On Friday I measured my waist, hips and thigh and guess what: 3 cm lost on my waist and a few on my hips (none on my thigh though) since 11th of January.

Saturday had the most briljant of spring weather, which made me happy in itself. I fitted a pair of red pants that I hadn't fit in some time, and they closed!!

We went to the city and on a whiff I decided I wanted to take a look in the Schoenenreus (cheap shoe store). In the back of the store they have this wall with all kinds of boots, some of which are discount. And what did I find there? Knee high boots that actually fit me! You have to know that the 'normal' calf-width is about 34 cm on the widest point, well... mine are 43 so it is very hard to find boots that can be closed all the way to the top. But now I have them! The magic: it has laces on the back that can actually be loosened to zip up and then tied again to make a snug fit. For 35 euros.

Saturday evening there was a Balfolk event at the Vrijhof on the UT campus. I had asked Matthijs to come along but he didn't feel like it. That made me nearly change my mind to go, but I went anyway. I was glad I did. It started with some dancing instructions for the people (like me) that didn't attend the weekend-course. I forgot the names of the dances, but I do remember the jig and circle and there were 3 more. After the instructions more people entered the Audiozaal and we were with about 100 I think. The mood was fantastic and I had a spin with several men, some of which could have been my father, and a girl. There were some larpers as well that I had never expected to see there.
Went home about 00:00.

Today another bright day. I put the buttons on my Wise One shirt. Hold it: Wise One? Yes, an Aiel Wise One (female magic user) from the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. I am joining the Badawi group at Aon 3. So, I finished the blouse and made the skirt and shawl. I already bought some jewelry last weekend and except for the headscarf the outfit is complete now. With the boots! (need to start on character and background now)

Here are some pictures:

The 'Dansstage' was great. I participated in some level 3 workshops even though I enlisted for level 2. At the end of the weekend I was dead tired and my right knee and both feet hurt, but it was worth it.

Wednesday after that (26th) we went to see three more houses in Amersfoort but none of them was The House, however we decided to go back to the Holkwerweg 35. That's the one with the fireplace, old style interior and a busy street on the front. We have visited the neighbourhood again to check how much noise the street makes and it was ok. We can endure that. It's also on a highschool student cycle route, but that's mainly twice a day. And the house is just so spacious, well kept and it has a fireplace!

We found a purchasing agent, an old friend of Matthijs' family, who will visit the house with us next Thursday for a second viewing. Now we have to decide how to officially register us living together and get the mortgage thing done. Yuck. I just really want to start packing things and moving there!

This week, aside from work, I'll be working on the wedding invitation for my mother and a costume for a graduation project of the HKU: Magistratus. I'll be making a two colored doublet with this pattern from curtain fabric. There are some adjustments to be made that make it a bit tricky, but I'm confident that it'll work out ok. Deadline is somewhere halfway of February.

Last weekend we had the very enjoyable evening with ex-Musilon members, a birthday afternoon on Saturday and a friend of Matthijs visiting on Sunday. In between I shortened my bellydance veil a bit (I figured out the right thread tension so the thread didn't break every 5 cm!) and made a new wrist band for my watch. I have some more crafting to do in the future (dying some things blue, decorating a t-shirt, using all hideously synthetic fabrics in a big project) but these small things made me feel content for now. It's good to get rid of the things that bug you.

Last weekend was a good one. On Friday evening I had a 'date' with my fellow ex-board members of Musilon. A nice evening of talking, laughing, drinking tea and eating pepernoten.

On Saturday Matthijs and I went to Amersfoort again for more house-shopping. There's two candidates but they're both on a not ideal location. One has a view on a sports center and semi busy street. The other has a 'free view' on a piece of green (grass, some trees), a busy street and some flats. I liked the second one best. It has a Z-shaped living room and a rather old fashioned interior, but it also has a fireplace, the house is in good repair and because the house is so wide it has large bedrooms and a big attic. There's a somewhat similar house (but with more modern interior and a different view) in the neighbourhood that we'll visit next Wednesday. Let's just hope we'll find our house then... We're also on the lookout for a purchasing agent.

Saturday evening we went to Utrecht to the Musketon for a balfolk. Unfortunately we had to leave early to get home by train, but I had a few nice dances among which a Waltz in 8. I had some trouble at first but after a few missteps we soared through the room. It felt so good!

On Sunday we slept in late and after 'breakfast' Matthijs went to Frank for some soldering of cables. I stayed home and finished the summer dress that I started in the holidays. I made a bellydance veil with lots of cursing at the sewing machine that kept breaking my thread... And I pimped a black men's t-shirt to an off shoulder shirt with a cute owl on it. I might make more of those with different designs.

There will be more dancing upcoming weekend with the 'Dansstage' here in Enschede. Jojo will stay over at our place and participate as well. She enlisted for a higher level than we did, but she has been dancing more often over the last year and we're a bit out of practice so it's probably good this way.

The weekend after that we have a dinner with ex-Musilon-members on Friday, and a birthday party on Saturday. And then there's the EE weekend in Lochem with a pool, booze and plans for the upcoming year(s). So, a lot to look forward too!

Not a full weekend larp, but an easy start of the new larping year: the Dela fruitwisseling (i.e. new year with the Dela group). The year of the pineapple has passed, it is now the year of the carrot. We celebrated with all kinds of dishes that contained carrot. Like hutspot, carrot-spinach cake, pie with carrot, pineapple-carrot salad, carrot bread, carrot cookies, carrot colored cookies (lemon cookies with orange icing) etc. There were carrot games (capture the carrot, truth or carrot), drinks, munchies and happiness. Even some plot discussion.

They had arranged for GaanKamperen to set up 3 tipi's and a tarp on a campsite in Otterlo. The tipi's were actually 'normal' cone shaped tents, not huge pieces of canvas over poles. So they looked a bit OC but were quite comfortable. They had little stoves inside with a chimney out the top, which made them warm too. They were delivered with self inflatable beds, cooking pots and all kinds of kitchen equipment, tables and benches. All we had to do was bring the food and dress everything up in Dela style because GaanKamperen actually put up and took down the whole shebang!

The plot part was mainly the Dela deciding what course of action to take for a certian Dela-plot to safe their homeworld. I/Enid didn't quite understand it all, but it was about one hour on the whole evening/night, so no problem to sit through. There were presents too. The Dela give each other, except the Warmi Wawa (head of the tribe), presents after letting fate decide (lootjes) whom they should get a present for. The guests (non-Dela people like Enid, Mottul, Veer Slang) had to bring a gift for the Warmi Wawa. Schots received a hot-water bottle in fur from Veer Slang, a necklace that protects from evil spirits and brings guidance from good spirits from Enid and a canopener (Kan Openen) from Mottul, which was a bit of an inside joke.

The gifts were all well received and came with stories as to their meaning and there were more stories during the rest of the evening and night. Dela like stories. Somewhere Enid asked about the name giving that the Dela do and ended up with a new Dela name. Instead of Kiwi she is now Kam (comb), because she is both caring (according to herself) and tidy (according to Mottul).

The evening started at about 17:30 and ended for me at 05:00-ish. Unfortunately I had a stomach ache at that time and went to bed feeling ill. It turned out to be just the fatigue though, because when I went to the toilet at 08:00 I felt much better. After that I slep on until 11:00 and woke to a sunny morning. Most people were already awake, or woke at that same moment, and were preparing breakfast. After tidying up we left at 14:30 or so and after an hour drive were home again. We got everything cleared away at once and had a relaxed massage/shower/tv afternoon/evening.

I love camping! This 'event' has made me itch for more camping this year. Fortunately Moots and Summoning will provide it again, but we might also take some days off to go camping aside from larp.

This weekend also made me yearn for a group like the Dela to play in. So far I've only played in two groups: the Nocona at Symbols and the Ern at VA. The first one started off nice with bits and pieces of culture defined, but it dwindled and in the end we were just a bunch of grey people with our own tent in the village. The other players even at some point seemed to know more Nocona-words than we remembered ourselves. The Ern were never a very strong group to begin with. Just loosely based on vikings and not even everybody in the group had the same ideas about what that meant. We are now only four and Matthijs and I mainly go because we like the campfire-cooking thing and have fun with the Dela. Cora and Rene keep going because Rene's character has become faction leader.

The Dela group just seems to thrive because all the members put the same amount effort in it and they have regular IC and OC meetings to keep the juices flowing. Their whole IC culture is well defined and convincing for outsiders. Most, though not all, of them are very good "I don't care what happens or if I look silly, this provides play/ is fun" roleplayers and I wonder if I would grow more into this hobby if I'd be part of such a group. Less inhibited. Perhaps I should be bold and ask them if I can be part of their next idea. Since the Dela seem to be on a kind of suicide mission.

On new years eve we watched the fireworks of the neighbourhood (we don't spend money on exploding filth ourselves) and noticed that some of our neighbours neatly collected all their firework garbage on a pile. "Wonderful", we thought, "that will make it easier for them to clean up afterwards". Guess what? The pile is still there in the streets.

This morning I went to do grocery shopping and on my way out took out the garbage. We have these nifty new garbage containers, for all the flats in the neighbourhood, that open with a special card (milieupas) so you can put in one garbage bag at a time and illegal dumping of garbage is impossible. Opening and closing the container more often (for more bags) does not result in a higher fee or anything: it costs you nothing.

Sometimes, however, these nifty containers freeze shut, resulting in a pile of garbage next to the container. (Or we have ignorant people in the neighbourhood that still don't know how to operate the container, even though we received instructions in the mail) And do you think that when the container is unfrozen again, people will just do the little effort of throwing someone else's bag in the container as well? No sir, of course they don't. It's not your garbage so it is not your problem, right? I threw away about ten bags of garbage this morning of which only one was mine... One of the nasty things is that we have a lot of crows around here that pick open the bags when they're lying too long on the street, so you can imagine the mess we now have. So much for the "these new containers will improve the street view and cleanliness of the neighbourhood".

When I returned from the supermarket I saw a man walk his dog, a rottweiler. Nothing wrong with that of course, except that the dog started to shit on the pavement and the man just looked away (as most people do when their dog is doing 'embarrassing business'). So I confronted the guy in a polite way (I even used the word 'u' instead of the informal 'je') but he waved me away. I couldn't help but calling after him "Easy, huh? Having a pet but not taking responsibility?". The man was polite enough not to give me the finger or start shouting insults, as a lot of other people do when you confront them with their rude/irresponsible/antisocial behaviour. Still, he just walked on, waved again and didn't look back. Leaving the turd there for an old lady (of which we have a lot in that block) to step or fall into.

How much trouble is it to teach your dog to do his business in the gutter or in the bushes that grow nearly everywhere next to the side walk? Or, if you can not teach or control your dog, how much trouble is it to pick up the turd with a little sack and throw it in a bin somewhere? My mother does that every time she walks the dogs: she takes responsibility for her animals and cleans up after them so as to minimize the trouble for the neighbourhood. (And even she gets called names by ignorant people that are on the lookout for "nasty dog owners that soil their street", because every dog owner is the same, right?) Why can't we all just do that? It would make life so much better: no one will have to start their day grumpy and stinking because he/she walked into a turd. And mind you: it is not the animal that is at fault here, it is the owner.

Then there's cats, of course. They always seem to shit and pee in the backyard of the neighbour, never in their own yard. (Which is not true, they do it in their own yard too sometimes). I can't agree to that either. If you want to keep a cat: fine, but keep it in your own house and/or yard and do not bother other people with the animal or it's behaviour. This is where Matthijs and I disagree. I don't want my cats outside of our yard (when we finally get a house with a yard, that is), but he wants to let them roam free around the neighbouhood. Aside from befouling the neighbour's gardens I don't want them to get run over by a car or causing accidents or getting stuck in a shed for days. We'll have to talk about that some more I guess.

So we had fireworks, garbage, dog shit. What more? Oh, yes, cigarette buds and candy wrappers. It seems to be normal to just throw the stuff away on the street. I have even seen people do it while they were standing 2 meters away from a garbage bin. Using the ground to put out your cigarette is ok with me, but be responsible and pick up the bud and throw it away like it is any other garbage: in a bin. If there is no bin available, take the bud or other garbage with you in a sandwich bag or something (yes, this takes some preparation. My gosh...) or even in your pocket to throw it away at the next bin or even at home. It is bad enough that you pollute the air and poison yourself and others with the nasty habit of smoking, do you also have to pollute your environment? Of course there are exceptions to what seems to be the rule, but I see this so often. The "Nederland schoon" campaign does not seem to work at all...

So, what's the filthiest animal on this planet? Is it a dog or cat that licks itself from head to toe, including genitals and arse? Is it a pig that wallows in the mud? Birds that bathe in sand? Rats that live in sewers (and who put the filth there?). No, it's us wonderful world dominating humans. The greatest species of all. Gross.

Happy new year everybody! Unfortunately workdays in 2011 are much the same as in 2010, but the days off between Christmas and New Year were great.

Christmas eve started with some car trouble. We were supposed to pick up my brother in Boekelo and drive to Apeldoorn to my mom to celebrate Christmas there, but we got stuck in the 20 - 30 cm of snow in our neighboorhood. Matthijs diagnosed (based on how the wheels turned/didn't turn) that the car was broken and with lots of effort we pushed the car into a parking space and called my mom to come pick us up. Utterly frustrated/disappointed/angry/sad (time of the month...) we went back inside again to wait for our 'taxi' but at some point I came up with an argumentation why the car might not be broken. After some Googleing and consulting my dad we decided that the car was not broken at all, it was just the trice damned snow. So again with a lot of effort we pushed/drove the car to a snow free street and it functioned like it always did. Called mom again, who was already in Boekelo with my brother, told her to take Chris to Apeldoorn and followed in our own car. What a waist of time and energy...

The evening was then spent in peace. Next morning we had brunch and then we played Arkham Horror with added rules that on a die roll of six or a gate opening we could get a present from under the three. Otherwise we would never get around to all the presents before Matthijs would leave for Harderwijk. I got the DVD "Princess and the Frog" a Cat Activity Fun Board, a 1000 piece puzzle with puzzle glue, teaspoon measurement tools, a subscription for four Knipmode editions, a Simon's cat book, a foldable plastic bowl, Japanese noodles, chocolate and a mixer (staafmixer actually). Some of those presents are for both Matthijs and me. Matthijs left after we finished the game to have dinner with his mother and family.

We had dinner and after that a good talk about expectations of life. Then Matthijs came to pick Chris and me up. We left Chris at my dad's place with a pile of Magic The Gathering cards from Matthijs to look through and went to Harderwijk for the last bit of Christmas celebration with Matthijs' mom. Went to bed late and did a minimal breakfast because not much later we would have lunch with Matthijs' dad. We had a good walk on the frozen Wolderwijd before lunch and quickly after lunch we departed again for a short (30 minute) visit to my grandparents from mother's side. Picked up Chris there and saw my mom and Moniek again. Then we took off again to visit my dad and Mieke. Had dinner there with my other grandmother present and around 20:00 decided to drive home again even though the roads were said to be icy. We made it home safely.

Of course I did nearly nothing of the things that are on my sewing/crafting todo list... That's how free time works: when you have to work you brim with plans you have no time for, when you do have time you get too lazy to do something. However, I did make two pants; one for belly dancing (based on an old pair of jeans) and one to wear under a skirt (harem pants) that were not on my todo list. Yesterday (of course, on the last free day of the week) I worked on a summer dress that was on my todo list. I had used the pattern before with good results but this time it was a bit disappointing. I don't know if it was the fabric or something else but it needed a zipper where my first try did not (perhaps the first one was a bit stretchy, though it didn't feel that way) and I can not wear a push up bra or it won't close.. I have too much boobage for the dress in this size. Blah. Still, it fits and I like the color, so I'll wear it anyway. I just have to find a new pattern or greatly adjust this one for the pink fabric I had planned for another of these dresses.

We went shopping on Wednesday and I got me three pairs of jeans (total about 109 euros) and two push up bras that will take some time getting used to (since I normally only wear sports bras) but actually improve my figure (well duh). So 'yay' on the clothing part of life.

Last day of 2010. In the early afternoon we made 'oliebollen' and 'appelflappen' and visited my brother to drop some off. He spent his whole week and new year home alone while his house mates were visiting family. The evening we spent quietly together, alternating between watching tv and working on a puzzle of a woman and two leopards (still not finished). Called some family after the 00:00 mark and decided that we were just too lazy to go out and "travel all the way" to Joost through the cold. Sorry Joost, really. I'm sure we would've enjoyed being there, but it really was the "getting there" that demotivated us.

I have no list of good intentions for this year. I'll keep on the Montignac diet a while longer and hope it will start working some day, meanwhile it is motivating just to eat healthier. Hopefully we'll find a house and do the big move this year. I hope to work away some of the fabric stash I have. It's mostly synthetic though and I started to prefer natural fabrics. When we've finally moved I might go look for some volunteer work (something with animals) and perhaps try out reenactment. I have no urge or drive to try out new larp events but I still like sewing costumes. And that's all I can think of for now. Back to work. Oh... trying to get a raise might be a good intention.