Still searching for the best way to cope with the cycling to and from work. I tried following Sal’s tip, but that was not an instant success… Cycling to work in the morning was OK. Just over an hour, nothing bad. But after the long morning ride the ride home proved to be very hard! Unexpectedly hard I may add!

For some strange reason I just had porridge in my legs… Nothing. No energy at all. Very weird… have felt that before, but mainly after very long rides, or rides followed short after heavy exercise… Well, we can’t really justify sitting behind a computer for 8 hours as heavy exercise, so I was a bit puzzled… Yes, was. Because today I took the short ride to work and the same thing happened on the ride back… Felt totally buggered… Strange…

I might try a bit bigger lunch tomorrow! Why not! I have been such a good boy ignoring those lovely Dutch croquettes during lunch. Tomorrow I will go wild and see what that brings me!

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It seemed a wonderful plan. While getting my broken spokes fixed (3 broke in my rear wheel in just one week time!) to get new tires at the same time. A bit smaller, because the ones on my MTB were just huge and chunky. Good for offroad, but just a lot of effort on the road. The classic zooming sound was kinda pretty, but besides that there was just a lot of rubber rubbing off on the road.

So smaller, proper road tires seemed the most logic way to go. The guy in the bike shop did warm me… it might look a bit funny. Small tires under a big bulky frame… I couldn’t mind. Put ‘em on! But then I went to pick the wheel and tires up on Saturday afternoon, put them under the bike again and… Oops… That does look funny! :-)

Well, funny… ridiculous is definitely a better word! I will make a picture tomorrow, so you can judge for yourself! It used to look something like this: Bike with big tires.

And now it looks like this:

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A wonderful dish! Simple, but so yummy! Fry up some mushrooms, red pepper and semi dried tomatoes, add some couscous and serve it with a piece of fish on it! Mmmmm… very nice! Introduced to me by Pip and/or Sal in Australia. Can’t remember who made it… I bet they both make a great one! ;-) But I do remember it was very nice!

So when I made it yesterday on Sal’s tip, it was indeed a great success! But we got very, very close to ordering take-away! The couscous had to be cooked for just a minute, and as my mum and dad don’t own a good strain, I thought to do it the old fashion way… just lit on the pan, open it a millimeter, and let the water run out… A good plan, a very poor performance…

Till about half way through the plan worked fine… the oven mits I was wearing were getting kinda wet, but I was hanging in there… then the lid slipped, and nothing else was heard but a great loud swear of yours truly… F#CK!!!!!!! The lid had slipped, the hot water burned my hands and more important, half of the couscous lay in the sink… ARGGGG!!! What now…

Well, there were not many options, so I went in to recover it and put it back in the pan! :-) Yes, maybe a bit disgusting, but it did help, in my defense, that the sink was clean at that point. Pfff… Thank god! So the couscous returned to the pan, got mixed up with the veggies, covered by the salmon, and just moments later: YUMMY! Definitely going to give this recipe another try, hopefully without mixing it up with the sink! :-)

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Watched Shrek again last weekend. Such a fun movie! Gotta love that big green ogre and crazy donkey! Cracks me up every time! :-)

One of my favorite scenes, in the end when Shrek and Donkey crash the wedding. Donkey sitting on top of the Dragon:
“All right. Nobody move. I got a dragon here, and I’m not afraid to use it. I’m a donkey on the edge! Celebrity marriages. They never last, do they? Go ahead, Shrek.”
:-)

Heard from Johanna there is a special karaoke section at the extra’s on the DVD! Oh my! I have to get my hands on that one! Ever since Robbies “Angels” in a to drunken state in Malmö I haven’t been performing anymore! *HAHAHA* Maybe it’s time to get back on the horse! ;-)

Also saw Fahrenheit 9/11 this weekend. Interesting movie. Bit of a one sided view maybe, but definitely an interesting one. It sure makes you wonder. It ain’t a particularly funny documentary, but it did make me smile when a gentleman who was comparing his empty, worn out neighborhood somewhere in the USA with a similar neighborhood in Baghdad and stating that Bush knew all about it and didn’t do anything for his neighborhood. Probably highlighting the problems in the USA that are ignored, as fighting a war elsewhere on the planet has priority over your helping your own people. Either way, the man spoke legendary words: “He (Bush, red.) knows all about it!”…”He does??” … “Yes, I send him an email!”.
Good boy! Hope it helps! :-)

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I had noticed it before, but it was never as long and disturbing as yesterday morning… the loud talker sitting next to me was on a role. She was out there. At Olympic level. She was doing some teaching through the telephone thing and talking so loud… You wouldn’t believe it!

Funny enough I had told Bastiaan about her a couple of days earlier and I had promised him that I would call him when she was on the phone again, so he could be the judge about the volume. So I did, and his reaction left no room for discussion. He was stunned! :-)

I don’t mind it so much if people are on the phone around me. I usually can just block out the noise, hear it’s there, but don’t listen and just ignore it as noise in the background. But not with her… Her volume is so loud, it’s impossible to block it out. And even if you succeed, it’s takes to much energy to do so.

After she had been on the phone for more then an hour, it finally stopped… relief… Then she thanked me for getting her a cup of coffee when she was on the phone. I couldn’t accept… I was blunt and went straight to the point. “Sorry, don’t get me wrong, I only went to get coffee because I couldn’t concentrate on my work with you talking so loud.” Her excuse was simple: “Yes, the headset is so good, it’s blocking most of the sound so I can’t hear myself and therefore have to speak very loud.” …

Weird… because when she was on the phone I asked my other colleagues about the loud volume, they said it was normal. Even borrowed a similar headset while she was on the phone, put it on, but it didn’t block a thing for me! Strange…

Today, when the noise was back, I used the headset from my phone to listen to the radio while she was on the phone. What pleasure! This weekend I will look up my old Formula 1 earplugs, to make good use of them again next week! Grandprix or not! :-)

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So far cycling to work is proving to be somewhat of a mixed success. In the morning it’s just great! It’s quite a short ride, just about 15km or 40 minutes, easy and safe parking of the bike and I can shower at work, so no problem at all. I do start quite early, but that’s mainly because I like to finish early. Especially when cycling home and afterwards having to shower, do grocery shopping and cook, it just takes up a lot of time and it’s nice to leave for home a bit early.

But that’s the morning… in the afternoon it’s a different story. I take a little detour on the way back, through the dunes and that makes the ride about 10km longer. Still, cycling 25km shouldn’t be any problem. It’s just a bit more then 50 minutes, but every single day I start to feel quite “empty” after about 35 minutes…

Don’t exactly know why, but my best guess would be a simple lack of energy… true, around 1700 I do get a bit hungry, but it’s quite rough on the bike. I have breakfast just before I leave in the morning, and a normal lunch at noon, so that should prove to be a problem… even introduced a couple of “snacks” (apple or Liga EverGreen) before I leave, but that hasn’t helped much so far…

Not sure what to do now. Probably will just try to keep cycling and see what works best. Maybe a bigger lunch, a later breakfast, more nasty snacks? Or maybe it’s just getting used to the fact I am on the bike so often now. OK, the rides are a bit shorter then normal, but still get a good 1 and a half hour of exercise every day.

And normally I would always praise and follow the classic “one day on, one day off” tactic, especially as numerous times that has proven it’s success… or actually I should say, not following that philosophy led to problems, so that might be the case now as well… I guess time will tell. Maybe it’s just because I am only moderate and am expecting to much! ;-)

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I was shocked today when I got an SMS very early this morning from Sally. The crocodile hunter had died. I couldn’t believe it. Surfed to nu.nl (a Dutch news website), nothing yet… phef… abc.net.au (an Australian news website)… Headline: Steve Irvine died. Silence. It’s not that I didn’t trust Sally’s SMS, I just didn’t wanne believe it. How could the crocodile hunter be dead?

But he was. Sad, ever so sad. And it’s very weird to think that just 2 months ago we were snorkeling quite close to where he died. Very strange. Especially because that place is such a special memory for me. Strange that something like this could happen in such a wonderful and special place… Sad… so sad…

As I read on one of the Australian websites, he died doing what he loved best. I loved his show. Not always because what he was doing, but mainly because of the great enthusiasm and passion he showed in what he was doing. It’s a great thing to see in people, and he sure showed it around.

What stay are the memories… The funny shows, how he inspired me to catch a goat and all the fun we had in Stockholm making Ozzie Kim talk like the crocodile hunter.

Shocked…

Posted in News & media, Movies & TV | 1 Comment »

It was definitely a struggle, but I made! :-) We already knew it could be done, but now I also finally managed to finish the triple! Not that heroic, on probably the 10th attempt or so, with a smaller “soes” then normal and without eating all the chocolate sauce of my plate… so officially it might not even count as a successful attempt, but I still feel as proud as ever I got so far!

OK, you don’t feel very nice afterwards, as eating the last half to 1/3 of the soes is just on character. That has clearly nothing to do with “enjoying a lovely meal”… With jalousie I was looking at Bastiaan, stopping at 2/3 of the soes and leaving the rest as it was. He finished the triple last time, so he had nothing left to prove! :-) *HAHAHA*

Can’t wait to go back there again and feel the same! Been there, done that, so probably not going to push my stomach that far soon again! There is nothing left to prove! ;-)

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Introduced to my world some years ago by my good friend Bastiaan. “Afsmsen” or “Cancel by SMS” in English. That was the historic and legendary way he cancelled his appointment for a massage on the last moment. By SMS. For me, that’s were it started. Never heard about it before that, so all credits to Bastiaan. But yesterday I discovered time has progressed things quite a bit. Not just massage appointments are cancelled by SMS, people now also report not coming into work by SMS!

Amazing… not calling to the office anymore, no more pretending to sound more sick then you really are to justify staying at home, not having other people calling for you because you are to sick to call, non of that! A simple SMS will do! :-)

I do wonder what he wrote in his text message though… He was probably still giving an explanation… I wonder how long it will take before we just send “WORK OFF” or “SICK ON” to our employer to report in sick! :-)

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