my favorite travelpartners

Needless to say that I did excellent at losing my job. Well, to be honest it took some effort to loose it in time... And moving out of my house the next day was peanuts. It was the 8th time in 10 years, so I am quite an expert on packing and moving and thanks to my helpers it was 'inladen en wegwezen'...

So now plenty of time to arrange the final things like visas, insurance, vaccinations, catch up with my parents while drinking a Leffe Dubbel. Good stuff...

But back to business; I want to try to put some pictures on this weblog, so here it goes. Let me introduce you to my favorite travel partners: some are new, some are ancient...

To your left [to bad you only see the picture and not my 10 efforts to put it here...] My true best friend 'miss Paspoort'; she has been with me since 2004. She has never travelled for an extensive time with me (no Australia 2001 nor Ireland 2002-2003), but she enjoyed China (2005) so she is dying to go!

On your right hand side we have 'Mr Wallet'. He has been in my pocket since 1998 so he is an experienced traveller. He enjoys different currencies. Euros have been in his possession way too long, so he is looking forward to the change. He is very introvert and unsociable; he likes to be very close to me and he doesn't trust other people easily. I respect him for that of course.

On my left we have 'Lady Red'. My Tatanka backpack, 50 litres and specially made for 'tiny' people so she fits perfectly on my 'tiny' back. She enjoys the company of my friends 'Tent' and 'Sleeping bag', but for this trip only 'Sleeping bag' is coming along. You can see him crawling close to her already. 'Tent' is looking for asylum; my friend Guusje might take her. Illegally of course because our old minister Verdonk always says 'full=full' so I will sneak her on board the train tomorrow.

Here are the youngest of my good friends. They are in my possession since the summer of 2005 [my old shoes got sick during China and eventually 'died' during a conference meeting in Norway]. The Hanwag twins proofed their skills during two terrible wet trips in the Ardenne, Belgium, [Ascension Day 2006] and Wales last summer. Very comfy, extremely dry and they NEVER complain. 'respect' is in order here for such youngsters!

To the left we have a new friend. Probably going to be a good friend, but I am not really familiar with her yet. She is called 'the world'. But not for real of course, it's just her nickname. Two of my good human friends, Catherine & Floor, gave her to me and they wrote a welcome message on the first page. 'The world' likes stories, good and bad, dialogues, discussions, love quarrels and all the emotions I will encounter. She is much like http://www.maaikeisweg.blogspot.com/, only less advanced. She likes to be tickled with a pen and ink, Catherine told me. Floor said that 'the world' loves secrets and gossip, a thing the weblog sometimes likes as well, but not every day. I will make sure I'll feed 'the world' in time. Just like the weblog, but different. There are no 'pottenkijkers' [or is it 'pottekijkers', Floor, Cath, anyone??]

Anyhow, these are my friends. My dad can sleep well now, knowing that I have such trust full friends. They will look after me, just as I look after them. It's a win-win situation!