We're leaving in 30 minutes to Amsterdam to celebrate Queen's Day.

We'll meet Jelly at the station in Haarlem, and Steven, Kirsten and Rob will be in Amsterdam. We always agree to meet at "the GWK", although that shop has been moved to a new location and we'll meet each other at the old spot where we've always met in the past.

I'm looking forward to go into Amsterdam. For a while I was considering bringing my camera but it's just too risky -- there are so many people and the chance that it gets damaged or lost is too big.

Tonight is the evening before Queen's Day, or Koninginnenacht. I was considering going to Amsterdam tonight, but the weather wasn't very pleasant. It doesn't really matter, as Daniël and I took a few beers and had dinner together which was a nice way to start the Queen's Day celebrations.

Tomorrow we will go to Amsterdam, and get jammed like sardines in the crowd.

There is a fair at the Grote Markt here in Haarlem. I just went for a walk through Haarlem.

It wasn't very busy in the city. A big light is inviting people to come to the fair.

Taking pictures at night from a quickly moving object is very difficult...

Fair at the Grote Markt in Haarlem 2004.

Ferry wheel in front of the Stadhuis.

The last few weeks I have been watching German television in the morning. We only have one German TV station at home, but it's ZDF which has a nice morning show: "ZDF Heute".

"Die Holländer haben es uns vorgemacht. So bereitet man sich vor auf die EM."

I lost count how many times I heard the
word "Blamage" this morning.

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.