The power of the Internet...

Morning all,

A while ago I posted some pictures of a riverside flower that I remembered from the time I lived in The Netherlands. Low and behold one of my old mates from Holland saw the picture and was able to identify the plant.


According to him the plant is called Impatiens Glandulifera (royle). The english name is Indian Balsam. The dutch name is ReuzenBalsemien. All I know is that it looks stunning and it stinks like rotten eggs. Lovely. (For the people amongst you that don't believe I am dutch, ik kom echt uit Nederland. Ik ben in Utrecht geboren en heb in Nieuwegein gewoont. In 1993 kwam ik een leuke vrouw tegen in Spanje en een jaar later ben ik verhuist naar Engeland in Suffolk. In 2005 ben ik met haar getrouwd (twaalf jaar nadenken om zeker te weten hahaha) We wonen nog steeds in Sudbury Suffolk, de plaats waar Sir Thomas Gainsborough vandaan komt. Dat is een van de bekentste landschaps schilders in Engeland. Zie, bijvoorbeeld, Mr and Mrs Andrews 1748 - 1749.

The guy who came up with the goods is Ton van W. We used to work for the same company in Hilversum and Huizen. We worked for APT which stood for AT&T and Philips Telecommunication. I worked (well, worked....) in the power department while Ton was busy generating wrong transmission documentation. Sometimes I wonder what happened to some of the other guys in that company, like Bob Leefkens, Piet Tijdemans, Jacko Lankreier, Otto Ouderkerk, Gerard Kruidenberg, Paul van Dijk etcetera. As I moved countries in 1994 I never have seen any of them ever again, with the exception of Jacko who came over for a training course in Maidenhead. I came over and we had a good piss-up and got stinking drunk hahahahaha....

OK, gotta go, am prepping for a trip to Turkey, off to Erzurum, Trabzon and Antalia in a few days I hope,

Cheerio,

Alex.