Shame on me

I haven’t blogged, visited blogs or responded to e-mails in almost a week. I don’t have a good excuse.

This weekend, I was totally lazy after a total CRAZY week at work. Because my manager is an incapable piece of * beep * ….. I had to do a LOT of overwork. Everything was done in time and everything is normal again.Of course he was very grateful and gave me a bonus.

To demonstrate my love for my work, this is a picture a colleague made today with our new camera. I love my work, doesn’t it show? ;)

(yes that is Piglet humping my screen)

My laziness may have also had something to do with the weather: Friday the temperature turned from 60 F to 86 F. In ONE day. I like warm weather, but this was kinda crazy. And as of yesterday? It’s back to 60 F. Brrrrr.

So this weekend, instead of using my brain to study and blog, I enjoyed some passive entertainment like watching TV and movies.

I’m sorry for the unannounced hiatus. But I am back, will visit your blogs, and will respond to e-mails soon!

After a longgggggggggg day

I have had a very, very long day. I'll spare you the details.

I’m just going to enjoy my rose wine, show off my school grades and than watch my favorite TV series. Hopefully I don’t fall asleep.

On a scale from 1 (very bad) to 10 (very good)....

Consumer behavior: 8.9
Dutch: 8.5
English: 8
Microsoft Excel & Powerpoint: 10
Integrated Communication: 7.1

This last semester I have media right (so NOT funny), Dutch, Marketing and a practical assignment.

Papa!

Some of you guessed it: on the picture I was standing on top of the St. Peter and I’m looking down on Vatican square.

If you’re visiting Rome, you want to visit the Vatican, the Vatican museum and the St. Peter. Even if you’re not a Catholic.
I’m not a Catholic and was very impressed by the Vatican Museum.

But first, we saw Papa! I actually saw the last pope on my trip to Rome 10 years ago. I realize I’ve probably seen more Popes than a lot of Catholics.

I don’t understand the deal with the Pope. I respect everyone’s belief, I believe in God, but I don’t understand the pope thing. Nor did I understand the hundreds of people cheering when he drove in his Jeep on Vatican Square. For me, it’s just an old man, in a white Jeep.

When Papa seated to bless the people on the square, we went of and visited the Vatican museum. I have never seen more bling bling before. The floors, the ceilings, the paintings on the walls, everything is gorgeous. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves…

After the museum we went up to the St. Peter church. It’s the biggest church in Rome (Rome had 450 churches!).

Be sure to dress properly though:

And the St. Peter is climable. We took the elevator though. I would totally recommend that since it’s a bit of a climb. And if you’re claustrophobic? Don’t do it, because the stairs get very, very narrow and … well, see for yourself:

But the view is worth it.

Looking inside the St. Peter:

And outside.. the Vatican Square.. where the croud had been standing to watch Papa.

This picture was taken by a man who understood little English. We almost gave up and thought, we’ll make the picture ourselves, when he suddenly spoke Dutch (Spreken jullie Nederlands?). Et voila:

Vatican City, very, very impressing a must see for believers, and non-believers.

But first: a meme

Tomorrow I’ll post the answer to the little where-am-I quiz. But first: a meme! Because I was tagged by Robin :

1. Total volume of music files on my computer?
About 2000 songs but a lot of those are Mr. Sweety’s cd’s. But he shares ;)

2. The last CD I bought was?
Maroon 5, “Songs about Jane”

3. Song playing right now:
Ben Wat and Jay Hannan’s Lazy Dog 2

4. Five songs I listen to a lot or that mean a lot to me (in no particular order):
1. “Living hell”, Morcheeba
2. “Honey and the moon”, Joseph Arthur
3. "My friend”, Groove Armada
4. "California", Phantom Planet
5. "Glory Box", Portishead

I have to say, I like them a lot right now but my music favorites change a lot.

5. Which people are you passing this baton to, and why?
Hmm. Rick, he’s always in the mood for a meme.
Mr. Sweety, because I have to admit, I actually don’t know what he’ll answer to question 4, and I think I should know.
Trine, I’m very curious to hear her answers.

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Deadlines, shoes and a view of….

Some people more than others do their best work under stress, hours or minutes before deadline.

I refuse to be that person any longer. Wednesday, I barely send my school paper in time for deadline. I had only left ONE hour. But I made it. Why can’t I just finish stuff wayyyy before deadline?

On request: a picture of the only pair of shoes I bought in Italy.

I know, they’re not funky summer shoes or cute Italian sandals. But I just HAD to have them. I bought them in a nameless shoe store, in a hidden street. We found it through the travel guide we used.

I could have bought more... they were only 8 euros! And it’s an Italian leather shoe.

Can you guess… where am I standing….. and what my next post will be about? Well?

Arrivideci

Or follow me, I’m your leader!

Dear manager,

This is my letter of resignation. I found myself a new job in Rome. I won’t be coming back to the office.

Sweety

BTW: If you ever want a tour in the Roman Colosseum, please let me know in advance so I can make sure my new colleagues kill you in a gladiator fight can show you around.

Okay, I WISH. Wouldn’t I make just the perfect tour guide?

We’re back home. Well actually, I’m writing this on the airplane, but when I post this we’ll be at home. At this point I’m looking forward to being home, because we had a 5.5 hour DELAY due to a strike of Italian flight personnel * sigh *. We entertained ourselves for 8 long hours with episodes of The O.C. on my notebook. That was after we spend 2 hours looking for a socket to connect the adapter to.

If you are ever going to fly from Leonardo da Vinci airport in Rome, do yourself a HUGE favor and make sure you have had a decent meal before arriving at the airport. Italian food is delicious, but the food on the airport is horrible.

Now I hope we get through customs with our loads of Italian Parmesan cheese, balsamico, coffee and olive oil. And ladies, you can stop hating me. I have only bought ONE pair of shoes. I have behaved very well.

We had a great trip. Rome is absolutely beautiful. I’ll post more about it later this weekend. With some of the many many many many many pictures we made.

OMG! The woman in front of me just shoved her flight meal in her purse. Ewww. That meal was not worth making your purse all stinky. Gross.

BTW: We got the food through custom without a problem. Tonight we’ll be enjoying a nice Italian salad mmmmm.

La dolce vita

I'm sorry for the lack of posts.. but I'm doing cultural things in Roma.

Oops.. wrong picture. Cultural things, like visiting the Vatican I mean...

Just a quick update to tell you…..

Wish you were here!

THAT was the BEST pistachio ice cream I have EVER had in my entire life.

Our B&B is located very close to the Spanish Steps. Which is a great place to hang out. How pretty are those flowers?

Thanks Laura for letting us borrow you travel guide. It’s the best!

We PROMISE to update more later. But unfortunately (hehe) we have to go to get ready for dinner, near the Trevi Fountain. We hear it’s even more pretty at night…

I'm sorry I won't be visiting your blogs this week.. But hey, I HAVE to eat ice cream and see all those beautiful things :)

In the air

20.000 metres above Italy. The pilot says we just passed the Alps and will be flying above Venice shortly. But really we could be flying above China as well, the clouds are totally blocking any view. China could be fun.

We’re flying with a German airline: Lufthansa (Air Hanz? ). And apparently Lufthansa doesn’t have terrorists in business class. The flight attendants forgot to close the curtain and we say they all get real knives & forks with their food. It’s not fair.

They get knives and we don’t get to play with our remote controlled toy car. I was SO looking forward to riding that thing up and down the aisle.

Last night we spend at the Sheraton Hotel at Schiphol Airport. As we were flying at 7 AM we figured we didn’t want to get up at 3 AM to be on time at the airport. We are lazy like that. I totally recommend the Sheraton at Schiphol. We got a free upgrade to a “club room”, which was nice and luxurious.

Mr. Sweety found the mini bar quite soon:

DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING! 7 dollars for a bottle of Coke. Insanity.

Oh got to shut down electronical devices .Decending. Rome, here we come!

Everything you’ve always wanted to know about..

Sweety’s week off …

.. I haven’t done any homework in a 4 days… and I should... I have a paper to finish.
.. We watched the entire first season of The O.C. in approximately ONE week. I think I am in love with Seth.
.. The cats have no idea that we’re going on a v.a.c.a.t.i.o.n. in two days.
.. I have now done Power Yoga and Pilates THREE weeks in a row. I’m proud of myself.
.. I was watching As The World Turns when I looked to my side, I saw Mr. Sweety watching too.
.. Which is quite lovable because Seth watches The Valley with Summer too.
.. OK, I’ll shut up about The O.C. now.
.. I have dyed my hair again. Well, the hairdresser did. I’m a redhead again.
.. I have done little as possible this week.
.. I thought this week’s episode of Lost sucked. Besides from Jack sleeping the entire time, what really happened?
.. I will now get up and secretly eat the chocolate chip muffins I baked with Mr. Sweety. And when Mr. Sweety notices that one is gone? I’ll blame Simba.
.. Mr. Sweety totally was on the radio this week! You can here him here. you can only here him for about a minute. But still. The radio station found him through his blog.
.. MONDAY: ROME. Did I shout that? I apologize.
.. The parents are having dinner together. Tonight. My parents. Mr. Sweety’s parents. Together.
.. We haven’t started packing yet.
.. I haven’t had a spam comment in a few WEEKS! * knock knock *
.. Mr. Sweety is building a multi media device thingie something. It’s supposed to work the same as TiVo. Or so he tells me. I don’t quite understand. Yet.

E voila, my two favorite men in the house working on their multimedia project:

Happy weekend everyone!

Always wear your best underwear when flying

Joe’s latest post reminded me of the always relaxing time to spend on the airport before take off. Especially that day Mr. Sweety and I were ready to fly from LAX to NYC Kennedy.

It was somewhere between Christmas and New Years (I know, we have the greatest sense of timing). We had been waiting in line for way too long. We didn’t have coffee yet. Which is not good.
A whole family (about 12) got the nerve to cut the line, which almost led to a fight between them and another passenger waiting in that same line. The family of 12 won (they did look kinda scary). The rest of us just looked very angry at them, there may even have been some growling. After 45 minutes of irritation we cheered up when they found out they were actually standing in the wrong line. Don’t you just love karma?

Did I say we didn’t have coffee yet? My morning happiness depends on coffee.
After we had shown our boarding passes and passports at least a gazillion times, we finally had to go through the detection thingies.

I was required to:

Take off my shoes, sweater and belt.

No biggie, right?

Imagine this.

Sweety, holding her low waist pants up to keep them from slipping from her behind, wearing only a tiny tank top, walking past security on her pink Snoopy socks (NEVER wear pink Snoopy socks, unless you want to draw attention to your feet in less than a nanosecond). I am just SO happy I at least wore a top under my sweater.

Very embarrassing. I totally understand security issues. But having to strip down and to walk by security men looking at anything but my Snoopy socks is a tad disturbing. I know they probably weren’t checking me out, but still.

After that, we had about 5 minutes to get dressed and buy some coffee & muffins before we boarded the Delta flight. Surrounded by complaining, hungry, grumpy people. They showed Shark Tale. At least the sound. Because seriously, behind that paper the guy in front of me was holding up? It could just have easy been a home shopping channel. Very annoying because he held it up above his head, as if he head eyes on top of his head. Maybe he had. Gross.

I hope checking in to our flight to Rome this Monday will be a little less disturbing. But I’m hopeful.

No. 436, 438, 487, 526, 556, 81, 84, 151, 156, 235, 247, 297, 356, 361, 43

Every year, there are 2 minutes of silence in The Netherlands.
Every year on May 4th.
Every year at 8 PM.
Every year the streets fill with silence.
Every year people gather around a few monuments in The Hague, Amsterdam and other cities.
Every year the TV’s silently show a scene of people dressed in black. And over the years the older people make place for younger people.

At May 4th , we remember those who died in World War two.

Last year I wrote a post about it and I was in doubt to do it again. Since my grandparents are gone, I feel little connection to the experience they have had during the war. Even though my grandfather died on May 4th many years ago.
Through a coincidence, today I stumbled upon a website that brought history a bit closer to my 21th century happy life.

The website is called “A Jewish Monument.” All Dutch Jews brought to camps by the Germans during WWII can be found in the database linked to this website. Some just with names & address. Some with pictures. Some with stories about their lives.
Each dot on the homepage stands for one Jewish person who died during this war.

I gave in to my curiosity, and searched by street name. Our street name.

With little nausea I looked at the search results. The database showed me the names of no less than 15 Jewish families. All taken away from their houses in this street. Our street. Most of them died in various camps.
And I realized. History was never far. History is right next-door.

Crazy, I did find some relieve in the fact that our house wasn’t separated from their owner in that cruel way. But next time, when I walk past the houses on the list, I have to stop. And realize.
We should not only remember those who lost their lives, but we should celebrate our freedom. Even though times are dynamic for whatever reason. We don’t live in WWII. We don’t have to abandon our houses because of our religion, skin color or background. We are not put in camps.

We are lucky. We are blessed. Just as they once were.

From the Jewish Monument Website

Mathematics

Sweety + friend + terrace + sun – food + beer + beer + bike = not so good

This being all about maths… I guess I could file this post under school…

French from the top of your head

Either my brain failed me (AGAIN) or my French evil teacher from high school did. Because when I get lost in Paris? I probably won’t find it back. Ever.

I just IM’d with Chrishawn about it, and this is what we (both) remember from our French lessons (mind you, I have had FOUR years of French):

Je m’appele Sweety et j’ai 26 ans
Je veux un vin.
Merci.
Voulez vous couchez avec moi ce soir ?
Dans la voiture, mon petit chocolat ?
Je t’ aime….
Oh, tu jouez le tennis ?
A bientôt…
Oh arretez ! Un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq!

In english that would be….

My name is Sweety, I’m 26.
I want wine.
Thank you.
Do you want to sleep with me tonight ?
In the car, my little chocolate?
I love you…
Oh, do you play tennis?
Untill we meet again...
Ooh wait ! One, two, three, four, five!

I know enough French to have a drunk one night stand in a car with a tennis player. Great.

Her Majesty Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard by the Grace of God Queen of The Netherlands; Princess of ORANGE-Nassau etc. etc. celebrates her birthday

Be aware, I�m about to introduce you to the wonderful world of living in a Kingdom. Or Queendom. Whatever. Many pictures ahead (making up for weeks of non-picture posting).

Friday evening and Saturday ONE color and many geeks dominated our little country...

Little orange geeks...
Update May 2nd: Someone commented and asked why the kids faces are painted brown. I didn't get that either. This picture was taken at a ' bite the cookie' (or cake) contest, which was an attempt to win a world record. Bite-the-cake, or koekhappen, is a traditionl Dutch game, children play at birthday parties. Maybe those kids wanted to look like a cookie? I don't know.
In any case, and I think that's what the comment implied, I'm sure it was not ment to offend people with another skin color. Whatever people say about Dutch, that kind of thing is not accepted here. Pot is. Drinking at 16 is. But racism isn't. There. I explained.

OK on with the orange picture party........

Orange geeks on bikes...

Orange geeks dancing in the streets...

I have NO words for this.. fashion police, please arrest them.

Okay, we went a LITTLE overboard. But we couldn�t resist. Orange in love.

Many orange flews over the cuckoos nest.. but why is everybody orange??

Because� Our own bottomless tax pit Our Queen. Celebrating her birthday (30th of April is a national holiday here: Queensday). Every year she visits another city. This year she came to The Hague. The town she lives in, and we happen to live in it too.

I blame the hot sun for people behaving like mad..

Mr. Sweety even climbed a pole�

I �m really party people: I wore black.
I�m not that queenish. I don�t believe that royals should run a country and live of our tax money (and certainly not for over 25 years). But I�m a sucker for the rich and famous so of course like any The Hagueian person I was there.

That.. and to check that she at least bought a nice hat from my tax money. Hey woman! That�s a few months rent!!

Our country�s favorite Princess Maxima was there too. With her King to be. He has a nickname �Prince Beer�. That�s hopeful. �Your highness, we have a serious problem.� �Let�s drink to that first! Cheers�

My friend Laura was there too, and she shook hands with the cutest prince of all: Prince Maurits. I am not jealous. I am NOT jealous. I�m not! Really. Who cares. Hmmpf.
And WHAT is that old lady looking at???

And after a day of sun & fun (which probably cost millions and millions) the royal family got into an old tram..

And lived happily ever after.

The end.

.. and the Queen's full title?

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