With an Accent from Holland

New Weblog!

Yup, it's finally there. Today I finished my new weblog. From now on you can check everything about me at : http://www.charda.nl/wordpress Let me know what you think of it :-)

posted by Charda @ 27.4.07 0 comments

Caching Today

Today Martijn and I did 5 geocaches. We wanted to walk around and I had chosen 5 caches in a row. They turned out to be in a nice row of each other. We walked only for about 7 kilometres today, but we are both pretty tired right now. The pictures are at: http://www.icewatcher.nl/pics/geocaching22april/

posted by Charda @ 22.4.07 0 comments

Essay, Christina Aguilera and my Grief for my Father

I’m still playing around with Wordpress, but I guess half an hour just isn’t enough time to get it the way I want it. The main problem is that I don’t really know how it works, and I’m actually too tired to figure it out right now. But it’s still a work in progress…

Tonight I got back my Literature essay, the one about ‘Wuthering Heights’ by Emily Brontë. and I’m really happy with it. The mark is a 7.5 on a scale from 1 to 10. I’m very pleased with it, especially since I didn’t know what it was going to be. It was the first essay I handed in to this teacher, so you never know what they expect from an essay. He didn’t even comment much, so I’m just very happy.

I was less happy walking home from the tram. I had listened to Christina Aguilera when I just had to cry because of my father’s death. I’ll explain the Christina Aguilera thing first. On the 2^nd of December I went to her concert in Rotterdam and afterwards I posted a link to a video with a small story about it on my blog. My father had read that and then sent me an e-mail saying that he was jealous of me and that he would have liked to come along. That was the last e-mail I ever received from my father, the last contact we had, because he died a week later. I replied to his e-mail, but he never replied to that one. Apart from that, I cannot listen to the song ‘Hurt’ by Miss Aguilera, because of the lyrics and the way in which she sings it. That song always makes me cry. On my way home I was listening to her CD, not even the one with ‘Hurt’ on it, but still. I just had to cry. And then I got home in tears and Martijn was very afraid something had happened to me on my way home. This mourning process is weird. Sometimes I don’t think about it for days and then sometimes I just have to cry at the most crazy places, like today. I don’t feel bad about it; it makes me feel human. Because I’m still sometimes kind of embarrassed that I don’t think about it more often, that I don’t cry more often. My life kind of goes on like always. But then this happens and I’m a bit relieved that I can still cry about it and feel the pain. I guess that will stay forever…

posted by Charda @ 18.4.07 0 comments

Photos, Today, Blog

The pictures from last weekend are on the website of the organization: http://mes.albertsweb.nl/mediagallery/album.php?aid=52&page=1
You can find me at about 2 or 3 pictures, so good luck finding me :)
I have to say that all the injuries you see on the pictures are fake, no matter how real they seem.
Today I worked all day, nothing really special happened. I slept very well last night. Tonight I tried to find a good template for my Wordpress blog, but I can't really find it. I'll have to spend some more time on that. I'll keep you posted.

posted by Charda @ 16.4.07 0 comments

First Aid Weekend, Moots I 2007, Sleep!

I survived the weekend. I never thought I would, but I did. It wasn’t too bad actually. We didn’t do any of the scary exercises I thought we would do. We practised many little things, like how to do bandages and we have a small lecture about heart diseases, epilepsy and brain diseases. We rehearsed our resuscitating skills and we practised how to walk with a gurney. The only downside was that I didn’t get any sleep last night. We slept with 20 people in one room and many people were talking and making noise and just being annoying.

We also had a pet with us from one of the participants, a small Blackcap bird she has hand-raised, called Frank, even though it’s a girl. It was fun to see this bird and even hold it.

In four weeks time Martijn and I are going to participate as First Aid volunteers in a larp event, Moots I, just like I did last year. It’s like a real life Guild Wars experience. I am looking forward to it. It is hard work, to work long hours and usually not on too much sleep (we sleep in a tent), but it is fun to walk around there and see everyone fighting and being in-character. We’ll see how that goes in a little while. Now I’m going to take a shower and go to bed. I’m gonna try to sleep a few hours before having to work tomorrow.

posted by Charda @ 15.4.07 0 comments

First Aid Weekend, De Lama's

Well, tomorrow is the big day. Tomorrow Martijn and I are going on our annual First Aid Rehearsal weekend. I am not looking forward to it. Last year I got very upset during one of the practices and that has made me very insecure. The weekend lasts from tomorrow afternoon until Sunday afternoon. I hope I will survive this weekend without bursting out crying and that I will pass the requirements so that my diploma will be extended.

I do have some good news though. On the 14^th of August Martijn and I are going to ‘De Lama’s’. This is an improvisation group, consisting of 4/5 stand-up comedians, who improvise throughout the show. They also have a television show, which is hilarious to watch. The day before yesterday I found out about their summer shows in August in The Hague, so I immediately made a reservation for 2 tickets and we even have pretty good seats. Today I received the tickets via mail. I am really looking forward to it.

Well, that’s about all I have to say right now. I hope I can get some sleep tonight, since it is really hot over here. I hope I will survive the weekend and I hope I will be back to play Guild Wars by Sunday evening.

posted by Charda @ 13.4.07 0 comments

New Website, New e-mail, No New Shoes

Last Sunday I ordered a domainname and some webspace for me. I checked the domain charda.nl and it was still available. I registered this name and 500 MB of webspace as well. As yet there is nothing to see there, but I will add more in the coming weeks/months. Right now I'm still using this blog, and I might continue to do so. I mainly wanted the webspace so that I will have my own e-mail and that I'm no longer dependent on Hotmail or Gmail. For those of you who would like to know my new e-mail address, please e-mail me. I'd rather not put it on this website for all the spammers to find it. I will continue to read all my other e-mail addresses.
This afternoon I went shopping. I needed new shoes and a bag with wheels for this weekend. I didn't find any shoes. I actually hate buying new shoes, since I can never find shoes for my feet. I did buy a really nice bag. It's a regular weekendbag but then with wheels. I will need it this weekend when Martijn and I are going to the First Aid rehearsal weekend. I am not looking forward to it. I also bought the second season of Dawson's Creek. It wasn't that expensive and I wanted to have for a very long time.

posted by Charda @ 10.4.07 0 comments

Geocaching, Xofrix, Ashes

Today was a very exciting day. I got up very early at 9 am, which is really early for me at a Sunday. And I know today wasn’t Sunday today, but it was Second Easter day, which is a holiday here in the Netherlands, so it felt like a Sunday to me. We went geocaching today. We first did the ‘Waar? Daar! Duivenvoorde’cache. It was a pretty short walk and we figured out everything easily.

Afterwards we met with Team Xofrix as they call themselves in the geocaching world. I know Xofrix from Guild Wars where we are in the same guild and we play a lot together. We’re both not the best players in the game, but we do have a lot of fun. Since we are both geocachers, we decided that we should try and a do a geocache together. And today was the day. The cache that we did together was very easy and we pretty much walked straight to it in one line. It was very cool to meet him and I hope we will meet again some time soon.

The pictures are at: http://www.icewatcher.nl/pics/geocaching9april/

Last Thursday I scattered my father’s ashes. I wasn’t as emotional as I thought I was going to be. I scattered the ashes myself. I had decided that I might do it up front if they asked me, and they did. My grandmother carried the ashes to the site. The site itself wasn’t that special. It was just a piece of land with trees and grass. I thought it would be prettier with flowers and such, but that wasn’t the case. So I scattered the ashes and I felt really clumsy while doing it. It was pretty heavy and it was just an awkward experience. I hope it was the last time I’ll ever have to do it. Martijn took a lot of pictures, but I won’t share them with you. They’re for me and my grandmother.

Talk to you soon!

posted by Charda @ 9.4.07 0 comments

Pictures Geocaching Last Week

Here is the link to the pictures of our Geocaching expedition last week. We host it on Martijns website now instead of Flickr. I hope this works better and this allows us more freedom. http://www.icewatcher.nl/pics/geocaching1april/
I hope you enjoy the pictures!

posted by Charda @ 8.4.07 2 comments

Scattering My Father's Ashes

Tomorrow my father’s remains will be scattered on a small field next to the crematorium in Almere. I can’t say I’m looking forward to it. My mother and my grandmother will be there and Martijn will come with me. I will also pick up the mini urn with a small part of my father’s ashes in it. I’ve been tense all week because of this. I know it will be over soon and I don’t think it will be very special or anything. I’m just not looking forward to going back to the crematorium and I’m not looking forward to getting very emotional again. If there’s time and the opportunity for it, I want to read this poem. It’s from the Lord of the Rings. My father really liked that book. It’s not one of the last poems about the Grey Havens, because those are too long. This one is about going to an inn after a long day, but I think it kind of applies to my father as well. It’s poetry, so you can stick any meaning to it if you like. I’ll let you know how things went, probably not tomorrow, but rather some other day. Please think of me around noon my time :-)

The Road goes ever on and on
Out from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
Let others follow it who can!
Let them a journey new begin,
But I at last with weary feet
Will turn towards the lighted inn,
My evening-rest and sleep to meet.

posted by Charda @ 4.4.07 0 comments