Desk-Art

Desktop art... ever wondered how somebody's desk migh look like? Mine for instance?



freezing today in Edinburhg... I thought (hoped) that the city's white cover was a direct result from snowfall, but it turned out to be 'merely' a layer of frost... heavy frost...
but the effect was as astonishingly beautiful as it would have been with snow...

toothy

Well, i had a great weekend, with Gijs visiting - always fun to break the winter-calm! Although i did not participate in the adventurous "chain-walk" in Largos (because I had to work) and neither in the mountaineering trip on the three sisters in Glen Coe (because I was too plain lazy), it was a fab weekend, with yesterday (and today) a clear blue sky and lots of sunshine!








Yesterday i had a sudden heavy toothache, very very bad, which made me go to the emergency dental clinic, with as a verdict either pulling the damaged tooth or letting it repair asap...
Me, i don't like dentists...

prepare to burn(s)

busy days!... I decided to organise tomorrow evening a Burns Dinner, a traditional Scottish party to commemorate the birthday of Robert Burns, the famous Scottish poet and writer.
A typical Burns dinner consists of eating Haggis, bagpipe music and reciting poems…

I have invited more or less 10 guests, and with Joris back in Belgium for a couple of days, all preparations are in my (hopefully) capable hands. I started this weekend with preparations – downloading celtic and scots music, yesterday I made the cock-a-leekie soup and tonight I will prepare the Cranachans (dessert).

Today i bought my potatoes and turnip (“raap” in dutch) to go with the Haggis. I will post some pics later this week with the outcome (if our kitchen isn’t burned down because of my cooking skills)

Which reminds me that my good friend Sarah send me this link to this great fashionable cooking website to do with potatoes (tatties as we like to call them here)! Enjoy

My kinda town

I love Edinburgh:

• the flag on St. John's Church on Princess Street
• Edinburgh Castle
• Late night shopping (with 24 hrs supermarket)
• the view from my office
• saying “thanks” to the bus-driver
• lots of international people (probably because of being foreigner myself)
• Dean Village
• Meeting lots of new people
• The Highlands at the backdoor
• The river/sea
• Free digital television
• Speaking English (or something that looks like it)
• Getting visitors from Belgium
• The weather (not being funny!)
• Being a foreigner

What I would change in Edinburgh:

• Move my entire family/friends to here
• The barley/hops smell from the brewery
• The banking system
• The high accommodation prices
• The we-don’t-give-change-on-Lothianbuses policy
• Leith scum trashing my car... 4 times
• Girls wearing summer tops on freezing cold winter nights on the street
• Over-expensive trains
• Pub- and restaurant chains
• The unavoidable “where are you from – how long have you been here” conversation

Discover Your Voice and Sing

I am trying to find a nice evening course here in Edinburgh, so I could spend an evening or two during the week with something useful/interesting. I was thinking about something either musical or something technical (website design, PHP) or something historical.
I found a few courses that I found interesting... What about :

Discover Your Voice and Sing! If you were told at school that you couldn't sing - now's the time to prove them wrong!This course is designed to help you develop your voice and enjoy singing with others. The class is relaxed, confidence building and fun.

or

Write Your Own Pop Song


Nice?

My Personal God

Anybody who knows me a little bit, knows that I am a huge fan of Nick Cave. It all started when I studied in Leuven and my housemate Stijn introduced me to this dark and mysterious artist. I immediately fell in love with the gloomy ballads on the Boatman's Call and the morbid Murder Ballads.

So far I have seen Nick Cave perform three times, and three times in a different country; in Belgium, London and once in Chicago – the last one was by far the best one of the three. Three encore-sessions ending in a crazy version of Stagger Lee…

His concert in Edinburgh will be – what he calls - a “solo performance”, so not with the Bad Seeds and hence more intimate and less noisy, although he will take with him his violin player, plus bass and drum. It is not certain – however – that I will be going to see him here in Edinburgh, since I was too late for tickets and now I have to join the bidding-frenzy on Ebay… wish me luck!

I like Europe

i probably have said this before, but i really love europe and - despite all its difficulties and troubles - I am still very much in favour of a bigger, better and more powerful Europe!

Especially here in the UK I feel that people need a change in attitude. In the press, on television or just in day to day conversation they always talk about we, UK (or Scotland) and THEM - Europe - the others... so they do not consider themselves as European - even among travellers here in Edinburgh (lots of backpackers choose to work in Edinburgh for a few months because of the good wages and the low unemployment rate) they say "did you travel in Europe already" whilst meaning continental europe... Of course the island-mentality will always be present with the Brittons... but still... Or am I just a loner with my pro-europe-feelings? What about you?

and just in case you should doubt what Europe ever has done for us... click on the following link to find out!

Rome

There are not many television shows these days that made want to stay at home, except for one... The BBC has broadcast these last weeks (yesterday was the last episode of the series alas) a historical drama series about the life in ancient Rome with the rise of Julius Caesar at its heart.





The power of the series lies in its combination of sublime acting, clever storylines and the mix of historical facts with personal drama and passion. Adding a fair amount of humour, sexy scenes and a wee bit of violence, "Rome" had everything a good television show needs...

I am still reading a book about Queen Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots, and struggling my way through the last chapters, i am beginning to look forward maybe reading something more about the history of Rome... History has always appealed to me and especially if I have a visual aide to help me making this sometimes dry history a bit more plastic. In the same that my interest in Queen Elizabeth started by seeing the movie Elizabeth and living in Scotland, I just feel that my next project might be Rome... and Italy is already long time on my holiday-destination-list...

if you want to know more, a few links for the surfing crowd :

BBC ROME
HBO ROME

... and a happy 2006

to you all a Happy 2006!

The year has started with a minor cold - sniffing my way through New Year's eve (I still managed to go to the 2ManyDJ's gig here in Edinburgh on Thursday, one of Belgians hippest export-products)

Yesterday-night we celebrated first at our place with some champagne together with Audrey, Patrick and Ann who is visiting from Belgium. And afterwards we went to the restaurant in town to have dinner and afterwards the party in the bar...

I am a bit curious to find out what 2006 will bring... might be a year of big changes again, but we have to wait and find out... and in the mean time: ENJOY !!!