The things I do at work...

So, I'm supposed to post news articles up on the company intranet at work, and I get all kinds of submissions from around the world. This particular one came from Pakistan, some kind of client event.

Somehow while I was arranging pictures and text, this came about:

I could've been really mean and left it like this, heheeh, but after laughing manically for 3 minutes I decided to be nice and rearrange. Pretty cool effect it has tho, EH?! ;) haha

Beach Party

Me, Christian, Sofie and Nico

^Picture is from a beach party we went to on Friday nite at Zandvoort. There was an all-you-can-eat BBQ (!!!) and open bar, hehe. Needless to say, many drinks were had! This pic was before our drinking started :)

Went for a long run today, was pretty relaxing just chugging along. The first time I ran 2 laps around the lake (total 12km) my heart felt like it shuffled up my throat at the halfway point, but these days I just get a sore knee a little bit.

Its pretty cool running for longer periods cuz after a while, the mind just blanks out and I find myself suddenly thinking "o cool i'm all the way here now" and then really looking at my surroundings. Hope I dont run off into unknown territory one day, thatd be kinda dangerous!

Around the lake, there are lotsa people walking, biking, rollerblading, etc. It's actually really beautiful, I should take pics :) There are also interesting sights, such as the Turkish/Moroccan women who run in groups of 2 or 3 dressed in a full black cloak and head wrap, wearing extra layers of course, and then some young fat boy who's also running in a puffy jacket (what's up with that? it's like 20 degrees out!) The Turkish/Moroccan men also walk around in black drapery and large groups, looking quite threatening.. and then there are the groups of giant geese who stare at me while I run by, some of them shuffling into my path as if to say "feed me!!", hehe. They're kinda cute, but I imagine they could probably peck me apart if they really wanted to, there are like 20 of them together all the time. :P

but yea, these days, its always nice weather in the evenings after we get off work, and its going to get up to 27'Celsius in the next few days!!

Two Polish old ladies on a street in Gdansk, so cute!

Queens Day and more...

Woo its been busy!

Last weekend was Queen's Day in Holland, which is the biggest party of the year in the Netherlands. It's pretty much equivalent to Canada Day in Canada, cept add a lot more drunkenness all over the place. Everyone from all over Holland comes into Amsterdam for the celebrations, wearing orange and ready to party all (night and) day and night on April 30 2005.

So yea, there were people packed all over the place, where you literally had to shove and push and move at a snails pace down the road, DJs playing music at every corner, people buying cups and cups of beer, outdoor dance parties, street stalls selling everything from junk to homemade space cookies, etc. We spent the day pretty much walking around, stopping to find out where people have drifted off to, walking more, dancing a bit, grabbing drinks, people-watching, street food sampling, and repeat all of the above several times. :)

Anyway it was a good time, cept for people who kept stepping on my already bruised toe (oww!) and the crowdedness (to be expected) and the inconvenience of getting alcohol (too crowded to move to and from the beer stall, plus it was expensive!!).

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Touched for the very first time...(by a ghetto-woman)

Here's one to remember. Me and Ching-Yin were walking under the metro station where I parked my bike when I did my usual look over the shoulder to see if anyone was behind us who could be a potential threat. Looking back, I saw three black girls (trendily dressed in a bandana, leather jacket, tight jeans, etc.) who were eyeing me too. The "leader of the pack" seemed to have a sly sneer on her face, but I looked away and kept walking towards my bike. Suddenly, they were much closer and passing to my left, still sneering at me, when the pack leader reached out and touched my ass(!!!!!!!!!!!). I looked at her and (dont ask me why) SMILED a polite smile, as if to say 'Hi'.. and then I looked at Ching-Yin who was also giving me quite the surprised look. Then, the girl went and touched Ching-Yin's ass too (!!!), the very same way, and then the three girls walked forth still giggling and sneering. We were like.. WTF!!!?!?!?!!?! inside, but outside, we could do no more than SMILE. I couldnt believe us. What the hell!!

I wasn't so much disturbed that a random girl touched my ass than I was disturbed that we could not defend ourselves. I mean, after the incident, I was thinking of all the things we could've done, such as maybe raise my hands out to my sides and bluff a fight pose ("BRINNNG IT ONNNNN, BIATCH!!!!"), do the drunken chicken/praying mantis kung fu moves I'd seen on TV, slap the girl in the face, or at least swear at them, but what did I do?? Smile. So, it seems that, even tho I am armed with pepper spray, I will probably most likely die from an attacker with a very polite smile on my face. Hrm. We really gotta train our reflexes better Ching-Yin. Let's practice next time. For realz.

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A quick update

Well it will be a while again for me to update cuz I'm going to Warsaw tomorrow on a 14 hr train. We'll be in Warsaw for 2 days, then visiting a friend in Lodz, then two days in the north of Poland (Gdansk/Sopot), where I will be frolicking around in the Aquapark with all the saunas, whirlpools and waterslides and massages, and then back to Warsaw before we take another all-day train home to Amsterdam. Woohoo, it will be nice to get away from work, it's been WAY too busy. I am too stressed for my own good. Ai...