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you may have, or have not heard about this website.
at times it is downright hilarious, and at others, highly spectacular. sometimes, at its bests, it's both.
basically, it is about wrecked cakes.
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however, this is not an advertisement.
i came accross a post.
if you have time please read it.
below is a letter i wrote to the keepers of the site, with great respect towards the jog they are doing and with great curiosity as well :)
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dear editors/moderators,
this is a private message - you don't have to actually post it. (just contemplate...)
english is not my native language, i think you got it by now :)
i had no trouble of whatsoever of finding 'spooky' where the wreckerator wrote 'spooy' instead.
i have read quite a number of comments, possibly from native speakers of english.
none of them seemed to have found the connection between spooy and spooky.
they all come up with fun explanations and suggestions.
no-one mentions 'spooky'. not ever.
please, i am seriously intrigued by now:
how come this?
why me - and no-one else?
you may leave a reply in a comment over one of my websites (BOTH are in english) for i will ask my readers, too about this strange phenomenon.
thank you for your attention and keep up the good work.

NaNoWriMo 2010

anyone participating this year too?
this November i'm aiming to do quite a progress in my novel called Copper Moon.
i don't feel obliged to die trying to write 50,000+ words, though.
i'm just trying to write.
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usually i write when i have the inspiration.
now i'm trying to get it the other way round. i'll just see how it works out.
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photos from Köln (Cologne, Germany)

this was my third time in Köln and to be honest, i feared of being bored.
to entertain myself i figured out an objective:
we received a map of the inner city on the bus. it looked like a copy from a guide-book. there were small buildings drawn onto the streets.
i looked at the map and aimed for the furthest possible sight.
i bought nothing as a memory during the 3 hours i had in Köln. that was not my purpose.
the purpose was to get to the furthest possible sight, and i made it :)))

i reached it safely and got back in time to the bus.

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and while other people wandered in small groups, i wandered alone. perhaps no one was able to keep pace, mwah-hah-hah :))
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the streets of Köln offers a galore of various food for the hungry...

anyone else fascinated by the metal structure, heh? just look at the great arch of the ceiling. and the shining. also displayed is the famous 'ice' train.
it looks like a double-decker train for me :)

uhm, some more light and metal and shiny surface. uhm, did i just say metal?

well, food again.
during the 24 h bus trip i ate nothing but fruits and drink nothing but water. i did it on purpose - uhm, well, roadside toilets are uhm, well... i didn't want to feel stuffed and not being able to get some uhm, natural relief... and also i wanted to avoid eating for boredom. so i chose not eating instead. it wasn't my first fruit-day. i do it about every month or two months.

i found that architects of Köln have a strange habit: they tend to hide nice building between modern and ugly ones. this is quite an old church, but they managed to cover it from the eager eye. more exhibits to this notion later on, when i post my photos about the dome.


this is the entrance to the same church. poetic, almost, isn't it?
over the years i have this tendency to picture doors. and windows. i think it's related to my love of translation and being (almost!!, but never perfectly!) bi-lingual.
a door, a window, that leads another side. fascinating.

ta-daaa.
THIS building was the furthest one on the map. anyone any idea about it? when and who and why?


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on the health side:
i got my set of false teeth. this is supposed to subsitute my old (natural) ones while i'm waiting for the implantation. as this is an artificial object in my mouth i keep drooling, which is dislike quite a bit.
they say the more i use it the more i will get used to it. according to hopes i will be producing less less saliva over time.

off goes 4

if you think the title of this post has no meaning then go ask me what the meaning of falling off balance to loose 4 teeth at once was.

for they once were.

in my upper jaw.

off they jumped.

or rather, broke.

and i am broken now.

for most of the part, financially.

or will be when the dentist bills me for the implants.

my smile: past tense

i can not eat properly.

i can not speak properly. i miss/mispronounce 'z', 's', 'f' - to name a few.

but for most of all, i can not attend the choir.

well, friendship is one thing, but no one really wants to see a freak opening a mouth that has a huge hiatus in it, does anyone?

so, that is the news.

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in other words, i'm looking for new jobs like crazy.

those dental replacements will cost a fortune, insurance will pay only a tiny amount of the bill.

but the math goes like this: i am 40 and i am expected to live for at least another 40.

and on the other side of the equilibrum i see a long line of simple dishes, and renovations that go even slower in the foreseeable future.

we needed a new set of tiles in the bathroom for example.

allright, the dentist will fix it into my upper jaw.

we needed a garden path (now we have only dirt road from the gate to the front door).

allright, the dentist will fix it into my upper jaw.

i think you get the idea ;)

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the photos will be up some time later on.

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cheers,

back to the routine again

i'm home, reading and writing.
i'have finished a paid job, and on my way to go for another...
i go out a lot to the garden, tend the chicken, pick up walnuts, chop firewood...
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photographical recollection of my trip will be coming soon.

arrival

this is about the time our bus arrives back to my hometown.
i am too tired to post photos about the trip right now.
i am either sleeping or having a hot shower before sleeping, or having a shower of small presents to my family :)))
my kids expect me to bring some stroepwaffels...
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cheers,
real posts will come soon - like in a couple of days... as soons as i am not sleeping anymore...
zzzzzz...

we are heading back home

all things packed back again, with my luggage being a bit heavier with some packages of stroepwaffels and vla...

(i will make photos of them)

the bus leaves....

can you see me waving goodbye to our dear hosts, to The Netherlands ... ?

friday evening

whooo-hooo.
i think at around this time we are having a great farewell party organized by the Dutch people.
it's a nice evening meal with music.
basically, an event for informal gathering.
can you see me dancing?
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special programmes

for friday, we are visiting a local school and have a meeting with the local women's organization. it was here in 2008 that i got the idea to do mosaic at all.

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