Goodbye winter, welcome spring

Today spring season began. So when I opened my curtains this morning I expected a little sun shine, birds singing and the first green leaves... It wasn't even close to what I saw: it was sort of snowing or raining or it also could be hail, and my neighbour was walking in his living room half naked! Welcome spring.

Another quit interesting fact is that people don't seem to know where the Canary Island are situated and some people think that freckles are the result of some kind of scary disease?
When I came back to Uni after my very nice surf trip someone said to me: "I didn't know you were that ill", I looked very confused, so he explained himself. He thought I was away cause I was ill. He meant my patched face apparently? What he really meant were my freckles. Some people just need a (little) bit more education....

My hand(s) burned in Fuerteventura, so first they were a bit red and now my old skin is coming of. Nothing special, only most people have this in the summer and I have it in the winter. Today someone asked me, "so did you skied without gloves?" I looked confused again and replied: "Ehm well I have never skied in my life, but if I would do I would probably put on gloves (I don't like cold, and snow is cold so yes I thought my answer made sense). Because he was confused about my answer he said: "but you went to an island to ski didn't you?'

So I would like to know of you if I have to reply to this, and if I had to what to answer? Remember I went to an island on the coast of north Africa!

Those were the days...

Those were the days. You should really watch this video! Everybody would instantly understand why everybody loves Mac. And if that's not enough watch this piece of masterwork! Even Hollywood is addicted to Macs!













Apple's computer 'Lisa' (1983)

The word of the day, is not jealous

Imagine, you go to University to do some serious PLC programming. You come in at half past 8, you go sit behind (or is it before?!) a computer. Everything is fine, until some kind of teacher (or whatever his profession might be) comes in, and until the moment he leaves. He said the word serial (about 25 times in 4 hours). Speaking of a word of the day!

When I came home I read something about jealousy, there was a test involved and I decided to do it. It appears I'm not a very jealous person...






















Is this good or not? It's not that I don't care, but I'm just not the type of woman who's gonna hit another woman on a party just because my boyfriend is talking to a blond-big boobs-leggy woman with perfect teeth ;)

Merpel & Appel went on a surftrip Fuerteventura II

Saturday evening Marieke came around to upload the more then 300 pictures we made in one week! I didn't even upload my pictures jet and she was already talking about a new surf trip: Portugal!

Later that evening I went to Anoushka and Bart. It was Anoushka's birthday when I was away, but that wasn't really a problem cause they were skiing on my birthday! The first hour I was there I finally went through about a 1000 pictures. From their last ski trip, carnaval and a party where they made more then 300 pictures on one evening. So 300 pictures in 8 days isn't to bad?!

Well anyway, Fuerteventura! After a good night sleep on Friday, it was time to go surfing again. Saturday we went back to Playa Blanca to find the waves much calmer then they were Thursday. After some falling of my board I made 1 really good ride, after lunch and yoga on the beach I had another good ride in the afternoon session (And Saturday wasn't even my best day!)

In the evening Marieke and I went to see the end of the carnaval, that meant there were a lot of floats who would start as a parade at the roundabout at our hotel and would end somewhere close to the main street in the centre. The parade would start at 6pm, and at 19.30 the parade started (the locals always take it easy, why rush?). It started with a lot of half naked woman, which we are not use to in parades in Holland. The reason could be that it is most of the time freezing when it is carnaval here.

When we saw all the floats, we returned to the hotel to pick up the other who were ready to go out.
After 5 minutes Demelza stood on a float?! 2 minutes later, Marieke was on the same float which had an Indian theme.
Jilly, Lucy and me decided to have a drink in the center and would wait till the float with Demelza, Marieke and the Indians would show up.

When their float finally showed up, we all joined the Indians. After dancing, running away from a scary Spanish guy and a lot of trying not to fall over (the driver was not the best driver in the world!) we found out that we were on the only float which didn't go to the after party area, but to the harbor!

And then it was already Sunday! Sunday we went to Playa Blanca for the last time, and it was great! The waves were not to big, but we did had a lot of green waves. That meant a lot of paddling, and a lot of nose diving. Because I am not very heavy I could play around where the waves were white, and still could have good and long rides. In the morning I made 2 rides all the way to the beach, in the afternoon session I made some turns (I did got to turn before, but that was more a coincidence cause I moved on my board). At the end of the day I was exhausted but happy!

In the evening Marieke and I walked into the dune area, where we wanted to make some dessert pictures. The only problem was that by the time we reached the white sand it was totally dark! (and is was only 19.30h) After we wandered back we went to bed around 22h.

Monday we went surfing on the west coast of the island, at El Cotillo. At Cotillo beach there is ground swell, that I found very odd. With the ground swell there, and we were surfing on a reef. We had waves coming from different directions! For me that meant I found my talent, I was a master in catching the wrong waves. When you catched a wave another wave which came from the beach would come straight at you. Which was fun, but was very hard to surf on.
In the afternoon we went to a lagoon, which was absolutely gorgeous.....the only thing which was not so nice were the old-naked-German people who where glaring at us (probably cause we were wearing wetsuits).
Monday night was shopping night, and I finally found a 'sex wax' shirt! I was looking for that when I went to Hossegor, but then I only found stickers and XXL size shirts. But now I am the proud owner of a 'sex-wax' t-shirt!

The last day of surfing had arrived, for the last day of surfing we went again to El Cotillo. In the afternoon we did a 20 minute contest. Which was won by Marieke, not surprisingly cause she was the best surfer of the week.
That night we went out in our new bought '7 Island surf' (the name of the surf school), some food, a few drinks and to bed (everybody wanted yawning all the time).

Bye Bye Fuerte! Wednesday was the day we had to go home. After an (English) breakfast at the hotel for €4,21??!! I found that a very strange amount, but it was literally counted back from 700 pesetas?! We went for a last visit to the beach of Corralejo, where it was a nice 22C.

At 12, Sara came to pick us to go the airport. Our flight was delayed for more then an hour, because there were people on the plane which did not had the right papers with them?! With this delay it would mean we would miss our connection flight...
When we landed on Madrid Airport and got to the terminal building, it was the official departure time of our connection flight to Amsterdam. Madrid is a very very big airport and you find out how big it is if you have to run to the other side of the building. Then when we reached our gate, people were still waiting to board the plane.... All the running for nothing, but we did get to go home.

When we landed on Schiphol, got our main luggage and were walking to the trains, Steve showed up just to say hi and see if he had a tan! :)
For more pictures see my photo page.

Merpel & Appel went on a surftrip Fuerteventura

Our trip began March the 7th at 6am. We hopped on a train to Schiphol Airport, there we said goodbye to rainy Holland and we were off to Madrid!

Just 30 minutes before we would land on Madrid Barajas Airport we had some serious turbulence. Which I found funny, it saved me a trip to a theme parc to go on a roller coaster. Other people on the plane weren't as enthusiastic about the heavily moving plane?!
Madrid Airport is hugh, it even has a Zara and a Starbucks....but no shopping for us, we had another plane to catch!

After 2000 miles of flying we reached our destination: Fuerteventura!
Instantly we noticed we were not dressed for this type weather, Sara who came to pick us up from the airport wore a top and a skirt...I still wore a long sleeve, a jacket and still had my winter coat on me.

After a 30 minute drive through a very dry landscape we arrived at our hotel in Corralejo. There we met the other 3 surf girls, Jilly, Lucy and Demelza. Marieke already met them before on previous surf trips to Newquay (UK). That evening we went for drinks and got to meet our surf coach Tom. After a few drinks we returned to our hotel to go get some sleep, because Thursday we needed to be well rested for our first day of surfing!

Thursday we went to Playa Blanca, a beach on the East side of the Island. The waves were much bigger then I had ever surfed on. So for the morning session I took it easy, in the afternoon the waves were a bit better luckily.
We would have 5 days of surf coaching and 1 resting day, and this day is normally on a Saturday. You got to go to a beauty spa and could have different treatments, like a Belgium chocolate mask, red wine bath or a massage with volcanic rock. Cause of bad wave conditions on Friday, we decided that Friday would be our day off. No-one really felt like going to the beauty spa, so we decided to go do some sight seeing on the Island.

Marieke, Lucy, Demelza and me decided that we would go climb up Bayuyo, a (non active) volcano close to Corralejo. Jilly would go discover the old part of the town, and later we found out she went to Lanzarote!
We started walking, and after a 2 hour walking we found out we didn't quit knew which volcano we were heading for and none of the volcano's seem to come closer! We arrived in a village with a supermarket so we decided to have an ice scream and ask where our volcano was. Marieke asked in her best Spanish the way to our volcano, apparently the volcano was very close to the last roundabout of Coralejo....(the roundabout was only a 10 minute walk from our hotel!) This meant or a 2 our hike back to the volcano with a chance of twilight or even darkness by the time we reached the summit. Or we could take a bus, but Spanish people live on a different pace. They just sit and wait for the bus, bus could arrive in 5 minutes could also be a hour?!

The volcano trip

So we called a taxi, which brought us to the foot of the volcano. Where we hiked up to the 270m volcano. The view from the top was really spectacular. After we descended I found out there were goats living on the foot of the volcano. I did not wanted to leave before I stroke a goat, of course the goat were better climbers then I was and they ran away. That's not entirely true cause a few goats did follow Lucy until she got a bit scared of them!

That's it for today, I'm going to bed. Tomorrow is another workday, and I can start save money for my next holiday!

I love my apple

My day wasn't very special until (besides that I am going on holiday in a few hours) , I came home and there was parcel delivered for me (this is exiting for me, normally I only get normal mail like bills and other trash.) Steve send me a cushion which says "I love my Apple"! How cool is that!! This is also a belated birthday gift, this also took 5 to 6 weeks to come to me.

And then I went upstairs and found my room turned in a pond again, just like yesterday and last night.

Fuerteventura here we come

Just one more night of sleep to go, and then it's time to go to Fuerteventura!

Me and Marieke go on a surf trip for 8 days, today it's 22C there. Where I am now it's 10C and it's raining all the time!





















But there is no need to be jealous! I will think about you folks...

Traffic light

Imagine, you walk up to an intersection with traffic lights....
There are about 25 cyclist waiting for the traffic light to change to green. They are standing on the left side of the traffic light, you are walking to the right side of it.

As soon as you push the button of the traffic light, changes into green, and someone says to you: "I wish you did that before, that would have saved me a lot of waiting"?!

What do you think, I have special powers? Are you just really thick and think it is my good karma that is doing the job? NO! It's a regulated system, but it's always nice if someone tries to be funny!

Food, food and more food

Kate and Rob, Steve's friends, were over so I decided to visit them and see how they were since I last saw them at Christmas.

Rob still appeared yo be hyper active, and he still loves to talk about shoes (sorry guys he is straight...) We didn't do a lot accept eat, we had some good take away Chinese. Next morning I tried to re-heat my rice (which didn't succeed, so I ate my rice cold). Steve and Rob played a few hours of Halo on the Xbox. Around 2 we were hungry again and decided to go and have some pizza.
After some food, and a little sight seeing in Leiden it was time to say goodbye to Kate and Rob. We walked them to the station, where Steve almost forgot to give Rob his bag back! Nice to be at Schiphol without your passport...

Saturday Steve and I did some shopping, Steve wanted to buy a Gibson guitar and he wanted to buy a microwave. But after some serious shopping for towels, pillows, pillowcases, candles, incense, food and so much more. We decided that is was time to go home.

Saturday evening I made reservation at a really nice Mediterranean restaurant named Frezza. You pick 3 courses, doesn't matter what (cold, warm) or in what order. We found out it was quit a posh restaurant, small dishes on a big plate. But the food was delicious, and the last course that we had (number 4) was dessert, I had chocolate cake and it was gooooooddd and big!

And then it was Sunday, a working day so back to Breda....luckily Steve made me pancakes in the morning, that's a good start of the day :)

After working at a busy IKEA, I found out the company who send me the Mighty Boosh DVD send me another copy! Dave (Steve's dad) reported the DVD missing after it didn't arrive after 2 and a half week, so the company send me another one.