2010-03-11T03:57:14Z Paul Wittendorp Copyright 2010, Paul Wittendorp SPHPBLOG
January 11th this year I read that Miep Gies had died. She was one of the people who hid Anne Frank from the Nazis during World War II. She discovered and preserved the diary of Anne Frank when she the Franks were arrested to give it back to the father when he returned.
When I read this news, I first wondered why I have never been to the house of Anne Frank. The second thing I thought of was the movie called "The Freedom Writers" (Trailer). Although it is not the real Miep Gies, it is a wonderful scene where she tells the kids that they are the heroes.



I just want to say that if you haven't seen that movie yet, I want to recommend that movie to you, it's a great movie to watch!
]]> http://www.drentsemoi.nl/index.php?entry=entry100202-231635 2010-02-02T00:00:00Z 2010-02-02T00:00:00Z
My last vacation of 2009 went to Egypt. I traveled there with 11 other people from diving club Piranha .

Piranha written on the briefing board



We had to leave from Enschede quite early, but for a vacation it's most likely not a problem. And the good thing was that we could sleep in the bus to Brussels Airport, I say could, because I don’t sleep very well in a bus :S. Flying was fun again, but for me it was a new experience, since I wasn't flying on my own this time :D.
Once in Egypt, we met the first guy that was still there from the week before and we went to our boat (the Greenforce I) where we would live for the rest of the week. Once we arrived on the Greenforce, we would meet the rest of the people from Piranha that were there for the 2nd week. Of course we also met the crew. One of the first things I found out on the ship was that the food was great, not only the first evening, since I was hungry from traveling, but the entire week! The good thing was that I didn't get sick from the food as well, so that is also a very big plus!
But why go to Egypt for a week and stay on a boat? Diving of course! Of course the view from the boat on top of the water is also great.


Sunset


An even nicer sunset


But of course we went there to see the views under water. One of the nicest dive wrecks, in my opinion, is the Thistlegorm. That is a huge ship (128m (419 ft) long) and a wonderful wreck to dive on. This wasn't the only wreck I loved, there were also the Chrisola Ka, Kingston and Rosalie Moller to name a few. Here some pictures from some of the dives:


Nice clam of some kind (forgot the name :S) (Picture by RB)


One of the best views (Picture by RB)


Spot the two Stonefishes (Picture by RB)


Fishing for big fish…(Picture by RB)


He even caught one ;o) (Picture by RB)


Blue spotted stingray(Picture by RB)


Blowing rings (Picture by XV)


Which he could do a lot better than I can!(Picture by XV)


Wrecks weren't the only things we saw during diving (also shown on the pictures above, but. Of course there was also a lot of coral, sometime we didn't see anything. Not seeing something in Egypt has totally different reasons in Egypt than it has in the Netherlands. When I don't see anything under water in the Netherlands, it's most likely because of all the sand/dust in the water. When I didn't see anything under water, it was because something happened again that made me laugh so hard that my mask filled up with water :D. I have to say that it happened quite often! But the best time was when 2 other divers (of our group) came out of a wreck (Abu Nuhas) covered with oil. There is an air pocket in the engine room of that wreck, but after some years there is a possibility that there is oil leaving the engine, so there's oil on the water :D. But it was great fun seeing them getting out of the wreck all covered in oil and to see them being cleaned when we arrived back to the boat :D.


Kimo (one of our guides) giving a briefing


Us getting ready to jump (picture by GS)


Great picture of a Lionfish (picture by AB)


Dolphins, dolphins!!! (picture by JS)


Ohh, nice a turtle, but pretty close though… (picture by JS)


Ohh, bubbles!!(picture by RB)


Yikes, it's me :S
i]


Nemo!!!(picture by AB)


Another giant clam(picture by AB)


Spanish dancer(picture by AB)


I have to say that this vacation was just a week, but the week was over before I knew it. I think that I'll definitely go diving again (hopefully this year).


Last day in a bar(picture by AB)

It's been a while since I put something on here, hopefully the next blog will be a lot sooner!

Cheers!
]]> http://www.drentsemoi.nl/index.php?entry=entry100201-212530 2010-02-01T00:00:00Z 2010-02-01T00:00:00Z
A very short blog, but yesterday I'ven been to the movie "a law abiding citizen".

This movie was a good movie and definitely not a good movie for a Sunday afternoon. This is finally a movie again with a very good storyline with some nice twists which you don't expect.

Short, if you want to see a good thriller with a good storyline, this is a movie you would want to see.

Cheers!]]> http://www.drentsemoi.nl/index.php?entry=entry091223-110737 2009-12-23T00:00:00Z 2009-12-23T00:00:00Z high-school reunion, it was a bit later than planned, but I still managed to drag myself to work.

After the presentation on Monday I had to prepare for another presentation on Friday. I still had to read some articles and put together the presentation (of about 1 hour :S).

The presentation ended up pretty well, I got some nice new ideas during the discussion afterwards, so I can continue with work.

For now, I'm going to enjoy my weekend, relaxing today and celebrating my mom's birthday tomorrow.

Cheers!]]> http://www.drentsemoi.nl/index.php?entry=entry091010-152819 2009-10-10T00:00:00Z 2009-10-10T00:00:00Z
Last week it was finally time that I would get some classes again at my high school. It was a little bit strange to walk through those hallways again, especially since they completely changed the hallway where I've spend quite most of the breaks during high-school. Fortunately not everything has changed and the canteen was still the same and also the coffee there didn't change.

In the afternoon there were several classes you could attend to, but only 2 time slots, so a decision had to be made. Unfortunately there were no beta teachers, so I decided to go to the teachers that could tell a story in such way that everyone would listen, even if they didn't like the subject. In other word to the teachers I thought were good ones.

After classes I was hungry (of course) and I went to have a diner with some of my old classmates. Diner consisted of some good laughs, talks , good Greek food and 1 glass of wine (I was driving that day :().

After diner we headed back to high-school were the party already started in the canteen and the sports-complex. The band, music and the atmosphere was great. Seeing some of the ‘old’ friends again was sometimes a bit strange, but mostly really fun! I had a blast and around midnight we even went to a bar, not the bar we used to go to, but we kinda feel old in that bar nowadays :P.

Story short, I had a blast at the high-school reunion, it was great meeting some old friends and we definitely should do this again sometime!

Cheers!]]> http://www.drentsemoi.nl/index.php?entry=entry091010-150318 2009-10-10T00:00:00Z 2009-10-10T00:00:00Z
Should this be how math should work?

Maybe not really math you can use in science, but still fun to watch.

Cheers!]]> http://www.drentsemoi.nl/index.php?entry=entry091001-092653 2009-10-01T00:00:00Z 2009-10-01T00:00:00Z
So what have I been up to in the past couple of months... First of all I've been busy with my apartment (pictures will still follow). I have most of the furniture now, but I'm still looking for some lights to share some light in the evening and I'm looking around for stuff to make my apartment my home. I've also been busy with friends visiting me in my apartment, not really busy, but was nice to have them over to my first house.

I've also been busy with friends graduating, therefore we had to make some nice gifts and of course some parties ;-).

Last week my niece turned 1 years old and of course we had to celebrate. It was a crowded house, but the party was fun and she was happy with the presents she got.


Julia for the first time on my present


Julia being lazy in the pillows

Well that was a very short update on my life of the 2nd part of 2009. I'll hope to be back a bit sooner than usual.

Cheers!
]]> http://www.drentsemoi.nl/index.php?entry=entry090924-205947 2009-09-24T00:00:00Z 2009-09-24T00:00:00Z
It's been a while since I last updated this website. Last thing I put on here was my vacation to Curacao in December last year, so I will give an update what I've been up to this year.

In the beginning of this year I started my PhD at the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University Medical Center Groningen. My project is a part of a project that will calculate the true dose the patient get on a daily base. I won't go into details on this project, if you want more details on what I'm doing there, just send me an e-mail...

In the end of March I was visiting Kadi in Sweden. Kadi is a friend that I met in 2004 in Denmark, when we were both studying there. We had lost contact for a couple of years, but last year we started having contact again and I thought it would be fun to visit her and catch up on 'old' times! So the end of March I went to Stockholm to visit her in Sweden! Unfortunately she was pretty busy with her studies, because she was in the middle of her exams, but during the couple of days I was there, she could take some time of her studies, so we could go to see Stockholm and have fun. The first evening we had a BBQ with her colleagues, because they just had the last day of practicing together as a group. I was very happy that I could join them for this BBQ and I had a blast! The next day we went to Stockholm, we went to the "Vasa Museum", where a great ship of the 17th century is displayed! They also made a very nice impression of how they lived in the 17th century.


Me standing next to the ship "Vasa"


Great drawing from the museum


Kadi next to a wooden sculpture

In the end of that evening we went to a salsa bar and luckily there are no pictures of me dancing ;-) . Because Kadi is a very good dancer and as most of you know, I can dance, but I have sort of my own style :P, but it was great fun trying to dance salsa!

The rest of the days we mostly talked a lot and had a lot of fun between Kadi's studying. Thank you Kadi for letting me stay at your place and we should definitely do this again sometime. Let's not wait another 5 years...


Kadi and me at her place


The end of March Elena (who I also met in Denmark 2004) suddenly came to the Netherlands with a colleague to go to a company in Emmen (of all places). So I went to Schiphol airport and picked them up. First we went to Amsterdam to be a tourist, while I was trying to guide them a little bit through Amsterdam. I have to say that that is pretty difficult to be a tour guide in a place that you also don't know :D. But we had a great lunch and a great time there! That evening we went to Emmen, where I brought them to their hotel where we had a lovely diner.


Elena and her colleague (Agnes) in Amsterdam

Halfway April I went to America again, Illinois to be more precise. I would go there to see Laura again, it had been a while since I saw her, but I got an invitation of her wedding (with Brandon). I was a little bit surprised to be invited, but I was delighted to go there and be part of that day! So on April 15th (my B-day) I flew to Chicago where I stayed the first couple of days. The good thing about flying to America on your B-day is that you have a very long B-day, since you go back in time. That evening I went to an Irish pub where I met a guy who was also celebrating his B-day, so we decided that we should celebrate together :P.

The first full day in Chicago I wanted to see how much of Chicago I still knew. So I decided to wander around and see if I could still find some of the spots I liked the previous time I was in Chicago. The good and the bad thing about wandering around there in April is that the tourist season is not started yet and therefore everything is different than I remembered. Navy pier for example was completely empty, where it was crowded the previous time. The same goes for Millennium park, the last time I was there it was crowded with people and every day there was some kind of concert there, where it was almost empty now :(... "The Bean" on the other hand was not covered in cloths like the previous time, so I could see the skyline of Chicago in there now! And of course there was Buckingham Fountain, which is a great thing to see by night!


Navy pier from a distance


The skyline from the pier


Me sitting in Millennium Park


Me and the 'bean'


Buckingham fountain by night

Then there was of course the real reason why I went to the US, the wedding. It was great seeing the Laura's family again and to be reminded of my old nickname they gave me(“Mopey”) :D. I still don't believe they still remembered that name… The wedding itself was very nice and it was also funny to see some small differences between a Dutch wedding and an American wedding (if this was a typical American wedding). I even got to dance with Laura :D...


The very happy newlyweds!


Me and the bride dancing

The other thing is that since September last year my sister and her boyfriend got a daughter, "Julia". She is very, very nice and beautiful!


The entire family posing outside in the garden


Me and Julia in the garden :D

And the last thing I wanted to say is that I moved to Groningen, no pictures available at the moment, but when I have everything a little bit settled, I will post some pictures of my apartment on here!

That was more or less all for now and I hope you enjoyed reading this blog entry again!

Cheers!
]]> http://www.drentsemoi.nl/index.php?entry=entry090802-154321 2009-08-02T00:00:00Z 2009-08-02T00:00:00Z
My friend still had to work there when I was visiting him, but in the evenings and during the weekend he was free. A colleague of mine was also in Curacao, so I joined him quite a lot during the day!

The flight was pretty good again, no delays, so that was very nice. The first evening I went out to have some diner and some drinks with my friend (Gideon), colleague (Patrick) and 2 friends of Gideon.

The second day, we (Patrick and me) rented a car. We wanted to rent a small jeep, but we ended up with a bigger one :P.


The somewhat bigger car...


That day we drove around on the island and of course we also ended up near the water!


Nice view of the ocean


Quads with our car :P.


The rest of the day we had a great diner in a Argentine restaurant! The next day we went driving again! We went to westpoint, which wasn’t a very long tip, but it was a very nice trip. On the road have some drinks and of course somethings to eat. Once we were back in Willemstad we went to sit on a terrace to enjoy the view and the weather. Although it started raining at the end :(.


Nice view of some typical houses!


The floating bridge ('Queen Emma Bridge') in Willemstad


Even donkeys on the road :P

Of course we didn’t only sit in the city to enjoy the sun. We also visited the beach and of course we also did some diving in the ocean. It was nice under water, but it was too bad that I was there after the storm, because most of the coral died during that storm :(.


Me snorkling


One of the best views under water!


The blue spots are fishes :P


Dory???


Fish swimming to the camera :D

One very good thing was the ‘grandmother’, this was a very sweet woman that had a great great place to eat on the beach!


Grandma!


And here some extra pictures of the vacation!


View of the bridge again with the typical houses


Great Carribean sunset


Me driving the car on the 'Queen Juliana Bridge'

So Gideon and Patrick, thanks for the good times!

Cheers!
]]> http://www.drentsemoi.nl/index.php?entry=entry090403-203550 2009-04-03T00:00:00Z 2009-04-03T00:00:00Z

The bridge in Stirling where William Wallace won


Stirling Castle


Tower where William Wallace is remembered viewed from Stirling Castle


View from the Rosslyn Chapel


The rest of that first Sunday we went to Edinburg. We didn't go into that castle, but it was fun to walk around here again. I could still remember some of the buildings from when I was there in 1997. I still like this city and I think I will be back there someday!


View of Edinburg


Very nice building in Edinburg


The Friday after that I already went back home for a weekend. I would go home for a weekend and on Monday I would fly back to Scotland. When I were at the gate that Monday after checking in, I got a phone call from my boss that I could come back, because they didn't need me for a moment. I would work in Almere for the next 2 weeks and then I would go to Scotland after those 2 weeks.

So on Sunday November 2nd I went back to Scotland. To start working there on Monday. During the week it was like normal and I just worked there during that day! The first Saturday I walked around in Greenock and enjoyed the afternoon in the swimming pool and the sauna! On Sunday I went to see the mountain "Ben Nevis" with a colleague.


Very nice view of Loch Lomond


Great view on the road


One of the best views during the driving to Ben Nevis!


My colleague with a 'mountain' on the background


Me at a stream (it took some time go get there though ;-))


The second week another colleague came back from Holland to give us an helping hand. That weekend I went with that colleague to "Loch Ness"!!! We tried to find Nessie, but unfortunately we couldn't find him. Although, not in the water, on the shore there were quite some things that reminded us that Nessie would live there in the area!


Real Scotsman with the bagpipes


Nice view of the Locks in Fort Augustus


Locks at night


Moon over Loch Ness


Castle Urughart, next to Loch Ness


View from Loch Ness from Urughart


Wide view from Loch Ness


The Falkirk wheel


Great view of Falkirk wheel


Falkirk wheel and me


On Friday 21st I went back home, for a short weekend. The week after I would go to Curacao.

Cheers!]]> http://www.drentsemoi.nl/index.php?entry=entry090116-225512 2009-01-16T00:00:00Z 2009-01-16T00:00:00Z