Oh I really whish mine was. Over. Now that my own personal d-day is slowly getting closer it seems that there is a little mountain to climb in terms of what needs to be done. I've done most of the paperwork now (I hope) so now it should be 'only' a matter of simply doing a lot of packing and then getting the hell out of there.

Tomorrow they are coming for an inspection of the apartment and I'm a little curious what they might come up with. I haven't changed anything to the apartment over the past ten years but who knows, maybe I should have ... Anyway, I'll be glad when that's behind me so I can focus on packing up the rest.

Watching an A1GP series race is always a good thing. This great new open wheel racing class is a absolute winner. All teams get the same material and basically all that decides who wins and who doesn't is the setup of the car and the quality of it's driver.

Watching this fantastic show live, including a brand new Dutch driver, on a Dutch circuit is awesome, absolutely awesome. And boy did we watch it live. Over the past weekend we got spoiled with two whole days filled to the top with superb motor sport events, live at the track of Zandvoort.

Team Netherlands had a last minute driver change when their number one driver, from now on referred to as 'looser', decided to screw all his fans over and stay away. To hell with him, never liked him anyway.

Their (or rather: our ;-) new number one driver was Jeroen Bleekemolen who more than proved to be the right man for the job. That guy is my new hero, it was such an absolute joy watching this man at work.

This series is divided into 2 races: one short sprint race and one longer race, called the feature race. I'm still not entirely sure on how the qualifying system works but the results of the sprint race count for the starting order of the feature race.

Our guy Jeroen was starting the feature race from tenth position and finished in an amazing fourth place. But it wasn't the final results that will stay in everybody's mind, it was the way how he did it. I don't think I'll ever forget watching this one. It was fantastic to watch.

In the old days when you watched a race live you could see the cars go by and than had to wait until they passed again to see what happened that lap. Nowadays we have the aid of big screens around the circuit which allows us to see just about everything that happens.

So whenever Jeroen overtook a car (and he did so a lot folks :-) simply everybody could see it and at those moments all hell broke loose on all the stands around the track. The roar of the cheering crowd was sometimes even louder than the noise the race cars made. It gave me goose bumps all over, I've never experienced something like this. The sound then thousands of people make when they cheer on their favorite driver is very intimidating.

After a number of laps he worked his way through to second place and when he then passed the car in front of him to take the first position they must have been able to hear the cheering all the way in that TV helicopter. That was such a incredibly cool moment. Every time he passed by everyone was at their feet and cheering him on.

In the end it was an unfortunate tire choice that prevented Team Netherlands from winning the race but it was a brilliant drive from Jeroen nonetheless. And boy did he get his share of applause and cheering when he stepped out of the car. It couldn't have been any better when he had actually won the race. The crowd went nuts, completely nuts.

Apart from the A1 there also were a couple of other racing lasses present from which the Porsche GT3's and the BLR class were my favorite. Specially the last one was fun to watch. They had no less than thirty seven cars on the grid, divided over two types of chassis.

When that many cars come storming over a hill towards both you and a pretty tight corner you have trouble deciding where to look, there's just so much happening at once. And I'm such a big fan of large grids. When after a couple of laps the field spreads over the track a bit there are cars passing by constantly. It's great to watch.

Looking back on the weekend the only thing that wasn't too much fun is me straining a muscle early Saturday morning causing me to limp around the place during the entire weekend. Walking from the camping to the track and back again at the end of the day, and doing that again the next day. Right now I'm completely busted. Yesterday my right leg hurts just about as much as the left one, from trying to spare the other. It's getting slightly better though, all I need is to take it easy a bit ... I hope. ;-)

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. :-)