Guus Bosman

There's storm above Haarlem now. The wind is not as strong as predicted, but the weather is pretty bad.

In an hour the soccer game between Holland and Latvia will start. If Germany wins its match, they are through. If they don't, there's still a chance for Holland. Let's hope for the best!

Monday I will have two tests on the same day. Monday evening will be the last lesson of the German language course, which will consist of a short test on the subjects that we have studied over the past few months. It doesn't require a lot of preparations anymore.

Monday afternoon I'll have a test for the J2EE architect certification. It's part I; a multiple choice test on the theory of the J2EE model and technology. Although I think I'm ready for it, I will spend this weekend studying and revising the theory, because I would like to get a good score.

It's fun to study, because both the German and the J2EE are subjects that I enjoy a lot.

Yesterday's German lesson was great fun. We studied outside, in the garden of the Goethe Institut. The weather was very nice and they have a great garden. We dealt with the imperative mood; an easy subject. The soccer game was awful.

Today I gave a presentation for a customer on J2EE and Chess' software development process. The presentation took about 1,5 hours and it was great to do! The meeting was in the south of Holland, a journey of around three hours from Haarlem.

Yesterday Marjolein came for dinner. It was the first time we had dinner together without Sasha or Jerry, both of which are abroad. Sasha is in Washington D.C. of course, and Jerry is spending two months in Ecuador to do research. Dinner was very nice, and then we went out to a pub. We saw the last few minutes of Spain vs. Russia and had a great evening.

Accidentally I saw two friends in a pub just when we were going to the train station, and after Marjolein caught her train I went back. Had a couple of drinks in the bar there and I was home around 2:00 o'clock. It was a very nice Saturday night.

Today I've spent mainly with studying for the Java certification. Next Monday I will do the test for part one.

All day long there has been a steam train crossing the Spaarne. NedTrain, a train maintance company near the Haarlem station exists 160 years and celebrates it today.

It reminds me of the steam train in Opperdoes, the village where I was born. We used to play a lot around the tracks of this (touristic) train.

A few days ago I received a card from Bulgaria, which my father sent two weeks ago when he was on a business trip to Bulgaria.

I'm taking it easy this weekend. This morning I'm studying from a list of practice questions for the Java test I want to do.

In the afternoon there's the homework for the German course. We've been asked to write a lexicon article about the "greatest Dutch person in history". It's very difficult to choose one!

I'm sticking to my own profession, engineering, and I'll write an article about Simon Stevin. He was a Dutch (Flemish) engineer and mathematician living in the beginning of the 17th century. He invented many Dutch mathematical words that are still in use today.

Ettie and Gerben stayed over tonight, and in the morning my parents came to visit us.

We had coffee together, and then we went to see the Haarlem Organ Show. This is a fair organ show, at the Staten- and Prinsenbolwerken near the train station in Haarlem.

It was nice to spent the morning (and yesterday evening) with family; it was a pleasant day.

In the afternoon and evening I studied a bit.

Martijn celebrated his 30th birthday yesterday.

His party was in Florin Utrecht, a pub in the center of the city. Jelly and I travelled together to Utrecht by train. There was a really nice mixture of old friends and new people at the party; it was really nice to talk to so many people.

Later that evening we went to "Stairway To Heaven", a hardrock café which was founded by Henk Westbroek, a Dutch politician/singer/bar owner. This place was for dancing, which we did of course. It was a great evening.

Marjolijn and André gave me a ride to Haarlem (thanks a lot!) and I was home at 2:30 o'clock.

The application we have been working on the last three weeks is almost ready. It has to be finished Tuesday, which won't be a problem.

In the evening I went out for a drink with Joris. It was great fun; the weather was excellent and we sat in an outdoor cafe all evening. I was home around 2:30 o'clock.

It's an easy weekend. It started nicely yesterday evening when Mieke, my mother, came for dinner. It was very cosy.

My father is coming back from his business trip to Bulgaria tomorrow morning; I hope he won't have problems because of the train accident yesterday.

I've been studying for my Java exam all day today, which I enjoy quite a lot.