I simply can't keep this from you guys as it's just too much fun reading it: This is the address of a website that contains the Darth Side: Memoirs of a Monster. Any Starwars loving soul will know who is referred to with that title so I can only say go now, do the clicking, read and laugh. You'll love it. Promise.

Now it rains ... Well better late than never I guess. Still I would have liked to have it yesterday as promised. The only downside I can think of is that I've parked my car way across the Philips terrain in front of a huge multi-market and should it not stop raining I'm going to have to run to the car in order to get there still somewhat dry. We'll see what the weather is like at six tonight, nothing I can do about it.

Remember me saying the weather folks are wrong from time to time? Well unfortunately we can now add one more occasion to that list. All day I waited for the promised rain but nothing showed. Next time I simply want it to rain all day like they promised. I mean what good is a weather forecast when it's going to be a lottery anyway?

Bart is crazy, there's no denying that. In a way I guess we all are, so there's no need to be alarmed ... Well not yet anyway ;-) On the other hand he just made a rather interesting point. As a reaction to my post about the blistering heat inside our office yesterday (and today for crying out loud) he mentioned that he believes the biggest heat generating objects in the office are ... we. Thinking about this I'll have to have a healthy discussion with him about this as I think that for example the fan of my computer releases way more heat than I do. After all, if all is well, I should be about thirty eight degrees centigrade, and the CPU of my computer is a lot warmer than that. So normally you would think the heat coming from it is also warmer than me. But that's just me talking ;-) I'll keep you posted on the outcome of this chat we'll probably be having, even though it's in fact too hot to even be bothered ...

This morning while I was on my way over to work, I was changing CD's (from Yello - Flag to Yello - Baby, because you need rhythm from time to time *grin*) and in between I got a brief bit of radio broadcast. Anyway I just fell into the weather forecast and these folks say, allthough I have to admit they have been wrong about the weather sometimes before, that there's a really good chance on a good portion of rain next Sunday! Maybe even Saturday already. So if they got it right it looks like I'm saved for now ;-) Well let's just hope they are. Oh and yes, I know, there's lots of people who wouldn't mind running me over on a zebra crossing (by accident of course, sure sure LOL) for this statement but frankly ... I don't care! ;-) Luckily the weather is one of the last things people can only predict (most of the time anyway), but not control. So when it goes my way every now and then, it's simply my turn. Simple as that :-)

Please do, I need it. Badly ... And I need it now. Right. So what's up? Picture this: Let's say for a moment you would get yourself a Biek (you know, the almost scary white looking bloke who normally thinks seventeen degrees centigrade is more than warm enough for a standard weekday) Then you put him in a temporary office building that has a flat roof and doesn't have air-conditioning. Put him in a room, filled with nine computers, ditto screens and all sorts of other heat generating things like lights for example. Even if you would only remotely know me you'll be able to guess what's happening next. Man it's hot in here, and by the looks of things it's not changing anytime soon ... Remember the gerbil in the microwave? I do ...

Yup, you've guessed it right: we've been practicing our snooker game again last night. Since we're a three guy group we usually let the winner stay at the table and the one who looses take turns with the third. This has no effect on the guy waiting, as it's always his turn again when current the frame in progress is finished. For the one who's in the winning mood it's a nice reward for winning the frame and this keeps everybody happy. Unless ... When you are a frequent visitor to my site you should know that both Bas' and my back aren't exactly the best ones around so from time to time we really don't mind loosing the occasional frame as it gives us just the little rest we need to do another one, and so on and so forth. The only down side I can think of using this system of playing is this. When, on a average Tuesday night, you just happen to have a little ache in your back to begin with and just happen to be unbeatable at the snooker table that night, you might just happen to feel like a train wreck when you wake up in the morning, wondering what the heck happened ... Guess what happened last night ... Well, thank you. But as much as I'd like to take credit for winning everything last night I did actually loose one frame. However knowing how my back feels at the moment it wouldn't have been that bad a thing to have lost a couple more. But you could say that this system always ends with both good and bad news. When the good news is you won, the bad news is you'll probably feel it during the rest of the week. Should the bad news be that you lost, the good news is you're like a new person the next morning. Either way we win, which is what keeps us coming back for more :-)

The past weekend was a very enjoyable, almost classic, race weekend for Bas and myself. As usual it all started from about twelve past five in the Saturday afternoon. In the evening, during diner, we watched Sin City, a movie I recommend to everyone who likes a comic book style, good guys - bad guys, story with a lot of familiar faces. Good movie indeed, we just didn't realize how long it was taking when we started it so it was a rather unexpected long diner show that Saturday. Not that, had you been there, you would have heard us both complaining, no Sir :-) And on Sunday we have been racing GTR on-line almost the entire day with a third place in a on-line race on my beloved Monza Circuit being my personal highlight of these meetings. Of course we also had another great Formula One race on our hands as the entire circus (minus the BAR team) attended the Grand Prix at the Monte Carlo circuit Monaco. You just have to love that close street circuit, though driving there myself in the various racing sims is costing me loads and loads of cars and spare parts ;-) But that's just a matter of time and practice, or so they say ...

Not unlike the various myths from those brilliant guys at Discovery, I'm physically completely busted this morning. I guess it has something to do with the twenty four hours of snooker-table (or at least that's what it felt like ...) we played Wednesday evening. At this moment I feel muscles on places I didn't even know I had some ... ouch ... Need ... to ... lie ... down ...

Hi all. My my, well I survived. And for those of you who don't know what I survived exactly I'll explain a bit more. As you all know I'm involved in a regional snooker competition. When we reach the end of the season, as we do now, there are always a couple of postponed snooker games to be played to fill in the blanks in the results charts so to speak. Yesterday evening we had such a game, but the difference between this game and any other was that we played both the home and visiting game on one night. This means that in the begin of the evening we had no less than eighteen frames of snooker ahead. The usual snooker night starts at eight a clock and lasts until about eleven, give or take. Last night we started at seven (or would have had the snooker center owner been in time ...) and it took us right into the night. Needless to say this is not the kind of lengthy evenings we have every now and then so to me personally it was quite a marathon. And that's just like it feels today, like that marathon ...

Hi all. Man, long weekends rule! And I'm not just talking about that extra day off but also long in terms of race duration. This past weekend I've booked one heck of a lot of laps and ditto miles in GTR. If I remember correctly my current lap count has easily passed the four thousand mark now ... :-) Bas made the difficult but brave decision not to have a race weekend (it must be cool to be able to be that strong to yourself I guess) because he wasn't quite feeling up to it and needed to recharge himself a bit but that didn't stop me from racing. When using the multiplayer internet option from within GTR there's always room to race. This weekend I've been to Spain on the Barcelona circuit, to Italy on Monza, to Germany on the old long Ring track and to Belgium doing a night race on one of my absolute favorite track Spa, just to name a few ... And specially that last one was a very cool race as it was not only dark (which is pretty common for a night race, even in Belgium :-) but it was also raining cats and dogs. Monsoon conditions. The nifty thing was that we qualified and practiced on a dry track and skipped the warm up so when the race started no-one knew it was raining. So everyone was on slicks when the race began which, in a way, is pretty funny if you can handle that *grin* The start went smooth as silk but in that first lap alone, driving and skidding to the pits to get our rain tires on, I think we lost about five cars of eighteen from drivers who spun off the track and hit a wall or damaged their cars another way. But at least they went down trying. When the first couple of guys finally had their rain tires the race could actually begin. Credit goes to all the people staying on the server and starting the race, it's not unusual on-line that they leave like crazy when faced with a wet track. Wow, what's this? Water drops falling from the sky? Where is the sun? Why am I skidding all over the place? Etc. But not this bunch, so kudo's to them. We started the race with eighteen drivers ready to do some blindfolded wet racing, just marvelous! Now I don't now about you of course but I just love rain racing. For some reason I can luckily keep myself pretty calm and make some pretty good lap times in these conditions. And in the wet the disadvantages of my Viper GTS-R not being one of the fastest or powerful cars around are somewhat less important. And added to the fun this time was that we did not only have the rain but also the dark which made it a pretty special on-line race. In the end only seven cars finished with me crossing the line in a nice third place. My Viper wasn't in the best state ever but that's what I'm paying all those expensive mechanics for, right? Can't wait for the next long or race weekend :-)

Happy birthday Babs, enjoy the day off and don't do anything you'll regret when you're older ... ;-)

Hi all. Last night I had a good snooker session, only loosing one frame the entire evening. You need to have a good evening every now and then, simply to keep the spirit up and to know that you still have 'it' ... The only thing that didn't work out as I hoped it would was me getting home early so I could sleep some more. The past couple of days I've been sleepy like crazy, can't seem to sleep enough. Specially just after lunch for example, man I could sleep for the rest of the day. Or at least that's how it feels. I'll just keep going to bed at reasonable times, instead of making long evenings and short nights. I could keep up with that years ago but not anymore ... Must be an age thing ... ;-)

Hi all. 'Don't Panic' (inscribed in large, friendly letters of course ;-) There's no echo on the line. It was me :-) Even though today work went fine I still feel like I could have slept all day through, without any problems whatsoever. And since I actually like the work (at least miles better than being at home feeling like this) I'll continue going for now and I'll see where it all is going to end. But it seems like every now and then somewhere deep inside there's a dark voice telling me 'you're getting very, very sleepy' ... I guess all I need is someone to say 'when I snap my fingers, you'll wake up and remember everything' but it's not very likely that something like that is going to happen ... The human in general is a very difficult and complicated thing to understand sometimes and more often I get the impression it's not just the women I don't get ... *grin*

Hi all. Race 'week'? Yeah well, it's basically the same thing as having a race weekend only this time Stefan and I held one on our days off this week. I wasn't feeling all too good but we have so very few chances on doing a bit of racing at all that I decided to go over anyway and see how well it would go. So now we had both Thursday and Friday to mess around with and we actually did just that. And of course because of me being there at my sister's and Stefan's house I also had plenty of quality time with my niece again who is really still quite amazing and is growing into a lovely little girl day by day. Of course I shot a couple of the sweetest pictures of her again which you can see in her photo book already. Unfortunately these two great days were over before you can say 'geez, that was fast' which is kind of sad but also a good sign at the same time. As usual time flies when you're having fun and so it did. This morning I'm no too bad but there still is something flu-ey lurking in the back of me and I have no idea what it is. For some reason I'm tiring quite fast and feel sleepy just about all day long. Needless to say that's very tiresome and frustrating and definitely no fun as it takes the fun out of a lot of things because of this lack of energy and every now and then a accompanying headache. Looking at it on the bright side I have this entire weekend with nothing planned so I'll take it easy and get enough rest as I've been trying for the past couple of weeks now and I'll see what that brings. Hopefully I'll be able to recharge myself a bit so I can at least maintain my concentration at work and function the way I should. We'll see ...

Hi all. Oh well ... ;-) Today I started working again but it's not yet feeling entirely okay. And with 'it' I mean 'I' of course. Allthough yesterday it was way to warm in my home and I simply couldn't get the heat out of there until nightfall so that was a bad day by default I did feel a lot better already on Friday but somehow this morning wasn't the best of Mondays I've had. The good news is that this is a short week for me as I'm off Thursday and Friday so another long weekend ahead of me. This should get me up and running again I guess and if not ... we'll have to see then won't we. Tonight I'm going to see my sister, bro-in-law and their lovely daughter again so the thought of that trip alone makes this already a good day and I'll be over there on Thursday also, to do some racing again which has been far too long since the last time. And that time was cut short due to PC graphic card problems (because that's what usually happens when we want to race ;-) but I'm sure we'll survive this time. It's about time we will. Anyway, I'll let you guys know what happened.