Guus Bosman

Ettie is celebrating her birthday today in Middenmeer, congratulations!

The weather is very nice today, so we're sitting outside. I slept very well and today is relaxed; a nice Sunday.

The last few days I've been working quite a lot. Tuesday and Wednesday I made some extra hours for Chess. I started a new project that required some extra time, and I've prepared a system for a fair in Eindhoven that was held today. I don't mind working extra -- every hour I make more, counts for my days off later.

Today I went to Utrecht to the customer I'm working for at the moment. It's a very nice challenge to start a new project for a new customer.

I was home quite late today because of some troubles with the train from Utrecht to Amsterdam. Jelly and Daniël were visiting tonight; we had a pleasant and interesting evening.

Daniël is in Holland again; he arrived this evening in Amsterdam.

According to a very nice tradition, there were quite some people to pick him up. We went for dinner and a beer.

This weekend I spent in Friesland, in Leeuwarden and Heerenveen.



I had a very nice evening with Ettie and Gerben Saturday. After dinner we saw a funny movie, Finding Nemo -- hilarious! A really cute movie about a little fish. We went out in Leeuwarden later. We visited a number of different pubs and it was cosy.



Sunday I spent with my grandmother and my parents in Heerenveen. We went to the Douwe Egberts museum in Joure in the afternoon. That was interesting. They had a lot on the history of this Dutch coffee brand, but also other things such as mechanical printers from the early 1900's.



The train journey back went really smoothly. This morning I learned that I've been quite lucky, just after I left the station in Amsterdam there was a bom alarm that shut down all train transport for the rest of the evening.

There was a really nice e-mail in my inbox: "Breaking News: Roan Daniel is born".

My good friend Jean-Paul is the happy father of his second son! Roan was born March 30th. Mother Inger and Roan are doing fine, and they can been seen on their website. Roan is 3700 gram and 53cm tall.

Congratulations from both of us!

I'm taking it easy today. I've been doing my German homework, but it's not completely ready yet. Next to my regular assignments I have to prepare a (small) presentation.

I just spoke to Sasha, who is alive and well (shiva i zdrava) in Africa. She's been working today, and she's having a great time. It's truly amazing that you can pick up the phone and call a number in Africa without any difficulties.

Yesterday I had dinner with my grandmother, my parents were there too. It was very cosy.

I just missed Sasha's phone call yesterday, but she was on the voice-mail. She arrived safely and everything's fine.

I'm going to the swimmingpool now. I'm happy I didn't forget about the summertime.

Sasha called me from the airport in Washington. Her plane is leaving to Paris in 20 minutes so she's checking in now. Ready for Africa! I'm curious if she'll have internet in the plane.

Mark, a colleague, and his wife Saskia got a baby yesterday, her name's Jessica. Congratulations from both of us!

Today at work we've finished a proposal I've been working on last week. It's always nice to see the final result after the "commercial guys" have been working on the text. We went out for a beer, like many Fridays; I enjoyed that. The bar we went to is called "Paris".

Really wonderful news -- Sasha is going to Cameroon!

The last months she's been working in the World Bank in a unit that deals with debts of Third World Countries. Recently she has been "specializing" in Cameroon. Tomorrow she's leaving on a business trip there. It will be for one or two weeks, and she'll be in a group with people from both the IMF and the World Bank.

Cameroon is located in the Horn of Africa, basically between Nigeria and the Central African Republic. Sasha will be staying in the capital, Yaoundé. Cameroon is a stable country, a fact I'm very happy about. The official languages are French and English.

Sasha is flying this Friday. First to Paris, and then an 8-hour flight to Africa. She and her group will be working on the subject of "debt sustainability".

Yesterday Jerry and I went out in Amsterdam. We met at Centraal Station, where a special edition of the Volkskrant about the death of Princess Juliana was distributed for free.

First we had dinner in a Thai restaurant at the Nieuw Markt. There was really delicious food and a great atmosphere. It's just that next time I should remember the pepper is really spicey. We talked about a lot of things; Jerry is now working on a research proposal.

Then we went for a walk through the city. It was nice to see Amsterdam at night; it was windy but not cold.

After a while we found a pub in the Jordaan, with nice Duvel and Triple beers but strange enough without music. We agreed that it would be a nice idea to watch the results of the American elections in November together. Every now and then a guy with a camera would come up and ask if he could make a picture, and although we routinely turn them away this time we let one of them take a picture.

We walked together to Centraal Station, where we saw a crowd of people going to their buses. They told us that had done the Stille Omgang.

It was a really cosy evening. I took the last train to Haarlem and was home around 2:00 o'clock.