Well I have to write something..

Okay, so it's 22:13 and it's hot as hell. And not the pleasant kind of hot but the annoying, numbing kind of heat, this typical Dutch stuffy weather. I have nothing more to drink but I don't want to walk downstairs because I'm afraid I will not come back and do something for school, or just anything productive. So I'm just going to type something and see what comes out.

It was a chilly night in September. The had already set for a few hours, The sky was clear and the moon illuminated the abandoned streets. There flew a cold breeze trough the cracked windows of the old house on the outskirts of Arnhem. The sky was clear and the moon illuminated the abandoned streets. It used to be a gorgeous little home, with a nice frontyard filled with daffodils and tulips. The house itself was a two story building with a red tiled roof and the regular square windows that was common in the street. It also had a backyard with a little tiled path that led up to a small dug out pond. On each side of the path were some rosemary bushes and some old garden ornaments. But those things were all gone. At the place of the pond and the rosemary bushes was now a crater, a couple of feet wide and about waist deep. The garden ornaments were nothing more but scattered broken stones. Only half of the roof was still in place with many rooftiles broken or fallen. The windows were without glass and a curtain rusted in the wind upstairs. The frontyard was nothing more but a plowed ravaged patch of land. Some of the daffodils were still standing. Tom Westbrook counted them as he sat on a broken chair n the living room. This was the first time he got the chance to rest, and he took it with both hands. Beside him, on top of a broken table, lay on of his squadmates; Morris, snoring quietly. Sitting in the halway was sergeant Baker, their squad leader. Behind him in the kitchen he could hear Evans, the squad medic, coughing. Upstairs he heard the footsteps of Cooper and Peterson. They had dropped near Arnhem two days ago and today the had entered the city. They had lost the rest of the platoon and were, like many other units of the British 1st airborne division, scattered in small groups across the neighborhood. They weren't completely isolated, a few meters ahead there was another squad, and further ahead there were two squads that occupied a cafe. But Tom didn't have the strength nor willpower to care about their current position. He was just glad that it wasn't his guard duty. He looked at the daffodils until his eyelids closed and fell asleep. He was roughy awakened by sergeant Baker, who told him to get of his ass and grap a rifle. Tom didn't know how long he had slept, was it two hours, maybe more? Maybe less? I sure wasn't enough, he rubbed his eyes and stretched his back only to get slapped by the angry sergeant because he wasn't fast enough. 'What is happening?' Tom asked, 'We spotted some Jerries just there up the road, looks like they'll be coming our way.' Tom grapped his rifle, strapped on his helmet and moved quietly to the front window. He stuck his head out and spotted them. They were with 8, moving silently up the road. Their steel helmets and machineguns shone in the moonlight. One of them carried a heavy MG and another one a Panzerfaust, a disposable rocket launcher. It looked like they thought they were alone in the street. Sergeant Baker had gone upstairs to set up the machinegun, he had come back and told everyone to wait until the MG opened fire, then he went back upstairs . The German soldiers were coming closer, they were almost in front of the house. Tom held in his breath, he didn't dare to make the slightest movement. One of the Germans tripped and their sergeant, the one up front, cussed at him and muttered something under his breath. He looked around him, looking of someone had noticed the metallic *clang* of the machinegun that fell on the ground. Just when he thought everything was safe the machinegun upstairs opened fire. The peaceful quiet of the night was now filled with the sound of the machinegun. The street was lit up with flashes and the traces of bullets. The rest opened fire. One of the Germans was hit directly in the head and had fallen straight on the ground. Another two were hit directly after, one in the leg and one in the stomach. The fact that the rest wasn't hit was a miracle, maybe it was because of luck or maybe because of the exhaustion of the British paratroopers. The Germans recovered quikly and their sergeant ran to a house on the other side of the street and kicked in the door, the rest of them followed. There were now 5 soldiers in the house across the street, the British had lost their advantage. The Germans immediately opened fire with their rifles and machineguns. One of them set up the heavy machinegun on the 1st floor. The German with the Panzerfaust lay on the street, cluthing his belly. The other one had managed to get himself to the safety of the house. Tom fired rounds at the windows with his rifle, while Morris emptied his Sten gun. 'Fuck, shit, goddamnit!' shouted sergeant Baker who had come downstairs, 'Evans, why in God's name is the other squad down the street not helping us?! Go and see what those wothless pigs are up to!' Evans ran out the backdoor into the night. Baker looked at Tom and muttered under his breath. 'From the first day it all goes to shit, we lose half of our supply because some bloody pilot doesn't know how to drop something out of a plane into a field, and the we lose the rest of our platoon, taking away our radio communication! Shoot at the windows, we have to keep them occupied until Evans comes back with those other bastards.' The German heavy machine gun had now opened fire at their floor and the bullets whirred past them. Tom pressed himself against the wall, his only safety from the rattling bullets. There was a short break between the firing and Tom looked at the machinegunners and fired at them. He fired his whole clip even though the machinegunners were already behind cover, it was just fore the sake of supressing fire. He looked beside him when he heard a loud cry, Morris was hit in the shoulder and was laying on the ground, pressing his shoulder with his hand and gritting his teeth. The sergeant cursed and pulled him to the safety of the kitchen. At that moment Evans came back, yelling that the other squad would try to come close to the German position. Because the German machinegunners were still changing the barrel Tom looked at the street and saw the other British soldiers running across. The sergeant ordered everyone to fire as much they could. The other squad of British men were now one house away from the German position. One ran up to the windows, a grenade clutched in his hands and tossed it at the machinegun emplacement. Tom heared the gunners yelling before a loud dull bang cut it short. A cloud of dust bursted trought the windows and a part of the wall was scattered trough the street. The other Germans, still dazed of the explosion, were quikly disposed of when the British soldiers bursted trough the door and emptied their clips.
A quietness fell upon the street. 'Tom, see if they're all dead.' Tom hesitantly stood up and climbed trough the window to the street. He looked at the two bodies that lay on the street, one with a little bullethole in the head and the other with the perforated stomach, he had died of his wound during the fight. He walked to the house, nodded his thanks to the other British soldiers, who acknowledged it also with a nod. He went inside to the living room, the bodies of 4 germans were spread upon the ground. One leaned with his back against the wall, his chin on his breast. Another lay face down on the ground, his hand still cluthing his rifle. The last two lay against each other, both bodies riddled with bodies. Tom walked upstairs, were the remains of the machinegunners were. One lay on his side, his arm ripped of by the explosion and his pants were bloodstained rags. The other one lay in a doorway. He had run for the safety of the next room but was too late. The back of his head was ravaged by shrapnel. Tom had seen enough and returned to the sergeant. 'They're all dead sir.' Baker nodded 'Poor sods, but it is them or us. Grab your gear, Westbrook, we and the other squad have to push futher.' Tom left the sergeant with the corporal of the other squad and went back to grab his gear. When he went inside he saw Evans treating Morris, who leaned against the wall, a cigarette in his mouth. 'How are you holding up, buddy?' Tom asked, 'Never better.' Morris said with a slight grin. 'Yeah well you're lucky it didn't hit you a little lower because that would have destroyed your lung. This will just leave a scar, you lucky bastard.' Evans said while he was bandaging the wound. He turned to Tom, 'What are we up to now?' 'I don't know, were probably going to try to link up with battalion.' Evans sighed 'I don't know Tom, first we lose half of our supplies and then we lose our unit. I think I'll go talk to those other men, maybe they know more of what's happening in the rest of the city. Come on Morris, stand up we have to get moving.' They went out of the house, the rest was already waiting for them. They moved trough the streets in silence, still wary of any German units. They stopped at a crossroad, sergeant Baker talked with the corporal, the latter pointed at the street left of them. Baker nodded and shook his hand, then he walked back to his squad. 'The captain and his unit are at the end of that street, we'll link up with him and ask where the rest of our unit is.' They walked down the street, at the end in a now abandoned hotel a light was burning. 'That must be HQ, let's not keep them waiting.' Baker went in first, Tom after him. The minute he stepped in he was greeted by a pleasant light. The reception was filled with officers, walking from one end to the room to the other, answering phones, filling in reports, there was so much activity compared to the abandoned streets. In the middle of the room stood Major Campbell, with his grey moustache and pipe in his mouth. He gestured Tom and Baker to come closer. 'Baker, Westbrook, how have you been holding up?' 'Not good sir, we lost contact with the rest of our unit.' Campbell grimased, 'So I've heard. Apparently you're not the only one, it's not going well I tell you. We still haven't reached any of our objectives and the Jerries seem to be everywere. I've got good news and bad news. The good news is, that the rest of your unit is located a couple of blocks ahead. The bad news is, half of them is running back at this very moment, and the other half is pinned down in a church. So I'm sending you and some other men to relieve them. The only problem is-' The door flew open and a private came rushing in, 'Major, German artillery have discovered our position, we have to leave the building!' The Major was quiet for a split second, then he began shouting orders and giving directions. They all ran out of the building, they saw the British soldiers coming their way from the street , those that the Major talked about. Then the shells hit, the first blew of the roof of the house next to the fleeing soldiers. Another exploded some 100 yards next to the hotel, filling the street with bricks, dust and shrapnel. 'Quik, run to the left, find shelter in the houses at the end of that street!' Major Campbell bellowed. Baker was shouting at the British soldiers, now just 150 yards away from the hotel, and he kept urging the on. Then a shell hit them directly, knocking Baker of his feet. Everyone dropped to the ground. The street turned gray from all the shattered glass, the ground was shaking. 'Fuck! Jesus Christ!' Baker yelled, 'Everyone run!' Tom hesitated not a single moment, he picked up his rifle and started running down the street. He didn't look behind him, he didn't stop when another shell hit the street, he kept running towards safety. Suddenly he was picked up from the ground, an invisible force threw him trough the air. There was a deafening sound, and it was as if the world came to an end a second. The explosion hurled him into a window and threw him against a wall. He coughed, his chest was burning, his arms and legs were bleeding from cutwounds, his throat ached and his ears rang. He tried to stand up but his legs gave away. Two hands turned him around, and he looked at Baker, he saw his mouth move but he didn't hear the words that came out. Evans head also emerged, he and Baker talked to each other, then they picked him up. Tom saw the ceiling of the house change to the night sky. His hearing had come back a little, because he couldn't hear any explosions anymore and the others weren't running anymore. Then the world turned black.
He woke up in a clean hospital bed greeted by a smile of a beautiful nurse.

Sorry if this is a bit cheesy or bad written, it's pretty late and Seinfeld is on. I want to watch Seinfeld because I think it is awesome. Don't judge me.

The Hobbit

During the Christmas holiday I went to the cinema to see The Hobbit with my friends. The movie was great and we had lots of fun.

We had been planning to see The Hobbit on the day it came in the cinema's but due to the conditions at that time we had to postpone it. When all of us finally had time in the second week of our vacation we made preparations two hours before, as we always do. Some of us, including me, wanted to see the movie in Pathé de Kuip, in Rotterdam, but the majority of our group thought that this was too expensive and decided that we should watch the movie in the new cinema, or 'Filmhuis' as it is called, here in Dordrecht. So we had made preparations and decided to meet each outher at one of our friends's house. There we found out that you can't buy popcorn in the cinema in Dordrecht, so we went to my house to gather food and drinks. The funny thing was that we thought you could actually bring your own food, but at the last moment the friends who had made the suggestion, the cheapest guys I have ever met, told us we had to smuggle the food inside. So after a lot of delays and pressure we entered the cinema and went to the the film, where could finally sit down.

The film itself was great.

Hello.

My name is Maarten,

This summer I went to Italy. My mother had decided that we should go by airplane. We arrived at Schiphol, that's like some place were all the planes live and stuff. But anyway, we went with Easyjet which was really cheap, that's probably why the call it Easyjet. We went to the seats and my stupid little brother wanted to sit next to the window but I was like no b*tch that's my seat. But my mother told me that my little brother would sit to the window so I had to take the hallway seat. On the plane there was a really sexy waitress and I decided that that was a good omen for my visit to Italy. Then we landed on the airport of Rome and it was really hot so we all hauled the suitcases behind us and it all took great irritating effort. But afterwards i didn't complain anymore because I had a good workout. But the agony wasn't over yet because then we had to rent a car and my mother was constantly walking the wrong way. At last we rented a car and drove on the Italian highway. I had the window open and the wind blew through my hair I was really Born to be Wild then. But the fun was soon over because we had trouble with finding the hotel, so we drove constantly through the town of Passignano until a nice Italian lady showed us the way. When we finally arrived my whole body was stiff and I realized whe had been in the car for over 5 hours. I sat in the pool for the rest of the day. I've been in Italy for 2 weeks so i can't recall what I have done everyday but here are the things I do remember.

The first big city we went to was Florence, or Firenze as the Italians call it. It was a cloudless sunny day, the perfect weather to visit cities. but my little brother thought otherwise and was being a whiny little... But that was probably because we had to get up at 8:30 to get the train to Florence. it was a train ride that lasted about an hour and a half but I slept through most of it. But when I was in Florence i was right awake. So we came from the station and headed right to the Santa Maria Novella, the firtst big building that we saw. The Santa Maria Novella is a really big and beautiful church with rally nice fresco's on the inside. Fresco's are portraits but then painted on the walls and the ceiling and I was really awed by the sight of it because I had never seen fresco's so great or magnificent like in the Santa Maria Novella. Then we went to the Duomo, the really big white church in the middle of the cultural centre of Florence. But when we saw the line to the entrance we decided to get something to eat first. I had really nice chicken and a really big glorious glass of cola. But stubborn as we are, we didn't go in the Duomo yet but we went to Palazzo Vecchio. It looks really nice of the outside and some parts of the inside are also nice. But going inside with my mother is a mistake I still regret today. First you came to a really great hall with huge paintings of battlefields and I was in a very good mood then and expected more paintings like these. But it was far from that. as soon as we got to the first floor began the cultural statues and chairs and benches and lamps and other boring things. More than 2 hours I had to look at beds and dressers and even forks before I got safe outside. Then my mother said that we should go to the Ponto Vecchio. My little brother was already in a bad mood but when he heard my mother say that he burst out in tears. He said we decided all the things we would do and so, tho comfort him, we went to a restaurant where he got fries and icecream. After that we went to the Duomo, we all expected to stand in line for a very long time but to our surprise we where inside very quikly. What can I say about the Duomo; from the outside it's beautiful biu from the inside it's really, really boring. It was a very big church but it was surprisingly empty. They've probably spent all the money in the marble walls instead of the structure on the inside. Then we had a little something to eat (again) and then we took the trane back to Passignano.

In the time between we went to Rome and Florence we had so much fun. But all these little stories are of little significance to what I want to tell in my blog; my visit to the big cities.

A couple of days later we went to Rome. We took the 9 o'clock train and the journey took us about 2 hours. When we arrived in Rome it was well past '11 and there was a slight warm breeze. our first destination was the tourbus station, because the evening before we had decided to take the tourbus and not spent half of the day in Rome just walking to the next location. But in the station something cathed my eyes; it was a book store with all different kind of books in different languages. I just had to take a look and before I knew it I had spent 40 of the 50 euro's of my vacation money. Then we went to the bus. After we had survived the terror of the Indian street-salesman-horde we went with the bus to the Colosseum (We also drove past a couple of significant buildings I can't recall.) and got out. When you go to Rome you have to see the Colloseum it's an unwritten rule. So we stood in line until finally we could explore the great Amphitheatre. It was a magnificent place really, despite the theft off all the white marble trough the ages the Colosseum still had it's impressive aura. It was even bigger than I imagined and it was a really great experience walking around in the building where the romans once held all these g;adiator battles. After we had seen the Colloseum we walked a bit through the Forum Romanum. It was really hot because the Forum is sited in a vale, and with the sun beating down it was very, very hot. We didn't stay very long because of my little brothers exaggerated whining. So we took a tourbus and headed to Vatican city. When we arrived I could already see the St.Peter cathedral. We stepped out of the bus and continued our journey to the Vatican. We walked over the Ponto St'Angelo towards Castello St'Angelo. Of course I had already been there in Assasins Creed Brotherhood but The Castello was bigger than I had imagined. We walked past the Castello toward the street that led to Vatican Square. It was a really big tiled shopping street in cream-white colours so I was already pretty impressed by the street. But all those thoughts vanished when I looked at the St Peter. It was huge, huger than I had ever expected. The people in line in front of the Cathedral almost looked like ants from my point of view. The St Peter is connected with two quarter rings (a quarter of a ring) with statues on top. So the St Peter and it's aadditional buildings formed half a cirlcle around the square. In the middle of the square stand an obelisc, I can still remember some of the scriptures; 'Christus Vincit- Christus Domonit' I think it was, which means; 'Christ is victorious- Christ rules'. The site of the square was just glorious. I wish we had more time but we didn't, so, we didn't have time to go inside the St Peter. But when I go back to Rome I will make sure I get inside, and aslo in the Vatican Museum; the largest museum in the world. So we went back to the station and had a pleasant ride back.

But all things come to an and, and two weeks later we packed our stuff and headed to the airport. It was fun at the airport but unfortunately there was a great lack of food, and if there was food then it was only Italian. And after two weeks of only italian food (you can litteraly buy no food from other countries there) I think people can understand that I was pretty fed up with all the pasta. So I walked around the airport complaining about the incompetence of the Italian food import for half an hour. So at last we went through the last security post and to the incheck gate. There were young women there handing out comeercial folders for Vodafone. And I am mentioning this because one of those ladies was extremely attractive. And to put it nicely; It is bad she must go, but it's nice to watch her leave. I think I have made my point clear there. Then, when everybody was checked in, we walked to the airplane and chose our seats. The flight back was really pleasant for I got the windowseat because of my diplomatic superiority. And because my brother got the windowseat on the flight to Italy. I didn't look outside very much because I was reading the third and last book of the Warlord series wirtten by Bernarld Cornwell. I really love his work and therefore I had read the first two books in four days. So I was kind off absent during the flight home. When we finally arrived at Schiphol I was relieved, relieved to be in my own country again; there's no place like home. So we went by mu aunts house to catch up and get our car (we had parked the car there and had taken the train to the airport). I was hoping for a good night's sleep but my older cousin persuaded me to watch a part of a horrormovie with me. No sleep for me after that allright. When we got home I jumped on the couch and just lay there for quite a long time before I got something to eat and went to bed, still haunted by the images of the horrormovie.