This week

I meant to post about this days ago, but then work got in the way.

Tuesday night O and I went to see the Thermals play upstairs at Paradiso. It was an awesome show, so much more energetic than when I last saw them play in Rotterdam. The place was packed and a little moshing area formed to my left (which meant I slid more and more to the right; I shy away from thrashing bodies and flying elbows). The band seemed both amused and appreciative of the moshers, many of whom were drunkenly shouting out the lyrics to the songs. It made for a good energy though and the band usually played a chunk of songs with no pause which kept the energy high. The kleine zaal, when it's full, usually gets pretty warm anyway with so much body heat trapped in a small space, but on Tuesday it got downright muggy with all the sweat being produced. We left hot but happy.

Also on Tuesday I finally got the package of info for Australia that I've been looking forward to for ages. It took much longer than normal to get here from the US, about 2 weeks, which made me worry that it'd gotten lost. Not all was well when it arrived however: in the package were vouchers for a transfer from the airport and for two nights stay in a hostel. But they'd been booked for Sydney, not Melbourne, and Melbourne is where I'm headed. So new ones will have to be sent, which isn't the end of the world, I fortunately have enough time before I leave to get them, I was just rather peeved that they didn't pay attention to where I was going.

Erika and Karl tied the knot last Saturday, and now they are off on their honeymoon, so we are again taking care of the lovely, slightly portly, occasionally very noisy, Coco. Actually at the moment I'm taking care of him cuz O has up and left me to go to Prague for a week. Ok, I couldn't go because I'm saving my money and holidays, but still, I haven't been to Prague either, and also O reports that it's like 35 degrees there whereas here this evening it probably rained about 35 mm. Bastard, getting to have some summer... Anyway, the cat is keeping me company. Earlier he climbed up on my shoulders and sat up there for 10 minutes or so. It makes him happy. I just took this photo of him. It's this pose that lead to us calling him "Jabba the Cat."



I don't remember how it came about, but O and I also came up with the nickname "Voluminous Girth," like an extra-fancy way of saying "big boned." I wanted to get a photo of him in loaf shape, but he moved when I got up. I called the other, skinny cat "Lumpy Loaf" when he sat like that, but Coco I call "Wide Loaf." He definitely shows off his voluminous girth in that position.