bullets

The last days in keywords
(or a cheap blog-trick to post a new item without inspiration to write)

• I still love Daan
• De Nachten
• Tedious Tension
• Uncle’s in Action
• How’s my French?
• Petrol still rocks
• Lazy Sunday (no explanation necessary i pressume)
• Should old acquaintances…

happy as a child

Last weekend we had with our regular bunch of old class-mates our new-years party (i guess as long as January is not over yet, so you can still call it newyearsparty); and one of the highlights of the evening was without a doubt the 5 Euro presents we bought for each other...
Although by definition useless and worth, well at the most 5 euros, it's such fun and such a laugh to make/give/open them... with lots of ooohs and aaaahs and applause, items such as pig-shaped-lighters, light-torches that you have to charge by shaking, funny picture-frames, mosquito-traps (to make a mosquito-fur-coat), and a breakfast-package. The latter was received by me and would have been very handy on Sunday-morning, if I would have not forgotten it in the trunk of my friends car who drove us to the party… such a shame :-)

Powerbabe

Finally, everything is in place... Finally the right software has been delivered... And finally I can attach my new keyboard which I already used, to the big machine. And I am happy as a little boy that just got its new toys... yes, ladies and gentlemen, my company is now the owner of a brand new, state-of-the-art, top range model graphic PC from a very well known brand is now standing in front of me...

It flows and it goes, faster than anyone can imagine... the new software - the full Adobe Creative suite and Macromedia Studio - is in full charge... I customised all settings, to perfect my powerbabe... so let the marketing-activities begin! (or continue to be more accurate).

on a more personal level, we managed – although I really really really didn’t feel like it - to go swim for the second time yesterday and it felt really good – amazing (especially to me) how some physical exercise can do wonders.

There is another fascinating thing that a friend send me today, but I think I will blog about it later, because I really should do something bigger with it, than just putting it on my blog… so keep your eyes open.

let's go...

Well, it’s back in the office this week. And that after two weeks of absolutely doing nothing, hanging around, sleeping late… and on the good side: I really felt energized by this hibernation period. Only pity that this supplemental energy only lasted about a day :-s

During my two weeks holiday, I also discovered something new. Sure, I knew that it was there, but I never could be bothered to really look at it. In need for something intellectually challenging on television (hard to find at 2 o’clock at night) I put on the dvd of one of my all time favourite movies “Gosford Park”. I looked at the extra-features-menu and I suddenly saw “Director’s commentary on/off”. I never thought I could watch an entire movie listening to a director and producer talking about their movie, but it was really interesting… especially with this movie, which has so many storylines and details in it… It made me only appreciate the film and this great moviemaker, who unfortunately recently died, even more…

Tonight, since all Newyears-resolutions must start someday (and as per definition probably end in the nearby future as well), we will have our already third attempt tonight to go swimming (first attempt: swimming pool closed, second attempt: strike of the swimming-pool-employees)! In order to help our motivation, we this time solemnly pledged to go for drinks afterwards…

jetlag

I seem to undergo a very particular strange side-effect of my two weeks holiday (which is finishing end of this week, and is in the same time the main reason for the low blog activity); jet-lag... without flying! because of some parties last week, and because i can sleep all day, my bio-rhythm seems to have shifted from a day to a night rhythm… usually I wouldn’t care much, but tomorrow I have an all important date at 10 o’clock in Brussels… I just hope I will wake up on time; today – to prepare myself, I got up at noon J

Good intentions for 2007? In a bit of a drunken state of mind, I commited myself to go and swim every week with some friends… A bit of more physical exercise (isn’t that number one of New Year’s resolutions?) can do wonders, no? so tonight, hopefully if all works out well, we go and swim…

on tour

Let me describe you a life that one (and probably especially me) could easily get used to for a while: sleeping in fancy hotels, getting up (very) late (missed breakfast almost every day) a relax walk in a new town, a bit of shopping, hanging round with the choir-friends, being driven to the concert venue, having dinner, doing a show for about 8 to 10 000 people every night, back to the hotel, talking and drinking in the hotel bar, having fun, laughing… this was in short my week, last week...

and then bang suddenly thrown back into this grey reality, behind the desk on a cold morning at the construction company… Needless to say that the shock was enormous. One week was way to short and I am very glad that after next Friday I will have two weeks of holiday again…

Who can find me a job where I get paid to be sociable, sleeping late and be together with interesting people?

and again, it's friday

yup, as you can read, today monday is friday again!
at least for me! (sorry, couldn't resist)... tomorrow i'll be leaving for a week to Germany to sing with the choir on the proms; Bremen, Dortmund, Dusseldorf and Köln.



in the mean time i have to get through this last day today and make sure that i finnish some urgent tasks. This weekend a decorator has given our office a christmas-make-over. In the big reception-hall there is - instead of a big christmas three - a big branch with some decoration in it... i must say it looks a bit... tacky... and then upstairs, on my workfloor - it looks like a winter-wonderland, or a christmas-market, with, let me count, no more than 7 christmas threes (on at each island) and 14 christmas-y plants... a bit over the top, but it changes the environment, which is fun...

i don't know how soon i will be able to update this weekend, but i promise to do my best, and hopefully post a picture or two from the adventures in germany!

i'm dreaming of a...

Tell me, tell me! When is it going to be colder? Cold as in, freezing cold, ice-cold, super-cali-freeze-illistic cold – I’m in such a desperate need for gloves, scarves, hats, hot chocolates, snow flakes, open fires… and minus degrees! Minus degrees would probably kill as well all those germs and viruses currently nestled in half the population’s bodies, not the least all those germs occupying me at the time… I would finally be rid of this slumbering, underlying, not really breaking through, immensely annoying and hugely irritating cold…

On a professional note: this week I have lost another battle about the infamous border(less) logo. Although my boss agreed, after a restyling-session from our ad-agency a couple of months ago, to have a logo without the border, he has made sure that – against my will – some new trucks will have the old logo with border…

On a cultural note: I go to see a dance-performance tomorrow, directed by the great choreographer Maurice Bejart, called ‘L’Amour - La Danse’ which gives an overview of the best romantic scenes from Bejart’s work.

On a friendship-note: I wish you all a great weekend!

Mama

Last weekend we went to a screening of a short movie of Sissi, a friend of ours (M’s sister-in-law-to-be); The movie, called ‘mama’, depicts the wedding of a young couple, but the only thing missing at the wedding is the mother of the bride. Not to let her mother spoil her wedding, the bride leaves the church to find her mum. It’s a great short movie, we saw it in a group of six shorts and ‘mama’ was definitely the best of them all. Sissi Seifert will definitely be a name to remember!




Now a busy period has started, busy full of parties, gatherings and next week on tour with the proms. I still am a bit cold-ish and it does not seem to have the intention to go away and the lack of sleep does not help a lot for the healing process. Last night, I had, since long, again a rehearsal with the band I’m in; but I forgot to take my keyboard, but after a smart suggestion of my mum, I ended up playing my old (little) accordion; which, I must say, was fun to do (I don’t know if the other band members enjoyed the noise as much as I did);

For the blog-question for today? Did Sinterklaas brought something to you today? For the nice kids? At our office, we all got a little bag with candy and an email from the good man (he apparently works for our company, because he has the email-address sinterklaas@mycompany.be :-)

Office Breakfast

Office breakfast this morning: chocolate and mint tea and birthday-cake from a colleague... mmm

higher...

Last Friday we went out with some friends to go and eat in the famous (or notorious?) Chicago Tower on the left bank of our famous Antwerp river. The cultural organisation “Antwerpen Open” organised its “Higher/Plus Haut”-festival about all the different towers in Antwerp. In this residential tower, you could go and have dinner with a family that lives in this building, usually people not originating from Belgium. We ended up with a very nice and friendly Pakistani family, that moved two years ago to Belgium. At first we were all very uncomfortable but once seated and the delicious food arrived, we exchanged our ‘life’-experiences. Needless to say that they had a lot more to talk about than us spoiled little brags…

Afterwards we were invited by the organisation to go and have dessert on the 25th floor of this building. There you had the most amazing view on the town – really breathtaking… Antwerp from a very different perspective.

I think – and here’s another one of my theories – that a town, in order to have a common sense of identity, very much needs a place where it can have an overview of the town from above. A sort of geographical high-point from where to look and admire the town that also can function as a reference point. Barcelona has its mountains, Edinburgh has Arthur’s Seat and the Castle, Berlin has its television tower, the Eiffel tower in Paris… Cities that lack this geographical overview are difficult for me to really love, like London, that I really love visiting, but I never can get an overview (maybe that’s just me or its size); or Brussels which misses this reference point as well…

Further highlights of the weekend, I hear you ask? New shoes that immediately turned into great dancing shoes on the after-party of the Proms in Rotterdam. Because of this, I unfortunately missed Sarah’s birthday party, but I promised myself to make it up to her this week by inviting her for dinner, although she does not know yet… on Sunday, not much happened because the effects of too much champagne kicked in and the only thing I saw on Sunday was the sofa and the TV…

type-it

It’s funny how little things in life can make a big difference (or actually I believe it's not so strange, because i think that’s what life is about, the little things, but that is a philosophical story for another time)…

in a few days/weeks from now I will be working, here at my job, on my brand new, monster-PC-Power-machine. But for now, I have to settle with its keyboard (which already arrived) I plugged it into my old pc and, well… they might as well have kept the new pc and just bought me only a new keyboard! It’s such a pleasure to type on it… and it looks great as well… I am still wondering if I should use the wrist-support or not… I think it looks better without, but probably for my wrists it’s better to have it on.

ah anyway, with these happy feelings, I’ll type myself into this new weekend! Hurray!

Oh when the saints

Happy Musicians -day!!

According to the catholic-saints-calendar (as was being pointed out to me by my nephew K. who is in the appropriate position to tell me these things), today is Saint Cecilia, which is – as I remember well from my days when I went to the brass band in my hometown - the saint for all musicians. The brass band was named after Saint Cecilia (as almost every other brass band in Catholic Flanders I imagine).


So to all musicians out there: Congratulations! And maybe a good day today to – as I learned from Sarah – for the lurking and non-lurking people to tell 1. me what kind of music you like, 2. if you play an instrument and 3. what your favourite song in the world is!

My answers?

1. Nick Cave is my absolute God
2. I played the trumpet for more than 15 years and also play a bit of piano/keyboard
3. Into My Arms from who else than Nick Cave

so what about you?

a minor confession

His music is perfect, every single one of his songs is a hit,
His albums are pure pleasure, his presence is astounding, he is a true entertainer,
his arrogance on stage is so over the top that it becomes addictive to watch.
Every time I hear his music on the radio, I smile and feel good,
he is also an advertising-guy and a is genius, he is from Belgium,
he is the 'player', he is DAAN!

(this very positive mood might be triggered by the fact that it is Friday, the sun is shining and this weekend I’ll go with the friends on a weekend-trip to the Netherlands! Hurray)

Hair...

Dylan, my godchild 1 year! hurray!

when I look at this picture i find it a bit curious – I haven’t got as much remarks on the length of my hair as I did in earlier days when it had reached the length it has now (as a matter of fact, I think it has not been this long ever). I got the first remark today at my job from a colleague, but besides that, nada! I never can seem to find the time to go to the hairdresser.

The fact that my hairdresser is located in my hometown near Brussels and that I refuse to change hairdresser, because it’s one of my best friends doesn’t help making things easier concerning my hair.

And on a psychological note, longer hair hides my ever worsening receding hairline… a sensitive issue for the male ego... So my hair is long now… and I must confess, a bit beyond the point where I can deal with it on a normal way…

hmm, i have succeeded in getting an appointment this Thursday… what do you think, short or let it grow a bit longer still?

verdict...

First: thanks for the many reactions to the previous post (also for the mailers – I just wonder, is there a cure for blog-comment-fear?) The solution or the verdict might be however a bit of an anti-climax. There is a bit more context (as always) to this situation;

Then: Maybe you would like to know my own humble position in this story: My choice is the one WITHOUT the black frame. And – here’s the pun - actually my boss’s choice as well, since we agreed on this matter already almost a month ago – when the ad-agency came up with their propositions – and after some consideration and serious convincing we choose the borderless logo!



In the past the logo used to have a border but with the new corporate style we agreed to get rid of it and the first headed paper with borderless logo is leaving the company as we speak.

However this whole with-or-without-border-discussion came up again when I had to order something trivial as stickers; My boss feels that, in case of the stickers, the logo needs its border (for its place in space or something). But I have always learned that uniformity is the only ticket to go to marketing-heaven, so I said, "no border!" And then he calls ME persistent and stubborn… but in this case, I am proud to be called that way!

With or Without...

Ok guys, I really need your help this time, from everybody!

The Introduction: at my job here, I am in conflict with my boss - it's not that i am about to be fired - but we have an esthetical disagreement, an it turns out to be a very sensitive issue. And yes, I can halfway understand his arguments and find it sometimes hard to defend mine, since they are based on subjective feelings and (good?) taste…

The problem : we recently have redesigned our corporate logo, together with the help of our advertising agency but there is one thing where my boss can't seem to live with (and I find it on my turn very hard to live with the opposite). I won't tell you what my preference is, not to influence your opion. As marketing-guy I am responsible for all good use of the logo, on t-shirts, cars, paper, folders, etc. and this disagreement doesn't make my job a whole lot easier...

The Question: So please tell me, which of these two logo's do you like the most! (you can immediately see about what our opinions differ... with our without...)

exit: this way please

Curious how a good night sleep can effect my mood – well ok, that is not so curious, since it is a common known fact. But yesterday – after a perfect meal at A’s - I went to bed – people who know me please attend a position of absolute amazement and shock before reading the following: – a few minutes before 10:30 pm! That has not happened since… I can’t remember when I went to bed that early… my mind works ten times faster, I don’t need the amounts of coffee I usually do, the sun is shining (do you think I can effect the weather by sleeping well?)

And it has done me good. Not all the microbes that considered my body their new home the last days have left, but enough to get me through the day (I hope)! (I think most of them have left through my nose, because there is still some congestion going on at the moment)

Good timing anyway, because tonight starts the last serious of three performances of the proms – which is a pity because I really came to enjoy the shows. After this weekend the circus moves to Rotterdam, where I normally have no shows (I am in the reserve section) and then after Rotterdam to Germany, where I will sing too a couple of days, somewhere mid December...

The Black Dahlia

So I went to see the latest De Palma movie, ‘The Black Dahlia’ yesterday. After installing ourselves in our very wobbly seats (for extra 3D-movement effect? or did they just needed repairing?) we were transferred back to the glamorous post-war Los Angeles in the late 40’s. In a style that strongly reminded me of LA Confidential and of course, more logically The Untouchables (because also from De Palma) this is a typical genre-movie – a “whodunit”-detective-story (think Cluedo) and has all the usual ingredients: good cop-bad cop, glamour girls, prostitutes, millionaires, crazy housewives, servants, crooks, the works!

It’s not a spectacular movie and I maybe expected a more ‘modern’ style from De Palma, but it is a good movie with a strong story, with as inspiration the murder of the infamous Elizabeth Short. Starring Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson and Hilary Swank, this movie has the (young and fresh) talent it needs to bring this story alive… and you better watch out for those few scary bits in the movie that make you hide your eyes but still peep through to see what is going on :-)
(the smiley has a cruel double-entendre if you go and see the movie…)

Oh oh, yes we also saw the poster for a new movie coming out soon, called Babel, with two of my favourites : the best actress in the world Cate Blanchett and the Mexican beauty of Gael Garcia Bernal.

Hungry Eyes

"I’ve been meaning to tell you, i’ve got this feeling that won’t subside…"

:-)


Unfortunately the feeling this morning is mainly in my stomach… I’m always very hungry round 10-11ish and I always always always forget to take something from home… usually to satisfy this internal feeling I walk to our coffee-booth on the workfloor where there are chocolate ‘mignonets’ (if you want it to pronounce as I prefer to – you should call them mignognejtjjjes)– but since last Thursday – oh great disaster – no more of them!

And all this is no great help to my up-and-coming cold. I feel a bit sniffy and my head feels a bit heavier than usual on Monday-mornings. What can one do to prevent this cold from actively gaining ground? Or is it too late? And don't tell me to get more sleep, because I just can’t seem to be able to go to bed before a decent hour… and it won't be the case tonight either because I’ll go with Jan to the premiere of ‘The Black Dahlia’…