September 03, 2009

Mayke jarig

HARTELIJK GEFELICITEERD MET JE VERJAARDAG!

September 07, 2008

Verzoek Aan mijn Amsterdamse Relaties

Mijn broertje is zojuist verhuisd in Amsterdam. Het is zijn eerste eigen appartement dus mag hij met recht een "starter" genoemd worden. Hij heeft dus 't een en ander nodig. Omdat ik niet in de buurt ben om hem te helpen, ben ik voor hem, via jullie, op zoek naar:


- Een fornuis (of kookplaatje, of een tweepits electrisch dingetje, als "'t maar kookt")
- Een magnetron (liefst combi, mijn broer is single en doet dus graag aan opwarmmaaltijden en ovenzaken)
- Potten, pannen, schalen, borden etc.
- Gordijnen / luxaflex (vraag mij om de maten)
- Luie stoel / bank (twee of driepersoons, mag versleten zijn als ie maar aardig zit, we draperen er gewoon iets over) (als ik zijn foto's bestudeer lijkt me zijn woonkamer niet supergroot; ik denk dus dat een tweezits plus een luie stoel het beste is)
- Tweepersoons beddegoed (hij heeft een bed van 140 maar alleen 90 cm breed beddegoed= niet handig)
- een vloerkleedje?
- Lampjes (hang, wand, sta, bureau)?
- en zo te zien wil de keuken (wellicht ook slaapkamer, hal?) best ook iets van vloerbedekking
- En ik denk dat een bureau/tafel (niet te groot) en bureaustoel ook welkom zal zijn
- Misschien zelfs een aardig kastje voor de huiskamer?
- (zou ie eigenlijk een klerenkast hebben, denk het niet)
- spiegel?
- klok?

- en... ook niet onbelangrijk: hij is een lezer met in zijn bezit LETTERLIJK 1 boek (hij zegt "wel een mooi boek, daar niet van" ...;-). Als jullie toevallig net bezig waren om boeken te sorteren om weg te gaan gooien (zoals ik net deze zomer gedaan heb maar vanuit Frankrijk dozen met boeken gaan versturen is een beetje zot) denk dan ook even aan hem. Hij houdt van: Geschiedenis, Wetenschap, Literatuur (zelfs poezie heb ik ontdekt), muziek. En Tijdschriften als Scientific American, De Kijk, National Geograpic, de Groene Amsterdammer, stripverhalen. Hij leest in elk geval Nederlands en Engels, ik denk ook Duits.

Als jullie iets van dit nog ergens hebben liggen waar het alleen maar stof vangt en wat altijd al eens weg moest, willen jullie dan asjeblieft aan hem denken? Alle communicatie gaat het beste via mij, dan kan ik een beetje organiseren.
Mijn bijdrage is dat ik de stadsvracht-taxi zal betalen dus hoeft niemand zich over het transport zorgen te maken. Voor kleine dingen vraag ik hemzelf natuurlijk of hij het wil gaan ophalen.

Jawel, ik ben al dagen bezig om op marktplaats.nl en ebay.nl rond te neuzen en ik zie een heleboel goeds voor hem maar het is voor mij van hieruit te ingewikkeld om het te organiseren: betaling, transport etc. (dat is ook nog een optie: als iemand van jullie in Nederland aanbiedt om mijn selectie marktplaats/ebay.nl af te handelen, en ik kan in 1 keer de kosten naar je overmaken, is dat ook geweldig!)
Vandaar deze "noodkreet".

Wat ook jammer is, is dat ik best het een en ander heb om hem uit de brand te helpen maar ik kan het niet vervoeren. Als iemand dus een plan had om binnen afzienbare tijd met de auto deze kant op te komen, en een en ander van hier naar Amsterdam wil vervoeren, hoor ik dat graag!.

Paul weet heus ook wel dat je gegeven paarden niet in de bek moet kijken dus schroom niet. Veel zal hem vast de eerste tijd vooruit helpen en daarna kan hij het altijd zelf nog aan de straat zetten.

PS. hij heeft al een prachtige houten vloer, een wasmachine, een koelkast, een eettafel en vier stoelen, een tv, een schapje en een boekenkastje (te leeg ...). Afijn, zie plaatjes!

July 20, 2008

Birthday presents

We found a good present for eachother: nature. We took ourselves to a huge garden centre in Montpellier and bought a grape-vine for the pergola, an olive tree for the terrace and an apple tree for the court. And to top off this great day we had dinner in the evening with new friends Jesper and Meta, and Peggy.

July 08, 2008

Pergola Dressing Day

It'll take a couple of years before the eventual Vine will be big enough to cover the new pergola and we really do need shade. So Floor and JJ thatched the roof of the new pergola. Just like that! Isn't the result romantic?!
(note Annerie's flirty legs lazily dangling out of the hammock...;-)

June 13, 2008

Pergola-raising

The Lippo-brothers have been busy raising our pergola. It's not quite done yet but I have high hopes for the near future.
Guess this means we have to have a journey ahead of us to the plant-shop near Montpellier, to get some good and fast-growing climbers! I'm thinking Vigne and Virgin-Vigne and then see which wins the race of growing over the arches!

June 10, 2008

Long live the new one!

On the 25th of May our beloved Saeco Coffee-machine died. I had feared this had to happen at some point since it was over twelve years old. It came from our Amsterdam Wibauthuis-office. The Wibauthuis was demolished last fall, and now the coffee machine has followed.
For a week I surfed the internet in search for an affordable new one, but they were all hidiously expensive. On the phone with my mother I complained about it and guess what ... she and her husband donated a new machine to our house!
And it's beautiful! And much more silent! And the coffee tastes even better!
THANK YOU MAMA EN EVERT!

May 14, 2008

Terrace update 14 may: light!

I took --not so good -- pictures of the first evening with light outside! All electricity is done for now. Whoopy!

May 13, 2008

More building update 13 May

The little roofs on the terrace are being updated. The major bit is going to contain a sink and tap. The second one is going to be a dog feeding place. Between them we're going to find space to store stuff that's needed on the terrace like chair-cushions and gardenpots. No doors or walls, just a shelter. Not sure how it'll work but we will try it out and get a better clue how to use it as we use it.
We're still awaiting among others a pergola (maybe even two), a BBQ-solution and a pulley to hoist up heavy things (shopping/firewood etc), a laundry pulley underneath the pergola. Then we have to find some lighting underneath the pergola and on top of the stairs. phew, I don;t think we'll get anywhere near to a propperly finished situation in 2008... still, it all starts to look neat and good.

Trenches

The trenches for the electricity wires have been dug this morning. The forecast is that the terrace should be done by the end of this week, sort of. No idea when the balustrade for the stairs is going to be finalised, or the pergolas. But I'm sure I'll find out soon enough!
(quick update for John: the balustrade for the stairs is going to be put up on thursday. Leaving the pergola and the gate on top of the stairs)

May 07, 2008

terrace update 7 May

No words needed.
Sorry.
They might not be very interesting pictures but they're useful to me.

May 02, 2008

Terrace update 2 May

And the work goes on...
It's supposed to be finished coming week but if I look at the todo list I doubt very much that it'll be indeed over by next friday.
Sigh. I must admit we've had enough.
But it does get prettier every day!

April 30, 2008

Meanwhile

Yesterday during the excitement over the birth of my new niece, we also celebrated the arrival of my cousin Julia and her two kids Vince and Florence. And in turn they celebrated the arrival of the balustrade with brunch amidst work-in-progress ! Not sure if this is the kind of holiday-brunch they had in mind but they did make the best of it.

April 24, 2008

Terrace update 24 april

John has put some terrace furniture on the new surface and I am doing the laundry. Eventhough all is still a mess a bit of normal house-life is coming back.
In the mean time the workers are occupied with the cave below the terrace, the arch needs to be remade and the inside needs to be rendered.
(by the way: indeed, sunny. It's 27 degrees!)

April 19, 2008

Cour update 19 April

Just in case yesterday's pictures weren't enough ...

April 18, 2008

Yikes! Now they're downstairs ...

Update on the works. They've started underneath our salon .... It's coming closer. It is more horrible...

April 15, 2008

I'm walking on sunshine

Sunny patches created by the extension of our terrace. It's amazing what difference this modest addition makes.

April 14, 2008

Terrace update 14 April #3

more pictures

Terrace update 14 April #2

more pictures

Terrace update 14 April #1

Yikes! The concrete truck has arrived! The truck took a couple of branches off our Linden tree but the workers seem to be please it didn't take the whole tree so we better not complain...

April 11, 2008

Terrace update 11 April

April 10, 2008

Terrace update 10 April

After some discussion this morning we think that the main works will be finished by 25 April. After that there will be a week (maybe more) of installing the fence around the terrace edges and staircase, whichh takes us to 2 May or so... All together two weeks later than initially planned but it's nobodies fault, the delay is mostly due to a couple of rainy days and unforeseen complications with building the staircase and levelling the terrace surface. I am happy with the energy of the workers who work more than eight hours a day and hardly take breaks.
Yesterday and today are the days for boxing in the extension of the terrace. The concrete-truck will come on monday to pour the first layer of surface on both the terrace and the stairs. After that there will be another layer that will be finer. This will waterproof and finish.
In the mean time electricity gainers are being put in, sockets and light switches and, waiting for the arrival of terrace lights, we will hopefully be able to put up the lights. I resign to postponing the plumming to somwhere in May since it's not the most important.
We still have to decided on the date for the activation of our rainwater-container (Citerne). Also there is supposed to be a propper base around our "pool" so that we can access that a bit easier.

April 08, 2008

Gotta laugh

To build our concrete staircase in the cour has been a real pain for the builder Tony Bat. Nevertheless they've pulled it off and as they're working away in the drizzle, humming instead of cursing (like yesterday), I walk out to offer him and his crew "you want anything, glass of wine, beer, cup of coffee...?"
He quickly answers: "billet d'avion". (plane ticket, vliegticket)

April 05, 2008

terrace progress report

IT IS HORRIBLE. But then again it might be pretty when it's all done. Dunno really. Bit black today because it all looks soooh gruesome and my poor, poor terrace plants are suffering badly. The facade-shutters arrived but they are BADLY painted and not even sanded down! Very cross about it. Story goes that the company will come back on monday to redo all of them but I don't have any illusions they'll do a proper job on it.
The two good things are that Dora seems to be fine (there was vet-talk about her having a tumor and on monday she has to have a sample of a small swelling taken out; nevertheless I hardly feel the 'tumor' anymore and think it might have been just an infection) and that it's 25 degrees and VERY sunny! First day without socks and with dress (bare arms and legs).

March 26, 2008

Update on the terrace works

There were twelve people in our house today. Twelve. One husband, one coordinator, one cleaner, one painter, one electrician, two metalworkers, Mr Tony Bat (the builder) and his three headed demolition crew, and me. And a nervous dog.
It was nerve wrecking and very very noisy.
Enjoy the pictures.

March 25, 2008

Three times lucky ...

In july 2006 I drilled through a waterpipe in the bathroom: Kristi's hole
And then 4 months later Wayne copied my mistake:
Wayne's hole

And today it was the metalworker Francesco who pierced a hidden electricity cable in the wall in our living room. No casualties though. And the problem was fixed by the electrician who came immediately.

Other than that the demolition works have started on our terrace whilst the citerne is still in progress and the sofa-reupholsterer Sylvie is working to see if she can reconstruct the sofa and Bernard to paint some shutters and Wayne to keep track of it all and frantically making phonecalls.

John? Well, he went out for a serious dogwalk and running down the stairs he shouted he might go on a three-week sabbatical ...

March 20, 2008

Just another day

We had a big fat meeting with a solar-panel guy who came over from Montpellier to fill us in about the possibilities and the costs. Because we knew that Howard and Yuka were also thinking about this subject we found ourselves at 9.30h with six people in our kitchen for a group learning session. Stephane (the solar guy) proved to be lucid and capable, even with these foreigners around. Wayne translated the bits we missed out on, which was reassuring. However, it was a bit unlrelaxing with the outside sounds trickling through to our kitchen-turned-office.

March 17, 2008

Bye bye Ivy

After my initial work on getting rid of the ivy Wayne came in this morning to finish the job and burn the remnants.
I admit, I do feel sad to see this thriving plant go but there was no way around it since the terrace is going to be redone and the ivy was in the way.

March 14, 2008

A friends' comfort

remember the old saying - Persian, I think - that when a man decides to stop building and re-building his house, it means he's ready to die

Guess that goes for women too ... (btw in case anybody feels sorry for me: it's half past 10 in the morning and outside it's sunny: 24 degrees! Time to go to the market!)

What goes up, must come down

In preparation for the rebuild of our terrace, the ivy had to come down. It's a bit of a shame but I know from experience it'll be up there again in no time, if we want to. This morning I cut the top loose from the crumbling wall and tried to push it away. No luck, a man's muscle is needed for this. So I wait for Wayne who'll be here on monday. A whole weekend to say goodbye.

March 12, 2008

Working in the mine, chez nous

There is a bit of mining going on in our court yard. We are the proud owners of a citerne, an ancient huge rainwater basin. We've decided a long time ago that we'd like to put it back into use. In the summer there is often a water-scare and eventhough we never witnessed an actual water-problem it is realistic to assume there's one looming.
These pictures are also taken in case there is a accident. The boys who are cleaning it out are 2.5 meters deep under the ground and because nothing is build with foundations I thought it a good idea to keep a visual archive in case something goes wrong. Or in case they find a scull, a scelleton or a pot of gold!
In the mean time the works on our terrace have started but I'll sit on those pictures untill it becomes a bit more interesting.

March 11, 2008

All alone ...

John left yesterday and Dora and I just waved Debra goodbye.
It's just me and the dog again.
And two men working on the terrace
and Wayne who's helping me to coordinate the works
and the woman who's assessing the fixing of our broken sofa.
and the man who's moving around some heavy stones
and the cleaning lady
But otherwise it's just me and Dora again...

March 05, 2008

Tree has gone

In preparation for the revamp of our terrace, the ugly tree has gone. I've been looking forward to this for a couple of years already and am truely chuffed with the result.

January 06, 2008

Facade research

We went on a little walk around town to look for facade colours that we like. (We were quite surprised seeing our facade so neatly packed in. Hence picture) John carried a heavy bag full of colour examples that we could hold against other peoples' walls. We chose a creamy white. And we actually also like the normal "municipal" grey for the shutters

January 02, 2008

Scaffolding

Only two months too late: today the scaffolding finally has been put up. We're going to do up our facade. Very weird to see people walking past our (first floor) kitchen windows. Initially Dora shivered and barked a bit but got used to it quickly enough.

December 09, 2007

Bookshelves!

Wayne made these great shelves. We have a similar one on the guestroom wall.
Very smart to use these wired bolt-runners for the vertical carriers.
I think he could take those in production and make a buck.

July 20, 2007

Grint, tuin en hond

Floor kwam binnen en een dagje later kwam John ook thuis. Alles weer in evenwicht: twee teven en twee heren.
Het is snikheet, richting 40 graden. Floor en ik (met hond) zijn de afgelopen dagen voor 7.00 uur al naar onze moestuin gewandeld om aan schadebeperking te doen: flink wieden en wateren en hopen dat de bijna verstikte plantjes het toch weer gaan doen. Het ziet er steeds beter uit dus ik heb goede hoop.

May 17, 2007

Small guestroom done up

Here are the results of the remake of the middle guestroom that before looked a bit unloved.

March 17, 2007

Cour

October 30, 2006

Kitchen works

Just before John was due back Wayne and I decided to juice up our kitchen, as a surprise for JT. I had some wallpaper from the fifties, we found a couple of nice curly steel sticks and some building wood that could become shelves. We had 1,5 days to be creative. Tight but doable we thought.
In the end it was a miracle that it indeed was finished by the time JT came home. It was a bit like a tv programme about changing the house or garden in no time at all. Unlike most of these programmes the result was an improvement though!

October 01, 2006

Ready!

John has a very pretty and comfortable new office.
Thank you Wayne!

September 21, 2006

Update: John's new "bureau"

September 15, 2006

Fire!

Months ago Frederic broke the glass of our fireplace. He promissed to replace it but he never did. So I asked Wayne to be so kind to ... and so he did.
Winter can come!

September 09, 2006

Sunbathing

Even if our terrace isn't very comfortable with all the works going on, John always finds a place for a bit of sunbathing.

August 23, 2006

More picts of JT's future office

August 17, 2006

John, I forgot these 2

More pictures.
Can't wait untill you're back home.

For John

Hi darling, here's some pictures of the progress of your future office. I quickly put in your current table and a chair for the proportions and made some snapshots of our future views. If all goes well we might have this new room by the end of next week!
Looks okay no?
I am quite jealous!
PS. btw I had a driving lesson/refreshment course. Will tell you later about it...

August 13, 2006

Grotty room#2

Every morning at 7.00 Wayne arrives. I make him coffee and help him carrying up the stairs big slates of plasterboard, my most hated task. Then I hover around him for another hour in case he needs my help. Slowly I vanish vaguely into John's office where, since weeks, I can finally get some (computer-) work done. Sometimes he shouts my name and I rush out to save his life, or our plasterboard.
Every day the grottyness becomes less grotty and the first signs of "office" are appearing.
(JT: we can't have the stones visible for technical reasons, we'll cover them instead thinly with plaster in order to at least make the shapes of the stones visible)

August 11, 2006

The grotty room

Finally we've got the means and energy together to do up the grotty room bordering on our terrace and the salon.
Not easy with such a ruine but we're getting there.
Thanks to Wayne. And thanks to Floor!

August 10, 2006

Anti-Cat

We have a severe cat-problem. All the wild cats of Ganges are using our cour as a WC and it also is a great place for fighting and mating (our neighbour-cat Pichoun is clearly a slut).
We are fed up with the cat shit everywhere and so John orders 700 litres of gravel to put under the gate where they like to crawl through.
After the first night one desperate one managed to grate away a substantial amount but after that night the effort didn't seem to be in proportion with the reward and now they have indeed gone!
Well done John.

July 04, 2006

Black monday

They are black days those days at which one drills a neat hole straight through the water pipe...
Fortunately I found a plummer who could come immediately and fix the problem.
Unfortunately the bathroom now looks worse then before I begun to redecorate it.
grrrr...

June 28, 2006

Macramé

NO! I did not make this lamp myself. I found it on the fleamarket for 5 euros and I think it is smashing!
Problem is, where do I leave the previous lamp that was trying to hide in that same corner?
I am so looking forward seeing John's face when he comes home. Have to wait another week though.
Good news is that Aya and Marcel are on their way.

June 24, 2006

Get a bloody move on

Girls understand the feeling. It's like waiting for your period. You feel a change is up and you're all geared up for it. You really need it to happen now rather then a second later.
That is how the whole of Ganges, male and female, feels for the past four days. It's been very, very hot (towards 35 celsius), and cloudy so we wait for the sky to burst, the rain to fall, the thunder to be mad and loud and the wind to wash dead leaves of the trees; especially to wash away the sticky honey left by the lindenblossom on our terrace.
This morning at half past 6 the thunder woke me up. I jumped out of bed to check on things left outside that shouldn't get wet but apparently I'd been doing that already in anticipation because all was safe. Violent thunder lasted for over half an hour and then ... RAIN!
And then, minutes later, the rain stopped as sudden as it had started.
It is 9.00 in the morning now and the sky is already clearing up. Clearly there won't be anymore rain today. Bummer!
Still, I have to finish one last coat of paint on the two last doors, another last coat on two small walls and then I can finally tidy and clean. Frederic will be back on monday.

June 23, 2006

Painting update

June 22, 2006

Painting

April 29, 2006

Eleonor

Na een dag hard werken in de tuin komt Wayne langs om in huis twee beloofde klusjes te klaren. Maar hij komt niet alleen, Eleonor is ook van de partij en helpt een handje mee. Eeen uurtje of wat later komt Emilie, Eleonors' mama, ook langs met een lekkere taart en droge kleren voor haar dochter.
Na hun vertrek was ons terras één grote bende. Maar we hebben wel plezier gehad en ze mogen vaker komen. En zeker Eleonors' vader want onze voordeur kan weer open en we hebben een nieuw wasrekje. phew.

February 16, 2006

New arrivals of the day

Not only did we have a mature burglery-alarm installed, we now are also the proud owners of a propper peach-tree that came by mail.
I had to pickit up from the post office and carry it through the village watching people wondering what was in there.
Would they've ever imagined a peach tree?
I am confronted with a problem though: it needs to be planted today but where I imagined it to live is around the cabane that still needs to be finsihed and therefore it'll run the risk of damage by runnin-around-Wayne. Will I be forcefull enough to tell him to treat the thing with the utmost respect ... ?

February 04, 2006

Couveuse

Okay, so I might not get an "intensive care incubator nurse - grade".
I do think anyway it'll do for Debra and maybe Kristine if they trust their vegetacious-babes to my hands to get them through the first stages of life.
(also some pictures for JT to see the progress on the lock/post situation)

January 31, 2006

Stratenmaker

We zijn
te moe
om iets
te schrijven.
Kijk maar
naar de
plaatjes
[truste]

Stratenmaker

We zijn
te moe
om iets
te schrijven.
Kijk maar
naar de
plaatjes
[truste]

January 24, 2006

Alarm

A couple of weeks back we've had a thief again. He/she broke a glass in the door and took a laptop and a scanner from my studio. This was the third time so we've decided to install an alarm. So yesterday the guy from "club securité" dropped by to explain everything. He brought with him a suitcase that he had turned into a presentation kit. It was like a performance of a magician!

November 16, 2005

Grillages

Done! The bars in front of the downstairs windows are a fact. Photographed and blessed by la maitresse, and approved by the neighbour girls Jasmina and Amina it seemed to be worth a blog-entry.

November 13, 2005

For Mister Kristi

I have been active the last couple of days. Not only have I been cleaning like a madman (which was absolutely necessary by the way), hoovering, hitting rugs on the washing line, polishing light switches and door handles, removing spider webs and ordering cupbords, swopping summer for winter clothing and rearranging sheets and towel departments.
I also finally unpacked John's book boxes that had been living in his office under a colourfull cloth for almost a year. In order to give them a place I had to put up some shelves.
The result might not win the beauty-price but it is practical and makes his office bigger.
Hope he likes it.

July 09, 2005

Veel gedoe vandaag

we're sometimes too active. Went to a puce in St. Hippolyte where we found another two bikes we could do up. Also we found kitchenware like bowls (as if we don't have enough), trays and a perfect creuset pan from the fifties (2 euro!)
When home I found myself making my first chicken ragout (freezer) 1,5 litres of fantastic broth (freezer) and rubarbstuff (not sure if it's jam of compote or chutney but think it's rather thin and might be too sweet but actually rather delicious)
JT is now concked out on the sofa pretending to listen to BBC World Service.
After this upload I'll quickly pop over to my garden to water and then prepare for our evening supper at Peggy's.

July 08, 2005

Mannenwerk

Een paar weken geleden kocht ik op de puce een reeks slagershaken. Ik wist al snel dat ik het zou gebruiken voor boven het aanrecht maar het had geen ophangsysteem, geen schroefgaten enzo. Het metaal is dik en ik zag er tegenop om erin te gaan boren.
Geen nood, Frederic kwam langs en deed voor hoe je keurige gaten in dik metaal boort en toen ie toch bezig was heeft ie het zaakje maar meteen helemaal voor me opgehangen!
Alsof dat nog niet pret genoeg was werden we voor diezelfde avond uitgenodigd te komen proeven van zijn bbq-kunsten. Eenmaal bij hem thuis bleek dat ie een onweerstaanbare oude motor had waarop meneer Kristi even een tochtje ging maken.
Verknocht kwam hij terug en ik ben nu bang dat hij ook zo'n jongensding wil. Heb hem verteld dat hij daar echt te oud voor is maar erg overtuigd leek hij niet.

June 20, 2005

Nog vroeger

Vanmorgen fietste ik even voor zessen de straat uit. JT lag nog lekker te slapen terwijl ik voorzichtig de luiken dichtdeed om hem wat uitslaap gunnen. Het was heerlijk koel op de fiets en in de tuin waar nog geen zonlicht scheen maar waar wel alle kevers en torren en rupsen en wormen en salamandertjes al vrolijk aan het spelen waren.
Ik heb geverfd.
Bekijk en oordeel zelf!

Nog vroeger

Vanmorgen fietste ik even voor zessen de straat uit. JT lag nog lekker te slapen terwijl ik voorzichtig de luiken dichtdeed om hem wat uitslaap gunnen. Het was heerlijk koel op de fiets en in de tuin waar nog geen zonlicht scheen maar waar wel alle kevers en torren en rupsen en wormen en salamandertjes al vrolijk aan het spelen waren.
Ik heb geverfd.
Bekijk en oordeel zelf!

May 20, 2005

Tafelkleedoverpeinzingen

We hebben een nieuw tafelkleed. Het is mooier, tenminste voor even want in de praktijk blijkt dat je regelmatig een ander dessin wilt, waarschijnlijk vanwege de fikse afmeting van de benodigde lap. Het is nog steeds niet de ultieme keuze maar het komt in de buurt. Het is interessant om de triplex plaat door het plastic heen te zien schijnen. Goedkope onprettige materialen die door gecombineerd te worden plotseling een 'je ne sais qua' krijgen.

May 16, 2005

Ongeredigeerd gestolen goed

Ik heb even mijn moeders' vakantiekiekjes op mijn computer gezet, om er een ceedeetje van te branden natuurlijk. Maar ook om de laatste drie dagen ongeredigeerd online te zetten voor al die mensen die plaatjesgek zijn. Er zijn ernstig onflatteuze bij dus een waarschuwing is op zijn plaats. Bij deze.
Ze slaapt nu, de vrouw die me gemaakt heeft. Even bijkomen van een rommelige nacht vol dromen van harige rupsjes die in het echte leven ook echt leven. We krijgen weer een invasie van eerst rupsen en daarna vervelende motachtige vlinders. Ook dat is natuur.
Als ze dadelijk wakker wordt, chauffeert ze ons allebei richting kasteel van St. Laurent waar onze vrienden Fred en Kristine wonen. Een klein uitstapje (we moeten onze axiradius immers wat uitbreiden; alleen het huis en de volkstuin geeft ook geen vakantieverhaal voor thuis) voordat we foi gras de canard gaan proeven in het lokale steak-frites restaurant.
Ik rommel wat aan rondom het huis en zij is vooral horizontaal, genietend van de zon, te bewonderen. We hebben het goed.

April 20, 2005

Tegeltje tegeltje aan de wand

Debra verzandde in bouwvakker/kunstenaar-modus. Ze selecteerde nauwkeurig de juiste keien uit de rivier, kieperde ze in mijn rugzak en gezamelijk sleepten we ze op de fiets naar huis.
Daar maakte Debra een fijn papje van cement en zand en fabriceerde een paar prachttegels.
Net voordat ze amsterdamwaarts trok, konden de tegels uit hun mallen.
Zijn ze niet prachtig?

March 29, 2005

Some things

Amazing how little I blogged lately. After the disaster with the internet connection I simply couldn't get back in to the rythm. Nevertheless, my man is back now and with him arrive the rituals that belong to life. A mean to real life and not to a life that revolves around unpacking boxes and screwing pictures onto walls.
I will publish more frequently as from now on.

March 22, 2005

All by myself

JJ left in a hurry yesterday after having failed to get my shelves up: the reason he came! Nevertheless he didn't fail to reconnect us to the internet AND having a good time (will post picts about our good time later).
I started putting up the kitchen shelves (or is it "shelfs"?). It might have taken me ten times longer then with an extra pair of hands but now I can say: Thackara's, I am ready for you! (the whole Thackara family is joining us the first week of April to celebrate mum-Thackara's birthday! (which has a serious number attached which I won't publish here)
Well, almost... the rest of the house still needs some love.
Talking about love: JT in the mean time is having a fab time in India. Doors8 seems to be a succes, the team works well, speakers and audience were terrific; he sounded chuffed

March 18, 2005

France Telecom sucks

Tevergeefs gewacht op aankomst van de held van France Telecom. Dwz hij kwam wel maar was bepaald geen held. Het was een idioot die van toeten noch blazen wist, nog nooit een mac gezien, gevraagd waar de desktop was. Hij bleef twee uur zonder resultaat.
Morgen komt JJ, misschien weet hij raad.
Intussen een paar plaatjes gemaakt van ons huis nu. Die plekken die al bijna fotogeniek zijn, de rest is nog vervuild met dozen, en dozen en nog eens dozen. En buiten is het zo warm, 26 graden in de schaduw van ons terras. Echt waar!
(Jt net gesproken, blijkt dat Jogi door een aap gebeten is! Ook echt waar!)

January 05, 2005

The wall

The deviding wall between us and our neighbour Patrick is finally being build. Patrick is a noisy builder, he moans, groans and shouts and if he needs variation he simply whistles, or sings.
I hope that his audio polution will be less present once the wall is standing proudly at its full height. Nevertheless it is a sturdy thing that wall. Almost a meter thick (why o why, one might ask, it's just a wall for Gods sake, not a house or anything), and really beautiful.
(By the way, I finished panghaal.com)