Never mind the title, only a happy few at work will understand the joke behind this one.

For the rest of you: Uncle Biek's got himself a new pair of glasses. And as it turned out it was about time he got some too. The glasses from the last pair were approximately 11 years old and the frame itself a respectable 8 years so it was definitely time for a change.

So now I got myself a nice new pair and when I received them last Friday a whole new world opened up for me. The difference is huge, to say the least.

And it's not even the sharpness of the lenses because in that department my eyes have not gone worse that much, but my new glasses now also have prisma's and cylinders inside and that gives an amazing different view.

I have to get used to a couple of things though. The model is quite different than the previous frame I had, which now used as a backup, and so is the way I'm looking through them. And I'll probably still need to use my old pair for snookering too as I think I'm too easily looking over this one.

But overall I very much like this new 'look' and am glad I got them.

Just think of it. Wouldn't that be something? It would be so incredibly cool. I can't even begin to describe how fantastic it would be to race for real, yet over the past weekend it's changed from a very (and I mean very) remote chance to a possible future … :-D

Dad and I were talking about it last weekend when he was floored by his back problem and to be honest I didn't take him a hundred percent serious as I suspected (or feared really) that the morphine was partially responsible for what he was talking about. I did like what he had to say though … ;-)

Later on however Stevie, who visited with my sister, asked me if what he heard was true. Was my dad going to donate the red MG to become a race car? That meant that dad had talked about it with them too, because I hadn't mentioned it to either of them.

On Monday while dad was slowly becoming more mobile again we talked about it a bit longer and to my immense surprise and ultimate joy he wasn't kidding: if I were to take it seriously and would commit to it for two hundred percent than he would actually allow me to race that MG!!

Describing the feeling is impossible, it really is. It's more than a dream come true, it's just so amazing to all of a sudden been given a chance to actually start working on getting both me and that MG ready to race.

This, together with the news that sweet little Eva was born, is simply the best news I ever got in my life. It's fantastic! So. Racing. Sounds expensive doesn't it? Well, it is. Even for a class like the MG Competition races you still need a small bucket of cash to get (and keep) things going. It's not very likely that us going into racing will ever earn us any money and paying for all of this ourselves is going to be really difficult, if not impossible.

But where does the money come from then? Well, that's supposed to come in via sponsors mainly so in the near future I'll be looking for people and companies that are willing to support me on the track for which in return they will get a sticker or logo on the car for example. Or on the shirts, overall, etc.

‘All' we need to do now is make a whish list on which we'll have to start writing down the bare necessities to go racing. For me this means getting a FIA license, decent race clothing and a far better physical condition than I have now. And for the car the list is just a little bit longer.

We'll go and have a serious talk to Team Willems, which were so kind to take me for a ride at Assen a couple of weeks ago, and ask them exactly what we need to go racing. After that we'll be able to go and make plans and see if we can somehow make this work.

Let's hope we can. I'll keep you posted on the progress, believe me. :-)

The first time. That phrase brings back so many memories, mostly good, of all kinds of different events. The first time I fell in love, or went to the technical school, drove a moped, kissed a girl, built my own PC, bought a car, won a GPL race, etc. All of them very nice memories.

And now I can add another great one to the top of this list: the first time I officially fulfilled my roll as an uncle and baby-sitted my niece Eva. She's such a sweetheart and a true joy to be around. And tonight I had her all to myself! I tell you I've been counting down to this evening ever since I was asked to look after Eva tonight.

When my sister and Stevie left Eva and I waved them off without any problems and went back inside. There we played a few games, built a couple of block towers, read a book, watched the electric train go by a few laps, did some jigsaw puzzling, etc. Basically just having a great time together.

Then it was time for diner and when I asked Eva if she was hungry a well spoken 'yes' and a firm nod of her head was the answer. Alrighty!. :-) I then asked her if she knew what was for diner to which she replied 'pa-tha', her sweet pronunciation of 'pasta' which was what we were having tonight. She's a smart little one that girl, there's no denying that.

While bringing her diner she was already sitting in her chair, fork and spoon ready to dive in. The noodle like pasta we were having however weren't that easy to keep on the spoon for her so she handed over the tools and let me feed her the rest of the diner. I can't believe that there are easier going girls from that age. There's just no way.

After she finished she had a small scary moment when she all of a sudden had to sneeze and inadvertently knocked over her drink. She was a little shook about it as she didn't see that coming but I quickly assured her there was absolutely no harm done and she started smiling again. And what a smile … :-)

She then played around a little but more until it was time for bed. During diner she had yawned a little bit already and after diner she looked really tired. When I asked her if she maybe wanted to go to bed she immediately said yes, grabbed her bear and needed about three steps to be waiting for me at the door.

I wrapped her into a fresh pair of diapers and her sleeping outfit, read her a story, played a bit with her on the big bed and then put her to bed, after first whishing all the animals in bed a good night sleep.

She dozed off almost immediately and only slightly woke up around a quarter past nine. I went up, took her on my arm and swayed her back to sleep. She wrapped herself around me and I could feel her breathing becoming more slowly and relaxed and when I couldn't stand up anymore (my back acts up badly when standing straight for too long) I put her back down and she continued sleeping from then on.

She's a little princess that one, and not just when she's asleep. You just can't help loving that little being, adorable as she is. And she keeps amazing me how incredibly smart she is. For someone her age, which is about a year and a half now, she's so independent already and knows how to express herself so well already. It's amazing, truly amazing.

I've got to do this more often, this isn't just quality time: it's top-quality time. Priceless!

I'm such a lucky uncle. :-)

When I first got at my dad's home this afternoon it all looked like going very, very wrong. He was in such enourmous amount of pain and the pfysio therapist that had visited earlier had made it very clear that he would like to see my dad being hospitalised so they could get him well there.

Later on the doctor (finally) came along and had a good chat with my dad and gave him a little massage too and strangely enough my dad seemed to feel a little bit better when the doctor left. He could move about a little bit too. I sure hope that whatever both the doc and the therapist did made the difference my dad needed and that he's now on his way to full recovery.

Just in case I phoned up Philips and asked them if I could reserve the afternoon's off for the next week so I can help out if needed. Of course I hope it's not needed but you never know, now do you.

I'm writing this from my dad's home while I'm awaiting the results from a checkdisk (old DOS stuff but still very handy sometimes) which is running on a (pretty slow) PC that needed fixing. Dad's back has given up and he's really suffering a lot at the moment. It's heart breaking to see him, almost completely dozed off because of extremely heavy painkillers he's been given. And those are not even strong enough to take away all the pain. When he's not doing anything for a moment he's falling asleep again because of them. It's really not good this time. He's having a infection which needs to be cured first before his back can be put back into place. I'm not quite up to speed on the medical terms in English unfortunately but I'll try to look them up later on when I get home. Anyway, I sure hope that he'll recover soon or at least becomes a little more mobile again because right now he can't move an inch without going through the roof because of the pain.

Hi there. As you may (or maybe not ;-)) have noticed I've been messing with the design of my website a bit again and what you're looking at is how far I've come now.

It's based on the Wordpress system (again) so beneath this optical change there also are some neat software changes I like very much. Hopefully this whole thing will suit you guys as much as I think it suits me at the moment and I'm curious to find out what you think of it so far.

I just don't get it. I must be driving around with a easy to read 'hit me' sign on the back of my car because this morning someone bumped into the back of my car again. Unlike a week ago this was a rather small bump but the girl who drove into me was pretty shaken up and wouldn't stop telling me how sorry she was. It took me about 15 minutes of explaining that there was absolutely nothing to worry about before she finally believed me. I mean I, was fine, she was fine and no other harm was done. No problem. Looking at my rear fender I could see where she hit me but since my car is due to be repaired from the first accident the 18th anyway I told her that there was no need to fill out a lot of forms and let her insurance pay for anything. Besides, I was already running a little late for work so I could use the time filling out the forms would take a whole lot better. ;-) Hopefully this is the last time for now. Either it's still the guys from my racing team who are still bribing those people to keep on following me, or it's just bad luck. A lot of it. Before last weeks encounter it's been years since someone ran into me so on average it's not that big a deal. So I really hope this is the last one for some time to come. Getting hit from behind is no fun at all. Come to think of it, getting hit at all is no fun.