June 17, 1953

This is the date I came to this world 54 years ago. It's also the date, pre-Berlin-Wall times, when German workers in Soviet occupied East Berlin came to the streets to protest against their working conditions and Soviet demands for higher output. Some shouted "This is a revolution". The whole thing turned into a blood bath and years later, after the Wall was brought down and Germany re-united, June the 17th became a Public Holiday. I know all this from Peter Rasp from Duesseldorf, an ex-SSW colleague who surprised me one day to tell me that he could exactly tell my birthday (I would have never expected that from him as we didn't quite know each other too well... how the heck could he know my birthday, of all people... my own kids don't!).

Another great pal, Shaun Boyle from Dublin, ex-colleague from the times of JMA and TI-Software, made me a birthday present on my 50th birthday being a facsimile of the first page of the Irish Times on the day of 17 June 1953 (click picture for larger view). You can see what I said earlier about Berlin shows up on the top right corner under the title :"East Berlin Workers Defy Authorities". Cool... Bottom left on same paper an Aer Lingus ad, quite cute! Aer Lingus, the only airline with outside toilets, as Shaun used to say...

I was wondering how many of those who know me actually thought of my birthday this morning. Of course, besides Rita, because if she dare forget it would be the end of our marriage (!).

Well, I'll be damned, first thing that shows up in the mail is my ex-boss at CA, Tommy Bennett, with a short but sweet message "VASSILY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY"! Jeez! The man lives in New York, Long Island and he must have sent this late last night for me to pick it up this morning. Phenomenal... I don't know what it is why we want to be thought of on days like these... maybe it's the fact that we walk slowly towards the inevitable and start feeling lonely and left alone, who knows... but anyways, Tommy's message gave me such a warm feeling. Thank you Tommy, a lot, from my deepest... U R a great friend!

On birthdays, one may wonder about birthday presents... well, I make a habit to always go buy me a present by myself and spend good money on it. While window browsing at Fnac in Antwerp yesterday noon, there I saw that famous 18-200mm VR Nikon lens that Nikos Yalelis, a colleague at Intrasoft has been motivating me for so long to go buy... Ten minutes later I have been walking out of the shop with 700 euros less in my pocket and one more lens for my collection... (picture at left, showing the lens mounted on one of my Nikon bodies)... you see, some people buy 19th century Japanese prints by Hiroshige and Hokusai to hang on walls... equally, I also buy stuff Made in Japan (Nikons and Canons - ssssht, don't tell the wife, please)...

What do I plan to do today, you said? Well, first of all, I've been editing this posting... I then need to install and test a brand new 11n D-Link Wireless card on Rita's Vista box... and then it will be loads of pictures shot to test my new Nikon goodies... what else? It's probably gonna rain again, like yesterday, so, like the Flemish say : "Oost, west, thuis best!" meaning, "East or West, staying home is the best of all..."