Dare to be different and learn to be lonely

WoOt, wo0t! Had a long weekend and when I got to work this morning a parcel had arrived with THREE NEW BOOKS \o/ I updated my readinglist:)

I've been disappointed to find out the spn_cinema challenge will be postponed until the autumn. Not the first time one of my favorite events changes plans and I'm very bad at accepting change. Plus I was READY; had a film and medium picked out and everything. First thought was to stop joining challenges alltogether, but maybe I should take this opportunity to sing up for spnspringfling? I don't know... making something anonymously (in both directions) is just so nervewracking, but I do like working on my own and I love the short turnaround.
I still have until Friday to consider, right? I'm still a little too sad to care. Opinions are appreciated.

So, about that long weekend! I had a sillie82 from Friday until Sunday. There was lots of CSI (3 golden oldies and 13 episodes of Season 15 with a final that has a major impact on our OTP) and a film (Scott Pilgrim vs The World, which S. hadn't seen, so I picked it knowing she's a fan of Chris Evans *grins*) plus of course Supernatural (an episode from S1 with John for meeeeee and five episodes of Season 10, oh wow).
Before we sat down to watch all this on the big screen up in my attic I took S. along on an official touristy city walk through my town. Want to walk with us? We only did half the tour, which already took us four hours, because we are slow thorough.
Of course I made a lot of photos, here's a selection of 24 with minimum text (hahahahaha).

( We start behind that bookstore-in-a-church I told you about last time... )
If you want the full history walk and talk, you are welcome to come over;)

J.

What's up with this weather? I was already looking forward to having hoody-temperatures again and then all of a sudden the sun is shining like it's freaking summertime. So I didn't really want to go into town yesterday, but I really needed to look for a new wintercoat before they were all sold out. To be able to stay indoors during my (LONG!) weekend, I figured I'd go into town on Thursday evening, the only night shops are open until 9 p.m.

I'm very happy to report I found a coat/jacket that fit and ticked off nearly all the boxes on my wish-list; it's wind- and waterproof, a light colour (so I'm visible on my bicycle - oooh, this one even comes with reflective stripes!) and has lots of (big) pockets inside and out.
Found it at the ANWB shop (that's our national traveler's service association, like the US's AAA, but for all forms of transport, including hiking;) My mom happens to have a membership card and I borrowed it to get a 30 euro discount. SORTED! (It's this one in light blue)

Before trying on coats, I had tried to find another store in town (to get myself an extra pair of yoga pants¹), but apparently that didn't have a shop in the centre. But while I was walking around I did notice how the wonderful early evening light hit some of the old buildings and I made some photos.

Let me show off my home town a bit, mkay? ( A summerevening in Zwolle )

¹More about that later...

One of the reasons I have been stalling with the Australia picspams is that I was trying to not be reminded of a particularly disappointing event, which happened the day after Christmas. I wasn't sure if I should mention it in my journal and blog, since it involves bitching about other people, but as the song goes "it's my party and I'll cry if I want to", so I'm going to whine share my feelings, dangit. Because it's a pretty big deal for me when people forget my birthday, especially when these people are my family and therefore should know that it's the second most important day of the year for me. (Number one is Sinterklaas;)
Long story short; despite of staying in a house with my brother and his inlaws, nobody even congratulated me and there were no presents, except from my mom (who gave me a selfmade card with a gift certificate for a book and the promise of a fancy dinner when we got back home, see below) and my sister in law's sister (!) (who gave me a giftcard for the cinema near Sydney, which I went to with my mom for American Hustle later that week). So, ehm, yeah, colour me depressed.

BUT! A week and a half ago my mom and I finally managed to get together for that fancy dinner. I also bought a book of my favourite author, because the restaurant was in a corner of this huge restored bookstore set in a church from 1465:) It's a gorgeous building; they kept a lot of the magnificent features of the original church intact while also using the height to the advantage of presenting books in the most glorious way. If you love architecture and books and history and fancy food, check this out!

( 15 photos of all of the above - mind the warnings! )

Too bad the rest of my family missed this; that was the best late birthday party ever \o/