Solidarity for my Dutch friends and family

Muse - A band well ahead in the 21st Century

My expectations were great, these guys went beyond them. A mature, multimedia show that probably has not much competition around.

The music was an orgy of sound, a solid barrier with great melodics. Guitar, bass and drums. Awesome. If you have a chance DO NOT MISS Muse.

Seen on 19th June, 2010 at Goffert Park, Nijmegen. The Netherlands.

Concert of the year ??

Getting ready for Muse in Nijmegen.

Normandie, Bretagne, EuroDisney and Genova...and an artistic surprise

Right now I am in Cairo, sitting in the hotel so I have some time to write a few words about the holiday I have spent with the family in the course of the last two weeks. Despite of the weather (quite bad and certainly not expected during the second week in Italy) we had a great vacation.
It started off at Colleville-sur-Mer but probably better known as Omaha Beach (D-day). This was really impressive. Just thinking about all those hero's that without any personal interest came to die in Europe to fight Hitler. The following days we have visited St. Malo, the coast around Cap Frehel, Dinard (beautiful), Cancale (the world most famous oysters), Dinan (where we have slept) and Mount St. Michel (a must-see). A culinary note: we had excellent food and sitting at Sourcouf on the Cancale's boulevard was huge.

After Bretagne we drove to Paris with one single aim during one single afternoon. Go with the kids on the Tour Eiffel. It took a long (cold) time in quite a stressing queue but we managed to get to the top.

The next two days we spend at Eurodisney. We had a lot of fun and the kids went crazy. We left France passing the Mont Blanc tunnel we entered Italy where we totally surprised my parents who thought that we were having our holiday in the USA.

After one week in Italy we finally drove home in less than 12 hours (1180 km.), not bad.

Oh, today on the plane I sat next to Ziya, we had a pleasant discussion. Check him on Youtube and if you have the chance go to see his performance.

To Spring - William Blake (1783)

O thou with dewy locks, who lookest down
Through the clear windows of the morning, turn
Thine angel eyes upon our western isle,
Which in full choir hails thy approach, O Spring!

The hills tell one another, and the listening
Valleys hear; all our longing eyes are turn’d
Up to thy bright pavilions: issue forth
And let thy holy feet visit our clime!

Come o’er the eastern hills, and let our winds
Kiss thy perfumèd garments; let us taste
Thy morn and evening breath; scatter thy pearls
Upon our lovesick land that mourns for thee.

O deck her forth with thy fair fingers; pour
Thy soft kisses on her bosom; and put
Thy golden crown upon her languish’d head,
Whose modest tresses are bound up for thee.

Cordial, Oss

Hmmmm, hmmmmm, hmmmmm. Restaurant Cordial in Oss, The Netherlands. One of the top restaurant of the Low Countries. Tremendous cuisine. Three toppers: the crab amuse, the deer and the Canadian Vidal Icewine (oh so good).

Dubai...Dubuy....Dubye-bye

This week my work took me to Dubai. I was always quite skeptical about this city but I must say that it is really stunning, the city of the future....perfect beatiful streets, incredible buildings, lights and glamour. Burj Khalifa is really, really huge. I had also the luck to enter and stay at one of the villa's at Palm Jumeirah.

Belgrade and the Date Mussel

Despite the snow the visit to Serbia reserved a great surprise. The date mussel. Fishing this mollusc has been prohibited in Europe for many years (in Italy since 1988). Apparently there are no restrictions in Serbia where the date mussel comes from Montenegro. The soup at restaurant Bevanda was amazing and granted a jump back in time of 20 years.

The thin line

Gliding on the edge between joy and desperation, black and white, future and no future. Today we have been there but we have grown stronger.

New year, new trip, new country: Croatia

For the first time in my life I have been in Croatia. Every year we discuss home if we should go to Croatia and we end up somewhere else. Yesterday I landed in Zagreb but honestly I saw ZERO of the city. Last night I travel over to Dubrovnik on the Dalmatian coast. This is a beatiful medieval costal town, surronded by terrific walls built on dramatic cliffs. The weather was superb. The road from the airport to the hotel just wonderful. The sea, the islands off the coast, the mountains in the back, the stone houses with red-tiled roofs. All of it not spoiled yet even if in the high season it might be different. Oh, I forgot the most important thing, the people. Very nice and easy-going.

Haiti - Remember

I have googled Haiti to see how many hits there were last year.
Result: 389.000.000
I have googled Haiti to see how many hits there were in the last 24 hours.
Result: 220.000.000

Nobody ever cared about them, let's pray that we will care about them NOW.

Make a donation to help them.

Luca Collami @ Ristorante Baldin - Genoa

During our last visit to Genoa we enjoyed some classical Italian food revisited in modern style. On a rainy day we had lunch served by chef Luca Collami awarded this year with a Michelin star. Chapeau.

2009 going, going, gone.

2009 is history. Roughly 12 hours to go. A year with ups and downs as always. Last night watched "Brothers" a good way to say farewell. Welcome 2010 and bring us health, joy and happiness.

A travelling working year

2009 will be the year of the travel. Concluded with three in a row: Prague, Cairo and Kiev.

Happy that the holiday season is coming up.

Candy - Paolo Nutini

What a song and the trembling voice of Paolo makes it just so delicate. A top talent without any doubt who is able to set a diamond in the long list of juiceless songs of this moment.

I lost a part of me......

For the first time in my life I am not 100% original. One of my wisdom tooth is gone !!!

Riga and the Antichrist

Three great days in Riga. It was good, good fun to be in Latvia with our friends Claudia and Kenneth. We enjoyed everything: the food, the architecture, the dry (no rain) weather, the beach, the cocktails, the flights, the hotel, the ladies :-), the Lebanese, the movies....yes the movies.
The Antichrist will surely stay in our memories. A shocking movie certainly the last 30 minutes.

Sofia..Utopia...

A troublesome day. After landing in Prague and having the first meeting there I headed for the second part of the journey: Destination Sofia.....but Boeing did not think so. Luckily on the ground they found some problems at the plane so that we switched to another one...2 hours later......Landed in Sofia I have been ripped off by a taxi driver.....

Places I have been

Elisa, Marianna, Stefania, Marco

Back from the summer holiday where we had a lot of experiences and saw lots of places I cannot do anything else than dedicate this space to the people mentioned in the title.

Sometimes life can surprise you. You think you know your friends but still they can astonish you as Marco and his wonderful family did. They let us feel as king, queen, prince and princess in an incredible way.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you to the 4 of you.