After work I left to Middenmeer. Although I always realize I have to leave earlier for the train to Hoorn than for the others, I had to run again to make it -- the train is on a track further than the others. I arrived in Hoorn at 19:10 o'clock; had a warm chocolate milk there and I took the bus 20 minutes later.

It's nice to be in Middenmeer. It's very peaceful here and it's great to be with my parents. I slept 10 hours tonight; I guess I needed that.

Yesterday Max and I went to a concert of Avril Lavigne, a Canadian singer and songwriter. The concert was in the Heineken Music Hall, a concert hall near the Amsterdam Arena and close to Florijn, where Sasha and I used to live. We first had dinner in a café next to the concert hall; it was very cozy. Then we went next doors, to the Music Hall.

We skipped the pre-show. It was the first time I saw the Heineken Music Hall from the inside. It's a very pleasant place: large, efficient but stylishly decorated. The hallways and entrance gave me the impression of a large cinema. The hallways were wide and high: the building could handle a lot of visitors without giving a crowded feeling. There were free internet terminals as well.

The concert was very nice. I knew only three songs, Avril's hit singles, but her repertoire was very broad and it was a good show. She has a marvelous voice. The audience was diverse, with a lot of young kids.

It was a real fun evening; I was home around midnight.

I just brought Sasha to her plane. Today she's going back to the States. After a long stay here to write her thesis, she's now going back to work.

At the airport there was a group of strikers. One of their signs said "airtraffic control on strike", but luckily enough the planes were all flying regularly. Later a group of strikers came into the departure hall, but they left after a few minutes.

We had coffee together and Sasha left for the plane at 13:15. Her plane is first flying to Reykjavík, Iceland, and she'll arrive in Washington around 19:00 o'clock (local time). We had a great time here together.

This weekend we went to the cinema twice; we saw two Spanish movies in the Toneelschuur.

Saturday evening we went to "La mala educación". It was an intelligent movie, with complicated story lines coming together nicely in the end. I enjoyed the music a lot. Yesterday we saw "En la ciudad", a sweet movie about the life of 30-ers in a Spanish city.

After we came back we saw the last part of Moulin Rouge on TV. It was a relaxed weekend.

Yesterday we had dinner with Ettie, Mieke, Gerben and Jaap. We went out the six of us to a restaurant here in Haarlem, "Piecks". It was a great evening, very cosy. It was a long time since had all seen each other together, so that was very nice.

Afterwards we had tea and cake at home.

Sunday we visited the Mauritshuis in The Hague. The Mauritshuis is a museum with a large collection of old paintings, mainly from Dutch artists.

We were inspired by the movie we saw a few days ago: the painting "Girl with a pearl earring" is in the Mauritshuis. We had a very nice afternoon. There were some paintings by Frans Hals and Jacob van Ruisdael. I saw a picture of "View of Haarlem with bleaching grounds" in a book a few weeks ago, and I really enjoyed seeing it now in real.

I am now waiting for papers to be processed. It will be another four weeks before I know more.

Yesterday evening I went to Jennie's graduation party. My parents were there as well and it was a nice evening. Ronald showed us some pictures of her graduation last Wednesday. He connected his digital camera directly to their TV; it was a great way of seeing pictures: sharp, large screen and bright colors.

On the way back I had the last train to Haarlem. It always gives a special feeling taking the last train of the night. I was home around 1:15 o'clock.

Today we had an easy Saturday; after a nice breakfast we went into the city. When we walked towards the center we passed by a building on the Nieuwe Gracht which has a maquette of Haarlem hanging on the wall inside.

We were curious, so we rang the bell and asked if it would sometimes be open for the public. A very nice lady, who worked for the archeological institute of Haarlem, opened the door and let us in immediately. She showed us around, and after seeing the (magnificient) maquette she also showed us the first version of an exhibition for the archeological museum in the Vleeshal she was working on.

The maquette is very interesting; she said it was made by someone just as a hobby and that it had been stored in their attic for a long time. The city is shown as it was early in the 19th century. The city wall was still there as well as the various city gates. Very beautiful.

We did some shopping on the market and looked around in the city. Then I went to the library and got two new books. I downstairs again, into the archive, where they have a huge amount of books about Haarlem. I borrowed a book written by F. Allan on Haarlem's history. The lady of the museum had recommended it; it's written in 1874!

Later we had a late lunch in V&D.

Yesterday evening we went to the movies, to "The Terminal" in Cinema Palace.

The movie is about Viktor Navorski, a traveller from a fictional Eastern European nation who gets stuck in an airport in the US after a military coup in his native land. His passport, issued by his previous government, is no longer valid and he has to stay on in the terminal of the airport for months to wait for the political situation to change.

The character of Navorski, played by Tom Hanks, is wonderful. It's a very sweet guy, who is a total stranger in the US. To our great surprise Tom Hanks was speaking Bulgarian, and in fact his whole character was Bulgarian. His language, some movements, his jokes and the whole behavior were typical Bulgarian which was very nice to see.

It was a great movie; sweet and with a happy end. Personally I loved the older guy from India who Navorski meets on the airport.

Sasha, Steven and I went to "Girl with a pearl earring" yesterday. It's a movie about a painting made by Johannes Vermeer.

The movie is based on a book by Tracy Chevalier, which imagines the circumstances under which the painting came to be created.

The movie was marvellous! The story is playing in Delft in the 17th century, and it was absolutely wonderful to see the city as it was 400 years ago. The opening shot of the movie, an helicopter view of the city with the church in the middle and the fields outside the city walls, was just brilliant.

The canals were used a lot in those days, for every day transport of cargo and passengers. It was very funny to see one of the boats being stuck in the suddenly frozen canal; it felt remarkable similar to ice-scratching a car in the morning to go to work.

The story of the movie was interesting, but I mostly enjoyed the great views and superb camera work. The light in the movie was very special; it was similar to the light visible on many of Vermeer's paintings.

After the movie we went for some drinks in In Den Uiver, and later we had dinner together. When we walked back home we talked a lot about the history of Alkmaar and Haarlem.