sideways

A nice movie about wine. I already saw it once but only learned to appreciate it at the end of the movie. The guy is so extremely sad, but that makes the movie really good. He is just too true, too real, and therefore nice to see you are not as bad as he is.
And then the whole winetasting. He really appreciates it, but is more an excuse not to feel miserable. He gets in a flow when talking about wine, but he also stil gets drunk of too much of it.

de postillion

De first activity with jong TNO was in this cafe in Utrecht. I went there together with Fleur, ebcause we also had to be in Utrecht the next day. it was nice to meet the new people. I joined games of macchiavelli, twister and weerwolf. I wonder if we see them more often.

de charlatan

By accident we ended up in the charlatan. Welln ot realy by accident, but it was quite a coincidence it was the same bar I wetn to a few years ago during the gentse feesten. It was quite a surprise when I entered the bar, because I didn't expect to find it back after all the years. We danced a bit, but unfortunately it wasn't really my music.

de 8 zaligheden

I think Gent is also the city of numbers. The restaurant we went to on the second night was also with a number. We had the traditional dish gentse waterzooi, which was quite special. Good food and free drinks for us. For coffee they took us to some fancy bar.

de 4 tafels

Nice restaurant in Gent. I went there with the consortium meeting of one of my projects for my job and we had dinner with 12 people over here. My parents visited Gent just a few weeks before that and recommended the place. They have all kinds of meals form over the world and that makes the menu very varied.

wandering in Amsterdam

Gro was in Amsterdam for the weekend and that was a good occasion to take the train to Amsterdam and meet her. We had a coffee across the dom plaza, which was tow times as expensive as a regular coffee bar in Groningen (but we had a good view, so we didn't mind). We walked through the kalverstraat, not looking for something particalur and we chat.
We ran into a demonstration against fur. They walked through the klaverstraat with a lot of police protection. Strange to experience, so much violence coming form the people.

Orkater - Bloedband

Together with Joost I went to my old employee; theater de VEste. The premiere of this play was just great and guaranteed the presence of some semi-famous dutch people. It took a while before it got to me, but I really liked the dynamic and modern way of acting and making theatre. A mix of music and acting and nice choreography. three storylines intertwining, giving the characters a bit more depth, showed the other side. Nice to be in the theatre and see some people on stage.

Hemmingways

After too much bottles of wine, Fleur and I went to the hemmingways to dance some salsa. Unfortunately our colleague maarten couldn't come along, he is the salsa dancer and we just try to follow. It appears I am not a very good leader, didn't know anything. We had a good laugh and I ran into Roos accidentally. Such a coincidence.

Sauna in Peize

As a very impulsive plan I asked Fleur to got to he sauna the day after the TNO party. And we went in her car (I was happy she has one). A very relaxing day. two times loyli, a hot and cold one. The cold one with mint christals and the hot with several buckets of water.

Frysk Film Festival

Together with my dear friend Tjitske we drove in her car to Leeuwarden on an early friday night. Her friend Nynke Laverman was having the premiere of the documentary of her last show the Maisfrou in het harmoniegebouw in Leeuwarden. With a take-away salad from the Albert Heijn we had dinner just in time and arrived right on time for the show.
Nice documentary and she just makes good music. Funny to meet someone only on birthdays and then see her as an artist. As a surprise she received a golden plate for her first album siellesalt; the frysk fado.

nacht van de fascinatie

For the first time in 75 years TNO (where I work) celebrated his birthday with all the employees of TNO. Meaning 6000 people at one party in the jaarbeurs in Utrecht. Although it was called the night of fascination, it had more to do with an early evening of fascination but despite this sarcastic detail, it was a good organized party with a good atmosphere.
To extend the party into the afternoon, I prepared together with Fleur and some nice lunch. We had to go by bus to Utrecht, so it took us a while to get there and we also had to go back.
We met some new people from TNO Defence and safety and some of them drove back to Groningen with us. Fleur and I spent most time in the salsa and merengue place. We followed two workshops and it was funny to dance with colleagues you normally only see at the office. But it was really good and it really feels like more, I want to dance more, salsa and anything really. Dancing with one of the managers I normally don't know anything to say to, with a colleague who is sometimes hard to communicate with and now were getting along on the dancefloor. Music is magic.
And by the way, we had a performance of Jeroen van der Boom (jij bent zo...) and edsilia Rombley (but I missed that mostly). The night opened with a band of TNO people; and it was really good and professional. I was impressed. And singing for so many peple in such a professional entourage can only be an adrenaline kick.