Mieke is now at the Spellenspektakel, an annual board game event.

She's participating in a tournament for Kolonisten, and Daniël just told me on the phone she's doing quite well: twice a second and once a first place! Due to a technical problem with the train she was almost late this morning, but she arrived right on time for the start of the tournament.

Jaap and I had an easy morning; we talked, had coffee and went for a walk. I talked to Sasha in the morning, and in the U.S. the wintertime has started as well. This is convenient because the time difference will remain exactly six hours. In the afternoon we went to Velsen-Noord, to drop something at my uncle's place, and then we visited my grandmother for five minutes to say hi. My father dropped me in Haarlem, and after his appointment in Amsterdam we'll have dinner together.

Friday was quite a busy day. I arranged some final matters at Chess, organized a lot of things and made an appointment with the embassy for next week.

In the evening I went to Middenmeer, where things were peaceful and relaxed, which is always a pleasant experience. We played a lot of games yesterday and today.

Mieke is going to the Spellenspektakel tomorrow, and with winning three out of today's four games she is well prepared. Let's hope she'll have a good result tomorrow! Daniel and Jerry are at the Spektakel as well.

Tonight I went to the library and I got a nice book: "American English", written by a British woman who's married to an American. The author, Gunnel Tottie, is a professor of English linguistics and the book looks very interesting.

I also went to a tobacco shop in the Kruisstraat, where I saw a sign the other day that they were looking for coins. Sasha and I had collected almost two cups full with euro coins, and tonight I changed them: a total of 40 euro in 10, 20 and 50 cent coins.

The papers I need are on their way.

I left Ettie & Gerben's place around 9:00 o'clock this morning. I didn't have to wait for the bus long. At the train station I realized that I would be a bit early for my appointment with my grandmother, so I skipped a train and had a nice coffee in the station. I bought two Dutch magazines with specials on the American elections: De Groene and Vrij Nederland.

I arrived at my grandmother's place around 10:15 o'clock, and it was very nice to see her. We spent hours drinking coffee and talking. It's wonderful sitting at the table and drinking coffee with somebody you love.

On the way back to Haarlem, a trip of more than two hours, I read the magazines about the upcoming US elections. In both magazines there were references to a journey that Geert Mak, one of my favorite history authors, made through the US in the last months. His impression of the US was rather negative -- an opinion I obviously strongly disagree with. Still I'm looking forward to the book that he will write about his journey as he writes great and is a brilliant observer.

Tuesday my grandmother Bosman celebrated her 80th birthday!

I visited her in the evening. Ria, Maarten and Eveline were there as well, and we had dinner together which was very cozy. Later Christianne, Harm and Marijke also came; it was a pleasant evening. My grandmother is also giving a big party next weekend.

The next morning I had to get up early. I went with two colleagues from Chess to a potential customer. We gave presentations on our company and products, and we discussed our proposition. It was a very interesting morning; I learned a lot and my (short) presentation went well.

I had lunch at Chess, and then I left to Leeuwarden. I had the direct train, and around 17:15 o'clock I was at Ettie & Gerben's place. We had dinner together, and we talked and watched a movie. It was a cozy evening and I enjoyed it a lot.

Ettie has a test now, and Gerben left for work, so we got up early.

Tomorrow morning I'll give a presentation on a project I've been working on for a potential customer.

Today I prepared a notebook with the latest version of the software and test-data, to make sure that everything will work fine tomorrow. It's nice to be busy doing something while waiting.

Thursday, after the movie shooting, I visited Manuel who was celebrating his birthday. It was a nice evening, with a group of great people.

Friday evening I went out with my colleagues from Chess. This time we were joined by ex-colleagues from Net.Footworks, in a small reunion: Pleun was there, Henrik was there, and of course Edo, Manuel, Petra and me. It was nice to see them again. We had a lot of fun; of course the best part of the evening was when I came home and read my e-mail!

It's been quite a busy weekend. Saturday I spent the whole day packing and arranging things. Steven helped me out on Sunday, so everything worked out great (thank you so much, Steven!).

Below are a few pictures of Friday evening. Like on many Fridays we had a few drinks in Café Paris and then we went for dinner. We visited "Babbels", a nice restaurant.

Today I participated in the making of an educational movie for students in (health) care. My father is the producer of a set of instruction movies and photographs for a large Dutch publisher, and today was the first day of a new recording series.

Today we filmed parts of a movie that depicts an internship of a health care student in a home for people with (mental) handicaps. The goal was not to create a long movie, but to describe various aspects of the daily live in such a home in short movie fragments of about one minute length. I played one of the people living there, a role in which I played a person with very bad vision. Next to the movie fragments a lot of photographs were also made.

It was a very interesting day. I met a lot of different people, and it was really fun to work together to create a movie.

My parents and my grandmother Groen spent a few days in Maastricht and they came home today.

I went to Middenmeer after dinner, because I will work on an interesting project of my father tomorrow.