Tosti perfection

It took a lot of practice, it was a real case of trial and error (cheese spillage!), but I did it!

[ it's just a matter of turning 90 degrees at the right time... ]

Diamond pattern and tasty too..!

EC 2008 poule

As many of you might know, I'm not a soccer fan. Besides the fact that they talk too much about it before and after the game in the Netherlands, you have to admit it's a pretty boring thing to watch.

[ only the keeper has an interesting role to play... ]

They are organizing a poule in the office. To make it clear that you do not need to have any knowledge of the game, I'm participating with the serious aim to win.

Predicted 0-0 on almost every game, this is going to be a boring tournament...

Cheese barbarians (2)

It was to be expected, they did it again...

[ blaming an innocent cheese slicer... ]

This isn't a piece of cheese, this is a miniature halve pipe skate ramp...

Staring at a rectangle

The last couple of days I've been intensively looking at a black rectangle on a small table. During a usability test, users were observed while using a specific product.

[ I'm sworn to secrecy regarding the nature of the tested device... ]

Interesting shape on a table...

In the test users were asked to place the product inside the outline, allowing us to have a good view and see if everything was clear to the users. From the moment the rectangle was filled, watching it became a lot more interesting...

[ preparing for this test was the reason for my long radio silence... ]

The big M&M test (part 2)

Over two years ago I conducted my first M&M test. Time for an update I would say, because are all the different colours evenly devided in the bag in 2008..?
After a quick visit to the store I came home with 6 bags of peanut M&M's, over one and a half kilos of candy.

[ either you do it proper or don't do it at all... ]

After opening all the bags, sorting and counting them, this was the result:

	bag 1	bag 2	bag 3	bag 4	bag 5	bag 6	Tot (av.)
Red	15	19	19	29	14	31	127 (21.2)
Brown	22	18	20	18	26	17	121 20.2)
Green	16	19	23	13	20	27	118 (19.7)
Yellow	33	20	20	18	21	16	128 (21.3)
Blue	23	20	23	21	25	13	125 (20.8)
Orange	12	27	20	22	19	22	122 (20.3)
	121	123	125	121	125	126

741 M&M's in 6 different colours...

If you look at my sample you see the colours on average are devided quite evenly. But what should I do now with all the tested M&M's? I decided to put them back in the bags, two bags with only brown and red M&M's, two with the green and yellow ones and two bags with only blue and orange M&M's.

[ I couldn't be bothered to evenly mixing them up again... ]

Thanks...

...for all the congratulations, cards, e-mails, messages, phone calls, e-cards and presents.

[ and all that without even giving a party... ]

Didn't take out the party decorations this year...

Am now really thinking about throwing a party next year...

NS hiking trip

The Dutch railroads (NS) set out routes from one station to another. Today I walked from one station to another, but not one that you would find in any official NS hiking book. I started in Amsterdam and via the Pelgrims route (LAW 7-1 for people that are familiar with this stuff) until I reached Nieuwveen. I then took the Marskramer route (LAW 3-3) until I reached Leiden central station.

[ and that will take you just over 11 hours of walking... ]

Beautiful part of the route, just outside Amsterdam forest...

In leiden I took the train back to Amsterdam centraal station. All in all I think this was a suitable walk for my 33rd birthday; 70km is more then enough for a single day...

Pink themed drinks

With a couple bottles of rosé wine, raspberries and pink-red (mothersday)cakes we celebrated the last day in the office before the Pentacost holiday.

[ together with my almost birthday... ]

The wine was cool and very enjoyable in the sunshine...

Outdoor lunching

With the beautiful weather we're having you just cannot stay inside during lunch. Yo just make yourself a whole pile of sandwiches and go outside. To the other side of the canal (the sunny side), sit down with you feet just above the water and look at all the boats going by...

[ and the attempt of some coots trying to build an impossible nest... ]

Lunch with a view in the sunshine...

Blue bruise beauty

The wonderful thing about bruises is that they only reveal their true colours after a few days. My elbow currently features a very nice blue-purple band.

[ with a hint of yellow around the edges... ]

Am I the only person that appreciates the beauty if this..?

It is a pity that you have to go through a world of hurt to create a piece of art of this magnitude...

Zaandam

I really only set out to go for a short walk, but when I encountered a sign with 'Zaandam' I became curious how you would get there...

[ and my rib wasn't protesting... ]

Zaanstad, with the ferry...

Since I ended up in Zaandam surprisingly quickly, I decided to continue my journey. Via the Zaanse schans to Neck and Purmerend.

[ and then a bus back to Amsterdam... ]

It's a gift...

I haven't found any practical use for my newly discovered ability, but it's bound to be useful for something. It has now been the 6th time I have found a package of mushrooms with a barcode that appears to be unscannable at the checkout.

[ wonderful, wouldn't you agree..? ]

This barcode refused to be scanned...

Vacuum rings

The repavement of a street around the corner means I'm bringing in a lot of sand into my home. Time to let the vacuum cleaner do its work. And with a bright sun outside, it becomes a merry experience...

[ vacuum cleaning, something that is hard to do with a broken rib... ]

Beautiful rings of light, reminded me of my faucet...