Guus Bosman

Tonight I went to Juma, to prepare the making up of the annual account and balance sheet of the shop's inventory. Years ago I wrote the software that is running on the cash register machines.

I think it's fair to say that this is the software that I'm most proud of, of all the software that I have ever made.

I had dinner in the shop with everybody, which was very cosy. I also had a haircut at the hairdressers next door.

The plane landed at 8:30 o'clock, and I had the bus only 45 minutes later. Traveling without checked in luggage is really speedy.

Yesterday Sasha and I said goodbye at Madison Square, in the heart of New York, where she took a bus to Washington and I took a train to the airport. Obviously it wasn't pleasant to have to say goodbye again. However, I am very happy I went there this weekend: we had a lot of fun and it was great to be together on Sasha's birthday.

The plane was full; so this time I couldn't stretch out on multiple chairs. That was fine though -- I got one of these travel-pillows at the airport, and that was really useful. I think I slept around five hours.

Originally I planned to stay home today, to get some rest, but I feel pretty good now and after I take a shower I'll go to my work. It saves a day off, after all.

Tonight I went to Jean-Paul and Inger. They live in Aalsmeer with Arjen, their two-year old son.

We had dinner together. Jean-Paul made some kind of lasagna that was called "lasagnette" -- very nice. Arjen ate with us, he was a bit shy with me the first minutes but then he got used to me and called me "Huus".

I hadn't seen their house before; it's quite large. They will have a second baby soon so they're working on a second children's room.

Yesterday I spent the night in Ettie & Gerben's place, and after breakfast I went to visit my grandmother, who had a birthday last week.

My parents were there too. It was a very nice day, in the afternoon we went for a trip to some small villages near Heerenveen.

I took the train around 20:00 o'clock, and I came home about 30 minutes ago.

I'm in Leeuwarden now, visiting Ettie and Gerben. We had dinner together, and we did some homework later. Now we're watching "There's something about Mary", a movie I really like.

On the picture here is Boris Hammie the 2nd, the hamster of Ettie and Gerben. Cute little animal, isn't afraid of the camera.

The Economist has a short, wonderfully written article on the differences between American and British newspapers in reporting about Janet Jackson's breast. I had a great laugh this morning:

"The Economist, of course, deplores the degradation of the British press. As a service to American readers, who should know how low it has fallen, we reprint the picture below."

Jennie and I had dinner together tonight. The previous time she cooked hot pot, a great Chinese recipe.

I made a Bulgarian meal: a kyuveche with meat. We had ruska salata as a predish, a potato based salad with ham and pickles.

Of course we had a glass of rakia too; we finished the bottle of magnificient rakia Gesho gave me in Bulgaria. Boy, that is delicious stuff!

Yesterday was Milena's birthday party.

We first had dinner at home, with Roland and Helen, two good friends of David and Milena from Berlin. Milena made a Spanish recipe, rabbit in a sauce with almonds, garlic and white wine.

Around 20:00 o'clock we went to the place where the party would be. The bar was really nice. It was decorated in 70's style, with the appropriate wallpaper, lights and posters on the wall. A nice detail was that the cola that they served was of an old German brand that was popular around that time.

The place was called the "Trinkhalle". With my best German knowledge I thought that this just means "drinking place", but I was told that this name is more usual for a booth outside where you can buy bottles of beer and get drunk on the street. There were around 50 guests for Milena I think.

We danced a lot, and I talked to many people. I liked that a lot.

I saw Ricco, the newborn baby of Osamu and Maisumi. They came to say congratulations to Milena, so Ricco went to his first party (except for his birth-party, of course). A very cute baby, she slept through everything.

We here home around 3:00 o'clock, and we slept in till very late this morning.

I made a couple of pictures yesterday, you can see them here.