I managed to activate our fire alarm when I was cooking. I was cooking a hamburger on the small grill and it caused a lot of smoke. In that sense it's quite fortunate that we don't have an automatic sprinkler installation.

Mark, a colleague, borrowed me a very interesting book: "The PhotoShop Book for Digital Photographers"; I'm reading it now. (3 comments | Score: 5)

Yesterday Marjolein and Jerry came for dinner. They brought home-made Guacamole, so we had beer with chips, Guacamole and Bulgarian lukanka (dried sausage).

We had a really fun evening, with a lot of talking, food and drinks. For the first time since a long time I cooked Bulgarian: mlechna salad and gyuveche. I think next time I'll use a different yoghurt for the mlecha; I didn't like the taste of this one too much. The gyuveche was pretty good, if I may say so. (3 comments)

Tonight I went to a Bulgarian movie: "Letter to America", or Pismo do Amerika in Bulgarian. My parents had seen it a little while ago and they told me about it.

I liked it a lot to see Bulgaria, and to hear Bulgarian again. It's been exactly a week now (almost to the hour, as I left Sofia Airport around 23:00 o'clock), and I miss it! The movie was playing partly in Sofia, but mostly on the road to a small village in the Pirin Mountains. At one point I saw the signs on the highway leaving Sofia, pointing to Plovdiv.

It was a good movie, with interesting characters and beautiful music. But, to be honest, I think I would have liked it less if it had been in another country.

The movie was playing in the Filmmuseum in Amsterdam; I had never been there before. It's located in the middle of a public park, and it's a beautiful old-style building. (1 comment)

It's a girl!

Fiona Strausz was born today... wonderful news!

My good friend Tibor told me in the morning that "he was not going to work today", and he just sent me a message to tell me Fiona was born; it's their first child. Mother Janneke and daughter are fine. Fiona's website will be online soon on Fiona.strausz.nl.

Many, many congratulations from both of us! (Read More... | 4 comments)

My mother came to Haarlem this afternoon, and we had tea together. I showed her the pictures of our trip to Bulgaria; we hadn't seen each other yet since I came back.

My father came a bit later, from an appointment in Amsterdam, and we went out for dinner the three of us. Very nice. (1 comment)

I'm reading a graduation paper of a friend now. She studies Public Administration, and she's researching conflicts that occur when companies merge.

It's quite interesting to read, because it deals with subjects I normally don't read about. She took a case study and analyzed what went wrong in that particular merger, using a process model. (comments?)

Yesterday evening I went to meet Daniël, a friend who lives in Hungary. Every two months or so he returns to the Netherlands, and it's always a pleasure to see him again.

There were a lot of people yesterday; it was a nice evening. I was home around midnight.

It was the first train trip on which I used my new train discountcard. I used to have a student-card that allows free travelling, so it's a bit of an adjustment to pay for each train journey. (comments?)

I'm going to Amsterdam now, Daniël arrived there a few hours ago from Hungary.

We'll eat and drink in a pub called "Molly Malone". (1 comment | Score: 1)

Slowly I'm getting used again to working. Besides the work itself, that I like, and the colleagues, who are nice, there are some additional factors that make me like working here: internet and coffee.

One of the (very few) things that I missed while I was in Bulgaria was full-time internet access. Here in Holland I'm never more than a few hours without internet. I'm so used to being online all the time -- to have Google available, to be able to send emails, checking the news etc.

Both today and yesterday I had some great espresso. I agreed with myself not to go there too often, but for these first days I allow myself an exemption. (3 comments | Score: 1)

Our dear friends Svetla and Radoslav got a baby yesterday! It's a boy and his name is Hristian.

Mother and child are doing well; the baby weights 3.2 kg and is 51 cm.

Only a week ago we went out for dinner together, and now this great news -- chestito mnogo! (2 comments | Score: 5)

Yesterday I went to bed around 21:00 o'clock and I slept very well. It was pretty hard to get up -- it was still dark outside!

I started at 9:00 at Chess, and this time my computer there was still complete. I enjoy working here at Chess: the atmosphere is friendly and the work is interesting. And the coffee is good.

I'm installing the "Real One Player" player now; I hope to be able to listen to Radio Horizont, a Bulgarian radiostation. (3 comments)

So, here I am, writing from my own computer.

I have a little bit mixed feelings about being back in Holland. I was happy to see our own airport and to be able to call people, but it made me realize that the holiday is definitely over. And worse: that Sasha and I are separated again for a couple of weeks. But I'm certainly not complaining! We had a wonderful time in Bulgaria, prosto chudesno. I'm looking forward to see her again, and also to go to Bulgaria again.

At home everything was fine. I arranged the mail: taxes, bills, insurance information etc. There was quite a lot of mail in a few weeks. A very nice thing is the big pile with Christmas cards that we received. Thanks everybody. I'm also looking forward to read the Christmas issue of The Economist.

Jelly: thank you for taking care of the house and the plants. The clock still works :)

I had a sandwich with Dutch cheese for lunch, with a glass of Dutch milk. I'll unpack some things from my suitcases now, then a shower and a nap. But first a phone-call to Washington -- Sasha starts her work at the World Bank today again. (comments?)

Ha! Finally home.

This morning around 10:30 o'clock I arrived at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, and Sasha arrived yesterday according to schedule in Washington.

It was quite a journey! Like I wrote yesterday the connection that I was scheduled to get caused Sasha a day delay a few months ago. And yes: yesterday the same happened to me. From Sofia there was a plane to Budapest, from where a connecting flight would bring me to Amsterdam to arrive yesterday evening. This went spectacularly wrong. The Malev plane had "technical difficulties", and after a long time Malev decided to get a new plane from Budapest to Sofia to pick us up. We spent around seven (!) hours waiting in the departure hall in Sofia.

Actually, the delay didn't really bother me too much; in fact I enjoyed it. I was just hoping that the flight wouldn't be cancelled. If that would happen we would have to go back to get our luggage, arrange a new ticket again, probably again in Bulgarian-style 'line'. But we were lucky: around 22:30 o'clock a new plane did indeed arrive.

I met a few fellow travelers, which made the waiting pleasant. Penga, a lady living in Norwegian and her mother were travelling to Bergen, and Vesi, a Bulgarian girl studying in Arnhem (in Holland) was going to Amsterdam. Without their company the waiting and the flights would have been a lot less fun. (Read More... | comments?)

The first days of the New Year were very relaxed. We stayed in Perushtitsa, where we celebrated New Year with Milan and Nadia. The next days friends and family came visiting us, and we visited Sasha's aunt and uncle.

Saturday we were in Plovdiv to do some shopping.

We packed our luggage Sunday evening, and Milan and Nadia brought us to Plovdiv Monday morning. We travelled by bus to Sofia, and took a cab to the airport. We had of course a huge amount of luggage. This will not surprise people who know our travelling habits; I think the total weight of our luggage was around 70 kg.

The journey to the airport went well. It was snowing a lot in Plovdiv but the road was clean and it was sunny in Sofia. Sasha's plane was scheduled for today, and mine was to leave around 18:15 o'clock.

Flight cancelled
Unfortunately the weather in Vienna was very bad (snow) and my flight was cancelled. As this was the last flight to Vienna for that day, it meant an unexpected prolongation of my stay in Bulgaria. I was already through passport control, and Sasha and I had said goodbye. Just when I put my Bulgarian money away, the cancellation was announced. We were told to get back into the terminal, get our luggage and check with our airline (Austrian) what to do next.

The airport personel was very friendly and let me use their mobile phone to call Joana (Sasha was staying with her). (Read More... | comments?)

I'm still in Sofia. My flight this afternoon was cancelled due to snow in Vienna.

I'll fly tomorrow with Malev, leaving from Sofia around 16:00 o'clock. Tomorrow more! We're staying at Joana's now. (comments?)