Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Links

http://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk

http://www.stenaline.nl/

Monday, May 29, 2006

deli



So I had my evening meal. A delicious salad (I don't know the name of the dressing, see last picture), with a kind of steak.
After that I booked my trip to the UK, sailing at 7.20 am

Friday, May 26, 2006

butterfly feelings

Last vacation I cycled about 1,600 kilometers in 18 days. I don't know what next vacation will bring because of so many circumstances. Every trip is different and this vacation will be special.
Cycling on the other side of the road, heavy traffic, the Worldcup Football and other things. Think about the original fish & chips, delicious bakery products. And I can eat it all, because I burn it all.... food it's an energy source.

I can feel the butterflies in my stomach. It's going on within 2 weeks. And still some things to do.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

A special offer......

Our Minister of Integration and foreigner policies, Rita Verdonk, sent away Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Ayaan is a MP of the Netherlands but she has no legal permit to be a Dutch citizenship according to Verdonk. This means Ayaan is an illegal MP, which she is for 3 years now. According to Verdonk she has no right because of the law. But she forgets things like the justification to be Dutch and the fact that she is almost Dutch for 9 years. Only because Ayaan lied about her birthday and full name when she got an asylum A-status (the highest in rank) in 1992 the naturalization in 1997 wasn't legal.
That is a falsification of the truth. Ayaan was known from 1992 on as Ayaan, daughter of Hirsi son of Ali. Under that name she was known. This very name is important for naturalization, because you must give the name under which you are known. And she gave the name everybody knew her.
That she lied (lies about her age and last name) in a previous stadium, when she entered the Netherlands, doesn't matter.

It is sad that we just give away a pearl of civilization, of democrazy. She uses her voice to express herself.
I don't agree with all she says but you got to respect her and that Verdonk doesn't with her ruthless behaviour against Ayaan Hirschi Ali.

Now Ayaan will have to leave the country and like in the 1700's the rejected people went to Holland, she will now seek a podium in the United States. And probably she got one with the think tank of the conservatives.
So the Netherlands got a special offer, handle with care please!

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Big world

Today, May 14, my niece has her 10th birthday. Congrats Leila. I really don't know anything about her. Only what I've heard from her grandmother (that's my mother).
She's a little girl from 2 worlds, with a North African and Dutch background, just like her little brother and sister.

She is doing great at school having a great interest in everything which has to do with the dividance of rich and poor, the allocation of wealth and Warchild. A foundation that focusses on the well being of children in warzones.
These are big things where children deal with nowadays.

From the left, Jaliwa and Leila

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

preparation

Momentarily the holiday-season preparations start for a lot of people. Some book in advance to make sure they can stay at their favorite resort. Others go on the good luck a traveller often has, thinking nothing can happen to me, au bonne voie. In my youth we often travelled that way. Often the car has a breakdown or we found ourselves in hospitals with a broken ankle. But we went on and had a "terrific" holiday. It depends on who describes the holiday.
As member of a broken family I always have had the difficulty to be loyal to one part of the family. My loyality was diverted in some way. It wasn't often a terrific vacation.

And those vacation didn't come until the last couple of years.
I discoverd biking as the ultimate vacation tool for me.
Years ago I bought a bike and Friday I got a new one. The first one on the picture.



Actually I'm thinking where to go exactly. Calais-Dover for a start, then the south of England, Exeter, Stonehenge, Land's End? I'm thinking.... anybody fresh ideas?

Monday, May 08, 2006

Easy way out

a free dolphin on liberationday (May 5)









Water always seeks a way with the least resistance. In that way it can't be seen as a mirror of life. Life doesn't.
Do you know the riddle how water can pass a whole mountain range, like the Rocky Mountains, Himalaya or Alps?

Water just waits on the foot of the range to be dampened, to rise as fog, become a cloud and fall as rain on the other side of the range. It's the easy way... Most men don't. They do it the difficult way and make mistakes and will learn from it. Water doesn't, it just takes time.

Taking time to reach goals in life is what we can learn from water.
But that remains the easy way out.