The first month of the year has flown by, and I have the feeling that the next one will be as fast. Luckily, I'm still going strong with the Bullet Journal, and in that I now have another neat list of what I did in every day of the month, one line per day. It really helps me to see that actually, a lot has happened.

Life

In January, I added a single-line gratitude log on the next page after my single-line monthly overview. I know that it kind of became a cliche at this point, but it is really nice to have one, and if you don't have a gratitude log I highly recommend you start one. Reading it back now just gives warm feelings, but I also now notice things during the day, being more mindfully grateful for them in the moment they happen.

In general January was, kind of like last year, a month of reflection and trying to be more mindful. See also the section about reading, which I did (almost) every day of the month, most of the time in the metro to work. Having this daily check-in with a book about being mindful made me more mindful throughout the month.

As for what happened: lots of boardgames again, some pizza, some pasta, some improvisation theater. I also visited family more often, went to a storytelling evening in Mezrab, the PhD ceremony of a friend, and to the presentation of the new book of poetry by Wout Waanders.

Health

A lot of people have said this to me, but I finally did it: I went to the hospital for a new perspective on my foot, almost half a year after the fracture. The last one was five weeks after the fracture, and was basically: "go do what feels right, if you have pain, you should slow down, good luck." I still have pain, or at least discomfort, and I didn't really know what direction to go in anymore.

Turns out: the bone has healed fine, so it's probably mostly the muscles and ligaments that are painful now. So my hunch was correct: this is indeed pain I should ignore, maybe even seek out, in order to get on the other side of this. (I just didn't want to do that before seeing a doctor.)

The photo was last week, so I've been trying to stand on one leg a bit more, doing calf raises and stuff. In terms of pain nothing has changed much, but at least I have something I can work towards again.

Reading

I have finally finished reading The Name of The Wind, which is a thick book, but I also just didn't find the time for it, and now I did. It's a very unique take on the fantasy genre and I really liked it. I have already bought The Wise Man's Fear, aka "day 2", but since 722 pages took me six months to complete, I am kind of delaying my start of these 1107 pages.

I also have been reading a lot in Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach, which is the book about mindfulness and self-compassion I mentioned in the 'Life' section. I have three more chapters to go, but I also want to focus more on actually practicing these things, instead of just buying the next book and hoping that that solves all my problems. But it's a good book.

Watching

I did omit this from the last Monthly Digest, but that was because I didn't watch any series or movies in December. In January, I allowed myself a bit of relaxing with this medium. I just have to be careful that I don't disappear in a series.

I (re)watched the first four episodes of De Geheimen van Barslet, a series made by the Dutch public broadcaster in 2012, but is now streaming on HBO. It was nice because I had mostly forgotten what happened, and I think it's a relatively good series for Dutch standards. I just didn't see the last three episodes again, so maybe that says that I am not really sold?

I watched Dune 2, which I probably should have (and certainly could have) watched in the cinema (I had a Cineville all year but just didn't go after May). I rewatched Tenet and this time I kind of understood what was going on in the movie. And I also rewatched Goodfellas, in the background while doing other stuff on a weird evening.

My favorite movie of the month is absolutely Triangle of Sadness, which is also a rewatch for me, but I liked it all the same as the first time. Somehow Henrique hates the movie – he told me several of his friends share this opinion – but I just have to disagree on this one.

To add to my list of rewatches: The White Lotus, both seasons, because a third is about to air next month. I am very curious what the new season will bring, because the first two are so good, but also in such different ways.

Intentions

My previous intentions of stretching have been working out, but the working out was a bit of a stretch this month. The healthy eating also didn't really happen (but I borrowed Ottolenghi's Simple and I looked inside of it twice). Let's just carry these over to the new month. And as previously mentioned: the reading part of the intentions went well.

For the next month I did write down a lot more intentions in my Bullet Journal. One that I want to share here, is that I want to do a daily check-in in mindfulness. The intention is to try to be more mindful during the day-to-day, but in order to get a checkmark on my day, I need to take a few minutes of silence, and in that pause, I want to check in with whatever I feel at that moment. Too often I just run around in life pressing down some feeling I have no time for. Like with the gratitude log: I hope that a daily check-in will improve my day-to-day relation to feelings too.

I see all your oddly specific 2024 recaps and I raise you with this one about notebooks.

I am the first to admit I have a bit of a stationary obsession. When I feel stressed, I love to go to P.W. Akkerman on the Langebrugsteeg in Amsterdam, just to look at the various notebooks and index cards they have for sale. I always have to restrain myself for not buying one when I visit, and sometimes I succeed at that. There is just something so promising about getting a new notebook, and thinking of all the ways you could make notes in it to declutter your mind.

Here are, in rough chronological order, some notebooks I bought or used in 2024. And yes, they are mostly dotted Leuchtturm1917 notebooks, and no, they are not all from P.W. Akkerman. (But never ordered online!)

Leuchtturm Classic Medium (A5) "Rising Sun"

Dotted, 251 pages, hardcover, 80g/m²
Technically I bought this orange/yellow one in 2023. It was in cellophane in my bag when some person broke the passenger window of my car, trying to get my laptop out of it, on the last day of the year. The thief must have touched it, for it was in the laptop compartment, but they threw the bag – notebook included – back into my car when they noticed there was no laptop.

On 1 January, I opened the cellophane and started writing a long form diary in it. There was a lot on my mind at that time, and I had a lot of free time (the company I worked for just went bankrupt), so I wrote down my thoughts in tiny handwriting. I used the first 61 pages in January, up to page 130 in february and stopped on page 161 at the end of March. Then a few pages with entries of September, October, November. In December I really picked it up again and I am now at page 210.

Leuchtturm Classic Paperback (B6+) "Stone Blue"

Dotted, 123 pages, soft cover, 80g/m²
I honestly don't remember if I bought this one this year, but I think so. Either way, I did not write a single thing it in, even though it is out of the cellophane.

Bloc Rhodia Nº 16 (dotpad, A5, ringed)

Dotted, 80g/m²
This is technically not a notebook, but more a notepad. It's by my knowledge the only dotted notepad on the market, and the paper is nice. I already had the same sized dotpad Nº 16 without rings, but I wanted a new one because I wanted to take notes and work, and the lined notepads they provided were just not up to my taste.

I never really pulled out any paper of it, so I know the first sheet is dated 4 March 2024, as that was my first day at work. Sometimes I did write down a date. The last written pages contain notes from my first D&D sessions as a DM, in May 2024.

Leuchtturm Classic Pocket (A6) "Fox Red"

Dotted, 123 pages, soft cover, 80g/m²
Again one of those I don't know for sure I bought in 2024, but at least I started using it last year. The first page has notes about a D&D session in which I played the character Voks, on 11 May. This was a session with a Eurovision theme, and I'm glad I have some paper notes of it. That was also the purpose of this book for me: notes about RPGs, so that I can avoid using the Rhodia dotpad for it.

The book also contains notes about sessions of Pirate Borg, Mausritter, Delta Green and goes as recently as 6 November for a session of Cloud Empress. There is a folded sheet of Rhodia dotpad paper in it with a rudimentary character sheet for my Cloud Empress character "Bloody". I will try to continue using this book for specifically this purpose of RPG notes in 2025.

Moleskine Cahier Pocket Black

Ruled, three cahiers, 70g/m²
This is the beginning of a little graveyard. Between May and August, I was compiling a portable DM-kit: a set of tokens and cards I can use as a Dungeon Master / story teller during RPG sessions. For this, I bought a small case that's originally intended to house a portable hard drive, and I stuffed it to the brim with pencils, wooden game components and index cards. (I will not include all the index cards I bought in this post.)

For this purpose, I also got a new set of these Moleskine cahiers. I have a lot of them, in various states of being written in, so I just wanted some more. My perfectionism decided at the time that there was a better option out there, so I did not end up using them.

Leuchtturm Jottbook Double (A6) "Light Grey / Black"

Dotted, two cahiers of 59 pages, flex cover, 80g/m²
These two nice dotted cahiers did fit perfectly in the aforementioned hard drive case. But what is more: they have more pages (I think, the Moleskine is unnumbered) and they have dots! As you might have noticed, I love dotted notebooks.

I just looked at the two now: the Light Grey one is unwritten, the Black one has a few unclear notes, written in one session I DM'ed. But hey, they are more perfect!

Bloc Rhodia Nº 18 (dotpad, A4)

Dotted, 80g/m²
I know, I keep going back and forth. This is again more a notepad, but somewhere in the same timeframe I bought it because as a DM, I wanted to write my notes on big dotted paper that would lay flat behind my DM-screen. Hence the A4 dotpad, no rings this time.

Leuchtturm Classic Paperback (B6+) "Black"

Dotted, 219 pages, hard cover, 80g/m²
This one I bought because I wanted a notebook to write in at work again. Previously I had been using the Rhodia dotpad for that purpose, but I disliked the fact that I was using a notepad as a notebook. If you never pull out the pages, why not have it bound? Also: I wasn't really taking notes at all anymore at that point, and I wanted to change that.

I started at the end of July and used a whopping 6 pages of the notebook, as I broke my foot in the beginning of August, which in turn changed a lot of habits around work, most notably the fact that I had to work from home for a while.

At the end of November, I bought the book The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Caroll, which made me want to start one. Since I only used the first six pages of this notebook (making it therefore already imperfect), it became the perfect starting point for me. It has been my Bullet Journal all throughout December and I just started January 2025 on page 48.

Leuchtturm × Bullet Journal: Pocket (A5) Black

Custom dotted, three cahiers of 46 pages, flex cover, 80g/m²
I just had to instantly buy this the moment I saw it lying down at P.W. Akkerman. It's a set of three small booklets with dotted pages, but with the special extra dots at the middle of the page, so you can easily divide the page in two by drawing a line through those. And maybe their most distinct feature: they are designed to use sideways, in landscape orientation.

I haven't used a single one of these... they just look too pretty. But I am sure that this partly influenced me to (again) look at the Bullet Journal method, even though it was months after the purchase.

Leuchtturm Classic Pocket (A6) "Stone Blue"

Ruled, 187 pages, hard cover, 80g/m²
Yes, you read it correct: ruled. I bought this small book for a specific purpose: I wanted to work out a bit more and wanted to log exactly what exercises I did during that. Some Youtuber recommended using "an ugly cheap notebook" for this, so I went with the ruled version.

I instantly hated it. I don't really comprehend how the same company that makes the best dotted notebooks of all time, can also make a ruled notebook with the annoying text 'DATUM/DATE' on top of every page. As if every day takes up exactly one page? Sometimes I have more to write, sometimes I can fit three days on one page. Leave me alone!

I have here workouts from 23 September to 16 December. It even went to Gran Canaria with me. 16 December does mean that I fell off the wagon a bit, and to that I will admit. I have been doing undocumented workouts, but writing this bit makes me realize I should return to this humble booklet.

Leuchtturm Classic Paperback (B6+) "Port Red"

Dotted, 219 pages, hard cover, 80g/m²
I distinctly remember buying this one after I broke my foot, at the local Athenaeum Boekhandel here in Bijlmer, because I believe I bought it while in the wheelchair. There was also a bundle of stories by queer people that I bought with it. I recently rediscovered the unopened paper bag with the two inside in a pile in my living room.

The notebook is still in cellophane and I think I will use it as a future Bullet Journal once my current one fills up. (I only rediscovered this one when I already started using the black one, but I think picking the black one was the right choice anyway.)

Leuchtturm × Bullet Journal: 2nd Edition (A5)

Custom dotted, 206+ pages, hard cover, 120g/m²
No. I did not in fact buy this one, nor will I in the near future. In the past, I might have done it, but my current Bullet Journal includes a list of "to impulse buy" at a later date in the month, which successfully kept me off on this one. I love the custom dots, I love to support the original creator of the method, but no, I think 120g/m² is just way too heavy paper for my needs. The page count is quite a bit lower than the classic Leuchtturm, and I still find the book just too bulky.

Since I broke my foot on the 4th of August, I've been writing weekly notes about what happened in my life. I must admit I mostly wrote it for myself. On the 1st of December I started a paper Bullet Journal (a minimalist and functional one), which I might blog more about this month. Since I started with that, I struggled to keep up the weekly notes on top of the journal. So therefore I now follow suit with Henrique's habit and start a Monthly Digest. Let's see if I can make it to 12.

Health

Let start with what made me start the weekly notes: my foot. I think I still make progress, but progress is slow. Last month I had still a lot of soreness and even a bit of pain in the mornings. I am still experiencing a bit of that, but it has diminished so much that I don't really want to call the morning feeling "pain" anymore. I still don't dare to run though.

I've been walking on barefoot shoes all month, so that's still going strong after almost four months. In addition to new Injinji toe socks, I also got a cute little stool for Christmas. I use it to sit on while at home, but at the moment of writing I'm sitting on the floor on a small cushion, with my laptop on the stool. I'm very pleased with the setup.

The goal of floorsitting is to increase my mobility. I noticed that my lotus pose is really improving, for example. Another thing I did and tracked in the Bullet Journal: every single day of December I did a forward stretch. In November I could not touch my toes while keeping my legs straight, and now I can. I will continue to stretch in the new year.

The training of my arms got a bit of a hit during Christmas time, but I did notice how much easier some of the exercises became, so I'm not demotivated to continue that too.

Life

In my Bullet Journal I now keep a list of every day of the month, with a one-line summary of the day, which gives me a very neat overview of what happened.

The weekend I stopped my weekly notes was actually the weekend I went away to Appelscha with friends, for a weekend of boardgames and Hunnebed-viewing. There were other boardgame nights too, notably the night that I played three games of Root and the night were we played Blood on the Clocktower at G.'s house with 11 people and G. as our beloved story teller.

It was of course also a month of family happenings. Aside from the obvious ones, on 21 December I went to Den Haag for the opening of the exposition of new members of Pulchri. My mom is one of them, and I was very happy I could attend for this special moment for her.

I also survived both my second month at my new job, as well as our kerstborrel, so that's nice.

Reading

I'm still reading The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, as I have been since mid July. It's just a big book and since Gran Canaria in October I have had my mind on other things (such as my new job). It's a really good book though, so I will continue reading. I'm now at chapter seventy-three, so I am nearing the end. (I know, and then there is a second book if I want to.)

I did finish Polysecure by Jessica Fern this month. I am still not sure if I identify as polyamorous, but the book is more about attachment theory (which I value) and non-monogamy in general (which, by lack of a partner, I am). I really liked her approach of not defaulting to "you should find The One" as a solution to all problems and the book was very helpful to me. Recommend reading to anyone, including those in monogamous relationships.

I also finished The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Caroll, which I started on the well timed date of 30 November. This meant that the next day, I started a Bullet Journal in an "old" Leuchtturm 1917 dotted notebook on 1 December. It's an interesting read, even though I already knew the method before. There's enough reflection in there that I might want to reread it in 6 months time. (Yes, I just added that to my Future Log.)

Finally, I started in Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach, but I didn't make enough progress to talk about it this month.

Intentions

I wanted to add this to Henrique's template: my intentions for the next month. As I stated before: I want to continue stretching and working out. I would also like to focus a bit more on eating healthy too, as I notice I have more energy the following day if I do. (I won't publicly describe how bad my current habits are here.)

On my habit tracker for this month I also added "reading". My new job allows me to travel by public transport a bit more, which gives me a good solid 20 + 20 minutes of reading. On the habit tracker I will just add a check mark if I read any page at all, at any place. Let's see if that helps me finish The Name of the Wind.

I am doing okay, but I feel like things are all over the place.

Happened

• My foot behaved weirdly. I switched from the medical sturdy sandal to the normal sturdy shoes. My discomfort increased enormously, to the point I would certainly call "pain". But it didn't seem logical to me that my bone healing would take this much of deterioration, that I would need another week in the sturdy sandal. So I made up my own mind again and switched back to the barefoot shoes. Honestly, I feel stiffness in my foot, but this is so much better than the pain in the sturdy shoes. I am now back to treating the discomfort as something I have to push through.
• The second part of the week, therefore, I am actively touching the (in the morning) painful parts of my foot, massaging directly on top of the fracture. It seems to work, at least the morning pain goes away that way. It is scary to play my own doctor and physiotherapist so much, but I since I wasn't really helped by my actual physiotherapist, I feel like I have to just solve it with experimenting and listening to my body.
• Wednesday I went to the Advanced JS meetup in Amsterdam, because Henrique was there too. Saw an interesting talk by Nimo Beeren about AI models you can access via Javascript in Chrome, and one about generics in Typescript by Dillon Parfitt, which made me focus on a bit more on the of any and generics at work the next day. The pizza was also good.
• Thursday was the biweekly (fortnightly?) edition of Boardgayming at NDSM, this time themed "Animals". We played a cute simple card game named Super Kawaii Pets, which I loved because it has the same properties as Regenwormen: your actions matter very much for the other players and there's interaction, but if it's not your turn, you don't have to pay attention, which is great for being social during the game. We also played 9 Lives, which made me think of Cat in the Box, since it's also a cat-themed twist on a normal trick taking card game. This twist is also certainly worth it.
• Youtube recommended me videos about furniture free living, which I think is reasonable now that I saw every barefoot shoe video out there. Since Friday I've been trying to ignore my sofa and just sit on the floor and it's not at all bad. Not removing my sofa from my house yet, but it's an interesting experiment.
• Saturday my (baby) brother held a dinner party since he's now 25. Time flies.
• Sunday I ignored most of the world, since it was the day of the Zevenheuvelenloop running event in Nijmegen, which I was really looking forward to. There is unfortunately just no way I can run 15 kilometer yet. I really hope that after next week, in which I will do a lot of massages, I can finally run 100 meters. We will see.

Played

• Mascarade
• Spots
• Super Kawaii Pets
• 9 Lives
• Exploding Kittens, original + NSFW expansion

Read

• Polysecure by Jessica Fern (I feel I am almost at the point where I stopped last time)

A week of coming back, a bit of setback (foot hurts more than I want) and a lot of reading and thinking, but also a new beginning.

Happened

• On Monday I few back from Gran Canaria to Amsterdam. I wrote a little about how returning to the Netherlands was very alienating to me, probably also because the traveling was really tiring. The days after I tried to recover from it all.
• Thursday I went to Utrecht to go to the barber (yes) and also visited Subcultures again. This resulted in me buying the Mothership RPG box set, for which I didn't really have budget anymore but hey I love it. Especially the Warden's Operation Manual contains good GM advice for pretty much any game, I can see why this won prices. Can't wait to plan a session (it has been too long).
• Friday 1 November I started by new job at Atleta. It was mostly installing the laptop and getting to know the team and codebases and then it was already weekend, but it was a good start. Looking forward to dive in more on Monday.
• Over the week I noticed that every morning, my left (previously broken) foot was hurting. It was fine, as it went away during the day, but by Saturday I noticed that the morning pain did increase. Next week I'm going to make an effort to not walk too much. Mountain climbing on barefoot shoes in Gran Canaria was fun, but maybe not the smartest.
• Saturday I also visited Eindhoven for the belated birthday party of Henrique, which was at an "All you can eat" restaurant. Since Tuesday I also started to track calories and this made that pretty much impossible for Saturday. But it was a lot of fun!
• I started the calorie tracking because I suspected I am probably eating too little again. And indeed: this week I really struggled to hit the calorie counts that my Apple Watch said I burned (bearing in mind that "active energy" and "resting energy" are different metrics which you should add up together). I also noticed that in the beginning of the week, I would feel hungry at around -900 kcal, meaning the moment when I burned 900 kcal more than I ate that day. Later on in the week, I started to get hungry when I hit 0, which feels to me much healthier.
• The other point is that I've been slowly dipping into more and more calisthenics over the past month: I've bought a small notebook and I have been tracking push-ups and other body-weight exercises in it. I can now finally do full push ups: Saturday I did three times three (a month ago I could not do a single one). Eating enough calories and enough protein seems to be important for this. (Thus I should revisit my earlier post about protein chips?)
• Also did some inner searching by starting to read Polysecure by Jessica Fern again. I don't consider myself poly-amorous, but I have been the loose part of other people's non-monogamy. The "secure" part of the title refers to attachment theory, which I delved into a lot in January and February of this year. It's nice to re-read it in the face of my holiday crush and analyze my reaction to that. Maybe I should write a separate blogpost about it, but before that I need to decide how much of it I actually want to share.
• Finally: I reduced my time on Youtube significantly compared to pre-Gran Canaria and I try to keep that and replace it all with reading (and writing) more. Honesty makes me confess though: my Instagram time has a bit of an uptick. Nothing is perfect I guess.

Read

• The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (chapters 57-67 on the plane; 68-70 at home)
• Polysecure by Jessica Fern (started again, introduction and chapters 1 and 2)
• Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG: Player's Survival Guide (full) and Warden's Operation Manual (half)

Listened

• a podcast about Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach but I can't remember which episode

Second and last week on Gran Canaria. It’s been nice, with reasonable recovery of my foot, so I have been quite active.

Happened

• As I walked way too much last week, I tried a day at the apartment complex on Monday. I’ve only been out for some groceries and dinner, which I kept close too. Just sitting next to the pool and reading a book is indeed very relaxing. I struggle with it because “I could do this at home” and I could and should, but it was good for my foot and mind to take a break.
• On Tuesday, I finally got the car I reserved way too late. I drove it across the island through the mountains, to a highest point of around 1750 meters, but with a lot of climbing in between. I wrote a long Dutch blogpost about this.
• I also got out halfway to climb up to Roque Nublo. This I did record, so I know I reached the rock in 22 minutes, passing by a lot of families with children. The whole trip is on Strava (which I should still import onto this site).
• Wednesday I still had the car and went to a “Waterfall trail” I found on the internet. Very nice hike with less children, more challenge, but still very doable. I did both of these hikes on the barefoot shoes without the soles in, making me feel every surface along the route, which was very nice, but still with protection from the sharp rocks.
• Thursday was a bit of a rest day. Friday as well: not walking much and trying out the swimming pool, the beach and the weird machines they had at the hotel gym (I discovered the assisted dips machine and it was good).
• Actually, I’ve been working out in that gym every odd day of the holidays. As I said before: after my foot broke, I noticed I had no power in my arms at all. I’m changing that now.
• Saturday I went to the airport to get a new car, and I reserved an Opel Corsa this time, so I would hopefully fit. There was a very long queue in front of the office, which in the end took me 1 hour and 47 minutes to get through. Turns out they were completely overbooked and were just handing cars out as they came in downstairs. I got a much more luxurious SEAT Arona for the same price.
• Saturday, I drove the Arona to the highest peak of the island. It was cloudy and windy, however, so I have not actually been to the highest point: I did not dare to leave the car and there wouldn’t have been anything to see anyway. It was interesting to drive around in the clouds. I also visited Teror, which was cold and reminded me of Dutch summers.
• Sunday I drove around the island, following the eastern road to the north and then back via the highway on the west, back to my apartment in the south. Then after a final visit to the gym, I went through the middle to Fataga for a last hike. The Arona is much too big for my taste, but it was very fast compared to my Volkswagen Up, and the carplay was very pleasant.
• (Writing this on the airport but hey, today is a new week!)

Playlist

Most of these tracks are here because I Shazammed them in a bar. Isabel Pantoja is there twice because of the drag lipsync performance I saw. Japanese 90s was just something I needed.

• Sinceramente - Annalisa
• ZORRA - Nebulossa
• Hoy Quiero Confesarme - Isabel Pantoja
• Marinero de Luces - Isabel Pantoja
• I Will Go With You (Con Te Partiró) - Donna Summer
• ラブ・ストーリーは突然に (Sudden Love Story) - Kazumasa Oda

Read

• The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (chapters 37-56, all on the island)

Mijn wekelijkse notities lopen een beetje uit de hand omdat ik er allemaal dingen over autorijden op Gran Canaria in wil zetten, dus hierbij een losse post erover.

Sinds iets meer dan drie jaar heb ik nu een rijbewijs. Het was covid die me over de streep duwde, en sindsdien ben ik van volledig anti-auto opgeschoven naar een hypocriet die wel vindt dat de benzine zo duur mogelijk moet zijn om het te ontmoedigen, maar dan toch bij de Tango staat te tanken.

Ik heb al wel een paar keer een busje gehuurd voor verhuizingen, maar dit was de eerste keer dat ik met een huurauto een vakantieomgeving verken. Stiekem is dat altijd een droom geweest: vroeger hadden we altijd vakantieauto’s en samen met je vriend over een eiland rijden klinkt mij erg romantisch. Bij gebrek daaraan dan maar alleen het eiland verkennen.

De auto

De instapauto die ik bij Cicar kon huren was de Fiat 500. Prima, ik heb zelf een Volkswagen Up en ik hou van kleine auto’s: voelt efficiënt en makkelijker parkeren. Wat ik echter niet had gedacht is dat ik met mijn 2,02 meter niet in een Fiat 500 pas. Gelukkig zat er een dakraam in en vond ik een stand van de stoel, de spiegels en mijn hoofd dat het allemaal net kon, maar super veilig voelde het niet.

De eerste meters waren heel ruw. Zie je wel, dacht ik, had R. toch gelijk toen hij me een beginnende bestuurder noemde. Maar gelukkig wende de koppeling al snel. Ik ben tot twee keer toe een beetje vastgeparkeerd en een paar keer moest ik ergens keren midden op de weg… ik vond zelf dat ik me daar met een soepelheid uitmanoevreerde die verraad dat ik nogal wat kilometers heb gemaakt (meer dan 80k).

Terug naar de veiligheid: ik kwam er op een bepaald moment achter dat ik wel leuk over mijn schouder aan het kijken was bij het afslaan, maar dat de dakstijl middenin mijn dode hoek zat. Met andere woorden: mijn stoel stond zo ver naar achteren dat de rand van de deur precies naast mijn hoofd zat. Een volledige witte Volkswagen Golf verdween in het ding. Sindsdien ben ik steeds maar wat naar voren gegaan tijdens de schouder-check, maar een beetje schrikken was het dus wel.

Het dakraam was trouwens wel heerlijk en eigenlijk geen overbodige luxe voor lange mensen: eindelijk kon ik het stoplicht boven mijn hoofd zien als ik vooraan stond, zonder de lamme nek van helemaal over je stuur moeten buigen. Volume op het stuur ga ik missen, maar dat ik wel een Siri-knopje had, maar toch zelf het dimlicht aan en uit moest zetten vond ik een beetje vreemd.

Ergens was het ook wel een gerustgevende gedachte, zo’n huurauto. Als ik weer ergens totaal verdwaald was, dacht ik: ach, deze Fiat is hier eerder geweest, het komt vast wel goed. Al moet ik zeggen dat hij niet al te veel zelfkennis had: op sommige wegen gaf hij steeds aan dat ik omhoog moest schakelen, om in de hogere versnelling vervolgens langzaam te toeren weg te zien zakken. Nog nooit zo veel beide metertjes gebruikt!

De wegen

Het wende wel, maar het is even wennen, en helemaal gewend ben ik het nog steeds niet. Het Nederlandse verkeersnet heeft zijn eigen “taal van de weg”, zoals mijn rijinstructeur het noemde, en die taal is redelijk consistent en duidelijk. Hier is dat allemaal totaal anders: de vormen van de pijlen, de kleuren van de borden, de voorrangsstrepen. Ik heb nogal oog voor detail en alle details zijn anders hier.

Specifiek de combinatie van rotondes, heuvels en het ontbreken van een telefoonhouder maakte dat ik diverse keren de verkeerde afslag heb genomen. In Nederland zetten we als het even kan op elke windrichting één afslag. Hier zijn er soms een hele kant lang geen en dan drie kort achter elkaar. Pak je de verkeerde? Dan rij je een heuvel op in plaats van af en moet je echt verderop ergens keren anders kom je nooit meer waar je wilde zijn.

Het onderhoud valt me heel erg mee: het zijn mooie wegen en toen ik de eerste dag recht door het eiland stak viel het me op dat de hele GC-60 van mooi nieuw asfalt was voorzien. Natuurlijk, hoe meer je de ‘grote’ wegen af gaat hoe smaller de weggetjes worden, met scherpe bochten en avontuurlijk rijden. Maar ik heb me qua wegkwaliteit nooit onveilig gevoeld.

Wat me ook opviel is dat de afritbordjes die ik uit Duitsland ken hier ook zijn: drie strepen voor 300 meter, twee strepen voor 200, één streep voor 100 en dan is daar de afslag. Als dat inderdaad een onderdeel is van de Europese taal van de weg, vind ik eigenlijk dat we hier een leenwoord van moeten maken.

De regels

Het viel me al op toen ik in de airporttransfer naar mijn appartementje zat: sommige mensen rijden 60 op de snelweg waar je 120 mag. Het is een driebaansweg en ook de bus bleef op de middelste hangen, waarschijnlijk om dit soort idioten te vermijden. Thuis is er de ongeschreven regel dat je altijd de maximumsnelheid plus een beetje rijdt. Ik denk dat je voor 60 op de snelweg ook keihard een boete kan krijgen.

Een ander ding: politieagenten hebben hier altijd blauw licht aan staan, ook als ze geen haast hebben. Dan knippert het niet en is het meer zo van ‘we zijn er hoor’. Ik vond het erg verwarrend. Maar ook: er was een ambulance die daadwerkelijk zwaailicht voerde, dus ik deed mijn best om een beetje aan de kant te gaan, langzamer te gaan rijden, zodat hij er langs kon. Ik bleek te enige te zijn, zelfs de ambulance leek niet te anticiperen dat-ie er langs kon, wat voor mij een beetje een gevaarlijke situatie veroorzaakte. Note to self: negeer alle blauwe lichten hier.

En er was ergens een rood licht waar ik rechts wilde. Erboven was een extra lamp met een flitsende oranje pijl naar rechts. Meerdere auto’s haalden me in en gingen rechts, gewoon door rood, wat mij het vermoeden gaf dat dat de bedoeling was? Note to self: negeer ook alle rode lichten als er een oranje pijl knippert.

En dan de snelheidslimiet nog een keer. Ik ben gewend aan de standen die we in Nederland kennen. Hier is het een onaflatende afwisseling van 40 naar 30 naar 40 naar 20 naar 40 naar 60 naar 80. Ik geloof dat ik beter de tientallen op kan noemen die ik niet op een bordje heb zien staan: 10, 90 en 110. Note to self: laat de bordjes los en rij wat goed voelt.

Alvast sorry voor iedereen die ik straks in Nederland op de weg tegenkom.