Germany wins Eurovision Song Contest

She was not my favourite, but this year the audiences voted for originality I guess.

Four days with mom

It is Sunday afternoon and my mom just left after being here for 4 days. I realized that since I left my parental home when I was 18 years old, it has not been often that I spent so much time with my mom. Initially, when my dad was still alive, I would visit every 4 to 6 weeks for a weekend (to get my laundry done ;-)), later in the few years that my mom was alone I would visit more often but usually just for a weekend max. And after my mom met my stepdad I would go back to the 4 to 6 week interval weekend visits.
We had a good time - on Friday my brother and his family joined and we went to a museum and a bar in downtown Amsterdam. All days I cooked dinner at home which I enjoyed and my mom liked (or so she said....) And yesterday we went to the beach to fill our lungs with fresh air - my mom always says that the only things she doesn't like about the place she lives is that it is far from a beach.
Now tonight back to the Sunday evening routine of drinks with friends - for the last time in April as they will be closed after the owner didn't solve the dispute with Heineken to pay the huge overdue bills.....

Memories

Back from London

Our card playing group of friends is together for 25 years (actually, we don't know how many years exactly, but we decided it was 25 years) so we went to London for a long weekend to celebrate. We rented a Landmark Trust apartment which was wonderful. Very traditional English furniture, and we had a kitchen so we made sure to prepare full English breakfasts every morning. We also went to Tate Modern, "Jersey Boys", the musical about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons which was OK, and "The gala of St George" in Royal Albert Hall where we sang along to The White Cliffs of Dover, Rule Britania and Land of Hope and Glory. It was shamelessly nationalistic but for some reason the English make fun about it and our neighbours in the theatre actually apologised about the whole thing...
Add good food for dinner (French, Indian (always eat Indian food in London!), and pub grub), good weather and of course playing cards and chatting with good friends, and the weekend was perfect!

Ungrateful boss

One of my bosses is stuck in, of all places, Singapore since Thursday as a result of the Icelandic revenge. He is quite unhappy about it. Ungrateful man! I would not hesitate to swap places, if at all possible. ;-)
In the mean time I enjoyed the brilliant weather this Saturday on DA's boat with the good company of some of his and my friends and wine, beer and ice cream. Just too bad I had to leave early as I had promised to pick up my mum from a dinner party she went to. Today I was gardening at her place a large part of the day. Soon I will be very dark after all this sunshine - first in China and now here.

A new bike

I got my new bike today, and am happy like a small child. My old, Taiwanese made, bike did prove to be not so reliable during last winter so I decided to make use of a gift from the company, who may give employees a bike tax-free every three years. Only in the Netherlands, I am sure. My new bike is a Dutch Gazelle which I hope and trust will be more durable than the Taiwanese Giant I had.
I still wake up every morning at 4 or 5 am - probably I am still in the Asian time zone after my trip there. It was one of my best trips ever also because it was long (3 weeks) and I could really switch off from work. Should take such longer trips more often.
Back at work it is the same old sh!te and the financial situation was even worse than expected, until today we got very good news that one of our customers will pay a huge performance fee. So the survival of the company is guaranteed for another 6 months or so.
Tomorrow morning the dentist will be waiting for me for the bi-annual check-up. WI had his teeth bleached and is very happy with the result, I will ask my dentist if he can do it for me, too.

A Single Man

I watched A Single Man yesterday. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I was somewhat disappointed by the movie. The story is about George (Colin Firth), a middle-aged University professor in the early 1960's who has lost his (male) partner after a 16-year relationship. From the beginning of the movie, we see him making preparations for the suicide he is planning. He has one good (female) friend Charley (Julianne Moore), who has been left by her husband and still regrets that she and George are not together. A young student Kenny (Nicholas Hoult) tries to get closer to George and in the end they get drunk (and naked) together.
On the one hand, the movie didn't bore me and I liked the tension that develops in the relationship between George and Kenny. However, it doesn't become clear from the movie why George wants to commit suicide (we know he lost his partner but as viewers we don't feel the loneliness and sadness that George apparently experiences). Also, two beautiful young men basically throw themselves at George and he doesn't accept the offers?
This movie should have been longer - the characters could have been developed better.