Merry Christmas

Well, my good friends :

a MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE

Winter Solstice

Today, my good friends, it is official the Winter Solstice - which means that it is the longest night-shortest day. So on the positive side : days will only get longer as from today... (do I already feel a touch of spring coming?)

Today we had a Christmas lunch together with some European-instution-offices here in Edinburgh (all two or three people offices - so it's nice to have the lunch together). The food was lovely and we had some wine and it took us untill 16 pm to get back to the office, so just in time to check the last mails, update the blog and go home!

It was again a beautiful sunny day and i know i always seem to rant on about it, but that is because it has such a positive effect on me. also because we are one floor higher - with a spectacular view (and lots more natural sunlight coming in) we (my boss and me) do not seem to feel as "depressed" (in the most light way of the word) by this dark winter-time...

and just as a demonstration as to how cheery we decorated our christmas tree, you can the see the photographic evidences here below! Merry Christmas everybody!

the music-box of Pandora

ok, i officially started the Kristof-is-in-the-xmass-mood-festive-season... i felt i was missing out on all the xmass fun - i still haven't had the time to visit the edinburgh xmass-winter-wonderland and german christmas-market... So i decided to take some action. Starting with my office : my background picture now is the most cheesy christmas-backgroung i could find (other suggestions are always welcome, i like to change)

And a new website i found is www.pandora.com which is i think a great thing. You give in a song or artist you like and the site creates a "internet-radio" with music of the same "nature" as your favourite style/song/artist... and if you type in for instance "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" then you can listen for ever and ever to all the favourite Christmas carols... which - i must admit - I have been doing since this morning...

I just read on the internet news that Fairy Tale In New York from the Pogues was elected in The Netherlands as most favourite xmas carol... but i had never heard of it... so what are your favorite Christmas carols?

victorious

Yesterday night, i ended up in a new pub here in Edinburgh, the Southsider - to pre-celebrate the birthday of Jodi - an australian girl i got to now during the catering sessions on saturdays with Helene's company. (Jodi's official bday party is on saturday btw). It was interesting to talk with her australian friends, and so i discovered that Aussies don't really have different dialects per region - which i found (boring as it may sound) highly interesting...

We also played a couple of games of - and now i have no idea how to say this in english - "table-football"! A game of which i am not a great fan because back in Belgium, all of my friends with whom i played it before, would always win... but yesterday luck was on my side - my great skills and the superb technique lead me to a glorious victory (or more probable : the fact that the three australian people probably never ever in their life played this game before helped a lot as well...)

Now it's looking forward to the xmas holidays. I have one week holidays between christmas and new year. Joris's mum will be visiting, as well as two friends from Belgium (will stay one night) and our good friend Ann is joining us for the Hogmanay celebrations! huray! let the party-season begin... (but not yet, because tonight and tomorrow night i am working with Joris in the restaurant)...

Wall to Wall

what a day today... at least if you are sitting inside behind a window... as my boss would say (and probably it is a very common expression) : wall to wall blue skies... not a single cloud hanging over Edinburgh today... very nice... the only down-part : i have got to shut the curtains here in the office because otherwise i cannot see my screen... (is that really necessary?)

Did a lot of cleaning this weekend and Karine moved out, so we have our spare room again... it is a bit weird because she has been living with us for a while now, and the room has lost its previous function, so it is a bit lifeless now...

i would like to make a whole chicken in the oven tonight, but have not really an idea how to start... i checked some internet-pages but nothing inspired me... i want to do something with lemon, lots of garlic an fresh herbs... all tips are welcome!

Back in Town

Well it is good and strange to be back in Edinburgh after one month of holidays... and a lot of things have happened during that month...
My sister gave birth to a healthy boy, Dylan, but you have read that already of course. I met up with lots of friends and family, went to lots of parties, met new people, had unexpected meetings with old friends, I played with my old band “kabaal” again (still feels great – I really miss to play in a band), went to see my old colleagues, had a mission with my boss in Brussels and we went to a reception organised by Scotland in the European Parliament… loads of very nice things… last weekend I came back and I immediately started working in alli’s restaurant, together with Joris, who is unfortunately having some back-problems…
It was a great month in Belgium, but yesterday-night it felt also good to be back in Edinburgh, Xmass-feeling is in full swing, the relaxed meetings with friends, Edinburgh castle…

it's a boy !

oh finally i get some time to update my weblog... and since i am here a lot of things have happened already, and of course the most important one : my sister gave birth to DYLAN, my god-child (or how do you say that in english...)
The baby is doing fine, is very healthy, weighs 3.8 kg and is very peaceful and quiet...
His website (in dutch) you can find here

Almost Home

Well, days are getting a lot shorter, nights a lot longer... thank god Idon't have to work in November :-)

Been doing, well, actually nothing this week. a bit of sightseeing with friends of Joris, sleeping late, catching a little flu, and now this weekend starting to pack my things to prepare for the big journey... next Tuesday Joris and I are leaving for London, to be present at the Flanders Remembers Concert organised by the Flemish Representation in London. Then on Wednesday I travel on direction Brussels and Joris returns to Edinburgh. Oh yes, the restaurant will re-open soon! Ali has bought the restaurant together with the former Chef, which means that Joris will probably work in the restaurant! So everything seems to work out at last... and it seems we have a spot again to meet all those wonderful people!
next I will be blogging it will probably be from Belgium!

Pink Martini

I know Pink Martini almost exactly 5 years now, since I was studying in Finland with Maria – who introduced me to this amazing band. They are an eclectic mix of musicians, with their main base in Portland, USA. Although the band is centred around the pianist (could be the lost son of Elton John) and the diva-style singer, every musician has its moment of glory and contributes to the unique sound of this band. They bring a mix of traditional folk songs from around the world, not afraid to perform songs in Italian, French and even Japanese, combined with their own jazzy songs.

So yesterday night they were here in Edinburgh, and all dressed up in true Pink Martini-style (or at least something we think that is) we (that is my new friends Audrey and Jodi from New Zealand and Australia and Patrick) went to see them performing in Usher Hall. And they rather easily lived up the (high raised) expectations… I was a bit worried, because I had almost dragged the others to the concert – none of them really knew what they were up to… but it turned out really really well… Maybe just a bit too short… and I wished Maria was here to enjoy it with me... and joris off course as well, since i hooked him up with Pink Martini as well... ah...

On The Move

The last two days we - I really should say I - have been moving offices... we are moving one floor up to our new office. Main advantages: windows! Whereas we now only have one little window, with my desk as far from the window as possible, we will have one wall of windows, with my bosses desk and mine each next to this wall... and the view...ah the view is wonderful... we will oversee the south-west-side of the city, with its beautiful Pentland Hills and can even see Murrayfield Stadium... I will try to post a picture as soon as possible! and now: back to the boxes

Corpse Bride

What a weekend… on Friday night… hmm… on Friday night I… hmm… can’t seem to remember what I did on Friday… oh yes… it all comes back to me now… falling asleep in front of the television with Amelie Poulin… nice very nice

On Saturday, after an excruciating work-out in the gym, I had some drinks at Emilie’s place and then went out with Patrick. Sunday then… aaah sometimes I really love Sundays… doing absolutely nothing… sitting/hanging/sleeping in the couch in front of the television… the only reason worth leaving the house was to go and see Corpse Bride, the new animation film from Tim Burton.

Now before I continue I must confess one thing: I have never seen “The Nightmare Before Christmass” … shame on me… I hear that it’s a classic animation film…
Anyway, lured by the prospect of seeing… euhm… hearing Johnny Depp play alongside this wonderful crew of British actors such as Emilie Watson en Helena Bonham Carter, I found myself watching this new movie.

And I really liked it. It has everything what in my eyes a good animation needs: a good story, going from a to b, a playful musical score and lots of witty humour. But (yes there it is, the “but”) the creators seem to fail in one aspect, but rather an important one. They seem to fail to create empathy. And this I think has two main reasons.

First of all I think the movie is too short… by the time you really get to know the characters and come to like them, the whole thing is over.

But more importantly the story seems not able to decide with which character to sympathize… should you feel sorry for Victor (yes, that’s Johnny Depp) who accidentally marries a dead woman? Or for Victoria (a tribute to Victor and Victoria) who looses her fiancée to a skeleton? or maybe for the Corpse Bride because she cannot seem to get the love she so longed for…? As a result you seem to watch the whole film as an neutral outsider, who can enjoy all the things he sees, but wonders why actually he is watching…

But on the whole, a very entertaining film though, maybe something to rent as a dvd and watch on a rainy Sunday…

oh bugger

aargh... am very moody and grumpy this morning... i discovered (while already being late for work) that the window of my car got smashed... again. It is (if I at least didn't lost count) the fourth time they have smashed our car window. Now our street is notoriously located on the edge of a bit a rougher area in Edinburgh... but four times… and nothing is stolen, just for the fun of smashing… at least there was a little police notice on the car that they had noticed and to call them to make a statement… just what you need on a dull Tuesday morning isn’t it…

closing time

A thing happened last Friday night and it left all of my friends here in Edinburgh a bit homeless... our favourite bar where we all met up every weekend (and during the week as well), which had the best Thai food in town (in the neighbouring restaurant section) has closed down... On friday afternoon I heard from my friend that that night would be the last one...

A great pity, because the bar was our meeting place, where, since June this year a lot of sociable events have been taken place. We got to know Matthieu and Leslie, Maite, Rory, the people from BBC Scotland, the Scotsman, the regular guests, some artists (and free tickets) during the festival period, Mam and Cheng, Thomas, Kat, Sarah, Karlos, Morgan, too many people to sum them all up.

So where do we have to meet now? Where can we find a new bar, with the same privacy we had, with the same cheap beer and the same cool people? Difficult...

dance the night away...

Katrien and Elise have left Edinburgh today... a bit of a shame that the weather just these days was so awful, because for tomorrow they say it is going to be a lovely time. Anyway, it wouldn't be Scotland if the weather was always sunny and nice...

Tomorrow night I can go to the gig from Soulwax/2ManyDJs in Edinburgh. A friend of Joris has put me on the guest list because she knows the sound engineer. It should be pretty exciting, but the only down-part is that it is not really a gig, but more like a upgraded-live-performed-dj-set and that usually means: late at night… and since I will be working on Friday and Saturday evening for Alli…

Tonight I am going to the gym again (damn I should be going more often…) and then afterwards drink away the rain at Alli’s bar…

and so this is xmass...

The big master plan 2005/2006 has unveiled itself... the time of being decisionless (as being described in a former posting called “being Edinburgh”) is finally over… at least until spring 2006.
So what is the outcome? Well, we will stay a bit longer in Edinburgh but I arranged with my employer that I don’t have to work during November. (a gap of a month between my two yearly contracts) so no pay, but no work either! That means that I can be with my family when my sister gives birth to her third child of which I will be godfather (or –mother as some dare to say)… I am very excited to go back to Belgium to meet my family and friends again.

December will then be a very short month, with only three months to go until Christmas holidays… and then the new year begins… time just flies by… Merry Xmass and a Happy New Year!

ain't no mountain high enough

Last weekend we went up again to the highlands with two visiting friends. It was already a while ago since I travelled all the way up to the Glen Coe Region in the Highlands. And although very cloudy and a bit rainy, it thought it was a beautiful day and it showed the Scottish nature in all its splendour.

Again some very eventful days are ahead of us; this morning our friends left Edinburgh, tomorrow Joris is leaving for three weeks to work in France with a theatre company and next weekend two other friends are visiting me. Then in November - assuming that Brussels HQ will give its authorisation – I will have a one month holiday (I will leave a month between my old contract and my new contract) and will head for Belgium to visit my friends and family and more importantly be present for the birth of my sisters new baby, for which I will be godfather!

Have a Break

These last weeks I have found out that actually I am getting rather addicted to KitKat's... It all started a month or two ago, seeing a friend eating the chocolate-crunchy-biscuit and thinking... hmm.. how did that taste again? And it all ended at sneaking out the office around 11 (and round 15 o'clock again if the need was really high) to go to the shop and buy a KitKat. And although Joris brought a 5 kg bag of Chocotoffs (oh my all time favourites!) back from Belgium, still the KitKat-temptation has not dissapeared.... Don't you just love chocolate! ok and now time for a break... time for a...

back in town

after their week in the highlands, Joris and Wendy returned to Edinburgh today - leaving Ruud behind at Prestwick Airport for his travel back to Belgium. Today I granted myself a little bit of an extended lunch break and I went to have lunch with Joris and Wendy in the Baxter's Shop in Ocean's Terminal with view over the Forth... very nice indeed, although my motivation to work this afternoon has gone down... but it is Friday, so a few more hours and the weekend can begin!

practicalities...

after a convenient bank holiday yesterday, I experience my monday-morning mood on a Tuesday. only advantage is that the working-week will be over sooner!

Joris, Wendy and Ruud left the house this morning round 6 o'clock (i guess, because - of course - i was still sleeping) to go on their trip to the Highlands with as target the Orkney Islands. Pity that i cannot join them (no holidays left) but fortunately the nice sun in town here in town eases this feeling a little bit. Had a bit of a crazy weekend, with - i seem only to recall - lots of eating and parties...

Did a lot of thinking as well this weekend and, step-by-step, the big "masterplan for the 2005-2006" is shaping itself... but before I give away too much clues about what might happen, I need to figure out some more practicalities to make this plan work...

J-Day

J-Day today... The weather-gods are celebrating with me the return of Joris on this beautiful Island this morning by giving us a clear blue sky, but rather cold temperatures (feels more like a nice december-morning or so). Joris will be accompanied by Wendy and Ruud. Tonight I arranged to meet up with Joris's old collegues in Alli's restaurant.... Monday is bank holiday here so probably we will go out on a excursion somewhere in the highlands... hurray!

Funky Monday

Although still not having slept enough the last weekend, I feel rather chirpy and lively this morning. And that for a Monday-morning! Great! The nice sunshine outside might be a bit of obvious reason, but also perhaps - and more certain - the fact that joris will be back by the end of the week!

Although it is a pity that last weekend I had to say goodbye to my new (but rather short-term) friends Sarah and Karlos, who stayed with me since I was in Belgium. I will see them later this week one more time before they leave to a big trip around the world... It was great to have those two young enthusiastic, nice people around me. Not that it has been quieter now, because Alexander and Ellen are visiting me and also their company is very much enjoyable! Saturday night we ate out at Erawan's and yesterday we did a sight-seeing tour in the Highlands (Loch Lomond, up to Callander, through Stirling and back to Edinburgh) - Which reminds me that i will try to put a little movie online soon from my new rock band where I - very surprisingly - play the jumping-guitar!

I also managed to put some pictures online from my Joris' Bday party, some weeks ago already. if you click on this incredibly cool picture (?) you will be brought to the pics and hopefully have a good look&laugh!

private dancer...

it's been a quiet week this week. I enjoy the company of my two guests who are currently living with my, untill sunday. It's Sarah from Australia and Karlos from Barcelona, they're a couple and untill two weeks ago they had been living in a youth hostel here in Edinburgh. I discovered that a lot of people live for long periods in a youth hostel and if you work a couple of hours per day for the hostel, you can live there for free, which i think is a very clever idea.
But as a couple they longed for a bit of private space, which in the dorms in the hostel is a very precious and rare item. And the good thing with them living in my flat is that our time-schedule is very different, so we are not together all the time and we all can have our own time in the flat, but can enjoy a talk in the late evenings together.
The weeks ahead will be filled with sociality as well, with the arrival of Alexander and Ellen on Sateruday, a one-night-sleep-over from Emilie next week and of course the long-waited-for arrival of Joris on Friday the 16th! Hurray!

Musicality

well it has been a very quiet weekend; highlights? friday-night chat with Rosa from Spain, saturday-night at alli's restaurant and sunday the fireworks to celebrate the end of the festival. For that occassion we were invited by a customer of the restaurant to one of his empty office-buildings on the very prestigious Charlotte Square where there supposedly should have been a "designer garden" from where we could watch everything. Supposedly i say because, when we arrived in the building, being late already, we ran up the stairs and up and up and up... untill we found... nothing! no garden, not even windows with good views on the castle... so running back down, on the street up to princess street... I returned home rather quickly after the fireworks and watched with Sarah and Karlos the movie "Gattaca" starring Ethan Hawke and Jude Law... very good movie!

plans for this week? : i am doubting wether to buy a small cheap-mini-keyboard in able to play a bit or to buy a guitar... mini-keyboard would be to "throw away" but would at least keep me going, but a guitar would teach me something new - although i would also have to cope with the frustration of not being able to play on the same level as my piano-skill... i will decide tonight because i need to play again! so if you read this : a small poll : guitar or mini-keyboard?

rain down on me

aah back in Edinburgh and the difference couldn't be bigger... since I arrived in Belgium, the weather improved every day until today 30 degrees Celsius - and now here in Scotland more than 10 degrees colder and grey and rainy...

It is also a bit how I feel after 5 exhausting but exhilarating days in Belgium. And everything went so fast... from sitting at the summerbar with Joris, to visiting friends, seeing my family back, picking up Alli and Emilie at the airport, the crazy birthday-party for Joris (remind me to tell you a story about this event, something truly shocking) a lazy afternoon in Antwerp, crazy party in my hometown...

A visit like this always let me long to go back to live in Belgium; I realise that I get a wrong image during such a travel; everybody is very happy to see you, they make a lot more time for you; but still...

going back to my roots...

and so i'm finally off to Belgium again!



it will be a busy schedule, like always trying to see too many people on too little time...
thursdaynight i am going with Joris to a theatre-play from the summerfestival, called Yerma,

on Friday i go to my old collegues from the company I used to work before I went to Edinburgh and then in the evening to see the new house of a friend near Leuven. On Saturday Alli and Emilie arrive so I will pick them up in the airport and then in the evening we will celebrate both birthdays of Alli and Joris...

Yesterday night and tonigh as well I will finish packing and wrapping in all the presents I have bought/made for Joris and also for my mother (her birthday was last saturday)
really looking forward to this - i know now already - too short a trip!

Will I see you in Belgium?

Love of my life

I want to talk about love, because maybe sometimes you just talk a bit too little about it, maybe you sometimes don't mention it in certain blogs, but it is there, and it is so overwhelming and powerful that on a day-to-day basis it is maybe too obvious, so here is my ode to love.

My love of my life is my friend Joris, and unfortunately he lives at this moment in Belgium, so not here with me in Edinburgh. Needless to say that I miss him very much and that it is very difficult sometimes to be here alone. Also needless to say that making decisions (see "being Edinburgh) is much more complicated and intense.

This thursday I go back again to Belgium to meet him and enjoy the wonderful time of being together; Just enjoying his great sense of humor or him seeing working for the summerfestival gives great satisfaction. It fills me with a great warmth...

And so sometimes you forget to mention this, in conversation or in blogs, and because other people are better with words than I am... so for all people who recognise these feelings, please read carefully

Dark as roses, fine as sand
Feel your healing and your sting again
Hear your laughing and my soul is saved
On forgotten graves you cry
Crawl like ivy up my spine
Through my nerves and into my eyes
Cuts like anguish or recollection
Of better days gone by

But it's alright when you're caught in pain
And you feel the rain come down.
It's alright when you find your way
Then you see it disappear
It's alright though your garden's grayI know all your graces
Someday will flower in a sweet sunshower

Eyes like oceans, so far away
A feather trail to a better way
Worried mornings turn into days
Then into worried nights
But it's alright all you'll be you are today

By Chris Cornell - Sunshower

four movies in one day...

i just had one of those terribly lazy sundays yesterday...and i loved it!



in total i have watched four different movies on television, three of wich i really really enjoyed namely Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (great great movie! really a must-see!), Fairy-Tale:A True Story (with Harvey Keitel, a lovely childrens-movie about well fairies :-s) and the comdy-drama Cookie's Fortune (starring Glenn Close and Julianne Moore)
I also watched the still incredibly funny (ok, this is pseudo-intellectually not correct, but who cares anyway) Police Academy I...

Karine, Emilie and Alli came up to visit, we ate pizzas in front of the tv, even watched X-factor and Big-Brother Revisited (oh my, i just realise I must have watched tv all day...) Patrick and Heike stayed over... so lots of company!

Tonight i am invited at my boss' home to go and have dinner (barbecue) and fix her pc for her son. I am bit excited as she might check my intentions for later on this year... and later this week i am going to Belgium! Finally seeing Joris again!!! and my parents and my sister who must be really really pregnant now... But more about that later!

So which other movies should i watch on such a typical lazy sunday-afternoon (this is for all you out there as a stimulans to post a comment, because i know you are out there somewhere :-) )??

spectacular spectacular

Wow....wow......
I went with the Spanish to a circus-performance yesterday called ImMortal2 by the artistic circus company NoFITstate

it was a long time ago already that i felt so captivated by a performance but yesterday's show really opened again parts of my heart and mind that had been closed for a while. During two hours I was taking away on magical journey through artistic circus and theatresque acrobatics.
I think one of the elements that enhanced this feeling was the fact that it was not a typical circus where you have to sit down and watch the show. In fact in this circus there are no seats at all and you only have to walk around in the big tent and watch the action around you. There is always one main "scene" going on, but all the other actors around interact and perform as well.

There's live, superb music, singing, dancing, humour, anger, love, one very sensual acrobatics act on a rope... aaah I cannot start explaining how good it was, if you can you really should try to go and look for yourself. It transformed me back to antwerp, where this circus could be a top attraction during the yearly Summer of Antwerp Festival, so I told Joris to go and have a look at it, so who knows, maybe next year in Belgium... ImMortal2

a new day...

I went out yesterday with Maria and the Spanish friends who are - still - here in Edinburgh visiting me. We went to Alli's bar where Morgan, our Canadian friend, was playing a little improvised acoustic gig. Lots of young people from Morgan's youth hostel were there. It was also the last night for the two French guys who were visiting Matthieu, a regular in Alli's bar (since I know he is a regular, I think I qualify for the same title) and his lovely girlfriend Leslie.

My Spanish friends and the two French guys seemed to get along very well so after a good while - and bit too much red wine (I think i was blabbering around at the end...) - I left them all behind in the bar and went home. I presume they all went to the Underbelly, but stories still need to be confirmed... and was there maybe a little bit of sparky electricity in the air? we will have to wait untill the spanish awake before we will know...

the show must go on...

what strange times... in one day i had the most devastating experience since long and a few hours later I had the most wonderful experience since long... let me explain :

I came back home from work on monday to find my door of my flat wide open. First thought was that I had left it open when I left, but that thought soon dissapeared when I saw the complete mess in the hallway... burglars... and then it all becomes a bit vague, I don't know which room I checked first but the sheer shock when I entered the spare bedroom : my two pianos were gone... and it seems to be that these two were the only items missing...

If there is anything in the flat with which - by taking it away - one could hurt me the most, it is definitely my piano, or in this case even both of them. They are my creative outlet, my anti-stress therapy and just favourite activity... Off course they are only material items that can be replaced, but it is the damn unpracticality of not being able to play.... Aaaargh

But then on the other side of the emotional scale there was the visit of Maria, my good friend from Barcelona. I met her in Finland where she brought the Spanish warmth in the cold Finnish winter months. We have met not that much after Finland, but the friendship stays profound and I am sure she is the only person who knows me very very well... and that is why I am glad that she is here now and stays for a while, together with her crazy great friends !

life can suck and be great at the same time...

sunday night at the movies

I love going to the movies on a Sunday night. It can help to fight the Sunday-blues and it can be a nice way to end a beautiful weekend and hopefully begin a splendid week.

It has been a while since I last went to the cinema and even longer has it been since I did that on my own. Going alone to the watch a movie doesn’t bother me at all, especially with a theatre at a 2 minute walk from my doorstep. And going to the movies is a lone experience anyway – it can help you to get into the film easier. (note: it is not that I don’t like going to the movies with others, au contraire)
I do have lots of good memories of seeing films on my own, such as Gosford Park (which I went to see three times, a) because I didn’t understand everything the first time (dialects) and b) because it is such a fantastic movie)

Yesterday I went to see Charlie and The Chocolate Factory with Johnny Depp. It was really good, with hilarious musical intervals…but…I was not overwhelmed – Probably I was expecting too much of Depp after Pirates and Finding Neverland…

In the previews I also saw a lot of promising movies that are about to be released such as the Wallace and Gromit longplay-movie and Corpse Bride (animation movie directed by Tim Burton)… looking forward to autumn…

being Edinburgh...

how do you make big decisions in your life? Decisions that will influence the next couple of years... staying or leaving a town, going back to your roots, job security or none, leaving new friends behind or building new relationships abroad...

It turns out that almost all the people i have met here in Edinburgh are in the same situation... not really knowing what to do with your life... everybody is on the verge of a big change in their lives... but nobody is really undertaking action... Some will go to live on the carribean, others want to go on ski-season, others want to go and live and work in Germany, others starting up a company in Italy...

we jokingly named this feeling "being Edinburgh" - being in Edinburgh and loving it but planning to leave but not knowing when, where to and how... and most of the conversations end in "aah well, we'll see..."

it's a kind of magic

Tonight in Edinburgh Castle J K Rowling will present her new Harry Potter book for an audience of only children (and the world press of course). I just read this morning that she is the second richest woman in the UK (Nr 1 is the Queen - it'll be probably hard to beat that one).
If you could do magic, what would you do?

G8-fun

what a bizar feeling - to walk to work and pass hundreds of police officers securing the area around the office building. At this moment helicopters are flying over, sirens are making a lot of noise, and protestors are just told that the March on Gleneagles today is cancelled - not much to their joy...

And this morning I almost won two tickets for the Live8 Concert here in Edinburgh tonight - I was in the final round on a radio Show this morning (they were going to pick somebody who texted) and got a phonecall from them to say i was in the final group of people out of which they would select the winner. But... unfortunately i didn't win... :-(

It would have been nice though, because besides all the musical artists (s.a. Travis, Snow Patrol, Annie Lennox, James Brown) also George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Bono, Susan Sarandon and Bob Geldoff off course will be here tonight in Edinburgh...

Today I read something interesting - that the leaders teaming up together don't have the power to "change the world" as some people like to believe. Chirac's and Berlusconi's popularity is below zero, Schroder faces new elections and possible defeat, Putin is widely criticised in Russia, Blair started his last years as a PM, and even if Bush wanted to sign the Kyoto agreement, it would mean nothing because the American Congres voted against... only the Chinese leader (elected with only four votes against him in parliament) is the only one who can change things - but they are wisely staying out of the media attention...

and more fun

what a suprise, i just received a phonecall from Kati, a Finnish friend - we went to her wedding in finland last year with a group of friends - saying she and Petri probably will visit me in Edinburgh in the beginning of August! Huray!!!



(maria if you read this : book your tickets...now ! :-) )

exciting summer

well today i looked at it all and i thought : it is going to be an exciting summer...

Why?

• Edinburgh Fringe Festival has released its programme and I never could have guessed the mere size of this festival... it is a voluminous book full and full of shows; theatre, musical, opera, dance, comedy, childrens activities... and it doesn't include the jazz festival, book festival, film festival, military tattoo and Edinburgh International Festival... oh boy oh boy
  
• My weekends for July are now fully booked (that's how I like them), with as a highlight the visit of three friends round 22 July (and off course next weekend my visit to Belgium

sounds exciting to me... :-)

-

If we took a holiday

It seems that this weekend everybody is somewhere else....
People in Germany, people in Aviemore, people coming over to see me(hurray)... i guess that's what they call having holidays...

but what if you live somewhere, where it feels like being on holiday all year round? When every weekend - on every trip you discover something new and beautiful? I guess at that point going on holiday means - going back home - back to Belgium. So that's what i will do - next weekend !

I am a bit afraid though - I will leave on the busiest weekend for travel (first weekend of July) and on that same day Scotland expects a record-number of visitors because of the G8-summit... (the political leaders actually will arrive on Prestwick Airport - where I will leave from - I'll say hi to Mr Bush when I see him... or maybe not...) - it is a petty that I will miss this first day (march on Edinburgh) but I will be back for the biggest fun on July 6th the big G8-Make-Poverty-History-Day... but definitely more about that later!

where will you go on holiday?

isn't it bizar...

don't you think it's a bit bizar that...

• ...here in the UK earlier this week on one night more rain fell than normally in one month, while in my hometown in Belgium people are without water (and no doubt in other parts of Europe as well)
• ... because my pc is in the shop for repairs, I sometimes see flashes of the SIMS 2 in front of me (delirium?)
• ...how modern technology helps cocooning? : today for the first time I did my shopping online - and with shopping I mean like drinks, food, bread, milk, meat, etc. I got a free delivery voucher from the local superstore and so next thursday I will expect the delivery at my doorstep of all my goods... ain't that swell
• ...sometimes a comic can really describe how you feel?... I really love the cartoons from NEMI, that appear every morning in the METRO. She is a very black - almost gothic - girl with a lot of irony and self-relativising humour. go and have a look on http://nemi.thtn.com/

Smells

Do you remember smells?
Just so once in a while I am overwhelmed by a scent - it can immediately catapult me back into the past and bring back - very vividly - memories i thought were long forgotton. And I am not only talking about perfumes of certain people. It is the memory of the smell of very peculiar things for instance the hairspray my grandmother used to have, or, just like I experienced today, the scent of the building of a school I went to - and together with that - memories about the wonderful time I had there.

This last smell is captured in the staircase-hall in the office-building where I work now here in Edinburgh. And I treasure this smell - on times when I maybe feel the need to be transformed back to those happy days, I decide to take the stairs and take a deep breath... and it keeps me fit as well




Perfume - Patrick Suskind
Regus Business Centre - Edinburgh