Guus Bosman

I'm going to Amsterdam now, Daniël arrived there a few hours ago from Hungary.

We'll eat and drink in a pub called "Molly Malone".

Slowly I'm getting used again to working. Besides the work itself, that I like, and the colleagues, who are nice, there are some additional factors that make me like working here: internet and coffee.

One of the (very few) things that I missed while I was in Bulgaria was full-time internet access. Here in Holland I'm never more than a few hours without internet. I'm so used to being online all the time -- to have Google available, to be able to send emails, checking the news etc.

Both today and yesterday I had some great espresso. I agreed with myself not to go there too often, but for these first days I allow myself an exemption.

Our dear friends Svetla and Radoslav got a baby yesterday! It's a boy and his name is Hristian.

Mother and child are doing well; the baby weights 3.2 kg and is 51 cm.

Only a week ago we went out for dinner together, and now this great news -- chestito mnogo!

Yesterday I went to bed around 21:00 o'clock and I slept very well. It was pretty hard to get up -- it was still dark outside!

I started at 9:00 at Chess, and this time my computer there was still complete. I enjoy working here at Chess: the atmosphere is friendly and the work is interesting. And the coffee is good.

I'm installing the "Real One Player" player now; I hope to be able to listen to Radio Horizont, a Bulgarian radiostation.

So, here I am, writing from my own computer.

I have a little bit mixed feelings about being back in Holland. I was happy to see our own airport and to be able to call people, but it made me realize that the holiday is definitely over. And worse: that Sasha and I are separated again for a couple of weeks. But I'm certainly not complaining! We had a wonderful time in Bulgaria, prosto chudesno. I'm looking forward to see her again, and also to go to Bulgaria again.

At home everything was fine. I arranged the mail: taxes, bills, insurance information etc. There was quite a lot of mail in a few weeks. A very nice thing is the big pile with Christmas cards that we received. Thanks everybody. I'm also looking forward to read the Christmas issue of The Economist.

Jelly: thank you for taking care of the house and the plants. The clock still works :)

I had a sandwich with Dutch cheese for lunch, with a glass of Dutch milk. I'll unpack some things from my suitcases now, then a shower and a nap. But first a phone-call to Washington -- Sasha starts her work at the World Bank today again.

Yesterday we traveled from Perushtitsa to Sofia. It was warm in de bus, and we found some English magazines so the journey went quickly. The trip took about 2,5 hours.

First we went to Svetla and Radoslav's apartment. Finally we were able to give them their wedding present!

I received some nice presents too, among which a very useful part for the server of Guus Bosman.nl (for the insiders, it's a raid controller). When I'm back in Holland I'll write more about it.

We spent the evening in a restaurant near their house, and We also met Milena there. She's a friend of Sasha that somehow I had never seen before. It was great to finally meet her in real.

The restaurant was wonderful, the best one I've seen till now in Bulgaria. The food was delicious, very polite service and the fact that they served wine from Perushtitsa helped a lot too. And of course... a long night ;) We stayed almost five hours in the restaurant, and later we went to a bar.

I'm using Radoslav's computer now (thanks!), hopefully we'll be able to send our New Year's card in a little while.

In the late afternoon we went to Zdravka and her parents, Gesho and Grozde. They live in an apartment in Plovdiv, the big city near Perushtista.

We had dinner together: Grozde cooked pursholi with a great sauce made of smoked white cheese, and fried peppers (chuski burek). We drank home-made rakia, and home-made white wine... where else but in Bulgaria.

In the evening we went out, the three of us, to a fancy bar nearby. I didn't really feel like alcohol after the big dinner, so I tried a non-alcoholic cocktail and banana juice. I wasn't sure what to expect of the latter but it when I tried it it was actually delicious, only a bit heavy.

We were home around 02:00 o'clock.

Second Christmas day is a holiday in Bulgaria, just like in the Netherlands. We visited Sasha's uncle and aunt, Rangel and Danche, in the afternoon. The welcomed us with a traditional masa, rougly translated "table". A lot of eating and drinking, and a lot of talking and fun. Really nice. Rangel had cooked a small pig for Christmas.

Later in the evening we went out: Nasko, Reina, Sasha and me. It was the first time I went to a bar in Perushtitsa, which was quite interesting. Perushtitsa is a small city, where everybody knows each other so there were a lot of familiar people coming into the bar (familiar to my Bulgarian friends, that is).