Ice cream or Ice cold??

This country really has its funny quirks...

One of them being ice cream... For years I have laughed whenever I see people and their weird 'addiction' to ice cream.
Whether summer or winter, rain or snow, freezing cold or scorching heat; you will always see people on the streets with an ice cream in their hand...

And apparently, today, summer began again... or more probably: it's the 1st of March tomorrow, so according to the ice cream vendors summer is here.
No matter that the past weekend was the coldest in a loooooong time, that the night temperatures have dropped to -15 Celsius, or that the icy wind is piercing through every layer of clothing you are wearing. Today is the big day!
I was in the center of Copenhagen today and saw large trucks delivering ice cream freezers to the various (station) kiosks and and vendors in the area. All set for the coming warm summer... (I hope you hear the sarcasm in my voice...)

I was just laughing at such a surreal sight, the idiocy of some people is just sometimes to far out to believe... I was dumbfounded actually. They probably just looked at the calendar, and said: let's roll out the ice cream, spring and summer are almost here... hahaha!
You should have seen the eyes of the delivery guys, a blend of surprise, wonder and plain stupidness... How could one not laugh? How can one take anything like this seriously??
Life is fun indeed, as someone would say...

Tunnel Vision

 

In addition to the previous post...Thanks Michael! Everybody: The metro of Copenhagen! So cool...

So cool...

Last night I was coming home from Guillaume and Sara's place, where we had been watching football with some guys. I had to rush home in the end, as I needed to catch the train home.

The surreal experience started when I walked down into the metro station. The fence was already half down, and there was no one... as if I walked into a sci-fi movie or something, or that scene in Black Rain (old 'crappy' action movie with Micheal Douglas) where Andy Garcia gets attacked by some Japanese on motorbikes...

Anyway...

The best part was that the metro I got on to, was completely empty except me!
Amazing... the metro is pretty cool in itself, no driver, and with open front and back. The tunnels are completely lit, so when you sit all the way up front, you imagine yourself in a movie or computer game or something, with everything flashing by you...
All this was enhanced by being completely alone in there, rushing through these hypermodern tunnels, in a state-of-the-art metro train... It was only for 2 stops... but it totally made my day... I was just annoyed I didn't have my camera on me!

What an awesome sight it was, guess it was rare to be alone in a metro in a capital of a country!

Traditional Hangover Burger

Hahahahaha, I don't think Alvaro will ever taste the local hangover burger... The burger bar opened two weeks after he left Denmark, and was closed for the summer when he was visiting in August. Now again, they are closed until the end of March, again... until after Alvaro has left again from his new visit...

Poor guy!!!! Now we haev to go allllll the way to Burger King!!

Well...

Hmmm... it's been a while since my last post. am not so much in the mood to write right now, more of reading and listening. Just finished 'Andalus' by Jason Webster, brilliant book (I'll write more abt it later) and am just listening to music from when I grew up, back to my roots, being 15 again...

Nothing much happening...
Denmark is white at the moment, covered in snow, people suddenly less grumpy and more wiling to help each other, pretending to forget the bitter election victory of the current government.... It makes me nauseous just thinking of the fact that these fucking paranoid xenofobes even gained more seats in the parliament, poisoning people with their populist venom, eating and gnawing away at the foundations of all good that has been built up in Denmark and Europe after the Second World War... Fucking hypocrites...

And yes... as well.... I hate it to be disappointed by friends... bwaaaahhhh... It gives such a bitter taste in the mouth...

Well, soon though it can all be washed away again...

Politics... sorry!!

aka "Liar Liar..."

well, sorry to Salon.com... buit I will show the article here in full... I couldnt resist, and the news should be considered bigger than it is... Anyone seen Liar, Liar over there in that White House??

(go to the original article too, there are some interesting links to more info mentioned)

"A 9/11 question for Condoleezza Rice"

No one could have predicted it.

That’s what Condoleezza Rice said about 9/11. Yes, George W. Bush received a Presidential Daily Brief on Aug. 6, 2001, and yes, that brief was headlined, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." But Rice and other administration officials have long maintained that no one could have predicted that terrorists would hijack a plane and try to use it as a weapon. "I don't think anybody could have predicted . . . that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile," Rice said at a press briefing in May 2002.

Well, that's not quite true. Someone could have predicted it, and someone actually did. As we mentioned last night, today's New York Times brings news of a previously undisclosed report from the 9/11 Commission. According to the Times, the report says that the Federal Aviation Administration "had indeed considered the possibility that terrorists would hijack a plane and use it as a weapon," and that it actually warned U.S. airports in 2001 that terrorists might hijack an airplane in order to "commit suicide in a spectacular explosion."

Rice didn't see fit to mention any of this in her sworn public testimony before the 9/11 Commission last year. Asked about her pronouncement about the unpredictability of a planes-as-missiles scheme, Rice backtracked a bit, saying that the idea actually had been raised in reports within the "intelligence community" in 1998 and 1999. She didn't mention that the FAA had issued a warning about such an attack in the spring of 2001, just months before 9/11.

The Times says that the Bush administration "blocked" the public release of the newly disclosed 9/11 Commission for "more than five months" -- against the wishes of 9/11 Commissioner members -- but finally "provided both the classified report and a declassified, 120-page version to the National Archives two weeks ago."

Two weeks ago? Two weeks ago would be 'round about Jan. 27, and Jan. 27 would be the day after the U.S. Senate confirmed Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state. Maybe the timing is a coincidence, and we certainly wouldn't want to suggest otherwise. That might amount to "impugning" Rice's "integrity" and "credibility." And that would be wrong, wouldn't it?

-- Tim Grieve

[08:53 EST, Feb. 10, 2005] "

Nice to know

Nice to know that you, my friends, are searching for me, from many countries... if only knew exactly who was who, and were you were at that time...

My stats show funny search results in google, MSN search and Yahoo search, etc etc...

check it out:
1

2

3 (Venezuela, I don't know (right now) of anyone who is there??)

4

5

6

7

8

Some, from the last weeks, are lost already, but there were some nice ones in between...
Cheers!

Arthur Miller

...How could I not write about this?

Death of A Salesman, marriage to Marylin Monroe, a constant nuisance to the 'establishment', 'The Misfits', playwright, author... one of the finest writers of the 20th century. Like Frank Sinatra, many loathed him for his life(style), but secretly admired him and kept themselves engaged...

Arthur Miller, died last night at the age 89... well done!

From the New York Times: "Mr. Miller, a lanky, wiry man whose dark hair turned to gray in his later years, retained the appearance of a 1930's intellectual whether wearing work boots and blue jeans while fixing his back porch or seated behind his word processor or typewriter when the power failed at his 350-acre farm in Litchfield County.

Writing plays was for him, he once said, like breathing. He wrote in "Timebends" that when he was young, he "imagined that with the possible exception of a doctor saving a life, writing a worthy play was the most important thing a human being could do." "

What can I say, the world got a little bit more boring...

Another piece

Today another lovely postcard arrived. This time from Egypt, where a friend is relaxing on a beach somewhere :)

Another card for my collection, a new country, an old friend! I'll put it up right now...
Grazie Mari!

It's beem a while, but still... thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You too!!!

In the beautiful summer of 2001 I made a big trip through Spain and Italy, trying to see and visit as many friends as possible. One evening I was sitting in the small town of Vic in the Spanish province of Cataluña with some people, when I received an sms from Andrea in Bergamo, Italy: "I can arrange tickets to the U2 concert in Torino. Would you like to go?" I thought about it for 1/1000 sec and replied: "yes, please". Within a minute the sms came: "ok, but realise that it is quite expensive, it's for the tickets and a bus ride to Torino". Reply: "I DONT CARE!!!! :)". I was spending a lot of money anyway on that trip, and I would be crazy to say no to such an opportunity.
In other words, the trip became even more unforgettable...

What a concert... Me and 70.000 crazy Italians in the Delle Alpi stadium of Juventus, on the field were the greatest football players played and still play... Wow...
I just have to close my eyes and I am back again. Sitting the the whole afternoon, in the scorching sun, listening to all kinds of 'warm-up' bands... getting ready for the explosion of energy that were the first songs: 'Elevation' and 'Beautiful Day'...
Then in the evening, staring at the sky, peering at the stars when other songs came by... letting my thoughts drift away, to far away, letting the music fill me up completely and totally, thoughts, faces, feelings, smells, sounds... all...
I arrived back home utterly exhausted, but so content. It had been completely worth it!

Then, jump to the 12th of January 2002. One day after Sara had arrived in Emdrup, we met her friends Massimo, Alberto, and Fabio, that had also come from Udine on exchange to Copenhagen.
After a while Massimo and I arrived on the topic of music and U2. It turned out we had been to the same concert in Torino, and when we continued it turned out that we must have been standing very close to each other... It's a small world, isn't it?

Over the next months Guillaume and I were playing U2 a lot, and very loud, whenever would get ready for a party... On top that was the "With Or Without You" routine brought to perfection, thanks to the many parties we had. A routine that all started when Roberto told us once upon a time about this thing he did with his friends back in Pamplona whenever the song "With Or Without ou" was played... Anyone who has ever been to a party here knows, I don't need to elaborate here :)

As the band and its music has become such a integral part of our life here n Copenhagen, it is normal that our conversation many times turned towards a wish of seeing a concert of U2 together, preferably in Copenhagen, but wherever basically, anywhere!

It's been 3 years, and now finally we have the chance...

As soon as the new album came out in November we were checking regularly when and where the tour would bring them. Three weeks ago the dates were finally out and this led to a flurry of emails and calls, to make sure that we could arrange tickets to a concert, anywhere in Europe basically.
Maybe you've heard, but the tickets were gone in few minutes anywhere basically. 240.000 tickets in Dublin gone in an hour or something... wow!
So, the 'last' chance we had was today, Copenhagen. Sara and Guillaume were at the store at 7 am this morning (where people had been sleeping in the freezing cold last night!!) and I was in charge of Internet and phone access...
Well, the website was dead at 8.30 (sales started at 10), and the phone... well, never even worked. When I finally got through online, I was nr 8000 in line, then up to 7000, then back to 8000, 9000, 10000... and I disconnected; once again were the systems not up to the task. When will they ever learn???
Then, the phone call came... Sara got the tickets!! We have 4 tickets in one part and 6 in another part of the stadium... More or less the last that were available.
Pfffffffffff.... Now I am relieved!!

U due, U due, U due!! (Italian for "U2 U2 U2!!")

Copenhagen, 31st of July 2005... Can't wait!!

The last days...

Still have to finish writing about the first days of January, completing the tales of the trip through Andalucía...
Closure, is what they call it, right?? I'll try and make it short for once...

SO, the 1st of January... a slight hangover... and everyone waking up reaaaaaaalllly late. It was another lovely day, so we went on a tour around Sevilla. We visited Dani at Helados Montana, to meet the family and taste the delicious ice creams (no, not just saying this because I have to... :) It was seriously good, lovely taste!).
As not all cafe's, restaurants and shops were open obviously, we had to drive around for a bit, but no worries about that! The weather was nice, and it's a great city to see.
We spent some hours relaxing and just enjoying each others company in a Arabian tea house, or tetería. Tasting various kinds of tea, in a perfect environment... with the inevitable waterpipe of course!! How could an Emdrup gathering happen without the waterpipe, right?
After tapas here and there, a coffee, a drink and all that, we ended up in Jose Antonio's place where Esther and I (well, I was cutting onions...) cooked some pasta, a real student meal, but it was veeeery tasty. We hung out, had some beers, watched baaaaad tv, and slowly felt our eyes close... So much for that day!

The next day turned out slightly stressed... and all went well anyway...Alvaro had to make it to the airport, Jose Antonio had to go back early to Jerez, we had to pick up my backpack in Fabian's place, Fabian and Juanito still had to come back from a town outside the city, they didn't have the keys to the resturant on them, Magda had to get back for a dinner in Chipiona, Esther forgot her mobile at Dani's place, we had to catch a train, Dani had to work, we needed some food, call Jaime (who turned out to be sick from too much partying...)and in the end Esther and I ended up in a train to Granada... That was the end of the Emdrup gathering, we were the last ones to leave Sevilla behind, some days we had had!
Some kind of planning huh? And everything turned out well... don't ask how though!! Hahahha!

We arrived some hours later in Granada, after a sleepy train ride, walking around the city with our luggage, as we needed to be able to get into Esther's place... she didn't have her keys with her of course, as we hadn't planned we'd end up in Granada! So we needed to find some of her roommates, and their keys. After some new adventures while walking through Granada (see an earlier post) while meeting people I know on the streets, we arrived. The location is perfect, basically in the old center, with history all around and the Moorish legacy coming from every corner...
At night we went out for dinner and a couple of beers, to a really cool flamenco bar that I can't remember the name of (later, mentioning it to Jaime, he didn't even know it). Pictures and old posters everywhere of all the icons in flamenco... The music loud, piercing, and passionate... Totally hidden, in the basement in some backalley of a backalley... and of course... guess what... behing were a group of Dutch. From the Rotterdam area, I could hear it on the accent... I can't be rid of them anywhere!! Hahah!
Afterwards we went to Cafe Bagdad (yeeaaaah, I remember a name!) where the crowd was totally different, very 'alternative', lots of sweet fumes crossing my smell...with really cool music, and were I felt young again... had I been 10 years younger it would have been my favorite place. Now, it was too smoky, and as we were tired we headed home for a well-deserved rest...
(In case you haven't looked on a calendar, I am talking about going out on a Sunday. Not just any Sunday, but the 2nd of January, people are dead from New years, have to work the next day, and still... all the places we were in, were packed... why can't we have that in DK?????)

The next day was just lounging, not doing much, relaxing, basically just enjoying the company of an old friend that I hardly had spoken to for 3-4 years, looking for that one nice souvenir I wanted, and didn't find. I don't even have many pictures from the last days, just didn't feel like it anymore...
We met up with Jaime later that day, for another coffee and a chat, exchanging more stories and adventures and saying our farewells for this time (he's coming soon to DK again...)
We took the bus to end up in Torre Del Mar, where we spent the night, to be able to catch a reallllllly early bus to go to the airport... Leaving a million memories, filled with new joy, new experiences, surprising encounters: pieces of the treasure I call friends everywhere...

And there it was... the 4th of January, my cousin's birthday, back 'home' to Denmark... up veeeery early, a last snack and drink in Malaga airport, and I had to leave it behind again...
And I have to admit: as much as I enjoy Copenhagen, this was the first time after coming back from one of my many trips that I didn't feel it like a homecoming...
I missed my friends and their cities too much...

Therefore: hasta la proxima!!!!!!! See you soon I hope!! (and no more New Years' trip stories!!)

Some rum here, some rum there...

A friend of mine has been travelling for almost a month through Equador, and she came home yesterday. As she is a friend, she knows my taste, so her gifts (actually belated birthday presents) were the obvious: a lovely bottle of Equadorian rum (San Miguel Oro) and a bottle of 'The Spirit of Equador' (apparently a very sweet liquor).

That brings my collection to 8 different kinds of dark rum, and all of them actually too good to 'just' drink on a night when you go out. Most of them need to be tasted carefully...

So...
Brugal Añejo Ron Superior (Republica Dominicana)
Ron San Miguel Oro (Equador)
Ron Cacique (Venezuela)
Bacardi Reserva (Bahama's)
Ron Viejo De Caldas (Colombia)
Ron Pampero Añejo (Venezuela)
Ron Havana Club Añejo Reserva (Cuba)
Ron Barcelo Añejo (Republica Dominicana)

Hmmmm.... sounds too good!! I will be careful with them...

Gmail account anyone??

Hi all...

For some months now I have been using my Gmail-account, to my satisfaction I must say. It's a relief compared to Hotmail, that just gets worse and worse.

It's simple, it's fast, it's innovative, and has a 1 GB mailbox...

So far you can only get it if someone 'invites' you, so... Still, no worries! I have 50 invites here, drop me a line, and I'll send it to you! (if you can't find it, look in your junk mail, Microsoft obviously doesn't really like Gmail...)

cheers!

Smile, you're on!

Wired News: Hide Your IPod, Here Comes Bill

Some days you read some news that just makes you smile a big smile... 16.000 of the 24.000 head office Microsoft employees walk around with the Apple Ipod... and now the senior management is starting to complain...
Irony, oh irony... Guess we have to feel sorry for Bill now?
Het leven is wel leuk!

I had to...

Yesterday... Guillaume and I started doing some fitness exercising again...
For my part, as much as I love sports, I haven't done squat for a year or so... so... yes, my muscles are hurting!! Didn't even know I had them anymore :)

Tomorrow morning again, 10 am! Be there!!

A new year, huh??