Why is it...........
that people seem to be getting more and more stupid and scared every day?
The reason for this question comes from a combination of my hour long commute and the crappy weather of late. In the evenings, the roads are empty and I can drive at a normal place, but in the morning, all the secretaries, library assistants, public servants and grade school teachers are on the road as well. Now this is fine, I mean I do not own the road and I know I cannot drive the speed I wish on filled up roads, but it would be nice if they would at least drive the speed close to the indicated maximum allowed speed signed out at the side of the road.
I mean, if you’re too bloody scared to drive at 80 or 100 on a big, wide empty road in a modern car, you shouldn’t be F**KING driving in the first place!
This (of course) gets worse when it’s raining. All over sudden, the numpties stamp on the brakes, and drive 60 kph because anything over it is life-threateningly dangerous or something. Let me tell you something, I have fears as well, but they usually consist of waking up in the morning wondering if the night before I scored a 3 or 10 pinter, not crashing a car because I drive over 50 kph.
Driving a modern, - airbagged up the ass, filled with stability systems- car on a well maintained road should not be something scary. I mean, an Opel Astra Diesel is not a Ferrari F1 car, not matter how fast you think it is. It’s not going to spin out of control the moment you actually go over 80 and use more that 10% of your throttle. Use the pedal on the right for once!
I just want to say to these people:
“Get with it honey (or dude), do society a favour, and stay at home and watch your soaps, because obviously you’re too scared of life to be allowed to go outside. People like you are the reason society is evolving into a culture where you should be scared of all the terrorists, Islam/Judaism/Christianity/Hinduism, China trade deficits and where losing to France/Germany/UK/whatever in the World Championships is the worst possible thing that could happen in 2006.”
And breath…………
Munich
Is a very cool city :-)
Had yet another great weekend outwide of the Neterhlands, this time spend in that city down south.
Katrin proved herself a great host (as usual), and Ive seen some the nice places.
Highlights were
- BarSchwein (very busy, great fun and cheap good beer)
- The strong beer festival. A giant hall with 5000-10000 drunk germans dancing on tables may sounds frightening, but is actually great fun. The only beer available has 7,5% alcohol, and is served per litre (!). Nice :-)
- BMW Museum. Mekka.
- The many good meals Munich had to offer
All in all, it was bloody great, and I cannot wait till I can go back!
Got to love the Czechs
Tagline: The new Octavia, now with dual zone aircon.
Prague, here I come!
Nurburgring 2006. Part 1
Just back from a place I'm been dreaming off for the last 7 months.
ANd boy did it live up to my expectations.
I'll try to keep it short. My camara ran out of batteries pretty quickly, so I do not have any good pics, unfortunately.
Highlights, arriving at the "Pig" (a bar) at Friday at 6pm, to find that Bren, Karl and Euan already started. Damn, have to try and catch. But trying to keep up with them is a task that is best left for another day (and another liver) so after a very short session we headed over to Nurburg and then continued over there. Met Job, Jeroen, Jochen and some other there and a lot of fun was had by all. For outsiders, we were a crowd of at least 10 different nationailities, brought together in a small bar in a small town in a calm place in Germany for the love of driving and just playing with our (slightly bigger than in our youth) toys. It's a guy thing.
A lot of beer was drunk and a great deal of piss-taking was done (mostly at my expense) untill I decided to bugger off early.
Saturday I spend in the pitlane with the VLN team and with Christer showing up as well the first practice with the
Mercedes could start.
It looks bloody great in its 1989 DTM replica decals, but needs new wheels. ;-)
The whole day went off without a hitch and all that what needed from time to time was to change the driver and put some fuel in. There's something to be said about an old Merc for a tracktoy!
Job offered me a drive in it for Sunday, which I accepted, but due to time constrains it was not to be. Something for later on in the season then. I had a ride in it though, it was great. Nice and sideways, the way I like it!
On Sat. we took it easy, long day etc.
On Sunday I also got a passenger lap with Einar, one of Job's drivers. He drives a SL55AMG. Which is a 2 tonne 2 seat automatic Mercedes. Normally a recipe for disaster. But a very good driver, 500 horses and a performance package save the day. FUCKING HELL that's fast. And it even went round corners. Might I add the track was wet, full of salt and snow? And that we hit 250 really easy? Damn, very impressive.
Got some laps with Gerrit in his 1 series, which was very good fun too :-)
Biggest surprise off the weekend was meeting the guys from my favourite car magazine,
EVO. I was playing around on the local backroads in the evening, and all over sudden I see 4 brand new roadsters parked out in the middle of nowhere.
One hardbrake turn later, and I met my favourite journalists. Pretty cool. A few of them have never been to the Ring, so they were apprehensive, but later on Sunday you could not beat the smile of their faces. Another few bite the dust..........
Roll on next weekend, when I'll see Katrin again, and gay boy extraordinaire Christer promised me some "stark" beers. (8% beers sold only per litre)
My healthy living plans will need to be postponed...........................
Crisis
I'm getting old!
Just got the application for my cards. I had to frown. My title: Global Project Manager
Moi?
I even get personell in the next few months. I used to be the most immature person in the world. What the hell is happening?
Bruxelles
Had a great weekend, thanks to my excellent
host.
I'll keep it short, some highlights:
Meeting Vlad and Adriana for the first time "together". They were only a rumour when I left :-)
Meeting Volodja, Miikka, Marney, Miguel again. That was very nice.
Drinking huge amounts of Leffe, good coffee and Hoegaarden.
And a very nice Thai DHL girl who's name slipped me but with whom I had a very interesting discussion on the merits of Asian (Chinese in my case) girls against Western girls. My plus vs. bad points for both sides was listened to with interest. At last, my research pays off!
Talking to Klaudiusz for 5 hours in Arcadi (a very nice lunch place) about life, love, women and the future. Greatly appreciated and pondering on it makes me realize a very corny (but true) thing. I want for nothing. I have a great job, looking for a place in a great town, good friends, and I'm not *that* ugly :-)
Well, except maybe a nice car. And guess what, that will come this year as well.
And oh yeah, I've been invited to plan my new years already. And I just accepted. I'll be ringing in New Years 2007 in Sydney.
Life's good
Sitting, relaxing after a whole day of eating and drinking coffee with my old mates in Brussels while my dinner is being cooked by my newfound
housewife?
Not bad.
Intoxication
I have a confession to make.
I'm in love, with a very good friends' mistress. I know, it's not done, and not the behaviour of a gentleman but I cannot help it.
Last night we went for a testdrive with her, and she showed us all the dirty corners of her hometown. She cried out with pleasure and begged for more, more, MORE. She wanted it straight, but was not afraid to go sideways too.
I have to get me a date with one of her sisters, maybe even a long term relationship. It will cost me dearly (but I'm used to that) but maybe this time it will be payed out in loyalty and pleasure.
Maybe I'll go for the redhead.
Women of Europe...............
...................watch out!
Any song with these
lyrics has to be my new anthem.
Hard Fi - Heart to beat.
Is it wrong that I play the same song on my 2 1/2 hour commute (to and from) at least 5 times?
Yeah baby
Was checking out Düsseldorf this past weekend, and it might have been the dozens of Porsches, the many beautifully dressed women, or the nice architecture of the Altstadt, but I liked it.
I also found a really nice neighbourhood. Oberkassel. No. 1 on my list now, but as it's not really the cheapest place (you didn't expect anything else, now did you?) it's going to be a toughie.
What else was funny. I went out in Hengelo (whoa baby) with my best mate, and it was funny. The people there are just sooooooooooooooooo............ I don't even know how to characterize them. How about this: annoying and stupid.
We therefore proceeded to take the piss in quite a big way. Ah well, you have to adjust your level to your audience, eh?
Now in the office (enjoying a FULL German -free- breakfast) drinking a coffee. Only 4 days till Brussels.
Jag arbeter i Sverige
Or so it would seem. Snow snow snow and more snow. Isn't this supposed to be Holland?
Maybe the sunshine will break through soon, but for now, wheelspin in 5th gear and handbrake turns (summer tyres in snow, whaaaaheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey) is normal practice.
My first "week" (3 days) of work ruled. Great fun and a BIG challenge, fantastic boss and team leader, my business German is improving daily and I get to play with all the newest gadgets. :-)
This weekend I'll be on the lookout in D-dorf, scouting the neighbourhoods, to see which ones come out victorious after my rigorous screening. Which consists of the following questions:
- Where neighbourhood has the most models?
- EEEEEEEEErrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr........................................
- Ah yeah, which neighbourhood has the least amount of tree hugging, hippie socialists?
Done. Report back after the weekend.
