Yesterday we watched the soccer game between Germany and the Netherlands in the Goethe Institute. I was there with Rene, Suzanne and Noortje, people from the German course I'm doing. Our teacher Sandra and her little son were there too.

The Goethe Institute had invited around 100 people to come and watch the game, and all the tickets had been sold out. There was a large number of TVs and screen throughout the building, as well as in the garden. On the first floor there was a video projection in the main hall.

I had a great evening. Everything was very well organized -- leave that to the Germans! The atmosphere was excellent and we had a lot of fun together. The soccer game was very exciting. Germany scored in the first half, which made half-time a uncomfortable. I think most Dutch fans were quite relieved with the final result, a 1-1 draw!

I took my camera, and there are some pictures online of the Samen kijken experience.

Yesterday's German lesson was great fun. We studied outside, in the garden of the Goethe Institut. The weather was very nice and they have a great garden. We dealt with the imperative mood; an easy subject. The soccer game was awful.

Today I gave a presentation for a customer on J2EE and Chess' software development process. The presentation took about 1,5 hours and it was great to do! The meeting was in the south of Holland, a journey of around three hours from Haarlem.

I saw only the last 30 minutes, but what a match tonight... Both teams played very beautiful soccer, and the last ten minutes the end of the game were very surprising and exciting.

I don't frequently watch soccer, outside tournaments like the European Championship, but this was really the game at its best!

Yesterday Marjolein came for dinner. It was the first time we had dinner together without Sasha or Jerry, both of which are abroad. Sasha is in Washington D.C. of course, and Jerry is spending two months in Ecuador to do research. Dinner was very nice, and then we went out to a pub. We saw the last few minutes of Spain vs. Russia and had a great evening.

Accidentally I saw two friends in a pub just when we were going to the train station, and after Marjolein caught her train I went back. Had a couple of drinks in the bar there and I was home around 2:00 o'clock. It was a very nice Saturday night.

Today I've spent mainly with studying for the Java certification. Next Monday I will do the test for part one.

All day long there has been a steam train crossing the Spaarne. NedTrain, a train maintance company near the Haarlem station exists 160 years and celebrates it today.

It reminds me of the steam train in Opperdoes, the village where I was born. We used to play a lot around the tracks of this (touristic) train.

The weather is great today, and we're working with all the windows open. I'm wearing my shorts, which is a lot better than the warm clothes I was wearing yesterday.

It's a lot less busy now; the shop is still running well and I am working on some Chess proposals today.

A few days ago I received a card from Bulgaria, which my father sent two weeks ago when he was on a business trip to Bulgaria.

I'm taking it easy this weekend. This morning I'm studying from a list of practice questions for the Java test I want to do.

In the afternoon there's the homework for the German course. We've been asked to write a lexicon article about the "greatest Dutch person in history". It's very difficult to choose one!

I'm sticking to my own profession, engineering, and I'll write an article about Simon Stevin. He was a Dutch (Flemish) engineer and mathematician living in the beginning of the 17th century. He invented many Dutch mathematical words that are still in use today.

Yesterday I went out for a drink with my colleagues after work; I was home around 20:00 o'clock. I felt pretty tired after a week of hard work. But also very satisfied: the project I've been working on the last three weeks is a great success!

In a period of three weeks we have created an online shop where customers can buy a variety of products. For the actual content delivery we implemented interfaces with eight external suppliers, which was a challenging task because of the short time-to-market.

But it worked, and the shop is running nice and smooth. It's very exciting to see how many visitors we have (from a mailing sent to many potential customers), and how well the shop handles the large amount of consumers. Quite a difference with my own tiny website ;)

I really enjoyed this project: I like to work in dynamic and high-pressure projects like this one. It was also great fun taking the fundamental technological decisions of the project and interacting with the customer so frequently.

A day of hard work today, and things went well. The project is ready; there are only a few small things to be done tomorrow, and the next project presented itself already.

I often listen to music while working. In the morning I start with soft, mellow music. There are a couple of RealAudio internet radiostations that provide a perfect non-stop stream of background music. After lunch, I often switch to a more up-beat station with dance music.

I noticed that it depends on how I feel: today it was quite busy at work. I guess there was no need for music after lunch to wake me up, and I'm still listening to the easy "morning music".