Today...

Today it's queensday. Maybe it's a perfect day for taking some pictures.
Problem is that(I'm realizing it at this very moment) that the battery of the camera is empty. So I'll make some training kilometers on my bike first. The camera's accu can load and the sun can start to shine.

Okay, I did all the things I mentioned. These are the photo's of the City. Celebration and laughter everywhere. The police was very visible and the mounted police could not handle their horses moments after I shoot them.
In the crowd I saw one pissed bloke, controlled by 2 girls and his mate, arguing with policemen on bikes.

party time

Tomorrow, queensday..... as a republican it rings a bell too.
The Dutch royalty has no meaning other than being a business sign. I wonder if royalty in other sophisticated countries has an other meaning.

Our next queen Maxima is a party animal. But carrying a baby I think she'll be on the back ground.

It's not my party. I'm going to cycle again as I did today.

8:20 am, going to work

Imagine

8:20 am, going to work


Today was a working day like all the others. Long enough to get over the cough I got from the effort
on yesterdays time trial.

Today I did nothing when I came home I went to the store to buy food, read my newspaper. All about the coming referendum about the EU constitution, the danger of local assaults of radical movements, extremist right and fundamentalistic ones.

We live in times nobody wants, but what about 25 years from now. Maybe these days were heroic? Hahahaha, no of course not. There is no war going on.....
It's just our imagination.

Wendyblog

Spring, take your time.

At least stay a little longer. You make nature laugh and enjoy life(?) and let new live(?) begin.
I don't want a summer but an extended spring.
Please don't hurry.

Spring, take your time.

visit WENDYBLOG

time trial

I cycled a time trial: 5.8 k in 10:37 minutes.
Having the wind in mind it is not bad.
Leaving a 10th place for me out of 17 riders.

return

Tomorrow I'll cycle a time trial in the afternoon or evening.
PSV Eindhoven lost its football game against AC Milan. (2-0)
Next week the return match for the finals.

Hello, goodnight

Here is just one hello for today.
Most of the day was dominated by cycling, however I cycled only 3 hours.
From 12 pm we had the opening of the cyclingseason.
At 1 pm we started our tour, which I interrupted for 2 hours for a family visit on a camping site.
Total cycling time 3 hours and a break of 20 minutes.

I cycled this weekend just 247 kilometers. It is getting out of hand :)

No way

Saturday 23 april at 5.45 am


Early this morning at 6.30 am we left cafe Ledig Erf.
In the first hour we cycled 32 kilometers.
After 2 hours we already made 65 k.
After that we had a slowdown and even then I could not cling to the group.
After 90 k I told them I would do it on my own. I let them go and I could finally eat some cakes I had in my backpack. (overseeing the skyline of Amsterdam and the planes taking off from Schiphol Amsterdam airport.
After a coffee break I went back home.
I cycled 132 k in the morning. In fact, I've never done than so early.
Wauw, still got the Saturday.

Insterstellar Adventures

Insterstellar Adventures

300 k?

I'm cooking right now, so hopefully nothing goes wrong.
Tomorrow at 6.15 am I'll gonna cycle with the friends of the Ledig Erf.
We'll try to cycle along the border of the province of Utrecht. That's roughly 300 kilometers.
I don't know if I'll cycle the full length.
I'm certainly preparing myself on a fine trip. And not much rain is expected.

Energy

I worked, had an energizing afternoon and finised with a tasty dinner.
I learned that more than 60 % of the Dutch is against the Dutch Governmental policy, that Europe is not really an item in the Netherlands and that our social benefits are the largest in the world. But it's more and more the United Stated who deals with the strategy to invest the money involved with those benefits.

Holland, I'm glad to read in the eveningpaper what I want

Take it easy

At 9 pm I was back home. 3 Hours for a tour of 80 kilometers. Quite a difference with last Sunday. It was just an extensive training instead of the "homemade" intensive trainings. We had an average of 27 k/hr.
Well I'm back and make it an easy evening. Just lay back. Listen to football matches, music and enjoy the day.

Pooh

Pooh, it's wonderful weather. I'm gonna cycle a bit with the Pots & Pans.

Mentality

I cleaned my bikes yesterday.
After working all day I feel tired. Just have to go through the pouring rain to the shop and get my food. I need some potatoes for my broccoli and tasty meat.
Then I got to cook and finish the dishes. Yeah, that's a different kind of life than the big-city-being-single-means-eating-almost-every-day-outdoors mentality.

clean up my cycle

Got to do some work I don't like.. cleaning my bike. I have to do it or it'll cost my chain. The dirt might ruin it. And we all want to cycle on a brand new looking bike, won't we?
And if you got 2 bikes, you got to work twice as hard....

Well after my cup of tea I'll go to the basement with the necessary equipment.

A terrific day

Today was a terrific day. In the morning the sun was shining, the birds were singing and the traffic was calm.
I woke up, had 3 knäckebröd with cheese(when I was in Sweden last year I rediscovered it as an energy source) and a delicious cup of coffee.
After that I sent my family in the North an email and a link of what I am planning to cycle this year. This link shows the route in flash 5 (animated).
After that it was time to eat some macaroni for the 100 k I wanted to cycle.
So at 12.45 pm I raced to the establishment from where we started.
The first kilometers were relatively fast (35 k/hr). In an hour the first hills came. I could not deal with the fast riders and I stopped for a minute. Then it seemed that more riders could not follow. They passed me by.
When 2 riders did that and asked me the way to Amerongen I concluded that they didn't do this often and I caught them just before Leersum were they didn't know how to go.

I said follow me, and it appeared that those couldn't climb the hills. (and there were more to come) As the road was flat on most of the track they lead me to another hill were I had to take the lead position. (they could not climb at all)
After that hill there was one to come. And again I had to do it by myself.
From those hills I didn't see them again.
Arriving in Amerongen it appeared that the mayor peleton (a French word meaning persons joined together) has gone. I stopped at the restaurant and joined a little group of B-riders who lost contact too.
When I sat there more riders arrived. So we had a bigger group and could race faster back to Utrecht.

Back home I had cycled 85 k, so I cycled 15 k extra.
My total racing time (net time) is 100 k in about 3 hours and 8 minutes. That leaves a fantastic average of more than 31 k/hr.

This is a terrific day

movie mutilation

Today I realized that movies should be banned from television.
Why? It mutilates a good movie. Cinema or dvd are much better mediums to show a movie. However I ain't got time for cinema.
Television should be used for spreading news, documentaries and so on.

The week ends tomorrow

The week ends again. Just in time because I feel to tired to do anything.
Sunday I got to cycle 90 K. Maybe I extend it to a 100 K plus.
I have to do my laundry, cycling suits and a lot of towels, shirts, some pants and so on.
I have to clean my bike which I gonna use with my vacation. And I got to wash the dishes and cook my dinner. And that after working all day.
On such moments I respect my stepmum double because she did it all together on a much larger scale.

Personal best

Today after work I set a personal best time of, at least, this year and I maybe never have done it before.
I cycled in 1:00:12 hour 33.18 kilometer, an average of 33.09 k/hr.

And I don't even feel tired, exhausted or whatsoever.

The Wallrus

Who sang about a wallrus? Didn’t have that wallrus a big grey/white moustache singing about getting a job with the UN. It’s all written down in the deadsea scrolls. You should read that. Maybe it’s even about predestination!

Integrity

At my work we have a first case of being not integer.
The head of the Parking Facility of our City has repaired his house on account of the City. He has bought things on account of, exactly, the City. He has given away bikes and LCD-screen to employers on account of, you know.

He has been put off duty and will possibly be fired.
Most likely this guy has signed the declaration of integrity because he's head of his Facility.
If this is true than signing that declaration has no meaning.

Integrity isn't something one can put on paper, it's all in one's mind.

Trip

At my back where I'm sitting now there is a match going on between Chelsea and Bayern Munich. In Italy AC Milan plays against Inter Milan. Tomorrow PSV Eindhoven plays Monaco. Will Monaco gain from the dead of Rainier or has he taken in his grave the faith of Monaco?

Today after work again a beautiful day.. at 5.30 pm I was cycling and I was fast in the three quarters I cycled. I had an average speed of 32.5 k/hr. But above all I enjoyed this trip.

the citadel

When I came home at 5.30 pm the sun was shining like on a summerday and the temperature on my balcony was awsome. I just sat there and showered in the sun for almost an hour. I could have gone on my bike for a training of course.
I didn't, I felt tired of a workingday, I felt tired of thinking about going on a bicycle from the citadel of Utrecht to a place where one can go free on his own. And then the sun would set just before you reach, sweated and cold, the outskirts of this beloved city.

No, this would not my thing this afternoon and early evening. Beyond other things I had to read some articles of the Saturday paper.

139 minutes

- Utrecht, Sunday afternoon

I was hardly awake (it took me a long time) when I read that the live-registration of the Rotterdam-marathon started at 10.30 am on TV. After that the cycling classic Paris-Roubaix would be covered live. At 5.30 pm, if there is some additional time, the broadcast corp. would cover baseball and handball.
As someone who likes sports this is to much. Okay the Rotterdam marathon I gonna watch among other things which I have to do. The cycling classic I wanna look at the finish because last weekend I saw a glimpse of the finish of another important classic in the hospital. That was disappointing.
Today it was a different world. I saw bits of the marathon and the classic but then I saw that the weather improved so that riding on a racing bike was not dangerous.
I rode more than 2 hours and saw the last 25 kilometers of Paris-Roubaix.
The sun is shining again.

I don't feel a headache. Only my hip aches in certain positions. I think this week everything will be back to normal.

Thank you Ocean and Sarah for your support.

36 minutes

Today it's almost a week after the fall with my racing bike. In the morning I rode a little. Not more than 15 kilometer, 36 minutes. I feel my head aching like I never felt before this week. I felt it especially when I rode on a bumpy road. Possibly it's the aftermath of a slight concussion.
Well, I'll ride tomorrow if the weather is okay.

This morning there was sunshine, a lot of wind and cool temperatures, but this afternoon when I went into the city on my bike it started to drizzle and in town after buying things for maintainance of my bike, some clothes, looking for a new pair of shoes, a new tent for this summer vacation, the rain came down. I still had to buy food for the weekend. So riding to that shop I got soaked.

no reason

There is more than one reason to marry.
And of course numerous reasons to put an end to it.
There is one reason to be born.
And there are several to die.

I got no reasons to do anything like this

vatican flags

The catholic church mourning. The flags halfway down.

Kindergarten

Thank you Ocean for your message. I hope you're well with your son at daycare.
Some day he'll go to Kindergarten. Sarah has an own blog and writes occasionally about het little students.

The wounds are getting better. My doctor gives it 2 weeks to heel and he didn't object cycling. So I gonna try next weekend to make a ride.
Also my colleagues are in good mood these days. It's not really my elbow you know. My hip is aching more. I can't really walk. My co worker gets my coffee most of the times. So that's good. I can wish nothing more.

Sometimes life is like a Kindergarten.

Like tomorrow at work. We gonna have a party at 4 pm because of the 8 birthdays there have been after 11-1-2005.

Feeling better

Yesterday I felt uncomfortable on my day off. I did some things I wanted to put straight (?) and I remember that I cooked very early. So the evening lasted quite a while. Maybe that's where I wanna go. Having dinner not at a Mediterranean time but just at 6 pm Dutch time!
Today I went to work and I have to say that my hip bone aches a lot.
At 4 pm I was at the doctor and he told me that the injury will stay a fortnight.
He also gave me a new tissue for my elbow which I refreshed in the morning. He tore it off my elbow in a split second and put some betadine (lotion) on it and gave it a new tissue.
I'm a little relieved now that this week I can go cycling again. But first I got to buy a new helmet.

Status who

The pain I should have at night didn't come. It was difficult to get in and out of bed, but that's is no real pain.
No, the most pain is in my hip bone. But when I try to walk a little more it goes much easier.
I can feel my elbow softly burning.

This photo I made on April 2.

Der nackte man mit dem Kind.
It's not an heroic statue. A statue for der Mensch und das Kind.

And yes at 21.37 Central European Time the Pope died. It was time for him.

I saw Awakening for the first time completely. I couldn't keep my attention to the movie on other occasions.
Later more about my opinion...I got to cycle 90 k.

I was home early. I fell with my bike. My speed was then some 30 k an hour. Everthing hurts, my knee, hip and elbow. I was wearing a helmet and that absorbed the collision of my head with the road. It happened in a fraction of a second. But I call recall it clearly. I rode home all by myself after whishing my team a good trip. At home I took a shower and discoverd a awfull hole in my right elbow. I decided to go to first aid. At the hospital I waited for 70 minutes to get help, which lasted 40 minutes. They X-rayed my elbow and gave a tetanus injection (the doctor thought about it because of the fall on a filthy street, but didn't give it until I asked).

Tomorrow though I take my planned day off... to get through the pain, I'll undoubetly get this night. (All the muscles you know)


Awakenings is about people who catched a virus what caused them to get into a semi sleeping phase which last for decades until a doctor finds a way to treat them.
Then you can say, hallelujah it's 1-0 for the passionate conservatives of the Bush clan if it were in these days of the early 21st century. Unluckily for the patients had their setbacks and every now and then the awake.
For Bush cs. this TV movie is real (referring to the Schiavo-case), but it didn't happen in real (did it?).

For people like the victims in the movie it's a horror to get out of their vegetative state of being, remembering how live was. A user of the IMDb describes these patients as if there were in a coma. This is untrue. When they are in a so called coma for so long they are in a vegetative state of being.
A coma never last more that 4 weeks in that period the eyes are closed and one has no control over vital bodyfunctions.
This situation alters by itself. The patient dies or transforms into a vegetative state of being. Eyes are opened without being able to see. They have a day-night ritm and basic bodyfunction do work again. This situation can last forever.

Back to the movie. Robert de Niro, who was the patient Leonard, showed a good piece of acting. For me he showed the essence of this state of being. Being full of questions, working on yourself, being angry, being yourself and cherish short moments of happiness as great joy. You might say he's overacting. But he isn't. He only emphasizes in his acting the shortcomings of Leonard Lowe.

Weekend

Today was one of sleep, work, cycle, relax and all the actions to change the state of being.
It's too late now to write a daily blog.
This weekend will be awfully good. Look at the weather and we go to the twenties for the 2nd time in 2 weeks time. And I take a long weekend.