It’s live! www.theirstheglory.com.

Wanna read a great story… visit The website that reads like a book!

Water proof

Giethoorn

Our family holiday in Denmark

On holy ground

What if your son decides to be a supporter of the ‘wrong’ club? Children are allowed to make mistakes, it’s our job to correct them. So, we took of to Eindhoven for a stadium-tour at PSV-Eindhoven. Hoping he would admit his fault and change sides afterward. We drove southwards under black skies and in heavy rains, but when we arrived in Eindhoven the sun started the shine. The gods were obviously with us this day.

One and a half hour later… we’ve seen it all. The shop, the business boxes, the lounges, the most expensive seats, the halls of fame, the pressroom, the dressing rooms, the field, the prizes… the whole lot.

Did he change his mind? Well, just a little bit. He’s now officially a PSV-supporter AND an Aj.. supporter (children can do that!). But I’m confident. I’ll take him to the next match, and I’ll bet my everything for it that he will be a “Phooly” when the 90 minutes are over. PSV, if you’re reading this, please play well that day.

When all was still possible…

July 11th. Final Day. A few hours before Webb would blow his whistle. Again, a hot day in Holland. We are getting used to it by now. Started the day in the pool… a fresh start of the day. A hot day is always quiet. This one is no exception. Orange flags, posters, ‘beessies’, shirts and balloons are everywhere… we’ve all caught the orange-fever again. And this night, we’re about to get sick of happiness or defeat. All is possible, on this hot summer day in Holland.

Orange as can be…

Evening comes. Guest are coming. The Netherlands play Spain, and we have Spanish guests. Or better: guests from Catalunia. Beatriz and Marc from Barcelona are brave enough to watch the match deep in the hole of the lion. Yellow and red, surrounded by an overwhelming  amount of orange. We create a Spanish parking space for them, to make them feel at home. We already feel sorry for them, for they’re going to lose tonights match of course. That’s why we do everything possible to make them feel as welcome as possible. They arrive with a Spanish flag, a bag filled with beer and delicious ham and chorizo from their homecountry. We completely forget to serve the last two items… and we are enjoying it now on this very moment. Hmmm…. delicious. One hour before the match… when all was still possible!

Spanish cars only.

Dutch “humor” ????

“lekker! … is op!”

Wrecking my journal

I’ve done it. I’ve wrecked a journal. Merciless. And I loved it. After a week of beating, kicking, bashing, humaliating, dropping, hitting, cooking and ruining my journal… I have no inspiration left. The book itself not only looks like s***, it smells like it as well. I’ll burn it later this evening. Here’s a little compilation that shows what my journal had to endure in the previous week. Can’t wait to buy myself a fresh one… and start all over again.

Experience wildlife: partying birds

Run collegues, run!

My first “Houdoex” production… more to follow soon!

Batroom story

It woke me up at 05.13 h. When I opened my eyes to see where the strange sound came from, I saw it flying. Fast. A fast-flying blackish thing, circeling around just a feet over our heads. Trapped in our bedroom. Although not quite awake yet, I managed to identify this UFO (what made it an IFO) in no time. A bat. There’s a bat flying in our bedroom! In a split second, I made a damage-report as well as a strategy to deal with this problem. My first concern was the sleeping beauty besides me. I woke her up by whispering a short message: “Pssst. Don’t be scared. But keep your head low. And pull a blanket over your head… for there is a bat in our room. Just-keep-your-head-low, dear, and let me deal with it.” She did exactly as instructed… so I could focus on that flying animal. I tried to stand up my feet, but that made him even fly lower at shoulder-heigth. I didn’t like that, so I kept low in order to keep him high. I crawled towards the door of the room and shut it. Now he was really trapped and had no chance to fly into the rest of the house. “How on earth can I catch this animal?”, I asked myself. I threw my shorts in the air… in a futile attempt to catch the animal. But that didn’t impress him one bit. So I tigered over the floor to the other door in our bedroom, which gives acces to a small room. I opened the window in that room, and tigered back. I made my way around the bed to the other end of the room and slowly raised. His only way of escape now, was the little room. To my big relief he flew into the little room, but just before I was able to shut the door… it flew out again. “Have you catched it?”, asked a sleepy voice under the blankets. “Almost, dear… just keep low.” My second attempt was more succesfull. It flew into the small room again, I shut the door and went back to bed. Hoping that this bat would figure out for himself how to escape from that room through the open window. Fortunally, he did… unless it’s still hiding somewhere. I’m sure we’ll find out soon.