Our neighbor, the richest man in the world

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Ikeahouse - From the street!
The building next to us is inhabited by two homeless persons. We usually have no problems, but recently this changed. The homeless felt that some of our friends were bothering them by smoking/talking on the balcony. The homeless told our friends to be quiet (“Shut up!”), so he could go to sleep at 6 o’clock at night in the garden of our neighbors. Unfortunately he met the wrong person, a friend with a very strong character and she started a discussion with the homeless.

Ikeahouse - The bedroom!
‘We live here and we pay rent. You don’t live where you are staying now’, was the core of her argument. The homeless quickly replied that Las Palmas was a small city and that he would me meeting us in the street.

The shouting escalated and the police was called. But they didn’t do anything. First someone had to be injured. Then our friend called the broker that was trying to sell the house (unsuccessfully because the house has been for sale at least the four years that we live next door). The broker told us the price was 1.400.000 euros. 1 million for the property, and 400.000 to make the property habitable. ‘Well, that’s just fine. We would love to have a look’, was her reply. What followed were the details. The house has a special status (Werelderfgoedlijst) and should remain mostly unchanged and the house owner is … Ingvar Kamprad!
Dagobert Duck! or Ingvar Kamprad?!
You are probably wondering who is Ingvar Kamprad, well, this is the person who in 2004 was the richest man in the world, and in 2007 one of the 5 richest persons! He has an estimated wealth between 33 and 51 billion dollars. Not bad at all.

Ikea!Our neighbor Ingvar is amongst other things the owner of the IKEA. Coincidentally our house is filled with his products. Tuesday we’ve got an appointment to visit the house. Although we are very curious to see how this works out, we await the result. Probably the homeless will (at least temporarily) be asked to look for another place to stay.

It is strange that for almost 3 years we have been living next door to the richest man in the world, without ever meeting him. It’s even stranger that the house of the richest man in the world is inhabited by people who have nothing.

Update: the story continues.

Toch leuk, statistieken

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Twee gezegden zijn vandaag van toepassing.

‘In het land der blinden is eenoog koning’ en ‘Een plaatje zegt meer dan 1000 woorden’. Om te begrijpen waar dit op slaat moet je onderstaand plaatje maar eens bestuderen.


In vergelijking met die spanjaarden heb ik als nederlander toch een goede 2 cm meer. Uiteraard is dit slechts een klein onderdeel van een overzicht van alle landen.

Android update March

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Time to introduce the entire cast of the game.

Cats and Dogs, Boys and Girls.
Cat!Dog!Boy!Girl!

There are still quite a lot of details to work out, but things are progressing. Maybe in a few months there will be a big announcement. One detail more that I will reveal in this post is the name of the game. The name will be quite simple: ‘Cats and Dogs‘.

Koffie bloem

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Koffie bloem!
Mijn koffie plant zit inmiddels vol met knopjes. Hopelijk heb ik over een tijdje dus een flinke verzameling overheerlijke koffiebonen. Hiermee kan ik dan mijn koffieritueel perfectioneren. Eerst de bonen drogen. Hierna de bonen branden, daarna malen, en dan… genieten!

Carnival 2011 – The Indian party

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On the Monday after Carnival (this year on the 7th of March) there is a very typical celebration in Las Palmas. The party of the Indians. During this party everyone is dressed in white and the crowd slowly moves through the main street ‘Triana’ starting in the ‘San Telmo’ square towards the ‘Plaza de la Rana’ square. There is always some Canarian band playing and everyone tries to keep close to the music. At the same time everyone is throwing powder in the air. The distance is only about 1 kilometer but the crowd needs a few hours to reach the end point.

The main street can be recognized from a very big distance because an enormous white cloud is hanging above it. The cloud exists out of the power that is being strayed into the air by the attendants. Once you enter the street everything is white. The ground, the air, your glasses, your clothes, everything. In the street the only thing you do is follow the partying crowd and follow the music, stopping a lot of times to spray powder into the air.

This is one of the most original parties in Las Palmas, and you could even compare it to queens day in Holland, with the only difference that everything is white instead of orange, and of course it is a much smaller scale.
Carnival 2011 - Powder party!

A new life

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A new life is about to begin. Figuratively for Ana and myself and literally for the future addition to our family. Of course we are very happy. The doctor has told us that there is a high probability that we will need to use blue paint for the baby’s room.

5 weeks:
Pek 5 weeks 		7 weeks:
Pek 7 weeks
11 weeks:
Pek 11 weeks 		12 weeks: (this morning)
Pek 12 weeks
Posted in Pek

Las Palmas movie

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Las Palmas is a nice short movie that shows quite accurately how the average tourist sometimes behaves. Living in Las Palmas it is a situation that I can clearly recognise, but luckily it does not happen that often. Good to see ‘our’ island getting some attention.

Het jaar van het konijn

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Slang!Konijn!Volgens de chinese kalender leven we nu in het jaar van het konijn. Dit komt mij goed uit, want ik ben een konijn, en dit is blijkbaar mijn jaar.

Laatst waren we aan het kijken wat de eigenschappen zijn van een konijn, en die van een slang (want ana is een slang) en wat blijkt, er is een ontzettende hoeveelheid overeenkomstigheden tussen een konijn en mijn karakter en voor ana geldt hetzelfde met haar slang.

De complete lijst dieren is als volgt: Rat, Os, Tijger, Konijn, Draak, Slang, Paard, Schaap, Aap, Haan, Hond, Zwijn. Afhankelijk van je geboortejaar ben je een van deze dieren. Als je hieronder je eigen geboortejaar invult, kan je je dier berekenen:



Het jaar 1975 is het chinese jaar van het Konijn.