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We just arrived in New Zealand!!! The journey took 'only' 36 hours from take-off in Amsterdam…so yeah, we're hammered, but…WE'RE HERE!

I'm already in love with this country, free internet in the Arrivals area, couldn't resist 🙂

It was nice for a change to travel as planned despite flying with standby tickets. Evenmore, traveling just before Easter truly paid off since the planes were just half-full…PLENTY of space to hang out! Over all pretty uneventful flights, it was nice though to have half a day in Los Angeles and eat a burger in Santa Monica 🙂

One thing which really messes with your brain is crossing the International Date Line…we lost one day in just a split second, WOW!

Hmm…uhhh…sooo…guess it is Sunday down here?!? Time to find the hostel and try to make it through the day. Our camper will be delivered tomorrow and then we're off exploring the beauty of Kiwi-country!

We're traveling as light as can before the Kiwi-journey ;-)…I'll make sure to post something every now and then, so keep on checking!

Am ssoooo looking forward to this trip!!

The Libya trip made me miss the 10th anniversary of Scripting News, the longest running weblog on the net.

A milestone in the blogosphere since Scripting News and Dave Winer have set the example for blogging. As a matter of fact, blogging (as we know it) would not exist if it wasn't for Dave's visionary role in modeling RSS…thx Uncle Dave, let's thundercast' again some day! 🙂

Yesterday and today I worked my last hours at the company where I spent ssoooo much time 🙂 in the last 10 years; did the final handover to my replacement and said goodbye to my now ex-colleagues…it does feel a bit weird actually. Then again, there's not too much time to sit down and feel sad; we're leaving for New Zealand on Friday!!!

3.5 weeks of amazing nature (Lord of the Rings here we come!), sun (I hope as it's early autumn over there), culture (NZ is the land of the Maori's), fruit (did ya know New Zealanders are also called 'kiwis'? :)) and overall enjoying freedom in our bedmobil!! 🙂

We're back from Libya! It might not sound that logical at first, but it really is/can be a great place for a holiday! Even though we experienced the 'lost in translation' feeling at some point, as you can see from this traffic sign:

We're ready for the Big Leader's warm welcome! 🙂

I had a great chat with one of the hot-shots of my uhhh future employer (!!) today…they will prepare me an offer this week, this thing WILL take off…big time!! I hope to be able to disclose a bit more coming week, but I *will* leave The Netherlands for this job…wow!

But first we’re off to Libya (WTF? Yeah, Libya! :)). Axel and Beike (remember those two getting married last year October??) are throwing a party, both to celibrate Beike’s Birthday as well as jsaying farewell to the place they have spent their last two years. The theme is ‘Pimps, Priests and Prostitutes’ (naughty nuns and confused
cross-dressers are welcome too)…hehe, don’t worry, we’ll have HEAPS of fun!!

Did anyone see the latest update for last weeks BRTC / Bum Rush The Charts yet??

Check it out, the effort reached to a #2 in the Rock genre and overall #15!!! Yeah…it's in my header; it ain't much if it ain't dutch! 🙂

Global Rich List, is this really important? I guess not, but it is nice to check/know and it's becoming dead serious if you realize how rich you really are! I used to be the 46,718,719th richest person in the world, that's in the
TOP 0.77% worldwide…can you believe that?

Yesterday was BRTC or 'Bum Rush The Chart' day, today we see what was accomplished…the latest stats show that the song topped no. 5 in The Netherlands, YEAAHHHH…proud to be part of this one!!!

The Black Lab song 'Mine Again' didn't reach No.1 in any of the charts, which can very well be due to the way Apple iTunes is creating this chart: in The Washington Post story on BRTC, Derick Mains, a spokesman for Apple declined to comment on the
campaign but said the bestseller list is compiled using proprietary
methods that the company doesn't disclose. "It's much more complicated
than taking a snapshot of the previous 24 hours' worth of sales," he
said.

…interesting…but despite this, I feel we *did* make a difference and showed that there is an (growing) audience interested in podsafe music/artists. Besides that, the initiative is sponsering scholarship(s) with the money coming out of the iTunes Store sales topped with a nice gesture from the Student Loan Network…so, in the end BRTC at least makes a difference for some kids!

I just bought 'Mine Again' from Black Lab…great song for a worthy cause!

Spring always reminds me of the amazing Sakura, the Japanese Cherry Blossom. Check out this picture I took when I was in Japan 3 years ago:

Decisions to make means moving physically in a certain direction too…options considered were located North, South or West from The Netherlands.

Newsflash; I have made up my mind, the decision is here…the (near) future direction is known!! I'll announce it when things get finalized, in the coming weeks…

One of the advantages of having more time for me, myself and I is that I'm able to play Counterstrike again…the Half-Life mod which I used to play a lot. It's like playing hide-and-seek for adults, yay! 🙂

My girlfriends mother Margreet has her Birthday today…I guess that I can call her my mother (in law), despite that we're not married, since it's over 16 years now…so, happy Birthday 'mom'!

It's a little over a week now that I'm enjoying my unemployment and boy, is this GREAT! I would recommend it to anyone actually, it's a pity that most people feel captured in the ratrace and (think they) can't afford it…

I *am* however prepping myself for my future professional life…some options are open and all of them are based outside The Netherlands…seems I'll most likely leave this country soon, wow…indeed, some decions to make!

Weather is GREAT these days…we enjoyed a mere 17 degrees yesterday and today will be again a lovely 14 degrees orso…there is enough to do in the garden, so…I'll be out!

PS. might have to change the header graphic, eh? 🙂

Beard?!?

Originally uploaded by raymondpoort.

As promised earlier, a picture of my beard, little over two weeks now! 🙂

Being unemployed curently feels like a looong weekend; am doing stuff normally saved for weekends, I guess that'll be the main reason for it. 🙂

Enjoying it heaps though; sleeping in, getting shit cleaned up, relaxing and even a bit of cooking! Made a great pasta salad for tonights 100-day return dinner with friends from a course I did last year, YEAH!

Tomorrow will be the first day without ANYTHING booked in my agenda, guess what? Am sure I'll enjoy! 🙂