Saan has got two minutes to say (Two minutes! Eek! Where has the day run off to?) she's spending her free Friday with a bag of Pickles potato chips behind the TV watching stand-up comedy. And sleeping late tomorrow.
The annual boekenbeurs is pretty much like giving birth, or it is if Saan can believe her mom. You want it, you do it, you suffer, you forget the bad, remember the good and do it again.
The bad: high temperatures underneath the spotlights they scatter above the stands, tons of books weighing you down to the point it's not pretty anymore, cues as far as the eye reaches, missed trains, trams, low temperatures outside, usually some rain, you lose (like Saan did today) a lot of money, some of it probably your own, (or at least, Saan has this problem) having to stand around and walk around practically al the time and getting a resulting, agonizing ache in your ankles for the rest of the day, if not the next and overpopulated public transportation.
The good: finding *the* book, spending time with your friends, jokes, finding other books that you were planning on getting anyway, but since you're there...
Today, Saan bought 7 books. 6 were meant for herself, but she kindly donated the canine encyclopedia from The Dog (c) to her (book-hating) little sister, who fell in love and is going to sleep with it tonight. Leaving Saan with four Discworld novels and 'It's Called A Breakup Because It's Broken', because it had a bright picture on the front. Many thanks to Sterling Books from Brussels for hiring a decent-sized stand. Saan spent more than one hundred euros on transportation, fast food and literature. She did keep her promises to her parents: no buying candy (muffin wasn't candy, it was dessert), no spending all your savings (that's why she left 10 euros at home to begin with) and no going crazy just because mom and dad weren't watching. The craziest Saan ever got at a similar happening was under her father's nose, if cheaper, but she ended up with eight (okay, so eight she can remember) books.
So now Saan's tired, feeling vaguely sick from too much grease in her food and too much extreme temperatures during the day and aching. Saan's friends had their books, Elly was downright delighted at the fact that Sterling sold translated-to-English manga she'd been dying to get, apparently, Saan's sister is looking at the pretty pictures in her new book and reading the few lines they put next to them (which is basically more than she's voluntarily done all year when it comes to reading), Saan's brother's back hurts, Saan's mom is a wee bit pissed that Saan brought home more than one book (And Saan did leave home the Discworld Science books, and the Discworld agenda, and '101 things you have to have done before you die' and all the versions of 'The Bunny Suicides' and 'Great Lies to Tell Small Kids' and the Casper and Hobbes comic books and the refrigerator poetry packs and the reading light, so she doesn't quite see the problem here), Saan's dad is glad the day is over and the four bags of potato chips have gone unharmed through another day.
And remember; he does not want you to call and you do not want to make that call. Goodnight.
Yestarday, Saan had her checkup with her overgrown dentist. No holes, but due to the glue keeping the retainer-wire to the back of her lower teeth, dirt had gotten stuck in them. So... now Saan has a new, bright pink toothbrush! Okay, so it's an interdental brush and it's as tiny as it gets, but it's cute. And it beats poking around with floss.
It's Halloween! Which means Saan woke up this morning, picked the first reasonably colored picture, messed around with it some in Paint Shop Pro (which didn't help) and came up with this! The Official Irreality For Dummies Halloween Chibi for 2006. An alien to keep the fribbin dude company!
Edit: Okay, so the site swallowed the alien. We try, try, try again.
This is the reason why Saan isn't making a decent post today. Four months of frustration due to on line bookstores, a year and half of waiting... But Saan has her book!
Also: the blog has hit its 1000th visitor! That's an average of 14 people a day. o.O;;; People keep reading this stuff, even if most of it's thoughtless banter.
Okay, so today Saan: -Was reminded that safety glasses are needed, but no fun when you can't see more than a foot and half far. The safety part gets canceled when you slide them over your glasses: your nose is only so long. -Learned that you do not shoot animals: you shoot targets -Made more than 13,000 neopoints and is still earning more -Colored chibi's until her fingers hurt and it still looks bad. Deadline's the day after tomorrow, eek! -Whined that she wanted the nice Dutch people from the bookstore to call. Which she does. (If the nice people of Gianotten Breda are reading this: call, god damnit!) -Went to see her family and sat in a car for an hour-long drive that usually takes up twenty minutes. -Discovered you do not need to have and/or play a guitar to have two plectrums lying around in your pencil case. -Tried out the new Milka milk-chocolate spread. It's too sweet, though perhaps on some baguette it might taste better. -Helped her sister discover the joy of pokémon ROMs and pc gameboy advanced simulators. -Asked Yif if she wanted to come to the annual Boekenbeurs (www.boekenbeurs.be) and Yif said yes. Saan'd really, really, really like to go on the day when they're open for twelve hours instead of eight, even if it's hot in there (tank tops can do wonders, and you'd only have to wait around outside with a 3°C temperature for fifteen minutes or so) and her financial situation would not benefit from it and she'd be busy reading until Christmas (but, hey, the new Merry Gentry book's coming out around that time!) -Discussed sports with Do (Okay, so it was more about the fact that they should do a sport and most sports are no fun at all. Saan needs to go find her sticks--poles and take a hike... somewhere in the near future. And try to perfect the alternate butterfly, which is starting to take shape.) -Had her banana eclair nicked while she wasn't looking -Showered -Discovered no chocolate mousse beats the one they have on Sunday mornings at butcher De Backer (and she didn't get her weekly cup. Boo, for the chemical taste of Delhaize) -Heard Mary (the cat) had been missing for three days and saw her turn up later. -Still needs to remind her brother he owes her six euros -Should probably have figured out where she lost her piggy bank. It still had some money in it. -Is feeling a bit under the weather. Like being car sick without being in a car. If she pukes later tonight, you'll hear about it -Set her watch from central European summer time to central European time (Yeah, she looked that up. She looks lots of stuff up. You learn stuff easier if you look it up yourself, instead of just ask others.) She woke up this fine Sunday morning at the ungodly hour of half past eight. -Apparently did more than she thought she did (or maybe she just kept on typing until it looked like a lot). -Filled in her blog -Heard the not-so-joyful stories of her own birth and her grandmothers death once more. Her birth, because Eve asked their mum, her grandma's death because Saan has to go to the graveyard on Thursday. -Looked up a few neopets game secrets and guides on www.pinkpt.com to actually get some serious winnings out of most of the games -Didn't get anything from the Snowager at three pm, local time. -Is going to stop typing and make some more np.
*Money grubbing, animal mistreating, good for nothing....* (OMG! Double Post!!!!)
The dog (and cat, and farm animal and random other pets) pound in Aarschot is getting sold. Or, at least, the grounds are. The pound rents them from a nice lady, and has done so for quite some time. Now, however, the same lady wishes to make them into several plots of building ground and sell them. Through the rental contract, the pound has preference should a sale occur. However, this all is happening in a space of mere months. No time for the Belgian government to come inbetween. The pound, which has missed financial support from the government not only for this year, but the next as well, totaling at the astronomical fee of fifty thousand euros, can't afford a high price, but the owner doesn't wish to see the employees of the pound or inform them of a price. They don't have time and probably not the money to look for a new piece of land and build a new pound for them to relocate on. They have no way to relocate the dozens of animals they lend shelter to. Their only hope is going to court, winning their case and getting the sale held off for two years. At the moment, they're holding a petition for everyone who wishes to support them. (Saan found most of this info in her Sunday morning newspaper and is still fuming about it. To get Yif's sympathy: they have almost as many cats as they have dogs) For more information, check their website at http://www.vvdb.be and leave your digital signature.
Everyboy loves to stay home and raid YouTube on a Saturday Night.
Or there's a song that went a little like that. So, today Saan tagged along with her parents and sister for her sister's new Zen something something. Saan got a jar of the new kind of chocolate spread out of it. She did repair the link (she hopes) and spent the rest of her day looking up Disney songs on YouTube. She'll probably be trying to color in the Halloween Chibi tomorrow.
For some fun, written in Dutch, try out www.watisuwexcuus.be. It's a government site, but funny.
Now go and do not hurry past roadworks, even if you do have to save the world!
To celebrate Fall Break, Saan went to see 'The Devil Wears Prada' tonight. She had a great time and will be back tomorrow with hopefully, a longer post. ... She'll figure out how to repair the link to the 30 seconds of movie tomorrow, too.
See here Saan's woundrous singing talent... She's the heigh-ho's and the mean little laugh at the end. It's the video of the initial reactions to the team building day's outfits. Eight bad crossdressers trying out a theme. Probably the highlight of Saan's day, this vid.
Good news: Saan got everything she will need tomorrow (except for her cell phone and book and maybe a map) packed in her backpack. Including the (delicious) apple cake, her poi, the pink hair band for L., a shirt and two rather red caps. Her bike works, meaning Saan's dad sort of did everything, including figuring out how to get the dreaded dynamo working without using Saan's way (which basically consists of hitting the damn thing against the tyre). The bike is six years old and no one knew how to do it before.
More good news: After about...Four months and thirteen days of disappointment, a store in the Netherlands still has a copy of Saan's book. It's even been reserved and hopefully getting shipped to Breda as she types. Saan also sort of knows how to get where she should be (down the street, through the village center, follow the road to the Opel garage at the old ostrich farm, turn left into the tiny sideroad, straight on, over the railroad, straight on until there's a marker.)
Bad news: Saan will be running around like a reject from Snowwhite and the Seven Dwarfs, with a painful beard, at certain times tomorrow. Seeing she's taking her cell phone, it's possible there will be (low quality) pictures or perhaps even (lower quality, probably) movies. Providing it doesn't rain. Heigh-ho. It's also (not likely, but) possible her classmates will leave her to rot at the mill because she didn't feel like doubling her biking kilometres. If she doesn't see them by, say, nine o'clock, she'll just turn around, go to school and try to explain that one. Only downhill once you're in Langdorp center.
So fingers crossed and check back tomorrow for what probably will be a report of Saan's day.
It's eight o'clock and thanks to some bastardly Brits, late night work for Saan's mom and Ketnet, Saan's not yet finished with her homework. That, and Saan's exhausted. Allow her one day of a break.
Saan's a bit woozy after two bus rides that most people do in twenty minutes or under and the bus driver did in forty-five. Two-level buses without air conditioning suck. Having cleared that, Saan wants to tell you she had a great day at her science day (or at least, she had a great day until some total and utter *BLEEEEEEEEP!*rs sent her back her book from Ostend. Argh.) looking at... You know, cancer cells and test animals. The un-tumored nude rats were cute (But fifty euros is a bit rich for seventy grams of shaved household pest) and she got to bring home her own bit of gut cancer on a glass to shove under her brother's microscope! It's painted pink and glued safely between two panes of glass and everything! Oh, and she got to go to Imec and let DJ Kelvin (K, too, I think) teach her group, another group and her how to make songs from samples on Sony ACID. The first one was really fun to do, the second one the only boy in her trio made.
One of the fun bits about feeling woozy is that you don't believe it until it's gone. Allow me to elaborate. On the maaaaajor detour to Louvain, there was The Extreme American Bar. With the slogan 'Sex is Better than (something, possibly 'War')'. At twenty to nine in the morning, in a musty bus, no one believes that (or, at least, Saan hopes no one does).
So now Saan's scraping together NP for her Quest To Get As Many Affordable PetPets In Her Safety Deposit Box. Which doesn't mean she doesn't put all the stuff she gets for cheap/free in there, too. She's already got 1 codestone, 1 air faerie in a bottle, 1 negg and (she can't check until the Wheel of Monotony's stopped spinning) 9 or more petpets. Sadly enough, she's also plundered her (neopets) bank account to fufill that little petpet feat. So now she saves money during the weekend and makes money to spend on petpets during the week. Or that's the plan, anyway.
Two days will have random hours of class falling away, two other days will be replaced by alternate activities: team building and science day. Which means scrambling for where you left the letter with what you need and finding the right bag to pack it all in. Oh, and a bus ride. Monday is not a good day to start in the world's most uncomfortable vehincle after a low-fare company's aeroplane. Louvain traffic at half past three is almost a worse way to end it.
To make it even more fun, Saan's got an oral exam for French on Tuesday for which she only has the excercises, but not the text she has to say, and a test for Dutch which has two parts not filled in due to an irritated teacher. If Saan's honest, she doesn't blame the woman.
Then there's Wednesday, which starts with a refreshing two hours at the local gym and then has an entertaining Maths test. In the afternoon, she has an apple cake to bake, which is harder than chocolate because it has fruit in it and fruit tends to go down and thin the batter, making the cake at best fragile and at worst a soggy pile of crumbs with chunks of apple in it. Oh, and she's gotta go to a classmate for the costume she has to wear on Thursday.
On Thursday morning, she has to be in a place she roughly knows the location of at a quarter to eight. Problem is, she knows where it is, but not how to get there and she has to go on her bike. Saan's biking is about three miles slower than her walking. Better yet, the way to the starting point of the team building day is almost three miles less if Saan just goes to it from her home. And to top it all off, she has to leave her bike at the starting point and walk for the rest of the day anyway.
On Friday, last day of the schoolweek, there's Environment Activities. It's Environment Week, but apparently, two hours and a home-made team lunch are enough for that.
And Saan is still pissed that she had to return the book they sent because it wasn't the one she ordered.
It's eleven pm. Saan's just remembered she had to fill in her blog. The reason she didn't remember before is the skull-splitting headache she has at the moment. She's all alone because her parents and sister went out for a hike with the GAS-organisation today (they should be back whithin the hour) and her brother went out to get smashed. Elly's on a week of exchange program fun, Yif's probably asleep by now, Jay (who once more crawled out of bed early to talk to his transatlantic SoE buddy) had to get off of the pc. Leaving Saan with a headache, water tasting like activated carbon (filter in the jug needs changing), aspirin and seasons one and two of Lost on DVD. She did go out earlier for some döner kebap and to help her brother stuff mailboxes with flyers, but that wasn't much of an improvement. There's funner stuff to be done on a Saturday night, but Saan's feeling so bad that the only option seems to be to crawl under a blanket and pretend she didn't wake up this morning.
Today, in Belgium, anyway, it was the National Day of Scout Movement. Basically, bakers and youth centres gave out free breakfast to everyone who came in their scouting uniform. Most were covered in patches or names. Leaders' flutes were used during classes. People came late because they'd miscalculated their ability to break the world record of 'devouring a plate of scrambled eggs within the shortest period of time'.
Saan once (in a previous life, probably around when she was eight and sort of influencable) was member of the KSA. After getting homesick and sick of leader A picking on her, laughing at her and getting her lost till the middle of the night so no one in her group could get a proper dinner, and after literally scarring leader B for life (he started by scaring Saan and Ellen during midday room break, Saan retaliated by digging in her nails until she actually heard it was not leader A but leader B and that leader B screamed like a girl) and also after spraining her elbow and finger on cobblestones and having people go 'oh, that's nothing' until they decided to pull and push at it, after pretty much all that, Saan quit it. Her love for oversized tops makes that the T-shirt which was big on her at age eight is still big enough to be a nightie at age sixteen-and-half. Probably still has the orange scarf somewhere, too, in the general area of her wannabe bandanas.
Her cousin's planning on a trip to Rome someday. Saan has been volunteered to go as a guide. If Saan's going, the scarf's going, most probably with the T-shirt, like on most trips with ruins and overly high temperatures. Shirt's gonna be serving as night- and morningwear (who needs pajamas when you can just pull a jeans on and be presentable enough to go get breakfast?) the scarf's the last-minute-where-the-heck-are-my-Buffs rescue from a teddy bear print with the mission to cut off all blood flow to the head. It's that or look like all the other brown-haired, grey-eyed girls and get lost in a city you don't know. When traveling in group, you either stand out or stick together. Saan tends to... wander, or linger and lose sight of her uncle(s)/cousin(s)/aunt(s)/brother/sister/mother/father and/or grandfather. The Little-Red-Riding-Hood-Laudry-Day-Routine's worked so far, and you don't tinker with things that work.
Moral of the Story: 'Parents, listen to kids when they say they hate scout movements and buy a leash for your kid after you've lost them once to prevent them from looking like a wouldbe-archeologist'
This was Saan spewing her gall. Enjoy the last twenty minutes of your Friday.
Presenting... The Official Halloween Chibi Under Construction Sneak Preview!! Okay, so it's a tiny square, but it's original is pretty small also. Try guessing what it is.
Saan's book turned out to be a hardback instead of paperback and had to be sent back. Maybe she'll see her paperback copy someday. Her movie was sold out, so she didn't get to hang out with Yif. And now she's sulking behind her pc.
It's late, and Saan should be filling in this blog... But Jay, who's always on while she's asleep, apprently got up early and decided that some RPG'ing and talking to the weird Belgian chick was in order. So you get nothing and Saan gets a little bit of good in her bad day. Nyah.
Saan's day, apart from having forgotten to do a few things for class, having something she actually studied for being called off due to technical problems and her book not arriving (but then there's tomorrow!), sucked.
So, today, you'll have to get by with the high point of my brother's day, who studies electronics-ICT. Today, in Rubes' Thingamabob Saan Would Not Understand Even If He Explained It To Her class, the professor, like always, was tlking about bit. One bit, two bit, you know, the one or zero your pc uses to make this message legible. Now, Dutch has a diminutive suffix: '-je' or 'tje'. A bit's pretty small, so the prof tends to use the suffix a lot for this particular word. Often in plural, in which case it sounds particularly like: "And over there," *Points with his nifty laser pointer* "we have three bitches." And so on. For two hours straight. Another reason to believe that articulation is everything. Or that the accents in Antwerps are getting more amusing each day.
The sad part is that Rubes did not discover this until now, with a professor he also had last year, for the same subject.
Yestarday, Saan had her checkup with her overgrown dentist. No holes, but due to the glue keeping the retainer-wire to the back of her lower teeth, dirt had gotten stuck in them. So... now Saan has a new, bright pink toothbrush! Okay, so it's an interdental brush and it's as tiny as it gets, but it's cute. And it beats poking around with floss.
It's Halloween! Which means Saan woke up this morning, picked the first reasonably colored picture, messed around with it some in Paint Shop Pro (which didn't help) and came up with this! The Official Irreality For Dummies Halloween Chibi for 2006. An alien to keep the fribbin dude company!
