Several years ago my brother and I were at a massive clearance sale at Sam the Record Man in downtown Vancouver we bought many many CD's that day, myself at least 30 for the measly price of 100 CN$. The one CD that still gets heavy rotation on my iPod and stereo is Journey-Greatest Hits, to be honest I can't really remember any of the other stuff I bought; perhaps the Patsy Cline Collection 4 CD box set might be the other.
How can it be that such sucky, 80's nostalgic, power ballad music can make me sing the lyrics out loud or to myself, the funny thing is that I remember having a cassette where the text was erased off of it and guess what? I think it might have been the same collection of songs, needless to say I played it to death..... Where are they now?
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Monday, May 23, 2005
I'm a lucky girl
Last Sat we had our housewarming/ birthday(s) party. It was great all in one go we thought get it over with, Michiel's list being 7 or so, mine 25+. It was full, fun and busy the whole evening. But I really enjoyed it. For me the fact that I am lucky enough to have made friends with so many great people over the 6 years that I've been living here makes me a lucky person. And with so many nationalities and languages to be shared it was like a mini UN at our house; Canadian, Dutch, English, Irish, Scottish, French, German, Latvian, Bulgarian, Italian and Australian. Not bad at all if I do say so, it makes the world a slightly smaller place, less complicated and with perhaps better understanding of our fellow Earth citizens.
Either way I got to bed around 4am, the house was not terribly messy considering and we got to warm-up our house with so many good people.
Next week a reunion of many more nationalities, for those of us who met working together at Amazon.co.uk at least 5 years ago.. and so many of us still in touch it is bound to be a great night.
Either way I got to bed around 4am, the house was not terribly messy considering and we got to warm-up our house with so many good people.
Next week a reunion of many more nationalities, for those of us who met working together at Amazon.co.uk at least 5 years ago.. and so many of us still in touch it is bound to be a great night.
Friday, May 20, 2005
Terry Fox
I just got the latest Douglas Coupland book called Terry about one of Canada's and perhaps the worlds greatest hero. Terry Fox was a guy who lost his leg to cancer when he was just 18, he then decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. However after 18 months and running over 5,000 kilometers (3,107 miles) an amazing 2/3 the way across the country, the cancer took him again and he was forced to stop the run.
On September 1st, after 143 days and 5,373 kilometers (3,339 miles), Terry was forced to stop running outside of Thunder Bay, Ontario because cancer had appeared in his lungs. An entire nation was stunned and saddened. Terry passed away on June 28, 1981 at age 22.
I remember clearly this time in 1980 when he was doing this amazing feat, it all seemed so impossible, it was so selfless.
I have always loved everything Douglas Coupland does and he has a way of speaking through his words that touches, and I have not even read more than 3 pages and already I have tears in my eyes.
I strongly urge anyone reading this to support some kind of research and betterment for the world weather it be donating money or doing a selfless act. I also just read that all the royalties from the sale of the book will go directly to the Terry Fox Foundation as well the publishers Douglas & McIntyre are make the royalty payments at twice the normal rate for every copy of the book sold.
To date, more than $360 million has been raised worldwide for cancer research in Terry's name.
On September 1st, after 143 days and 5,373 kilometers (3,339 miles), Terry was forced to stop running outside of Thunder Bay, Ontario because cancer had appeared in his lungs. An entire nation was stunned and saddened. Terry passed away on June 28, 1981 at age 22.
I remember clearly this time in 1980 when he was doing this amazing feat, it all seemed so impossible, it was so selfless.
I have always loved everything Douglas Coupland does and he has a way of speaking through his words that touches, and I have not even read more than 3 pages and already I have tears in my eyes.
I strongly urge anyone reading this to support some kind of research and betterment for the world weather it be donating money or doing a selfless act. I also just read that all the royalties from the sale of the book will go directly to the Terry Fox Foundation as well the publishers Douglas & McIntyre are make the royalty payments at twice the normal rate for every copy of the book sold.
To date, more than $360 million has been raised worldwide for cancer research in Terry's name.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Liberation
This last weekend was Liberation day in Holland May 5th to be exact, it also happened to be the day that I left for Berlin. What struck me though was how much attention the 1700 or so Canadian veterans impacted the Dutch. For those who did not know there was about 1 million Canadian solders fighting in the second world war, many of whom helped to liberate the Dutch from German occupation. So this last week in The Netherlands was full of pomp and ceremony which I must admit made me feel proud and just a little chocked up to read and hear about all the vets that were here to commemorate the war.
After I arrived in Berlin where Andreas picked me up, we decided that maybe we should go and look at the new Holocaust memorial near the Brandenburg gate. It was not officially open but it is quite a impressive visual monument and I will be sure to go back the next time I am in Berlin.
What ticked me off just a little more than perhaps is should was the fact that directly across the street was the future home of the American Embassy. I am not sure why the German government agreed to let them build there, but they have. Do they not look around the world and see what having an embassy in the centre of the city and such a high profile spot will do? One only has to look at Den Haag to see what they might be in for.. Triple barricades, armed guards, CCTV everywhere not to mention the traffic distribution and general feeling of paranoia.
I really wonder sometimes if the Americans have asked them selves why maybe they feel so threatened and apparently need to much protection if they are the home of the free and brave? The thing that actually bothers me though about this future home is that to me it is a hypocritical statement to build right there, the Americans like so many other countries during the second world war would not let Jews into their country who were trying to flee from the Nazi rule; unless of course they were filthily rich or were connected somehow.
Hell they did not even join the war until near the very end when one of their supply ships was sank after trying to bring a convoy across to the British. And yet, they seem to tell the world that THEY saved the day and THEY ran Hilters army into the ground. What about the British, French, Canadians, Soviets, Polish and all the others who were there from the beginning and lost their soldiers and people by the hundreds of thousands???!!!
It mostly makes me sad that such a perfect place in Berlin needs to be soiled by the presence of the one country in the world that feels they have the right to do as they please with the rest of us.
So the rest of my weekend was spent visiting with friends, window shopping and just enjoying myself. What I did not realize was that on Sunday May 8th is a Liberation day of sorts for the German people as well. This is the day that the Nazi party surrendered. The night before I was renting movies with Jens and we got Der Untergang which was not planned, but very interesting because the events in the movie were taking place exactly 60 years before not much further away from where we were. Apparently there was a lot of controversy around the movie because people did not like the idea that Hitler was shown to have emotions, in fact that he was portrayed as a human being with feelings. I think this is a grave mistake to make, if people only want to remember him as a monster or someone who was not real, we might then forget that he was human and that in a very short time back in the 1930's a nobody came to power and created a monster of a political party, war, army and other atrocities. I hope we never forget how quickly and easily the holocaust, war and Nazi Germany happened.
In this day and age we also have turned a blind eye to Milosovich, the Taliban, genocide in Rwanda, and several other countries' Leaders who have committed equally violent and horrific crimes against humanity, and yet it seems unless there is barrel of oil involved or a plane hitting a skyscraper we just go about our business with ignorant bliss.
Below is a list of movies that I think are well worth watching about the second world war which do not show an American perspective but what it might have been like for those who had to live with it since the beginning. All of these movies are worth watching for the ability to perhaps help people see there are not straight lines between good and evil or Black and White in the world.
The Pianist, De Tweeling (The Twins), Max, Das Boot (The Boat) , Soldaat van Oranje (The Solder of Orange)
One final remark was that on the 8th just before I had to catch my flight, there was a neo-nazi demonstration from Alexanderplatz down the Unter-den Linden to the Riechtag/ Brandenburg gate. According to the news, there were around 2000 Nazi marching down the street and about 10,000 anti-nazi demonstrators marching right behind them.. it must have been quite a sight, I am only sad that I missed it.
After I arrived in Berlin where Andreas picked me up, we decided that maybe we should go and look at the new Holocaust memorial near the Brandenburg gate. It was not officially open but it is quite a impressive visual monument and I will be sure to go back the next time I am in Berlin.
What ticked me off just a little more than perhaps is should was the fact that directly across the street was the future home of the American Embassy. I am not sure why the German government agreed to let them build there, but they have. Do they not look around the world and see what having an embassy in the centre of the city and such a high profile spot will do? One only has to look at Den Haag to see what they might be in for.. Triple barricades, armed guards, CCTV everywhere not to mention the traffic distribution and general feeling of paranoia.
I really wonder sometimes if the Americans have asked them selves why maybe they feel so threatened and apparently need to much protection if they are the home of the free and brave? The thing that actually bothers me though about this future home is that to me it is a hypocritical statement to build right there, the Americans like so many other countries during the second world war would not let Jews into their country who were trying to flee from the Nazi rule; unless of course they were filthily rich or were connected somehow.
Hell they did not even join the war until near the very end when one of their supply ships was sank after trying to bring a convoy across to the British. And yet, they seem to tell the world that THEY saved the day and THEY ran Hilters army into the ground. What about the British, French, Canadians, Soviets, Polish and all the others who were there from the beginning and lost their soldiers and people by the hundreds of thousands???!!!
It mostly makes me sad that such a perfect place in Berlin needs to be soiled by the presence of the one country in the world that feels they have the right to do as they please with the rest of us.
So the rest of my weekend was spent visiting with friends, window shopping and just enjoying myself. What I did not realize was that on Sunday May 8th is a Liberation day of sorts for the German people as well. This is the day that the Nazi party surrendered. The night before I was renting movies with Jens and we got Der Untergang which was not planned, but very interesting because the events in the movie were taking place exactly 60 years before not much further away from where we were. Apparently there was a lot of controversy around the movie because people did not like the idea that Hitler was shown to have emotions, in fact that he was portrayed as a human being with feelings. I think this is a grave mistake to make, if people only want to remember him as a monster or someone who was not real, we might then forget that he was human and that in a very short time back in the 1930's a nobody came to power and created a monster of a political party, war, army and other atrocities. I hope we never forget how quickly and easily the holocaust, war and Nazi Germany happened.
In this day and age we also have turned a blind eye to Milosovich, the Taliban, genocide in Rwanda, and several other countries' Leaders who have committed equally violent and horrific crimes against humanity, and yet it seems unless there is barrel of oil involved or a plane hitting a skyscraper we just go about our business with ignorant bliss.
Below is a list of movies that I think are well worth watching about the second world war which do not show an American perspective but what it might have been like for those who had to live with it since the beginning. All of these movies are worth watching for the ability to perhaps help people see there are not straight lines between good and evil or Black and White in the world.
The Pianist, De Tweeling (The Twins), Max, Das Boot (The Boat) , Soldaat van Oranje (The Solder of Orange)
One final remark was that on the 8th just before I had to catch my flight, there was a neo-nazi demonstration from Alexanderplatz down the Unter-den Linden to the Riechtag/ Brandenburg gate. According to the news, there were around 2000 Nazi marching down the street and about 10,000 anti-nazi demonstrators marching right behind them.. it must have been quite a sight, I am only sad that I missed it.
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
One of those days
So yesterday on my way home I realized that my bike was "im arsch" basically almost at the end of it's life. I then made an appointment to get it fixed and phoned Fiona to ask if I could keep her bike as she was going on vacation the next day and I could then get to my Yoga class. This morning I woke up chipper and ready to go, as early as I have been even in weeks... I got about half way to work and realized that the front tire was going flat, so I had to lock it up and catch a bus on my way to work. This of course was just after I left my spare pump in the apartment cause I guessed I would not need it.
Got to work, had a busy day heard from a friend who was back in the country and then headed home in the beautiful sunshine. To arrive on my door and realize that my bike was gone.. the lock was left hanging on the metal cage. So my bike gone (thankfully not my friends) and a nice evening, to then find out that Michiel has gotten in an accident on his way home with the 2 month old car.. great evening!
So tomorrow is another day, I am off to Berlin for the weekend on Thursday and I can't wait.
Tot Morgan!
Got to work, had a busy day heard from a friend who was back in the country and then headed home in the beautiful sunshine. To arrive on my door and realize that my bike was gone.. the lock was left hanging on the metal cage. So my bike gone (thankfully not my friends) and a nice evening, to then find out that Michiel has gotten in an accident on his way home with the 2 month old car.. great evening!
So tomorrow is another day, I am off to Berlin for the weekend on Thursday and I can't wait.
Tot Morgan!
A little Taste of home
A busy few weeks for me, First my aunt and then my "Pseudo-Aunt" Sylvia came to visit. Sylvia is one of those people who are so full of energy and life that you can't help be brought up when you are around her. Now a little background on Syl, she rents the upstairs of my parents house for so many years now I can't actually remember when she moved in. She has been a blessing and a great addition to the family. I was telling her that over the years our family has taken in all kinds of mammals, her being almost the most normal of them all. She has been a teacher and now runs her own eco-tour company Cowichan Tours which is perfect for her as she loves to kyak, hike and adventure as often and as much as she can.
Anyway last year shortly after our visit home in May she was diagnosed with cancer and needed pretty immediate attention. Anyway needless to say she recovered through all the horrible treatments and medicine, I believe because she is so fit, healthy and positive. So she decided that it was maybe time to go home to her native England and visit her twin, family and friends with a nice little stop over in the Low countries to visit me and her niece who also lives here.
It was great, we picked her up from the airport and brought her back had dinner and got caught up. As well she loaded me up with some goodies from home; Dentyne Fire (cinnamon) gum as well as some smoked Sockeye and some maple syrup yum yum.
Then the next day my friend Fiona lent us her bike and we peddled our way into the city to the Binnenhof, Mauritshuis museum and the beautiful Vermeer's there and then on the way to Delft where we looked at all things Delft and Girl with the Pearl Earring climbed the Church tower for the fab view of half the country, it is brilliant. And of course because she is such a good talker we gossiped and chatted as much as possible.
Went for a beer and then came home to have dinner at my new favorite local down the road.
I drove her to her nieces place near Utrecht and said goodbye. I love the fact that she can go home and tell my parents about my place and my life over here in the Hague and about the crazy neighborhood I live in. Either way it is so nice to have that ability to be close to home via someone else's experience.
Anyway last year shortly after our visit home in May she was diagnosed with cancer and needed pretty immediate attention. Anyway needless to say she recovered through all the horrible treatments and medicine, I believe because she is so fit, healthy and positive. So she decided that it was maybe time to go home to her native England and visit her twin, family and friends with a nice little stop over in the Low countries to visit me and her niece who also lives here.
It was great, we picked her up from the airport and brought her back had dinner and got caught up. As well she loaded me up with some goodies from home; Dentyne Fire (cinnamon) gum as well as some smoked Sockeye and some maple syrup yum yum.
Then the next day my friend Fiona lent us her bike and we peddled our way into the city to the Binnenhof, Mauritshuis museum and the beautiful Vermeer's there and then on the way to Delft where we looked at all things Delft and Girl with the Pearl Earring climbed the Church tower for the fab view of half the country, it is brilliant. And of course because she is such a good talker we gossiped and chatted as much as possible.
Went for a beer and then came home to have dinner at my new favorite local down the road.
I drove her to her nieces place near Utrecht and said goodbye. I love the fact that she can go home and tell my parents about my place and my life over here in the Hague and about the crazy neighborhood I live in. Either way it is so nice to have that ability to be close to home via someone else's experience.
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