drank some belated birthday champagne.... first time I opened a bottle and got sprayed too ) kinda tipsy after one big glass

Today was national poetry day in Flanders and the Netherlands....
 I thought to mark this day I'd bring you another poem by a Flemis poet. Herman De Conink has always been one of my favorites. I still remember hearin that he had died... he died "on the job"-on the street in Lisbon, on his way to a poets’ gathering. It will be 5 years this year...

© Herman De Coninck (1944-1997)

Oh and at the and of this poem I wanna add some    for some special people in my life...

today was a nice day... clear sky... sun shining...

for me it was a lazy day too. I hate to admit it I just felt like hang around... just taking some time for me not doing anything in particular a bit of rummaging through the house, some reading, playing some pc-games,.. . staying in my pajama far too long

Later I went for a walk and took my camera (damn the battery went flat...forgot to recharge it last time) Anyway I did manage to take some pics before it 'died'.

I went to the fortress in the center of Leyden (De burcht: on the left). This is the oldest part of our town. Back in the middle ages people sought refuge in the fortress when danger was heading near... I took a shot on my first panoramic pic ever:

Later I took this pic of the city hall (left and right) and one of (surprise surprise) a tree... I love it when night falls and the sky is nice darkish blue but not pitch dark yet! (as usual: click images for a better look)

I feel like my life is one big jigsaw puzzle.... and everyone is trying to solve his puzzle  only people do this in different manners: some start with sorting things, other start with the border pieces (border pieces stand for basic/fundamental things)....

I'm kinda  jumping form this to that (as I am with most things I finished a big piece and know I'm continuing on the border.....

Does make me wonder too... remember making puzzles as  a kid... how in the end ever so often (esp. if the puzzle was bought at a garage sale ) a piece would be missing... so I wonder what if  at some time in my life I'm misplacing this one important piece.... would I find it when I need it again?

melopee (translation)

Under the moon the long river slides
On the long river the moon slides warrily
Beneath the moon on the long river the canoe slides towards the sea
Past high reed and low meadows the canoe slides towards the sea
slides with the sliding moon the canoe towards the sea
They are companions on their way to the sea the canoe the moon  and the man
Why do moon and man both slide obediently to the sea
© Paul Van Ostaijen (vert. maggy)

Wanna join in the moon event? Go to Raw_Flame's site

pfff talked to my grandma this evening... she just so gets on my nerves... everytime i try to think of her and be nice.. to forget all the horrible things she did to my mum and me in the past... but then she says something stupid ...

She is so obsessed with money... jikkes... I told her I'm not going to get together and stuff with my crazy uncle who scares the hell out of me just to get named in his will... that I'll earn my own money... she didn't like that... too bad...

sometimes wonder wether she wants me to be happy or me to live 'her' life... E. says it's the latter....

Some loose quotes...

The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armour to lead all his customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly ignores the fact that it was he who by peddling second-hand, second-rate technology, led them all into it in the first place.
'Douglas Adams on Microsoft'

The metric system did not really catch on in the States, unless you count the increasing popularity of the nine-millimeter bullet.
Dave Barry

We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.
Also sprach Zarathustra (1883-1885) pt. 3, ch. 56, sect. 23

Rosencrantz: Fire!
Guildenstern: Where?
Rosencrantz: It's all right - I'm demonstrating the misuse of free speech.
Tom Stoppard - Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead

On this week's quote
Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art.... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.  ~C.S. Lewis

I don't fully agree ...  I think having friends is one of the most necessary things in life BUT yezz you can survive without them only life would not be as beautiful then!

C.S. Lewis wrote the Narnia Chronicles... if you like Harry Potter check these out as well (if you don't do it too )

Friday I had a very nice birthday party... guess my last fun party was 5 years ago... ever since birthdays mostly consisted of visiting family.....

This year I invited a number of people for drinks at maximiliaan and later on we went for diner at a thai place next door ....

Yesterday E and I went to Antwerp. We went to denachten (sorry dutch only) which is cultural festival that is held each year. was pretty good only the weather sucked... on the way over the car shaked badly to and fro... blown about by the wind  and since it is a two hours drive we left Antwerp earlier as we might have otherwise

Got some pretty good birthday gift ( 2 books on Tai Chi, one on photography, Douglas Coupland's Microserfs: this is a very good book, read it but now I have it myself , a lot of puzzles ).

I wanted to buy a ring from my favourite Belgian goldsmith Wim Meeussen. Already have some jewels he made and i wanted to buy a ring as a treat and for to mark a new period in my life... E. chucked in  money so I could buy something extra nice it looks a bit like this one and this one but different... have to go and get it next month

Also spent my last belgian francs on belgian cd's bought the new Light Sleeper from Pieter Jan De Smet  and Outside the Simian Flock by Millionaire