Hip hip hooray...

The Queens birthday (Koninginnedag) was celebrated today in Holland. In the usual, outrageous manner, the whole country turns into a huge flea market, children perform on the streets, many more go out and act the goat in some way and in the course of the afternoon many just go and drink themselves silly.


One of the nicest portraits I've seen recently.
And the silliest thing of all is... it's not even her birthday. That's at the end of January but since her mother, Queen Juliana, celebrated her birthday on April 30th, Queen Beatrix decided on her accession in 1980 to continue the tradition as the chance of reasonable weather was a lot better on that day than in January.


The skies got very dark at a certain point, but the masses didn't take much notice I suspect...
So, silly me was out at 5 a.m. so I could find a place for the children to park their stuff on the sidewalk so it could be sold... I went out ahead and let the rest sleep... Actually it was a very interesting morning, I got to talking to all sorts of people around me I probably wouldn't have spoken with otherwise.


...although some weren't very talkative really...
Thankfully the weather was good. It was fresh in the morning, later in the day it turned decidedly humid and warm but only after a short shower. Compared to a couple of years ago, when everybody and everything got totally drenched, it was a dream day :D


Middle Daughter, sitting quietly and waiting for prosective customers... good job it stayed dry.

More photo's of the Queens Birthday holiday can be found here.

Goodbye BSO

Today was Katie's last day at the after-school centre (BSO). It was a bit of a pity really as she'd enjoyed herself there enormously in the past but she's now getting to an age that she's a lot older than a lot of the other children there.

A photo, taken about a year ago when Katie had red hair...

Her friend, Rianne who is also in her class at school, used to go there as well but since her mother stopped with working Rianne doesn't go any more.
(Rianne's the girl on the right with the blue jumper.)

Making biscuits for Saint Nicolaas. (December 2004)

There was often something practical to be done... baking once in a while, building things with wood, using clay, making paper models, fooling around with theatre makeup and lots of other things. She always enjoyed that and invariably came home in a mess. No matter though, she enjoyed herself and that was most important.

A present the children made for Katie.

The kids and the leaders made a present for Katie, who was well known for her unwillingness to eat any fruit of any kind (and still doesn't incidentally). It's become a bit of a running joke by now, as seen in the picture.

Antarctica revisited

So once again I bottom out and the words freeze in my mind. The silence of the barren wastes defeats all courage, there is no place for shelter in the bitingly cold silence.

Bits and pieces of the day

Things are a bit slow today... just a slow trickle of the usual but nothing spectacular. First off, a repeat order for a customer I helped some years ago with a birth announcement for their daughter... now they are expecting a son, so the motive will be in blue, I'm still waiting for the illustration.

This was the card for their daughter

I don't know exactly what the following image was used for, but I found it whilst tidying up the archive. It's a nice one, has an energy and exubererance I rarely see.

It's almost as if they're dancing in between crystals...

And once in a while, you get a bit of silliness to deal with as well. One of my clients, in correcting the text of a brochure, came up with this gem:

"If you don't have access to the Internet, you can also make use of the PowerPoint presentation. This can be downloaded from MCNet, under Website Info."

Falls into the category

"If your internet connection fails to work, please send an e-mail to our helpdesk and you will be helped as soon as possible"

Great stuff... sigh...

A number illustrations were supplied for a series of cards based on 1920's artwork, one of which I liked particularly:

Katie received a card from her trainer, who was expecting and gave birth to a daughter Yoandi last Friday. An original effort, and a very nice one at that.

Ended up being bored silly, couldn't concentrate later in the afternoon. It was a pity I had a class this evening as well, although I usually do enjoy it I was so damned tired and unfocussed that it was a bit of a waste of time unfortunately. Better luck next time.

Elf Fantasy Festival 2005

This year the Elf Fantasy Festival was held at Castle "De Haar", fairly close to Utrecht. It's a huge gathering of everybody and anybody who's into fantasy worlds, Lord of the Rings, gothic lifestyles, Middle Ages re-enactments and whatever really...

Part of the castle with a "town crier" acting out his part

Everybody came dressed in their finest, many have been working for months to get it "just right".

The winners of the costume competition

A lot of quite authentic situations were created... it's amazing how many people are really interested in Middle Age ways of life.

I met this girl earlier in the day, at the harpists' workshop,
she played excellently!!

Lord of the Rings motives were heavily represented... last year there were more though, this year there was a lot more diversity

Hmmm... don't fancy meeting one of the Nazgûl in the dark.

I guess it's just something people like to do... dressing up for the occasion. You don't need to be a kid to do that.

Take a look at the photo's I've made of the event

And this is the Elf Fantasy site
(you can find an English section on the page)

And the rest of the day

OK, after the nonsense of the morning... getting down to enjoying a warm spring day. First of all I needed cards for the Festival next Sunday, they were quickly obtained but I was lucky as the tickets were almost sold out.

After that, just spent hours wandering around the city, getting the feel of the place and soaking in the atmosphere. It was a pretty quiet day, not too much hustle and bustle thankfully.

Part of the St. Jans cathedral in the centre of the city

A statue in the oldest quarter of the city, made just after WWII. Note the blanked out window of the cathedral behind it, this was pretty common of Catholic buildings which were appropriated during the Reformation... all stained glass was removed.

The Dom tower, which stands high over the city centre.

One of the canals... in the warmer days of the year restaurants and cafés take over the terraces alongside the canals.

I managed to get a fair bit of photography done, but wasn't all too happy with the results. Still need to take a look again at my camera and all the preferences to see if I haven't missed something.

Low sun and no fun

I could say I hate Thursdays, but that's dumb because if I did so, I should hate every day in the end.

Hmm... I had a day off and I was looking forward to that, to a bit of peace and quiet just doing a bit of photography.

Except, less than one minute away from home, just around the corner, my car got hit from behind by a driver who was having difficulty with a low hanging sun. I was too, and I'd been driving rather slowly as it was difficult to see much at all.

So there we are, on the road trying to organise ourselves a bit for the insurance, when a third car came along, rammed the second one, which again ploughed into the back of my car for the second time.

Sh*t happens, but this is ridiculous... Police came, and went. We went though the motions of getting everything noted and accounted for, so I could go after half an hour or so.

Brilliant start to a day off, eh?

One gets to wondering...

We live in strange times. Whilst pursuing freedom and liberty our governments find it necessary to limit these qualities, whilst preaching the doctrines of free markets and individual responsibility a war of attrition is being waged by the priviliged classes against those who against all odds are trying to better their chances in the world.

We live in a world in which a select few dictate the terms on which our society is to conduct itself, a world in which the individual is rapidly becoming a dispensible item and a world in which human worth is expressed in terms of the amount of wealth he/she can generate for companies and individuals that already possess more wealth than most countries on this earth.

Isn't it paradoxical that the children we rely on to follow in our footsteps are being poisoned (both physically as well as mentally) by the companies that produce the commodities to make our lives easier and/or better?

Don't you find it odd that multinational companies are now able to patent genetically modified material so that farmers will need to pay royalties to generate the food a society depends on to survive?

Aren't you afraid of the companies that are quietly buying control of water resources around the world?

Isn't a little hypocritical that politicians and civil leaders cry foul when even a hint of anti-semitism is detected in the daily life of society, whilst at the same time no words are wasted mentioning the torching of mosques, the desecration of Mohommadan graves, vandalism at Islamic primary schools, the marginalising of arabic (fellow) world citizens, the climate of fear and resentment generated toward anybody of arabic descent?

Just a couple of things I've been worrying about today. Otherwise, it's been cool ;-)

No, no pics this time... my heart's not in in at the moment.

Or perhaps just this one then, which I particularly liked...

Going under

At the moment listening to the first track on the first Evanescence CD Fallen

 

"Going Under"

Now I will tell you what I've done for you

50 thousand tears I've cried

Screaming deceiving and bleeding for you

and you still won't hear me

Don't want your hand this time I'll save myself

Maybe I'll wake up for once

Not tormented daily defeated by you

Just when I thought I'd reached the bottom

I'm dying again

I'm going under

Drowning in you

I'm falling forever

I've got to break through

I'm going under

Blurring and stirring the truth and the lies

so I don't know what's real and what's not

always confusing the thoughts in my head

so I can't trust myself anymore

I'm dying again

I'm going under

Drowning in you

I'm falling forever

I've got to break through

So go on and scream

Scream at me I"m so far away

I won't be broken again

I've got to breathe I can't keep going under.

The original, written lyrics...
click here or on the image for an enlargement

The music is of a wonderful, mystical quality that grabbed my attention straight away and has never let go since...

Habemus Papam

And so it goes, the smoke comes, at first grey but in the confusion turning white after a short while. The world holds it's breath, the door to a new era is opened and the old one is closed.

In some ways his ascension is a surprise, in others it isn't really. It seems that the Vatican has decided to continue its conservative agenda, with Pope Bendict XVI following in the footsteps of his immediate predecessor.

You could argue that the Vatican's vision on society is backward and regressive in a world that is rapidly evolving and moving toward a bright, self-assured future. On the other hand, you could also say it's a significant counterweight to a world that is spinning out of control socially, that the Catholic church serves as a sort of brake on too much, too quickly and too haphazardly. Don't go thinking now that I condone a lot of what the Catholic church teaches, there is a lot miserably wrong in the hiearchy, but there are a lot of good people too who are doing their best to make the world a better place.

Here's a portrait of the new pope, taken in the 1960's which to my mind shows what kind of person he is... I can't quite put it into words, but I sincerely feel he is a man who can be trusted... a person's eyes usually tell more than what words and body language can conceal.

The world waits with bated breath, to see how the new Pope will manifest himself. There was joy yesterday on the Saint Peters Square and also some mumbled dissent apparently but today the accent was on continuity and not rocking the boat for the meantime.

The chances are that Benedict XVI will not be Pope for all too long, as he is already older than most Pope's have ever been. Let's hope enough goodwill will be generated in the meantime for a successor who perhaps will be pushing a more progressive agenda.

The day, fading...

Finally I'm starting to get the feeling that I'm on top of things again. Once again I've just swung though a cycle of darkness and fatigue which lasted weeks and weeks, perhaps even months, can't really tell any more as I've lost track of a lot of things recently.

Except we don't have a cat any more...

Still badly absentminded at the moment though... forgetting the most self-explanatory things and feeling pretty dumb at times. Yesterday went really well, today a little less so but I still scraped through with the feeling that I'm building up enough credit now to keep myself out of the firing line of the "powers that be".

... and water the dog and walk the plants...

I had a period at the end of last year that I was hauled into the interview room once a month for appraisals and re-appraisals which did nothing more really than just get me so bloody nervous that I started doing things worse instead of better.

Really helpful lot, the (mis-)management...

In the end, in combination with anti-depressants and a somewhat more assertive attitude I managed to get myself over that one, but somehow the depression got hold of me anyway after a month or two and dragged me back into the darkness of the labyrinth. Only after ages of muddling and fumbling around did I manage to get my act back together (no thanks to my partner for that...)

Forgetful Jones' day off

So now, as the clock strikes midnight, and all good pumpkins return to their stalls, I let the day fade into memory and timelessness.

An evening to be remembered

Today went well, I seemed to have sailed through most of what was going on without too much trouble for once. No holdups, no significant stuff-ups, no nonsense and got everything out of the way except for one cover by 16.00.


I even managed to get on the good side of our supervisor for once, and seem to have scored some brownie points along the way. He was a lot more relaxed and on top of things today, so I guess that helped us too :D


Why not... seems a good way to go ;-)
This evening, there was a chat session for Middle Daughter's favourite music group, Ch!pz, the same group that they went to see last Friday evening.


The kids got themselves installed, looking forward to an interesting hour chatting with their favourite stars. The chatroom would be locked at 19.10 so that no new chatters could get in after that and the show got on it's way.



Finally, when Middle Daughter's turn came up to ask her question five minutes later, she got an error message and then the computer just froze up and she was ejected from the chatroom. The children didn't know what they were seeing... Middle Daughter flew into a rage, started crying, stormed out of the room and locked herself in the bathroom for an hour. It was difficult getting her out of there, but we managed (with much persuasion and a little enticement) and in the course of the evening she calmed down.


Not entirely applicable, but you get my drift...
It was a very upsetting experience for her, I felt really sad for her so I'm trying to organise a little surprise for her... hope it works. Once again, an evening to be remembered...

The Minotaur

I am afraid, so scared of losing touch. How can I explain, my words are cheap and transparant, they carry no other meaning other than that which you, the reader are willing to give them.

For as I write you will recreate my words in your own image, the lovingly constructed phrases of my own reality and my own time, the meaning in my meanderings through the labyrinth from which I cannot be released will be different to what I see, think, feel, am.

I am frightened, for as I write, the words and images I hold dear slip away into the darkness and confusion. Is it possible that a one could lose their grip on language in the course of time? That the words one learnt as a child could lose their meaning and their colourings and become just hollow vessels for day to day exchanges of trivia and necessity?

The silence beckons, yet I must resist, I am resisting as I have always done for without the words the emptiness will shroud me and render me mute forever.

The Girls and their Papers

Yep... you saw it right. Caught red-handed in the act of working :D


Eldest Daughter and a friend enjoying themselves immensely in their respective ways ;-)

Walking for UNICEF

Once a year primary school children are able to participate in a walkathon to raise money for UNICEF. It's promoted heavily in the classes and most children participate. In the weeks before the walkathon they fan out over the suburb looking for people to sponsor them over 5, 10 or 15 km for whatever amount one is willing to share and there's usually a bit of a competition going on as to who managed to get the most sponsor pledges.

Katie did very well this year... she wanted to walk the 10 km, which we and she all knew she could do easily. She managed at the end of the day, to raise some 220 Euros, which is a massive amount compared to some. OK, I did help her a little as well, collecting sponsors for her at my work but otherwise it was all her own work here...

Katie in front of part of the Cultural Centrum, just before the start

We were extremely lucky with the weather. Earlier in the morning it had been teeming, which stopped about 8 am. After the walkathon was over, it started raining again... seems like somebody likes us up there ;-)

Halfway through the course, at one of the control posts

Renaissance man

During my travels in the course of the day, I usually end up at Google for all sorts of things I'm looking for. To my surprise they'd morphed their logo again, this time to celebrate the birthday of Leonardo da Vinci who was born on April 15th, 1452.


It was through him that the term "Renaissance Man" came to being... a person who was able to master many different disciplines and be good at them all. The logo shows a couple of major motives in his life



Self portrait, early 1500's
A gifted man, who gave the Renaissance impulses in many direction as painter, sculptor, architect, builder, musician (he could play four instruments), philosopher and mathematician. His notes, written in his particular mirror script show a man of considerable depth and feeling, who was searching for the most essential cross-sections of all human activity and most of all searching for a universal truth that would be the key to a new and better human existence.



An exposition on human anatomy, mathematics and geometry... Leonardo was also obsessed with proportions and number symbolism



Of course, the far too well known "La Gioconda"



Click here or on the photo for an enlargement.

The wall-painting of "The Last Supper" which thankfully survived wars, earthquakes, revolutions and fungus and has recently been restored to its former brilliance

*******************

More information on Leonardo da Vinci:

Simple, but effective overview of his work plus a short biography

A biography, part of a broader overview of the Renaissance

A biography which focusses on Leonardo's less well known abilities

A overview of his drawings

A website about his hometown of Vinci, plus a well made timeline