Only one week from now I will be sitting on a bench at the seaside of Tel Aviv. The weather (no news anymore) looks very promising. :-D

Goal of this stay in Israel is a wonderful vacation and next to that to come back with a few great series of photographs.

For that reason I bought myself the greatest tripod and tripod head I could find for a decent amount of money. I have been buying tripod the last years, but all were not that expensive. In fact, not at all… That’s also why I bought more tripods. Never very satisfied about it. Not stable enough for portrait pictures, parts falling off or is just just wobbly.

Not this time. Advised by a fellow photographer (that’s you, Johan ;) ) I bought the Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod with the 804RC2 head…

Oh my G_d… This is finally a piece of equipment…

(sturdy, but extremely flexible - you can’t imagine, seeying it here standing just there)

So once and while you take preview on the weather you gonna have while being in Israel.

Today this peak was a little to much for me…

The weather in The Netherland in no more than 5 degrees celsius…

Check This!:

No, I am not talking the rock band… Freddie is dead :-( , so there is no Queen anymore.

Yesterday I have been shopping for presents for the little daughter of my best friend. While checking some little things, I saw some things that didn’t ring a bell and I went on.

While moving a meter away I saw a hair stye that I did recognize, even from behind. But I could not directly place it. The head did turn around and a friendly smile met my eyes. I couldn’t believe it, but the eyes belonged to the Queen of The Netherlands: Beatrix.

I am not a fanatic royalist, but I am happy to live in a country where it is possible that the queen can go to a shop and buy things for her grandchildren and that she does that too!

Good for You, Bea!! ;-D

Watching the breaking news at BBC World about the terrorist attack at a yeshiva in Jerusalem right now. The title is ‘ISRAEL VIOLENCE: 9 people killed including attacker”.

For me it is interesting to see that the terrorist is counted in in the amount of killed people. Next to that the header “Israel violence” gives me a biased taste. Am I wrong?

In another report there is an interview with a certain Jerry Lewis. The interviewer states that the students at the yeshiva are learning about zionism. He is corrected by this Jerry Lewis, who says: “No, there are learning about judaism. They are reading scriptures and discussing them”.

There are no critical words about Gaza, where people are celebrating the newest killing of innocent religious students, by shooting in the air and kissing the soil.

The first report I saw, was followed by a commercial of World Travel & Tourism Council in Dubai 20-22 april 2008. Is this lack of critical questions caused by this?

Do I feel aggressive today? YES, VERY!

The repairs of my car are expensive and take too long! That hurts, but I can live with that!

To park my car in my own street I need a permit between 18:00 and 00:00. I don’t like that (at all), but I can live with that!

Last night I had my garage rent car standing in my street. Permit displayed and a small note that this was a rented car.

I got a ticket of 50,50 euro, about $76!

It is very good that I didn’t see the guy, because I would kicked his ass, probably more!

My car is still at the garage… Another night…

As I did write before, I was planning to buy a MacBook Pro. This was planned for over a few weeks, but MediaMarkt, a big electronics store here was giving a discount of 15,97%! And that is a lot of money on a MacBook Pro 15+” 2.4 Ghz.

I became so sick and tired of using Windows computers that I wanted to switch as fast as possible.

I am happy with my switch?! Oh yeah!!  This is my best decision since years. I makes that I am more mobile (battery life), but the best news is that I am finding new ways to do the things I am doing, faster, better and in better quality…

Need I say more?!