Gong Xi Fa Cai

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone! The coming year is the Year of the Monkey, 4701. Although the Chinese calendar is a lunar calendar like the Islamic one, the Chinese new year doesn’t move back 10 or 11 days each year; it just varies a few days between the end of January and the beginning of February.

So the Chinese calendar is more in line with the astronomic solar year, which means it doesn’t go out of sync with the seasons… Anyone know how this is done exactly?

Update: I found out from some sites, e.g. this one that this is accomplished by having leap years, just like the western calendar has. But while we have a leap day every 4 years (yes, I know the exceptions), the Chinese calendar has 7 leap months over 19 years. More info on lots of sites, e.g. the
Wikipedia.

Printing Digital Photos

After having taken almost 500 digital pictures without having printed a single one on paper, I decided to finally print a few, because it’s easier to share them with other people, especially if they don’t have (fast) internet access. It’s amazing how many supermarkets and drugstores can print digital photos nowadays; just upload them to their website and pick them up a few days later

No more boleros…

Boohoo, my (up to now) favorite CD store, Van Leest in Leidschendam, doesn’t carry any classical CDs anymore…

(fortunately my favorite chemist’s Kruidvat’s CD department seems to thrive more than ever, but still, Van Leest’s special offers will be greatly missed)