Wedding Day!

Today is the big day, this is me in my suit at my parents' house.
Today there is many rain, sure hope it will all go allright.....








The wedding car......just arrived at our house where Marion is...










The wedding flowers......










Here we are at the "Postel Abbey" making pictures. It is raining quite a lot but you cannot see much of it on the pictures. Marion had it very cold over there.....









Here we just arrived at the town hall.










Here we have dinner, the food was very nice. This is my brother in law Pieter with his son Rens








They decorated our bedroom.......first we had to clean up before we could lay ourselves to rest after the super party we had today. Despite Marions motorcycle accident we could still open the dance and dance a little bit. The band played loud and everybody was very happy after the party. More pictures will follow.

Picked up wedding gown and suit

Today we picked up Marions wedding gown and my wedding suit at Koonings.

Last rehearsal with the band for Friday

Yesterday evening we had the last rehearsal with our band before playing at our marriage party on Friday.

Funny Animals!

"Moulin Rouge" on Splinter, Beers rocktheater tryout

R1 Sjaak restarts his R1 after river crossing in Congo

Bachelor party!

This weekend they abducted us to the "Castelhoeve" in Castelre for a bachelor party.





First we had dinner in Hoogstraten, after that we got a very nice presentation of the 5-year 255.000km trip around the world of R1-sjaak. We even got a change to sit on his bike! Nice guy and nice trip!







On monday we had some bad luck however. Marion drove her diversion off the road. She only had some bruises, no broken bones luckily! The bike has only plastic damage, she even drove it back from Werkendam to Hooge Mierde! Powerbarbie!

White aspergus classical style

White aspergus with cooked ham, egg and hollandaise sause.

Ingredients:
300 gr cooked ham (achterham) in thin slices
12 white aspergus, peel removed
1 tl salt
1 onion, cut in small pieces
2 tl dragon
8 black pepper balls
8 el white wine (dry)
8 el water
2 egg centers (yellow part only!)
250 gr. butter
1 tl lemon juice
pepper from the mill
4 hard boiled eggs
Some lettuce on the side

Take a very large pan that can hold the aspergus, add the aspergus with salt and bring to cooking 30 min.

In the same time you can prepare the hollandaise sauce:
Put onion, dragon, pepper balls, wine and water in a pan en bring to cooking point. Cook half of the moist out and filter the water out in a glass bowl.

Let the water cool down and stil with the 2 egg centers until it is foamy, then stop.
Put the bowl on a pan with cooking water and heat it slowly white stirring and leave it resting over and over. Do this until the sauce is binding.
In the meantime, melt the butter in another pan very slowly on low fire: it is not allowed to 'bubble"or cook. Stir the butter slowly with a wooden spoon until it is clear and even.
Remove the bowl from the pan and add the butter while stirring. First drop-by-drop then more and more, but VERY slowly.
Add salt and pepper to tast and a little bit of lemon juice.

Put the aspergus on a plate together with the ham and eggs and add a spoon of sauce.

Serve together with salad and the sauce.

Back home from Pila

So, we went back home after finishing all work in Pila. First got a flight with a Dash 8-400 turboprop from Poznan to Munich, from there with a completly full Avro RJ85 jet to Brussels.

Nice dinner!

This evening we had a very nice dinner in the "orange piano" restaurant. Food was fresh and cooked really good. And the live jazz music was also nice.
Here's Henry with the famous Polish "zurek" soup! He tried it for the first time and really liked it.








This soup is traditionally served in a round piece of bread, really nice. They also add hard-cooked eggs and sausage to it.







And together with a nice pint of "Tyskie" it is all ok for the evening.
I'm going to search for the "zurek" recipe and try to make this soup at home, because it tastes so good.

Kiln is ready!

The kiln is finally ready, here the people are installing the latest things.









And the people already working on the next kiln.........

Working on the kiln again

Today we tested the kiln again at full product load, everything worked fine. It was a long day waiting, waiting....... because a kiln is very slow.
Here you see one side of the kiln.








This is the other side with the afterburner sitting on top.









Here are the connection boxes where the heating elements of the kiln are connected.







Here is the power control panel that regulates the power to the heating elements. Today it went up to about 270kW peak power.

Kiln is starting to work

The kiln is starting to work.









Here we are preparing a dummy load with just bricks.








And after many hours of testing/waiting on sunday we had some nice beers on the terrace, it was even 25 degr!

Burnout of kiln completed!

After many work and an enormous effort of the electrical people, the kiln is finally ready for burnout. This morning the sun was shining, so a good day!







Here we are burning the kiln out for the 1st time. In the back you see the "dummy load" we will fire tomorrow on sunday.

Pila report

The electricians are working very hard to get the kiln ready for startup tomorrow morning at 800hrs.
We are now already running 2 days behind schedule, we hope to catch up on saturday/sunday.






The Polish are starting to drive some nice motorcycles....

Our funny rabbit

Just before I went to Pila I saw our rabbit like this in its cage. This is one of his favorite sleeping positions.

Trip to Pila Poland

Here I'm still on Schiphol, just before boarding the very small airplane to Munich.








From there with an even smaller airplane to Poznan, where we were picked up by the driver that brought us to Pila.

Many things are ready on the machine, but still many items have to be solved before we can actually switch on power.

Spring!

Ahh, spring is really starting, the old oaktree that I always see on our casual after-dinner walk in the evening around our small town is also waking up out of its winter-sleep.

Almost ready for th trip to Pila

Here is a view from Pila from the air. The high white building in the middle facing the green park is the hotel where we will stay for 2 weeks.

Preparing for the trip to Pila Poland

Next week we will start the new kiln in Pila. But before I can go I still have to arrange many things......

Ready to go home again!

So, the measurement system is working ok, the people are happy with it and know how to use it.
On the side I had to solve many other problems (like always) with many other machines. But at the end everything is allright again.
This evening we pack up and tomorrow we leave for Warsaw airport by car.

Nice view outside the hotel in the morning

This is the view outside the hotelroom in the morning.....

Polish construction workers' canteen

This very old truck (I think it came from the eastern front after the 2nd worldwar) is already standing for years at the factory. It is the movable construction workers canteen.









Same truck from behind, you even see the cable for the electrical power and they also fitted an chimney so that they can burn the brown coal or wood in their stove

Walking back from the factory to hotel Dworek

This is the train crossing next to the factory.








I always pass this house, to me it is like a "ghosthouse".










And them I'm back "home" again in hotel Dworek, good hotel with also a very good restaurant.

Measurement system ready and working

So, finally the new measurement system in Poland is ready and working ok.
It already measured the first production batch

Trip to Skierniewice

So, arrived on Warsaw airport again. It is very nice weather here!

This is the couple that won the Dutch Latin Championship 2007

Preparing for the trip to Skierniewice Poland

So, preparing many things for the trip to Skierniewice next week. I'm also very busy implementing the latest desired software changes. In Skierniewice I will start the measurement system up that I tested during the last weeks and make final release measurements.
Here you see it still under test. At this moment it is in a small truck on it's way to Poland.

Find your old classmates!

Look at www.schoolbank.nl to find your old classmates (at least, if you want to.......)

Dutch national title latin dancing couple

This couple is going for the Dutch national title latin dancing next weekend

New measurement system ready for shipment

So, another measurement system ready! Took a long time to build, had to change many electric parts inside, had to debug it thoroughly, but at the end it works well and is one of the best I ever built!

Here you see it still under test.

Red Lighting!!

My car is in the workshop for some regular service. So this is my chance to ride "Red Lighting" again!

Every programmer should read this!

The Parable of the Two Programmers

Neil W. Rickert
Dept. of Math, Stat., and Computer Science,
University of Illinois at Chicago.

Once upon a time, unbeknownst to each other, the "Automated Accounting Applications Association" and the "Consolidated Computerized Capital Corporation" decided that they needed the identical program to perform a certain service.

Automated hired a programmer-analyst, Alan, to solve their problem. Meanwhile, Consolidated decided to ask a newly hired entry-level programmer, Charles, to tackle the job, to see if he was as good as he pretended.

Alan, having had experience in difficult programming projects, decided to use the PQR structured design methodology. With this in mind he asked his department manager to assign another three programmers as a programming team.

Then the team went to work, churning out preliminary reports and problem analyses.

Back at Consolidated, Charles spent some time thinking about the problem. His fellow employees noticed that Charles often sat with his feet on the desk, drinking coffee. He was occasionally seen at his computer terminal, but his office mate could tell from the rhythmic striking of keys that he was actually playing Space Invaders.

By now, the team at Automated was starting to write code. The programmers were spending about half their time writing and compiling code, and the rest of their time in conference, discussing the interfaces between the various modules.

His office mate noticed that Charles had finally given up on Space Invaders. Instead he now divided his time between drinking coffee with his feet on the table, and scribbling on little scraps of paper. His scribbling didn't seem to be Tic Tac Toe, but it didn't exactly make much sense, either.

Two months have gone by. The team at Automated finally releases an implementation timetable. In another two months they will have a test version of the program. Then a two month period of testing and enhancing should yield a completed version.

The manager of Charles has by now tired of seeing him goof off. He decides to confront him. But as he walks into Charles's office, he is surprised to see Charles busy entering code at his terminal. He decides to postpone the confrontation, so makes some small talk then leaves. However, he begins to keep a closer watch on Charles, so that when the opportunity presents itself he can confront him. Not looking forward to an unpleasant conversation, he is pleased to notice that Charles seems to be busy most of the time. He has even been see to delay his lunch, and to stay after work two or three days a week.

At the end of three months, Charles announces he has completed the project. He submits a 500 line program. The program appears to be clearly written, and when tested it does everything required in the specifications. In fact it even has a few additional convenience features which might significantly improve the usability of the program. The program is put into test, and, except for one quickly corrected oversight, performs well.

The team at Automated has by now completed two of the four major modules required for their program. These modules are now undergoing testing while the other modules are completed.

After another three weeks, Alan announces that the preliminary version is ready one week ahead of schedule. He supplies a list of the deficiencies that he expects to correct. The program is placed under test. The users find a number of bugs and deficiencies, other than those listed. As Alan explains, this is no surprise. After all this is a preliminary version in which bugs were expected.

After about two more months, the team has completed its production version of the program. It consists of about 2,500 lines of code. When tested it seems to satisfy most of the original specifications. It has omitted one or two features, and is very fussy about the format of its input data. However the company decides to install the program. They can always train their data-entry staff to enter data in the strict format required. The program is handed over to some maintenance programmers to eventually incorporate the missing features.

Sequel:
At first Charles's supervisor was impressed. But as he read through the source code, he realized that the project was really much simpler than he had originally though. It now seemed apparent that this was not much of a challenge even for a beginning programmer.

Charles did produce about 5 lines of code per day. This is perhaps a little above average. However, considering the simplicity of the program, it was nothing exceptional. Also his supervisor remembered his two months of goofing off.

At his next salary review Charles was given a raise which was about half the inflation over the period. He was not given a promotion. After about a year he became discouraged and left Consolidated.

At Automated, Alan was complimented for completing his project on schedule. His supervisor looked over the program. With a few minutes of thumbing through he saw that the company standards about structured programming were being observed. He quickly gave up attempting to read the program however; it seemed quite incomprehensible. He realized by now that the project was really much more complex than he had originally assumed, and he congratulated Alan again on his achievement.

The team had produced over 3 lines of code per programmer per day. This was about average, but, considering the complexity of the problem, could be considered to be exceptional. Alan was given a hefty pay raise, and promoted to Systems Analyst as a reward for his achievement.

The One: Gig in "De Kemphaan" Middelbeers

And finally, after 2 hours, everything is in place. This time we got the light and sound for free (!) because the soundguy wanted to promote his new stage light set and his new PA system.
.....Of course, we didn't care, saved us 350 euro's!

The gig went fine and we got many people dancing at the end.

Many things to arrange for the marriage

Arranged many things for the marriage, went to the wedding-suit shop for the final corrections on Marions and my suit. New glasses for Marion, flowers for the car and bride........pfff. Still many things to do, but already many things ready.

The One rehearsing for next sunday!

Boerenkool met worst!

Winter is almost over in Holland, so this was one of the last chances to make one of my favorite typically Dutch winter dishes: "boerenkool met worst" (farmers cabbage with sausage).









It like it most with (really typically Dutch) mayonaise on top (not shown in picture because most people don't like it like that).

Nice weather for a ride.

Here we are sipping coffee at "Kerkzicht" in Diessen after a nice ride through Belgium and Holland. This to warm up our feet a little bit.









Marion is getting more and more used to her Diversion......









We decided to stay outside (was not so cold) because inside there was a group of drunken farmerboys that had a "boerenovertrek". It was like carnaval inside.

Superfreak!

The One rehearsing Superfreak