Netherlands and more

Recently I’ve visited Portugal for the first time in my life. The everlasting Dutch off-season makes one long for sun, and where else in Europe can you secure a sunny place, except maybe the Canaries? This spring in Europe is particularly poor, full of floods and cold, so Portugal appears to be the best option for the continental part.

We’ve decided to go for its south coast, the Algarve region. Where the Atlantic Ocean, endless beaches, real waves and the edge of the world are. But first things first.

Warning: tons of photos under the cut!

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It’s been two years of suffering from the speakers built into my iMac. The speakers, despite all Apple’s marketing noise and even two 17 Watt power amps, suck big time. I’ve already connected my AV receiver via Bluetooth, but it’s quite a hassle to start it up every time. Another issue is that Logitech Bluetooth adapter gives a very low output level, which requires setting receiver’s volume to -20 dB every time I power it up.

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Tomasa Quartet, whom I know since Dias Latinos 2011, honoured Amersfoort with a live gig. I couldn’t miss the (quite rare) opportunity of seeing that.

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So many things have piled up while I was busy with my website, not sure I’ll be able to handle them.

Let’s take the famous flower parade, or bloemencorso in Dutch. It’s a yearly event, held in late April or early May near Keukenhof, the largest flower garden in the world.

Warning: there’s about a hundred photos under the cut.

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Last weekend, 16 through 19 May 2013, the traditional yearly jazz festival took place in Amersfoort, as I announced. Its thirty-fourth edition, to be precise. Chaired by the well-known Alexander Beets:

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Yet again, precisely on time, Holland has turned orange on the 30^th of April. Queen’s day is there, but this time is the last in the modern history of the country.

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I’ve published rare footage I filmed a few years ago. It was a performance given by two greatest jazz musicians of our time, Daniel Kramer (piano) and Arkady Shilkloper (French horn, flugelhorn, alphorn) at Tyumen Concert Hall on February 10, 2008.

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Hi all, I’m still there, alive and well.

Lately I’ve been busily developing my very own website in the wild world of Internet. Now that I’m mainly done I’m happy to present it to you: yktoo.com.

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I couldn’t take it anymore so I created an audio input/output switcher indicator for Ubuntu.

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Prologue

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.

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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.

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I realize everyone is alreay sick of my gig reports, but can’t really help it. Let’s just keep it short…

On December 28, 2012 the Dutch progressive metal band Stream of Passion, lead by the splendid Marcela Bovio, gave a festive Christmas/New Year’s Eve gig.

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