Not much to say.

Lately, I don't have much to talk about. Obviously a sign it's going pretty damn well with me. ;-) There are a few things on my mind to write about but at the moment I don't find the time to write about it. There are things that deserve a well written post and not just a few dropped lines like this one. I can only do that at home and I not always have the peace do concentrate on the things I want to say... anyway, this week is keeping me busy to prepare my stuff as I leave on sunday for two weeks to go to a training for my job to Zurich. For the first time I'm not going alone but together with a colleague. So I kinda look forward to it though I am still a bit hesitant to go as I feel I might feel lonely and isolated, missing to be able to (daily) talk to my loved ones. Therefore, I even look more forward to the weekend break of the training on which I will leave Zurich and head more southwards to... oh I will tell you later about it... ;-) 

Last weekend, Jelle and I went to the city of Arnhem where we strolled through the centre, had some delicious fish (see the photo) and later cake and simply enjoyed a relaxed saturday afternoon. We came there after we attended a nearby cruise fair where we collected a lot of the latest cruise brochures to update ourselves for our holiday plans next year: yeah, Jelle and I are thinking of taking a little cruise again... ;-) Basically, that's all I have to tell about the things I did lately and the things that are planned in the nearby future. Nothing special, as you can tell.

Many hugs.

Proud about Dani: The Noken Master!

 

Today, I want to draw your attention to my lilbro Dani's latest achievement, a self written program! True, it may come with his job that he is able to write a program, but still, I admire his talent to do it! He wrote a program for the sole purpose of making it more easy and fun for himself to learn Japanese. Head over to Dani's post and read all about his program, how it works, what it does and why he wrote it! It's amazing, I am stunned!

 

I am really so proud of you Dani, my lilbro, you are simply fantastic! For sure the way to go!

 

A hug.

Vamos a la playa!

My idea of a nice day at the beach, yay! :-)

A cuddly hug.

P.S.: yes, I'm definitely an airline geek :-D

Masks, screens, faces and mirrors

May I direct your attention to a very interesting post over at the blog of Finnegan Bell? I found it very much worth reading. Have a look here.

P.S.: Coincidentally, Finnegan chose a picture to accompany his post that reminded me of my own picture I took of such (the same?) mask this year in Scheveningen, The Hague.

...and the honour really goes to...

Okay, now don't laugh about what I am going to tell, since it's completely insignificant but when it comes to flying and airlines in general and to my logbook in particular I can be as geek as certain people about their movies and mangas or other stuff... I have to make a little correction: in my post about my trip to Dani for his birthday I mentioned that Korean Air has had the "honour" of taking me on my 700th flight. But I made a mistake in accounting my flights and discovered I had forgotten two flights from the beginning of this year which I now added to my logbook so unfortunately Korean Air has to give up this honorable mention. I therefore announce the operator of my 700th flight as being LAN Chile on my flight from Madrid to Frankfurt, together with Jelle. So my number of flights now totals in 705. See, I told you not to laugh... but for a geek these things are important... ;-) My flight logbook is updated accordingly, you can find it here.

A hug.

Sick at home.

Luckily it doesn't happen too often to me, but on sunday it did: I became sick. I had been at work for an early shift and I hadn't slept well. Actually I felt terrible that morning but still I decided to go to work. But arriving there I felt miserable: I sat behind in our "back office", just to come by. But suddenly, my blood pressure went wild and since I know that feeling I did what I know helps me in that case: I lay on the ground. But it was pretty cold and it is not comfortable, naturally. The chair in the back wasn't comfortable either and suddenly I had the urge to vomit! I did not make it to a toilet in time 'cause it came really quick and I had to use the waste basket in the office! I felt soooo bad and so stupid and kind of embarrassed. My colleague was sitting in the front and I was throwing up in the back... It helped a little but still I did not feel comfortable so my colleague sent me home. I had hoped to get home without any more throwing up but suddenly in the train it happened again so I hurried through the train and at the last minute I found the toilet... Luckily, I could get out fast enough as I was just finished when the train already was stopping at my station... At home, I went to bed immediately and still, I woke up several times and had to go to the toilet to throw up two more times... I stayed in bed until four in the afternoon because I felt really bad, tired and weak. My skin was very sensitive and it felt like I had a cold, every move felt unpleasant. I think I probably caught some kind of virus or I ate something bad the evening before. Jelle was very sweet and looked after me, gave me tea and salty pretzel sticks, dry bread and more tea.
Today, I am still drinking tea and soup only. My lilbro advised me to try some rice too so I added that to my soup (as you can see in the photo), that's more tasty and has some bite to it. I don't like the dry bread too much I must admit...
Luckily, today I feel better already. Jelle was very sweet and concerned and my lilbro is just as caring and it feels very pleasant to be pampered... I have reported sick for today as well and it feels good to be able to recover a few days as I am off duty for two more days as of tomorrow. The rest, sleeping and to not feel the draught (which we have a lot at the counter) feels good. It's really untypical for me to report sick but this time I felt I had to do it. The last time is years ago and I normally only do it if I really, really feel bad. So you can tell how bad I felt yesterday.

Anyway, I'm on the upwards path again but I felt I give in impression on what's going on - after all, that can be part of a blog as well. So I hope to be well and alright tomorrow or wednesday again.

Many hugs.

Thank you for the music, Sera!

The other day when Dani, Sera and I were at Sera's house before we would go over to Dani's place and while Sera was getting ready, Dani and I listened to some music on Sera's iPod. Suddenly Dani played a piece of music that I knew for so long and didn't know what it was. So immediately I got excited because I wanted to know what it is but when Dani told me what Sera's iPod claimed it was I knew it wasn't the right title. But god bless modern technology: I asked Dani to use his iPhone's smart app Shazam (which Jelle recommended to him, just for the record... :-D ) to listen to the music (and occasionally lilbros do obey their bigbros wishes) and within a few seconds it returned the answer and I finally was able to download this wonderful piece of music! I think I know it from my childhood as the opening tune to some famous Radio Luxemburg show (back then, RTL was a very popular radio station in the Cologne/Rhineland area but broadcasting on FM from Luxemburg, it even had cult status especially amongst the younger audience - at that time, Germany did not know any private radio or tv but only public stations so RTL was a popular alternative to the dominant public Cologne based WDR).

So thank you so much Sera for bringing back this wonderful tune and with it some great childhood memories. May I present it to you? Here it is:



Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra - Love's theme

If you want to know more about the song, there's even some wikipedia info on it! So much for the seventies, welcome back to 2008!

Kisses to Sera and Dani, hugs to you all. ;-)

Think before you speak!

Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag, Mama!

 

Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag, Mama!

Today, my beloved mom celebrates her birthday and so I went to Cologne for the occasion to give her my birthday kisses personally. ;-) She was very happy and also my dad was very happy to see me. Mama prepared some simple but oh so tasty lunch and in the morning after my arrival I enjoyed a delicious breakfast with some typical german things I like for breakfast. 

Then, way too early I already had to leave again to go back to Amsterdam. I was only one day off which I had specially requested due to her birthday so I could only go there in the morning and come back the same day. But it felt good to see them again. They were very sweet to me, I enjoyed seeing them, talking to them and it made me really happy to see that my mom was so happy with my visit!

 

In the afternoon, Mama and Papa drove me back to the airport and before I had to go through the security control we had a last espresso and that's where I took these pictures. 

I hope there will be a chance soon for them to come over to Amsterdam or else for another visit of me to Cologne.

Updated, pictures included! Going to Madrid: 28 Cumpleaños Dani

Korean Air Airbus 330
Originally uploaded by CruisAir

Today, I want to give a short trip report about my trip to Dani's birthday.

On Friday, after a very short night because I simply stayed up too long (say, til' around 1.00am...) and after my early shift that started at 05.00 in the morning I was able to catch a plane to Madrid.
As you know, I like airlines and planes and if possible I try to fly as much as possible on different airlines and aircraft and different routes... (and you thought YOU were strange, huh?...).

Anyway, coincidentally, this trip was special: first, it was my 700th flight ever! The honour for taking me safely to my destination goes to Korean Air. I took their flight KE925 which started in Seoul and made a stop in Amsterdam on its way to Madrid. It was a nice and pleasant flight. I was a bit disappointed though that I did not have personal inflight entertainment which I had expected on a long haul aircraft. The catering though was pretty good, a warm (!) meal was served for the two hour flight which was a bit delayed (because the aircraft already left Seoul too late). All in all, I would rate the flight (despite the warm meal) behind the recent LAN Chile flight from Madrid to Frankfurt.

The second reason why this trip was special was THE reason to go anyway: my beloved little brother would turn 28 on that weekend and it meant a lot to me to be there with him and to celebrate. As I said before, Dani is very important in my life for a trillion of reasons. Therefore it was a true highlight to be there and personally congratulate him.

When I arrived on Friday, I "amused" Dani a lot: I guess he thought I was retarded because I couldn't find where he was waiting for me but I swear, the signage at Madrid's T1 is terrible and will lead you anywhere but your destination! My god, it took many calls to him to get directions before blond me finally found him patiently waiting outside... did I mention that I even sent him to T4 in the first place, assuming my plane would arrive there...? And did I mention I told him I would arrive after only a one hour flight...? My god, it must have been my sleep shortage that day... and I even work for an airline but all I did and said that day was simply, ehm....retarded :-D

Dani, Sera and I went to a gigantic mall on Friday evening. They invited me for dinner (I'm never allowed to pay, I seriously have to talk with you guys about that!) at a very good asian buffet restaurant where we had a great dinner with lots and lots of food!

Saturday, Dani and I did some shopping for the evening when some friends would come to join the celebration. Dani prepared a quiche in the afternoon (another of his "famous" recipes) which was really good! We made sandwiches and cheese/ham/tomato sticks and had the usual party ingredients like chips, nuts and that kinda stuff.

In the evening, his guests arrived and it was truly a really nice night! We laughed and talked a lot and I was simply very happy to be there when it turned 12:00 and my lilbro turned 28!

Dani got some really nice presents and I think he loved them all. It made me soooo happy to see him happy too!

Me and Dani wearing one of his presents he received

After opening all his presents and even more laughs and talks we went to a totally packed Irish pub close by for a final beer and we all went home after that. It really was a great birthday celebration, I loved it!

On sunday, after we slept long we had lunch with his friends

Jose and Miguel 

and his mom at a very good chinese restaurant! After that, Dani and Sera met some friends to go to a theater show while I met with Alex to have a drink which was very nice. After it, we met again and went home to conclude another wonderful evening at Dani's cosy home!

I had a great time, it was awesome, sensational, brilliant and simply fun to join Dani for the first time on his birthday and I guess I can call myself a really happy man to have a friend like him! Thank you, my beloved little brother, for the wonderful time again and being the friend to me that you are! I am so lucky, so happy, so blessed.

Feliz cumpleaños, Dani!

Today, my beloved Dani, the man who during time became my best friend and who I dearly love, for being the "little brother" I never had but always wanted, for being the true friend one always desires to have, turns 28:

Feliz cumpleaños, querido Dani

With all my heart dear lilbro I and also Jelle wish you all the best for your birthday and the new year in your life. I hope it will bring lots of beautiful things to happen in your life. May your love to Sera blossom as never before, may you always be healthy, may all the dreams and hopes you have come true - if I can be of help of any kind you can count on me, always. The greatest gift I can give to you is already with you since long. It's getting bigger, more precious and unique with every day. What more can I add, except for my extra special and sweet birthday kisses and the most tender hugs your bigbro can give you.

How...very saucy...

At the moment, Jelle and I are catching up with watching "Desperate Housewives". I've missed too many episodes when they first aired so now that they are on our cable on demand services we watch them from the very beginning to the end. The other day we really had a very very good laugh about Bree (what gay man wouldn't love her?) in one of the early episodes of season 3. Bree is looking for her son Andrew (who she had dumped) and meets Pearly... here is the video that includes the scene in the very beginning:

"Pearly Gates, you can't get to heaven without going through me..." and Bree responds: "...How...very saucy..."

Muuuaaaahhhh.... ROFL... this is soooo funny, we really got a kick out of it... soooo sooo funny, really! I hope you liked that, at the moment we are both really addicted to "Desperate Housewives", I also started watching Grey's anatomy (again, well just like "DH" from the beginning) but I put that on hold due to lack of time. On the "waiting list" is "Prison Break" now and "Heroes" and "Brothers & Sisters"... I think I know someone from whom I can borrow the DVDs for the first two waitlisters as they are not on our cable yet... ;-) Uhm, Dani, are you finished watching them...? :-#

Have fun, hugs to you all.

Elvis lives!

If it wasn't so sad it actually would be funny: a hacker was able to fool the system that reads electronic passports at Amsterdam airport. He was able to let the system read a manipulated passport and the system did accept the false ID without any problem. So all the security hype (especially of the americans) about stricter controls with electronic passports is basically for nothing... it does not even seem too complicated to do that as the hacker even demonstrates on his website in a video:

When I see this it really makes me angry as the authorities always make you believe it's for my own best and protection and blablabla... but it's not safe and it's only costing a lot of money for nothing - it's all about pure cosmetics to simply fool the general (especially american travelling) public to make them think all became much safer and the government has everything under control - not...

A hug.