Sunday, June 25, 2006

Damn! Out against the Portuguese! Again!!! And what a TERRIBLE match it was! At least in the previous tournaments we played well and usually (except for Euro 2004 where we lost fair & square, yes, from Portugal) we are the better team that just lacks luck or killer instinct to convert chances to goals. Granted, there was some of that in this game too (with Cocu coming closest with a shot on the cross bar) and it's true that overall we had a lot more chances than them, but the bottom line is that we, both teams in fact, played SHIT. I think it's the worst World Cup game I've ever seen. Here are some statistics for you:

	STATISTICS
Portugal		Netherlands
10	shots	20
6	Shots on Goal	9
10	Fouls	15
3	Corner Kicks	5
9	Cautions	7
2	Expulsions	2
38%	Ball Possession	62%

So as you can see, this game alone brought both of us in the top 3 of overall tournament statistics for red and yellow cards. Imagine, Van Bommel got a yellow card in the second minute! Boulahrouz (whom I had never heard of before the World Cup) in the 7th and another one in the 63rd and was sent off. At that time the Portuguese were already playing with 10 men. Figo gave Van Bommel a head-butt, but the referees didn't see it so he got away with it. Nonetheless, after 78 minutes they were with 9 and in the 95th minute we also had Van Bronckhorst sent off with his second yellow. A pointless massacre. And then the dreadful passing! No ball arrived where it was supposed to. Man, how frustrating. And then to think that I got up at 2:45 AM to watch this monster. Hmpf!

A game to forget as quickly as possible.

Friday, June 23, 2006

On the road. Again.

I'm at the airport now. I generally don't like airports very much. You're there with all your hand luggage (checking it in will only result in damaged bags and delays at the luggage bands), there's never anything interesting to do, full of expensive shops with shit wares, boring business lounges with CNN, bad coffee and full of old people (like the one I'm in now), no free internet: imagine free internet in the business lounge! Nooooo pay 20 Euros please. Bunch of greedy mother f****ers. Lousy and expensive fast food. And so on. Changi airport in Singapore is slightly OK with a free cinema and a roof terrace. Why is it so difficult to make an airport interesting? There's loads of people with money and time on their hands. HELLO. If you can make a nice mall, why can't you make a nice airport? Make it a place where shopping is taken seriously, with good stuff, not just hyper expensive, and with nice shops and restaurants. I don't get it.

I'm off to Amsterdam now where Josti, Tubkefetish and Gerard H. Brood will pick me up, or so I've been told. Sounds like promises of a typical night in Amsterdam. Good. I'll be able to sleep on the plane tomorrow.

Oh yeah, my father is going for the placement of his second stent (little device to unclog one of his coronary arteries) on Monday. The doctors are still debating what to do with the 3rd artery, but whatever the case, they're all pretty harmless procedures so I'm not worried. Just happy that it was all caught early enough and that dad will be back to 100% (100+ considering he quit smoking!) very soon.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

I'm in Rome this week to meet with Federica (a new hire reporting to me who started in April) as well as sit with the whole group in my area to talk about our strategy and vision on where to go in the next 6-12 months. I love coming back to Rome... The people in the office are great, there's a real feeling of friendship here and I always feel very much at home (for those that don't know, I lived and worked in Rome before coming to Manila). Except on Tuesday, we've been out eating and drinking every night - always with Edgar (a.k.a. The Edge after 6 PM ) - and Wednesday, the day we played Argentina, with a whole bunch: Federica, Bjorn-Are, Valentina, Malong and his wife, Alessandro and his girlfriend - all rooting for ORANJE of course! We went to an Irish pub close to Largo Argentina called the Scholar's Lounge, with 3 big projection screens. They also showed Ivory Coast's victory over Serbia & Montenegro which immensely pleased Edgar - apart from ORANJE (of course) he is really rooting for the African teams. As long as they don't play us, I'm with him... Go Ghana!

The game wasn't bad considering both teams fielded B teams to spare those with yellow cards. We started very strong, then the Argentineans showed they didn't come to picknick either, and after an all in all pretty entertaining game we drew 0-0, a deserved tie. The good news is that we are now second in the group on goal difference so we play on Sunday. Had we won, we would have played on Saturday which is exactly when I fly back to Manila so I would have to start rebooking flights etc - what a hassle!

Sunday, June 18, 2006

In Heerhugowaard

Last Tuesday night I got a call from my mom. My father was in the hospital, he had pain in his chest, went to see the doctor and immediately was sent to the hospital for inspection. Turns out 2 of his coronary arteries were clogged up and they needed to keep him to decide whether to place a stent or do a bypass operation. It's hard to describe the emotions you go through when you're at the other side of the world. In some way it's a bit unreal. As if it's not really happening, or only happening 'on paper', in theory. I immediately went on the internet to find out more, especially about a bypass operation. I'm so happy to have the internet too, it gives you such easy access to so much information - in the past you would have had to have an encyclopedia or just live with uncertainty, it's hard to remember those days now, isn't it? Anyway, what I read put my mind at ease a little bit; even in case of a bypass (the worst case scenario), the operation is routine and relatively safe, with a 97% survival rate. Still, that's 3% that doesn't make it. Sure, that also includes the very weak and old, but still, my father is no spring chicken either anymore of course.

Luck had it that I had already planned a business trip to Italy and my flight allowed for a stay over in Holland. So I wouldn't have to wait long to see my dad, with my plane leaving on Friday. Fortunately, the news got better over the next few days; a bypass wasn't needed, they would just place a stent, which is wire mesh tube (like in a ball pen) that opens up the vein again. A much less serious procedure. Also they were going to do it fast, which surprised me in a way, what with all the stories about waiting lists, etc.

But the best news awaited me at home. When I landed Friday evening, mom called to check on me and ended the conversation with something like "we will see you at home then". We??? Yep, dad was home already! Just arrived that afternoon! They both picked me up from the train station in Heerhugowaard and even though he was tired and had to take it slowly, he looked great! Not how you would expect someone to look after such an episode! It lit up my heart and it was a load off my shoulders. He has to go back in about 2 weeks or so for a second stent, but now that we know how it works, and that nothing more serious is going on, we're not worried at all. Oh and there is even more good news: both my parents quit smoking!!! Dad right away as he was told that continuing smoking would mean 75% increased chances of a heart attack. Mom stopped last night (Saturday) as she first needed to quiet down her nerves again. I hope they keep it up!!!

I spent the weekend with my parents and my grandmother. We didn't do anything special. Some shopping for Oranje stuff (the World Cup ain't over you know!!! ), sitting in the garden with the fireplace crackling away, having over some visitors for a glass or 2, etc. It was nice to be home again, and to be with the 3 of us. I'm happy I didn't have to go to the hospital even once.

Friday, June 16, 2006

Bad luck! I'm flying to Holland and then on to Rome and of course the plane I was booked on landed at 18:35 local time in Amsterdam, while Netherlands - Ivory Coast would kick off at 18:00! Fortunately the plane was a bit early and as I walked out of the gate I passed a little sports cafe on Schiphol where they broadcasted the match. I watched for a bit, just enough to see Netherlands take a comfortable 2 - 0 lead. It seemed like they were going to roll up the Ivorians so I packed my things and got moving again as my parents were waiting for me at home. As I passed customs, I thought I'd be nice and inform the guys in their tiny cubicles of our comfortable lead, only to be told that it was already 2 - 1. Hey! That's a whole different story! When a team comes back right before half time, it usually means trouble. And indeed it did. I took a train from Schiphol to Sloterdijk where I had to change again. I had a couple of minutes between trains so I went to watch the second half on a big screen in the station's cafe. And in fact the train was delayed and delayed and delayed again and I ended up watching the whole second half there. It was nerve wrecking. Ivory Coast played brilliant football, I was really impressed and had no idea they were that good. We held on by a thread and the referee's final whistle was by far the best moment of the match! It wasn't always pretty, but what counts is that we won! We're the 5th team to be placed for the knock out rounds (thanks to Argentina who crushed Serbia Montenegro 6-0! )... The match against Argentina on the 21st is now just a fight for 1st or 2nd place - I'm sure Van Basten will spare the best players and the ones with yellow cards, and so will the Argentineans, so it won't be a real 'clash of the group B titans'... That's fine, we may meet them again along the way.

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Finally it has started, the event of the year, the World Cup 2006 in Germany!!! We'll not have it easy as we're in what's been dubbed the 'group of death', with none less than Argentina, Serbia Montenegro and Ivory Coast. We ordered SkyCable pay-per-view to be able to watch the World Cup matches at home but of course they hadn't come yet even though they said they would, last Thursday. Whatever. We wouldn't have watched the first Oranje (the name of our team, from the Dutch word for orange) match at home anyway - for this kind of thing you need the atmosphere of a lot of Oranje fans (called "the legion") in a bar with a beer in your hand! We went to Heckle and Jeckle, the same bar I went to for the European Cup in 2004, as that used to be packed, with Dutch fans as well as a good international crowd, with plenty of noise and atmosphere.

We properly dressed up Raquel and Inger as Dutch fans (and as you can see in the pictures, everyone looks good in orange!) and once there we met Fleur as well, our Dutch friend that I hadn't seen in ages. But alas, the crowd wasn't the same as before; everyone just sat down and we even had a little spat with some asshole (Dutch guy!) in the back that was complaining that we were blocking his view. Mind you, we were standing at the side of the cafe and he was sitting all the way in the back, while there was plenty of chairs available in the front! I guess his Filipina lady friend (does his wife know?) didn't want to move or so. Whatever. Anyway, there were more losers there and the whole atmosphere was terribly dull. Last time we went there!

The game wasn't much to look at. We didn't play brilliantly, as we never do in the early stages of these tournaments, but we did walk away with a 1-0 win - and that's all that matters! An important one in this group as I reckon Serbia Montenegro is the third strongest team in this group (after Argentina and us) and getting 3 points against them is an important step to get to the next round. Next game is against Ivory Coast. If we can win that as well (although I've heard they're the strongest African team present), then we're nearly sure of placing ourselves for the next round.

We finished the night off smoking a water pipe at a little Turkish place close to our house. By then, Marieke and I were nearly unconscious thanks to no sleep the night before... Good thing they had pillows lying around everywhere!

Everybody ready for the game	Me and Inger
Raquel and Queen Inger	1-0 !!!
Turkish water pipes...	...and honey beer (not nice!)

Thursday, June 8, 2006

Hong Kong

We really needed to get out of Manila for a couple of days. Marieke more than I, but I also could do with a change of pace. Manila gets to you if you're there too long, you know. So we decided to do a weekend trip to Hong Kong. We considered Bangkok as well but then decided against it as we want more time for that - I'll probably take a week or so off in July/August for that one. Marieke took care of it all and got us in a great hotel called the Harbour Plaza Metropolis hotel, in Kowloon. I can recommend it to anyone going to Hong Kong - it's not dead in the center but centrally located and they have a free shuttle bus every 20 mins going to and from the main shopping area (about a 5 min drive).

We were unlucky with the weather. The newspaper headlines read 'Hong Kong in shock over bad weather spell' or something like that. When we arrived on Thursday, it rained. When we got up on Friday, it poured. Fortunately, one of the main things to do in Hong Kong is shop. Not in the Manila way, with just malls and for the rest nothing - but with small Chinese shops alternating with bigger shopping malls, so you still get the authentic feeling of a 'real' old town. And with all the Chinese billboards shouting in the street finishing off the true exotic 'Asian experience'. The only drawback was that it was dark all day long, as you can see in the picture on the left, taken at 12:30 in the afternoon. Fortunately it cleared up on Saturday it cleared up, which was excellent as we wanted to do a bit of sightseeing as well. We didn't go to the peak as it was still a bit foggy, but we did see the world's largest bronze Buddha. A great site, with a nice little temple complex next to it where we had delightful vegetarian food. Especially the sweets were delicious! They were certainly a lot better than the promise of Deep Fried Frog with Peppermint or Raw Beef Soup featured on the menu of the first restaurant we visited! And naturally, we saw a few more stomach turning things. Like the picture of a sheep's head on a plate at one of the local restaurants. Or the carry-on cages full of toads, for sale (to deep fry yourself I assume...)

The Big Buddha	An offering for Buddha
Inside the temple	Praying at the temple

In the evening we walked back over the markets again and this time we were presented with a fish market. Not one where you buy fish to eat, this one sold fish for in the aquarium. But unlike in Europe, where the fish all live in tanks, here they are displayed in little plastic bags hanging all together outside! Or they are in tiny little containers, also on display outside. Sure, it makes a great visual, but it's very cruel to the animals as well (sometimes the fish are bigger than the bags! They just lie curled up unable to move). But it's clear that the culture in Hong Kong (and China in general) is a lot less sensitive about animal rights than ours - it's how they live their lives and how we live ours... I still think it's wrong but I wouldn't blame anyone. They consider it absolutely normal and acceptable.

Fish in bags...	...and in tanks

On Saturday night we wanted to check out what the night life in Hong Kong was like. With the World Cup in full swing (and England playing Paraguay in their first match), it wasn't hard to find places with lots and lots of people. There is this area in Hong Kong, called Lan Kwai Fong, where all expats seem to converge. It's jam packed with bars and restaurants and looks really nice, even when there's no World Cup on. We had our dinner in an overpriced Italian place and then went down to check out the bars.

Now I have to pause and tell you that Marieke has a habit of running into people she knows all over the world. She sees people from her home town in India, people from Manila in Japan, people from our flat in some remote island, and so on. We know 1 person in Hong Kong. It's a lady called Leslie whom we met during New Year's 2004-2005 in Boracay. Marieke met her again in February of this year, again in Boracay, and apparently had a big fight with her as she never responded to any of the cards Marieke sent her. Marieke had already said that she was sure we'd bump into her there. I thought, yeah whatever, 4 million people in one of the most densely populated areas in the world, and we're going to run in to her. Sure.

But sure enough, we did!!! Unbelievable but true! Fortunately, she and Marieke quickly put aside their differences and she introduced us to some of her friends there and from that moment on the night just took off. We went to several places before Leslie had to leave. We tagged along with some of her friends to a cool club called Drop (I think) where we met 2 other people, Rowena from Australia and Terry, who took us to another place, a gay club in fact, where we got introduced to a bunch of people, including a Chinese guy called Brian. Brian and Rowena pretty much took care of us the rest of the night (thanks guys, you're the best!!! ) as we danced and partied in style. It wasn't till 10 AM before we went home to the hotel, leaving us just enough time to rest for about an hour, pack our stuff and go to the airport. Yes we were absolutely knackered, but it was well worth it. No idea Hong Kong could be this cool!

See all the pictures in the photo album.

June 2006

Las party chicas ;)

Recently, Marieke has met a Spanish girl at an NGO called Raquel. She's living with nuns and has a curfew so she can't really go out unless she sleeps somewhere else (otherwise I think she has to be in by 9 PM or so). Her best friend Inger (a Chinese looking British girl with a Swedish name - the lengths people go through just to attract attention eh?! ) came over to visit and we offered them to stay at our place. They're both super cool people, very funny, and know how to party (and I'm not just saying that because I know they'll one day read this and will retaliate if I don't write something nice! ). The funny thing with Raquel is that she has only recently started drinking, but that doesn't hold her back one bit to keep up the pace with us. Which usually results in her getting very drunk halfway during the evening. But miraculously (well also partly because we trick her into drinking non- or less-alcoholic drinks), she always survives these drunken moments and never skips out of the party early. Well, as long as there's no comfortable couch or bed nearby, that is... )

Very sweet: 3 notes from Raquel spread throughout the house after a drunken night... :)

The night I met Inger was the second time I saw Raquel and it was on our balcony where, of course, they had starting drinking while I was still in a meeting on the phone. I don't recall everything that happened that night, but I do recall that we watched the sunrise from our balcony while Raquel was balancing a long drink glass on her head... Unfortunately Marieke had given up already by that time after a week of serious emotional stress caused by trying to find a proper job in the godforsaken world of NGOs and the likes.

Me, Inger and Raquel	Balancing a glass on her head!
Having fun...	...and looking cool doin' it!
No cocktail without color..	...hence blue vodka-tonics!

For about 2 weeks (I think?) we hung out nearly exclusively with Raquel and Inger, and it was great. Whenever you have visitors over (in this case Inger but before Eltjo and Emiel or Bep and Charlotte or anyone really), life in Manila gets an extra spark. We went to Sonya's garden (of course!) and spent very late nights in Embassy, complete with party glasses on. We ordered pizza doing absolutely nothing and the ladies went pearl shopping in Greenhills. It was real fun! Here some pictures of us getting ready for a night out in town:

Raquel with her WHITE glasses	Inger
Me	Marieke

Raquel, Inger, you're always welcome to come over, wherever and whenever, and we'll see you in Holland in August!!! And don't forget to wear some orange!!!

Inger in Oranje	Me in Oranje
Marieke in Oranje	Raquel in Oranje

Wednesday, May 3, 2006 - Friday, May 5, 2006

C&CS Offsite in Bohol

Every year, we go on an offsite event with our group at work. As our group is relatively small (9 people - 8 from Manila and Sandeep all the way from Singapore), we normally team up with other teams, but this year it seemed that no one else wanted to go out of Manila and some teams didn't go at all. We all suffer from budget pressure I guess... So, we flew to Bohol with just our group (C&CS or Customer and Commercial Solutions, I never thought I'd write that on my site!!! ) Kats somehow missed the flight so she joined us a day late. Which was really a pity for her as she missed the first day where we immediately went on a tour of the island. I had been to Bohol before with Marieke and her mother and sister, so I knew most of the island already: the river tours, the tarsier (smallest primate in the world) and the famous chocolate hills, but it was still nice enough to see it all again. And the one thing I really liked that I didn't do last time was the visit to the second oldest church in the Philippines, the Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in Baclayon. Although I didn't care much for the museum (nor did Jayan so at least I had someone to talk to while the guide explained about dresses that hadn't been worn in like 300 years), the church itself was very nice. There were windows high up with colored squares through which the sunlight painted colored spots on the church floor and altar. You almost look holy yourself in that light!

Amazing how holy I look...	...and Jayan even more so! ;)

We had lunch on a river boat with a guy and his guitar. The lunch was very nicely prepared and the music complemented the scenery nicely. We went all the way up to the 'waterfalls' that are really just little streams flowing over a couple of stones and back again.

The Panglao Island Nature Resort where we stayed was absolutely stunning. It was the first time I ever heard the term 'infinity pool'. It's a pool built in a way that when you're in it, you look over the edge straight into the ocean, as if the pool never ends. It was beautiful. The sun was already setting so we immediately ordered drinks (I got nearly everyone to try our newly invented Palawan cocktail: banana shake with Tanduay!). The perfect setting for an offsite!!! The next day was filled with team activities, organized by Marc (as most of the weekend was to his credit, with Jayan as his side kick and game moderator). We did all kinds of things to get to know each other better and had a bit of a discussion on the overall mission and vision and so on. You know, the work stuff you just have to do on an offsite.

We did some very cool things as well. On Thursday evening we were split into 2 groups, each charged with building the tallest tower using only straws, tape and some sticks that we had to buy with our clothing and accessories. We got a nice set of materials to start out with, and as we progressed we thought it'd be creative to try and build a pyramid instead of a tower. After all the triangle is one of the strongest contructions right? Well yeah, providing the materials you use aren't flexible straws!! We failed miserably as you can see in the pictures below. We went on to play Takeshi's Castle where normally we would have had to defend our tallest tower, but since there really was only 1 tower, we just played for the kill: the first team with all wet papers (taped to our chests) would lose. We got revenge and annihilated the Tall Tower Team. Excellent war tactics from the Poor Pyramid Team!!! As much fun as this was, I most enjoyed the Warm Fuzzies session in the jacuzzi at the end of the evening. This is where one of the group goes in the middle and then everyone says something nice about that person. We were 9, and everyone talked a few minutes each so for 1 person it took up to 20 minutes, times 9, so we spent a good 3 hours doing this. I can tell you, it is great - doesn't feel like it's too long at all!!!

Their Tallest Tower	Our 2 Dimensional Pyramid	Takeshi Warriors!
Warm Fuzzies for Zandro	Warm Fuzzies for the girls	Warm Fuzzies all around!

Marc and Jayan, thanks for organizing guys!!!

Friday, April 28, 2006 - Monday, May 1, 2006

Palawan with Debbie and Dino (pictures still to come)

Puerto Princesa, the capital of the southern island of Palawan, is supposedly the cleanest town in the Philippines. Well I don't know about that. It's basically one long street lined with shops and cluttered with little tricycles that spew out enough smoke to make a Philip Morris executive nauseous! Especially around 17:00, when rush hour started to kick in, we could hardly walk along the sidewalk, our eyes burning and our throats horse. True, there are lots of litter cans, but that's not the only thing that defines cleanliness people!!!

As Debbie works night shifts, she was completely knackered by the time we got to the hotel, so she went to bed as the 3 of us (Dino, Marieke and I) walked around town. It's a nice enough town, with a blue cathedral that looks pretty impressive from the outside (but is a bit bland on the inside). We continued on down the road to the sea side, where there was a large wide boulevard along the water. Strangely enough, there were no shops or foodstalls or terraces to have a drink, so instead we just lazed on the concrete dividers. I don't know why but there are ample opportunities like that left to wither in the Philippines. If only there would be a collective mindset of good old entrepreneurship, this country would have a flourshing tourism business. Instead, they say they want to promote tourism but instead lose out big time to countries like Malaysia and Thailand. The upside of this is of course that large areas remain relatively unexplored and quiet.

The second day we left for Sabang to see the famous longest underground river in the world. We hired a van from our hotel together with a Dutch couple called Naomi and Raymund that were travelling South East Asia for a year or so. After a terribly bumpy ride (with yours truly struggling the last half hour to fight back some violent attacks of motion sickness) we arrived at around noon and decided to take the manly jungle track to the river, not the chicken boat ride. Man, we never expected it to be that tough! This wasn't a normal forest walk, as we anticipated, but a real climb and scramble through the jungle. Halfway through we met a German couple that asked us, out of breath, how much further it was... We thought they were just terribly out of shape! Ha! No way Jose, all in all it took us about 2 hours to complete the walk, at the hottest time of the day, and I can tell you we did not slack or sit down to take a rest. Some forest walk!!!

At the river side, we waited for a boat to be available while gazing at some pretty big water monitors (the longest being about 1.5 meters). We got on the boat, a peddlar at the back, Debbie and Dino in the front operating the light beam, and off we were into the dark cave. There were bats all around that made a deafening click-click sound and the guide at the back showed us all kinds of different stalactites and stalacmites, and this being the Philippines of course, pointed out many formations that he thought looked like religous icons, such as the virgin mary, the three kinds, a portrait of jezus, a big catholic candle in a huge dome, etc. Funny how when you look for things you actually find them with a bit of imagination. I'm sure had this been in a strongly religious hindu country, we would have seen gods with elephant heads, gods with many arms, etc.

We went back to have some food at one of the local stalls. The people there were actually very friendly, like they usually are in the Philippines, as long as you're outside Metro Manila. And right as the darkness set in, we moved to our hotel - a great little garden with huts on the hillside. Tanduay and cards completed another great Pinoy-tourism day.

The next day we went back to Puerto Princesa to hire a boat and go beaching & snorkeling. Originally we wanted to go diving but there was no boat available anymore by the time we reached there. So we got on a boat, went to Pandan island first and later to Snake Island to laze on the beach. We brought our snorkeling gear - fortunately because the snorkeling there is simply amazing!!! We saw so much, including a school of tiny little fish that looked like stardust as you swam through it, small speckled jellyfish, and a school of almost transparent fish with a purple lining of about 30-50 cm long who swam just under the surface and that didn't shy away as you followed them (at one point, Marieke and I followed one and it just swam quietly out in front of us, checking over his shoulder all the time to make sure we didn't close in too much, but never swimming away). Right at the end, as the ladies were already back on the beach, Dino and I saw a little hole in the ground that was guarded by 2 small fish. And every 10 to 20 seconds, you would see the end of a crab come out to clear out the hole from sand!!! The fish were crappy doormen though, because even though they looked tough, the moment you got a little bit closer or pointed a finger at them, they would quickly turn around, back into the hole with their strange friend, only to cautiously come out again a minute later. Ahh that was so comical to see!! I think we spent 10 minutes just watching this scene...

The last day we did go diving. Even though the normal guideline is not to dive 24 hours before a flight, our Italian dive master called Paolo said it was OK as we wouldn't go very deep. The first dive was uneventful, but the second one was very memorable. We saw all kinds of cool things, including a huge scorpionfish hat was just floating still into the water. It was about half a meter long and completely immobile except for its ribbons that floated in the stream. Truly beautiful to see. We also saw some fish that 'stood' vertically in the water, a bit like sea horses, but then perfectly straight. Apparently when they have to move fast, they go horizontally. Seems to me that they are a bit messed up - but that's what's so great about diving: seeing all these messed up animals! (It's like sitting on a terrace in Amsterdam, watching all the messed up land creatures... )

Oh yeah, we also invented a new drink on Palawan: an ice cold banana shake with a double shot of Tanduay. Hits the spot!!! We didn't think of a name for it yet though... Should be something with Palawan in there... Palawan Power Punch?

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Hommage aan Devlin, de liefste hond ter wereld

Vandaag is Devlin ingeslapen. Het was de keuze tussen dat of een zware operatie waarbij het nog maar zeer de vraag was of ze die zou overleven of dat ze er zelfs beter van zou worden. Marieke belde me op met het vreselijke nieuws. Ik was al vooruitgereisd naar Heerhugowaard. Ze kwakkelde al een tijdje met haar gezondheid en zeker de laatste weken was het met duidelijk ups en downs. Toen we net aankwamen heeft Marieke haar meegenomen naar de dierenarts en kregen we antibiotica en vloeistof voor haar ontstoken oren. In eerste instantie leek ze behoorlijk op te fleuren, al kon ze al moeilijk opstaan. Helaas duurde de opleving niet al te lang. Het opstaan ging steeds moeizamer en gisterochted lag ze alleen in de tuin op het gras. Ik ben nog naar haar toe te gaan om haar te aaien, maar haar bloeddoorlopen ogen keken me zo vermoeid aan. Het was genoeg denk ik. Diezelfde middag heeft ze 4 keer overgegeven, vertelde Marieke me, en toen ze gewassen was bleef ze met haar kop gewoon in het water liggen. Toen ze haar naar de dierenarts brachten wist Marieke het eigenlijk al. De enige troost is dat we haar nog wel gezien hebben voordat ze ging. Dat we de kans hebben gekregen haar goed te verwennen met vlees, worst en dropjes. Dat we haar flink hebben kunnen aaien en knuffelen. Dat tenminste Marieke erbij was op het einde. En, laten we eerlijk zijn, dat het allemaal geen lange lijdensweg is geweest. Ze had duidelijk momenten de afgelopen weken dat ze zich goed voelde, met uitgaan stiekem een extra rondje probeerde te lopen, en met haar poot begon te klagen zodra je even ophield met aaien. Het waren een paar goeie weken, en het was wel genoeg zo voor Devlin, zo leek het. Misschien heeft ze wel gewoon op ons/Marieke gewacht. De schat.

Devlin was een speciale hond. Ik weet dat iedereen dat zegt van zijn eigen hond, maar dit geval is anders. Ik denk wel dat ik dat kan zeggen - Devlin was tenslotte niet 'mijn' hond maar die van de familie Stopel. Maar Devlin was de aardigste hond die ik ooit heb gezien. Zo'n lieve hond zie je niet vaak. Als ze alleen al de naam 'Marieke' hoorde gingen de oren omhoog en de staart heen en weer alsof haar leven er vanaf hing. Ze is meerdere malen weggelopen (Bep en Harry hebben geen omheining om de tuin) en dan kregen we een telefoontje. Dat ze in het gemeentehuis was. Dat ze in de supermarkt was om bij de slager een stukje worst te bietsen. Iedereen kende haar ook in Losser. Dus als ze een keer weg was, kregen Bep en Harry wel een telefoontje van iemand dat ze weer eens ergens rondliep. Ze was ook dol op mensen en aandacht. Altijd als wij er waren kwam ze bij ons liggen. Als Harry haar naar haar plaats stuurde, draaide ze zich onwillend om, keek ze een beetje schuin naar achteren naar Harry, om vervolgens weer 180 graden om te draaien en stiekem toch bij ons te komen liggen.

En zo kan ik nog wel úren doorgaan. Maar niet nu. Nu eerst verdriet.

 

Wednesday, April 5, 2006

Things can only get better... right???

How much worse can thing get? First, the disappointment of not being able to see Depeche Mode. Then the less-than-great evening in the Powerzone that was supposed to be the best party in Amsterdam of the year. And now, mid-week into our vacation, both Marieke and I have the flu!!! Marieke is in a lot worse shape than I am, but it could very well be that tomorrow I feel as bad as she does now as she started a day early as well. Man!! How unlucky can you get really!? Well, at least things can't get much worse so let's hope the worst is over and that we can at least still enjoy our weekend...

Oh and in case you were wondering how we could get the flu (apart from the fact that it's epidemic at the moment), here a picture I took from Bep and Harry's garden, about 10 minutes apart. Note how the hail in picture 1 is already completely molten in picture 2. That's how it is - changing from one extreme to the next:

A hail storm one minute	And sun the next!

 

Saturday, April 1, 2006

Sunny Amsterdam

After a 1 week business trip to Cincinnati I landed on Schiphol on Saturday morning where Eltjo picked me up. By the time we got to his house and had breakfast, I had drank 2 cups of coffee and the cafeine was doing its work: despite the 9 hour trip in economy class I was as awake as ever. So we hung out and waited for Marieke and Emiel to come and took off for the Vondelpark where we landed - as usual - on the sunny terrace of the Filmmuseum. It wasn't long until Gerda joined us, happily exchanging an afternoon of jogging for one of drinking wheat beer and white wine in the sun. We also practiced our Zoolander Blue Steel look, with considerable success as you can see:

Blue Steel Models :-*
Yasser Eltjofat	Me and Gerda	Marieke and Eltjo
Me and Gerda	Marieke	Emiel

After a couple of hours we went back to Eltjo's place to get changed for the night. We picked up some food at the supermarket on the way to Tanno and Gerda where we ate. By that time the jetlag had gotten the best of me and I crashed for an hour or 2 in their bed. Around midnight, Emiel had already gone home, we went to see Erick Morillo play at a club called the Powerzone. It was supposed to be the best party of the year, but even though the people were beautiful, they were pretty arrogant, the music was horrible - no one really danced! - and it was way too busy. It got better around 5:00 AM when Roog came up and started playing some serious tunes. By then it had gotten quieter as well so we could actually dance. All in all it was an OK evening, we had fun with the 5 of us (Tanno, Gerda, Eltjo, Marieke and me), but it wasn't the überparty it was supposed to be. At the end we dropped Tanno and Gerda and as I went in with them to pick up our stuff, Gerda gave me an oven-fresh loaf of bread she had just baked overnight, which was really, really nice of her! We ate the bread next day and it was great, with sunflower seeds and all! In fact, it was so good that by now we bought our own bread maker!! Thanks Gerda (and Tanno)!

 

Sunday, March 26, 2006

The Big Disappointment

Saturday, March 4, 2006

Arabic dinner at palace Amor Solo

During our skiing holiday in Lake Tahoe, I lost our friend's camera on the slopes. Neither our nor their insurance would give us anything back so Dino and Debbie had to go and buy a new camera themselves. It wasn't the end of the world as their camera was already old and they wanted to get a new one anyway, but still, we didn't just lose the camera, we of course also lost all the pictures. So when Dino said that it'd be fine if we just took them out for dinner or so, we decided to put in a bit (!) more effort and invite them over to our place for an Arabic dinner in palace Amor Solo.

On Saturday, we completely redecorated the room to be Arabic. Of course we don't have a low table so we had to go and buy wood and I hammered it together at home while Marieke was trying to tie nylon thread from air-conditioning vents to sprinklers so that we could drape cloths over them to make it look Middle-Eastern. Ahhh the work was a nightmare! The wires drooped down as we hung the heavy cloths over them and it took us forever till we were finally satisfied with the result. But I have to say, the result was worth the effort! We had candles lit throughout the room and it looked brilliant!

We also searched for Middle-Eastern recipes and cooked up a big meal. We had chicken baked in the oven with little potatoes and pears (should have been pork but it was an Arabic night!) with a breaded mint sauce (that was really really good!), we had Turkish meat balls (kofte) smothered for an hour in tomato-paprika sauce, couscous salad with grilled vegetables and fresh herbs, the works. To top it off, I downloaded Arabic music - a nice mix between chill-out music and proper Arabic singing. It looked and felt really exotic!!!

Debbie and me	Marieke and Dino
The Arabic Room :)	Romantic, eh? ;)

After dinner we went out to a place called Citrus (previously called V-Bar) to see a DJ called DJ Graham Gold, from the UK. The bar is a nice one, small and cozy, and his music was just excellent - a great mix of trance and techno. Dino and Debbie called it a night as they had an 11 AM appointment the next day, we ended up in Embassy (what did you expect? ) where we were immediately pulled into the VIP room by a guy called David that we've gotten to know over the past few weeks. And even though by that time we were very drunk, we still met a bunch of cool people (even one guy from New York)… I love Embassy!

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Shooting again

Friday, February 10, 2006

Prom Sucks!

We came home from Donsol on Friday morning (what IS it with these impossible flight times between Donsol and Manila???) and immediately went to bed to rest and prepare for Friday night's party. It was Rick's birthday again, and that is synonymous to a night of partying in style! This time, the theme was Prom Sucks! and we had to dress accordingly. After much debate and deliberation, we finally decided just to get a white tie to wear with an all-black outfit. Add a corsage and cool sunglasses (bought for a few pesos on Boracay) and we looked like proper film stars! A jeepney transported us through town, from m-cafe to Absinth to god knows where and in the end, back to Rick's place that was transformed to a disco-heaven complete with cool lighting effects, disco balls and dance music. You can't stop the music!!!

Camille, Eltjo, Marieke, Rommel and Tito	The coolest people in town!

 

Wednesday & Thursday, 8-9 February, 2006

WHALE SHARKS!!!

It's hard to describe our experience in Donsol in words. I think these were the most magical 2 days in my life. At an ungodly early hour (especially with our lifestyles) Eltjo, Marieke and I arrived on a typical small Filipino airport with only 1 runway and no automation to speak of. Outside heaps of taxi drivers trying to get us into their little van to drive the hour and a half to Donsol. After initially ignoring the hawkers we ended up in the van of Winston, a distinguished gentleman-driver, together with an Italian-German guy also called Daniel. We took shelter in our luxurious nipa houses at Woodland resort and after a nice breakfast with grilled fish, our boatman came to pick us up for what we came for all this way: swimming with the whale sharks.

Every year between December and May, whale sharks come to the inner seas of the Philippines to mate. At first they were hunted by the local population, but soon someone realized that there was a more sustainable source of income to be gained from these giant fish: tourism. They set up an efficient system of registration and paying boat fees, without giving in to commercial tourism like you see in Boracay - no big hotels, no large corporations. Everything is genuine and enjoyable.

We were lying on the deck for about an hour and we had well settled down, enjoying the sun, chatting, lazing, you know. Then all of a sudden commotion. The spotter - a guy sitting in the top of the 3 meter high mast peering out over the open sea like a pirate looking for land - saw 'something' and we all had to get ready in like 3 seconds. We were scrambling all over but sure enough within a few seconds we were all balancing our flippers over the left side of the boat, goggles on our noses and snorkels in our mouths. Then - panic. We were moving in a huge circle around an enormous black shadow in the water, about 30 meters out. No time to let the panic turn into fear though, because as soon as the realization started to sink in that we're going to swim towards this black shadow we were told to jump jump jump, and so we did. Those swimming seconds were terrifying. I looked up twice, back at the boat, to ask which direction to go to. Twice they pointed straight at the direction I was swimming in. The third time I looked up at them, they still pointed in the same direction but when I put my goggles back into the water... GASP!!! It was right in front of me: 15 meters of pure whale shark! And don't forget, we were swimming full speed ahead with our fins so you can't stop right away, and by the time I did it was right underneath me! My heart must have been doing 200 bpm! But then you just turn and swim along with the giant. And it is magical. It's hard to describe, but being in the water with such a huge animal, in its territory where you are a visitor, and to swim along with it within reaching distance... it's amazing. All in all we saw 7 whale sharks that day, and one even looked at me as I swam alongside its head - brrr!!

Back on the shore we relaxed a bit and pulled out the bottles of Tanduay we had brought with us from Manila (never leave the house unprepared! ) We also invited all the locals we met that day to come over and join us. On the picture, from left to right: Marieke, Mono (a big muscular guy who loves his Tanduay straight up), Italian-German Daniel, Eltjo, Elsa (a great girl from the tourist office), June (our main boat man), August (the 'Japanese', didn't say anything but laughed the whole time) and me in the front. In the evening we got on a boat with Elsa and Mono to go see the fireflies along the river but unfortunately, that night the fireflies seemed to all have a big party somewhere where we weren't so we didn't see a whole lot. Fortunately it wasn't for nothing because on the way back we stopped in Donsol 'city' to pick up some more Tanduay from the local store. We got 4 more bottles, just to make sure we'd make it through the next day as well without having to go back to buy more. That night, we invited the locals over again for dinner. We had a GREAT time, got VERY drunk (I apparently did all kinds of theater or whatever) and by the end of the evening, there was not a drop of Tanduay left... I guess we should have known better!

In true tradition of the past few weeks, everyone went home to leave Eltjo and me as the last men 'standing'. We climbed over the resort's spiky gate onto the beach and climbed aboard one of the boats that was floating a few meters out into the sea. Eltjo wanted to start to engine but thank god he couldn't figure out how (and I certainly didn't help him!). At one point Eltjo completely lost his balance and fell overboard into the water. We were kind of freaked out a bit, realizing that the same water was inhabited by 15 meter long whale sharks - alcohol makes paranoid! We climbed back onto our resort's garden where we drank the last few drops of alcohol and Eltjo nearly broke his foot running after some guy with a flash light on the beach. Oh what a night!

The next day the weather got a lot colder, no sun, and we decided we'd seen enough whale sharks to satisfy our needs so we just took it easy and relaxed. Naturally, the hang over had a part in that decision as well. We met up with a French-Irish couple and walked the 5 km over to Donsol to get some more Tanduay. On the way back, Elsa took us down to see her house and her daughter. She lives right on the beach, in a house under a couple of big palm trees - really very nice! That evening we did a soft repeat of the night before to close off a most magical 2 days in the Philippines.

Saturday, 28 January, 2006

Rizal park, Rizal schmark!

Unfortunately I had to go to Rome for business in the second week, while Eltjo, Emiel and Marieke went livin' it large on Boracay. When I came back we spent one more weekend with the 4 of us before Emiel had to go back home. Eltjo stayed for 2 more weeks though, which meant for us 2 more weeks of extreme drinking extreme partying and extreme little sleeping. Oh yeah, we also visited what is according to 2 separate guidebooks, one of which The Lonely Planet, the biggest park of South East Asia. The hell it is! It's more like a concrete square with cars running along it on 4 sides with no trees to speak off except a palm tree or 2. It was nice for a one-time visit but indeed not the park that you so long for after living in the concrete jungle of Manila for 2 years.

Corn in Rizal park	Well coordinated activities!
Kanpai in Kai!	Regular customers at Cafe Havana

Saturday, 21 January, 2006

Under water

The second weekend we took Eltjo and Emiel for their first-ever under water experience. We were fortunate enough to be able to take Pong along, our regular dive instructor that looks like the impersonation of Buddha. It was great just being out of the city again, in the silence and serenity of Batangas. As always, we stationed ourselves at Aquaventure, a nice resort with a great wooden terrace overlooking the water. We always come well prepared: we arrive Friday night with a bag full of Tanduay, chips, little candles and an iPod with speaker. That is how you start a weekend! We have a great word for it in Dutch: "gezellig" (HUH-SELL-IG). It's all about atmosphere: something to drink, something to eat and atmospheric lighting - as illustrated by Eltjo's picture to the right. (By the way, normally the candles outnumber the bottles of strong liquor! )

On Saturday morning, Eltjo and Emiel sat down with Pong to get their introduction to what diving is all about, while Marieke and I just enjoyed the sun on the terrace. Once they were done, we took our (orange, always orange!) boat out to the open sea. Marieke and I went down for our first dive of the weekend, while Eltjo and Emiel snorkeled right above us. Kinda weird having them look down on us in the water, but hey, what can you do? After our dive, we swam up to a quiet shore where some kids were playing, and it was Eltjo's and Emiel's turn to go underwater. They loved it. After they had each spent nearly half an hour at 12 meters or so, gazing at the fish and the colors in the coral, they came back up and couldn't talk about anything else! Just like us when we first went down! At night, it was Tanduay that ruled... as always... and after we moved a couple of After Eights downs from our forehead to our mouths it was time to hit the sack. Diving always exhausts me!

On Sunday, I couldn't dive anymore as I had to fly to Rome that night. So instead of diving, we decided to take the boat guys and go snorkeling instead near Arthur's Place (I think it was called that). The snorkeling there was awesome! There was so much coral and so many fish, incredible! At one point we even saw small jellyfish scooting by. Of course no one's a real fan of jellyfish, but to see these underwaterflower-like animals move in the water is amazing. Afterwards we left Anilao for Sonya's Garden for an excellent vegetarian lunch in the Tagaytay mountains. An appropriate ending to a very relaxing weekend and an acceptable prelude to an 18 hour trip to the Mediterranean!

All pictures are here in the photo album!

Saturday, 14 January, 2006

D'r op of d'r onder!!!

On Saturday morning, Emiel and Eltjo arrived in Manila. Not wanting to waste any time we immediately opened a beer (at 9 AM After a small beauty sleep in the afternoon we again didn't waste any time and started what would be the first in a whole series of very memorable nights. We started in Havana, a salsa cafe with a great terrace (which only flaw is the many middle aged white men with their prostitutes) where we met Camille and Ed. The next stop was Absinth where we met 2 Dutch people, Fleur and Jeroen - Jeroen was just a visiting KLM pilot, but Fleur was a great girl that moved down here to get away from Holland and live with her parents for a couple of months. After some dancing and drinking (Absinth of course) we moved on to Embassy - our favorite Manila club in case you didn't know yet for some proper music, people and atmosphere. As if that wasn't enough, we ended up at Rick's place dancing and playing pool with Ed and Tonjie and losing without a chance. HA! The rest of the week Emiel and Eltjo went to explore the town while I worked my ass off. Story of my life really.

Tradition: breakfast at Santis and Starbucks	Lazing in the sun at the pool

Jan 2006

Lake Tahoe

On New Year's Day, the four of us rented a car and took off for Lake Tahoe to go skiing and snowboarding. Lake Tahoe is amazing. The views are spectacular: when you're on the top, you see the immense lake on one side, while at the other side you see the beginning of the Nevada desert. The boarding was excellent. We were lucky though - apparently it hadn't snowed for ages till the day we arrived. We were welcomed with a big pack of fresh powder that lasted us through the whole vacation (indeed that was the only time it snowed at all!) The slopes were nice and wide, while off piste there were plenty of trees spaced wide enough you could board/ski through them without too much effort. Marieke had decided to change from snowboard back to skis, which was definitely the right decision - she went along with us through the trees and off any and all slopes and we really, really enjoyed it all.

The city of Lake Tahoe was another story though. On the border with Nevada it was filled with casinos and casinos just don't do it for me - or for any of us for that matter! Other than that there wasn't much entertainment or apres-ski in town so we usually ended up back in our posh hotel, enjoying the open bar drinking wodka-tonics and playing cards. We enjoyed that and all, but it wasn't the same as the apres-ski we've gotten used to in places like France or even Austria. And if we wouldn't have been there with Dino and Debbie, we would surely have bored ourselves to death!

The worst thing about the vacation was that at one point, I lost Dino and Debbie's camera... I had it with me to take pictures of everyone as they came down the slopes. Then, at one particularly steep slope with very deep snow, it must have fallen out of my pocket somehow - something we only realized later when the slope had merged onto another one. Dino and I spent quite some time looking for it, but I think it must have been buried in the snow. It was really deep there and would have disappeared easily. We tried to check down at the lost and found, but it never appeared. What a bummer!!! I felt terrible (and I still do, writing this up!) We did however buy 2 disposable cameras so we were still able to get some pictures, which I've posted here in the photo album.

New Year 2005 - 2006

A Frisco welcome to 2006

From Tokyo we flew to San Francisco where we met our friends from Manila, Dino and Debbie, in Hotel Carlton, an excellent little hotel on Sutter Street. If ever you go to San Fran, I definitely recommend you to stay there. The location is very central, the rooms spacious and tastefully decorated and the 2 guys running the place extremely friendly and helpful. They also hosted a free wine tasting session every evening, which I think was meant to bring the guests together to socialize, but that didn't really work out. Nonetheless a friendly gesture!

We thought we'd really like San Francisco, after hearing from several people how health conscious it was and that it was the most European city of the US. But I don't know if it were that we didn't meet the right people or because of the generally rainy weather, but we were not very impressed. I think the city is OK, no more, and I no longer think I'd like to live there. Perhaps it's different if you really know where to go and who to go with, but for now the no-living verdict stands!

For New Year's, we really wanted to find something special - after all, how many times do you get the chance to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Frisco? We met some cool people in a funky restaurant who were going to a vintage party but unfortunately it was sold out (by the time we finally got over the fact that tickets were horrendously expensive). We finally ended up in club called the Velvet Lounge, but it wasn't great. People were dancing as if they were in a strip club and it wasn't a very friendly atmosphere - it was more like everyone was there on the hunt for flesh. A bit grim really. I nearly got into a fight with some guy that tried to bully Dino into buying a drink for him after they bumped into each other. Finally Marieke went to get the bouncer and a few minutes later the guy came back to apologize - apparently told to do so by the bouncer. Whatever. Then later, Marieke nearly got thrown out for not tipping the bar maid. We paid $100 entrance, which meant free drinks all night long. We had no idea we were still supposed to tip the bar personnel and when Marieke asked what was going on, a bouncer nearly threw her out. Really extreme!! At 2:00 AM everything closed down and we were we had no choice but to go back to the hotel - the earliest New Year's turn in for as long as I can remember!

We did do the touristy stuff like riding the cable cars (nice!), visiting Alcatraz on a rainy and windy night (that was good too) and did some walking tours through town. San Fran is really an OK town to walk through, and we especially enjoyed the Haights, the old hippie neighborhood. But at the same time we were a bit overwhelmed by the many homeless people we saw on the streets. Poverty is clearly a problem here.

January 2006

Decadence

To read on in the next archive, click here