Did I ever say an engagement was an elephant, madam?

Marieke sent me this link this morning, under the title "het kan altijd erger"

http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trijntje_Keever

'tis true.

Right, sent off to applications for London jobs already, I'm on a roll! Library and uni admin jobs mostly. One every night this week hopefully. Except for Friday, which is when me and the sisters are off to Dam for a comedy night! Marieke's treat, as my birthday present. Should be really good.

Good film! It seems such a weird random story and I would think it was badly written if I hadn't known so much about it by now. Interesting part of German history though. And I'm getting all back into the Deutsche Sprache, which will come in good use next week.

Went for a pizza with Marie and Stijn after, really nice. Should have sisterly afternoons more often.

Texel tomorrow, woo!

I just randomly phoned Marieke and asked her if she wanted to go to the cinema tomorrow to watch Der Baader-Meinhof Komplex, and she's not doing anything else so we're going. I really should do more spontaneous things, I never do when I'm in this country. How dedicated am I to this translation job though eh!

She was one of five who received 'much distinction' with their BA of history graduation yesterday! I'm so proud of her: she climbed up from the lower levels of secondary education through college and through uni and she's doing amazingly well. The ceremony was so much more personal than mine last year, I'm just very much annoyed with the English professors in hindsight, that they didn't bother making it anything special for us lot. Ah well, I'll get my big party in December! Yesterday was lovely anyway, we went out for a meal and it was all really lovely and familiar.

Hospital still hasn't rung me. Poo.

Bit earlier than expected. Missed all of Sunday. As in missed Dresden Dolls. As in missed Sigor Ros. As in missed the Hives, We Are Scientists and Elbow. That and a whole day of Lowlands. Noe.

My lovely knees are to blame, of course. Collapsed in the queue on Thursday(!), and paid the First Aid Tent quite a few visits before realising that I was risking getting back to Manchester on Friday if I stayed for another day. The fact that the TWAT doctor wouldn't give me any crutches or a wheelchair did not do me any favours either. Marieke and Stijn were lovely enough to take me back home (and miss all of Sunday as well themselves, remind me to take them out for dinner or something next month) and Ton, my godfather, bless him, drove down to Flevoland and picked us up. Mind you, one chat with him about his chemotherapy, and the doctors constantly telling him he's only got a few months left to live made me see a little perspective about missing a day of stupid gigs. He's so light-hearted about it all though, I'm really impressed! He got all fatherly tonight; he bought us a ridiculous amount of Chinese take-away, rang my parents (even though I had done so already), offered to take me to the doctor tomororw (he lives all the way in a Rotterdam suburb) and rang me twice tonight. I'm really happy to be his god-daughter!

Anywaaay, what I did experience of Lowlands was brilliant as usual! Quite nice to have loads of lovely people (Marieke/Stijn, Nouk, Hsins and of course de mofjes (Sinkface und Herr Mattheus)) to hang around with. Highlights:

- Thursday night, playing the first drinking game with Dutchies I've ever played: Ring of fire. Geen Jager geen Ne(e)ger! Even though the Dutchies didn't really get the concept of drinking fingers, everyone got pretty jolly and fun was had. The Hangover was of course cured by de koffiewekker.
- Dancing to the Ting Tings in the India
- Seeing Laura Marling (even though she only played for half an hour and didn't play New Romantic, biaaatch)
- Discovering Amaretto Koffie to warm up the very cold Lowlands nights
- Our late-night chat with our racist neighbour 'Ferry' ('laik de boat')
- Blowing many Big Ones (bubbles)
- Rascals! Arctic Monkeys with an Edge, one of the few new and refreshing things I've seen all weekend! And all of that despite the fact he came onstage greeting Amsterdam.
- Witnessing a moon eclipse.
- Dancing to Franz. Nostalgia all round.
- Sitting in the First Aid place overhearing the most random conversations, from morning-after pills to tongue stinging wasps.
- Swirls! Too many.
- Tanning on the Alpha hills.
- Watching 'Persepolis.' Intrigueing!
- Rich and Matt's moffisms ('Kijk! Een Vledermaus!')
- Shouting 'Burn the Witch!' with Nouk walking past the Nightwish gig
- Praising Allah with Johnny Rotten. Sex Pistols were quite interesting for a song or two.
- Finding Richie and Matty on a girl's shoes
- Jip en Janneke en de Jodekoek
- Sunshiiine! No complaints about the weather this time!
- Anouk's big shiny face on the massive screen during the Wombats, several times.

Less appealing:
- Dutshhhhhh English. Cringety Cringe.
- Lowlands getting more and more commercial and badly organised every year. Maybe it's because we've been to Glasto twice now, but me and Nouk were saying we've never been so annoyed by being ripped off at our favourite festival. Also, they sold way more tickets without making the site any bigger, so everywhere was always full, even the DJ tents at night.
- Generally, the lineup. Half of what I wanted to see was on today, mind.
- Everything in the Juliet. Oh my god. They must be a bit more strict on what they allow on stage in the name of 'comedy.' Even Toneelgroep Amsterdam was poor, and they're supposed to be Holland's best actors.

Anyway, time for a bed. A real bed. Ha. Why did we ever evolve as a species if camping is still a popular pasttime? Discuss.

..and she told me my granny's doing much better. She's been in hospital for a few days now, because, brace yourselves, rather than the 10 glasses the doctor told her to drink, she drank 10 liters of water in single day. Geerdink stubborness at its finest. She's been a bit delirious for a few days, and they're still doing a brain scan just in case, but I think she's gonna be alright. Makes me feel like I can be a little bit light-hearted about it; the damn woman stole my funniest incident of the year family award. If she makes it to December without too much damage there is some amazing Sint poem potential..

Also, wooo, last week was amazing: http://triangelgroep3.websitemaker.nl/groep3/2634175

As for other news, I was just watching Casualty 1907 with Matt and Rachel and who walks into our screen but our local comedy night presenter! It all took us a few minutes to place him, but it was worth a chuckle. We were just waiting for him to say something funny but were crudely disappointed.

Today was good. Was going to do loads of work but Matt suggested we'd browse Chorlton for the veg market he stumbled upon on his bike the other week. So we went there, as well as ASDA, had a lovely (perhaps a tad too healthy) meal. All is well though, I found Curly Cale in ASDA, so we're eating Boerenkool met worst tomorrow!

Marieke and Stijn are in Edinburgh at the moment. They thought they'd booked a hotel close to he city centre, but's it's in fact a seaside guesthouse! Only 15 minutes from the centre by bus though, so I think they're pleased enough.

Oww Matt and Alice have both told me their last exams are over before May is. Only 1,5 months of this fairly perfect household, and that includes two weekends in Holland and exam lock in roomage. I'm sad.

Dear MISS A ABELS Thankyou for your order for GLASTONBURY 2008 at Worthy Farm, Pilton-Somerset on 29/06/2008. Unfortunately we have been unable to obtain the funds from your card issuer, so we were unable to complete the order. This may be due to insufficient funds or because incorrect card data was entered at the time of booking. Don't worry though, your order is on hold for you, but we do need you to register some new, valid, card details in order to secure your purchase.

Sorted.

I'm having a GREAT time showing Mariek and Stijn round Manchester. Today I walked them around town to see all the pretty bits, after which we spent over an hour in Primark and had lunch in the Northern Quarter. They're off to Sainsury's now to get some groceries for tonight's meal: Marieke's cooking!