Cut short...

I visited the hairdresser today. "Make it short," I said, "It'll grow back anyway..."

[ well, I better hope it will... ]

The floor was littered with my hair...

Anti-Conny

I've had it. I've tried, but enough is enough: that cat on my balconny is more trouble than it's fun.

I've been able to pet the furball once, after that something went wrong...

• I'm unable to come close
  
• I'm hissed at whenever I do try
  
• My plants are eaten bare
  
• My planters are overthrown
  
• The earth is spread with care over my balconny
  
• My nice wooden floor plates are used as a scratching post
  
• I think I smelled a ammoniac odor somewhere
  
• I've been attacked twice
  

[ in other words: no more Balconny for Conny... ]

Access to my balconny has been blocked...

Ice cubes are OK

I always used to really hate ice cubes. Until I found these in an official Lego store.

[ and I just had to buy them... ]

Built quickly, these bricks melt...

Sue-see train

In Brighton we had dinner with the Japanese sensei. And what could be more suitable that going out to have some sushi..? We ended up in Mochi Mochi, a trendy Japanse restaurant were eating is conveyor belt driven. Throughout the whole restaurant a sushi train brings new dishes of sushi. You're sitting right beside its track.

[ if you see anything you like, you take it... ]



The disadvantage is that everything looks nice and isn't that cheap. I spend a large part of the evening looking at delecious food coming by, trying to summon all my willpower not to eat itall. And this was hard, people were cheering me on to eat...

[ that one looks good, you want it, you know you do, just smell it... ]

Snowman? Shodan!

After two and a half day of training in Brighton it was time to do my first dan exam (Shodan) in iaido. I was placed in the last group and had to wait almost one and a half hour before it was my turn.

[ together with Sven, Rogier, Rutger and Jolanda... ]

I can't remember very much of the actual exam, but a few moments later my number was present on the list of people that passed!

Sven, Rogier, Rutger and Jolanda also passed.

Greenland trip report

Trip report from Greenland

It has taken me some time, but I managed to write a trip report of my hiking adventure in Greenland.

[ the very brief summary: Wow... ]

Since reading the report in chronological order, use this link Trip report

[ click the '>> next day' links to easily jump to the next day... ]

Holiday in Greenland, wow...

You can also look on Flickr.com to see some pictures in more detail...

Going home

The flight back to Amsterdam only leaves late in the afternoon. I spent the largest part of the day in a park doing nothing. It gave me the opportunity to have a look at the damage to my Harry Potter book. One of my fellow travellers also wanted to read the last part in the series. I decided to tear out those sections I already read, so we could enjoy the book together.

In the end I removed the first 250 pages. At that time I finished the book and I could give the remainder of the book to my travel companion to finish.

[ and carry the book in het backback... ]

Harry Potter and the loose pages...

In the Greenlandic wilderness, I couldn't be bothered shaving. After two weeks of hiking I had accuired a completely new look.

[ don't worry, the beard has completely disappeared... ]

But I had to experiment with it before it was gone...

That was it for this trip report. Bigger photo's can be viewed on Flickr.com...

Bye Greenland...

After a short night in a youth hostel (the luxurity of a hot shower!!!) we are leaving today. From Ilulissat we flew with a small plane via Asiaat to Kangerlussuaq. From there we took a big plane back to Copenhagen. From the plane we had our last view of Greenland.

[ I already miss the icebergs... ]

Bye Greenland, bye icebergs, bye glaciers...

In Copenhagen we again spent the night in a hostel. In the evening we visited Tivoli, made a trip in the high rise merry-go-round...

[ that's strange, it gets dark here... ]

Offers a nice view of night time Copenhagen

>> Next day

Last day on the island

The houses do not only have nice colours, they also have special numbers. In the old days they only had one number: given in the order they were built. Since this system is not very mailman-friendly (I wasn;t able to find any patterns), they later added street names and numbers. The choronological number is blackm, the other is yellow.

Number 431 was unfindable...

This was out last day on Disko. We took a boat back to the main land, to Ilulissat.

The scenary of icebergs in the sun...

>> Next day

Qeqertarsaq

Today we have the whole day to explore Qeqertarsaq. First we made a hike to a special rock formation, then we visited the local museum.

There are about 1,000 people living in Qeqertarsaq. There are brightly coloured wooden houses everywhere.

Advert for a new color collection..?

At night we were treated to a fantastic diner show by a couple of whales near the coast.

[ they were swimming between the icebergs, coming up and diving under... ]

The Inuiet language is great. When you hear it, you don't have a clue what they are talking about. Reading it is even better. If you think that the Dutch make long words, you ain't seen nothing yet...

I won't even try to pronounce this...

>> Next day

Civilization

Today we made a short trip to the top of a mountain. The map promised us a great view, the fogg denied us this...

Because we were back to the camp early, we decided to continue to the civilized world: Qeqertarsaq.

[ where we boarded a fishing boat a week ago... ]

I see houses and a bridge..!

In Qeqertarsaq you see sleds and sled dogs chained up. The sleds appear to have carelessly being abandonned.

[ without snow, a sled is pretty useless... ]

Sled for sale..?

Sled dogs are not the cute and nice animals you see in the Disney films. They are treated as equipment, they are not fluffy and cuddly dogs.

[ the pups are free to walk around, and you can pet them safely... ]

Free for now, destined to be chained up when they are older...

>> Next day