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Friday, June 2, 2000
Family reunion
It looks like family reunions in the family of my mother only take place at funerals.
Today, again we had a funeral
of an uncle from my mother side.
Many people expressed their happiness about the fact that
their just had been a small family reunion when we
celebrated the 70th
birthday of my mother. That is also the last time, I
saw my uncle alive. At that time he did not have any
serious health problems.
Saturday, June 3, 2000
For Hire
When walking through the city, I sometimes come along an
empty shop, with a sign saying "For Hire". This makes me
dream about having a shop myself. But what kind of shop?
The answer seems obvious: a
bookshop. But what kind of
bookshop? There are already enough of them. With only the
books I like, I think. But then when I come to reality,
I realize that that is not possible. The rates for shop space
is incredibly high. I would have to sell many books in
order to make a little earning. Which means, I also would
have to sell books I do not like. It is just a dream.
Sunday, June 4, 2000
Free lottery ticket
I few days ago we received a free lottery ticket of the Dutch
Lotto lottery. About 6 milion
house hold received such a ticket, which was already announced
through some TV commercials. At first, I did not believe it
was really free, when I saw you had to dial a certian number
to confirm that you were joining the lottery with the ticket.
Then I noticed that it was a toll-free number. Still, I thought
that there must be something behind it. When I tried to phone
the number, it was busy, and it stayed busy. Usually, we do
not join into lotteries, because it is a form of gambling. But
if it is free, why not join it.
Last night, Andy woke us up in the
middle of the night. And after I changed his diapers, I went
downstairs to try the number again. It was free, and I got
one of those famouse computerized answering machines on the
line telling me to enter all kinds of numbers, namely: the
number on the ticket, our phone number, and my bank account
number, at least that is what is said on the back of the
ticket. But I noticed that the interaction did not go very
well. At a certain point, it said I had registred, but before
I could have entered my bank account, it responded with
the welcome messages, and the whole interactions started
over again. I continued, and it went the same as before,
and again it came back to the welcome messages. At that point
I broke off the line. Back in bed, I could not catch sleep
anymore, worring that something had gone wrong. At that point
I also realized that I did not have any thing to prove that
I indeed had registred my ticket. Only after I got the idea to
video-tape the registration, I fell asleep.
Early in the morning, I went to the registration procedure
again, with a video camera pointing at the telephone recording
all the buttons I dialed, and the messages that came back.
I showed the ticket, whenever appropriate. This time, I was
asked for a bank account number, thus indeed something had
gone wrong in the middle of the night. But I still did not
receive any proof that I my registration was successful.
They should have given me some unique four digit code, which
would prove that I had registered, even if the system would
have crashed afterwards.
Thursday, June 8, 2000
Strange encounters
This morning, there was a BMW capriolet standing on the VIP's
parking place right before the entrance of our office. It looked
liked a two seater sports car. The roof was off, and it was
a lady, a girl almost. I could not stop watching it, when going
into the building. Some of my colleages noted this, and asked
me why I was looking. I told them that I was looking at the
car, and then said "I have some strange feeling, that the lady
does not fit the car". She had a blue sweater on, and curly hear
till her shoulder, and she was driving very slowly while getting
out of the parking lot. Also her face did not look familiar. My
colleages also did not recognize her. The whole incident left
me with a strange feeling that something was wrong here, but I
couldn't tell exactly why.
Forgetting
Sometimes you forget something, and then you really wish you
had not forgotten it. This morning, I accidently saw the
repeated broad cast of the memorial service which was held
yesterday for the victems of the disaster. The service was held yesterday evening from
20:00 till 21:00. At that time, I was visiting a colleague,
to install some extra memory in one of my computers. In a
sense, I feel ashamed that I easily forgot about all these
people that are still daily confronted with the consequences
of this terrible disaster. I still haven't been near the
disaster area. I have the idea, that I will get a better
understanding the reality of the disaster if I would go
there.
(follow-up)
Night of prayer
Last night, I joined the "Night of prayer" for the prosecuted
Christians all over the world, which was held in more than
hundred places in the Netherlands. This night started at
10 o'clock at Friday evening and ended at 6 o'clock in the
morning. We did have several break during the night. We made
a intercession world trip visiting the following countries:
Mexico, Columbia, North-Korea, P.R. China, Philipines,
Egypt, Turkmenistan, and Indonesia. And finally, we prayed
for our own city. Only the last hour, I started to feel tired.
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