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Ok, I stole that from Garfield. But, the weekend is over, I've a terrible cold, given to me by Franny and now also Hannah has it (she was coughing seriously last night). And we are having the first rain since 5 weeks (!). And of course it just had to start when I stepped out of the door this morning. But, does an atheist believe in fate ? or that nature is out there to get me ?

So feeling very groggy, but didn't want to stay home. I don't think it would do much good to stay home anyway.

Hannah has a new thing now that she wants to 'fight' with me (she being Bambi and I grumpy, in the movie Bambi fights with another deer over a female deer, Feline ? (and I always thought Bambi was a female deer)). And now she has this battle cry: "Ajapi" or something like that. And she makes these karate moves with these fine hands ...

Left work early today, yesterday I stayed till quite late so I could do so without to much feeling guilty. Staying one night in a hotel is a big plus. The Johannes Vermeer hotel in Delft is quite reasonable. Clean, quite luxereous rooms. Free WiFi ! even a collection of videotapes in the hall to play with the TV/VCR combo in the room. I thought that was really nice. The breakfast buffet was above expectations. Freshly baked rolls, very good coffee and juice. Wow ! and all that for 114 euros.

Dinner was not so spectacular: walked around a bit. Went to the Albert Heijn to buy a toothbrush and toothpaste (forgot to bring to the hotel) and a small bottle of wine and some chips. couldn't find a Burgerking and didn't want to go into a restaurant like the Waag, didn't feel like eating alone there. Found a Subway, ate my sandwich in my hotel room while watching the Truman Show. Finally got to watch that one.

Today I'm going to stay in a hotel in Delft. So I can work a bit longer today and still get a bit more sleep. If I can find a decent hotel. The train is packed already, for some reason the NS (National Railways) put the smallest train they have on this service. So everybody will be looking what I'm doing with my credit card ... not so handy pansy.

Anyway, tried to make a reservation for the Vermeer hotel in Delft. Looks ok, 112 euros for the night. Not too bad. Got a confirmation email, so it looks ok. Better call later in the morning to confirm with the hotel itself.

The sun is rising in full red glare. Nice view when crossing Hollands Diep (I think). Almost in Dordrecht. 6:30 ... sigh.

For the second time using the train to go from Eindhoven to Oldenzaal to visit: http://www.demcon.nl
No ideal connection ! have to change trains 3 times and finally take a taxi in Oldenzaal. Hopefully I'll reach Demcon at approx 9:00 (I stepped on the train in Eindhoven at 5:35 ... sigh...).

Anyway I've got some time to peruse the documents we'll discuss and do some browsing on the net.

Yesterday evening I went to the parents meeting of Hannah's new school. It was quite interesting, some 60 parents showed up (not bad for a warm Tuesday evening). The results of a satisfaction inquiry were quite a bit lower than the national average. This of course made the parents a bit concerned. The evening went well, after a short introduction we were split into groups and discussed two items of the list of items the school scored worst. Items like 'information about your child', 'state of the playing area' etc. Luckily the head teacher and his staff didn't go into 'defense mode'. So we could focus a bit in how things could be improved. I'm not too worried though. If I look back to my old primary school (Juliana school in Tiel) then I realise it was much worse in those days (1975). I left the meeting at 22:15, the discussion was still ongoing.

Yep, enjoyed a three day weekend. We haven't done anything too exciting, had a bit of a rest. We watched some good movies (Casino Royal and The Illusionist) of course Hannah got another K3 dvd to watch for the whole week. I'm not sure if the video rental store will last long, it doesn't look like there's as much demand for it as years ago. Maybe something to do with people downloading movies from internet (our area has fibre till in the house !). Downtown was a bit in a mess yesterday. Possibly from the celibrations of the fact that PSV became the national football (soccer) champion. And the Queen's birthday parties hadn't even started yet.

Today is actually my Mom's 65th birthday ! My dad who died 4 years ago would have been 2007-1925=82 years old today as well. Quite rare for your parents to have the same birthday date (month and day, not year, that would have been something else !).

Hannah has a day off from school and Destiny is coming to play today. So that's something she will look out for all morning. Bugging Franny every minute asking her 'Is Destiny coming now ?'.

April is a very warm and dry month this year. I haven't needed my rain gear yet. For me it is a nice start of my new commute: have to spend 2 x 15 mins on the bike in Eindhoven and 2 x 10 minutes on the bike in Delft. So, not having to put on my raincoat, trousers, shoe protectors (wearing my standard issue army boots all day is not a good idea) is a good thing. Except, it's a different deal if you are a plant our something like that. Our garden looks terrible. The front and back lawn consist more of weeds than of grass. One day I'll press 'reset' and start over a bit. I've taken up the daring plan to rip out the tree stump in front and take out all the roots of the soil that now allow all kind of shoots to burst out through the miserable lawn. Thinking about it, it is not likely that I'll replace the lawn. Too much maintenance.

Allthough the weather has been exceptionally good the last few weeks the mornings can be quite cold still. Usually the heating in the train compartments is turned up to 100% but today the heating was off. So no dozing off in the warmth today ;-)

It's now 06:30 and the views out of the window are spectacular. The red linings of the clouds, mist hanging over the fields. Beautiful.

It's not easy to go to bed on time. On time for me is well before PM10:00/22:00 ! Yesterday Fran went to her old badminton club for the first time since we are back in Eindhoven. She had a good time, everybody was quite surprised to see her back again (and nosy about it too).

Saw a nice episode of Mythbusters yesterday. Wild-west myths: shooting a hole through a silver coin (not possible with revolvers from around 1850: not powerfull enough).

Anyways, almost in Delft ... got to go.