BookCrossing Christmas Spirit

This huge box, wrapped in Xmas paper, arrived today.

Heart-warming indeed! <3

Seeing where the box came from made me smile big time:

Phoenix-Flight, a BookCrosser from Amsterdam offered to send a "kerstpakket" (it's a Dutch tradition for employers to give their employees some kind of gratification around Xmas) to someone who wouldn't get one (for whatever reason). I joined the raffle, didn't count on anyting, but when I saw this package, I immediately knew what it was. OMG! I got my own kerstpakket!!!

I'll let the pictures do the talking :)

(still getting to know my new camera + my software for adjusting photos crashed = not the quality I'd like to show, but I just HAVE to share these!)

Isn't it amazing how much sweetness, warmth and generosity fits in one box?

My gosh...

Thank you so much, Phoenix-Flight!!!

Camera Quest

Glorious day: I got to buy my new camera!!! I had been looking around, browsing reviews, going to shops to feel how the grip was. And I had been fallen in love very soon, but since I had to wait for money to be available, I browsed some more and tried some other cams as well. All kinda similar, 'cause the kind of camera that fits both our budget and my wishes is a bridge camera: still a compact cam, but more possibilities to adjust. And it's got a firm & rather large body, that's what I like :)

The first snowy day of the year and I knew traffic would have some problems, but hey, how could I wait another day or even week to go get my new buddy? That kind of patience is not my style ;)

As you can see in the pic (took it with my phone, so don't worry), the busstop here doesn't have an abri/shelter. At first I didn't mind, but when the first bus didn't show up and the snow came down harder, I got a bit cold. An hour passed and still no bus to Tiel. Chilled to the bone! A normal person would have gone home, I guess, so I went to another busstop and headed to Wageningen :)

Walked around in Wageningen for an hour and a half...no shop had "my" camera in stock! Aaargh!!

Ah well, when you know it's available in another city, you just take that long bus drive from Wageningen to Tiel.

Straight through to the photo store in Tiel and hooray!!! There it was!!!!

No, mr salesman, I don't want to try out others and I don't need you to convince me, I already made up my mind, now give me that thing asap...haha, the salesman said I was glowing and all lighting up when he handed me the bag. Indeed, I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face, guess I'm still smiling right now :)

 Celebrated my purchase with Danish coffee (w/ rum & cinnamon, it was yummy) before heading home.

On the busride home (phew, at least this bus did show up!) the bag next to me was begging to be unpacked, but I was a good girl and waited until I was home.

Oh and on my way from the busstop to our street, I was stopped by a policeman. I've literally never ever seen one in this small village of ours, there are only a few cops for the whole region and they seem to be invisible. Haha, now I've finally seen one and he was kind enough to let me go if I promised to walk instead of cycle (lights on my bike are always broken). No problem, the snow was too high already to cycle.

Well, time to show you my new buddy! This is an official shot:

And this is us, so happy together! :)

(better shots will follow, I've spent hours of testing & playing already, no artsy shots yet)

Snow!!!

Ahhh, it's always a joy to wake up in a snowy white world!
The cats were excited as well, but they all found it was too cold on the feet. Puschkin didn't even go outside, he's seen winter so many times before and he prefers his cosy basket ;)

Is it the hair?

Just bumped into a picture of my teenage idol: Koen. Oh, how did I adore him! I wasn't the only one, in fact I was one of the sreaming girls in the crowd who almost fainted when *he* appeared onstage.

Nowadays, I'm not so crazy about him anymore, I think he's kinda shallow and he's too much into car racing, soccer and gossip tv. But once in a while I play his old songs and picture him as he was back then.

I want to believe my taste has changed and hopefully improved since my teenage years. I still have a fling for an artist, I guess I'll always have a weak spot for who ever touches me through their music.
Since about 10 years that spot is occupied by Frédérique Spigt, a female singer from the Netherlands. I buy every album, even the one album I didn't like very much (it is in French. I hate chansons!) and go to the theatre when she's on tour.

I thought the only thing she had in common with my old fling Koen was the language...but look at these photos! I guess there's a lot more of Koen in Fré than you'd think...;)

Dank u Sinterklaasje!

Sinterklaas kapoentje

Gooi wat in mijn schoentje

Gooi wat in mijn laarsje

Dank u Sinterklaasje!

It's December 5th and an old Dutch tradition is to celebrate the birthday of Saint Nicholas today. Kids get presents (just like boxing day) and adults exchange gifts and write rhymes for each other.

On the Dutch BookCrossing forum, the tradition is very much alive and we got to send gifts and a rhyme to another BookCrosser, staying anonymous. And mailing out a package means receiving one as well! Hooray!

The package I received had been waiting for me for a few days already, hard to stick to the promise not to open it before today;). But I managed and it was worth waiting for! A box full of presents in jolly themed paper, golden coins and a very cute poem. And look what was in the wrappings! Aquarel pencils, a sketch book, a chocolate M, a cute little notebook and a set of ballpoints! Yes, definately a good way to get rid of a bad mood ;)

Dankjewel BookCross-Sint!!!

Typically Dutch

Saving money by using (parts of) buses other countries threw away ;)

I think OBS is short for observera ('note', 'caution') but I'm not 100% sure...Anne, kan du hjälpa mig? ;)

I made it!

Whoohoooo, just crossed the 50K finish! What a great feeling on this rainy monday! :)

You Know You've Been Spending Too Much Time On YouTube...

...when you start hearing "Weird Al" lyrics as you're listening to your favorite Red Hot Chili Peppers album...

*sigh*

Kewl!

Rain!

My friend just sent me this clip...amazing...it sounds much like...Holland! ;) I Love it! Kram på dig, sis!

Amazing Clip

Just awesome!

Today's Story...

Sigh...words don't come easily today...

X factor?

Who says only drunk people and children always tell the truth? Cats can be pretty obvious in their opinions as well!

Our cats are pretty used to loud music and it doesn't seem to bother them. But when I need to focus on something, I sometimes put on my headphones to shut the rest of the world out. I did that today and was listening to a song I really love, a song that helps me to find the right emotions for the part I'm writing. I was singing along, eyes closed.

Suddenly Molotov jumped onto my desk, staring at me with big eyes, meowing, placing his paw on my arm. When I put the headphones aside, I noticed Pavlov was sitting on the floor next to the desk, watching me with the same big scared eyes.

I assured them nothing scary was going on, gave them some cat candy and got back to my desk. I don't feel like singing along anymore, the cats had made their point: I definately don't have the X-factor!!! ;)

Beauty by e-mail

I couldn't sleep, my mind was restless. Couldn't even focus on reading, so I snug out of bed to have a little smoke. Turned on the computer and this is what I found in my mailbox. How precious. Now I know sleep is waiting for me when I return to bed in a few minutes...

Keeping track

:)

 ...and it's not all bullshit :)
I gave this tool a try this morning, but wanted to try out the hardest settings first. Just curious. Wrote for 30 minutes in the kamikaze/evil mode and wrote 1380 words, but they didn't have much content. Won't put that batch of words in my novel, that's for sure. But my gosh, what a stressy method, fingers hurt afterwards.

After a little walk and lunch I gave Write or Die a serious try. 634 words in 30 minutes to add to my novel. Meditated for half an hour, gave it one more try. The picture here shows the results.
Now I can slow down during the weekend, which will be very welcome with 2 birthdays in the family :)

Bad Apple

Is it just my overactive imagination or does this chip of dried apple really look evil?

He brought some buddies:

Please don't ask for better pictures; these guys are all in my belly now and they didn't taste bad at all ;)

4 days of writing...

...and 26 more to go!

As I mentioned here before, November will be my writing month. As a participant of NaNoWriMo my challenge is to write a story of 50,000+ words in 30 days. It's day 4 now, and my word count is 7005.

Previous participants told me how much fun it was to write this way. Part of me believed them, but the other part had a lot of doubts. I'm not a volume writer. I can be rather chatty in letters and blogs, but when it comes to 'serious writing' I'm focused on quality, not quantity, which means (to me) writing down 4 sentences and erasing most of them, just until I found the perfect way to put it.

I can't work like that if I want to end up with 50K of words, so the first challenge is to keep writing and leave all the flaws where they are; I can fix those later on.

I'm right on track with my stats (check them out here) and since this morning I kinda have a clue where my story is going. But nothing's sure yet, my plot has changed a few times already and even the genre varies. Let's call it "Other genre" for now ;)

I had forgotten how much blood, sweat and tears go into writing, but I'd also forgotten how much fun it is to stretch your boundaries and challenge your brain to produce a story. I've never written any fiction of more than a few pages. Or fiction? There's a lot of me in the story and I'm using my ex shrink & big a-hole as a villain. Haha, if this ever gets printed, I'll dedicate it to him! ;)

(Kidding, this is most likely not going to be printed; if I write with that in mind, all the creativity gets blocked. I'd rather think I'm just practising for 'the real thing', that's better for my nerves)

Well, these first few days I've enjoyed pretending to be a writer a lot. I even go to bed early so I can start writing early in the morning. This is life. I love it.

ps: the bunny in the upper left corner shows my present word count. For stats, go to my NaNo

Ballycumber Story Continues

A week ago, I wrote about finding our BookCrossing logo at an unexpected place. As said, I mailed that piece of text, together with a book (this one, you can read the text here in Dutch as well) and some promo stuff to the organisation that had placed 'our' logo on their paperwork.

Well, I got a response from them!

Response no.1: they entered the book's code on the BookCrossing website and said the book was being read.

Response no.2 arrived today: an official letter from the manager, in a bright yellow envelope, saying: "Thank you for the book you sent, our apologies for using the logo. I found this logo on the internet and we only used it on name tags, not aware that it's owned by BookCrossing. Our new name tags are printed without the logo. There is a possibility some of our trainers are now still using the "old name tags", but that will come to an end within a few weeks. With kind regards".

 Well, that's a friendly response! I guess we'll never know *why* they chose the illustration, but at least Ballycumber won't be printed in green anymore. Plus, now a few more people know what BookCrossing is!

Simon's Cat

I'm a big fan of these clips. Turn on your speakers and enjoy! :)

Frédérique for the very last time

Last wednesday, Frédérique Spigt's Best Of tour, called 'Alles' (Everything), officially started. I'm looking forward to see her perform again, but will have to have some patience; we're going to see her at the last day of this tour, on December 21st. Yep, our wedding day :)

Now I'm not as jealous anymore of the people who went to see her last wednesday. One of her fans, a 47 year old woman, lost conciousness during the show. She was taken to the hospital, where she died of heart failure. My gosh, what a way to die...

I didn't know this woman, but still lit a candle for her. Hope she really really enjoyed Frédériques show for the very last time...

Later I noticed this quote in a magazine: "I actually never realized that I'm a woman". Albert wasn't too surprised by this quote, often calls her mr. Spigt. Ah well, doesn't love count more than gender? ;)

Greetings from...

In our September holiday we had some nice trips. I haven't been photographing as much as I wished (crappy snapshot camera takes part of the fun away, hopefully I can go for a new one in December...), but of course I took a few pics as an impression.

These ones were taken in Den Bosch/'s-Hertogenbosch, I think it was on Sept 25. Had a lovely day!

Ballycumber ill?

BookCrossing's mascot ill?

On wednesday, Oct 14, Dutch BookCrosser X discovers something weird. On one of the paper sheets her husband brought home from the course he took that day, she spots, next to the info about the educational organisation, a logo. A well known logo for her: a running book, which BookCrossers refer to as 'Ballycumber'. This runnning book is the official mascot of BookCrossing.com, an initiative for and by enthusiastic readers from all over the world. They leave books at the strangest places and often stick to the book the logo plus a text that encourages the finder to take the book home.

On the sheet where BookCrosser X has spotted Ballycumber, she can't find any references to BookCrossing. That's odd, she thinks, 'cause the logo is copyrighted. And even stranger: Ballycumber has turned from bright yellow to green!

Lots of questions pop up in BookCrosser X's mind. How did Ballycumber end up on this piece of paper? Is it a secret clue from a fellow BookCrosser who happens to work for this organisation? Would the person who decided to add Ballycumber have found a BookCrossing book once and did (s)he like the clever lay-out of the design?

Deliberation with other BookCrossers follows. They react concerned, especially because of the green looks of Ballycumber. Would their mascot have gotten ill? After all, the organisation behind the course works a lot with health care education...

Time for action, BookCrosser X decides. Of course she takes action the BookCrossing way: from her collection she picks a small but interesting book, puts it in an envelope, together with some promotional flyers and bookmarks and mails it to the educational organisation.

At this moment, the green Ballycumber is still a mystery. Therefore we ask anyone who knows more about this case to contact the Dutch BookCrossing community. The easiest way to get in touch is to read the label inside the book and just follow the instructions. You will be show where this book came from and you'll notice there's room for your comments. We hope you will use it to help us solve the Case of the Green Ballycumber!

Noticing a Ballycumber on the paperwork Albert brought home inspired me to write this little text and send it, together with a book and some promo stuff, to that organisation. Just a friendly way of saying that our little buddy Ballycumber doesn't like to be green.

I wonder if they'll answer...

Blogging in Dutch again

The past few months have been such a weird experience: for the first time in ages I feel my feet touching  Earth again and this time it's not rock bottom ;)

I don't know how, I don't know why, but I feel so grateful for this change!

Hard to describe as well. Gave it a try to write about it in English, but it didn't satisfy, the search for words was too frustrating. I feel the need to write in Dutch again, at least writing about my emotions in Dutch. This Light blog will stay just as it was before: not too heavy and written in English. I know my English isn't perfect but I don't give a crap about that, it's enough to express the things I want to share :)

But next to this blog, there's a new one. In Dutch. I started it a while ago, hesitated to share it with the world and made a deal with myself: if these feelings last for at least a month, I'll put my blog online and we'll see if that will be a private one or public.

Well, here it is, it's public and you're welcome to read it:

Zelfgezocht (click to read the 1st entry) (click here to read the full blog!)

I hope my non-Dutch readers won't feel left out, I really tried to do it otherwise!

NaNoWriMo, take 2

In 2008, I first heard about NaNoWriMo. Via BookCrossing of course ;)

Got all excited and decided to join, but my NaNoWri month came & went and I didn't write a single word for my novel-to-be. Scared to fail, I ended up blocked.

What I'm talking about?

NaNoWriMo is about writing. A novel. In one month. 50.000 words.

This is what nanowrimo.org says:

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.


Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.


Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.


As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.


In 2008, we had over 120,000 participants. More than 20,000 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.

Well, my BookCrossing friends did it again: talking about NaNoWriMo made me want to join and try it again. My account turned out to be still active and now it's updated. I'm in!

Let's see if those writing juices will flow in November...

BikeCrossing?

I'm rather sure we did *not* stick a note like this to Albert's bike yesterday!

Sigh...why do our bikes get stolen so often?

All Pigs, More Equal

Check out the animations on this site: (click here!)

(click on one of these words: Disabled / Sex / Sexual preference / Religion / Race / )

Kathelijne & the Greens rule!

Magic Release

Brat!

Mail from Portugal!

Oh, what a joy to open the mail when you find something as gorgeous as this inside!

Remember the Summer Gift Giving? One of my wishes was a long shot: a biker/rock style shirt or something hand made for Noah. Now look at these! Marcenda managed to combine those two qualities in this design! *me, impressed*

Not just a pretty print, the cute brats were hand stitched (is that the right word?) onto the shirt. And the hairdo is just the same as Noah's current punky red hair, like it's made for him. Haha, actually it *is* made for him! Thank you so much, Marcenda!

For more work by Marcenda, take a look at her In The Bag blog...inspiring!

A day at the zoo

Last week we visited Burger's Zoo in Arnhem, a zoo we both hadn't been to in ages. Had a great day! We were amazed by the new aquarium and the Desert was lovely. Over all the animals have lots of space and their habitats look wonderful. I felt kinda cripple without my old camera so I didn't focus very much on shooting pics. But here are a few:

Autobiography in 5 short chapters

In her letter, my BC friend hakkalina, mentioned this poem. With the help of Google, I traced the original text and I just háve to share it, it's so beautiful and SO true. I think I've managed to reach chapter IV and it feels like chapter V is almost within reach...


by Portia Nelson

I
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I fall in.
I am lost ... I am helpless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes me forever to find a way out.

II
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I am in the same place
but, it isn't my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

III
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in ... it's a habit.
my eyes are open
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

IV
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

V
I walk down another street.

Autumn!

Hooray, Autumn is coming closer!
I know most people hate it when the days shorten and Summer is fading away, but yours truly can't wait for Summer to be over. I really enjoy this time of year. Feels like I can finally breathe again. Yep, I'm weird, but if you've read my blog before, that's old news to you :p
Maybe it's got to do with being born in September? Who knows?


Today it's rainy and I'm thankful I can stay indoors. Maybe I sound a bit more normal if I tell you that most of the time I prefer curling up on the sofa to getting soaked in the rain?
Anyway, the mailman transformed a plain rainy morning to one with a smile: delivery from a fellow BookCrosser! Familiar handwriting and the stamp is from Hungary...yippee, hakkalina mail! She surprised & spoiled me before with a wonderful Summer Gift Giving parcel full of joy, so noticing this mail came from her was already good for a smile on my face.

Opening the package, a wonderful scent filled the room: this is definately the scent of Autumn! Cinnamon, oranges...hmmm, me like!

The biggest surprise: 2 Puschkin books!!! One in Russian (easy reading, with lots of pictures, but I can't understand a word of the text^^) and one in Hungarian. How wonderful!! My collection grows and grows, I'll take a picture of that special shelf in the living room soon.

But it wasn't until exploring the rest of the package to figure out *why* hakkalina sent me this (besides her being a very nice person^^): Autumn RABCK exchange, I must have been her secret pal! What a lucky match :)
Stickers, soap, address labels, another book, chocolate, a puzzle, tea, apple snack (ooh, she must have seen me buying dried apples last week, such a delicacy!), a wooden decoration leaf and another wonderful letter...wow, I'm overwhelmed...

THANK YOU HAKKALINA!

:)

Turned 32 today and I'm happier than I've been in a long, long time. Some say life starts at 40, but it feels like mine is starting right here, at 32!
Finally, one of the theme songs in my life doesn't only match the sad parts; I can finally sing along the whole song without skipping the refrain :)



I kept the right ones out
And let the wrong ones in
Had an angel of mercy
to see me through all my sins

There were times in my life
When I was goin' insane
Tryin' to walk through
The pain

When I lost my grip
And I hit the floor
Yeah, I thought I could leave
but couldn't get out the door
I was so sick and tired
Of a livin' a lie
I was wishin' that I
Would die

It's Amazing
With the blink of an eye
you finally see the light
It's Amazing
When the moment arrives
that you know you'll be alright

It's Amazing
And I'm sayin' a prayer
for the desperate hearts tonight

That one last shot's a
Permanent Vacation
And how high can you fly with broken wings?
Life's a journey not a destination A
nd I just can't tell just what tomorrow brings

You have to learn to crawl
Before you learn to walk
But I just couldn't liten to all that righteous talk
I was out on the street,
Just a tryin' to survive

It's Amazing
With the blink of an eye
you finally see the light
It's Amazing
When the moment arrives that you know
you'll be alright
It's Amazing
And I'm sayin' a prayer
for the desperate hearts tonight

Rest In Peace, Old Buddy...

No, no, no, it's not one of our cats that has died and it's not one of my human friends either.

This is about a friend who came into my life about 4 years ago.

Can't believe it's *that* short, feels like we've been together for so much longer.

It was love at first sight.

I had an idea of what he had to look like:
he had to be different
and I didn't want him to be too skinny or small;
a larger body feels so much better.
And there had to be a click, definately.
That spark of magic.

I went to the city by myself that day.
No company; this was a step I had to make on my own.

Would he be there?
Would I recognize him
while other temptations were surrounding us?

I browsed.
Looked at every single candidate.
Eye contact, even some touching & feeling.

I must admit,
some were better,
but far out of my league.
They flirted with me
and I flirted back,
but at both sides it was obvious:
that wasn't the match I was going for.

I had expected him to be black.
Black is my colour.
(or non-colour)
I must admit his looks made me hesitate,
but only for a minute.

Some would consider him ugly,
or at least kinda weird.
And since weird is my middle name,
it was clear when our eyes met:
this guy was going home with me!

How many moments fit
in only 4 years?
So, so many.
My hard drive is stuffed with all those moments.

My buddy, my Dimage Z10,
our ways are parting.

Last weekend you were at my side, we were going to make some great shots of little Noah. You made me feel insecure; was there something wrong with the focus?
Nah, probably my lenses made your screen look blurry, I thought.
But when I came home, not a single shot turned out to be sharp. It wasn't to blame on my eyes.

It's not me, buddy, it's you this time.
You've lost it.

I took you to the river side yesterday, we made a long stroll in the burning hot sun. This was the place where we took out best shots.
And now it is the place where we shot the worst.
Everything is out of focus,
except the macro shots, the one thing you've always excelled in. We may make some macro repo's in the future together, but I'm gonna need to replace you when it comes to other tasks.

I can't believe how fast it went!
When we met, you were the very best within my budget and the size of your frames was very well. Now even my mobile phone has a higher standard than you.
I knew for a while you were getting old-fashioned, but I still loved you.
When someone laughed at your looks, I didn't care. I knew what we had done together in the past and I trusted you to prove them wrong.

This is the last portrait you made of me:

Goobye, old buddy.
Thanks for the good times.
The memories will be preserved.
And I haven't got a clue how to replace you :(

Stupid Nature

This afternoon, Molotov came in all axcited, proud of the large bird he caught (or found, he's always making a lot of noises when he watches birds). I HATE it when cats do that!

Yes, I know, I know, it's nature and instinct. I wasn't mad at Mol, but I always get a little sad when I see their kills. :(

Usually I ask Albert to pick up whatever the cats brought home, but let's be a grown up and pick it up myself (with a glove on, couldn't do it otherwise). Grabbed one of the legs and was near the recycling bin when I saw the eyes blink. OMG! This poor little thing was all dead-looking, but that eye was opening and closing like crazy. Last spasms or still alive?

I couldn't throw it in the bin without being sure if it was still alive, so I did what I had to do: I broke its neck.

My god, I'm horrified by myself now. I killed an animal.

*shivers*

Dear cats, please don't bring those preys home anymore. I know you're hunters and I don't mind feeding you canned meat, but if you do hunt, please keep it to yourself.

If I hadn't been a vegetarian already, I would have become one today.

Nature just sucks!