remember me?"
Of course I did. Gerwin, from my first school. I also ran into him three years ago, when he was still studying to become a nurse. Now he was a breeze of fresh energy in my morning. He's finished his studies and is now team leader in Ommoord, at a home for the elderly, or he takes care of elderly people at home. Our encounter was pure chance, because he would actually have been underway to his wintersport holiday to teach skiing, except that he still found a key to one of client's houses... strange happenings. It was really lovely to see him though, and I think that meeting him for the third time was a soft nudge for me.
Gerwin also said that he had worked as a consultant for a year, and that he completely agreed with me when it came to people working in IT: they're all very concerned about their cars and not so much about other people.

I called my mother, because I was sort of glad I might not be making it to the dentist's in time, but I promised to try and switch trains at Gouda, and there was indeed a stoptrain towards Utrecht on the other platform, so that we even arrived on time for our 11 am appointments.
The bathroom at the dentist had a sign saying "Caution! Slippery floor due to snowy weather!". People's wet shoes create a slippery mess on the tiles, but I got to brush my teeth and go into the mouth hygene consultant's place quickly enough. Eefje, my dentist, dropped in for five minutes and gave me the bad news: my wisdom teeth on the bottom would one day have to be pulled. One of them (on the right side) has 'fallen over' and is slowly emerging, but there is a gap beneath the tooth, where goo can accumulate. Since I can't get there with toothpicks, pulling the tooth before the goo can infect my gums and the other molars is the wisest cause of action.

Though I completely agree with her, it's still a nasty step, and I'm definitely not going to worry about it during the holidays. Perhaps somewhere next year is a good time to start pondering this decision. I've always hated going to the dentist's and I've stopped going for a few years until my mom recommended me this dentist. Now that I've had three or four treatments there, I'm starting to trust them and trust their judgement, so their timing is impeccable and I suspect not necessarily foul, but smart play at least.

As for the rest of my dental hygene: it's getting better. I use toothpicks and can notice the positive effect on my gums. Stuff gets stuck between my teeth more, but it bothers me less and it's a good reason to use tootpicks again. I love my electric toothbrush, which still serves me very well. The hygene consultant (Debby) advised me to brush twice a day, since nobody gets rid of all the placque in one go, so I'll have to remind myself of that.

I was done more quickly than my mother, who was also glad to be done. To celebrate, we drove to the Margreet Otto Quilt Shop. It was in a lovely one-way street, and it was a splash of colour. Where there were no fabrics posted against the walls, quilts covered the surfaces and empty spaces. The entire shop breathed autumn, winter, and christmas colours, and a Jack Russel terrier came barking over to greet us to the shop.
I showed the lady of the store (maybe Margreet herself?) the pattern: a Wandering Star block and my mother showed the colours she wanted. Not only did Margreet choose a lovely blue and white colour palette for the quilt, she also chose fabrics that weren't all too expensive (quilt fabrics can cost up to € 50,- a meter) and she calculated how much I'd need of each fabric for the bed size of my mom and she gave us both a cup of coffee!
Excellent service indeed, and I was happy to also pick three fat quarters for a tumbling blocks lap quilt (for our darling kitties to lie on) and some rulers. I left over € 200,- in that shop, but it was well worth it! I'll happily go back in six months after our next dentist check-up and buy more fabrics for a next project.

We parked in a parking garage and walked out to find some lunch next, and mom pointed out a small café which was very full. "It must be good there!" we concluded, and walked into Breuren. As soon as we were seated (it was so busy we waited at the bar for a while) mom said "Didn't we once have plans for something similar?".
Food was superb, the atmosphere was a bit noisy, but the waiters were very good and warm, so we felt right at home. Next to EKO-food, they also feature cocktail-nights and live music on some nights. All in all, a very good place to hang out!

Shopped a bit, I bought loads of teas and some chocolate at a gift shop nearby, and after that it was time to go home again. I had to wait a bit for the train, but the ride was fine. I enjoyed the snow-filled landscape outside.
Last stops back in Rotterdam included Bruna for a lottery ticket (Oudejaarsloterij, eindcijfer 2!) and filling for my diary for 2010. And when I got home I surprised NoKey with Dilmah tea!
All in all, not at all a bad day, considering it started out with public transport woes (somewhat) and dentistry!

Ik heb een zwak voor stop motion. Wallace and Gromit bijvoorbeeld, maar nu blijkt er een complete film te komen van "A town called Panic". Op Villa Achterwerk beter bekend als Paniek in het dorp. Ik vind het improvisatorische, enorme werk en creativiteit hilarisch. Hier een aflevering van youtube:



Om helemaal nostalgisch te worden kijk ik ook uit naar de Princess and the Frog. Gewoon weer getekend...heerlijk. En eindelijk een black princess!



Jemig wat zoetsappig allemaal, Dus ook een trailer van een brute film om weer in balans te komen. Solomon Kane...het kostuum straks in larpland wat Jack Sparrow van het al teveel opgezeten troontje zal stoten. I wantz one! En de film lijkt me ook goed te versmaden.

Tonight in our region they expect 5-10 cm of additional snow.

I'm all in favor of shooting some costume photo's. Who's coming over? There's a small park near my house, and we can bring oil lamps for additional soft light.

er ligt sneeuw!
ondanks het feit dat ik toch echt in een kustprovincie en kustplaats woon ligt hier sneeuw!
jamer dat ik vandaag niet vrij heb, ik heb maandag gewisseld voor de after archeon dip.
ik wil de sneeuw in!
maar eerst de file in ;-)

Does the christmas box you get from your employer say anything about the company? Then what does it mean that mine contained a Snuggie?

BTW: het is een donkerbruine merkloze snuggie van derdegraads fleece en hij pluist erger dan de rode Schnoodaerd pluis hel.

I'm not very positive about my plans for the coming two weeks. Actually, it sounds like a pretty good idea to not have any plans for a while.

What I'd really like to do is clear out the atelier so that all junk is gone. People are still clamoring over the final things of my inventory (four cloaks, one hat, four robes, two doublets, four or five shirts/blouses and some odds and ends I've promptly forgotten) and I really would like to clean the atelier so the dustbunnies' iron grip of the place is broken.
There's also tea with Steelweaver in the planning somewhere, but I can't for the life of me figure out when.

Friday will see me and my mother at the dentist's but I've no idea when we're expected exactly. Should really phone them. There's possibly a visit to the quilt shop in Woerden in there as well.

And the weather's been so cold... Dutch people have long since the first winter frosts started to chant the magical words "Ice Skating" and soon I expect the first whispers of "Elfstedentocht". I would absolutely love to go ice skating, but by the time I'll have an hour free for it, they expect a thaw. Fingers crossed! At least we might be seeing some snow tomorrow!

Let's just hope I can get to work, because at the slightest weather change, public transport fails. The latest was the new Metro network between Rotterdam and Den Haag, which couldn't handle the freezing temperatures. I heard a report on Radio Rijnmond that the RET was handing out coffee and rolls (Cook and Zopey *grin*) but nobody wanted to go on the metro...people just didn't believe it would go anymore. And this morning the trams in Rotterdam were all stopped.
Of course, everyone loves to exaggerate and call it "extreme weather". Russia's got extreme weather. We just get a sea climate.