French alp

Hi, it seems a long time I've been written something. Busy with cycling, house, work, etcetera. Concerning cycling, I did the Alpe d'HuZes on thursday 7 June. I climbed the mountain Alpe d'Huez 4 times. 14 Kilometer climbing with a fast downhill and that 4 times. I am glad I did it. My team collected more than 24,000 Euro.

 

Gruppo Sportivo

cycling in May, 110 km through the countryside

Getting ready for the Alpe d'HuZes cycling mountainstage to fight cancer

AlpeduZes

Life goes so fast nowadays. There are happening a lot of things around me. - a new house is being built - I am training for the bicycle ride on mount Alpe d'huez in France to earn money in the effort to beat cancer. - I am working in a bad atmosphere. - in national politics there is happening much. We don't have a mayority cabinet, even with support of a third party. It stranded on the financial reforms to keep the deficit below 3% of our national budget. Talks about those reforms lasted 7 weeks. No information was given. When it stranded 5 other parties who were neglected made a compromise to come to a quick agreement to save the country and to avoid a EU penalty of 1.5 billion Euro.

Mountain

It's a decision I've made already for myself. I'll climb the col de Alpe D'huez in the French Alpes.
By doing this I support the fight against cancer. The goal of the organization is to find money for making cancer a chronic instead of a mortal disease.

The main goal is to climb 1,000 meter in a 14,000 meter long road to the top of the mountain several times. Hopefully I get some people who donate some money on the account of my part of the AlpeDuZes-website which will follow later this year.

As a team of 8 cyclists we wanna raise 20,0000 Euro or more.
I'm excited how to reach so much money for the good cause.
Yeah, finally I can do something good with my more or less selfish riding.

There is one big question. To be part of the climbers I have to do a medical examination to secure my application for this ride.

cancer

I was positif about going to cycle against cancer on June 7 2012.
But now I feel negatif because of medical examination.

C

Today is my 30th birthday, my rebirth, a totally new me.
A reboot of the system who I was. It changed me.
Despite my four weeks coma I still work with the same core processor inside.

Since that day plus 24 days I had to learn anything. But almost everything came back in a natural way. I didn't recognize that I worked for it. Children have the willpower go for real limits. Maybe it is one of the evolutionary elements we still have. We struggle through our lives and find way's to live because giving up is no option.

This is also the slogan of the bicycle climb of the Alpe d'Huez.
The ride is meant to earn money for the struggle against cancer.
The goal is to earn more than 30 mil. Euro.

I'll be there on June 7 2012.

city-trip

However 33% of the city trip are on bike there are no really state of the art novelties in this 4th sized Dutch city.
It's a shame on the local authorities that for example on the spot of the video. This crowdedness is going on for a decade of even more. There are 2 busy lanes to cross and a tram passes from both sides. That makes 4 lanes.
Many people get injured here each year. It's not without a reason.
Shame on you Municipality to let it happen.

feeling

Wouter Weylandt died in the Giro d'Italia.

A day before he sent a text message that the giro was too nervous and too dangerous.

It doesn't feel good.

cycle city

Amazing how few cars are in the old city of Groningen in Holland.

This is the town my kids could grow up.

crisis

Referring to the previous 2 posts, the Christian congress was emotional for many people. The minister of foreign affairs was even tearfully in his last speech to persuade the voters to vote yes for the agreement. He was one of the negotiators. It was in his personal interest that there was a huge yes, 68% is not enough to say it´s overwhelming. Something happened on the congress. Their party is still alive. The question is if they can get protest-votes back . The next election in March 2011 will be the next indication. The Christians are in crisis.

Today the weather was fine. Maybe the last day above the 20 degrees C. Again I didn't cycle. My whole hobby is in a crisis. What to do?

Relaxed

Today I was in the grocery store. It was a kind of busy, an hour before closing time.
But I felt so relaxed.
When I've collected all I needed and waited at the pay desk I had a bird view of everything happening around me. So there were 2 pay desks opened with a queue. I joined the queue and another desk opened. I waited and didn't bother what the rest of the queue was doing. On my desk an old lady paid her bill and a family had their weekend groceries. A woman in front of me had a lot of stuff in her basket. She chose the new opened desk and other people did too. I didn't because I watched the people in front of me. Knowing that the row isn't really faster because of a heavy load of groceries. It felt good watching the load getting smaller.

Maybe because of the cycling tour I had the feeling.
At 10:30 AM I departed for a 101 kilometer tour. I came back almost 5 hours later. At 16:00 PM I entered the store. In a relaxed state of mind.

Does this mean that I should cycle 100 k to have this experience? I'll talk about that some place else.

life

I've seen no mountains. I've seen no abroad. I've seen beautiful places and cycled great roads. I've been in places like Paris in Texas. I've seen our old house for sale where my family and I lived in for 5 years.

The miss sunshine and the dry wind made it a monster tour. 386 kilometers in 2 days that's all. There were to many cobble stones and I counted them all. I tell ya that make minds aching. That's not what a vacation is supposed to be of course.
I break off this holiday if I can in order to use the days left for benefit of my well being ;)
August 5 I have a first consultation so u know where my time is spent. Before I'll make some kilometers on my bicycle.

For me this house was safety for a time. Nevertheless the gods were not always good gods.

life is a house, from time to time you got to open its doors and windows

cycling

After 8 days I cycled again. My bruised rib heeled like my doctor said. Suddenly this morning I felt better than earlier this morning. So I took my bicycle to ride a 53 k.
However, it doesn't feel like 10 days ago. That's a pity.

Fortunately the book I read catched me finally and I take some time to read Chronic city written by Jonathan Lethem.

Vuelta

Last weekend I was the town I grew up partly. The cycling race tour (Vuelta Ciclista a España) started there. Friday I saw the team presentation. For the first time in years I had a dinner with my mother and her friend in a restaurant. Saturday I took my bicycle and cycled 75 k through the province. More times I had to shelter for rain showers. One of those sheltering moments I was in front of the house in Westerbork where I lived in my youth. From that place I cycled over the route the Vuelta would take the next day. I cycled from Westerbork to Tynaarlo, a 35 k or so. It never crossed my mind to do that. Along the route I visited the burial site of my dog. It's a piece of land close to a stream where nature can be nature. It overwhelmed me that that site has actually become a nature reservoir and it was so mature. Years ago there where meadows originally meant for cows. The land was given back to the wild animals, deer, badgers, rabbits, foxes, birds, insects and plants. On Sunday the Vuelta passed my mothers house. It was a spectacular scenery of 198riders passing by.
Look at this video:


Between last weekend and the present weekend I had a week off. I had to think about joining the Works Counsil. This counsil has every 2 weeks a meeting to talk about subject which are important for the employees. Every month the counsil has a meeting with the head of the department we´re working for. I haven't seen an agenda with things talked about. That's what I have to do Monday morning as soon as I started the computer. Hopefully the network is working.

running

I ran today. I don't know how long, but it felt better than last time. I ran quite a long distance along the canal, crossing 2 bridges. Maybe I should do this more often. My legs hurt momentarily; Running and cycling are different muscle groups.

The advantage of running is that it's cheap and you don't need so much time to waste energy compared to cycling. It's what I call a recession proof sport.

just some thoughts

I had a discussion with my boss about my complaint. I told her almost exactly what's in the previous post. She said that she shares the problem and wants me to monitor and do what's necessary to keep progress.

This month I started more frequently to cycle. Not only short distances of 30 kilometer, I increased the distance to 96 km occasionally.
Last night daylight saving time is valid again. We got an hour extra at the end of the day. The nightingales-season (some people who ride together some kilometers) has started last Wednesday. Next Wednesday I'll be there to for some 60k after 6 pm and of course after work.

736th post

I'm blogging 4 years and 3 months now.
I've written 735 posts and used an average of 150 words. I used per post appr. 30 minutes. That makes 360 hours. That equals 10 working weeks of 36 hours.
Per year I could save 2.35 weeks of vacation if I didn't blog. But I do.

I could do the same with cycling. 4 years cycling with an average of 6,000 k a year equals 24,000k. With an average speed of 28k/hr it means I rode 857 hours in 4.25 years.
Per year I could save 5.6 working weeks if I didn't bicycle. But unfortunately I do.

This week I'll have a newspaper again. I didn't have one for some time now and it felt good. But lately I bought again a daily paper called NRCNext. It's a readable newspaper with all the news, though a little brief. When I received a letter of the publisher to have a free subscription I couldn't say no. It's without obligation so why not?
Exactly at the right moment a few weeks before the US presidential election.

My neighbor isn't doing well. I told you a long time ago about. The cancer worsened. The tumors spread to her liver. A few months ago she was told she would possibly not be alive at the end of the year.
Last week she was told that her life expectation is only 5 to 7 weeks. The day before yesterday she told me. She can't believe herself that it goes so quick. Last week she told me she could still wash herself but now she needs help. She isn't tired with life at all but she is tired of being in her house for so long now. She can't do so many things anymore as she is really weakened. She made a list of the things in her house she'll give away to some people. She checked her testimony, her will.
Now her friends will come at the nights, which she fears most, to sleep and watch over her. This week a hospital bed will be brought. They made a schedule who will sleep in her house. Those are the practical things.
Psychologically it's hard for her too. She has to let everything go. She gives her belongings away, mostly paintings, sculptures and things used in other cultures she collected on her journeys a long time ago.
So she follows almost the path of Taoism. I told her to let the things go. Yes, she said till now all my travels were going somewhere but now I'm going to somewhere which is unknown. I agreed, this will be your biggest journey so far.
Okay, we talked about daily life too. About dog's tax. And we laughed.

Back

After a holiday of 26 days I returned to Utrecht, The Netherlands. In this period I cycled 1846 kilometers to the Mediterenean. I spent some time in Saintes Maries de la Mer, swam in the sea, cycled over the top of the Mont Ventoux, saw the time trial of the cycling tour Dauphiné Liberé in Avignon and a lot more.
I met and spoke with a lot of people.

It was a vacation exceptionelle, an extraordinary holiday.

I'll place some photo's on fotothing

Feeling good

After last Sunday (cycling 3.5 hours in rain and cold) I've had a low interest in cycling. But today I cleaned my bike and went of for a 2 hours ride with my club.. It made me feel okay.

I hope to stay okay because at work the next months lots will change.
My direct colleague and I will probably have one or more other colleagues in the room. The 3 present other roommates are so called quality workers and will circulate over the department in order to secure the quality of the work of the counselors.

My work remains the same, prepare payments and control the work-flow. I got a new instruction.... make thing simpler (In fact it is the slogan of Philips)

Milestone

Riding is going well. Today I reached the first milestone on my way to the 1300 kilometer trip to Avignon. I cycled 1 k in 22 rides this year.

TOTAL till 8-3-08 1,001.25 kilometer

Total hours I used 37:59:25