Yesterday I decided to get my lazy ass out of bed somewhat earlier than usual (07:15 instead of 09:00) and go for a walk in the nearby parc. On my 1 hour walk I encountered so much trash that I decided to walk the same round again this morning but this time accompanied by a trash-bag. On the picture you can see the results (and the still dripping rain-suit and boots).

Beer cans, soda cans, energy drink cans, cigarette packages, candy wrappers, plastic bags, chewing gum blisters and their cardboard wrappers, a KFC bucket, shards of glass (beer bottles), potato chips bags and even a condom (on a playground...). Come on people! Such stuff does not belong in nature (even if it is human-planted nature). When I got closer to the mall I encountered receipts and near the houses I found some bird-feeder nets (those green ones).

Some of this trash was easy to explain, though still not justified. I encountered about 3 benches without a trash bin in sight. That is asking for trouble. However I also followed a little human-trail (like a deer-trail, but human made) through the brambles and ended up in a swamp-like place. I was obviously not the first person to get there (there was a trail after all) and I got the main load of beer cans from there. It's obviously a popular hangout place for beer lovers.

The other trash was mainly found along the route that most highschool students follow to their schools. It is apparently considered normal to throw your stuff at the side of the road instead of holding on to it until you encounter a bin or you get at school/home. There's 1 'blikvanger' on the route I walked, which is indeed used (but why the hell did someone put all those branches in there?) but 3 out of 10 throws end up next to or below that 'blikvanger' in stead of in it. I decided to not waste much time on that patch because I reckon (and sincerely hope) that the persons cleaning those 'blikvangers' also take the surrounding trash with them.

On one part of my route a lawnmower had been busy so all the trash I found there was cut up in tiny pieces. Because of the absence of high grass you can now see what is lying underneath the nettles and bushes. So I cleaned a bit there too, avoiding dog poo and the nettles. I think that most passers-by would have thought me on some kind of community service ("And rightly so!") though I actually took more trash in 1 hour than I see some of them take in half a day. (Some time ago I saw someone trying to use one of those grabbing sticks to get a flattened can. After 5 tries she still didn't have it and kept trying. Argh! I would've picked the thing up after only 2 failed attempts.)

I let all the toilet paper (yes, toilet paper) ly because I don't want to know what's on that stuff and it will rot away more easily than plastic or tin-plate. For the condom I used a stick to pick it up. It looked more like it had been used as a balloon than for sex but you never know. I did not get into the trench along the highschool-route but I think that half a bag could be filled with what is lying there. Sigh.

Sometimes I feel like one of the few people that was raised properly, considering trash and where to dump it (the trash bin!!).

No particular order

• Make more wool dreads. They're so awesome and I still got lots of wool left.
• Turn the ugly white chandelier in the garden into something spiffy. I'm thinking (glass) beads, colored pieces of glass and other shinies.
• Do more creative stuff. Making cards, working with glass, finally try out my pyrography set etc.
• Rethink my entire wardrobe (cool word.. a ward for your robes)

Unfortunately my first free Friday (working one day less a week) is filled with taking down the fence or removing loose plaster from the attic wall. Saturday is also a day to work on the new fence and Sunday we have the final rehearsal for our musical. So I'm afraid my creativity will have to wait at least a week.

This evening I'm going to a balfolk in Utrecht where Matthijs will be doing the sound.

Anyway. Back to work. Last workday of this week! Yay! (by the way, if you know a profession that might suit me: let me know.)

I have the feeling I am making up for the years of not visiting a doctor in just this one month. First rinsing out my ear, then a visit to check a little bump on my head, after that the removal of the bump (which was just a cyste) and this morning the removal of the stitches. All short consults and nothing too serious but still...

I've been doing lots of fun stuff lately. We visited the muscial Miss Saigon, then we went to the Moots. This Saturday was the 55th anniversary of my grandparents' marriage (home visit and dinner in a restaurant) and yesterday evening we went to the live show of The Ultimate Dance Battle. Next up is a visit of friends this Saturday (after hopefully the last Amersical klusdag...) and balfolk in Wageningen on Sunday. And then we have one weekend to fix the fence between us and our neighbours and have the final rehearsal for Amersical. And then the "this is it" moment: 2 weekends of performing our musical Vlucht (fuck frame websites...).

As of May 1st I'll be working one day less in the week. Fridays will be off. Yay! Time to figure out what I want with my life because I don't want to stay where I currently am.

Rain has moved from my desk to the cabinet (I always doubt which word to use for 'kast'...) in our workroom and in her place I have a new machine named Cloud. It's (not sure yet if it's a he or she) a Toshiba with SSD harddrive and windows 7. I have installed all necessary software and configured everything again. I'm still not completely used to the OS yet but this baby is about 10 times faster than Rain had become. Yay!

Under the pretense of 'the attic needs attention' we have been doing some things in the garden last weeks. We have put willow branch screens against the fence on one side of the garden. Against that we've put a shelve at about 1.80 high. We hope this will prevent the cats from leaving the garden that way. The other fence needs complete replacement because it is rotted at the bottom. Tacking stuff onto that will only make it fold over and collapse. For this however we need the (promised) cooperation of our neighbour but the first suitable date for both of us is still three weeks away.

We also need to do something with the door that leads out of the garden. Underneath is just enough space for a cat to crawl through. And the one tree that is next to the shed needs to get a 'skirt' of wire so the kitties can't climb up its trunk. However much still needs doing we already did a test run with the cats. They loved the outside though they were a bit skittish at first (especially when the barking Westies of our neighbours entered their garden). Now Melisse is trying to get past us out of the kitchen door every time we open it.

So have we done nothing for the attic in all these weeks since the dormers have been placed? Nah, we've done a little bit of work. There's 3 timber beams in place for a new loft (vliering) and we have removed the plastering from one side of the inner wall this Easter Sunday. It was really loose, it came down in rather large chunks. So now we have an ugly bare wall that needs replastering. But before we do that Matthijs needs to fix the electricity stuff inside the wall. At least he now has some idea on how to do the insulation so we should be able to buy the stuff we need and get going. Except for time... something about weekends getting filled with plans.

This weekend is Moots 1. We're planning a market so we have been shopping at secondhand stores to get some merchandise. I also have made caramels (molten sugar hardened into shapes) and plan on making fudge. Then there's the felt bracelets and a couple of friendship bracelets I made. Others are also making stuff to sell. It will be sold for IC money only and people may keep what they buy OC. Let's hope it will be a success otherwise we'll have to drag everything back again...

Rain is my laptop and she's getting older and wonky. I bought her in 2006 and in the first month had lots of issues with her and Azerty (where I bought her: don't ever do that!) and a faulty mother board. After that was finally fixed she worked great. However, now, nearly 6 years later, the optical drive no longer works (won't eject/open until you've tried at least 16 times via both hardware and software) and she's showing 'blue screens of death' more and more often. Something inside makes nasty screeching sounds every once in a while too.

Yesterday she had a very spectacular crash. We're not sure if it was really something in the computer itself or two Trojan horses that were detected this morning by my free AVG version. It was probably the virus that wiped clean my desktop, quick launch bar and start menu though. Fortunately Matthijs, although being a Linux user, knew how to fix that and I have most of my settings back now. The virus had set all desktop/menu related files to hidden and put some stuff in the registers. I seriously hate people that make viruses and think they should all horribly die.

Still, virus or no it is probably time for a new computer. Matthijs is being a darling looking through all kinds of sites and offers to find a good one. I do not have enough knowledge, and don't care enough, to know what to look for. All I know is that I'm not going to spend over 1500 EUR to get a new laptop and that I want to be able to play Warcraft/Starcraft (the old ones) besides work. That should be simple enough....

This year seems to be one of goodbye's....