Back in November I was feeling sorry for myself. Stuck with physical therapy twice a week [more on this, in Dutch, in this post], I needed to make plans for the new year that would clear my dark mood.

Along came a message.

A concert in London, the O2 Arena, in May.

For me, a once in a lifetime concert.

So, I bought the ticket (at 9:30AM, patiently refreshing the ticket website), without realizing the exact date: that would not be a problem (and, luckily, it wasn't!).

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First: If you've been tagged, you must write your answers in your own LJ and replace any question that you dislike with a new, original question.
Second: Tag eight people. Don't refuse to do that. Don't tag who tagged you.
I was tagged by Katie.

No eight people from me .. feel free to grab this meme list, though!

Lots of pillows or just one?
One feather roll pillow from Ikea (GOSA MÅBÄR), two large feather pillows and one square soft polyester pillow.

What kind of books do you read?
Various, mostly romance, detectives and sci-fi.

What are your most awesome skills?
Difficult question .. quick to answer questions, without thinking? (not always accurate though!)

What's your occupation?
Project Manager Digital Publications at an international academic publishing house.

What's really creepy?
Underwater scenes on tv (or in books) where someone is stuck and cannot get out.

What's your current fandom/obsession/addiction?
I guess Jane Austen Pride&Prejudice fanfiction, though I would not want to call it an obsession/addiction.

What flavor ice cream would you choose right now?
Lemon sorbet.

What websites do you always visit when you go online?
Google Reader, BBC News Online

What was the last thing you bought?
Black flat shoes for my grandmother's funeral.

What was the cutest thing you've seen today?
A bee stuck in my lavender bush.

Do you get cravings? If so, what do you crave?
When I have not bought them, I can crave my favorite cigarillos.

What do you do to change your mood?
It all depends on the current mood and the mood I want to change to!

What is your zodiac sign?
Pisces, according to most magazines.

Do you want to learn another language?
Of course, who wouldn't! Would love to improve my french language skills, but also work on increasing my spoken german. Also, I want to work on the XQuery and XPath programming languages.

Five things you can't live without.
Family & friends, music, books, my laptop and work.

What's something you'd like to say to someone right now?
To my parents: I love you!

What are you looking forward to?
In about a month I will be able to start physical therapy on my left knee again (currently stuck with braces and crutches, as I'm not allowed to walk using my left knee).

Say something to the person who tagged you:
No LJ meme post, Katie!
On a different note, I admire your scientific tenacity enourmously!

Ongeveer een maand geleden, tijdens een hockeywedstrijd, heb ik een compleet verkeerde draai met mijn linkerknie gemaakt. Waarschijnlijk is mijn voorste kruisband gescheurd (geheel of gedeeltelijk, dat is nog niet duidelijk), en ik volg nu drie keer per week instense fysiotherapie, met een steeds langer wordende oefeningenlijst voor thuis.

Zwaar klote, maar dit is nu even mijn realiteit.

Kan wel huilen, maar ja, wat schiet ik daar mee op: niets!

Dus blijven lachen!

Dat lachen lukt wel. Ik heb inmiddels een nieuwe 'nickname': LeoKnieke (of Knieke, al naar gelang de vorige namen).
Ook heb ik inmiddels ontdekt dat je het woord 'knie' maar al te vaak kan inzetten.

Op zijn engels, naar aanleiding van de uitdrukking "She's one sandwich short of a picnic": I'm one ligament away from a knee.

Gisteravond bij mijn ouders gegeten, en mijn moeder kan er ook wat van!
Onderstaande uit een email (nadat we bijna de hele avond al een paar goeie uitdrukkingen hadden verzonnen):

• als je maar een wit knietje kunt halen
• tot op zekere kniehoogte
• houdt me op de (knie)hoogte
• een knielengte voorliggen
• een knietje valt niet ver van het been
• als er één knie over de dam is volgen er meer
• één knietje brengt nog geen lengte
• circus Knie (bestaat echt!)
• ik kan je niet bij-knieeën (bijbenen)
• Wasa Kniekebröt

Gebruik vooral de comments als je er nog meer kan verzinnen!

UPDATE

en nog een paar:
"Een knieval doen", "Waar de blanke top der knieën", of "Een, twee, knie ..." of "Weeknie" ....Tot knies!

UPDATE 2

via collega:
"Zullen we straks even een potje kniekeren?"

February 14 2009 a cute little puppy was born: Hocks (or as she's known to her kennel: Isis).
April 10 2009 she moved in with my sister and my brother-in-law.

She's adorable and playful and she still has to learn quite a few things!

Today I spent some time with her as my sister was visiting our grandmother (no dogs allowed!). She obviously was a bit confused, missing my sister, but we got along well. A few scrapes and bruises on my arms (war wounds?), but no harm done. I'll be Hocks-sitting again this Saturday, hopefully I'll be able to take some more photos!.

For now, enjoy the whole Hocks Set @ flickr.

With an early Friday break for my Easter weekend, I visited the Keukenhof together with friends Ingrid and Bjorn.

As the three of us (well, some more than others) are quite keen photographers, we were armed with batteries, memory cards and tripods (mine's a monopod), and of course our cameras.

An approximate 450 photos later (my count), we went our way again and headed home. The Keukenhof by now was a very crowded place and I cannot blame the other visitors. The weather was gorgeously hot and the tulips (and other bulbs) were blooming for our enjoyment!

By the next day I had checked and rechecked my photos, of which about 40 made the cut to be placed on flickr: Keukenhof April 10 @ flickr

[related post: Major photo update]

This past weekend I spent in Frankfurt, visiting Katie and joining Judy&Stan for a brief weekend of fun and touristic outings.

As I was lucky to have a Canon 300D with me (and about 6GB of memory cards), I took loads of photos. Tonight (and last night) I downloaded and uploaded the photos to my flickr account, and you can find the best of the approximately 600 photos I took right here: Frankfurt@flickr.

Enjoy!

(and thanks to Katie and Frank for showing us Frankfurt and the Rhine!)

The Loreley (Rhine river)

The Liebfrauenkirche in Oberwesel

Schloß Schönburg

Hildegard von Bingen

A character from 'Der Struwwelpeter'

The Bull at the Exchange

Seems to have the beginning of a running theme here:

http://twitpic.com/1q2uo

and

http://flickr.com/photos/mokblog/3325647813/

[totally forgot to make links clickable]

[via colleague at work]

Dan was a single guy living at home with his father and working in the family business. When he found out he was going to inherit a fortune when his sickly father died, he decided he needed a wife with which to share his fortune.

One evening at an investment meeting he spotted the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her natural beauty took his breath away. "I may look like just an ordinary man," he said to her, but in just a few years, my father will die, and I'll inherit $200 million."

Impressed, the woman obtained his business card and three days later, she became his stepmother.

Women are so much better at financial planning than men.

Created by Train Horn