The house is ready to move in…

By Rob February 28th, 2010, under General

Today I saw my new house with all the walls and ceilings freshly painted… and I have to say I love it.

The view at night from the balcony is awesome. I think I will be often standing there looking down. If I would smoke, I would be smoking my cigarette there. But as I don’t smoke, I will have to drink a bottle of beer there (I always find a good excuse for a bottle of beer :p ).

The bathroom is looking great. Nothing needs to be changed. It is ready to be used.

The only thing that really needs some “puzzle work” is my bed. My bed is a little bigger then the normal beds for 2 persons. But I have already several ideas that may give a satisfying solution.

Surely, for the future I have planned some changes I will do with the house, but as said, those are for the future!

I was very happy when I saw it all. Judge yourself…..

Krypteria & Delain

By Rob February 28th, 2010, under I was there!

Some time ago Patrick asked me if I wanted to come along to a concert of Delain. As he told me there were alike as the band Within Temptation, I accepted. But when I wanted to order my ticket, the website told me that the tickets were all sold out for this concert.
Luckily Patrick was more stubborn as me, because when he looked the site told that there were still a few tickets available. After some SMS’s we exchanged he ordered two tickets….

The concent was at Atak in the city of Enschede.

The support act for Delain was a bed called “Krypteria”. They were good and I was very impressed by them. And to be honest, the lead singer Jo-In Cho is a very attractive woman.
Later on during the main act, she and one of the other members of her band came for some time watching the show, just among the rest of the audience. I liked that a lot (much better as some band behave towards their fans)

The main act was Delain. I liked the music and the show was also good. Only I thought that the base drum was too loud and hard. On short term I will buy some of their music through iTunes and hear how it is then.
Anyway the Charlotte Wessels, the singer of Delain, is also a rather attractive woman :)

After the show I bought two t-shirts, one of each band. So my collection is a little bit bigger again.

There Jo-In Cho turned up again to sign CD’s and for pictures together with her. There U already had spent my money on the shirts, I just asked for her signature…

I enjoyed myself a lot. And most of all this gave me a needed and wanted break from everything concerning my moving to Heemskerk.

The Lighting Thief…

By Rob February 15th, 2010, under I was there!

Today I have been to the movie “Percy Jackson and The Lighting Thief”. A movie based on Greece Mythology… The movies plays in the current time and tells about the mightiest weapon of Zeus, the Lighting, is stolen. It also tells about the children that these gods had with humans. These children are the so called Demigods.
They story is about heroism…. good and evil…. beautiful women…. and good laughter.

I can understand that not everyone likes this kind of movies. But I do… I have something special with Greece, Greece history and especially Greece Mythology. I love these gods with their oh so human behaviour.

As normally they showed before the start of the movie some announcements of movies that show will come out. And just because of that what I just said, there is another movie that I want to see…. Clash of the Titans

But when I am going to see that movie I will do one thing different. Today before the movie I had an omelet. And that was a good omelet, nothing wrong with it…. But after enjoying that omelet I made a small walk through the area…. to discover that right around the corner a Kentucky Fried Chicken! My favourite fast food restaurant!

Okay, waiting on April 2nd when “Clash of the Titans” will be released in The Netherlands…. (and if things go well, a lot will happen before that date :P )

A picture of old times…

By Rob February 13th, 2010, under General

The nice thing about packing all your stuff to move to another place is that you find all these things where you had no idea about that you (still) had it.

So today we found a postcard of the block of flats where we used to live. This was the first home of our family after moving from Amsterdam to Haaksbergen. I have only a few pictures from that time and most likely the only one of the building itself.
The flats don’t exist anymore. They were thorn down years ago.

There is a circle drawn around the apartment where we used to live…

I am happy to have found this postcard so I have a picture of the building where I once lived. But also the backside of it is interesting. On the backside we can read who manufactured the postcard…

The postcard was made by (or rather: made for) J.A.J. Strengers & Zn. N.V.

Strengers used to be a shop in Haaksbergen that was specialized in souvenirs, household items and toys. It was run by two elderly ladies. The building where their shop was is still there, but there are now other shops in it. Although funny enough one is still a toyshop and it is there were used to be the toy department of Strengers.

Also take a look at the telephone numbers. They are only 4 positions. Nowadays the phone number of Haaksbergen are 7 positions (without the area number).

It is nice to know that at least two items that were bought at the store of Strengers will travelling with me to my new home. A small wooden box to store small valuable items and a newspaper rack….

Get ready to move….

By Rob February 13th, 2010, under Food and Stuff, General

Slowly but surely I am getting ready to move. Most important things are ready to move. When you are packing all the things that needs to come along, you find many things of which you didn’t know you still had them. A very nice side effect. And to be honest, I cannot wait for the day.

Currently in my new house the walls and ceilings are done so I will move into a house that is ready to be decorated.

It is so good to see that so many people are helping. People who will help to transport all to my new house, which is on the other side of the country. People who gave me useful things that I will be needing very badly.
Or people like Sanne, who is already helping me for some weekends to get everything packed.

And because she is helping me so much, I wanted to do something special for lunch without making something very complicated and something that would take a lot of time.

A quick look showed me that there was enough available to make something nice….

I made some scrambled eggs with champions, ham, cheese, tomatoes and cooked chicken (all in small pieces). Added some pepper, salt, dill and parsley. The result of all that I placed on some home made kaiser-breads.

It was very tasteful… and two of them where enough to take every feeling of hunger away for a long time.

It is going to happen…

By Rob February 8th, 2010, under General

About what I already wrote before here on my blog is going to happen. I will move away from Haaksbergen. To to get closer to my work, but also to have a place of my own again. Although I have nothing to complain about the room that I am currently renting, more then a year is enough of that.

I will be moving to the town of Heemskerk. I will rent there a nice apartment with an option to buy it when I like it there. And the change that I will like it is rather big. There are many good sides of it. Things as there is a shopping centre right next to it with anything I need daily. Shops as a supermarket, a bakery, a butcher, a barber and much more.
Another very nice thing that it take only 15 minutes on a bicycle to get to the beach. I just love the sea and it is way too long ago that I have seen it. I think I will spend lots of time there.
And so there are many more good things about the apartment and the surrounding area.

Most of all, it will be good to have a place of my own again….

Business cards

By Rob January 30th, 2010, under General

It is already more then twenty years in a row that I working. Twenty years… that sounds long and yet I have been working just for some companies. I am not a job hopper. Not at all even, as someone once said: I am loyal to a company I am working for. If both parties (employer and employee) are happy, why go for a new job? To get a bit more money? No, that is not my style at all.

Sure I changed some times from job, but mostly there was another reason that money as well.

Anyway, when cleaning up the drawers of my desk at home, I found the business cards of the companies I worked for… at least of those that gave them to me.

EEGA was the first company I worked for. It were different times. The IT world was far as common as it is nowadays and US influences were very strong. You can see that in the business cards of that time. Just take a look at mine…. the way my name is placed on it or look at the job title…. lots of hot air. Not really my style, but okay it was normal over then.

I had two business cards Bosgoed Groothandel BV over the time that I worked there. More simple and to the point. I have to say that I always loved the design and logo’s they used at that company.
Also notice that first one has a general e-mail address and the second a personal e-mail address. One of the big changes during my time there.
Although my job title was “Systeembeheerder” (system administrator) there, I did also a lot of programming there.

And of the last one I have still many available…. and that is not weird, it is the company I am working now for. One of the best decisions I ever made concerning work and that leaded to other good changes.
I really like the layout and use of colours on this card.

The other two companies I ever worked for (Innolan and Technosoft) never gave me business cards and that is not a bad thing. You must have a use for them.

Nevertheless it funny to have them here together :)

Congratulations Sanne…

By Rob January 23rd, 2010, under General

Now that you have informed all the people who should know it and that all is officially arranged, I would like to congratulate you with your new job.

It must feel wonderful to be out that narrowed atmosphere of the school were you did work. You must feel great that you can now really be who and what you are… and that you don’t have to be silent about it anymore.

These are the years of big changes, aren’t they?

As promised I will make tonight Spareribs ala Rob :P .

Digital Archive

By Rob January 15th, 2010, under Computers and I

I am on of these guys who likes to store letters and alike from long ago until present. Why? It was handy at times, but more often not. I mean, what is the use of a letter where I apply for a job 22 years ago for a company that doesn’t exist for 15 years anymore? Not much… unless you had nice memories at the job interview or something like that.

But the thing that started to annoy me more and more was this many files taken up so much physical space.

So I started a project that will take several months to fulfil… I am scanning in all the letters and I alike that I want to keep for some reason.
I will store all letters from this year and the last year directly on my laptop. On a small external 320Gb HD that I bought today all stored letters and things like that will be stored. On two other external HD I will have backup’s of everything, one in Amsterdam and one is for now in Haaksbergen.

Lots of stored letters will not scanned in and be destroyed. All the rest will be scanned in. Sure, of some documents you need the originals (as for contracts), but all of these will be just a very small pile.

And at times you find things that make you smile, as the call to be checked for Military duty…. that was 1981 :)

Rib-eye with a Cognac Pepper sauce

By Rob January 9th, 2010, under Food and Stuff

Today it was my turn to cook something again. And this it would be an extra challenge, because Miranda would join us for dinner… and Miranda is a cook by profession. And she promised to be honest about I made.

Earlier today I bought 3 rib-eyes. Good ones, not from a supermarket, but from a real butcher. A bit more expensive, but with this kind of things you really will notice the difference.

The rib-eyes with softly rubbed in with some spices and herbs (paprika, coriander, laurel, clove, pepper and a little salt). A pepper-sauce with cognac was served with the rib-eye.
What made the preparing of the rib-eye a bit harder was that Sanne and I wanted the rib-eye medium done and Miranda wanted it raw. And taking one earlier from the fire was not an option according Miranda :) .

Oven-baked potatoes that were dipped in a dressing that was based on olive oil and parsley. A salad made of cabbage, radish, leek, cocktail onions and paprika (thank you for the help with chopping this all, Miranda… you do it on amazing speed and precision).

As extra some asperges and baked portabellas (a rather big mushroom kind) were added.

Miranda said she really enjoyed it and that is was well made. Only remark was that the portabellas were baked a bit too fast and too long. But for the rest she like it. And as she said it was fun to see someone cooking for her once.
Anytime soon she will invited us to her place and then she will make something for us.