Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better

About 3 1/2 years ago, on my 50th birthday, my in-laws and partner collected some straw, a balloon (for the face) and some of my personal belongings and made a 'Sarah'. They left her in front of our house while I was still sleeping.

I am not sure if this is a Dutch tradition only, but I am sure that no 50-year-old likes it. (By the way, for men, they make an Abraham.) They (the horrible people who make the look-a-like) do their utmost to turn some embarising personal information into common knowledge. My Sarah had an empty Bacardi bottle and a Bingo card...



I am always the first to tell people that they are as old as they feel, but on that particular 3rd of July I felt old... very old...

Around 560 years B.C., Odessos was built. By the ninth century AD, the name had changed into Varna. Now a days, Varna is Bulgaria's third largest city, following Sofia and Plovdiv. In 1972, near the port of Varna, the oldest gold treasure in the world (4,500 BC) was found. It was an ancient necropolis with almost 300 tombs and over 3,000 golden objects.

4,500 BC... wow! Makes me feel like a young girl again!