It’s official, I’m 27. Actually I have been 27 for a day but as always I’m a little late updating things here (and to be honest I still have to adjust some pages here and there now that I’m a little older..).
My birthday was great, I spend the day with my family and friends and [...]

Some of you might be a little curious as to how I’m doing after getting the swine flu and my hospitalization. I’m glad to say that I’m fine!
I still have to visit a physical therapist a couple of times a week but my breathing is back to normal. The therapy is to keep an eye [...]

This morning I went for a walk in the forest. I got there around 8 AM and that meant I was one of the first, if not the first, person(s) there. Which meant that the snow only showed animal tracks and no footsteps yet. It was absolutely beautiful and very peaceful to walk there and [...]

You can’t chose your family, you are born into a family and you don’t get a say in it. You marry into one because you love someone and you just have to deal with the extended family that comes with your partner. They get thrown in for free!
You can chose you friends and your partner [...]

On this last day of 2009 I want to wish everyone a very happy and wonderful new year!!!
2009 Hasn’t been a very good year for me health-wise but I hope to have left that behind me after today and I’m looking forward to a better 2010 . New Year’s resolutions aren’t for me, I’ve [...]

Today was my first day back at the office since nearly 6 weeks. After getting H1N1 and from that being admitted to hospital, I was finally able to go to work again. It might sound weird but I really missed it. I love talking and laughing with my colleagues while working, and I really missed [...]

For those of you who haven’t been following my twitter; on Thursday morning I was admitted to hospital after visiting my GP with ongoing complaints about not being able to breathe.
This was my 4th week with these complaints (coming from the H1N1 flu) and on Thursday morning my oxygen saturation in my blood was so [...]

Also known as swine flu….
About 2,5 weeks ago I got sick during the weekend, just your general flu symptoms and I figured I would wait a day or so before I called my GP. After all it was the weekend and I didn’t feel like I needed to call the emergency doctors number (not 911) [...]

Or something to that affect. I can’t remember the last time I booted up the laptop for a lazy afternoon of surfing the net. Luckily I have my phone so I can somewhat keep up to date with everyones feeds, my email, facebook and twitter updates.
I still have to accept a lot of gifts and [...]

Last week I was finally able to renew my phone contract. I had been anticipating doing so for months and when the day came to renew it turned out I had miscalculated and was one day early. Luckily the phone company was kind enough to allow my renewal anyway.
I wanted to get a Samsung Jet [...]

I’m still alive and kicking but just extremely busy offline. A proper update will follow soon but for now I just wanted to show I’m still around…

Two weeks after the fire that destroyed our work place we are finally settled into our temporarily location. I’m still as busy as ever though, co workers are away on holiday but the work doesn’t seem to be taking a break, it still comes in in massive amounts. I guess in one way that’s awesome [...]

Or not… I wonder sometimes why it’s so difficult for some people to follow a few simple rules. Even if these rules are changes to what you’re used to. To me, no calls unless it’s an emergency means, no calls unless there is a real emergency. My family and friends know not to call me [...]

This week has been even more hectic than usual. I have worked a lot of overtime this week due to unforeseen (and rather unwanted) changes and happenings. Last weekend, the building I work at burned down. So because of that we had to move to a different location. I have to hand it to my [...]

I washed my QBee quilt today, which was long overdue. I deleted about 50 patches so now it looks kind of bare. Especially if you consider all those years I’ve been in the Qbee already. But I have some pending trades so hopefully I’ll be able to add a few new patches to my quilt [...]

When I was younger, I used to love series like Angel, Roswell and Dark Angel. It was something I loved to watch. I hadn’t seen any episodes of the shows for ages, and even though I probably could have looked them up online, I never got around to doing that.
Last Saturday though, I was watching [...]

Well actually it’s been July for almost a week already but I’ve been so busy lately that I hardly realised it. The (summer) holiday season is slowly approaching upon us and friends, family and co workers are preparing for their days away from home. My holiday doesn’t start until a few months from now so [...]

And I’m not talking about the film. I’m talking  actual wedding of my best friend. Yesterday was the big day for her and her now husband.
I was present since the early hours of the day, as she asked me to be her maid of honour. Of course I couldn’t say no, it’s a real honour [...]

Not too long ago I learned about Trollbeads. I had heard of Pandora and other similar charm collections but trollbeads where new to me. Doing a little research online and talking to people who actually wear them made me aware that trollbeads are actually the original charms. They have been around since 1976!
I have to [...]

One of my biggest fears are wasps, bees and bumblebees (and other relatives like hornets). I’m not really scared of anything else but those creatures give me the creeps, especially wasps. Generally when I see one coming my way, whether I’m at work or at home, I just run for it. I don’t run away [...]

My Internet is currently down. I hope to have it fixed by tonight but for now I only have access on my phone.

Finally after 12 years of wearing glasses I now have contact lenses. I still have to get used to them, and I do have the feeling that I don’t see as ’sharp’ with the lenses as I did with my glasses. But after calling the store I bought them at, I now know I have [...]

I have been extremely busy for the last few days. I hardly had time to sit down and soak up the sun or use the computer. I’m way behind on online things such as email and visiting websites so I’m going to try and catch up (once again) with all of it!
Today I have a [...]

Spring has officially started now, and I love it. Even though we still have below 0 C temperatures at night sometimes, the sun is out for most of the day. Which is good for many reasons, not in the least that it means I can stuff my thick sweaters in the back of my closet [...]

I didn’t manage to get the whole day off on Friday to go VIP shopping, but was asked to come in a few hours during the evening. So that didn’t really give a problem when it came to shopping. I still had the whole day left to go bargain hunting.
We arrived at the outlet around [...]

Through work we got invited for a day of VIP shopping at a designer outlet centre. I have been there a few times before and if you look hard enough you can find good deals!
If you go VIP shopping you get another 10 % off on prices that are already reduced 30 – 70 % [...]

The Carnival is over again. The past few days I have seen people dressed up as all kinds of things. From princess to tellitubby and everything in-between. It’s fun to watch them because generally they just look really silly.
It’s even funnier to watch them when they head back home, as they are generally very drunk. [...]

Tonight is the official kick-off for the 4 day carnival. Every year in February everyone (or at least the southern parts of the country) brace themselves for this festivity. It’s 4 days (and nights for most) of partying, drinking and dressing up in the weirdest clothing. It’s not just a matter of putting on weird [...]

Not too long ago I bought Animal Crossing: City Folk for Wii (or Let’s go to the city as it’s called in some countries). I read some reviews about it and saw some screenshots and it seemed like a really fun game. And I was right, it’s rather addictive.
For those of you who don’t know [...]

As promised, here’s the photo of the dress I bought especially for my birthday. Although I will be wearing it a lot instead of only on my birthday as I love it so much.

I look a lot fatter than I really am on that photo, but isn’t that what photo’s always do to [...]

If you are into music, you should really check out Milow. His album Coming Of Age is just amazing. I got my hands on it last Saturday and it has been on heavy rotation on my Ipod and car CD player ever since.
It’s seriously worth checking out. It’s not very general pop but also not [...]

Thanks everyone that left a message on my facebook page, emailed me or sent me a text message on my birthday! I really appreciated it .
I had a great day, and have been spoiled rotten (once again). For me my birthday is not about getting presents, but getting to spend the day with [...]

With a dress!! I guess I had you fooled huh?!
Today I went clothes shopping with my mum for my birthday. I wanted something new and funky to wear. Something that really showed ‘me’. I’m a big fan of the 50’s 60’s and 70’s and I like a lot of the clothes too. So I’m very [...]

My birthday is coming up (I’m going on 26 shhh…) and I’m currently trying of things to ask for my birthday. People keep asking me what I really want to get. And all I can think of is little things to clutter my house more. I don’t want or need big things as I have [...]

Finally, after 2 weeks of being really sick (due to my arthritis, not the flu going around), I’m back at work. Well partially anyway. I started work yesterday and after an hour I was already feeling so sore from sitting at my desk that I just wanted to go home and lay down. But I’m [...]

Over the past 2 weeks I have had a few weird dreams with recurring elements in them. I’ve tried to figure out what all these different elements mean but putting them together, I can’t really seem to make much sense of it.
What I do know is that I have doubled my pain medication (similar to [...]

OK the title might seem a little cryptic but it’s really not that difficult. I woke up Monday morning after just a few hours of sleep to find the world covered with 9 cm of snow! Yes, a bit unexpected but such a pretty sight. I really do love snow, although I hate it at [...]

Happy new year!!!! I hope that 2009 will be a fantastic year for everyone .

I just want to wish everyone happy holidays, whatever it is you’re celebrating . Be happy and be safe, remember: don’t drink and drive!

No this hasn’t got anything to do with my last entry. They don’t have to reconstruct my jaws or anything. I’m actually talking about the house.
Finally after a year of waiting on the council my parents got the green light to start reconstruction their house to make it more accessible for my mum. For those [...]

Just when I thought the last few weeks of 2008 would turn out to be better than the past few months that I have had it seemed that things were suddenly going the wrong way again.
That sounds pretty dramatic, but with things not being to good health wise the last few months as well as [...]

With so many plans this weekend, from washing my car to finally catching up with everyone online, I didn’t expect my weekend to turn out so different from what I thought it would be.
I woke up yesterday morning to a white world, and I don’t mean just a mucky layer of brown-ish snow but a [...]

It’s been a long search but I finally found it; a social life. Seriously, I don’t think I have ever been busier than the past few months. There are weeks that I don’t even have time to check things online or my email. And that’s not because I don’t want to, but because there are [...]

You would think that a flu shot would actually prevent you from getting the flu. But -of course- for me that isn’t true. Every year I get a letter from my general practician telling me that it’s time for my flu shot. I get the letter because of my arthritis, which causes my immune system [...]

Some of you already might have heard this, but Zita, my horse, passed away last Wednesday a week ago. She was very ill and we know we made the right decision to let her go but it’s never an easy one.
She is greatly missed and I’ll always carry  her with me in my heart. She [...]

I won’t be online for a little while. I don’t know how long it will be for (surely not weeks) but right now I have some other things on my mind. One of my horses is very ill and things don’t look good. So as you can imagine, I don’t have time nor do I [...]

Actually I love music, and it doesn’t frustrate me but relax me most of the time. But what does annoy me at the moment is Itunes. I generally like Itunes and I also love my ipod, but what I hate about Itunes is that when you go to their store and buy an album you [...]

What happens when you cook your dinner like you usually do but forgot about the newly installed smoke alarm right outside the kitchen?
Generally nothing happens, if you do it right. But if you’re me you actually manage to set it off, without burning and ruining your dinner by the way!
Recently my dad installed a smoke [...]

Get your mind out of the gutter, it’s not going to be a post like that!
I bought a new bed frame and mattress on Saturday after sleeping on a water-bed for 10 years. I now have a mattress with pocket springs. And even though I have to get used to sleeping on it, I haven’t [...]

My last week has been hell. The weather is constantly changing and it’s affecting my arthritis immensly. I have been spending my week in bed knocked out by my medication. I hate staying indoors, and I hate it even more to have to call in sick (again) although my boss really understands.
I hope that I [...]

For as long as I can remember I have tried to please people. I always try to make people feel happy and (especially in the past) would go out of my way to help them. It would even go so far that sometimes I would lose sleep over certain things that were happening to other [...]

My summer holiday is over and I have been back at work for a week now. I have to admit it feels like I have been back at the job for months already, it really seems that the holidays are that far behind me. But maybe that’s because things at work have been rather busy, [...]

You know what can really ruin your day? Getting into your old car, wanting to get some horse food, only to find out that someone drove into your car and knocked the left-side mirror off!! I have to say though that even though it ruined my day I was happy it wasn’t my new car…
WRONG! [...]

Last Friday was the day for me; I had an appointment with Marcel from Dragon Tattoo. Some of my friends had been telling me horror stories the night before, about how they felt when they got theirs done (somewhere else). According to them the pain was so bad that they either nearly fainted or got [...]

After my Hyundai Atos fiasco a few weeks ago, I knew I had a decision to make. Will I keep my current car and risk that it won’t go through the annual check-up or buy a new (and probably safer) car before winter.
Even though it hurts to part with my first car; a 1995 red [...]

Finally! I’m on my holiday. Today is the first day of my two weeks off work and I have to say it really is a good feeling to know that I don’t have to keep up with my (rather busy) schedule trying to get everything done in time before I go to work.
Although I still [...]

The past week just hasn’t been my week. I have had a headache (non stop!) for four days now, I have been taking some aspirins for it but it doesn’t seem to help. Or at least not much. But I managed to drag myself through the week going to work and doing the things that [...]

Over the past few days I have been looking at designs for tattoos some more. But what I’m looking for seems impossible to find so I guess I have to ask the tattoo artist to design something for me, or design something myself. And since I haven’t heard back from the tattoo shop yet, I [...]

I honestly never thought I would even consider it, but lately I have been thinking a lot about it and I have come to the conclusion that I just actually might do it; getting a tattoo. Surely it’s not something to think of lightly as it will be something that is permanent so I really [...]

I never though washing windows could be so exciting and scary at the same time. I always thought it was boring but it turns out it can be right challenge, especially if you have a cat….
Sam left the bedroom and living room windows rather messy. He likes to sit and watch cars pass by on [...]

Generally I don’t write about my family on here. Not a lot anyway. But I just have to share this as it’s pretty exciting! Since I’ve discovered Facebook (yes, yes addicted much now, thanks Liesbeth!) I went on a search for some family members I have never met and live abroad.
I actually found some people, [...]

Unfortunately, United: The One Fanlisting, is no longer under my care. After getting an email about it from TheFanlistings.org which ended up in my spam box (so I didn’t see it) and another one confirming the deletion of the fanlisting, it has now been deleted.
However the listing is not completely gone. Even though I reapplied [...]

After being extremely busy at work, due to the summer holiday and colleagues being sick, I decided it was time to relax a little during the weekend and make my home even more homey. Yes, that meant spending a little more money but I figured with all that spending over the past few weeks 10EUR [...]

First off, I wonder how many search hits this entry will get just by the entry title. It would be funny to be able to monitor how many people end up on SB.com just by using those words.
But, I didn’t name this entry like that for hits. I wanted to make a little post about [...]

I went out for dinner in a nice little restaurant with my family tonight. We never been to that restaurant before, but it was recommended by someone to us. By itself that would be an excuse to go out for dinner, although my parents decided that it was ‘for the summer holiday’.
Non of us, except [...]

I think it’s time to lock up my bankcard for a little while. It would be a wise thing to do anyway but hey I need it to buy food eh?!
I have been spending a bit more money than I’m used to lately. I bought a new laptop two weeks ago, and yesterday I finally [...]

A few months ago I was in another state bringing my sister to work. We were driving on the highway and just took our exit when my car door flew open. After a bit of laughing (it was really funny at first) we realized the door didn’t shut anymore. Luckily we were close to my [...]

It’s time to go, and time to move on. To move on to something better. I have tried to adjust things, to make things better but it didn’t do any good.
Sometimes I ask myself, what is 10 minutes? But 10 minutes can be a long time, especially if you’re in a hurry. And yesterday I [...]

So I finally gave in, I tried to hold it back for a long time because I didn’t want to join the hype. But now with a lot of my friends signing up for it I just can’t stay behind…
I now have a Facebook profile, so go and add me if you feel like it! [...]

Me and my BFF from when I was a teenager lost touch about 9 years ago. Of course driving past her parents house would occasionally make me wonder how she’s doing and where she is now. But I never really figured out a way to find out.
Until I received a message on Hyves, which is [...]

After reading this news article today I can only really draw one conclusion, although I hate to say it. Dutch fans are probably one of the stupidest supporters around. Or at least quiet a bunch of them. I have to be fair and say that with 100,000 Dutch supporters around for the Euro 2008 matches [...]

After driving to work yesterday (and getting a full tank of gas first) everything seemed fine. But when I wanted to go home at around 10 PM that same night, I was in for a surprise.
When I tried to start the motor, nothing happened. And then I really mean nothing, no lights came on or [...]

Some of you might know that the European Cup in soccer (football) is going on in Switzerland and Austria right now, others are now aware after reading this post. The Netherlands played their second match today and after kicking some Italian (world champions, thank you) ass with 3-0 we managed to kick some French behinds [...]

I’ve been messing around with the layout and gallery display at Chantal Photography today. Just for a little bit because my arthritis is killing me (once again) and I much rather lay in bed as it’s more comfortable to ease the pain. But honestly, I feel so lazy laying in bed all day, even though [...]

I feel like a huge Bounty, because I smell like one. And that’s not because I ate a couple of hundred of those delicious chocolate-coconut bars. No, it’s because of my new moisturizer, handcream, shampoo and cleansing wipes (for my face!).
They contain 100% pure coconut oil, leaving my skin smooth, soft and smelling like a [...]

I ordered a new lens for my camera; a macro objective. It’s been a week and a half and I still wait for a phone call from the store to say it’s in. I’m anxious to use it as the weather is great and there’s plenty of macro life around.
Let’s hope it arrives soon, I [...]

I just want to share a quote with you today. I read it in a book and it stuck with me.
“Mother Nature rocks, and we’re all dancing to her beat.”
It seems very fitting, especially with all the strange weather conditions these days.

Reading books is fun, at least to me. And it’s also supposed to be good for your development. But what if the book you’re reading is full of spelling errors and grammar mistakes, or even has complete sentences in it that make no sense.
Currently I’m reading a book that has been translated from Norwegian to [...]

It’s already been a year since I went to London to meet up with my friend May and attend the Hanson concert at the Koko. I really can’t believe it’s been that long already, I remember it like it was yesterday.
We were so lucky after the show to end up right behind the fences before [...]

What do you know, it’s Sunday night and I’m online and watching TV. Sounds good huh?! It’s the first time in at least 4 weeks that I can surf online, watch TV or do both at the same time on a Sunday night or a weekend day all together. It seems that the cable fixing [...]

Or so I hope anyway. Miraculously everything seemed to be fixed on Wednesday night, yes the night before THE BIG DAY. The day the repairman would come in to fix our TV and Internet connection.
It seems to be that one of the wires at the bottom of the meter cupboard where the provider cables enter [...]

I have been without Internet and TV since last Sunday. My provider will send someone over tomorrow to (try to) fix it all.
This post is written with my phone, so ignore the spelling errors. I just wanted to let you know, I’m not gone but just not connected. Let’s hope I will be back tomorrow.

Last Monday I decided to buy my mum a little present. She has had some setbacks in her health lately and I figured she needed something to cheer her up a little. Since she was still using a pretty simple cellphone with no bluetooth or anything like that and because she was still dragging her [...]

After looking around on a Windows Vista laptop last week, I decided to pimp my XP laptop to a Vista look. It took me all weekend, but I did it, I now have a Windows XP laptop that looks like it has Vista on it, including the sidebar. It looks cool [...]

Can you imagine spending every Thursday morning at a dentist’s office for three weeks in a row? I can…
The past three weeks I went to the dentist’s office to get my teeth done. The first time I went there for my regular check up (which I get done every 6 months) and they noticed a [...]

I guess offline life has gotten the better of me lately. It’s safe to say that my laptop hasn’t been on for at least a week (let’s hope it still works…)
However, things seem to be calming down over the next week or so and I hope that I’ll be able to take some time and [...]

Last Saturday I treated myself to some new clothes. I really needed some new jeans as my old ones are getting rather thin. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any black jeans but instead I found two dark blue ones.
I never though I’d buy myself a pair of skinny jeans, as I think I don’t have the [...]

… to me! Yes today is my 25th birthday, and I have to say, it doesn’t feel any different than being 24 yet. But don’t we always say that on our birthdays?
Looking back over the past year, I know I’ve grown as a person and I’ve learned things about myself (as well as others). And [...]

I haven’t disappeared again, I’m just not doing too well health wise (my arthritis again). It’s hard to sit at the computer and type. That’s also the reason why I didn’t visit most of my dailies lately.
I’m not on hiatus or anything, I just have to take it easy for a bit. I’ll be back [...]

This year the Super Bowl will take place in Arizona. In The University of Phoenix Stadium to be exact. The New York Giants versus the New England Patriots on February 3, which (if aired here) will be shown in the night of February 3 to February 4 in The Netherlands.
Why is this such a big [...]

On this last day of 2007, I want to wish everyone a very happy new year!
May 2008 bring you and your families joy and happiness as well as anything else you might wish for.
When it comes to new year’s resolutions I can tell you I have none. I don’t believe in new year’s resolutions, I [...]

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love animals. But what most people don’t know is that I’m scared of strange dogs, especially when they are big and scary looking…
This morning I went outside to put the horses out like I do every morning; Put Adanto’s halter on, getting hay out of the stable and [...]

I have to admit that I find Christmas generally boring. Not that I don’t like spending time with my family but we usually don’t do much on days like this. We play some games, have a few good laughs and maybe go for a walk. But technically you can’t really go anywhere as everything [...]

I want to wish everyone very happy holidays!
Enjoy the festivities but remember don’t drink and drive. Be safe!

Finally there is a little time to sit down and write something up in between cleaning up broken Christmas ornaments, buying Christmas presents, redecorating the tree with “Sam Proof” ornaments, work and family.
I think the tree lasted about half a week before I had enough of the shattered ornaments (about 6 or 7 in total) [...]

It’s the season of little lights and Christmas trees again, but I’m not sure if I did the right thing by putting up my Christmas tree this year. Sam seems to enjoy it a little too much.
He’s doing alright when I’m around or when I’m away for a little while to have coffee at my [...]

A few years ago something really freaky happened while I was sleeping (or actually while I was awake!). I remember it clearly and I think back of it often, but lately I hadn’t thought of it much until last night.
Basically what happened years ago is this; I dreamed I was laying in my own bed [...]

Today is my dad’s birthday. I won’t reveal how old he now is, but I bet he still feels young.
So dad; have a wonderful birthday and many happy returns!!!
Plugged: Laarni

Sam is growing up so fast. I know cats grow up quickly but if I compare him to photos taken in August when he first arrived and compare them to how he is now, he gotten a lot bigger and changed colors a few times in the last few months.
Unfortunately he will always have [...]

I never thought I’d say this, but even I am not invincible . The last couple of months I’ve been on walking on my toes when it comes to my arthritis. It was killing me but I wanted to go on and do the house work and go to work like nothing was [...]

I need more hours in a day. The days are too short to do all the things I want to do (or need to do). With work, having to clean the house, grocery shopping and things like that there is hardly any time to just sit down and relax. My computer has hardly been on [...]

We all have best kept secrets, and according to Nan, I’m one of them…
She awarded me with the ‘Best Kept Secret’ award! Thank you Nan!!!

I would like to pass on the award to;
Felisa at Euphoric Gazelle, Corinne at C0rinne.net, Amber at Ava Rae and Kelly at at-liberty.net
Now check out the official awards page for [...]

I thought a week off would give me some time to ’solve’ some neglected things, including my website but unfortunately I’ve been so busy the past week that I hardly had time to check my mail. So tomorrow, as it being my last day off from my weeks holiday I’ve made reservations for me and [...]

I really want to thank all of you who voted for me in the ‘Win A Song from Hanson’ competition that started a few months ago. Getting people to click (and thereby spread the word about Hanson) to increase your chances of winning a song about you, concert tickets with a meet and greet or [...]

Sam went to his second veterinary visit in his very short life (he’s only 7 weeks old). I already knew that one eye was a bit clouded due to his eye infection, but recently I noticed that his other eye was starting to get clouded too. Also, he still has a cold even though he’s [...]

Just a quick note to let you know why I have lacked in updating (while I was just doing so well with the regular updating might I add). My arthritis is killing me again, I’m even working less hours this week to give my body some rest.
I’ll plug you all later and update properly then [...]

Sam has been here since last Friday, he was very timid the first day. Probably because he was impressed by his new surroundings as he spend about two weeks in the veterinary clinic for his eyes.
But a day later this changed, he’s very funny, likes to run around the apartment and has fallen off the [...]

Regular visitors to my site know that I’m a member of The QBee. I have been a member of it since 2002 and I still enjoy being a part of it.
Over the weekend the new QBee site has been launched. It now has all kind of new and cool features such as a login for [...]

Two weeks seems a very short time to have a holiday, but it’s actually long enough for me. By the end of the second week I was actually looking forward to going home again and sleep in my own bed, sit on my own sofa and do the things I would usually do around the [...]

Just a quick note to let you all know that things are great here in the Czech Republic. The weather is awesome, lots of sun, and the pool is great. It really comes in handy with this much sun and warmth about .
As you can imagine I have no intention of sitting at [...]

For now anyway. Since it’s the summer holiday I’m off to the Czech Republic for two weeks very shortly. There will be people in our house to take care of the animals and look after the house so that’s all arranged.
I should be online during those two weeks though as there should be internet where [...]

Just a quick entry to thank every single one of you that clicked and / or linked for me. Thank you so much!!
I will name everyone tomorrow when I blog properly but right now I’m so tired I’m nearly falling off my chair.

As you may have noticed I finally got around to putting up the banner for the ‘A Song For You’ contest Hanson is doing. What it basically means is that they are doing a competition where everyone can join up, you can win some great prizes like an Ipod shuffle (with Hanson’s new album [...]

keep the doctor away… I hope!
Since the first litter of kittens this year I’ve been toying with the idea of adopting one or two kittens and take them in. But since all of our other cats are outside it wouldn’t really be fare to them. They are outside cats; barn cats, they enjoy roaming around [...]

Today I had my first event to photograph. A riding school in a neighboring town was celebrating their 30 years of business. There were all kind of performances in different kind of equestrian disciplines.
I managed to take some great shots and I will post them on Chantal Photography tomorrow, as I still have to prepare [...]

I think I should start by saying I’m fine and the other persons involved are fine too. On Saturday morning I was driving from my house to the videostore to pick up some DVDs when I got into a car accident.
I wanted to make a right turn and stopped to let a few cyclists pass. [...]

Yesterday a contest was announced on Hanson.net the official site of my favorite band (Hanson, obviously). They have some really great prizes; two tickets and a meet & greet for a show, an ipod shuffle and as a grand prize; the guys will write a song for / about the grand prize winner.
How cool is [...]

I haven’t been online much the last few days so Chantal Photography is still a work in progress. And I also have some things to do regarding SB.com but hopefully I’ll be able to do some more stuff during the weekend.
The reason I haven’t been online much (only to check email and the Hanson.net forums) [...]

Today I went to Antwerp Zoo with some of my friends who live in Belgium. I was the only one coming from The Netherlands and therefor the only one coming from that direction.
I got the 8.41 AM train towards Antwerp and intended to arrive 15 minutes before our 10 AM meeting time. Unfortunately things didn’t [...]

Pirates 3 was great.. I have to admit it’s not a movie to watch when you haven’t seen part 1 and 2 but it’s nice when you have. Also, I don’t think it was the best movie out of the three but I’m sure it’s hard to maintain the same ’standards’ throughout.
Not that it was [...]

Tomorrow I’m going to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3 with one of my best friends. I’m really looking forward to it. Not only because we get to drool over Johnny Depp (Orlando is not my type of guy…) but also because it will be good to catch up with her again.
We both are so [...]

Let’s start by saying no one died but it seems that my site is dead. Or rather lacking visitors. I know I haven’t been updating a lot lately due to circumstances explained in other entries but I never expected the site to go ‘downhill’ as quick as it did.
When I checked my stats about two [...]

No I’m not gone I just got so busy this week that I didn’t have time to update. Starting this past week I’ve been working more hours and it seems like it’s going to be permanent. I don’t mind though, it will be good at the end of the month. It just means that I [...]

Yes you read that right; I’m in love. Not with a person though (let’s face it, no cute guys around here…) but with my new toy. A Canon Selphy CP720 printer to be able to print my photos. It’s another step in the right direction for selling my photographs. With it I’ll be able to [...]

I’ve returned from my trip to London and all I can say is WOW. It was awesome to meet up with May again after four years. We spend two days walking around London, talking, shopping, catching up and enjoying our Starbucks in St. James’ Park.
We really had a blast and even though it was very [...]

In just a few hours time I will be heading towards the airport to catch my flight to London, where I’ll land in about 12 hours from now.
For those of you who missed the reason for my London trip (although I’d like to think it’s obvious for most of you) I’m meeting up with a [...]

The promise I made about posting the photographs I took of some flowers has to be broken. Well sort of anyway, I will still post them sometime soon but for now I have something else.
I was thinking that since I don’t have any photographs of myself on this site (anymore) most of you probably don’t [...]

After my last post it’s time to announce another birth; our crown prince and his wife princess Maxima had their third child on April 10, 2007. They already had two girls and now have a third one. Her name was announced today; Ariane Wilhelmina Maxima Ines. That’s quiet a mouth full but she will [...]

I want to congratulate Isaac Hanson and his wife Nicole with the birth of their first child; a boy named Clarke Everett. He was born last week and I’m sure he’ll make a beautiful and joyful addition to the family. You can read an official announcement here.
Today I managed to drag myself out of bed [...]

Some of you might have found some odd things on SB while surfing it. I’m aware of these things and they are there for a purpose; I can’t elaborate on that too much but it has to do with the QBee and the Easter Activity. You’ll find spoiler at the bottom of this entry so [...]

…finally! But I’ll get to that in a minute. I want to start off by saying I didn’t update for a little while (yes four days is pretty long). It’s not because I don’t want to (I actually miss it) but because I can’t. My arthritis has been killing me again since the weekend. A [...]

There seems to be some kind of trend in my latest entries; family. Right now though I really don’t want to talk about ancestors, but about direct family.
Let’s face it, we usually take our family for granted, and I have to admit I sometimes do too. I can’t remember the amount of times I argued [...]

I never thought I would say this; generally I hate paperwork. But I love archives. I don’t mean blog archives (although it’s fun to read back certain entries from some people I know) but I mean birth, marriage and death archives from back in the day.
What’s even cooler is that most of them are online [...]

I’m shaking like a leaf while writing this. I just got back from my parents, walk in and hear a loud buzzing sound. Loud enough to make the little hairs in the back of my neck stand up. I recognize that sound anywhere; a wasp!
Just a quick glance in the direction of the sound shows [...]

My London tickets are on their way to May’s house, and probably have arrived by now. She told me today that she has a pick up notice for something and will go pick whatever it is up tomorrow, she thinks it’s the tickets though! Hooray for that. It took me long enough to get them [...]

So what do you do on a beautiful sunny Saturday? If you’re normal you go outside and enjoy the sun as long as it lasts, or if you’re into it you dust off your camera and get some great shots.
And if you’re like me? Well I did some dusting but it wasn’t the camera, unfortunately, [...]

After last week’s shopping endeavor in the secondhand store to hunt for books, I took a trip to this two story secondhand store to look for more bargains on books. It’s fun to sniff around the bookshelves trying to find books I like and haven’t read yet or look for books to get certain series [...]

I managed to get a copy of all Shakespeare’s work in one book at the secondhand book store last week. It’s in English and it seems to be in a decent state, especially for the price I managed to get it for; €3.50 (convert?)
Of course everyone is familiar with his work and when I saw [...]

The past few days have been hectic again, but now it didn’t contain any grocery shopping. It actually meant not going grocery shopping.
A few days ago, some Hanson concerts where announced in the UK and being the loyal fan that I am, (hey, 10 years this year!) I just wanted to go. Realizing that one [...]

No, I’m not talking about this blog although I’d like to think it fits into that category . I’m talking about Superblog! (exclamation point entirely necessary). A group blog of several bored bloggers, who are made of awesome (according to Belinda) Needless to say yours truly is part of it. Because, of [...]

I really want to apologize to all the people I visit on a regular (of not daily) base and haven’t visited in the last few days. As well as to those who I ‘owe’ a visit after commenting here, or those who sent me a Valentine’s gift for my QBee Quilt and which I [...]

When my grandmother passed away we found a lot of remembrance cards from family that passed away a long time ago. It’s quiet interesting to see how they did that centuries ago. They had more than one type of remembrance card for each deceased, sometimes as many as three different ones.
So going through these [...]

Usually I don’t really do these kind of things, but since it’s Amber who tagged me, I will.
The game: Each player of this game starts off with ten weird things or habits or little known facts about yourself. People who get tagged must write in a blog of their own ten weird things or habits [...]

Today is my mom’s birthday, and I think it will be a little weird for her. This is the first year she celebrated her birthday while both her daughters are no longer living at home and therefor will be ‘visiting’. Surely we’re always home when my sister and I are at my parents but it [...]

Today was eventful. I wanted to return visits today but I only got a few of them done. The reason for this? Well, I helped a guy move into my apartment today.
His name is Cas (pronounced as cast without the t) and he’s a pretty calm guy, originally from Australia. I think you could say [...]

As said in my previous post; yesterday was my birthday AND Super Bowl Sunday. I had a great day, it was the first time celebrating my birthday in my own place but it was all good. I had enough cake and other things, I even have a lot of it left. And I was worried [...]

If you’re a music fan, a documentary fan or maybe a fan of both like me, you’re really going to like this. Right now there is a free podcast available called Taking The Walk. Currently it’s showing teasers of an upcoming documentary called Taking The Walk, that gives you insight in the making of Hanson’s [...]

My arthritis is killing me, so for now, just a short note to let you know I have not gone, nor am I on hiatus. Hopefully a decent update will follow soon!

Fear, and facing your fear. That’s something I did yesterday. I never thought I would be afraid to lose what was at stake, after all it is just a hobby. But yesterday I realized it’s much more to me than just a hobby, it is a way of life, part of my life and if [...]

Welcome back…. Amanda! She’s back after 7 weeks overseas. I’m looking forward to her witty, detailed blogs about, well, just about everything! Good to have you back.
Plugged: Amber, Corinne, Nan

I had so many things in mind I could / should do today for SB . Unfortunately housework got in the way of things. Due to some work on my hallway I had to clean my living room, kitchen and of course the hallway. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust. With that, [...]

I want to wish everyone a very Happy New Year! I hope 2007 brings all of you everything that’s good in this world. May it be a year full of happiness and joy, in every way possible.

It’s December 24, Christmas Eve is drawing nearer. Before the holidays officialy start and most of us disappear from the online world for a few days I thought I’d quickly post a holiday entry.
I want to wish everyone very Happy Holidays and all the best for 2007! Whatever holiday you’re celebrating, may it bring peace [...]

Is there anyone out there who can recommend a good game online. I don’t mean those arcade kind of games but more like WoW and the like. I tried Second Life but that’s not working for me on multiple computers.
I get a bit bored sometimes, especially when I’m home due to my arthritis, so when [...]

Time for another challenge. This week’s Photo Friday Challenge is Weather. I can tell you that right now the weather here is very bad, well for me anyway. It’s cold and gray and it looks like something (probably rain) will start falling from the sky any time soon. It really affects my arthritis so it’s [...]

As most (or some) of you know I love photography. And I would like to implement that part of my life into my house and my decorations of the house. Of course this will be after Christmas as right now my Christmas decorations are up and the designated spot for my photography is in use [...]

What else is there to do during a rainy, windy, can’t-go-outside-due-to-the-weather weekend than decorating your home for Christmas? Since this is my first Christmas after moving out all the decorations are new. It’s so good to sit on my sofa and look around my now decorated house and know I worked so hard to get [...]

Honestly I never thought the day would come I’d say this. But I’m rich. Filthy rich if I may add. You’re probably wondering why I’m saying this, or why I’m bragging about it. Just read on and you’ll catch my drift, or so I hope anyway.
The most used definition of rich is;
Rich
having abundant possessions and [...]

I want to thank everyone who left me a message on my site and / or sent me an email regarding my last post. It really means a lot to me. My grandmother’s funeral will be on Monday.
Tonight I’m going out with some colleagues for dinner and bowling. We arranged this months ago and I [...]

No updates for the next few days. My grandmother passed away today.

Thanks for all your nice comments on my previous post guys. I really appreciate it. My grandmother is still in the ICU but she is speaking a little bit better. I guess we just have to wait and see how things go.
I haven’t done much the last few days, I’m way behind on my NaNoWriMo [...]

The other day I was having a discussion with someone about culture. First of all what exactly is culture?
Culture
the characteristic features of everyday existence (as diversions or a way of life) shared by people in a place or time
by m-w.com

That’s still quiet broad, for instance, is religion culture? Maybe certain aspects for religion are considered [...]

When I was younger I dreamed about being able to wear my mom’s shoes and played dress up with old clothes and pumps all the time. And now, after a decade (probably about two decades actually) I finally did it. I bought myself some pumps. Not your normal styled pumps but a pair of trendy [...]

After writing short stories and poetry for years (not everything is published here, maybe it will be in the future) it’s now time for a big step forward. Or backwards if I fail at this.
One of my friends, May, read a few short stories a few weeks back and told me I should start writing [...]

Happy Birthday Zac!
Even though you’re 21 now, you’ll always be ‘the little one’. I remember you beating the drums in the MMMBop video as an 11 year old boy. Time flies…
Now I feel so old, I can’t believe it’s been nearly ten years since I became a Hanson fan.
Plugged: Amber, Giselle, Corinne

Over the years people have mentioned to me that I’m a ‘tough’ person. For various reasons but one of them is because I can be tough on myself and other people. Most people see me as a person who is always willing to help others and who sees the best in every situation. Frankly I [...]

Besides the book challenge, my crochet work, my social life (yes I really do have one) and all the other projects I’m working on, I now have a new thing that’s keeping me busy; making my own beaded jewelry.
I made some pearl earrings yesterday, which are fairly simple, and started on some more complex danglers. [...]

While going through my calendar today I noticed how busy I will be for the next few weeks. I used to just be able to say ‘yes’ to any date mentioned for an appointment or a meeting but I realized I really have to go check my schedule for the next few months. I think [...]

Sorry to disappoint you, no new writings yet. There are a lot of ideas in my head but I’m waiting for them to take form. After that it’s ‘just’ a matter of shaking them out of my head and write (or rather type) them down.
Besides thinking of new stories I’ve been working on the layout [...]

This one is for my friends; my offline friends, my online friends and my friends who I first met online and finally got to meet IRL. I don’t think I ever said how much all of you mean to me.
Friendship is a valuable thing and something a lot of people take for granted. Even though [...]

I know it wasn’t healed yet even though it’s been more than a year. Recently it started hurting again when walking or when making a wrong turn with my leg. Right now it’s bothering me because there is a rainstorm. I’m not talking about my arthritis but I’m referring to the ‘accident’ I had in [...]

Everybody (or at least a lot of people) seem to be ill. My sister is sick at the moment so she can’t go to work, some colleagues were ill last week and just in general you see everybody sniffing no matter where you go.
With my lovely non-existing immunity for things like the flu (thanks to [...]

Today was the day for quiet a few people with a mental disability. Truck Run Day. Every year there is a route around and through my town (and surrounding towns) with big trucks and the mentally disabled are allowed to sit next to the truck driver. All along the route people are outside watching the [...]

Something some of you might know (if you read the short bio on the sidebar) and some of you who might not (who obviously didn’t read it) is that I really like American Football. I got hooked on it when I watched the Super Bowl, it was aired here in the middle of the [...]

Just want to wish May a happy birthday! Have a wonderful day, and don’t forget to send me some of that birthday cake this year OK?!

Just a short entry today, my arthritis is once again killing me (or should I say still?!). I’ve been off work for a week now and every day I hope this will be the day I can go back to work. I hate sitting at home not being able to do anything. Sitting hurts, laying [...]

When I was younger I never thought I would turn into someone who would take pride in a clean house. But as I grew older I realized it’s so much nicer and healthier to live in a clean environment.
Much to my own surprise I display something that comes close to frantic behavior when my house [...]

Even though my normal life has caught up on my already (my first day back at the job was Monday) I decided to continue my holiday trend and do absolutely nothing today. Well, close to nothing. At 8.15 AM I got up and do some running in the woods nearby, after that I got online [...]

The wicked witch from the West is back from her trip to the East! Yes, it was a long time without Internet (two weeks to be exact) but I managed to survive. I hope you all survived those two weeks too without my blogs . Actually I could have just gone to the Internet [...]

Like I said in my previous entry; my holiday starts tomorrow (technically today but let’s not get into that). Today was my last day at work and I’m off now for two weeks. I don’t know how often I’ll be able to update in those two weeks but of course I’m going to try, I [...]

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you The Royal Throne;

When I moved in four months ago, the tiles on the walls were a color that could be a mix between orange, red and brown. The floor was white with a bit of light blue and the rest of the walls and the ceiling were [...]

I guess there is something in the air here, or I have been in the sun for too long. But I’ve set another ‘challenge’ for me. I’ve started a cross stitch work. It’s a small (11 x 17.5 cm) picture of the Nefertiti’s head. The challenge is to finish it. I started cross stitch works [...]

As some of you might know I’m a book addict. In the last three weeks I’ve read nine books. The local bookstore should be forbidden territory for me. Unfortunately (for my bank account anyway) I can’t go into a bookstore and come out empty handed. Luckily I have a subscription to the library where I [...]