| What are we doing?
January 1st, 2003 
Saying my farewells, with a 360°-panoramaphoto (click to enlarge), of the skyline as I saw it yesterday night, from the centre of Haarlem via Heemstede, Schalkwijk, Schiphol, Amsterdam, Velsen, Haarlem Noord, Bloemendaal and Overveen back to the centre of Haarlem, from the roof of Nieuwe Vide, during the fireworks. To a year on which I look back with mixed feelings.
 I found a new, and answered love. I obtained my staticline parachute jumping licence. I took part in 4 stages of 'Across the Netherlands from Top to Toe', 1 of 'Crossing Borders from Border to Border', the Zweitagemarsch Bern/Belp, the Marche de l'Armée in Diekirch, the MESA, the Nijmegen Four Day Marches, the Death March, the Four Days of the Yser and the Airborne. I remained healthy (barring a light case of RSI). I paid off a large chunk of my debts. I finally got my content management system and built some nice websites around it.
 But I fell prey to RSI (as stated), lost almost all motivation on the shop floor, and I hit an ex-alderman in the face. And it was also the year in which Marco van Zijntergen left the Wandelsoc.. And it was also the year in which a riotous fag brought our people to an unprecedented fit of madness. In which that same fag had to unjustly pay for this with his death. In which the raffle that stayed behind without him made our country look absolutely foolish and the subject of derision in the farthest corners of the planet. It was the year in which the excellent government of the Purple coalition was unjustly crucified. And it was also the year in which Claus died. Mixed feelings, therefore.
 And the farewell also concerns a day that was the most expensive one of this year. This, amongst other things, was caused by my attending a performance of The National Ballet and Holland Symfonia conducted by Alexander Anissimov, of 'Nutcracker & Miceking', with Larisa, in the Stopera (this, of course, was her idea, but I have to admit I found it a beautiful performance, especially musically and where the scenery was concerned, although I also maintain that €35 is a large sum to pay for one and a half hour's worth of a bunch of faggots in tights. Not that I have anything against faggots in tights (and they were beautiful tights too), don't get me wrong - but ballet remains to not be my cup of tea. It's a good thing that even Tsjaikovski's music is very impressive, if a really good orchestra plays it.
 And after that my good friend Denzler came over for dinner, which did not make the day any cheaper: jasmin tea was followed by a chili-con-carne of 2 cans of kidney beans, 2 tomatoes, 2 cloves of garlic, 500 grams of minced beef (fried beforehand, with pepper and salt), 20 peppercorns of five kinds of pepper, 20 string beans, 2 paprikas (1 green, 1 red), 3 red peppers, 2 red onions, 1 quarter litre of yoghurt, a large helping of chives and some tabasco, accompanied by a salad of lamb's lettuce, tomato, kernels of corn, feta, olives, walnuts, some fried onions and some strips of cajun seasoned bacon, fried in advance, with which we indulged in two bottles of red Valsbaai, before finishing dinner with Erika's avocado/soft curd cheese dessert.
 But that wasn't the end of it. For after watching 'Hamburger Hill' (Denzler prefers good war movies) on DVD, with pistachio nuts, there followed heated horse- and grillsausage of van Dansik Butchery in the Oranjestraat, with mustard, and, as, joined by Larisa, we watched 'Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain' (Chielie prefers garden gnomes) and the fireworks, there were a bag of tomato/basil-crisps, 1 bottle of champagne, and 2 Salitos-beers with Tequila-extract, from Larisa's Christmas hamper.
And so this was a great night and I have every reason to look forward to this year with confidence. My new year's resolution for this year: less Chielie in life, through losing weight. I wish you all a tolerant 2003. God save the Queen. |