Coat

For a while now a mysterious coat has been seen hanging from the hallstand. It is unclear to whom the coat belongs, but it must be a hard-working colleague. No matter how early you show up at work, the coat is already there.

[ and when you leave late at night, the coat is still there... ]

Anyone missing a colleague that fits this coat..?

I had a brief discussion whether we are dealing with a male of a female coat. Since the brand of the coat is 'Zara', I'm putting my money on this being a womens coat.

[ the only question is: where is she hiding..? ]

Power key

For a couple of hours I was in possesion of the key: the one that opens the coffee machine!

[ I just happened to find that key somewhere... ]

I did think of ways to abuse this power. For instance opening the machine and wrting strange texts on random plastic cups.

• Careful, hot!


• You need to finish this one before you get another Spencer!


• Like a buscuit with that..?


• Please try our wonderful Wiener melange


• What the *&%! This isn't chocolate milk...

Would this key fit all the machine in the building..?

Eventually I didn't go through with any of my devious plans. Everybody would immediatly think that I was behind something like this, like with the sticky tape in the fridge...

[ which I really, really had nothing to do with... ]

When I saw the coffee machine man yesterday I surrendered the key to him. I think that is in the best interest of the whole floor...

Sticky candy

They're actually quite OK, very sour, but that's to be expected of candy with the name Screaming sours...

[ the flavour is very artificial, but you get used to that... ]

What is annoying though, is that these sweets are terribly sticky...

Get off my finger, get off..!

We even tried sticking things to the wall using a single watermellon flavoured piece.

[ and I can tell you, that wasn't a problem at all..! ]

Skirting dolphin

It's a special pair of scissors that will help me with completing my livingroom with skirting boards.

[ will it finally happen..? ]

Skirtingboardcuttingapparatus, provided by Chris and Ellen...

Sandwich tragedy..!

Human error is here to stay...

This is a famous quote in my profession. The weakest link in the chain is often a human. Since life will become very boring if you take the human element out of everything, we haven't done it (yet).

[ nobody trust a machine or computer for the full 100%... ]

Today I exhibitted a nice piece of human error. I always make an extra sandwich at lunchtime which I plan to eat around 16:00. In the cantine you are required to place your dirty dishes on a converter belt. Then are then brought to the washing-up facility somewhere in the basement.

I always first place my tray on the converter belt, and pick up my nicely wrapped sandwich and my jar of sambal. That normally goes without any incidents.., except today. Today I grabbed the jar of sambal and my empty milk karton.

[ correct action: partly correct objects grabbed... ]

Almost teary-eyed I saw my breadroll desent towards the washing-up basement. I tried to make a saving dive for my 4 o'clock snack, but I had my hands full with the sambal and the empty milk karton...

New breadroll, with the compliments of Eurest catering service...

When I told a catering service employee of my unfortunate event, I was told that the bread would most likely be thrown away immediately. To comfort me in my loss, I was allowed to get a new free breadroll...

[ wow, what a service..! ]

Sold...

The appartment that was still for sale in november, has now been sold.

[ I haven't spotted my new 'one below and one to the left' neighbours... ]

For sale Sold...

How the scratch..?

I do not know what I did to deserve this, but I just saw in the mirror that I have a weird scratch right under my nose. Two parallel lines start at my left nostril and run down my upper lip.

[ who or what leaves these kinds of marks..? ]

Mysterious scratches on my upper lip...

Sambal

I'm really Dutch. The sambal (Indonesian grounded chillipeper saus) in the catine costs a stagering 9 cents for a riddiculously small serving.

[ for less then 50 cents I can buy a whole jar... ]

That's why I make my way towards the cantine eeryday with a small jar of sambal in my trouser pocket...

Old cheese with sambal sandwich, mmm...

Big box

Today someone placed an enormous karton box in the waste paper corner. I'm still very curious what's been transported in that box...

[ did someone in the office order a matrass..? ]

If you know what was inside, please let me know...

Dragon illusion

In the office I spotted a strange cut-out little dragon on the meeting table. I was quickly told this was a incredible optical illusion. Close one eye and look at the blue dragon. Now move your head from the left to the right, up and down. The paper dragon will move its paper head and will keep staring at you...

[ wow, it really moves... Wow..! Take a look for yourself... ]


You can try it out yourself with this cut and paste dragon...

Need a hug..?

Sometimes someone just needs a good cuddle.

[ and sometimes this comes in the form of a cuddly bat... ]

Hope this cuddle does its magic...

It's snowing, no really!

A few times it looked like it was going to happen, but today it finally arrived: snow! For a good hour beautiful white flakes drifted down to my little place on earth.

[ unfortunately, the snow diddn't stick very well... ]

On moments like this I want to go outside...

King of spam-mails

Unsolicited emails (spam), they will drive you crazy. I recieve somewhere between 15 to 20 messages that will try to lure me into something. The good thing about these messages is that their subjects are either so recognizable or predictable that you will throw them into your virtual bin without even opening them...

[ beware if you mail me: use a clear subject..! ]

This got me thinking: which subject should you give your email that will garantee the recipient to open it, even if it has all the signs of being genuine spam...

ANd this is the winning subject:

There's a pudding in your top drawer...

Come on, admit it, you'll open an email with that subject...

And this is how that would look...

Edo Cup

Today I participated in my first kendo tournament. Amsterdam was host to the Edo Cup was organized, and Rokushikan was there with two teams.

Teams consisted of three people. Since Sven, Rogier and I started practising kendo at the same time, our team was formed in no time: the triplets...

My neatly stacked gloves, helmet and towel...

Unfortunately we didn't survive our group, but we have fought bravely enough to be proud of our achievements...

[ next time same team..? ]

He said "yes", she did too...

Yesterday a colleague of mine gone married. In a nice and snug little castle somewhere in the Netherlands they had the wedding in the afternoon, and a party in the evening. The wedding was beautiful (a surprise song of the bride was included), and the party rocked!

[ I even managed to dance..! ]

The invitation: a karton of chocolate sprinkles...

The karaoke machine we gave as a gift was a big successs, although I am now really scared to be invited to a sing-a-long-marathon...

Disclamer: persons or attributes depicted in the above link are in no way or form to be associated with the real bride and/or groom...

The last durian

Whoever goes abroad has to bring something nice, that's our rule.

[ the more exotic the candy, the better... ]

Sometimes the sweets are a big success (Pollies!), but now and then they are not. The durian toffees are a clear example of an unsuccessful piece of candy... And whenever something isn't liked, we 'donate' it to the glass jar in the general purpose coffee corner.

Durian toffees, an aquired taste...

We were all surprised that the toffees were being eaten. After just a few days there was only one toffee left in the jar.

[ and not long after I took the picture someone ate that one as well... ]