Back in Holland....

Yesterday I arrived safe and sound in Delft again after a period of being away of more then 7 months!
I don't know who of you has experiences with being away from such a long time but everything feels very normal and same time one feels like one has to get to know a lot again.... like being a stranger in oyur own home ;-)

What didn't help was that my mobilephone was blocked (about that I write in my next entry!) and as such I could not let anybody know I was really back in The Netherlands... I was lucky though that taco and Wilma were at the airport to welcome me back and bring me to Delft, where my home still is ofcourse.
They were very kind and had bought me the most essential items to tie me over on this sunday till the shops opened up again today (monday).... yep, am back in Holland which still manages to survive without a 24/7 shopping fascility on almost every corner like THailand ;-)!

It felt weird though, walking around my own city again after such a long time, weird indeed and same time everything is so familiar.
Also what one finds when one gets back home: a big pile of mail to work trough, disconnected phonelines and internet because I cancelled them before I left for Thailand with Kik. No TV, no internet, nothing...how to solve??

Well, I simply asked my neighbours who live at the back of my (canal)house if they had wifi and if they were willing to allow me to use that. Happy to say they said yes and so I can now start working my laptop again and at least be in touch via the comp and skype with the outsite world again, Yippie.

Surprising saidi came to the house yesterday, a gamble on his part. So unexpected I found myself in pleasant company aaand for the first time could talk about my weddingday with someone who actually shared the whole day with me but I hadn't seen and spoken to since the day ended becaue kik and I left the next day for Thailand.
STrange or not, it feels pleasant for me to be able to talk about that day having not bene able to al this time except with Kik that is ofocurse, haha.

Well, it stands to reason that quickly that first evening I went to bed early and had a wonerfull peacefull sleep.

Now, monday, busy the whole day to get the rest of the weeks organised, to do what needs to be done an prepare again for a long time of being away again.

O, did some shopping today: the pices, brrrrr... some stuff is really expensive though some are cheap... it seems that the Thai prices are firmly engraved in my mind... another weird thing to get rid off... Today I had to pay AH a rather large sum for a pittiful amount of stuff, at least if I compare this to my shopping at Carrefour in Jungceylon n Patong Beach that is.... well, am back so it belongs to being here!
But also was very happy to be able to drink some decent wine again for a decent price :-))))!

Thats it for now folks, talk to you later again and I'll start with the mobile phone business which keps me rather away from a lot of people still ;-)

Long hair experience or just a case of midlife crisis? ;-)

Second picture:
Night before Queensnight, a birthdayparty and can you see my long hair???
First picture:
Well, some (or maybe even most) of you guys who know me longer then since today, know I was or have allways been fascinated by long hair. Never though I contemplated to have long hair myself.
Why you ask? Well several reasons:
1st and most important I had the feeling it didn't suit my face, too big, round or whatever you want to call it and long hair would only make that look stronger.. a look I didn't like;
2d when one wants long hair.. it rather takes a while and one has to get trough a fase where ones hair is rather wild in appearance and when one has lots of wrong turning "kruinen" (sorry, do not know the english word right now so you have to look it up in your dutch-english dictionary) it goes in al directions, and mostly not the most fashionable ones, haha.... and I have to admit, I have allways cared for at least a little bit how I looked, though maybe, over the years not as much as I should have.
3d I also thought I hated the uncomfi feeling of hair growing longer, making one feel warmer, and allways when summer arrived I had the urge of whatever attempt I made to let it go in favor of a short, cooling haircut....


Well, cal it midlife crisis or whatever else one wants to cal it, but since I arrived back in Thailand I thought: I want to have this long hair experience without all that trouble to go trough to find out what it is, if it would have at all suited me, etc..... and then Thai friends told me about the hairextensions, yes yes, you read it correctly.... real hair and not at all expensive and one does not need to go trough the itchie fase of longer growing hair, the wild looking part, etc.. or blablabla

So, knowing, when I more and more started to contemplate the experiment of the long hair experience, that I would go back to Holland in May, that hairextensions seem to have a life span of roughly 3 months, if lucky longer I had to decide latest early february what to do, if I at al wanted that experience and in such a warm climate at that! Well.. the answer was YES, why not?
Kik agreed so the deed was done!

And now dear readers, yours trukly is allready walking around with long hair since february... hardly visible on pictures because mostly I wear it in a 'ponytale' or whatever you want to call it.
Its a lot of fun though, though I know its not the same as own grown long hair, it gets as close as one can get.
Also its way less warm, contrary to what I expected, and it actually didn't look that bad at al, even made my face less big.
Seing and hearing that and remarks about it, made me judge the long hair experience as a positive one!

BUT now I will leave for Holland in a weeks time and now I am contemplating to have the extensions removed or not...

Hope some of you guys reading this can help me out with some advice here?

Have no pics of me with long hair, only one of my back, hehe, with hair til below my shoulders right now (i has grown a good 2/3 centimeters since it was put into my hair)

Black Queensday or just the opposite....

Right: Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands; Left: Flag half mast on the"Ouwe Jan" the tower of the Old Church near my house in Delft!

.... Lucky we were all still oblivious of the events which turned this years Queensday not in its normal happy Orange Queensday-mood, but in a true Black Queensday. One nobody who saw or heard of it will ever forget, for sure when one is Dutch,where ever we Dutch may live! The images of this useless and O so costly attack in human lives on the Queen and her family are impossible to errase from our minds. sadly we will never know why this guy caused so much havoc and death on what has allways been a day of true and happy honest celebrations of our nations connection with our Royal Family and our Queen as a symbol of our unity amidst all the disagreements we seem to like to cherish so much. Orange is their name, and orange has become the color with which the Dutch enjoy showing their unity as we can see during major sportsevents like European and/or World Soccer Championships and the Olympic Games. A color, recognised everywhere in the world as one symbolising the Dutch, more then our national flag, more then our tulips, cheese, wooden shoes and windmills.
Well it did happen and we all will have to live with it and am sure we all do our best to make its memory fade with the years though we know we'll never succeed!
We can only pray that the actions of this nutcase, if I may be so bold to state, will prove to be an islotaed incident which will not lead to such drastic security measures by the authorities that the spontanious caracter of Queensday and the celebration of it with our Queen will not suffer form it, that would be too much of an invasion on the spirit of our day off celebrating our unity as a people amidst, as it seems, a more and more insecure world where respect for live, liberty, religion, sexuality etc. seems more and more under duress by minorities who seem unable to cope with these changes for, what I believe will be in time a better and more peacefull world!
Useless attacks. like the one on Black Quensday, tend only to scare people and make governements take more and more restricting measures or radicalise....... and as such create the opposite effect of what we as people look for and want to have! I can only hope that the Dutch Governement and our Royal Family will not give in to fear and instead will lead us a way from that by giving the right example. Too much fear is allready starting to control our lives, exploited also by some political parties. A fear we should never give in to because it makes us less then what we are and,I believe, definitly want to be ! Fear has allways been a bad advisor anyway!
So the attack on our Queen and her family, and the sacrifice by the people who had to die unvolluntary on Black Queensday, will hopefully turn into a positive mood among our people and will make them hate those who like to exploit and broaden the fears amongst us, which is so easily done at times but always brings disaster in all kinds!

Happy to say that the attitude of our Queen and her family is one of not giving in to those fears, just as we might have expected from members of this family, who, trough the years/centuries have managed to show one way or another to rise above such fears. Hopefully our governement of the day will show same attitude and will show our people the way, together with our Queen, to the road out of a society filled with fear of what people don't know. But also show us what we gain by embrasing diversity instead of rejecting it. In matters small or big, in the end its all still same same but different!!
As a nation we once grew and flourished because of that attitude, we now refer to it with mild or big reference as The Golden Age, why should we not start to look for a new Golden Age based on some of the same as what made our small, in size, nation grow so big and floorish but then in a different, modern way. maybe then we can look at Black Queensday as a positive turning point for our people, our attitudes, mentality etc................
But maybe then again, it might just be a dream, wishfull thinking... though I sincerily hope not !!