You're as beautiful as a foot

I'm sure the Blue Öyster Cult never had the state of my foot in mind when they wrote She's as beautiful as a foot although their lyrics can be a bit vague.







If you were wondering what the hell is wrong with my foot..I had tape around it for the last 2 weeks (because I sprained it over a month ago) and my skin apparently didn't like the fabric of the bandage.

*the blogmeme has been postponed 2 days, but it will be published*

Lee-Beeds as promised

Lee over at quityourdayjob asked people to link him and in return he would send Lee-beeds.

Of course I was eager for the beeds and it had nothing to do with the fact that far too much of my time goes into reading his comic and movie ramblings..
So I linked him and kept bugging him for the beeds. So he sent them across the globe with the polite request to make a picture of it around the neck of some beautiful woman. So going to Rome, I took the beeds with me and decided that I'd probably find someone crazy enough to wear the beeds for a pic without having to explain the full story or getting slapped in the face because the woman I was trying to get in the lens thought the beeds had a less honorable meaning.

Katrin from Quebec-city, Canada, was so nice to oblige.


Of course I look like crap on this picture but Katrin saves the day. She spoke good English but warned that during the night her English might switch to French..Frenglish I figured. We díd take another picture from a girl with the beeds in her hand (she didn't want to put it around her neck ;) ) but I wouldn't know where the hell this pic is..not even if it was on one of our camera's..
So Laura, if you read this, you're missing fame, sorry.

Rome 2008: picture post

Almost 2 weeks home again, but the picture post got intercepted by other stuff.
There are one hell of a lot of pics, but hey it's Rome! Check all pics here.

Clouds




The Coloseum


Inside the colosseum


One of the many victory arcs


The ask-a-ninja get's stabbed.


The first thing that 'popped into my head' was: Sylar (Heroes!) was here.


The circus minimus race track, part of the Palantine (I stood corrected..but I'm a laymen when it comes to ancient Rome :( ) But it was part of our Forum Romanum tour ;)


Ancient buildings everywhere


The Spanish steps (top side)


Inside the Vatican. Some woman made the globe spin, the guards went haywire hehe. ...she claimed she asked her guide for permission). Btw..our top-guide Stan on the far right.


A marble bathtub. This specific marble costs around 85€ per gram. Try to estimate the weight (there was no sign), and you get a mindbogling price (probably over 400 million).


Sarcophagus made from the same marble


Paintings, paintings, and more paintings


Debbie's postcard ;)


The Vesuvius taken from a fort in Napoli


One of the many buildings in Pompeii

On top of the chapel in the Vatican


The Trevi fountain (of course I threw in a coin!)


The Pantheon


There are tons of wide-view pics, but if you want to see all pics, pick the link I mentioned. One small word about the Vatican: it's beautiful, but it's so over the top decadent that it makes you resent the Catholic church a bit.

Miniatures in Rome

I planned to visit one of the 2 GW shops in a reasonable walking distance from the city center of Rome..but ended up only visiting 2 stockists (stores who sell warhammer etc). One of them (on Cavour) was totally crap, the other one was quite nice for a stockist. Next to that I took some pics of miniatures that stood in cabinets in a stand along the Tiber.
*as always..click to enlarge*
@ The stockist (at Via Parma - near the Vatican)





Some of the miniatures I saw in the 'Tiber'-stand:










And yes that's me in the reflection of course.

Mixed feelings

Rome
Got back from Rome yesterday and the ending of a holidays always brings mixed feelings. Rome was ábsolutely totally fucking awesome (I'll do a photo post later this week) and thankfully my sprained ankle (only 2 weeks before I left for Rome) had cured enough not to need crutches, cause Rome is no (no offence) place for handicapt people..the touristic places are almost inaccessible for them.
But it was tiring, after 7 days in Rome my legs really could use some rest. I think I can honestly say I've never walked as many kilometers in one week as last week, so going home was a breather for my legs and probably for my ankle (yes I'm a crybaby).

Home
But I came back in Groningen and my town is, especially in the summer holidays, almost like a ghosttown compared to Rome. I immediately missed the immense amounts of traffic and the people running around with 'head-turner women' a plenty. Next to that it was over 10 degrees celcius cooler than in Rome. Thankfully it stayed dry today and I already saw some women which showed me that not all beautiful women had gone on holidays to Rome ;)

Martial arts
In 'other' bad news today I heard my martial arts dojo decided to close for personal reasons. I won't go into these personal reasons, otherwise they wouldn't be personal. But in short..it sucks because I've trained there with great joy for the last 3 years. We'll see what the future holds..but it put a dark cloud over my day today.

40K
A last light note of mixed feelings: bought the 5th ed rulebook for warhammer 40K..I haven't read everything yet, but there are good and there are bad changes so even more mixed feelings.

A smile
Thankfully Debbie put a smile on my face when I picked up her postcard: From Russia with love ;) Thanks!

Going to Rome!

Leaving tomorrow..back on the 14th..but with my irregular updates..you'll hardly notice.

Smoking prohibited: 01-07-2008

From the 1st of July on smoking is prohibited in all pubs, bars, concerthalls etc. There has been a lot of protest against it, but there are already a bunch of countries who went before us (us being the Netherlands) without major problems. In Denmark the people even started to drink more, and their beer prices are sky high. The only thing I worry about is the smell. Normally after a night out you smell like old smoke, which is bad. But the smoke also drowned out all other stenches while going out, for instance spilled wine and beer and maybe worse, old sweat. I have to smell for myself before I do a happy dance that I'll never have to wash out the stench of smoke the morning after a good night of drinking.

Has your country already prohibited smoking inside pubs etc? Or are there plans? And are you against it or not?