MoK leonieke.net

London in May [or, releasing my inner-fangirl]

webmaster@leonieke.net (Leonieke Aalders) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:40:44 +0000

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!).

On May 8 I will be one of about 22,000 people attending The Gift of Music, An Evening with Julie Andrews.

And yes, I'm a fan. Just this weekend I checked to see, and I have almost all her movies and most of her cd's. I bought the audio version of her memoir, and I have listened to the poetry/songs/lullabies book.

Friday May 7 I will fly out to London and Monday May 10 I return. In the meantime, I will enjoy all of London (and perhaps a visit to Cambridge too), while sleeping in a hotel across from Liberty's. A visit to the British Library is on my to-do list, hopefully I'll have a chance to check out the new Anglo-Saxon hoard at the British Museum, and I'm going to see if the Tate has anything to my liking.

Mostly, however, and unsurprising, I'm looking forward to Saturday evening.

Wishing You a Wonderful 2010

webmaster@leonieke.net (Leonieke Aalders) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 10:59:17 +0000

LJ Meme

webmaster@leonieke.net (Leonieke Aalders) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 19:20:33 +0000

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!

Grappige Moeder, of het relaas van een kapotte knie [nl]

webmaster@leonieke.net (Leonieke Aalders) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 21:44:21 +0000

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?"

Hocks

webmaster@leonieke.net (Leonieke Aalders) — Sun, 24 May 2009 19:04:15 +0000

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.

At the Keukenhof

webmaster@leonieke.net (Leonieke Aalders) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 21:44:20 +0000

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]

Frankfurt March 27-29, 2009

webmaster@leonieke.net (Leonieke Aalders) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:44:03 +0000

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

Chuck's

webmaster@leonieke.net (Leonieke Aalders) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 20:04:06 +0000

Seems to have the beginning of a running theme here:http://twitpic.com/1q2uoandhttp://flickr.com/photos/mokblog/3325647813/[totally forgot to make links clickable]

Financial Planning

webmaster@leonieke.net (Leonieke Aalders) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 20:45:52 +0000

[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.

Teenager Audio Test

webmaster@leonieke.net (Leonieke Aalders) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:45:02 +0000

Created by Train Horn

iTunes Meme - part two

webmaster@leonieke.net (Leonieke Aalders) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:21:09 +0000

[previous list: iTunes Meme]
I thought it would be fun to re-do this meme after about one year, and below is the result:

How many total songs?
5554 songs, 16.7 days, 35.29 GB

Sort by song title - first and last
'Aan de Oevers van de Tijd' by Spinvis [Dagen van Gras, Dagen van Stro]- '3005' by 4Hero [Two Pages]

Sort by time - shortest and longest
00:00:02 'Bright Moments (Excerpt)' by Rahsaan Roland Kirk [Does Your House Have Lions: The Rahsaan Roland Kirk Anthology] - 01:25:53 'Symfonie no. 8' of Anton Bruckner by Koninklijk Concertgebrouw Orkest conducted by Bernard Haitink [120 Jaar Koninklijk Concertgebrouw Orkest]

Sort by Album - first and last
'ABBA' by ABBA - '120 Jaar Koninklijk Concertgebrouw Orkest' by Koninklijk Concertgebrouw Orkest

Sort by Artist - first and last
a-ha - 10,000 Maniacs

Top five played songs
Not counted

Find the following words. How many songs show up?
Sex: 7
Death: 20
Love: 332
You: 514
Home: 89
Boy: 33
Girl: 59

First five songs that come up on Party Shuffle
Not counted

(I still do not have the standard playlists Top Five Played Songs and Party Shuffle)

Cleaning 2009

webmaster@leonieke.net (Leonieke Aalders) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:13:23 +0000

Where previously I had help cleaning my room in Leiden [read: With a little help], this short vacation (I'm off from work for a week) will be spent partly to clean out areas of my house. After two years of living here, I seem to have collected (again!) things I can only describe as STUFF ...

Follow my progress here at flickr: Cleaning 2009 Photo Set.

100 books to have read

webmaster@leonieke.net (Leonieke Aalders) — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 17:01:58 +0000

[nicked from KateF]

Italics: started but not finished. Bold: finished reading.

Download my list here : 20090222_100bookstohaveread-list.pdf

(simply because I did not feel like redoing all the bold and italics after discovering c/p did not work properly)

[sneak peak below]

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

More and more gadgets

webmaster@leonieke.net (Leonieke Aalders) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 12:58:49 +0000

As of yesterday, I am the proud owner of a Nokia E71.

I'll always be able to go online (at least in the Netherlands), always connected, always to be found.

 

 

 

 

Hmm ... I love the ability to go online all the time (I miss this with my iPod Touch), but the connectivity and the fact that it has GPRS ...

Is Big Brother watching me?

He probably already was!

One Book Meme

webmaster@leonieke.net (Leonieke Aalders) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:47:04 +0000

[via Bart]

One book you're currently reading: The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas
One book that changed your life: The Gift of Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
One book you'd want on a deserted island: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
One book you've read more than once: The Villa by Nora Roberts
One book you've never been able to finish: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
One book that made you laugh: Lucy Talk by Fiona Walker
One book that made you cry: The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
One book you keep rereading: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
One book you've been meaning to read: Candide by Voltaire
One book you believe everyone should read: The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon

Finally,
Grab the nearest book. Open it to page 56. Find the fifth sentence
Lord Augustus: Well, what is it? What is it? [Rising and going over to Cecil Graham.]
From: Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde

If anyone wants to play along, feel free!

argh

sofie.van.tendeloo@telenet.be (Sofie Van Tendeloo) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 10:07:33 +0000

Argh..
alles doet pijn.

Zaterdag
heb ik mijn weekelijkse voetbalmatch gehad en nu doet gewoon alles pijn.

Elk
botje, elk gewrichtje.. het wringt, knaagt en doet zeer. 'auwchj!'

Je zou me eens moeten zien rondpikkelen..en dan
te bedenken dat sport gezond moet zijn. *bleh*

 

Help Needed: Mitterteich China Pattern

webmaster@leonieke.net (Leonieke Aalders) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 22:11:15 +0000

Just spent a great two days with my sister in Antwerp, Belgium. When I saw the four soup plates in the photo below, I just could not resist.

They are Mitterteich Bone China plates from Bavaria, Germany, but I simply cannot discover what pattern this is.

Any ideas? Please leave a comment or send an email to webmaster@leonieke.net

Thanks!

Blorrow it :)

sofie.van.tendeloo@telenet.be (Sofie Van Tendeloo) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:44:03 +0000

Gezien dat Nieke hier af en toe vrijwillig haar blog ter beschikking stelt alla 'mi casa est tu casa' maak ik hier dan ook af en toe gebruik van. Dank je Nieke :)

Zo zat ik vandaag op de afdeling en pende ik even het volgende neer:

 

Vandaag heb ik voor de eerste keer op mijn werk een collega ingelicht over het feit dat ik een voorkeur heb voor dames in plaats van voor heren.
Het is altijd even aftasten in hoevere je hierover kan praten met mensen, maar gezien ik bij de laatste ben op afdeling die nog verveeld zit met het 'ik-ben-nog-vrijgezel' principe vinden mijn collega's het o zo fijn om bij elke nieuwe aanwinst het nog eens in de bloemetjes te zetten. Boeiend huh. (not)

Omdat het altijd zo lastig is dat ze standaard in de 'hij'-vorm praten is het erg lastig om ook te antwoorden in de mannelijke zin van het woord.
Een verspreking is o zo vlug gebeurd en je krijgt het al behoorlijk warm als het ontwerp nog maar is aangesneden want ja.. je moest er zo eens uitflappen dat ze er toch wel zo geweldig uitziet.

Gezien dat onze geweldige paus tegenwoordig de uitroeiingspraktijken van 'anders zijn is slecht' hanteerd, want ja.. zo komt ie echt wel over, moet je als niet-hetro wel erg op je hoeden zijn bij het aansnijden van dit gespreksonderwerp.
Maar.. het viel mee.  Haar reactie was leuk zelfs. :) Op naar de rest van de afdeling dat ik hier eindelijk vrij kan over spreken :))

My Own Photos Used

webmaster@leonieke.net (Leonieke Aalders) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:35:48 +0000

 ... by others!

Wikipedia > Louis Couperus

Library Thing
: from the original

Schmap Frankfurt > Park & Gardens > Botanical Gardens
: from the original

The things you find on internet!

(though I have to admit, the one on Wikipedia was placed there by myself: totally forgot that!)

Leedvermaak / Cackling with Glee

webmaster@leonieke.net (Leonieke Aalders) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 15:55:06 +0000

Hehehe, just got asked by a posh couple (with a very 'country' accent) the way to the Schilderswijk [NL]. They were driving a huge Audi SUV, with all the bits and bobs.

The Schilderswijk is quite a different neighborhood from my own, the Archipel [NL]. Extremely different. Hard to explain how different without angering any of either borough's inhabitants.

Still, quite funny to think that this couple might been guided towards the Archipel neighborhood, because its streetnames in most other dutch towns are usually part of the lesser areas in a city, instead of - as it is in the Hague - one of the poshest areas!

Hi hi!

*Glee*