My new home
August 8th, 2010
This is just a quick note from my phone as I am not yet online with my desktop or laptop.
Since moving, last Wednesday, there have been 1,001 things I had to take care of, including packing and unpacking, taking lots of stuff to the garbage or recycle plant, sending away notices, buying new stuff, buying, assembling and filling a 288 cm by 250 cm bookcase, and removing the ‘for sale/SOLD’ sign from the front.
And I just thought it would be nice to share a picture of part of my bookcase with you!
It’s finally happened…
August 3rd, 2010
… I’m moving!
![139823378[1]](http://www.makoho.nl/wp-content/uploads/1398233781.jpg "139823378[1]")
How to sort your books
July 30th, 2010
I’m moving to a new place. Part of moving is moving my books. Part of moving my books is taking them all out of their bookcase, into boxes, and putting them back in a new bookcase at my new home. Part of that is the opportunity to sort them in some way as they find their place in my new home. And another part of that is building a new bookcase.
Damn.
How and where to sort my books? There are many ways I can sort my books. Some of them are eye-catching but very unpractical, yet others require discipline and linear reading habits. And what about the storage system for your books? Storage systems can be inventive and funny but not practical, require more room than I currently have available, or effectively use space but make it hard to find something. And some need a room in a museum.
Moving. Packing. Cleaning.
July 26th, 2010
70 boxes arrived last week as the very first real and physical step of relocating to my new home. I set out last week thinking it’d be easy to fill them with the stuff I want and to simply clear away all the rest in anonymous bags.
As it turns out, though, finding things in drawers and closets that I hadn’t seen in years is more of a shock to me than I anticipated. I found myself confronted with postcards from ex-lovers, photographs of family members that have passed away, New Year’s wishes and Valentine cards from girlfriends, get-well-soon cards, and bills from foreign restaurants where I’ve had romantic dinners with women who have all but disappeared from my life. And I’m not one given to cheap or sentimental nostalgia, but this confrontation has certainly made my evening one of reflection and some sadness.
But I still threw almost all of it away.
The Dingle Way
July 22nd, 2010
I came back home yesterday from a lovely holiday on the Dingle peninsula, Ireland. The peninsula has a walking route around its coast that stretches for 113 kilometres, and I walked every bit of it in 6 days going from B&B to B&B. The shortest walk was 14 km, the longest two were 22 kilometers each. Beside the vistas, I also booked this holiday for the physical endurance and the sense of accomplishment you have after finishing it. That’s probably the biggest attraction of a waymarked walk: the opportunity to finish it. And I got the kick out of the physical endurance as well 
.
Moving
July 9th, 2010
After a month of silence in which many things have happened in both my personal life and in my professional life, here’s a new post! Although… it’s weird to write a blogpost that is longer than Twitter’s 140 characters.
Here’s the deal: I have bought a house in Leiden! It is a ‘proper’ house with a very small garden in a reasonably quiet street, and I’m moving in the first week of August! It’s a busy time trying to think of everything that needs to be taken care of, but also very exiting. It doesn’t need any work and I can move in one day after I get the keys!
Meanwhile, I am also going on a holiday to Ireland. I will walk the Dingle Way, which is a path around the Dingle peninsula approximately 100km long. It takes six days and leads across valleys, over mountains, beaches, cliffs and meadows. Like my holiday in the Lake district, I’ll be a solitary walker mostly. After playinv at both Imperium and Toverlei, I really want to spend some quality time with myself.
So, these are the last few weeks I will spend in this part of town. I’ll miss the view from my 3rd floor apartment, but I’m sure that will be compensated by the 3 meters high Lundia bookcase I’m going to get
Pictures of Ireland and my new home will follow! In the meantime, check out my photoblog–link in the menu on the right.
Half-way through…
May 27th, 2010
… my Moleskine notebook
Two quotes from Lud-in-the-Mist
May 24th, 2010
On a whim and on advice of Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself on Twitter) in one of his tweets, I’ve begun reading Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees. The book was written in 1926, and has fantasy, horror, humour, and beautiful language as its main appeal. Won’t go into detail about the book, but before I give you two wonderful quotes of imagery and perception, let me say that this book already ranks into my top 10 of books I’ve ever read.
Here’s one:
And in the distance, here and there, standing motionless and in complete silence by the flowing Dapple, were red-roofed villages – the least vain of all fair things, for they never looked at their own reflection in the water, but gazed unblinkingly at the horizon.
Here’s another one:
And the sun would set, and then our riders could watch the actual process of colour fading from the world. Was that tree still really green, or was it only that they were remembering how a few seconds ago it had been green?
A walk around Utrecht
May 16th, 2010
I’ve spent a few hours today with Marca on a walking route from Utrecht to Houten, today. It’s an enjoyable 11km through fields, some small towns, and along some interesting historic sites. There’s two Dutch forts as well as remains of an ancient Roman settlement.
It took us 2.5 hours to reach Houten, including a stop for lunch and tea. After returning to Utrecht we both got on our train back home.
This picture is of a tower near the remains of that Roman settlement.
Komt allen!
April 30th, 2010
My name is Marco Hokke. My blog is about the things that interest me and things I might forget if I would not blog them.
