A nice news message from my internet provider:

"The speed of the XS4ALL subscriptions Lite, Basic en Fast ADSL will be increased once again, starting January 15 2004. " - XS4ALL.

My current connection speed is 1024/320 Kbit/s, but from January the downstream will be doubled to 2048 Kbit/s. Wow... I remember the time that I was happy with a new modem that had a speed of 14.4Kbit/s.

It's Thanksgiving weekend in the States. Sasha is spending the weekend with Irena and Jonathan and family of Jonathan in Columbia, a city north of Washington.

Yesterday evening I was watching TV when the visit of President Bush to Iraq was announced.

Mr. Bush is really good in situations like those; many Dutch people underestimate how popular he is, partly because public appearances like yesterday's. His visit made a big impact on the soldiers in Iraq and many Americans at home.

Tonight I had dinner with Jennie, Samantha and Ronald.

We had a really wonderful meal: hot pot. Hot pot is a Chinese recipe, where there's a big pan with spicy, boiling soup in the middle of the table, and a variety of things to boil in it in smaller dishes around it. In a sense it's a bit like fondue, except that the taste of the soup is very delicious: a lot of herbs and spices have been added.

There were a lot of Chinese vegetables to put in the soup. Additionally there were mushrooms, tofu and different types of meat. The name "hot pot" relates to the taste: Jennie added around 20 red peppers to our version. Extremely spicy, extremely delicious!

I am doing some personal administrative work now. Bills, insurance, tax...

It's going well, I just finished a letter. These simple things can take so much energy! I'll post the letters and the paid bills tonight to be completely ready with it.

We had dinner in Leeuwarden tonight. Ettie and Gerben celebrated being together for six and a half year and we went out with the 'extended family'. It was a nice evening, with good Mexican food.

I'm staying in Middenmeer now.

What a marvelous movie! I just came back from the Toneelschuur, where I saw “Goodbye Lenin” with Arjan. It's been a long time since I saw such a nice film. It is warm and human story about life in the DDR, before and after the changes in 1989.

“Goodbye, Lenin!” was chosen as the best European film at this year's Berlin film festival and has won many other awards. The Economist: "It is the warmest souvenir yet of a nation that died almost overnight".

Next to the great story it was very nice to see so many things from the DDR: the TV-programs, the food, the housing... very nice. Recommended.

Tonight the Dutch soccer team qualified for the European Championship 2004. I could hear the neighbours celebrate after the 5th and 6th goal. I'm sure nobody expected a 6-0 victory!

I am not a big soccer fan in general, but I enjoy the bigger events like the European Championships. Next summer we'll have a double pleasure: Bulgaria qualified at once for the soccer championship by becoming first in their group.

The draw for the final tournament will be held on Sunday 30 November.

Since a few days I have a cold. It is nothing serious, but it's quite inconvenient. Tonight I'm staying home, with a warm cup of tea, oranges and other healthy things.

In December Sasha and I will go to Bulgaria, for Christmas and New Year. I'm looking forward to that very much! Tonight I'm revising my Bulgarian vocabulary. To study Bulgarian words I'm using a computer program that I made in 1999.

Every now and then I'll check the soccer game that starts at 20:30 o'clock. It's Holland vs Scotland, and Holland needs to win tonight to qualify for the European championship in 2004.

Yesterday I went with Karen and Arjan to the Toneelschuur, a theater and movie house in Haarlem. It's located between the Grote Markt and the red light district, in a beautiful building which has been re-openened a couple of months ago.

The movie, 'September 11', was very good. Eleven filmmakers from around the globe offer various views on the World Trade Center tragedy, everyone in a different type of movie. The only requirement is that their creation takes exactly eleven minutes, nine seconds and one frame (11-09-01).

It's a really impressive movie, although some parts are better than others. I liked the Bosnian, French and Chilean films the most. The Japanese creation was probably too difficult for me.