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Dear Bloggers,




Today I am taking a day off to celebrate another year that lies past me.

Some would call it the day of the big things that came to us. On of the first things that i remember is that we switched from normal black and white to colour television, and we could receive more channels and we had a telephone as not everyone had a phoneline yet. I got my first bicycle and later a moped. And I was able to vote and get my driving licences. I took the decession to go sailing as there was not that much work at the time. We bought our first house and got our children. I have to say that in those 15.705 days that I am on this cruel planet.

As there were also bad things that i remember Martin Luther King was killed, the Vietnam war, the hazardous fire on the Scandinavian Star, the disaster with the Herald of Free Enterprise, the fireworks explosion at Enschede, the attack on the twin towers, the tsunami in Indonesia and her surrounding countries and of course things that happened just around me that loved ones past away from us.

It left happy memories and some deep scars in my inner person.

“Maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you've had, and what you've learned from them, and less to do with how many birthdays you've celebrated.”

Here are some facts that might be seen as useful information to some of my readers but maybe it isn’t.

· You are exactly 43 years 1 week 2 days 9 hours 40 minutes 57 seconds old.

· You will receive your next birthday gift in 14 hours 19 minutes 3 seconds later.

· If your hair were never cut since 13.March.1968, it would be 6.266 m. today.

· If your nails were never cut since 13.March.1968, they would be 1.555 m. today.

· An apple tree seeded on 13.March.1968, bore 3,818.536 kg. apple till today. Its contribution to economy is €15,236.0 and it fed 6,407 people. We hope that in your life you, as a human being, achieved more than that poor apple tree.

Happy Birthday Old Sailor.

Dear Bloggers,

It is that time of the year again, soon there is my birthday to celebrate and year 41is there (that is 14.975 days).
Like every year the discussion starts what should we get you this year.
And funny enough the answer is already there, like always.

This year I get a new car stereo as the “old” one is giving up on us.
Not too expensive I claimed as the “new second hand car” might have these things integrated.



Aging. Getting old. Nothing seems to shrivel up a person's wish to celebrate the anniversary of their birth like the number of candles to be lit on their cake.

Sure, there's a large number of cards at the corner store dedicated to sagging skin and creaking joints, but you know: age is just a number, right?
Comedic interpretation, learning to laugh about turning 41 will do much more to make you smile than woe over your latest grey hair ever will.



There's great reason to look at getting older as a good thing - you get to move on from the torture of growing up and look forward to things to come. With age tends to come a sense of peace and forward thinking - as we move into adulthood, life can become more about what the future holds for us than what we missed out on yesterday.

Now, a quiet dinner with your loved ones, without any gifts at all, can make for the best celebration you've ever had.
Remember the hell that was adolescence? You're done with shyly wondering if the popular kid in school was gossiping about you or one of your best friends.

Your early twenties were likely the years of (not just birthday) parties, hot dates, not being a grown-up, but no longer a child. It seems like every one's got the same early 20s strife: we searched to figure out who we were going to be with someone else, instead of figuring out who we already were. We were running after the perfect achievements - things, friends, careers and lovers - without being able to sit still and recognize what we already had.



I've heard that with the 30s comes a sense of peacefulness and acceptance. We stop always looking for something better, shinier and more expensive and get to know ourselves. We become more focused on comfort, as opposed to unachieved idealism. Some of us develop families and become the parents we would like to be; others put their time and effort into career and personal development outside of the home. Some of us do both! All of us tend to learn that what we have is okay and even a little bit wonderful, and we drop the feelings of regret over unimportant choices we made in the past.



With our 40th birthday, we might evaluate our lives. Our kids (if there are any) are often growing old enough for us to grant them more independence, we've got a lot of experience we didn't 20 years ago, and we've come to know ourselves and the world around us enough to ask, "What's next?" without negating anything we've already lived. We can sit, pondering whether we'd like to study something new, take a new turn in our careers, start a business - and best of all, we've gained enough confidence in ourselves to believe that we can do what we set out for.



I can't wait to get older and to celebrate each birthday that marks me maturing. Maybe wrinkles and sagging aren't on my wish list, but the wisdom, being comfortable with myself and my life's choices, peacefulness and the adventures that await? Definitely the best birthday presents I could ever hope for.

What are you looking forward to as you get to your next milestone?

The Old Sailor,

The Birthday Present

This blog was posted in Dutch on the 18th of march 2008

The Birthday Present

Dear bloggers,

I did not dare to tell but my wife and spouce had the genious idea to get as a birthday present a new pneumatic drill for me....
Well... when i took off the giftwrapping, my mouth fell open of astonishment.
"And?" she said, "Do you like your gift, is it ok?" I stotterd something like "Thanks... very impressive.
"Where did you buy this thing actually?"
"From a friend who just came back from Afghanistan." She said.
"He has bought a huge amount of them overthere and sells them now in the West of Europe for peanuts."
I was totally shocked.
That bad that, when she said: "And now you finally gone hang up this pictureframe with the picture of my dad."
And i really got started with the users manual.

After an hour of studying some kind of outrages….. anger….yes…..anger, dear bloggers, a kind of outrages madness.
I could just control myself and asked her finely tuned: "And where on the wall did you want to have in mind to place this picture of your dad?" "Well overhere!" she said, and pointed me the place at the wall where on the other side definitely the neighbors livingroom would be.

The bang was overwhelming, the penetration abilities of the projectiel were unbelieveable and the aquarium of the neighbors was fully splintered into a million pieces.

Dear bloggers, I am writing you this letter from the prison.
They have – totally with no right at all – meant to lock me up as a dangerous idiot that i am actually not.
But you did know this, or? That i am not dangerous, i mean!

It is pretty lonely out here, dear bloggers. All conversations are about soccer, motorbikes and horny bitches, or molotovcocktails and how a human being can in a very suffistucated way bring a prison warden to the end of his life.
Not really 'My cup of tea'.

More than ever i need your support.
Send me letters and postcards and... and... packages with presents and... yes... those cakes and bread WITH ALL KINDS OF THINGS IN IT.... you know what i mean.
It doesn’t make sence to give you the openingtimes of the prison, as only my family is allowed to visit me.
Luckely my wife and spouce is coming every day to visit me.
She keeps outing herself in vague apoligies and asks over and over again. 'how this all could have happened?'

Until now i did not succeed to explain her the difference between a pneumatic drill and a ….. well, have a look at the picture.

Dear bloggers, i don’t see any way to get out of here.
I can not take this forever.
If they are gone take me to trial and ask me about the how and why, what should i say?
That i never meant to hit the neighbors wife and after that the aquarium?

The odds are against me.
I will never see you again.

I loved you all in a passionate way!
Your Old Sailor.