my journey as a civil war novel writer

Yesterday was the tradiotional kaarsjesavond in Gouda. The main programme is the lighting of the christmas tree in the marketsquare for the first time. And all around the market square all electrical light is doused and the houses and the city hall are lighted by candles. It is a huge tree given by our sistertown in Norway every year. It is a very popular eve nt drawing a huge crowd each year. The last couple of years they have added a lot to i t wi th a whole day programme. This year I went along for the first time in ages, us gouwenaars tend to stay away on the evening itself because of the crowds. But this year I had friends coming over. Marjon and Susan came in the afternoon and Susan's husba nd Jaap joined us for the evening programme. We had a stroll over the market square, seeing everything in the daytime a nd taking some pictures of the old houses and of course cityhall and the old weigh building. They had some people out in period dress and dresses up as father christmas

Yesterday morning there was an email in my inbox from an Israeli internet friend I had known online but never met. He was in Amsterdam for a few days and would like to meet. Since tomorrow is Yum Kippur, today was the best day. I had a driving lesson at 11.30 so me coming to Amsterdam was not a great idea, but he didn't mind coming to Gouda. So this morning I had my driving lesson which went great by the way. My driving instructor says I am so ready to try the highway on my own. It is my own perfectionism that keep s me back. I have to try now on sundaymorning. And I have to do it! Then quickly ate a piece of bread and went to the train station to collect Oded. The train was ten minutes late but he was on it! We walked around town for a little bit and visited the St. Jan's church. And showed him the biggest jewish monument in town. Afterwards we went to my house to have some tea and then talked a l ot about everything and nothing. Learnt a lot of new things about Israel. I woul