First of all: Thanks to all who sent me a X-mas card. I really appreciate the gesture, even though I stink at sending them myself (in defense: I *did* send out a whole bunch of cards from Namibia ;)) As you might have guessed, my holiday in Africa was wonderful, everything I hoped for. I petted a cheetah, fed 52 of em, worked with Anatolian Shepherds, goats, and visited Etosha National Park, Windhoek and its township.

That was last month. Now I'm lying on the couch at my parents' house. Yesterday I had my knee-op and received a new anterior cruciate ligament, courtesy of my hamstring. Dad dropped me off at the clinic, I slipped into one of those paper pyjama's, was put in a bed, anesthesist came to stab my back, a few minutes later everything below my belly button was numb. Next thing I know, I'm rolled into the operation room. A TV was put next to my head so I could follow some parts of it. Doc showed me the inside of my knee, was happy with the state of it, everything looked fine except for the fact that one ligament was missing. New one was drilled and hammered in, leg got glued and stiched shut and one hour later I was rolled back to the recovery room. A few checks later my bed was rolled to 'my' hospital room. I spent the rest of the day watching TV, munching painkillers, trying a few exercises and reading a book.

So my New Year's Eve is gonna be as quiet as my X-mas, just spending it at home with my folks. Kinda sucks, because it breaks the tradition of celebrating the new year with my old buddies in Maastricht. Oh well, there's always next year.

Here's hoping that everyone's 2010 will triple-surpass all the bad things that happened in 2009.