So…

Where to start? I’ve not updated my blog since I wrote May 7th’s post sometime last summer. But I’ve always been determined to keep this blog up-to-date, and that is exactly what I’m intending to do in the next couple of weeks (or months possibly) so that the day at the top of a post is today’s date again.

Obviously I’m not there yet. Not quite. Obviously, too, will I not be able to recall all emotions and events of the past eight months. But with the help of my pictures, historic Facebook posts, emails and other events, I hope I’ll be able to recall the important things that happened in my life ever since 7 May 2012.

Until the day that my blog is crispy new again, this will be the first blog post. But I will catch up. I must.

(written on 17 June 2013)

This alien mask was lying next to my bike as I was heading to work in the morning. I have no idea why it was there, who used it or what it was for, but I was only relieved that I could take a picture. That’s today’s picture taken care of then.

The bombshell from the US, Mitt Romney’s “47%” video, made me quite happy this morning. This should do at least some damage to his campaign, though I fear Americans are still going to elect him for President in November. I have this rather unsettling feeling that Obama will be a one-term president. Quite unjustifiably so, but it seems that that’s the way public opinion is working. Let’s hope for some more 47% videos then!

(written on 17 June 2013)

A picture of a very serene looking Keizersgracht, taken early in the morning as I cycled to the pool. It’s been difficult picking up the rhythm of daily swims again after the pool reopened after its summer break. Of course there was the holiday in Barcelona that interrupted things, but also in normal work weeks such as this one, it doesn’t happen every day anymore that I get up early and go to the pool. Sometimes, instead of the morning, I go after work, but still not as much as I would want (or need). Officially I reached my target weight in July of course, but it wouldn’t harm to keep the weight down and the condition up through exercise.

The tall building at the right hand side of the canal that is currently under construction used to be the Metz department store, a very old-fashioned six floor building with a lovely panorama restaurant on its top floor. Unfortunately the store (which is owned by Liberty’s of London) closed and moved to a much smaller location… and now it’s wait and see what is going to happen with their old building. It’s not very often that such a big retail space becomes available in this compact city, so it could be exciting…

(written on 17 June 2013)

A lazy Sunday in Amsterdam, and that suited me just fine. It’s been quite hectic recently, with travels to Barcelona and with Daniel returning to Amsterdam for a second time, so it’s good to spend some time in Amsterdam without any plans. I walked through the city centre in the afternoon and also visited Huis Marseille, but was not very impressed with their exhibition. Now that I have a Museum Card though, I can get in for free and if the exhibition turns out to be disappointing, then too bad. Better luck next time. The picture is of a statue of Mercury in the museum’s garden. With extension plans for the museum well underway, the garden is not as idyllic anymore but hopefully they’ll return it to its former, intimate state when the builders have gone again.

(written on 17 June 2013)

The started with glorious sunshine and I took the above picture just outside the house after I had finished my muffin-plus-vanilla-latte breakfast in the Coffee Company shop on the other side of the canal. It wasn’t meant to last though because clouds moved in not long after.

In the early evening I met up with Sean and we went to see a film, which is rather unusual. With Sean I go out for meals, and we hang out in bars every now and then, but this was the first time I was in a movie theatre with him. The film we saw was Angel’s Share, a Scottish production with the title referring to that part of the spirit that evaporates between the time of distillation (and putting in casks) and bottling of whisky. The film was indeed about whisky, and it was also very Scottish. I loved it! It was great to see Scotland on the big screen of course, and especially because of the prominent role that whisky plays in the film. Needless to say we went to Spijker afterwards to have a whisky.

(written on 21 May 2013) 

As I walked back home from the office (it had been raining in the morning and that’s when I take a metro to work) I noticed something that made me sigh just a bit. A red leaf. It was a leaf of one of those huge plants that climb the side of buildings, particularly in the south of the city. The thing is, those leaves are usually green. They only turn red in the autumn. And there wasn’t just one leaf (on the pavement), no there were dozens of them. It was the first real sign that, after a fairly miserable summer, the autumn is about to commence. Evenings are getting noticeably darker already but now it seems that also Mother Nature is preparing for winter. Ugh.

The picture is of one of the most picturesque parts of Amsterdam’s ancient canals; the intersection of the Leidsegracht and Keizersgracht canals. Amsterdam looked stunning today (apart from the fallen leaves) and hey, hey, it’s the weekend as well!

(written on 21 May 2013)

The picture shows an election poster, lying on the street, filthy and ready to get swiped up by the city’s street cleaners. That’s how quickly the general election we had in this country yesterday is history again. The party in this poster did not do well, and in any case much worse than predicted. Quite surprisingly it seems likely that the new government will be a coalition of only two parties (liberals and social-democrats) where everyone had expected the lowest number possible for a majority cabinet to be four or five parties. The Dutch electorate moved to the centre in yesterday’s election, and for the country that seems to be a blessing to me.

In other news, Nikon announced a new camera, the D600, and that is now stuck in my mind. This is how it always goes. At some point I decide that I will need a new camera, and then I see one that I really like (the D600 in this case) and I know that there is no way that camera will get out of my mind again. I will buy it at some point. Not now, but the thing will keep nagging. At some point this camera will be mine. Trust me, I have a lot of experience with this. Resistance is futile.

(written on 16 May 2013)

How is this for an awesome building? It’s The Shard, the recently completed skyscraper on London’s south bank. It’s an astonishingly beautiful building in my humble opinion. The picture was taken as I was walking from the office to Blackfriars Station in order to get a train back to the airport. Gatwick Airport, that is, because that has departure lounges that I quite like. The day in the office was interesting because I spent it mostly with the guy who took over my job in June. The reason for me to be here was that that take over process needed some fine tuning but that was OK. It’s always good to see each other face-to-face anyway and definitely when that involves educating one another.

The flight back was smooth and without any issues, but the departure was quite delayed because of some staffing issues. I was back home at 11pm only so quite relieved that I had made it back to Amsterdam. The bigger relief still was that the populist party PVV had been a big loser in today’s general elections in the Netherlands. Very glad that some level of decency had prevailed.

(written on 16 May 2013)

This is London Southend Airport. Until not too long ago it was a military airport and then for a while it was an airport that was mainly used for cargo flights. It’s still owned by Eddie Stobart, a large British logistics company. And since last year it is also an easyJet airport. It seems a bit unlikely to call it London Southend because Southend quite clearly is not London when you look it up on a map. In fact, it’s quite far to the east, in Essex. Not too far from Basildon, as a matter of fact, residence of The Kid.

Tonight, after work, I flew there. The advantage of Southend airport is that it’s tremendously cheap to fly to. That’s mainly due to the duration of the flight, a mere 35 minutes, and also because it’s a new passenger airport. To get into London, it’s remarkably convenient though. Trains leave the airport’s train station every fifteen minutes and it takes them less than an hour to get to Liverpool Street Station in London. Perfect! 

Once I was there I got on an underground train to Victoria station, right on the other edge of the Circle Line, so that took almost as much time as the entire flight, and from there I walked to my hotel for the night, The Wellington in the wonderful Pimlico area of London. I had picked the hotel because it was cheap. It’s not like I have to pay for it (I’m here for work) but I had figured out that easyJet flights to Southend and a night in this hotel combined were still cheaper than a day return to City Airport tomorrow. Plus it gave me the chance to spend the night in this wonderful city. The hotel turned out to be a bit too cheap perhaps, because my room -decent sized as it was- had no electricity as I entered it. When I returned to reception to mention this, they said they would send someone up but that someone seemed to be as knowledgeable about hotel electrical circuits as a Siamese cat, so that didn’t give me too much confidence. Leaving the guy to do his thing, I decided that I needed some food so I went to The Jugged Hare, my favourite pub in this neck of the woods. After a delicious meal and some yummie pints there, I returned to my hotel where lo-and-behold, a miracle had happened and the electricity was indeed working. After a bit of a read, I switched off the lights and sailed to the land of dreams… ready for a day in the London office tomorrow.

(written on 16 May 2013)

Yesterday, when I got home from bringing Daniel and Marie to the airport, I cleaned up my apartment so when I got home from work today, all was clean, prim and proper… and quiet. It’s not like I’ll be able to enjoy the quiet for long though because tomorrow evening I will be on my way to London for a one day visit to our office there. Tonight though… I did nothing much. I just sat in my lazy chair, with my new headphones on, watching an episode of Doctor Who on my iPad thanks to the BBC iPlayer app. It’s all good.