It’s been a while since I wrote about the masters of drive and female vocals, one of my favourites, Stream of Passion. They’re still there and have even recently toured in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, which they posted about on their Facebook page.
Just before those, very special for both sides, events I’ve visited two performances happened with an interval of one week.
I’ve done something useful in my spare time. I crafted a website for my aikido school (or dojo) called Aikikai Amersfoort, which is now located at aikikai-amersfoort.nl.
The former website was really ancient-looking, built back in 2004 and totally outdated. For example, one had to download an .avi file if they wanted to watch a video. YouTube did not exist at that remote moment.
Last weekend I’ve finally got to visit the most eminent, in every meaning, place in Amersfoort. Since I’d come to live here, my country has changed its president twice, one of them has divorced and the other has made quite a few equally destructive achievements, yet I failed to take my time to get to it.
In the brochure of Spoffin I found a discount coupon for climbing the tower for € 2.50 instead of € 4. The coupon was valid until August 31st, which conveniently fell on Saturday. This chance we couldn’t miss.
It’s August again, which means festival time in Amersfoort! In the beginning of the month there’s usually the world-famous Gay Pride in Holland. The main venue is, of course, Amsterdam, but many other cities, including Amersfoort, hold smaller parades. However in the beginning of August I was in Tyumen, so I won’t tell you anything about that.
Yet again, precisely on time, Holland has turned orange on the 30th of April. Queen’s day is there, but this time is the last in the modern history of the country.
The life in Holland, smooth in general, sometimes delivers nasty surprises.
On the last Liberation Day (May 5, 2012), I was liberated from my wallet (and the wallet, respectively, from me). It was stolen in Utrecht, a very nice city otherwise, at the Central Station, in a Chinese restaurant called Charlie Chiu’s, where we decided to make a pit-stop before a long and exhausting shopping round.
Queen Beatrix has just announced she would abdicate from the Dutch throne in favour of her eldest son, 45 years old Willem-Alexander.
The public has been expecting such a move from her for a while, since the moment a renovation of the Drakensteyn castle has started a few years ago.
In November last year we and Amersfoort were officially introduced to each other.
The event is held once a year for all newcomers to the city. Its name Amersfoort Aangenaam, literally translated as “Pleasant Amersfoort,” is a standard expression used for introducing someone. The invitation was on the name of my girlfried as I’m no newcomer anymore.
Exactly one year ago, on January 1, 2012 I was late for the “New Year’s dive”, Nieuwjaarsduik, because it took me too long to find a parking space). Then I had to dive in solitude.
In case you have no idea what it is about: Nieuwjaarsduik is a stunning event when live people plunge into the water of a temperature slightly above the freezing point, organized in Holland nationwide by Unox. The main diving venue is in Scheveningen, near by the Hague, and people here run right into the North Sea.
It’s been exactly one year since I’ve had laser eye surgery. As aftercare I got a number of checkups: the next day, one month and three months later, and, finally, after a year.