Just over an hour ago, I looked at some rather graphic photographs of the recent suicide bomb blast in Jerusalem. They were shocking. I really feel sorry for everyone involved, and anyone who sees such things, in person. I read about this sort of thing all the time in the newspaper, and I thought I had been desensitised to it. Yet, seeing pictures makes it seem more real.
I still feel queasy about it.
posted by James 5:35 pm
Imagine a container full of water and sand. Your mind is the container of water. What you think about is the sand.
When we analyse something, we stir the sand around, looking for patterns that we recognise. But, if we stir it too much, the water becomes a cloudy mess and we can’t understand anything. So, it is a good idea to occasionally let it rest. Let the sand settle to the bottom again. You can always reexamine it later. It’s funny, but the sand sometimes settles into patterns that we understand. We just needed to leave it alone for a while.
posted by James 3:14 pm
Work is fairly quiet at the moment. I'm still working on the spreadsheet, but I'm mostly carrying out cosmetic changes. I have finished another version of the business plan, but I am weary of making any more changes until Paul has had a look through it.
posted by James 3:14 pm
It goes without saying.
Often people say this phrase and follow it with a piece of information that they deem so obvious to everyone that there is no point in saying it. If that's the case, then why did they even say what they just said? Perhaps it is more appropriate to say, "It almost goes without saying..."
I concede that one person could still validly say "It goes without saying" when replying to someone.
Katrijn: "Stroopwafel is delicious"
James: "Well, yeah. It goes without saying."
posted by James 9:17 am
This morning, I woke up at 8:10am and I still had a few things to do before leaving for work. By 8:30am, I was still at home, so I abandonned all hope of catching the 8:39am train. So, today was the first day that I missed the train and was late for work. Shame!
posted by James 6:59 pm
Before the end of work on Friday, Paul gave me a friendly reminder not to come in on Monday. According to my calendar, Monday was Pinksteren (another religious holiday, I figure, that I haven’t heard of). There are quite a few public holidays around this time of year. However, this looks like the last one until Christmas!
Despite having a three-day weekend, I didn’t go on any big trips. I spent most of my time in Tilburg doing mundane things which I like to interpret as small steps on the way to achieving exciting goals.
On Saturday, I pottered around the house, reading up on places that I would like to visit and getting through two chapters of my Dutch book (cool). I was intending to have spaghetti for dinner. But, in accordance with my new meal system, I decided to eat it for lunch. It was a good move, because it set me up for the rest of the day.
I went for my longest run yet (in Tilburg). Actually, it was the same as last Sunday’s, but I turned around after 45 minutes, rather than 30 minutes. I have told my Dad about my plan to run a marathon, and he has kindly prepared a running schedule for me. (He has run in several marathons).
He stressed that I should be drinking water during my training runs, because these are the conditions that I will have during the actual marathon. I should drink water regularly, even if I don’t feel thirsty. So, during my run, I was watchful for places where I could stop to drink – water fountains and taps on the side of buildings.
Even though I was often running alongside canals full of water, I couldn’t find anything suitable for me to drink. There were no drinking fountains in any of the small parks. I intensified my search. Whenever I saw anything that looked like a tap on a building, I detoured towards it. I find this hard to believe, but EVERY tap I saw had the handle removed! Huh? So how does it work? Does everyone carry a personal tap handle? Maybe only authorised people with specially designed spanners may use the taps. I’m perplexed.
Perhaps there is a concern about wasting water? Or, maybe the rationale is that someone might forget to turn off the tap. Then the polders would (eventually) be flooded, rendering centuries of land-reclamation and dike-building obsolete. (My imagination joined me for the run).
I asked people at a cafe and petrol station if there were any places where I could drink water. The woman at the cafe just shook her head, saying “there’s no water”, and gave me a confused look like she had never seen anyone go for a run before. (Well, maybe she hadn’t – the other runners are in that park!) The woman at the petrol station didn’t seem to understand my question, and I think she really wanted to sell me an expensive bottle of water. I found a handle-less tap outside, thought about kicking it, and ran the rest of the way home.
My time was 1 hour 28 minutes.
Moise’s birthday was on Sunday, so Maja and I joined him at his house for birthday lunch. Moise lives in Oisterwijk, a small town about 12 km out of Tilburg. I wasn’t going for a run that day, so I thought, “what the hell” and cycled to Moise’s. To be accurate, I cycled to the Oisterwijk train station, and Moise collected me from there.
My first impression of Oisterwijk was that it is better looking than Tilburg. The houses are further back from the street, the streets seem wider and the trees provide more shade. I saw a lot more “stand alone” houses, as opposed to the sort of building where I live in Tilburg.
Moise lives about five minutes walk from the train station. His place is a small brick building in the backyard of a larger property. It’s just one big room (about 25 metres square) with a bathroom on the side.
We made a tower of pancakes for lunch, ate birthday cake and watched a video. I also had a look through some of Moise’s photos taken last year, before starting his traineeship. Maja and I commented on how young he looked in them!
A moderate wind made cycling home more difficult. I predict that from my house to Moise’s and back again is about 25-30 km. If I choose to do that as a run, at least I can stop off at Moise’s for a drink!
Monday was a day off, so I planned a bike ride to Breda. Theoretically, it was simple. All I had to do was find the road called “Bredaseweg” and stay on it until I reached Breda. About 20 minutes after heading off, however, I made a wrong turn. I cycled through a forest much like the runner’s park behind the university, and ended up in a residential area. I tried to find an alternative route to Breda, but just got more lost. The only thing that I could do was retrace my steps back to Tilburg.
If you are still able to retrace your steps, are you really lost, anyway?
When I got back to Bredaseweg, I looked at my watch and saw that it was only 12:30pm. So, I reverted back to my original plan of going to Breda. This time, I stayed on the main road and didn’t get lost.
I spent about four hours in Breda, soaking up the sun and having a wander around.
Between the city centre and the train station was a big park. The weather was perfect for relaxing in the park. As I lay on the grassy bank, I watched people play with a flying disc. Breda’s city centre is larger than Tilburg’s in terms of bars and shops, but it doesn’t have a big open square. An impressive church stands over the centre, but it looked to be closed when I was there. I saw the Breda museum, but when I got there it was nearly closing time. (I will probably visit it on my next trip there).
Aside from taking ten minutes to find my way out of the city, the ride home was straightforward. (For long stretches, it was literally “straight forward”). According to signage along the way, I estimate the one way trip to be 21 km. (Hmmm… that’s almost a half marathon. I might run it sometime).
By the end, my bum was so sore from sitting on the bike, that I looked forward to dismounting at traffic lights. I’m still not used to these long bikerides!
In the evening, I went pooling with Jasper and Steven. I was so sick of my bike, that I decided to walk to town! As always, pool was cool. The best part is when you play the occassional spectacular shot that comes off. That happened to me this time. Twice. With what turned out to be the last two shots of the game, I first simultaneously potted two balls, and then played a clever jump shot (going the length of the table) to knock in the last. I gave Jasper the louded high five of all time and leaned against the table, feeling smug.
Later, Marjoleine and Maartje turned up to watch some of the pool. We soon went to a nearby bar for drinks. I had a great time. It was just the five of us, everyone was funny and the atmosphere was “gezellig”. Despite having work the next day, I wasn’t perturbed about finishing off three large beers. Drinking is easy when you are having a fun time with others.
I realise that it would be impractical to do this with the whole local committee and the trainees, but I enjoyed that Monday night more than the others. Maybe it was the pool, or perhaps it was due to there being less people. I think the main reason was it being a rather impromptu event compared with the planned routine of regular Monday drinks.
posted by James 6:56 pm