Cycling to the beach

Last Sunday was a perfect day for a cycle tour to the beach. Sister-in-law, parents-in-law, nephew, husband, Bommel and me! Especially Bommel enjoyed it very much, sitting in her basket with her ears flapping in the strong wind. She was the only one who was not tired from cycling against wind force 7! :-(

Bommel in her basket

We wanted to drink tea a the Queen's house, but obviously she wasn't expecting us (gate closed), she was home though (flag in top)

Being on the boulevard in Scheveningen gives you a feeling of a holiday. Unfortunately, we have to wait 2,5 weeks more before we go on holiday! :-) We ate a delicious Italian ice cream at Pasquale and wandered around the funny bronze statues which are there since 2004.

In the evening we had a delicious BBQ together. What a wonderful Sunday!

The dunes near Scheveningen

Funny bronze sculptures Famous pier of Scheveningen

Phenomenal

Last night mom and me went to the first one of two André Rieu concerts. Although I am not a fan of him, it was a superb evening! This morning's newspaper headed "Phenomenal André Rieu in Amsterdam". And all of it was true.

The concert - a better word is the experience - took place in the Arena in Amsterdam. It was the first time in my life that I set foot in a real football stadium. We went very early because I suspected a lot of traffic and when you come late you might not find a place to park your car. When we sat outside on the side walk, eating the sandwiches we brought with us, a white stretched limousine with a police motor in front stopped in front of the main entrance. Already a crowd had formed and everyone gathered together to see who would be coming out of that car. Must be a celebrity! It was quite hilarious when a 102-year old man with a cane stepped out, together with one of MAX TV presenters (I didn't know this guy), telling us that this very old man had only one wish in his life, and that was to see André Rieu live! Inside I was overwhelmed by the stage. They built an exact replica of Vienna's Schönbrunn castle (in actual size!), complete with 2 fountains, a ballroom and 2 ice skate tracks on the sides. Wow, this was something!

Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera, so I had to do with my mobile phone :-( The concert was great. Especially, the performance of a young soprano with a beautiful voice, singing "Wishing you were somehow here again" from the Phantom of the Opera, brought tears to my eyes. That's music right to the heart!

It was a very late evening, caused by the many extra's in the end, André just couldn't stop! Also, we had a hard time getting out of the parking garage. Not so hard to imagine, when you have just visited a concert, attended by 25.000 people!

Marlies Dekkers exhibition

Yesterday, ex-colleague Agnes and me went to the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, for the exhibition of 15 years of Marlies Dekkers (http://www.kunsthal.nl/en-22-591-15_Years_Marlies_Dekkers.html). We had won admission tickets, so as a real Dutch(wo)man you want to have everything that's for free! :-)

Who and what is Marlies Dekkers? Marlies is a world famous Dutch lingerie designer, who has stores in the major cities of the world and has won a number of important prizes. Both Agnes and me are fans of her bra's. The exhibition was a little bit strange, a mixture of paintings, sculptures, dolls with lingerie and large photo's. There even was a chair built completely of high heeled shoes turned upside-down! In half an hour we were through, and hungry! Up to the delicious sandwiches of De Bijenkorf, our favorite department store (http://www.bijenkorf.nl/BijWeb/)

I bought a present for a new born baby, whom I'm going to admire next Wednesday, a couple of books, a CD and some nice chocolates! Of course, a day out isn't complete without buying chocolates, mmmmm...... :-)

Although it took us nearly 2 hours in traffic jams to get home, it was a nice day!

New dishwasher!

Today finally our new dishwasher arrived, since it stopped functioning complete about 2 weeks ago. They were supposed to come between 10:00 and 13:00, so I had to work from home for a while. Luckily at 10:20 the doorbell rang! It was a man with tick glasses and a heavy dialect I could not follow. Well, nevertheless, he was here to save us from doing the dishes by hand hehe :-)

I asked him if he would take away the old dishwasher, which he did. Then he started to work on the replacement. I went upstairs again, but when he left the frontdoor open to exchange the dishwashers I went downstairs. You never know when Radka thinks it's time for a little walk outside... But she was fine, she even liked the man (hmm...). I sat in the living room and listened to the sounds he made when replacing the dishwasher. Funny how your ears are strained for sounds that doesn't sound right, like something that breaks. But no, everything went well.

He left the debris behind unfortunately, he could not take them, he told me. :-( But the good news is that we don't have to do the dishes any longer! :-))

Theater

After an exciting football evening (we beat France!!), I had to get up 'early' this morning because today is the big day for ordering theater tickets. For many years now, they have tried to come up with a system that gives everyone equal chances to buy tickets. The first time you could buy through internet, things went wrong very often. But now everything works very well.

This is how it works. At precisely 09:00 you will see a special internet page of the theater (www.deflint.nl), in which you enter your mobile phone number. When you have done this, you can do whatever you want while waiting for your login, which will arrive through an SMS on your mobile. Very handy! So I could have breakfast in the meantime, while waiting for my login code.

I was lucky this morning, because the webpage was already in the air a little before 09:00, so I only had to wait for 15 minutes before my login came in on SMS. Then you may enter your ordering on the website. So now we have bought tickets for 6 performances throughout the new 2008/2009 season. Hopefully they're all good!

Request

Yesterday I found out that Mandylou had a request to me. Although it is not easy for me to carry out this request (the closest book is in Dutch and besides that my blog only has readers, there's no other person I know with a blog but Mandylou), I will do it in my own way. So here's my text. It's from a book that was recommended to me by someone who is special to me. The book has given me comfort when I needed it.

"To serve in the highest way anyone who you cannot be with physically who is in need of care or who you might otherwise worry about is to hold in your mind the highest vision for them, of their radiant, joyous, healed, vital self, that is their True Self, and which they will become when they make their transition. Do not focus upon what you see as the decaying of their physical and mental self, nor upon the limitations of personality that push your buttons, for all that will pass away. The eternal part of them that in this lifetime has been committed to helping you on your journey needs now your recognition, your gratitude and your highest vision".

Adventures in a parking garage

This week I experienced another adventure in a parking garage. I am what you can call ‘not good at parking garages’. Normally, there’s nothing ‘to be good at’, you take a card and the gate opens, you park your car and you go out. Not for me. Somehow, there’s always something going wrong, I don’t know what it is.

So, this time I have an appointment with a company which is a couple of kilometers from my office. Therefore, I do not need to leave early, I will be there in about 15 minutes, no problem. Well, that is until the parking garage…

I have found the building and choose an entrance that looks like a parking. But not a garage, this way goes up. I don’t know why I’m standing there, I should have known better! Anyway, the guy on the intercom tells me very friendly that this is the runway for taxis and that I need to drive a little bit further to the left, to the entrance of the parking garage. Of course!

Here, I push the button again and tell the guy (the same one?) whom I will be seeing and he says something like: welcome, drive through please. OK, I close my window, drive a little bit further until the gate and wait patiently…. Nothing happens. Grrr…… I put my car into reverse, drive back a little bit, push the button again and tell this guy that nothing’s happening. “Please take the card out m’am, and the gate will open automatically”. Why didn’t he tell me before? Did I miss something there? I take out the card and miraculously the gate opens…. Inside, I have trouble finding a parking place with the name of the company I’m visiting. It’s Cisco all over the place. Finally, I’m so sick of it, I park my car in a Cisco place. What the heck, nobody will know anyway!

After having parked my car, I walk to the entrance of the building. That is to say, what I think is the building. I cannot go in, and nearly bump into 2 glass doors. OK, push the button again, tell the man whom you’re coming to see and that’s it. The man at the intercom (the same one?) explains that I’m at the wrong entrance. Grrr……. I follow his directions to the right building, push the button and the doors open. I want to walk straight ahead to the elevators, but the glass doors won’t open for me. To the right I see another elevator, this one must be especially for visitors. And yes, I can go the ground floor with it. But I’m supposed to go to the 6^th floor!! At the ground floor a man (the same one?) tells me that I need to change elevators.

Finally, I reach the offices where I have my appointment. There are about 12 people in the room sitting at a large table, waiting for me. I am the last one to arrive….