Edinburgh

Last weekend I visited Edinburgh for the first time... and already it has made it onto my top 5 cities in the world. More updates on this entry to come shortly but I need to get some work done first.


and back again, I just typed all the info one would want to know about a weekend in this great city and I lost it all... What a bummer.

The city is fab for so many reasons, culture, beauty, walkable, and just stock full of Rebus references.
We started by arriving on Friday to a really nice a bright day, found our hotel and headed into town for a look around. Already you could tell like the rest of Britain it was being invaded by students of the ESL persuasion. But no matter it was impressive from the get-go.
Each morning we would leave our hotel and walk up the street to the large multinational coffee shop for our fix, and wandered on from there.
Staying in New Town was a great central location and quite easily the best place to access all that Edinburgh has to offer.
We walked around New Town, Old Town, up near the castle, the citadel and even up Authurs Seat to nearly be blown off the top. But what a view! Leith down one side and the castle and city jutting out on the other. On the way down the hill we went past the new Scottish parliament building, apparently a very sore subject due to the cost of the project.
We tried to go for seafood in Leith but found it was some bank holiday (a concept almost unknown to the Dutch government) and could not find a place to go, so headed back into town to eat at the hotel, which actually turned out to be a really fantastic meal, 4**** at least!
We found some great curry and even some mediocre pub food (you win some you loose some)
Took the whisky experience for what it was and explored under the city in Mary's Kings Close. What a crazy thing to have whole city streets buried beneath your feet. On a note for those whisky tasters out there, I recommend going to a good pub and asking for some recommendations, the tour was really hokey and touristic. We also visited the Scottish museum which was fantastic as well, only it was too big to take in all at once and we barely got past the Neolithic and Roman times before it was decided outside and the current history was beckoning.
One of the highlights was coming across the final parade of the Scots guard. This prestigious company was being decommisioned and this was their final march down Princes's Street after a 350 year old history.. It was emotional and fantastic to watch.
On the Sunday we wandered along Leith walk to the modern art museum, I found the walk to be much more exciting but hey it was so beautiful outside it was well worth the trudge. And before you knew it we were on our way back to the lowlands. A fantastic weekend break, a walkable city, so you don't need a car and more than a zillion pubs and eating establishments to choose from.
I really hope to explore more of Scotland in the future, it is a wonderful country full of history and

The New Pornographers

Over a week ago I went to the Tivoli de Helling in Utrecht to see one of my favorite Vancouver bands, The New Pornographers. I was really excited to have the chance to see them as I really love their happy sound and play their CD's on a pretty heavy rotation on my iPod.



I liked the fact they were all so relaxed looking, and found it funny to watch the drummer Kurt Dahle do his magic when remembering the last time I saw him was many many moons ago when he played with Age of Electric on the Vancouver/ Canadian scene.

And A.C. (Carl) Newman the lead singer/ guitarist I have not really heard since my brother sent me a Destroyer album ages ago.. but very cool anyway. They played a great set, full of energy and had a whole lot of people dancing and jumping to the music. I was very sorry that I missed them the next day when I was in London, but at least I got to see such a nice dynamic show for a Sunday evening.

I won't go into the details other than to say it was sad that so many people were there because they thought that Neko Case was going to be playing with them as she was on the CD's. But as I discovered fairly quickly she was on her own tour of Europe. In fact I saw her 6 days later in Rotterdam Nighttown Theater. It was a very sweet show and I loved the fact that none of her songs were over 2 min long.

Banksy

Check out this website, and buy his book if you like graffiti and intelligence mixed into one. He is really great! And it is a good read too!

Ministry of Sound

This last weekend I flew to London to attend a birthday party of someone I have never met, but who's reputation had well proceeded him from his time spent in The Netherlands.
Arriving Friday night it was enough to find the hotel, grab some grub and hit the sack.
Sat was a beautiful day and window shopping was in order, walking around Oxford street buying some sketchers and generally enjoying the time and company. I even got a temporary tattoo and was told that it would last up to 7 days, it looked pretty real but sadly I am not sure if lasted 7 hours, so if you are ever tempted by a temporary tattoo on Oxford street give it a pass or make sure it is not one of the bigger ones.
The plan for the evening was to go and meet everyone at a tapas restaurant Salvador and Amada
have some food and drink and then move onto the Ministry of Sound, where Ryan had arranged for a VIP room for the group. The tapas bar/ restaurants was full of party goers but fun non the less. And we were signaled it was time to leave when one of the friends got on the table and gave us a dance...
I have never been to a large club like that before, but have to say if you are going to do it, do it right. VIP room, hostesses and the ability to get away from the very loud speakers on the dance floors. The DJ of the night was alright, apparently a old favorite from the beginning of techno/ house scene but I can't say I was all that impressed.
But the evening went on until it was time for us to go and beat the sun as it was rising, a few hours sleep before having to check out and spend a few more hours wandering around the city. At least the sun was out. We walked a huge loop from Holburn, around Covent garden, up Neal Street, found some breakfast, down Shafsbury Ave, up Tottingham(sp?) Court Rd, some more shopping for Eugene and then popped into the British museum for a peek. Ended up at the aboriginal Peoples wing with lots of Northwest Coast Indian artifacts which was really nice to see, a little taste of home. Afterwards we went to find food and ended up at The Ultimate Burger, which was good when we ate but somehow was still with me hours later. Oh well, all in all a really nice weekend, very relaxed atmosphere and great company.

Motel Mozaique

The Friday after I was back from London, I had a plan to attend the Friday night at Motel Mozaique with Jacco and friends. It was the beginning of one of the very few bank holiday long weekends here in Holland but a nice way to start it.
The evening started with a massage, I know that might sound strange but they were on offer for free and I could not resist.
Then we headed over to nighttown to see a strange band which I Battles which was mostly instrumental but interesting non the less and then in no particular order we saw We are Scientists who I thought were kind of boring after a while, Emilinia Torrini, from Iceland. She was wonderful and interesting and told the best story of being on tour in the states and their strange bus driver which was completely believable. Every bus driver I have ever met are some of the strangest people I have ever met, Mogwai, which was quite boring but worth a quick look. Then it was time to head home to the Hague and catch up on some sleep.

London calling

My work sent me on a couple of really nice training courses a few weeks ago. I got to study Adobe Photoshop for a whole week and a project management training course as well.
Aside from being put up in a luxury 4+ star hotel in the centre of the city I was finally able to really enjoy the city while I could afford it.
I was staying on the south bank where I could see the parliament buildings across the river and the London eye down my side of the river.
I walked a huge amount and went to the National Portrait Gallery, The Tate Modern and saw some great places. I also managed to window shop till my feet hurt and my eyes were blurred.
I had my favorite coffee every morning and really sucked up the atmosphere.
I saw a few old friends and had the feeling that more than a few ghosts were gazing over my shoulder while I was re-experiencing it.
It was really great and lucky me I am back this coming weekend for a birthday party and MoS and a few weeks later am going back for another training in Illustrator.
Lucy me!

Personal Jesus

On Sunday night I went to see Depeche Mode in Rotterdam. It was the first time in 13 years they have played in Holland so it wasindeed worth the late night and little sleep I got from it.
They started by playing this fantastic music at the beginning after the opening band The Bravery (from NYC) finished. I saw at least 5 people come up and ask the security to ask the sound engineers what was playing.. it's on their website people! But for those of you who care this was a mix from
Touring The Angel 2005/2006 - Pre-Show Music
After the opening act, but before the band take the stage, the venue hasbeen filled with a special pre-show DJ set recorded by Martin. Due tonumerous requests, here is the track listing of the mix set.
01 - "Vegetables" - Audion, SuckFish
02 - "Winter Green" - Lawrence, The Absence Of Blight
03 - "Rebird" - Metope, Kobol
04 - "Hot Sugar Candy Apple Taffy" - Heartthrob, Minimize to Maximize
05 - "Lost In Sound" - Alex Smoke, Incommunicado
06 - "Sinsentrikken Ut I 2 Spor" - Woody McBride, Demosessions May 2002
07 - "Cooling The Plasma" - Rene Breitbarth, With A Little Luck
08 - "33" - Metope, Kobol
09 - "Yak" - Motor, Sweatbox
10 - "The Dancing Box" - James T Cotton, The Dancing Box
11 - "An Army Of Watt" - T. Raumschmiere, Blitzkrieg Pop
The show was very good and the crowd amazingly enough was really into it.. One of the best Dutch crowds at a concert I have ever seen. I was never a huge DM fan,But can they rock, and I have rarely seen a front man with such boundless energy as Dave. However if I can add an amendment to my entry the one thing I meant to mention was Martin's contribution to the concert. There is no denying he is a very talanted songwriter and guitar player but the man CAN'T sing and should not sing ever again. Each time he did I was ready to run screaming from the venue.. I can't beleive that some people were well into it, perhaps hey suffered from being tone deaf as well... I guess the rest of the entertainment made up for his ego's need to share his voice with the rest of us.
I danced so much I was drenched with sweat which is such a good sign that the concert was amazing and great. Got back home and went straight to bed as I had to get up really early to catch my flight to London first thing for a week and a half of training.

Dublin

Two weekends ago I went to Dublin for the weekend. We flew from Rotterdam to Dublin with Transavia airlines (I love cheap short flights) and arrived Friday in the mid afternoon and headed towards the city to find our hotel. My first impression was of construction and more construction and just how typical cities and towns in The UK and apparently Ireland look like compared to the Typical Dutch, French or German cities of the European continent.
After finding our hotel which was just the other side of Trinity College we dropped our bags and headed out to find a drink and have a look around and ended up at for some great home brews and burgers. And after a few samples from their menu of beers we decided to go and look for more drinks in the Temple Bar area. Which is not hard to do. We sampled the Temple Bar but got bored of waiting to be served another pint of Guinness, found our way to another bar up the street and had thought about going to Spirit later but after going back to the hotel decided to call it a night and get a early start Saturday. First impressions of the night life. Everyone is quite friendly but very drunk, loads of Hen and Stag parties and I mean LOADS down to matching hats, shirts or blinky things around their heads... Scary! And you cannot turn around without hearing U2 being played, either in pubs, bars, restaurants or wherever.
Got up reasonably early, found a decent Breakfast and after that a decent coffee and then decided on the Photography Archives and Photography gallery. Which also happened to be on the same square as the wonderful Meeting House Square market held on Saturdays. The Archive was small but quite interesting, sadly the photo exhibit was closed but his book store wasn't which was very impressive, G even picked up a Holga which he has always wanted.
After that I had read about Cow's Lane market just up the street that has apparently the best of Dublin's designers and artists, it was closed for winter.. so we decided to keep wandering, found a Oxfam bookshop and had a peek in, bought some books for really cheap and kept wandering in search of Dublin City Gallery - The Hugh Lane gallery that was in the guidebooks. Got across the river, through the retail temptations, well almost through as I had to stop at Boots for my favorite brand and hiked a hill to find the gallery closed for renovations... are you picking up a trend? So we decided to pay homage to the Guinness factory. Stupid of us for not reading instructions and ended up walking the long way to the actual Storehouse museum. But at least at the end of it and the €14.50 *BIG RIP OFF* you at least get a pint of Guinness. It was not that the factory was a waste of time but you pay less going to way more exciting places and get so much more out of it. I personally did not feel it worth the money. Then both of us exhausted decided to head back to the hotel to freshen up before finding some food and later some fun.
Our second night we finally found a place in Temple Bar that was open and not packed for food and had some Irish Stew, after we headed over to the Octagon in the Clarernce Hotel for a couple of cocktails. Check out the link if you are a U2 fan, the band own the hotel. The cocktails were very yummy and some were very expensive up to €25. After this we headed over to the Spirit night club which was highly toted by the Time Out travel guide of being something between new age and fantastic. I liked the multi level concept of different music on each level. Women in for free men have to pay €20. They had go-go dancers male and female along to the latest in Euro-(trash) trance, Mid level was R&B and lower was (IMHO) the best music, as well a chill room/ Drum & Bass. We stayed for a few beers and hours and then decided that it would be just as useful to be asleep.
Sunday was not really time for anything, just get up, ready, find breakfast then coffee, a little window shopping in the expensive department store Brown Thomas and then headacrossoss the river to the bus to take us back to the Airport.
Oh and I forgot to mention that the six nations rugby was on as well, Ireland vs Italy. There were many Italians in Dublin that weekend.
Getting back to the Hague left enough time to relax a little before meeting with Jennifer for dinner and a quick catch up before hitting the hay. A very nice weekend despite everything we wanted to see seemed to be closed up for winter, I guess it is a good excuse to get back over there at some point.

35th Rotterdam International Film Festival

I have a few hobbies that I really enjoy and one of them is films, I have been to more than a few Film Festivals in my life but none more than the Film Festival in Rotterdam.
Last week was the opening of the 35th annual Film Festival in Rotterdam. Now if I am not mistaken I have been coming to it for at least the last 4 years, It is a world class festival with usually a huge variety of films.
To date my record is 16 films in 8 days, I have just beat that record. 13 films in 3.5 days. Sadly that average is also countered by the fact that I have walked out of 4 of those films this year as supposed to 3 years ago when I only walked out of 1 of 16.

My friend Jacco always volunteers his time for this festival and when he is not working we often either plan to see movies together or we end up choosing the same movies for our picks to see.
My first movie was on Friday afternoon called The Fishes fall in Love, a first time feature by Iranian director Ali Raffi. I really liked this film it was sweet, well shot and showed a real insight into the day in the life of Iranian people from a poor coastal town. Of 5 I gave it a 4.
Next was the French Film Alex. A typically French film with long quiet pauses and minimal dialogue. Not my favorite film but worth the time I spent watching it, and the acting was really quite good. also a 3/5

Saturday was a little earlier than I wanted but I made my way into Rotterdam for a movie at 10:15. Ode to Joy a Polish movie made by 3 different directors. In fact it was 3 mini movies in one. It could have been shorter or 3 shorts but I really liked it,the mood and the style and the stories as well as the acting, there are some very talented actors from Poland. 4/5
The second movie was cocaine Angel a American movie that was kind of pointless but I guess interesting, there was no real plot or end to the story other than an excess of drugs are B.A.D. 3/5. Klimt was number 3, with John Malcovich as Klimt. It was shot in such a way that we were supposed to see how he might see the world, but again I just did not get where the story was going, there were lots of people coming and going from the story and much of it in a psychedelic way. I actually left the film before it was over because I was not getting any feeling for it and was annoyed about the inconsistency. 2/5. Then Jacco and I met up for Bubble the new movie from Steven Soderbergh which was a neat premise of going to some nowhere town in America and getting people to act who have no experience. It was not a bad movie, but nothing amazing 3/5.
After a few hours of having a bite and waiting for Jacco to finish with his movie I then met with Jana and Nico who had come down for another movie that in hindsight I maybe should have seen instead of our next film. Living and the Dead. A British movie where the synopsis sounded really interesting and the Director was quite funny, the movie started alright the plot interesting enough but.... then it when all went horribly wrong, seriously wrong and after not much longer we left, it was just stupid 1/5.

Sunday thankfully was a later start. 13;15 I met Jacco for Mutual Appreciation. another American Film which was done in such a way that I was not sure if I liked it or not. the people were annoying 20 something who had nothing better to do with their lives than hang around and talk about things. I guess it was fairly close to reality but strange enough on it's own. 3/5. Opal Dream was next, a sweet Australian Movie that actually made me happy to go and see it because the plot, acting and direction was good enough to make me want to vote higher than 3. It got 4/5 because it was pretty much the nicest film I saw at the festival so far. A good family movie about the importance of having imaginary friend. Writing on the Earth was another Iranian firm, which I really did not get. The director before hand said that it was told in the language of film and not a conventional way.. He was right. I left because it was just to strange for me to get my head around. 1/5. And last for my Sunday night was Mary about the story of Mary Magdalene and an actress who gets obsessed with her. It had a great cast but a shit story, I really did not get it over all. And was sad that I was not ticked up in bed instead of being bored and confused.

I took Monday off from the FF but Jacco found me two tickets for two movies on the Tuesday that I really wanted to see. Look Both Ways, another Australian film which was getting great reviews. I loved the idea, the plot and the actors were all very convincing. I recommend this movie to anyone who would maybe like to think about the bigger picture. The last movie was one I was interested in because it had Donald Sutherland and Ralph Fiennes (Yum) and many other very respected actors; Land of the Blind. I might have liked it more if it moved quicker. It was so convoluted and mixed in it's plot, it was just not a great movie. I left just before it ended because I would rather have caught my train than the last of few min of such a movie it just was not convincing enough for me to stick around to know how it ended which I am fairly sure I know anyway. 1/5.

All in all probably one of the most disappointing lineups for the Film Festival that I have experienced. Perhaps we will have better luck and a better line up next year. In fact the only big name movie that premiered at the Film Festival in Rotterdam was Brokeback Mountain, which as most of you know is not only nominated for Awards but also caused quite a stir with it's homosexual content. I watched it last night (Feb 12) and indeed it was quite interesting and well portrayed by both Jake and Heath. When the movie finished I thought to myself even if that was supposed to span 20 years from the 1960's such bigotry and hatred of the unknown still exists. A very good movie! 5/5.

Paris

Last weekend (well it was when I wrote this intro) I went to Paris to see the special exhibit of Klimt, Schiele, Mosser and Kokoschka at the Grand Palais museum gallery.

I have been wanting to see some of Klimt's work for sometime now and it was the last 2 weeks of this special exhibit. It is one of the major advantages of living in the Netherlands, the proximity to so many other wonderful countries.

Anyway arrived by the fast train on Friday late morning and made our way to our hotel in the Latin Quarter, dropped off our stuff and then decided to head down towards the Grand Palace where the exhibit was being held to see what the lineups would be like and gauge if it was worth waiting for. The weather was crisp and sunny and as we arrived we noticed that that line up was not even a 1/4 of what we expected so we joined and after about 1.5 hours got into the exhibit.

It was wonderful, I knew already much of Klimt's work but to see it in real life, the subtleties and softness of the colours was breathtaking. I also was fairly familiar with Schiele, and was impressed with also his abilities. Having known nothing about either Mosser and Kokoschka it was quite interesting to compare their works to their masters. The exhibit was done in quite an interesting way and provided the viewer to experience several themes of their painting.

What did disappoint was the fact that the exhibit catalogue came only in French, not one other language, and there was not a lot of posters or other merchandise for the Klimt items. But I got to tick off my list one of my favorite artists and also intrigues me to want to go to Vienna and see more of his works.

As we left we decided to go shopping along the Champs de Elysees take some photos of the Arc de Triomphe as it was getting dark and then head back towards the Latin Quarter and look for some food. Which we found in a cute little restaurant with really nice service.

Saturday morning we decided that having not been to the Louvre it was time to go past and see if it was perhaps worth trying to get it, because every other time I have been in Paris I have been put off by the very long line ups. We walked straight in to it's wonderful and open entrancfe hall. I must admit how interesting it was to overhear several Dan Brown refrences from others in the line. Having decided on which wing we would tackle of the Louvre's 35,000,000 works of art we headed towards the Egyptian wing within the Sully wing. It was impressive but in my taste to many fragments, then again considering that I have seen much Egyptian stuff still standing more or less where it was left 3 thousand years ago I guess one could get blase about the whole thing. And after that we decided to go and check out a few Italian masters, as we came into the hall voila, Botticelli and a few paces further Da Vinci, and Michelangelo. All impressive and all to much. I think we might have been in for 2.5 hours and that was more than enough it was time to get out in the sun and cold and explore more Paris.

Walking through the Jardin des Tuileries towards the entrance we then headed into Madeleine and just poked about looking at the things the caught our eye. Eventually we gave up on trying to find something that we wanted to eat and sat down, as it turned out we were sitting across the road from the Grand Palace, exactly where we started from the day before having somehow taken a few to many left turns. Decided to go back to the hotel freshen up and then go out again for food.

On Sunday we did not really have a plan other than perhaps more wandering so we took our bags to the Gard du Nord and wandered to Montmartre for some breakfast and coffee and a hike up a little hill. The View is impressive but in some ways I prefer the Montreal version to the Paris one. After a few more hours we headed back to catch our fast train back to Holland. It was a wonderful weekend of relaxation and culture and exactly what I needed.

Abigail's Party

Happy New Years everyone. I have been really lame this holiday season with hardly any Christmas greeting via postal services or email and for that I am sorry if anyone feels hurt or offended it has just not crossed my mind.

To continue; My last few days at home in Canada were spent in Vancouver with my older brother Chris, his wonderful partner Freya and my dear friends Jen and Merlyn.
As I was only there for a couple of days we made the most of it. I arrived in the evening of the 27th from the Island. Met up with Chris and went for a sushi dinner on Davie street, it was not that good but passable. Then we had a couple of cocktails and back to his place to watch a movie. Freya got in from her shift around 2-230 and we opened a bottle of wine and next thing I knew it was 430 in the morning.
The next day we went over the bridge to Yogapantsilano to look for some Lululemon yoga gear for Helen that I did not get in Victoria on boxing day after standing in line to shop.... Now I can't remember if I have talked about this brand before but it was created by a couple of genius people in Vancouver; who as legend has it met snowboarding on one of the local ski hills and decided that there was just not enough good Yoga clothes in the world. So they created a monster. This brand can be seen on so many bums, heads and shirts you would not believe it unless you saw it.
The crazy thing is that the products which are really quite expensive are really really good and well made with high durability and tons of wash and wear... Anyway this is not an advert my story for the day goes like this. After some window shopping we went for more sushi before both Chris and Freya went to work. I would meet with Freya later when she got off her shift and not long after Chris would join us before we headed on a cocktail and small plate tour of a few choice restaurants.
I wandered around the city and then made my way back to kits where Freya worked to try some of her wonderful cocktail inventions at Abigail's Party where she got to invent the cocktail list which you can find via the link on the title. She is great!
Check these out... Dangerous Liaisons: Woodford reserve bourbon, vanilla bean infused Cognac, sweet vermouth, chilies, honey. Directions: sprinkle chilies at the bottom of glass, take ice cubes, pour bourbon, cognac, sweet vermouth and then the honey, which will slide to the bottom of the glass and stick the chilies to the bottom giving you a sweet and spicy kick...
After we went back across the bridge to Nu, where their friend Jay worked as the bartender and cocktail chef. He fed us with some great cocktails and food and wine, then back to their place for more wine with some of the rif-raf we met at Nu. Next thing we knew it was 4;30 again.
The next morning I was a little worse for wear and slipped out to get some coffee and fresh air. Back to the apartment and after the other two woke went for a walk downtown and the other two went to work while I waited for Jen and Merlyn to meet up and we went back to Kitsilano to Hell's Kitchen where Freya works as well. Some great ceasers and food a few more drinks and then Jen, Merlyn and I got some beers and went to Chris and Freya's place for some more drinks and chats before they left and I finished packing.
The morning came all to quickly and I was up and getting ready to go and catch my ride to the airport. Chris came with me and had some breakfast and I jumped in a cab to get to the airport.
The flight was uneventful although I got little sleep and arrived in Holland to really cold weather and preparations for New Years eve. I was supposed to go to Bremen for the night but I could not imagine getting on a train for 4.5 hours and then partying all night. So I stayed in the Hague and went to a house party of some friend who live smack in the middle of town and brought in the New Year with some fine drinks and friends.
Now back at work, it was a great blur of a memory to be home for the holidays to hang out with my family and friends. Sadly I did not get to see everyone I would have liked to but I guess you can't win them all.
On a side note I was watching something on the BBC and it was a guy talking about his favorite TV and music and one movie he mentioned was Abigail's Party I guess it was a cult classic.

Home for the Holidays

After a very stressful and emotional month of December I decided that being home for the holidays was perhaps the best thing I could think of for my fragile state. For some reason or another I was against the idea until a few sweet people urged me and convinced me that it was exactly what I wanted to do.
I decided that since there was a little over a week before I would arrive at home and nobody knew I would then surprise my family. I told my brothers and my Auntie Jenny who had emailed me the details of my arrival and that it would be a surprise.
Finishing up work on the 20th, going to the dentist to get my tooth pulled that evening and then spending a really nice early Christmas with Michiel on the 21st, I flew out on the early morning of the 22nd back to Vancouver.
A uneventful flight (with little or no sleep) I arrived in Vancouver and decided rather than risk my brother not being home I would contact my dear friend Jennifer and see if she was up for having me over; She was. I took the bus to her place. I had a shower and changed and then headed with her up and down her part of Main Street to look for last min gift items. Came back had a few drinks and then crashed asleep by 21:30 after being awake the better part of 24 hours.
In the morning I decided to head over to the Island and get up to my parents. I caught the ferry caught a bus and got into Victoria. I had called my little brother and left a message with his roomie Matt that I would be arriving around 2:30 and he could meet me if he wanted. I arrived and no Eric, so I decided to head up to the city to deal with some things I needed to get. I walked up Douglas across and zigzagged towards Lens and Shutter where I wanted to get some prints made and promptly running into Eric on the street on his way to meet me, late as usual.
We hung out a little, he had a errand to run and I had another errand to Roots to make so we split up and met up again later for coffee. After that he headed home and I had a few hours to waste before the bus. I called my friend Aaron and had a nice catch up and then decided to grab something to eat and ran into Matt who was working at the Noodle Box, it is such a small place! The sweetheart bought me dinner and I headed back to the bus station. I arrived in Mill Bay, called a taxi and had him drop me off at the driveway. I knocked on the door and after some time my mom answered with a look of disbelief on her face and her jaw hanging open, then my dad came from the den and he immediately said I wondered if there was something going on, Stella’s parents had emailed Christmas wishes and had hoped that they would enjoy it even more that I was coming home. Oh well my parents thought it was a miscommunication and they were surprised and I got to be home with my lovely family and friends for the first time in 4 years.
Christmas Eve at my parent’s house was always an open house with family friends dropping by for mulled wine and food. This year was different for the first time in about 30 years because the Pope’s were not there, but the Tillie’s were, Eric’s friend Keith was with us for the holidays and Blair dropped by with his parents. I had picked up older brother Chris earlier and Sarah brought over a very WIRED Alice and we all had some nice visits.
Christmas Morning was again slightly different, in the past I would often be up and jetlagged so I would take the dog out in the forest and enjoy the early morning. But our family home was very quiet this year for many reasons; Grandma had passed on earlier this year the dog in summer and Sylvia in November. So I got up and made coffee and read a book until more people got up. I remember as kids, barely sleeping and “sneaking” into the living room to check out the stockings; and sometimes even going back to bed to wait until the real morning. This year was funny because we were all getting up having coffee and such and then my Dad had to put his foot down and demand that we either go and get our stockings or the tradition would stop….
Breakfast and more lounging some Footie on the telly and then presents. I was really spoilt this year, it was just so nice to be there for the event. Afterwards I headed up to some family friends for a visit and catch-up and then came home to the preparations for the Family dinner where 17 were expected that is really amazing in fact we were only missing 7-8 Although I am not sure how that might have fit in my Mom’s Kitchen/ Dining room.
I like to think that I have a very special family, we all get along, we all like each other, there is no strange in fighting or anything just pure enjoyment when we are together.
It was My family and Keith (6) The Morgans (5) The Waelti and Campbell’s and Bruce (4) and my Uncle Frank and Auntie Jenny. After way to much food a some good laughs we swapped more presents and eventually most of them headed to their homes, After Eric treated us to some fireworks.
Chris, Eric and Keith had to leave early in the morning; I took my time getting ready and headed down to Victoria for some Boxing day madness. It was not as bad as the Hague on a regular Saturday so I did not really mind. I actually ran into Keith and Eric again downtown while I stood in line for the Lululemon shop and made a plan to hook up later.
Where I actually then ran into Ryen and really old and \dear friend from high school on the street again a small small city. I got Kelly her Holey Soles and Helen her Lululemon things and headed home again for the last dinner I would have with my parents until at least June.
I am now on the Ferry on my way back to Vancouver to hang out with my Brother Chris as he has the night off and spend a few days with him and Freya before heading back the NL on Friday.
I can only say that it was wonderful to be home to see my family and a few friends and know that it is possible to go home for the Holidays.

The not quite X-Mas tour 2005

This weekend was quite busy with another two concerts from Marillion here in Holland and a visit from our dear friend Kelly Fox. It was with some anticipation and excitement that I booked off the Friday and got up early to pick up Kelly from the airport who had flown in to visit with us and see the shows from the US.
I had last seen Kelly on tour over a year ago when I was out living my dream on the road with the band, and we had a couple of busy but nice catch up days in DC and Philadelphia.
After a little chilling at home we drove to Tilburg to 013 had some dinner and got ready for the show, Michiel and I had photo passes and Kelly was being looked after by our friend Henk who was in a very Friday mood.
It was really nice to be in the photo pit as the last time was the convention weekend in March in the UK and that had a distinctly different vibe to it.
The set list was a varied mix of old and new, quite refreshing actually, even though Marbles was my favorite tour since I can remember.. it was nice to hear some of the old favorites that don't get played very often.
h and Pete were in very fine form, bouncing off the stage and the vibes from the audience, it must be all that Redbull Pete has been drinking.. maybe it does give you wings. h just seemed to really be enjoying himself and was very much into the audience. After the show in Tilburg I got a quick catch up with Quinner who I really had not seen since the tour and we quickly saw Mark and made a date to meet the next day for dinner in keeping with tradition.
I'll write more about the gigs later, photos are all from Tilburg as I have not finished editing the rest from Utrecht and I need to get out of the house and go shopping with Kelly before all the shops close early for Sint.






THESE PHOTOS ARE NOT TO BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT MY PERMISSION!!!!!!

Destiny

I just got a great link to a website of quotes... this one caught my eye for many reasons.

I am not afraid of tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday and I love today

The Little Prince

It is with the heart that one see's rightly

What is essential is invisible to the eye.

I found this quote in a book called Emotional Intelligence, by Daniel Goleman, from the story The Little Prince. Both are worth a read.

Trend setter

Now I like to think that I have a fairly unique taste in clothing and fashion sense. I am not saying I am the most stylish person out there but that I have a fairly unique way of dressing as well as keeping my eyes on what's out there.
Often I have noticed that the trends in Europe are at least one year behind those of North America. I am not sure why that is as generally Europe is known for his Haut Couture and trend setting ways. I just don't see it.
For example, the Poncho. Now I am a fan but 2 years ago not a poncho was to be seen here in Europe but when I was on tour last year in the US on my happy free day in New York city I found not one but two ponchos at Macys that I love and adore they were on sale to, telling me that the trend had already come and gone and the next was about to start. Then months after being back in the NL all of a sudden the poncho trend hit, everyone was all of a sudden wearing ponchos, children, women grannies.

I would like to make the same observation about Holey Soles, these are crazy holey rubber clogs have taken over the West Coast of Canada. In fact my friend Gudrun had been in Victoria before me last year and had asked me to bring her some because they looked like they might be very comfortable and looked really cute to. Indeed when I arrived in Canada I quickly noticed that many people were outfitted with some crazy colour of Holey Soles on their feet with testimonials such as I have 4 pairs, I live in mine, I never wear anything else and mostly with looks of contentment on their already laid back west coast faces.
I ended up bringing Guddi a pair of beautiful red ones and myself none... which I regretted since I trying hers on and quickly realized that I too could be converted to believe in these crazy clogs.

A few weeks ago I saw a very small article about the latest trends to hit holland and what do you know? There they were in all the technicolour glory under the new European marketing name Crocs! If you are looking for a little loving for your feet and don't mind standing out in a crowd then get yourself down to your nearest sporting good store and pick up a pair... You won't regret it!

More Dangerous than Bin Laden

I pulled this little tid bit from the local Metro daily newspaper a few days ago on my way to work. Sorry I can't seem to find a URL to the actual poll.

"According to a opinion by the Canadian National Post, over 73% of all Canadians have a negative opinion of George W. Bush. While t least 38% believe he is more dangerous than Osama Bin Laden"

Brilliant!!! I wish they had asked me...

Can you tell I am motivated this Friday afternoon?

Busy weekend ahead. My friend Nishant turned 30 yesterday and today is his party I think to celebrate that the sky did not fall on him... or something equally drastic.

Sat is helping my friend Nadzyra renovate her new flat and Sat dinner with more friends.

Just the way I like it.

The Butterfly

My friend Sylvia died this morning around 4:30 am at my parents home in, B.C. Canada where she has been part of our family and lives for the the past 9 years. She had been fighting cancer for the past 18 months.
Apparently my father had said when she first came to live in our house that in many cultures it was considered good luck to bring a healer into your home, and so she came to live with us and became a integral part of our lives. I can't describe exactly what she has brought to us in the way of companionship, friendship, joy, laughter, tears, healing, enthusiasm, cooking, life and light. She was a special person who touched everyone she ever met and always in a good way.

My mother told me that she had been suffering quite a bit the last few days and riding a roller coaster of good and bad for months. I am very happy to hear that she seemed to find peace in the last few hours before she passed away with her daughters at her side in the house she called home. I am blessed to have known her and had her part of my life, I'll miss you Sylvia!
Her memorial service will be held this Sunday November 2oth, which happens to also be her Birthday. I wish I could be there for my family during this time, but I am sure that the turn out will be more than significant as she was beloved by all.

Music in My Head

Although that is actually how I seem to live my life... this was actually a small Music Festival in Den Haag being held at the Paard. The line up was pretty good and the company even better.
Friday started out with wanting to see Clap your Hands and say Yeah!, however the lineup to the second stage was so long we decided to go to the main stage and wait for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club who were great! I have no idea where they were from although I guess the US, but I really enjoyed the music. Next up at the big hall was Elbow. They had a fiddle player and a great band. I liked the bass player who sang and I liked their vibe. After we went up and met some friends at the Fiddler & Firkin pub and shut it down.
Saturday was a little slower day most of us who were trying to regenerate some brain cells. I cooked dinner for my friends and we headed back to the Paard for day two of the Music in my Head. We arrived a little late and went up to the main stage to see what was happening. The Frames from Dublin, I noticed a large number of Irish people in the crowd getting very into it. Near the end of their set we went over and checked out Absentee on the second stage. They were pretty good, and well add the keyboard toy you blow on and the bass player in the grizzly bear hat and it was a good show and the crowd was really into it. We went back to main stage to see Roisin Murphy, who was the singer for Moloko. I was really looking forward to her show, but somehow was quite disappointed as it seemed that aside from her fantastic outfits and headwear, she was on autopilot. In saying that though her band was one of the tightest bands I have ever seen, they must have been all studio musicians who decided to come out for a little European tour. I saw Moloko at Pink Pop several years ago and thought the energy that came across there was 10 times better than this one.
After again we were off to the Fiddler to meet some friends. This time deciding not to close the place down we left to get some sleep and be ready for our collective Sundays.

My sister

A great many years ago I was told by my then boyfriend Jens that I had to meet a girl he knew because she reminded him so much of me. Being a curious person I went along to be introduced and not seeing the obvious both of us decided that we had enough in common to perhaps strike a friendship, later that day someone came into the pub who knew Stella and said "hey Stella I did not know you had a sister" from then on it has been just like that anytime we are togeather.
She has visited me in Vancouver when she was traveling the world and I was on one of my trips home, and of course we hung out while I was living in Germany and she was back finishing her university degree. Even her parents have visited and became good friends with mine.
Over the years more and more people seem to believe that we were sisters so we concocted a story about how I was the younger (by one year) half sister from Canada, we would tell people that we had the same Dad and different Mom's and years later we found out about each other. It just stuck and many people believed it too.
The photo was taken over 10 years ago.... but not that much has changed in either of us.About 4-5 years ago she had moved to Hamburg to be with her partner and I somehow did not make the time to see her very often and we lost touch a little.
This past Dec she gave birth to Little Noah and as I had not yet seen her little boy or her for ages I decided enough was enough and I booked a ticket to Hamburg for last weekend.
I arrived Friday morning very early at Schiphol for my flight, and had a few hours to kill waiting for the plane. Like any good consumer I went shopping to try and kill the time, I even found a bottle of Dalwhinnie 1989 year old single malt. It was from the year I graduated High School so it makes it even more special to remind me of the last16 years.
After arriving and finally sorting out a bus to get me downtown I made my way to her house where we had a chance to chat before Noah woke from his nap, after we got him fed and ready and prepaired to go out. We first had lunch at a nice little cafe then walked around the corner and had a coffee where the coffee shop owner asked her if her sister was in town visiting.
We sat in the sun and really got caught up on what has been happening in our lives, I find it always amazing that with some friends you don't always have to see them or be near them to stay close we both mentioned that it did not seem as long as it was and were amazed at how much had happened in our lives over the past years.
Then we started walking through the park in Hamburg all the while chatting and looking at the beautiful colours and enjoying the warmest fall day I can remember. This park (which I cannot remember the name of) is really amazing and beautiful and big, it has a wide variety of plants, water, and paths to keep you occupied for hours on end, not to mention museams, gardens and things to see and do.
Little Noah was a Buddha like child sleeping most of the time or lying on his tummy in supported cobra pose (yoga speak) and getting all exited whenever a dog was near as well as being so sweet and checking over his shoulder to make sure I was still there and smiling a lot. What a doll. Her and I walked around and chatted for the better part of 6 hours, about everything you might imagine. But it started getting dark and we needed to head back to get Noah home.
After I left her place I walked quickly down into the shops to see if I might find my dream boots... The shop Stella pointed out had them a size to small and in Banana colour which is not really my thing so I headed to the train station and made my way to Bremen.
After a slight mix-up and another train to Bremen North I met with Guddi and Silke at their manager's house where he was celebrating his birthday. It is strange where people have their priority's. He is the exact same age as her and I and already 3 kids, house cars etc etc.. so strange to imagine that it could have been either one of us.
On Sat we took Anna (the dog) and headed into town to window shop and walk about in the beautiful weather. After "some" deliberation Guddi got a new piercing.. heehee wasn't that right Guddi-Girl? and just really hung out and relaxed.
On Sunday I wanted to go and wish a happy birthday to my German Mom, Sybille but her and Hans had gone on a trip somewhere so we took Anna out and went for a walk to the Harbour and then got me to the train just in time to catch it. I made it back to Hamburg, caught the bus the the airport and had a few hours to kill there before heading back to Holland. A whirlwind visit with my dearest friends, and a very relaxing one as well, no parties, no stress just girlfriend time made for a nice weekend.
This time not so much with a heavy heart I landed in Schiphol and headed back to the Hague.