Guus Bosman

Today I've been doing homework all day. For the German course there was more homework than usual so I spent the whole morning on it.

I'm also working to get a new Java certification. The subject is not very difficult, but it requires some time.

In Middenmeer there was a large fire last week.

I had a fun evening watching the Eurovision Songcontest. Last year we watched it for the first time, and I was looking forward to see the show again.

Like last year, a very large part of the fun were the comments by Terry "only 23 to go" Wogan, the voice-over of BBC 1. About the Dutch: "Watch out for the vocal group, they are making their own particular fashion statement".

I liked this year's winner, Ukraine. Terry Wogan: "This is gonna get a lot of votes when the pubs close". The Ukrainians made a really nice show; a real performance. The Dutch were really boring, just two guys on stage.

I'm in Middenmeer today; I arrived here straight after work yesterday evening. We are the two of us; my mother is still at Gran Canaria.

It's always very relaxing here, and we've been talking all evening. In the morning I woke up around 11:00 o'clock... it's great to sleep in!

Tonight I celebrated a very happy day, and I went to Bevrijdingspop with Jelly. That was fun; it was really busy and the weather was nice.

The performance of Beth Hart, an American lady singer, was really good.

The liberation day festival is at the other side of the city, but the music is so loud that I can hear it (far away) when I open the window.

We received a card from Spain today. My mother and my grandmother are on a holiday at Gran Canaria, a Spanish island 100km from the coast of Morocco. They are having a good time, the weather is pleasant and there's a lot of nice food.

At work I heard some very nice news for two friends.

Tomorrow I'll give a presentation at Chess about my graduation project: A Survey of Co-Design Ideas and Methodologies. It was nice to reread the paper again; I hadn't looked at it for a couple of months.

I had an easy day today.

After a very nice dinner I'm now watching the finals of Idols. This year I haven't been watching the shows, but yes, I guess Maud would be my favourite.

I received a Teilnahmebescheinigung for the Zaterduitsdag I did last week. Nice gesture.

And of course, today is May 1st: the official expansion of the European Union with ten new member states. It's a great idea Europe is getting together. Hopefully Bulgaria will join the E.U. soon.

We had a really nice time yesterday celebrating Queen's Day. We were in Amsterdam around 10:30 o'clock and Jelly, Daniël and I arrived at the same time as Steven. We met Kirsten and Rob a few minutes later.

The weather was excellent! I was walking in my (orange) T-shirt all day.

We made a long walk through the city, towards the Vondelpark. We were there around 13:00 o'clock, where we met Jerry and Marjolein. Together with Linda and Maya, two friends of Jelly we spent then a long time in the Vondelpark. Sitting on the grass, talking, drinking beer... it was very nice.

We had dinner in an Italian place, afterwards we had a few more drinks outside. A wonderful day; we were home around midnight.

We're leaving in 30 minutes to Amsterdam to celebrate Queen's Day.

We'll meet Jelly at the station in Haarlem, and Steven, Kirsten and Rob will be in Amsterdam. We always agree to meet at "the GWK", although that shop has been moved to a new location and we'll meet each other at the old spot where we've always met in the past.

I'm looking forward to go into Amsterdam. For a while I was considering bringing my camera but it's just too risky -- there are so many people and the chance that it gets damaged or lost is too big.

Tonight is the evening before Queen's Day, or Koninginnenacht. I was considering going to Amsterdam tonight, but the weather wasn't very pleasant. It doesn't really matter, as Daniël and I took a few beers and had dinner together which was a nice way to start the Queen's Day celebrations.

Tomorrow we will go to Amsterdam, and get jammed like sardines in the crowd.

There is a fair at the Grote Markt here in Haarlem. I just went for a walk through Haarlem.

After a day with (again) very nice weather there's a thunderstorm now. The house got really warm the last few days from the sun, which is nice, but now it's pleasant to have a breese of cooler air.

Today is Ettie's birthday, congratulations!

I worked a long day today; the project we're doing is very interesting. In less than two weeks we have a deadline, and although it's a challenge it looks like we'll make it on time.

Tonight I'll have dinner with Daniël. He's staying here a while but we didn't have dinner together often. We 'll watch the soccer game between the Netherlands and Greece, the first (training) soccer game of the European Championship I'll see this time.