Wednesday, March 30, 2005

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Rating:★★★
Category:Books
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Author:Mark Haddon
Sekali lagi, buku yg seolah2 dituturkan oleh seorang anak di usia puber. Christopher berusia 15 th, dan yg membuatnya unik adalah, ia mengidap Asperger's Syndrome - sejenis autisme yg membuatnya sangat pintar memecahkan persoalan matematika, namun sangat lemah dalam berinteraksi dengan manusia. Suatu malam ia menemukan anjing tetangganya mati terbunuh, dan ia memutuskan utk memecahkan misteri pembunuhan ini. Ternyata, usahanya dalam menjadi detektif ini membuat perubahan besar dalam hidupnya.

Buku ini termasuk mudah dibaca, apalagi karena disertai gambar2 Christopher utk menjelaskan maksudnya. Bab-nya pendek2 dan masing2 diawali bukan dengan nomer biasa (1, 2, 3, dst) namun dengan bilangan prima kesukaan Christopher. Kisah ini sangat menyentuh, terutama karena si penutur sangat polos dalam mengutarakan kisahnya. Bacaan yg menyenangkan: 3 1/2 bintang.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Mark Haddon
(C)Vintage, 2004
ISBN# 1400032717

Life of Pi

Rating:★★★
Category:Books
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Author:Yann Martel
Pi (seorang pemuda berusia 16 th), seekor zebra, seekor hyena, seekor orang utan betina dan seekor harimau jantan harus mempertahankan hidup di sebuah sekoci penyelamat, di tengah2 samudera Pasifik. Bagian kisah survival ini (bagi saya) adalah bagian kedua dari seluruh buku.

Bagian pertama mengisahkan kehidupan Pi masa kanak2nya, dan ketika ia bersekolah di kampungnya, Pondicherry. Di sini Pi menceritakan tentang pengalamannya dibesarkan di sebuah kebun binatang, di mana ia mengamati perilaku hewan, terutama dalam interaksinya dengan sesama hewan dan manusia. Pi juga menuturkan pandangannya dalam beragama; ini sangat menarik.

Bagian pertama ini alurnya sedang, lalu tiba2 sangat cepat berubah jadi 'bagian dua'. Seperti membaca buku lain, sebab setting-nya sangat berbeda, dan kecepatan alurnya berubah2. Cukup banyak humor terselip dalam kisah ini, yg membuat saya benar2 tertawa sendiri. Tapi cukup banyak juga penggambaran adegan brutal, yg membuat saya berdebar2 (sampai sempat bergumam, "Duh kejem bangeett").

Buku ini habis saya baca dalam dua hari (eh.. dua malam deng); cukup memikat, sebab settingnya yg unik cukup membuat penasaran. Meskipun kisah ini mengenai petualangan yg berkepanjangan di laut, performanya sangat berbeda dengan masterpiece The Old Man and the Sea. Sebab kisah ini seperti dituturkan langsung oleh Pi yg berumur 16; lebih mengingatkan pada Catcher in the Rye. 3 1/2 bintang dari saya.

Life of Pi
Yann Martel
(C)Harvest Books, Harvest edition (2003)
ISBN# 0156027321

Thursday, March 24, 2005

Slaap Kindje Slaap...


At home, Amsterdam. He still liked to suck his thumb, then.

The easiest moment to make sketches of the kids is when they are sleeping. So here are some that I did.

My DD Confession (for Duran Duran fans only)



I was so happy - no: excited! elated! - when I read the news about Duran Duran going to perform in Amsterdam. I'll finally be able to go to their concert!


First, a short flashback of my affairs with Duran Duran. How long ago was it - 20? - when I first heard their songs, being a fresh 13 junior high school girl, and liked them rightaway. My cousin Chica was even a member of the Fans Club so I was lucky to be able to enjoy her photos, books and all. My parents used to bring us teen magazines when they went abroad and I was sooo happy to get them. Sadly, some of the magazines got confiscated (along with a couple of MAD magazines) because I brought them to school and, sadly, never got them back. Anyway, pictures in those magazines were my first models when I started learning to draw celebrities - most of the times on requests from friends - and Duran Duran was amongst the most wanted ones.


By then, in my early teens, you supposed to pick one band member as your favorite. Chica picked Nick and I at first picked Roger because I thought he was the coolest one. But since Chica's (then) best-friend already picked Roger I had to pick someone else, so I picked John and stayed faithful to him . I remember also that my wallet was like a mini photo-album, full of DD and John photographs and only a bit of money. So one day, when that wallet was picked from my pocket in a city bus, my greatest loss was that photo collection (the amount of money was only 4000 IDR - or barely 0,50 EUR). I hope the pickpocket liked DD, too, so he's not too dissapointed .


I remember a rather embarrasing scene: we had a big official family dinner but I insisted on wearing my yellow DD polo shirt. I really refused to go unless I'm allowed to wear that shirt to the dinner and that has caused a fight with my brother (nothing new here, but still..). Finally my parents let me have my way and so we went to the restaurant to meet my aunts, uncles and cousins, who were all wearing proper dresses and shirts. Of course my outfit started some discussions and I quietly asked my cousin Chica (who was wearing a pretty maroon dress) why she didn't wear her awesome Nick T-shirt and she said, "What?! My parents would kill me first!". Luckily I didn't get nagged at all by anyone for what I did so I supposed they could see how embarrased I felt that night..


My parents used to bring us Duran Duran LPs from abroad, while I was happy to buy cassettes out of my earnings. Then we moved to another house when I turned 16, exactly when I started going to senior high school. My bed at one corner of my room looked like a Duran Duran shrine, full of their photo's all over the bed shelves and sides. It was 1991 when I moved to another house, in another city. By then my Duran Duran knowledge has blended with my other 80s memories..


Life continues and I heard about them on and off, whenever broadcasted on the radio news.


2004. I'm married (2 children), currently living in Amsterdam and pursuing my study. I heard about their reunion and saw the news about their tours on TV. I found Nick's and Simon's account on Friendster, applied to them and was accepted, sent my testimonials and were accepted - only to find much later that those accounts are not actually theirs! *another embarrasment* But from a respond to my testimonial at 'Nick's' Friendster I found out that they actually did perform in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 1995! No wonder I had no recollection of that, since that was the year I spent in Germany, working in a design office. Boy did I miss something!


Therefore, I thought I have to go to this show in Amsterdam, 31 May 2005. When else do I get the chance?! Because I plan to move back to my home country next year after finishing my study here and surely DD won't have a tour around South-East Asia in the near future?! After purchasing a couple of tickets (one for Ayu if she can make it) I rightaway got hooked up at the Duran Duran website, their Message Board and the mailing list of Dutch-speaking DD fans. The photo's I put here are from the DD website and there are some drawings of mine concerning my recent aDDventure here. I'll surely post more, approaching the concert and afterwards




DD Sketch (for Duran Duran fans only)


Got Ticket! is about my first experience ever in purchasing a ticket for a concert at Heineken Music Hall, Amsterdam. I really didn't know that GWK sells concert tickets!

My current aDDventure towards Duran Duran concert in Amsterdam, May 2005

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

my sister's own blog


http://uprit.blogdrive.com
Here's Tiyas' own blog (the other one, Unison, is a join-blog with her friend). I don't really know if there's any difference in the context of those blogs. I just hope her blogs don't get out of hands - or worse - get neglected :)

Thursday, March 17, 2005

How many e-addresses have you got?



I started to get to know about Internet and actively e-mailing in the year 1997. I remember that the first e-mail I received was from Jane (I was still in Bandung/Jakarta and she was studying in Eindhoven), who laughed when I put dates on my e-mail as if in a hand-written mail. I remember also that at that time I was using a Hotmail address.
Not long after (early 1998 to be more exact), I myself started to study in The Netherlands and received a new e-mail address: the school's account. I recall that this year was when I was exposed to chatting (I forgot with which provider) for the first time. I started using fake names for this purpose and then started losing interest after things got really weird. Besides, I had to concentrate on my thesis. But I can't help being addicted to e-mailing. This is really a cool way to keep in touch with family and friends abroad. There's no day ('xcuse me, "no hour" is more like it) without receiving or sending e-mails. I had an additional address, from Yahoo!, since mailing lists started to emerge. By then, my Yahoo! address was only used for archive purposes (I didn't use the e-mail actively).

1999, graduating from that school brought the consequence of losing my school e-mail account as well. Fine, I still had my Hotmail and Yahoo! address - and, in around 2000, HetNet. By then, we had this broadband stuff that relieved me from the worries of blocking the phone line too long and paying the online bills by duration. Oh how I surfed the Internet!
Somehow I didn't actively use my Hotmail anymore and one day my Hotmail account was gone. I lost all my Hotmail contacts, which is a pity. My Yahoo! account is checked quite often because of the Yahoo! mailing lists that I joined. Meanwhile, other free e-mail providers were booming..
2001, I got another e-mail account, from school, and I'm using it mainly for research purposes. Much later (2005) I chose to also use GMail as it can store huge files, which I need for research purposes as well. So far, I can manage to handle all these e-addresses actively.

I installed Yahoo! Messenger on my iMac. Used it for a while and then stopped. I re-activated it not long ago, in order to chat with people from Jalansutra mailing list and admitedly got addicted to the Jalansutra Chatroom. I was first invited by Arie the genuine banci teh and bandar chatroom. Guys, you really are ____!! (insert words that mean: "indespensable" and the likes).
It was about the same time that I started to sign up for Friendster. It was Dina and Dian who kept inviting me to join Friendster. Again and again. So I gave up and sign in, and was having "Friendster Fever" for a while - you know, keep searching and adding friends! I enjoyed this networking because I got connected to long-lost friends, although not too many. I am still searching for my Sang Timur school friends!

I was aware of Blogs and such, but didn't get the urge to use any. That's because I know I won't be able to keep up with updating the contents and all. So I was just reading other people's Blog (most frequent visit: to Neil Gaiman's Journal!), until I was exposed to Multiply. I don't quite remember who introduced me to this device, but when I browsed it I liked it righaway because it provides different 'compartments' for different purposes (while most Blogs I saw was one big compartment fort everything). It's like Friendster, but with extra services (and it's still free).
It didn't take long until I received invitations to go to similar networking providers (including address books and such): Hi5, MySpace, BeBo, SMS, Ringo.. What if I didn't accept all those invitations?! Would I be cut off from my families and friends who invited me? (I hope not) And what if I accepted all those invitations?! How would I keep tracks on my accounts, different names, different passwords?! How would I update all my accounts?! I have to admit that I am actually neglecting a couple of different accounts right now. Hm.. what would become of them? Digital optic fibre junks? Is it polluting anything?

Anyway, now I'm actively using these e-mail addresses: HetNet, Yahoo! and TU Delft and maintaining my Multiply as a semi-Blog. I also check my Friendster once in a while (and now they started to offer Friendster Blog as well! Tsk tsk tsk..) - especially for the Messages I got or for the Bulletin Board. The rest should be satisfied with once-a-month visit or so. What a world.




Monday, March 14, 2005

Scouting for Boys - The Original 1908 Edition

Rating:★★★★
Category:Books
Genre: Outdoors & Nature
Author:Robert Baden-Powell
Kita semua tentu ingat waktu SD pernah diberi tahu bahwa Bapak Pramuka Sedunia adalah Robert Baden-Powell. Tapi apakah pernah terpikir, bagaimana Baden-Powell dapat memperoleh gelar tersebut? Bagaimana ia dapat mempelopori pembentukan organisasi semacam Pramuka tsb, mengapa pelatihan dan aktivitas Pramuka sedemikian rupa, dan untuk apa organisasi ini sebenarnya, pada awalnya dibentuk? Jawaban dari pertanyaan2 tersebut dapat diperoleh dari buku ini.

Buku ini disusun oleh Baden-Powell (B-P) untuk mendokumentasikan berbagai aktivitas, peraturan dan pelatihan yg diperlukan oleh boy scouts, ditujukan pada pembaca berusia 9-12 th (dan pada instruktur mereka). Mengingat mudanya usia target pembaca, dan agar mudah dimengerti, isi buku ini berupa alinea2 pendek yg silih berganti merupakan petunjuk dan cerita pendek sebagai contoh. Alinea2 tsb juga dilengkapi gambar2/sketsa untuk memperjelas maksudnya.

Sejarah terbentuknya BoyScouts ini sangat menarik. Kala itu masih sering terjadi perang, di mana banyak dibutuhkan semacam messenger boys yg sering harus melalui bahaya dalam melaksanakan tugasnya. Para kurir berusia muda ini harus mampu menghindari benturan fisik di medan perang dan juga harus mampu bertahan bila mereka harus melalui alam bebas untuk menuju pihak yg mereka tuju. Di samping banyaknya perang, kala itu Inggris disibukkan pula dengan beberapa daerah koloni, di antaranya di India dan Afrika, di mana pemandu (= scout) sangat diperlukan. Para pemandu ini harus mampu membuka daerah baru, menaklukkan dan mengontrol penduduk setempat. Para pemandu ini dipersiapkan sejak usia muda sehingga pantas disebut sebagai boy scout. Oleh sebab itu, pelatihan boy scout memang bernada militer, sesuai dengan kebutuhan masa itu. Seorang boy scout disebutkan harus mampu mengoperasikan senjata api, harus berfisik kuat dan tangkas, harus terampil menghadapi orang cedera (bahkan jenazah) dan harus sanggup bertahan hidup di alam bebas (termasuk berkemah, berburu dan membuat api).

Namun di samping segala pelatihan fisik dan mental secara militer, buku ini juga mengajarkan nilai2 kehormatan dan budi pekerti yang selayaknya dimiliki setiap boy scout. Antara lain mengharuskan mereka memenuhi setiap kata2 dan janji, membunuh hewan hanya bila hendak memakannya, dan siap menolong siapapun dengan gembira. Sikap ksatria ini diilustrasikan B-P antara lain dengan menceritakan perilaku para ksatria di jaman Raja Arthur. Ilustrasi berupa cerita2 pendek semacam ini sangat menarik, meskipun terkadang contoh yg diambil B-P terlalu ekstrim utk ukuran sekarang. Selain dari sejarah/legenda Inggris, B-P mengambil contoh2 baik dari kejadian2 nyata (potongan2 berita di koran atau kisah2 kepahlawanan dan kesatriaan dari Inggris dan segala penjuru dunia) maupun semi-fiksi (kisah Sherlock Holmes, Pocahontas dan tokoh Kim/ karya Rudyard Kippling). Dalam buku ini dianjurkan pula permainan2 yang dapat mengasah ketrampilan para boy scout, berbagai teknik simpul, morse, salam sandi, berbagai medali penghargaan dan tingkatan/ranking dalam organisasi.

Menilik kemasan isinya, B-P dengan lihai telah berhasil merangkum semua yang menarik bagi anak laki2 dalam suatu organisasi. "Scouting takes boys seriously" - demikian sebuah kutipan - dan ini memang adalah appeal dari sebuah organisasi yg kita sebut "Pramuka" ini. Mengagumkan, bahwa buku petunjuk ini telah tersebar luas ke seluruh dunia dan diadopsi menurut kebutuhan geografis & budaya masing2.

Meskipun bukan anak laki-laki ataupun seorang Pramuka, saya sangat menikmati buku ini. Bukan hanya dari sisi sejarahnya, namun juga karena hal2 di buku ini yg menunjuk pada disiplin diri dan cara menjadi warga yang baik. Hanya saja, karena ada beberapa hal yang tidak saya setujui, atau tidak relevan dan terkadang berlebihan dalam cara penyampaiannya, buku ini 'hanya' memperoleh 4 bintang dari saya.


Scouting for Boys
The Original 1908 Edition
by Robert Baden-Powell
(C)Oxford University Press, New York 2005
ISBN# 0-19-280246-1

Thursday, March 10, 2005

One of Tanto's Creative Sites


http://bloodyathena.blogspot.com
"Blog untuk mahasiswa seni rupa, visual artist dan semua art enthusiast" - is the intro to this site. True, this site is full of info about artists residencies, competitions and the likes. Worth visiting, if only to read Tanto's experiences or to see his updated works.

Wednesday, March 9, 2005

Dhanu ikutan ke Hamburg




Weekend kemaren ini, ceritanya ada acara di Hamburg. Mau bawa anak dua2nya, pasti repot banget dan kasian pasti pada capek. Mau ninggal dua2nya, Sybrand pasti nggak bisa kerja padahal dia banyak deadline. Jadi yg diajak cuma Dhanu, yg udah lebih gampang pergi2 (udah nggak pake popok, bisa makan apa aja dan udah bisa dibilang2in). Ini bukan pertama kalinya Dhanu ikutan aku bawa2 konferensi, tapi ini yg pertama kalinya Dhanu ikutan konferensi tanpa bapaknya (utk nge-babysit). Jadi untung banget ada Ayu dan eyang, yg meskipun ikutan konferensi, juga bisa gantian njagain Dhanu.

Kita pergi dari Amsterdam, naik kereta yg jam lima sore, ganti di Osnabrück. Sampe Hamburg Dhanu ketiduran (udah lewat jam 11 malam), jadi harus digendong keluar stasiun. Daripada berat2 bawa2 tas dan Dhanu naik-turun S-Bahn atau U-Bahn, kita naik taksi aja. Hotelnya ternyata lucu: satu gedung besar itu terdiri dari beberapa hotel. Satu lantai utk satu hotel, dan hotel kita (Fresena) ada di lantai tiga; semuanya: kamar2, meja resepsi, lobby dan ruang sarapan.
Dhanu baru tidur lewat tengah malam. Jadi besok paginya dia males2an banget bangun, padahal kita sudah harus keluar hotel sekitar jam delapan. Diiming2i sarapan, baru deh dia bergerak. Kebetulan ada sereal coklat yg dia doyan banget, juga telur rebus dan toast pakai selai.
Di acara konference, awal2 dia ikutan masuk.. dengan segera Dhanu bosen dan main tenda2an pake jaketnya. Jadi deh dibawa keluar sama Ayu (haduh Ayu pokoknya berjasa banget ngemong Dhanu selama acara ini! Makasih ya Yu :D). Dhanu jalan2 sama Ayu di sekitar Dammtor situ, terus balik lagi pas acara makan siang. Nah baru deh Dhanu banyak yang 'nanggap'.. hehe.. jadi banyak deh yg ngemong dia.
Aku makan siang di ruang terpisah, jadi Dhanu bener2 sama tante Ayu atau eyangnya atau anak2 lain itu. Sore2, pas aku presentasi, Dhanu ikutan masuk dan dia bisa duduk manis sepanjang acara. Pas selesai, dia maju ke tempatku dan bilang (ngomong londo), "Ibu harus kerja keras ya, di sini, pakai komputer", katanya. Oh iya, sejak awal acara, yg pake name tag-ku ya Dhanu ini. Dia merasa dirinya kerja juga, bantuin aku.. hehe..
Menjelang malem, Dhanu mulai keliatan udah capek. Pas makan malem dia mulai bantah2 dan menolak2 semuanya. Aku ikutan tim perumus, jadi Dhanu lepas lagi dari pengawasanku. Dhanu disuapin Ayu, makan kerupuk dan nasi dan ayam goreng. Selesai aku makan, baru kita balik ke hotel. Di kamar juga Dhanu nggak langsung tidur, main2in radio, kabel tv dan lain2 sampe ketiduran sendiri *fiuh*

Besok paginya kita check out dan naik taksi ke Konsulat Jenderal Indonesia di Hamburg (acara hari kedua diadakan di sana). Dhanu juga nggak ikutan di dalam ruang presentasi (teleconference) tapi main2 aja di ruang tengah. Yg paling ngeri pas dia melipir sepanjang 'pager' di atas tangga menuju ruang bawah itu lho. Untung sekali dia kaget (karena semua orang langsung ngeliat ke dia) dan dia jadi malu, terus sama sekali nggak ngulang itu lagi. Pas nggak ada yg ngeliatin, Dhanu naik tangga sendiri, masuk2 ke ruangan2 di atas! Sejak itu aku tungguin deh. Tapi gantian sama Ayu, pas ada teleconference yg aku pengen nonton.
Agak siangan, ada anak kecil lain yg bisa jadi temennya selama acara di KonJen, namanya Sarah (baru 6 th tapi bongsor badannya). Mereka ini lari2an seputar meja di ruang tengah, sama lari2an di bawahnya juga, sambil ketawa2 keras2. Sore2 pas kita pamitan dari KonJen, naik kereta ke stasiun, Dhanu udah ketiduran. Sampe stasiun dia udah rada seger lagi, njajan ikan dan kentang goreng di Nordzee.
Perjalanan pulang ini kita ganti2 kereta lagi: di Osnabrück dan Bad-Bentheim, baru deh nyampe Amsterdam Centraal. Dhanu ketiduran lagi sejak Bad-Bentheim. Sampe stasiun naik taksi lagi, dan sampe rumah jam setengah dua belas malem. Lindri yg udah tidur kebangun lagi, jadi girang karena liat semuanya ada - dan baru tidur lagi jam 2 pagi. Weh.. aku deh yg gempor sekarang..
Tapi kesimpulannya, Dhanu itu termasuk gampang dibawa ke mana2. Terutama karena dia suka cari kesibukan sendiri (nggak selalu caper ke ortunya) dan gampang berteman dengan siapapun (orang lewat aja diajak omong). Memang dia harus punya tas sendiri yg berisi mainan (mobil2an, buku bacaan) dan minuman/makanan kecil, dan harus sekali2 diingetin utk ke WC. Tapi di luar itu, dia bisa menghibur diri sendiri.. hehe lumayan, lah.

Foto2 lain ada di album berjudul "Dhanu ikutan ke Hamburg"

Dhanu ikutan ke Hamburg


Keluar dari hotel, jalan kaki ke tempat konferensi

Ini foto2 waktu Dhanu ikutan ibu & eyang & tante Ayu konferensi di Hamburg tgl 5-6 Maret kemaren

Thursday, March 3, 2005

Nevermind - It's Only about the Snowy Days




The late night of March 1st 2005 brought snow all over the Lowlands while we were sleeping. The morning of Wednesday March 2nd was decked with thick cold, white blanket of snow; it found us awed by its appearance. It was actually rather pleasant: real snow and no wind. Children walked or rode or cycled happily to school with their parents. And, as on Wednesdays they have only half-day of school, they had plenty time the rest of the day to build snowmen and igloo and to have snowball fights in the street.
The marketplace in our neighborhood, Albert Cuyp, wasn't very active this day. The row of white kiosk tents looked like an incomplete row of teeth, since several kiosks didn't show up. The snow in the busy parts of the street was dirtied easily, leaving lumps of brownish, muddy snow.

I and my mother (she's staying with us for a couple of weeks) picked up Dhanu from school at about 12:30. We walked homewards, but dropping by De Soepwinkel on the way home for lunch. We ordered 1 Beginner's Menu of Oriental Beef Noodle Soup + white bread + quiche with mozarella-pesto-tomato topping + tea, 1 Beginner's Menu of Toscana Lentil Soup + brown bread + chocolate cake + fresh orange juice, one toast with mozarella-pesto-tomato filling and one apple juice. You can always count on De Soepwinkel for tasty, healthy meals. After lunch we dropped by at the nearest supermarket (Albert Heijn Stadhouderskade) to get some bread and eggs before going home. The snow didn't stop falling, in small, small flakes and the sky stayed grayish-white.

Looking down from our front window at our apartment (we lived on the 2nd floor - counting the ground floor as "ground" floor, not the 1st floor), we could see neighborhood kids playing in the snow with their parents. A big igloo was built right in front of our door. A group of construction workers left a prototypical snowman on our street: it wore muts (wool cap) and had worker's gloves as its hands, it has chips' paper cone as its nose and a 'scarf' made of construction-line ribbon (red-white stripes).

Approaching evening, the snow hasn't stopped falling. Sybrand and Lindri came home at around six. Then Ayu and Rizal came just in time for dinner (fried rice with shrimps and chicken and peas + pindang eggs + dessert: banana fritters + Ben & Jerry's Full Vermonty). After long, pleasant talks and laughters and countless cups of tea, Ayu and Rizal left. It's dark outside but the snow reflected all the lights, creating a yellowish bright color everywhere.

The morning of March 3rd was still snowing, and even more. I had to make my weekly trip to Delft. The 09.10 train I usually take was 30 minutes late, and even more. An announcement said that the train would not leave until undefinable hour, due to lack of personnel. Huh?! I thought it didn't matter as long as there are enough co-/machinist. Anyway, then they just took some cars from the train, so we could finally leave. All in all, I arrived at school at about 11.30 - an hour later than I usually do.

OK - it's almost 15.30 now and I'll have to go to my professor's office for our meeting. I'll add photo's later (thanks to my mother's digital camera).
==============

Back home; it's 22:57 now. I'm done uploading the photos: the empty Albert Cuyp market, a street corner of our neighborhood and a pile of snow on a tree behind our apartment.

Right. I'll have to pack up and get ready to go to Hamburg tomorrow. I hate to think tonight is predicted to be freezing (-15 C?!) and that it might be colder tomorrow. Oh but I'll be fine as long as our train trip to Hamburg go smooth despite the weather. Good night.