Sylvester/Oud en Nieuw/New Years Eve

Carsten, a very nice guy from Germany is visiting me for New Years Eve. We already did the tour through Zwolle including the visit of a garden centre to give Carsten way to live out his hobby (exotic palm trees and yuccas). Yesterday we were sightseeing in Utrecht, which was quite nice since all the shops were open there.
Too bad I have to work today (though Aldo’s call at work was nice distraction). Tonight I will make my famous pork filets and we’ll sit out the fireworks that are banging now for four days outside. My god, how I hate fire crackers! Picture of Carsten will follow, he doesn’t like his picture to be taken.

Christmas 2007

Despite of the crappy Saturday, I had a wonderful Christmas. On Christmas eve I did my last grocery shopping. (When I found out that my car wouldn’t work, so I did the shopping by bike.) On the first day of Christmas my friends Arjen, Jos and Yaser came just in time for coffee and cake and a lot of chatting (might have been a little bit too much facts and not enough gossip, but we’re all serious people). They had even brought some presents (a good chianti, a Madrid bear and very funny coffee spoons).
The Christmas goose was simply fantastic. I had stuffed it with 4 apples and dried plums after it was salted and rubbed with some rosemary. Of course a 9 pound goose was much too much for 4 men, but we did a good job on it. I mean considering the fact that we had a starter and a desert (Tiramisu) as well.
On Sunday after an extended brunch we went out for a big hike (10 km). My friends left after dinner, and I had the first longer period of time in which I could think about everything that was said the Saturday before.
While I was thinking about everything that had happened, I got an e-mail from Hensen, my friend and former neighbor, who unfortunately had moved to Amsterdam this year. (Sorry Hensen, of course it was a good move for you, but it was unfortunately for me.) He sent me the most wonderful mail someone can wish for. He put everything in the right perspective with a clear analysis from the way he had known Erik and me (also a great Christmas gift).

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!
Boun Natale!
Feliz Navidad!
Geseende Kersfees!
Frohe Weihnachten!
Vrolijke Kerstdagen!
God Jul!
Joyeux Noël!

Dinner for one ... that's how it ends

I ended an intense day yesterday by cooking a wonderful meal just for myself. I opened the last bottle of my best wine (a Grand Reserve from Maipo Valley, Chili), which was by coincidence six years old, the same time that my relationship with Erik had lasted. A good enough reason for me to finish the wine. I lit up some candles and had a nice and quiet dinner for one.

Maybe I shouldn't cook and eat when I am feeling bad, but it certainly always helps to improve my mood.

Brigitte Kaandorp: "Weg"

Weg

Je wil al weken bij me weg
je zegt het niet maar ik zie alles in je ogen
het staat al zo lang op je gezicht
weg
en je wacht gewoon tot ik het zeg
je wacht gewoon tot al mijn dromen zijn vervolgen
tot al mijn hoop aan scherven ligt
je durft het niet te zeggen
je kijkt me niet meer aan
je staart maar in de glazen
die hier op tafel staan

Laat me dan los
ik hou je niet tegen deze keer
ik weet het ook best
het gaat niet meer
laat me dan los
jij kan niet verder meer met mijn
wacht dan niet langer meer
en laat me los

Stil
het is hier zo ontzettend stil
de tafel en de stoelen en de lamp en de gordijnen
alles houdt zijn adem in
stil
zeg nou wat je zeggen wil
kom op, want alles is nu toch al koud geworden.
Alles is koud en kaal en kil
ik krijg haast niks meer door mijn keel
geen woord, geen slok, geen hap
de bliksem is allang geweest
nu is het tellen tot de klap

Laat me dan los
ik hou je niet tegen deze keer
ik weet het ook best
het gaat niet meer
laat me dan los
jij kan niet verder meer met mijn
wacht dan niet langer meer
en laat me los...

Helaas "wist ik het niet ook best, dat het niet meer ging", ik dacht altijd dat Erik en ik voor elkaar gemaakt waren. Ik zag hem als de man waarmee ik oud zou worden. Mijn hele wereld is de afgelopen twee maanden dus behoorlijk ingestort (maar dat was een ander liedje van La Kaandorp op "Als de herfst je overvalt"). Maar goed dat gaat waarschijnlijk altijd wel zo als één nog steeds van de ander houdt, maar de ander niet meer van de één...

Today Erik was here in Zwolle, to bring my stuff and to get his own. He also had promised me some kind of explanation. After a, for me, nearly sleepless night (I was sleeping by 4 AM and woke up at 8 AM already) he arrived here. I was happy to see him and he still looked great. Erik kept his promise: I got my explanation, even if I have difficulties to understand his way of thinking. In his explanation it seems that the relationship with me itself kept him from development of his social life, his work life and his skills. I mean if it is not so much something between us, why is he breaking up with me? Again Erik was very sure that he still wanted this, and if I had hoped different there was no room for that. He made himself perfectly clear: it's over!!!

Since I still feel a lot for him (much more then I want right now), it's the best for me if I don't see him for a long time. That made the last minute of his visit very difficult: I had to let go the man I love, knowing that I won't see him until I feel better (and even then it's probably not good). When he had gone I had time to cry and to recapture myself.

Christmas market in Dordrecht

This weekend I visited my friends Jos and Yaser in Dordrecht. They took very good care of me: we had a wonderful Christmas chicken on Saturday. Later on they made a fire in fireplace and we were singing Christmas chorals (LOL, well forget the last thing, though it sounded nice...).
On Sunday Jos and I went to the biggest Christmas market in The Netherlands. It was very funny to see all the stupid stuff that people buy because they think they get a bargain. Yaser had a Christmas party from his work, but we could heva dinner together when he returned. After dinner I went home again.
I look forward to celebrate Christmas together with them and our friend Arjen next week.

The sister of Miss Teen South Carolina?

NS Hispeed 2

Guess what? I got my train tickets today - all four (mine and Aldo's). Well that IS "highspeed". I mean after you finally manage to buy those too expensive first class tickets, an operation that keeps you busy for nearly a day, Hispeed is able to deliver the tickets in less then 24 hours. That's what we call service.

Hispeed (formerly known as NS International) sucks!

"Hispeed" is the new name of NS International (since December 9th). The name sounds promising quick but the service SUCKS!!! Every time you click to change a day or a time it costs the system an eternity to check the availability and the prices. Or are the trains Highspeed? You hardly can say that. The HSL in NL still isn't in use and it still takes 3 hours from Amsterdam to Brussels while you can travel from Brussels to Paris in a little more then an hour. So high speed what? Highspeed my ASS!!!
I tried to book two return tickets to and from Paris yesterday and though the system gave me, after a lot of time slurping clicks, a good price. But when I wanted to buy the promised tickets it would say that the tickets weren't available. I should try other departure times (whole procedure again, and again, and again, ...) or call them on 0900-9296 (35 ct p.m.). Yesterday they weren't available under that number, at least not when I was calling, though they didn't give any operating hours on the internet. So I called again this morning. After a lot of waiting to get a real person on the phone and a lot of talking with her for 35 ct per minute, I found out that the girl at the call center did exactly the same, I could do on my computer. She was checking the availability of the rates in the same random way, I did yesterday. No surprise, that the result was the same: NO TICKETS. Before I could hang up she advised me to use the first class offers, their availability was better.
So that's what I did and now Aldo and me both have first class seats on the Thalys when we are visiting each other. LOL.

Lost

Micheal Buble: Ain't his eyes beautiful?

Paris, Parijs, Parigi

My last visit in Paris was a long time ago. I remember I was there just after Musee d'Orsay had opened and that was in 1986. So my latest visit could have been 19 or 20 years ago....? OMG! I'm so old!!!!

But this visit was different in many ways. Of course I was there to see the city, but I also was there to meet Aldo on his home grounds. The journey in the Thalys was fine, the problem was before. Though I went from home nearly an hour too early, I was stuck in Amersfoort with a train that wasn't going to ride. After I had asked some employees of NS what was wrong and what they could advise me, I found out that it would be the best tot go to Schiphol airport. I arrived there just in time for my train to Paris. That bloody NS.

Aldo was waiting for me at Gare du Nord with a Saab convertible. The car was from his work but he had the possibility to use it for the weekend. We had a pizza and went straight up to Montmatre where he showed me his Paris by night from Sacre Coeur. The tour of lights was completed by the light show of the Eiffeltower and a scroll over the Champs Elysées (see video below).

Next day I was waked by the smell of home baked croissants. It was a sunny day and after breakfast we did the extended tour through Paris in the open car (don't worry we were both dressed warmly). We saw the Gare d'Austerlitz, the Arab institute, Sorbonne, Louvre, Notre Dame, Place de la Concorde, Place Vendôme, The Bears Den, and many other sights that I can't recall when I write this down now. We did a boat tour on the river Seine by night. We had dinner at a place where we were welcomed with kisses. We packed as much as we could in that sunny Saturday because Aldo had found out that Sunday we would have the most horrible weather.

And on Sunday we had that weather. So we slept in and stayed in bed for the rest of the day, hahahahahahaha. Well we weren't thàt bad ... but we were bad. Aldo cooked a delicious Italian meal, we went to the station and the bakery, we showed each other some funny things on the computer. So all in all it was a very cozy Sunday, while it was storming and raining cats and dogs outside.

On Monday morning I left Paris. Amazing that you can travel from Paris to Brussels in just 75 minutes, but that it takes you an other 3 hours from Brussels to Amsterdam and an other two hours (today!) from Amsterdam to Zwolle.

Champs Elysées

Thanks to Aldo, who risked his life to make this video in the middle of the Champs Elysées.