Una vida Holandesa en Mallorca

The other day when walking on the very hot pavement in my neighbourhood (St. Cataline, Palma de Mallorca) I found a mini-SD card. I have a new phone supporting this so I inserted the disc and found pictures, video and music. On a glance the disc belongs to a (girlfirend of) a blond (real? I have not made up my mind yet) Spanish girl with fashionable too-big sunglasses. She and her posse went to a (rave?) concert in Magaluf. Therefore the chance is minumum I would know her but maybe she sees herself on the net and claims the card back ;-)

Okay, this is it. The top (het toppunt) of bureacracy. I thought getting the NIE (identity card) was hard, then I thought changing car numberplates (with fuzzy transactions of imaginary taxes over internet) was a real tough cookie. But did you ver try to get married in a(nother) Mediterranean country? I can tell you, between validity of documents (6 months), the time it takes to get the various documents of various countries (between 1 week - 1,5 months), then the official (so expensive) translations and other rules to make your life more difficult (obligatory wedding anouncements, limited time after the anouncement to set a date) it is IMPOSSIBLE to get it done. I thought to have everything arranged with a last minute flight to the respective office but no. Cancel the flight, burn those documents. Who wants to get married anyway. Stupid bureacracy. One Europe? Think again.

Maar dit keer niet voor werk maar voor de leuk:-) Helaas is er daarna gelijk weer een meeting, in Zweden en ik heb niet eens meer zin om via Palma te gaan dus gelijk maar vanaf Italie.
In Parijs schoot er wat tijd over (zie hier) en dus heb ik een beetje gesight-see-ed. Niet teveel want ik hád me toch een blaren na een paar uur lopen...

For the persons waiting to see pictures of Gdansk (not that there was time to see anything): My camera mysteriously broke down after photgraphing a church in the centre of Sopot. The lens does not come out any more and the message: lens error, restart camera appears:-( Anyone an idea how to fix this? Already opened the camera to dust it off but to no avail. And since I bought it in canada (cheaper) i have no guarantee:-(

Last weekend I have dusted off my climbing shoes. We started easy, in S´Estret, with a friend who also did not climb for some time. It was okay, even went first on a stretch but I need a looooooooot more practise:-) 
Now I am trying to keep up with fieldwork while also trying to keep up with the minutes of a FAO meeting (das dan weer wel stoer) here at the university. My stresslevels are way over normal (not good since my normal levels would already be considered quite dangerous for your health). But sunday i can relax (?! yes yes this is sarcastic) at 7am on the plane for yet another congress. The worst part: no holiday insight this year...:-( While my year is fully planned with meetings, fieldwork and lab experiments. You ask when I was going to write up these papers? eeeh well. Seems like I have a mission during these flights;-) The positive point? That my ´new´ computer is very light and nicely sized, fast and the battery keeps ages. The people staring jealously are right: Macintosh is the best.

In Spanje geen koninginnedag. Maar wel 1 Mei. Om dat te vieren gingen we met 22 man (meeste spaans) lekker wandelen. Huis gehuurd (22 personen) aan het strand in Noord Mallorca (s´arenalet, wat ik er van begrepen heb is dat het iets met klein zand is;-)). beetje Argentijnse BBQ erbij (zie fotos op flickr).  

 
The madrileño and mallorquines passed, the italian went up to his knies. But Viva Argentina&Holanda. We bravely went swimming in the sea for the first time this year (working in my wetsuit does not count although I did not wear gloves). It was hard to enter but then it was VERY NICE. No jelly fish (going to be a tough summer, they never left this winter), sunny, emerald waters... a view out of holiday brochures... The water is 17 degrees. Take a look at my flickr, there you will find photos of the excursion preceding the swim. Of the necropolis of the phenicians in Son Real, of cerdos negros (yummie) and a pond with tadpoles we discovered in the pine forest.
I will leave you for a meeting in Glyfada (15 km of Athenas but NO, no time for excursions:-( )tuesday and have a lot to finish before but afterwards check this site to know how I like my new work for which the meeting is (signed contract last monday, new european project, as a technician but hey, it will pay the mortgage).
Alfa Romeo. (no still do not know if I passed the P.E.R.)