hotel du commerce

It was busy in Fecamp. It is a small sea town with a rock shore with falaise parts in it as well. We had a beer on the terrace and then had to find a place to sleep. After some hotels we came to this one, which had a room without a shower for a reasonable price. We were too late for the breakfast the next morning, which was a pity, but the owner of the hotel was very friendly and parked my car. Probably because he didn't trust me with it in his backyard.

restaurant in st Omer

Because the rain was falling, we didn't want to continue walking anymore. We ended up in one of the few restaurants of st. Omer, a very little town. We both had the got chees salad and a cafe au lait and then decided to talk the same road back, as rain still didn't stop.

forgetting sarah marshall

An absurd movie, you have to be in the mood to watch it. It tells about a loser who loses his girlfriend, his girlfriend acts in Crime Scene series. They both meet in Hawai where a new love starts. The loser makes a dracula musical, because that is his dream.

le grand cerf

After some 6 hours of driving we arrived in neufchatel-en-bray just after 11. The key was placed just behing the board, which allowed us to enter the family hotel. Hearing the snoring of wone of our neighbours, made sure that we were not alone in this hotel. We went to the local kebba place to get some beers to start our small holiday properly.

le normandie

On our last night in Normandy we staid at the shore of the Seine in Caudebec-en-caux. A sweet hotel, with a completely pink hotel room. Breakfast was good. The village appeared to have some party of the centuries ago in big cloths, long hair and beards all curled up. When we sat at the locla bar for a beer, both too numb to talk anymore, the local youth also found place there. It was veyr interesting having two girls sitting on their terrace, one fo themost interestng things that has happened in weeks I suppose.

golf hotel

In Clecy we ended up in this Golf hotel in Dirty dancing setting. We had to giggle about the "patrick swayze" of the hotel, we just ordered the day menu and had a bottle of white wine together. People at the back appeared to be Dutch, a lady with sun bathing teint, a man who just had the whole bottle of red wine because his wife was the bob. After we made them aware we were not 18 year olds on the exam break, but hard working women with some money, on everything we said they said we had start playing golf. Yeah right, it is very good for your network, meet a lot of peopl, blabla. We had great fun though

definitely. maybe

Maybe I have posted about this movie before. I know I have seen the whole movie, but now I just watched the end. Sweet movie.

anders

I had dinner with Annalily in this quite little restaurant that is on the shore of the canal. We couldn't sit outside anymore, but inside was a nice ambaince. Instead of teh salmon we had the tuna, which was very well prepared.

Glasmuseum

For one of my projects I spent a few days in het Glasmuseum in Leerdam. THey also have Glasblazerij just across the small canal. I never had such a carvingto find out more about glas, but it is quite interesting really. And the glas is really nice.

hotel lucullus

one night in Leerdam, one night in the only hotel of Leerdam; hotel Lucullus. I would never go here again, although it was reasonable. THey try to be a grand cafe, but in the end it is really just a buurtcafe. The room had the worst beds, but the bathroom looked nice. The shower was not ideal though.

Sonny Boy

Nice book based on real facts about a family in World War 2. Cultural differences and a disaster on the background. I couldn't really feel empathy with any of the characters, and you feel like an observer than that you get absorbed in hte story

the happening

strange and quite cruel movie. A movie that makes you think of what on earth we are doing on earth and why we are doing thethings we are doing. Is this really going somewhere?

schaduw van de wind - carlos ruiz zafon

Each book with such a tremendous plot and superb storyline deserves to be read by everyone. The more than 500 pages are far from sufficient, as you want to read more, know more about all the characters that play a part in this book.

johan noorloos yoga workshop

A great ashtanga yoga workshop by this yoga teacher from amsterdam. the poweryoga centgre I am currently following power yoga lessons, doesn't have a proper Ashtanga yoga lesson. I really miss this kind of yoga in Groningen! We also did a vipassana meditation after it, which might be something I will do more in the future.

bridget jones - the edge of reason

sarphaet

cafe where I had lunch with a colleague on a very sunny day. Nice sadnwiches, capuchino not so good.

plan B

On my walk through Antwerp I came across a whole bunch of cafes. I finally sat down at Plan B. I had a great lunch, although I first thought it was quite expensive, but it was a great mozzarella tomato sandwich. I arrived just before 12, but soon there were a lot of people from the offices nearby that came there for lunch. Everyone seems to drink wine with their lunch. I miss this in Netherlands.

The role of international business in developing countries

One of the few JongTNO activities that really has my interest. Quite obviously because it is about working in developing countries. The minister of development cooperation mister Koenders held a speech about why it is important to stimulate the private sector to invest in development cooperation and start business in India or Africa. With the crisis at the backdrop, investment might be hard, but Shell, TNO, KPMG, Philips and some others are willing to and try to do it.

zoo Antwerpen

I haven't seen any animal, but I only stayed int he darwin hall just near the entrance of the Antwerpen Zoo. A big skeleton of a dinosuar made me wonder if they really did exist, has that really taken place?

war photographer

This was a crude, painfull and confronting movie of the war photographer James Nachtwey. An introvert, but gentle and warm person that gets so frustrated about the world he lives in, but uses the frustration to put him self in dangerous situations and show the rest of the world how crazy humankind van be. I watched this movie just the day before a Suzuki Swift killed 7 people in Apeldoorn on queens day. With tears in my eyes I made the train trip back to Groningen, why are we creating these kind of people, why are we creating a society that is so hard for some people to live in? What is wrong with it? I get sad about it, but what keeps me going is the same as James; the belief that in the end the good will win it from the bad.

pizzeria

I went to dinner with Snder the dday before the final meeting of CitizenMedia in Antwerp. We had to go through the sex-street with SEX and GIRLS screamed to us to come to a reasonable good restaurant where I had instead of a pizza a pasta arabiata, my favourite one. Nice conversation with Sander about work, ambition and plans.

great lake swimmers

A country band from toronto. Audiotransparent was the prelude to their performance, but I didn't particularly like the great lake swimmers. It got boring. Call me a music barbarian, but it is just not my kind of thing, the country. He has a nice voice, but it gets too monotonous after some time.

Audiotransparent

Another band of my dear friend Sebastiaan. Although he is "just" a guest in the band as a cello, it is exactly the sound of snare instruments that makes the music so special. Melnacholic, that gradually becomes a bit more happy. Will definitely hear more of them.

golden tulip centre

A huge tower just behind the train station of Antwerp Central. The rooms reminded me of the rooms in Houten, same kind of style and luxury mark. A lot of African and Chinese people here, probably because it is close to the diamant area of Antwerp; when walking there the next day it was as if I was somewhere else; Also a lot of Amish people and Indian people walking around.

kassa4

Cafe where we also went when Fleur and I were in Antwerp the day before we went to India. You can still smoke in cafes! It was nice to catch up with Timothy again in this kind of art-cafe.

de ruif

I met with Roel and Kitty for some food on one of the nights I hd to stay over in Delft. We wanted to go to the kleine griek, but as their boat terrace was full already we went to de Ruif boats terrace instead. I had some thing with a lot of cheese, not particularly good, but it was food.

de groene weide

A cafe near the noorderplantsoen. We met with some colleagues to do board games. We did weerwolven and carcassonne. I would not meet here again, though I think for groups it is a nice place where you can also have a some food.

brigitte kaandorp

Finally I saw this comedienne live! Her show was like her shows in the good old days and I enjoyed very much! The theater wasn't that nice though.

opera

Johanneke and I wanted to have a cheese fondue again. We alrady had one at brussels lof and kult, were planning on going to boven Jan, but that was full. On our way to het zwarte schaap, who has cheese fondue as well, we came across this restaurant in the poelestraat. Not many people there, the fondue wasn't that interesting.

mammoth

Slow and subtle movie of the same director as Fucking Amal. He shows in a painfull way how the west destroys the east even more, how peopl make decisiions in their life and think they can't chnage it. How we are detmerined to do something later, when the time is there, when I am older, but in the end we never do it. It shows the limitations of the world today.

Wall-E

Mbaye African Dancing

In the Sionskerk there was a workshop on African Dancing tought by a Senegalese person Mbaye (something). So much energy, with singing, and I just had to go, made fool of myself when doing the solo. But I loved it, also the teacher and the drum player.

power yoga groningen

As I did yoga in Dusseldorf, I decided to try it in Groningen as well. I did the Ashtanga course, but am not that enthusiastic about it yet. I will try several other courses, as they have a whole scala. Pilates, Anasura yoga, poweryoga, let's see...

Afrikaanse Dans Lily Maarsingh

I started a course African Dancing from Lily Maarsingh. FLeur did it last year, but I didn't have time then. Now I could finally do it and I love it! So active, big, expressive.

De witte aap

Because the tiki bar wsa closed we had to move to the only cafe in the witte de with that was open. Becuase it was the only one, it was very busy. I could catch up with Thomas and had a chat with Jason. Cafe is not that special.

2 many djs

I was already ready to go to sleep, but the djs managed to get me out of my dip. I danced for 2 hours on their bootleg music mix. I felt sorry for the dj that had to do after it, as many people were going away.

runaway jury

Motel Mosaique

A festival for the alternative music scene. All bands that come in Vera will also come to MOtel Mosaique (or the other way around). In the afternoon it is possible to go to the 3voor12 tent, to listen to 20 minute snippets of the artists that will perform that evening. I saw Jon Hopkins, handsome dj, and Mocky, which nearly missed the boat of being a nice performance. Later I also saw BLK JKS, Loney Dear and Hjaltalin. A very good selection! I met a lot of people I still recognized from Delft, strange to see them again.

loney dear

A bit psychedelic performance with a lot of back light which made all the musicions just silhouettes. The music was wonderfull, almost like a fairytale, and it made me very peacefull. It was in the big room in de Doelen, it was nearly full, I was happy to sit.

hjaltalin

Very good music from Iceland! The instruments were special, but I just love it. A violin that was played by a concentrated violin player. The fagot musician was a woman, what a heavy instrument that is! And the singer also was funny and just made the atmosphere very good in Lantaren/Venster.

blk jks

South African band that made very nice rock music. I was actually hoping for the real African sound, but that was naive. They had a lot of breaks, changed the beat, which made it hard to dance on it anyway. This was in the Watt, what used to be nighttown.

indiana

for Gustaves birthday party. A very small cafe between salon des amateurs and ratingerstrasse. We danced alittle bit, but there wasn't too much space. I had conversations with a random selection of people that were either Gustaves friend or from the girl he held the party with. I was quite tired though...

the stander

moordgat

Charlie Wilsons war

pizzeria near suttons

salsa exclusiva

roosbeef & het zesde metaal

no country for old men

bazzar

koffie met pap en mam

couchgefluster

with meryl streep, uma thurman

mama mia

starbucks

McGlouchlins

van der valk - houten

brida - paulo Coelho

the reader

ratatouille

61 degrees

A quite cafe near pempelfort. Mom, dad and me had lunch there and some coffee. THe coffee wasn't particularly good, but the lunch was very nice! A lot also, we could nearly finish it. I had been here also one time before with Sara, a swedish girl. We had a nice conversation, but unfortunately we never really took of as friends. The cafe alsos ells furniture in the (cold) basement.

china lounge (or something like that)

stranger than fiction

kiku sushi

lucky number slevin

the matador

na ni wa noodles

slumdog millionaire

Great movie! I had to get in to it, as it is still a game show. But the story is just very great and that it is situated in Mumbai is even more fantastic. I miss it!

mauer

I had a splendid evening in this dancing bar just around the corner of lustwandel on ratingerstrasse. Relaxed atmosphere and OK musique, good company as well.

mannen van staal

The first book of Elizabeth Gilbert is less interesting than here biography eten bidden en beminnen that I read before. Although it was funny it was talking about the crazy people in a fishermens island and I was visiting small Bozo villages at the shore fo the River Niger in Mali. It showed some resemblance. I left the book at Yvonne's place, as I didn't want to carry it around the rest of the trip.

mali blues

I only liked the book, because I was in Mali at the time I read it. It made me understand Mali a bit better, but furthermore I didn't really like the style of writing of Lieve Joris. The last story about Kar kar is the best.

norwegian wood

An amazingly good book! Beforehand I didn't expect much of it, although Jaap-Henk sad it was a very nice book. But somehow the fact that it was a Japanese writer didn't really attract me. Bu it was a very nice book! It is smoothly written, and it has a sense of fatalism in it, somance, melancholy, philosophy and then he described his life from his 18-21.

lustwandel

Carnaval started in Dusseldorf just on my return to this concrete city. I brought my pink hat from the Jut and Jul act I did together with Fleur, and I could finally wear my strange skirtof IO festival again. A whole bunch of Vodafone people were inthe Lustwandel, so Elisabeth and I also went there. Had to wait very long in a queue, but in the end, had some good dancing.

the kite runner

I missed the start of the movie, but as I had read the book I could still follow the storyline. And as with many movies that are based on a book, the book is better. The time that amir jaan in Pakistan is, seems so short in the movie, and in the book it all seemed so much more intense. Though I have to admit the actor player Amir jaan was very good, nice eyes!

Nights in Rodanthe

This is the movie I saw on my way back from Bamako. And although not a very strond sotryline it touched me somehow. Richard Gere is still the mister for romance and the stranger in the crowd.

Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona

One of the movies I saw on my way to Bamako. Lot of passion in this movie, and also the romance. A feeling I am familiar with. The dreamy chracter of Scarlet Johannson and the passionate one of Penelope Cruz and then the third one, can't remember the name, that thinks she should do something but doens't feel it. All three are characters I can relate to. I guess anyone can.

ice skating on paterzwoldsemeer

For the first time in 12 years it was possible to skate on nature ice again. I didn't have any skates, but could buy some in Delft and the day after when ice skating with Johanneke in Groningen. It was possible to skater around the lake, where otherwise many boats would be. It looked absolutely amazing. My skating isn't quite as it should be, but I was doing reasonably well for someone who is skating on noren for the second time.

kobus kuch

After a night in Bebop with some JongTNO colleagues, the morning after I went to Kobus Kuch together with Renate and Gabrielle. We had some lunch, anis milk, and tea. No apple pie this time.

city squash

mona lisa smile

Salsa night at Tanzhaus

Just before the christmas break I went to a Salsa dancing night in Tanzhaus, same place as I sometimes have yoga. Although I have to admit I am not as good as I hoped, I did enjoy it very much. Elisabeth is really good at it and I guess it is a matter of doing it more and then I will learn it. Will definitely go again

Shantaram

Almost 1000 pages about the life of a criminal in Mumbai. Was great to read it, especially over my Christmas break that I could completely immerse myself in the story and Indian life that was described in there. Although it is about the criminal life it made me want to go back there. When realizing I walked on the same places he was describing in the book and then knowing that there is so much illegal, criminal, maffia things going on, is partly scary and partly intruiging.

ocean's thirteen

As a follow up of twelve and eleven now Ocean's thirteen. Same concept, same quality with nice actors. It was the second time I watched it, still ok.

love actually

Unbelievable that I have never mentioned this movie on the blog, although I watched it already many times (4, maybe 5 times). So here it is. It is an all time feel good movie. Liek alles is liefde, only English. Christmas movie as well, watched it in Appelscha during new years eve.

the departed

I think this was really the best movie I have seen during the christmas break. On a small laptop screen, but still very strong. It is so incredably good how I instantly hated the chracter of Matt Damon. And it is hurting to realize that good people have to fight to come in good places and when there is money it is all much easier.

het Viadukt

And after the pintelier we went to the Viadukt for some live music of bands that usually practise there. If I remember well it was something garcia band and a singer songwriter. From the singer songwriter I couldn't hear the lyrics, but it was remarkable to see so many ladies on stage. Then the other band was a reall swingband. THe piano player was very fashionable with his shoes on heels and white trousers and longer hair that flls in his face. The saxophone player had three different saxophones, also quite impressive.

brussels lof

After climbing, Johanneke and I went for soem cheese fondue in brussels lof. I had one with goat cheese and she had one with tomato and basil. They served really wuick, but eventually we staid really long with our irish coffee. A nice restaurant, no music, good food. After that we went for a drink in the Pintelier.

climbing @ Bjoeks

At the start of the Christmas break I went climbing with Johanneke in Bjoeks. It was the second time I did it and again I had wobbly legs. But after some time it goes better and the last time I went up I actually did a route.
The picture is from the first time I went climbing with some colleagues.

Thermen de Waterlelie

On the 2nd of January I really wanted to go to the sauna. I hand´t been yet in the christmas break and had to do it. I had never been in this one and then it is a bit hard to see where you can go and what the facilities are. It is in an old farm and has a big lawn with two sauna cabins outside. Unfortunately it was too cold to sit outside and lie in the sun. Maybe in summer it is better. I had the aufguss with honey, the Cleopatra Aufguss. I also had a massage, but it wasn´t that good. That is always disappointing actually.

de Valouwe

Jelmer´s parents have a cottage in this small town in Friesland. I went there for new years eve together with Tjitske, Jelmer and Ymkje. We watched two movies and played saboteur and lit some fireworks. The next day we went ice skating outside and funny enough this went really well. NOw I want to do it again!

Australia

Lovely epos in Australia, about Asutralian themes, with nice Australian actors. Sweet to see the Charcter of Nicole Kidman change and nice to see that alls well that ends well. It had something of drama, romantic comedy and action movie in one movie. Went there with mom and dad to the cinema in Ede.

I am legend

The story in this movie expands itself slowly. A lot of video animation by the strangelky looking figures that were creted by the Krippin virus. The idea is really creepy and well thought and carried out, but the movie itself wasn´t that good.

brokeback mountain

Good movie with the already dead Heath Ledger. I thought that the passion and pain was acted really well,both from the guys as well as the wives. A unique movie, with unique story.