Maladignia's blog
Sitting cat Welcome to my home-cooked journal.
Here you will find my rants about every day life and things that keep me busy.
In the past I have frequently written, but there's no saying if I'll continue on that path. It all depends on how busy I am.
Have fun reading my scribbles.
West Side Story and Chrismas

Had a very pleasant surprise Tuesday evening. Matthijs and I were going to continue the puzzle of 1000 pieces that we got for Christmas last year, and then I found under the pieces 2 cards for the musical West Side Story. It dated 23rd of December 2009, which was yesterday. Turned out that Matthijs had booked for the musical and asked free from work for me, all as a surpise. So we went to Scheveningen yesterday. Yay!

I had been complaining that I would be singing so much songs from WSS while I had never actually seen the musical. We sung 'America' and 'Cool' with Musilon for the anniversary concert and we'll be singing 'Somewhere', 'I feel pretty' and 'America' for the Theaterobers show. And now I've finally seen the musical. It was the English version on anniversary tour, so I could actually sing along with the songs. (Though I didn't because I always find it disturbing when someone next to me is doing it)

Compared to Ciske or Tarzan the decor-switches between scenes were less impressive (radical) but just as effective. I liked how they did the bridal shop and I loved the 'balconies' of the flats. My favorite character was probably 'Doc'. The old man that ran a store and was an old friend of the Jets, who also tried to warn them and keep them from murder. Alas, he didn't succeed.

Even though the story is very much like Romeo and Juliet, this one is just as gripping. Probably because the setting is very familiar and closer to home/current time. The dances were stunning (such agility!) and the costumes simple but effective. It was a bit of a 16+ musical with lots of harsh words, suggestive moves and even a rape. Not to mention the killing of course.

Public transport was behaving quite well. No problems on the way to Scheveningen, but two canceled trains on the way back. However, we got in Utrecht well on time for the EE meeting. Also, no problems getting back to Enschede.

Today last day of work before the holidays and minor vacation. Yay! I do want to go downtown this afternoon to buy a new watch or get a new battery for the old one (it's lagging) and to spend the 12964 DE loyalty points (about 65 euro) that I got from my grandparents and mother. I'd like a new set of china for the holidays or other special occasions. Work is kind of slow at the moment. I'm mostly waiting for answers to my mails or instructions.

Need to clean the house too. Tomorrow my mother, her partner and my brother will come over for a game of Arkham Horror and Christmas dinner, so I need to at least vacuum clean and clean the toilet. Best do this today because tomorrow morning I want a nice Christmas breakfast and then have to prepare the chocolate mousse for desert and bake an apple pie. Oh, and how about wrapping the presents?

Second day of Christmas I go to Harderwijk to visit Matthijs' grandmother in the hospital (broken hip) and Matthijs' father and then we have another Christmas dinner at my father's place and presents afterwards. Well, back to work an preparations now.

Have a very merry Christmas and a happy new year everybody!

Written by Brenda :: 24 Dec 2009 - 13:24 :: 0 Comments :: Link
Ugly mood

I don't know if it's the weather [1], Matthijs being at home full days now that he is graduated [2], me sleeping badly [3] or something else but I'm extremely moody [4] at the moment. Nobody can do anything right in my eyes and the incompetence of some people, which they display just as much as normally, grates. I can get really worked up about the smallest things and even get into bouts of shouting. Perhaps I just need a vacation [5].

[1]

It's bleak. Here in Enschede there is some snow, but it is just very disappointing. Only 2 cm, which leaves the grass visible and the streets really slippery. Nearly fell twice this morning on my way to the supermarket. It does not look like a fairy tale outside, just very cold. The sky is grey, not even a tiny sun. And this old building does have double glass windows, but that doesn't help much when the draft is coming in via the not-so-well-closing frames.

[2]

Matthijs graduated with a 9 last Monday. He graduated together with an other guy, Christiaan, and they did their presentation together. Matthijs explained the basic principles in simple terms, almost child-speech every now and again, while I completely lost track when Christiaan told his part. Of course I'm a n00b when it comes to embedded systems and such.

The 'party' afterwards was good. We had to wait quite a long time before the committee had decided what the grades would be (both a 9!) but we had something to drink and snack while waiting. When the diploma's were signed there were some sketches from the current and the old Inter-Actief board. We had a good laugh. Chinese food for dinner, of which we have a 4-person meal in the fridge now, ended the evening.

[3]

Woke up many times last night and had to go to the toilet. Also woke a few times because Matthijs was lying to close for comfort and he overheard me talking in my sleep about work. How's that for a good rest? Not much. I am quite sensitive to lack of sleep, it makes me grumpy.

[4]

And when in that mood you should try cloning a virtual machine hard-disk (.vdi file) (release, remove, clone via command-line, copy to different directory, link to virtual machine again), upgrading VirtualBox (crash), downloading IE7 (on virtual machine) and IE8 (host) and FF 3.0 while your mouse has just been hijacked by the upgrade of some VirtualBox feature. 5 reboots later....

[5]

Yay, finally got confirmed that the days between Christmas and New Year are off. We just need to 'stand by for emergencies'. Which sounds like I work at a fire brigade or hospital or something, while it's just web design. Really 'emergency' is quite a relative concept. Let's just hope nobody planned a deadline just before Christmas. (Our company doesn't really take 'testing' into account of deadlines).

I could really use the time off. I've got a list here of 11 sewing projects of which a few got my creativity tingling and some have to be finished before the next Moots. Also I'd like to play WarCraft 3 again for a while. Where the h*ll did I get the time last year?

Looking forward to this evening. We'll have a nice dinner (home-made) with chocolate mousse for desert and afterwards we're going to the Christmas concert of Musilon.

Written by Brenda :: 18 Dec 2009 - 14:24 :: 0 Comments :: Link
Blue and red

Last Wednesday taekwondo exam. I now have blue belt with red tip. This time I didn't dare to skip the tip and go for red in one exam, because of the 'you only just made it' comment of the last exam. Wouldn't have managed it this time because I do not fully know the 7th taegeuk yet. For blue belt and higher you need to do break tests. Last exam was my first time with practice-planks and it went ok, this time was my first time with real wooden planks. This went ok too! I was scared at first because I hadn't ever seen the wooden planks and didn't know how hard it would be to break them, however after the first easy hit I felt more confident. Didn't even hurt myself.

Tonight Sinterklaas at Harderwijk. I made a Zwarte Pieten cake. I'll take a picture of it and perhaps show it here later. Now I need to pack our stuff like cake, presents and such before Matthijs returns from the Halfords (we need a new light for our license plate) and the gass station.

Written by Brenda :: 11 Dec 2009 - 16:12 :: 0 Comments :: Link
Mystery letters

Yesterday both Matthijs and I received chocolate letters from someone. There was no note revealing the sender. All we have to go on is the handwriting on the envelopes (which we do not recognize), the fact that Matthijs was addressed as 'Mister Kooijman' (Dhr. Kooijman) and only my first name was mentioned, the person had the money to spend 4 stamps on each envelope, and a short printed verse: "Ik toon je niet mijn ware gezicht, want ik weet dat je me dan beticht, van weer een slecht gedicht". Either the person guessed right or he/she knows I do not like Sinterklaas poems. And it's on purpose that the sender is not revealed. Also, there's two different brands of chocolate (Verkade and the Plus brand) and one was wrapped in Sinterklaas paper and the other in normal gift wrapping.

We went through the possibilities but didn't come to one fitting solution. This is aside from the handwriting. I know the handwriting of my family members, and it wasn't theirs or they took care to obfuscate it.

  • My father and his new wife already gave us chocolate letters.
  • My mother and her partner would just give it to us and probably not spend as much money on postal stamps. Plus they have something else on their mind at the moment.
  • My grandmother from father's side doesn't have or know how to use a computer for the printed note. And she'd include and sign a little note.
  • Grandparents from mother's side would probably be practical and send both letters in one package or give them to my mother to deliver to us. And they would not be mysterious about it.
  • My work. Though they know both our first and last names, so why leave out parts? However, the separate sending could be part of a series of sendings and they did celebrate Sinterklaas yesterday.
  • Helena. She likes puzzles a lot and she does live some 30 minutes drive away from us. However, here also the question of why the names this way?
  • Matthijs' mother and her partner already gave us letters.
  • Matthijs' father and his new wife would have given the letters or would have send them in one package probably. And why be mysterious about it?
  • A fellow larper. But why the names this way? And geez, if this is part of a series he/she must have lots of money for all the stamps.
  • Someone from Musilon, but we/they already celebrated/planned Sinterklaas and they live near us so why the expensive postal stamps?
  • Sinterklaas, maybe he does exist?
  • Someone else entirely but I'm out of guesses.

The addressing of Matthijs as 'mister' and the leaving out of my last name might mean that the sender doesn't know (how to write) the missing names. Or they're on such a social level with us that they know me well and Matthijs less well. Or they value Matthijs a lot for something he's done and they only know my first name. Still, we live on the same address, why not send just one package?

The two separate packages might mean that it's part of a series. Some grunt work; writing and stamping envelopes, wrapping the letters and sending it all. In this case it might have escaped someone's attention that the addresses are the same. However, if the addresses came from a system, why are the names incomplete? The difference in wrapping could also point to serial work, they might have run out of Sinterklaas wrapping at the last letter.

All those discrepancies together might lead to the solution, or it might all be coincidence. With Pandora at least you can assume that everything in a puzzle has to mean something, in this case we can't assume anything which makes it harder to come to a conclusion.

Can someone give us a hint? A tiny one?

Written by Brenda :: 04 Dec 2009 - 11:27 :: Prrrr.. 1 Comment :: Link