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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling (ISBN 978-1408855669, Bloomsbury)
The second Harry Potter book, first published in 1998 in the UK. A little darker than the first one but still quite light in tone. Ginny Weasley, Ron’s younger sister goes to Hogwarts for her first year and gets a central role in this story. Some first romantic feelings between Harry and Jenny emerge but it will take quite a bit of ageing of the characters and many pages before these feelings will be allowed to come to fruition. We are also introduced to Dobby the house elf, another important character in the Harry Potter universe. As the title suggests…
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Scientific Quote 2
“Space isn’t remote at all. It’s only an hour’s drive away if your car could go straight upwards.” ― Fred Hoyle
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Warrior Nun Season 1
Recently I watched the first season of this Netflix original. Like many others this is an adaptation of a comic book about a ‘superhero’. Or maybe to put it more correctly, about someone with superhuman abilities. Eva, the main character has spent most of her life crippled and tied to a bed in an orphanage. When she dies at age 19 she is brought back to life when a secret sect of demon hunting nuns hide a magical halo in her body after the previous bearer died in an attack. Finally being able to walk Eva doesn’t want to join…
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Marvel’s Agent Carter Season 2
In the second season we find Peggy back in LA where she is helping out to crack a strange case of a dead body found in a frozen lake during a heatwave. All the ingredients that made season 1 so good are back in the mix and this time we even get 2 more episodes as season 2 consists of 10 episodes. Even so it is over all too soon. The second season is a bit darker compared to the first one with the mysterious and dangerous zero matter and a conspiracy ruling the world to be overcome. The dialogues…
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Marvel’s Agent Carter Season 1
As you can imagine this series evolves around Peggy Carter which we met earlier in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Captain America : The First Avenger. In season 1 we follow Peggy Carter after the war as she struggles to be taken seriously as a secret agent by her male colleagues. Howard Stark is framed for selling secret weapons to the highest bidder and asks Peggy for help to prove his innocence. Without help from her colleagues and only assisted by Howard Stark’s butler Jarvis, Peggy sets out on a secret mission to discover the truth and prove Howard Stark…
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Ter Helme 2021
Dit jaar de tweede covid editie van de vakantie in Ter Helme. Vorig jaar waren in juli de cijfers nog relatief ok, nu zitten we alweer in een stijgende lijn en is de delta variant stilaan de dominante. Het Europees kampioenschap voetbal zal het virus zeker deugd gedaan hebben maar daar heb ik nog geen data kunnen vinden op de site van het European Center for Disease Control (ecdc). Zaterdag 10 juli vetrekken we weer vrij laat na de gebruikelijke inpak perikelen. Merijn is gisteren al naar Katrijn vertrokken voor een ballonvaart en rijdt vandaag met haar en Arne mee…
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Covid-19 vaccinatie
Deze voormiddag mijn tweede spuit met Pfizer vaccin gekregen. Temidden stijgende cijfers en de oprukkende delta variant zeker niet te vroeg. Joke heeft haar tweede spuit komende woensdag en vrijdag kan Hannelore voor de eerste gaan.
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Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling (ISBN 978-1408855898, Bloomsbury)
The first Harry Potter book, published in 1997. In 1999 the first 2 books were translated in Dutch. At that time more than 500000 had already been sold in the English speaking world of the first 2 books and film rights had been bought by Warner Bros. It was quite the hype in the UK and the books received positive ratings from children readers. But adults were reading the books as well. In fact, there were so many adult readers that an edition with an adult cover came out so that adults wouldn’t be embarrassed by reading a children’s book.…
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Star Trek. The Motion Picture
I recently decided to watch the Star Trek movies again. I watched them very long ago and thought it would be a bit of ‘brainless’ fun to watch them all in a short period of time. What better time to do so than a typical dreary Belgian summer. The first movie of the series came out in 1979. It was a long time in the making after the original tv series ended in 1969. That was followed by 2 seasons of the animated series in 1973 and 1974. 5 years later the first movie came out. The original series didn’t…
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Factfulness, Hans Rosling (ISBN 978-1473637498, Hodder & Stoughton)
This book was given to me by an uncle somewhere middle of 2019. As I have no shortage of books in the ‘want to read’ category I put in on the stack and left it there for some time. Then came some science oriented discussions about facts with our kids related to their homework assignments. So I decided to read it and see if it would also be useful for teenagers to read. And I must say I can recommend it to anyone trying to understand our world, not just teenagers. Especially in today’s environment where facts don’t seem to…






