After a day with (again) very nice weather there's a thunderstorm now. The house got really warm the last few days from the sun, which is nice, but now it's pleasant to have a breese of cooler air.

Today is Ettie's birthday, congratulations!

I worked a long day today; the project we're doing is very interesting. In less than two weeks we have a deadline, and although it's a challenge it looks like we'll make it on time.

Tonight I'll have dinner with Daniël. He's staying here a while but we didn't have dinner together often. We 'll watch the soccer game between the Netherlands and Greece, the first (training) soccer game of the European Championship I'll see this time.

Today we studied about the passive form of verbs. It has always been confusing to me, I never knew which word to choose: worden, würden, geworden, werden... I'm slowly starting to understand it.

The weather was great, and in the coffee break we were sitting in the garden of the Goethe Institute which I liked a lot.

Ettie is celebrating her birthday today in Middenmeer, congratulations!

The weather is very nice today, so we're sitting outside. I slept very well and today is relaxed; a nice Sunday.

Today was the Zaterduitsdag at the Goethe Institute; I spent the whole day studying prepositions and their cases. It was very useful and fun to do.

We had a very good teacher. She focussed more on the understanding of the general principle than on the small details. I didn't learn a lot of new things, because most of the subjects we had already in the regular course, but it was very useful to repeat things and hear them from another perspective. We did a lot of different exercises and at the end of the day we got enough homework to fill a whole month.

It was a nicely mixed group, with people from all ages.

The course was over around 17:15 o'clock. I went for a walk from the Leidseplein through the Jordaan to Central Station; the weather was very nice and the city was full with people.

Now I'm in Middenmeer; Ettie wil celebrate her birthday tomorrow.

The last few days I've been working quite a lot. Tuesday and Wednesday I made some extra hours for Chess. I started a new project that required some extra time, and I've prepared a system for a fair in Eindhoven that was held today. I don't mind working extra -- every hour I make more, counts for my days off later.

Today I went to Utrecht to the customer I'm working for at the moment. It's a very nice challenge to start a new project for a new customer.

I was home quite late today because of some troubles with the train from Utrecht to Amsterdam. Jelly and Daniël were visiting tonight; we had a pleasant and interesting evening.

I had a lot of homework for the yesterday's German course. It took all Sunday! But of course, that's my own choice and I enjoyed doing it.

Yesterday we learned a bit less than usual -- no new big grammar subjects. It was cosy though.

A regular reader pointed me out to a short demonstration of T-shirt origami.

It will take quite some exercise but the effects look useful.

Somebody with too much time on his hands created a composition of the sounds that come with Windows 2000.

Using the Windows sound recorder he has created a short song -- amusing.

Daniël is in Holland again; he arrived this evening in Amsterdam.

According to a very nice tradition, there were quite some people to pick him up. We went for dinner and a beer.

We had a wonderful and very romantic weekend in Paris. It was super to see each other and to spend time together. Neither Sasha nor I had been in Paris before, which made our visit even more special.

Friday, April 9th 2004

My train journey was quick and comfortable, with coffee and a magazine. I arrived around 11:00 o'clock at Gare Du Nord, the northern trainstation of Paris. From there I took the metro to the hotel.

In the afternoon we went for a walk, after we had our first French lunch together. The first place we went to was the Eiffel tower, or Tour Eiffel in French. It was larger than I had imagined and quite impressive. We took the stairs to the 2nd floor, where there was an elevator to the top. We had a great view over the city from there.

The hotel we stayed in, Hôtel Lutetia, is right in the center of Paris -- very nice.

Saturday, April 10th 2004

Saturday we took a day-pass for the open buses that go around the city, called l'Open Tour. This was a great way to see the major tourist attractions of the city, such as the Arc de Triomph, the Notre Dame etc. We went on and off the various buses a couple of times, to have lunch and coffee, and just walk around. It was really fun to explore the city like this; we saw a lot in a relatively short time.

I took quite some pictures; here you'll see a few, of the Arc de Triomph and Tour Eiffel photographed from our bus, and Sasha in front of the Notre Dame.

We ended our bus-tour around Madeleine, a church. From there we walked back over the Concorde, a beautiful square, where we had a view over the Champs Élysées at night. We walked next to the Seine to the Louvre, then to the Latin Quarter. We saw the Eiffeltower lighted, which was very pretty. There was a big spotlight on top, like a light house.

In the evening we went for dinner in a very cosy Jazz Café, "Chez Papa". There was life piano- and contrabas music, French red wine and of course: great company. A wonderful evening.

Sunday, April 11th 2004

Sunday we had breakfast on a terras in a street near us. We were together, the sun was shining and we had coffee, French bread and French cheeses.

In the afternoon we went to an area in the northern part of Paris: Montmartre. First we saw the Sacre Coeur. As the weather was getting really nice we enjoyed the sun there for a long time. The area there was very beautiful, with many small streets. There were a lot of artists there too.

From the little streets of Montmartre we went to the region around Moulin Rouge. This is the red light district of Paris, it's rather shabby but it was fun to see.

At night we had dinner in a very good restaurant. All the food was great but our pre-dish was the most interesting. It was a huge plate with many different types of seafood: clams, oysters, shrimps, escargots... very delicious.

Monday, April 12th 2004

Monday morning we spent in the area around the hotel. We had coffee together and enjoyed the sun.

Then we went to the airport, Charles de Gaulle where Sasha's plane left around 16:00 o'clock.

I went by local train to Gare Du Nord. I had a train ticket for 19:00 o'clock, so I had plenty of time. Then when I arrived I saw that there was another Thalys was leaving to Amsterdam in just a few minutes!

I ran for the train and I just made it -- I was happy that I had flexible ticket. This way I was home two hours earlier than I had expected; around 22:00 o'clock.

A wonderful weekend, in a wonderful city.