Mountains

High Tatras
Originally uploaded by macchi.

I was talking about mountains yesterday, right? Some of these is what I had spent the day around.

Pictures aren't great. But that day convinced me of my holiday plans for next year: a mountain hiking trip to see a bit more of this. The trail I was following basically headed straight into this picture.... but I didn't think it was a very good idea to do that by myself even if there was a mountain cottage at the end of it.

But next year.....

So, if anyone has some suggestions on organizations to look at who offer these type of holidays, I'd love to hear! (I'm not sure if I will be able to find friends to do this with, so then I will resort to joining a group).

Travelling for one

[uploading some short thoughts from Slovakia]

Sitting on a terrace on a mountain of the High Tatras, looking out over the flat land stretching out at the foot of this mountain range, I feel really happy.

I'm enjoying a beer with a great view after a day of hiking in some of the best mountain scenery I've seen. And, it didn't even rain.

These moments, or rather days, are what make me go travelling by myself. I don't mean that this is something I could only do by myself - quite the opposite: I would probably have seen even better mountains. What I mean is that finding a travel partners - with the same style of travelling, same interests, same flexibility etc - is actually quite hard. And I don't want to miss days like today and views like those in the Tatra mountains.

That is why I do travel by myself and am quite happy doing so. There are so many places in the world which I want to see, and just the lack of a travel partner is not going to stop me from seeing those places.

Quite selfish really...

Water

I spent the day on the Kagerplassen with some good friends on a sailing boat. They did pretty much all of the sailing. I provided some food, and company :-)

And can you see the touch of blue in the left hand corner. Yes, we actually managed to get some sun today.

Good day.

Slow travel

I am just home from four days of very slow travel - walking along the Dutch coast. A trip that took two hours on Monday by train, has added up to nine days of walking.

We've speeded up life so much - because this was a regular train. Two hours by highspeed train will get you much further. Two hours by plane will take you further still, which I'll find out soon as well.

But I have come to really enjoy going slowly. Going at the pace of your own legs, how quickly they will go and how far they will take you. Taking in your surroundings as they slowly move past. Enjoying the view while relaxing on a hill top or at a beach cafe.

*sigh*

It was a good week. To see the result of those nine days, and a little more, go here

Ready, set....

Bag packed? Check
Bikini recovered? Check
Great weather forecasts? Check

Off for a few days of gorgeous Dutch seaside, yay.

... Go!

Head versus Heart

Are you someone who makes more decisions based on the Head, or on the Heart?

I'm more of a Head kind of person. And I'm trying to live more by the Heart. Trying. Because sometimes this is pretty difficult.

Or maybe the Head is better in some situations anyway?

Sigh.

Simple pleasures

Today was my last day at work for the next two weeks, which always means a long list of stuff to finish and leaving as little work as possible for the colleague who will cover for me. When I walked in to the office it turned out that all our systems were down. When this happened the last time (only last month, grrr) it took all morning for them to bring everything back online.

Cue short panic to think of how I was able to finish all that work - not a good start of the day.

The whole day has gone differently than expected. By the end of the working day my plans for tomorrow had disappeared and later my dinner company had to leave unexpectedly.

The good part? More dessert for me! I'm never a huge fan of desserts, but for tonight I made marinated strawberries (in a French liquor which has been in my cupboard mostly unused for much too long) with lime-flavoured mascarpone. Leave both in the fridge for an hour or so.

Yumm. Really really nice.

Practically Perfect

Tonight I read this article: how do you find your passion? And keep it alive?

Apart from some of the other things in there, I'm taking on his last challenge: to blog. Because, why am I not writing here anymore? More than 6 years of at least monthly writing has changed to ..... silence.

So, I am going to use this place as a type of online memobook - writing about things I see happening; things that I want to know more about; things that make me think; things that inspire and challenge.

I don't know what you will get to read (if anyone is still reading). I don't know what the result will be (if any).

That's not the point. I think I need to start putting down ideas and get them out of my head.

To be continued.

LaLa#4 - Bubbleissues

Vervreemdend. Drie dagen na de dansvoorstelling LaLa#4 is dat het woord wat me nog het meeste bij blijft van deze voorstelling.

Vervreemdend in geluid. Vervreemdend in beeld. De openingsscene is bijvoorbeeld een alleen dansende vrouw – maar van haar zie je alleen haar benen. Haar bovenlijf wordt volledig opgeslokt door een verzameling ballonnen bij elkaar gehouden door een donker omhulsel. Maar de bewegingen fascineren. Achteraf licht de maakster van de voorstelling toe dat ze juist sterk visueel is ingesteld – en dat de voorstelling dus juist probeert sterke beelden neer te zetten.

Deze sterke beelden blijven de hele avond terugkomen. Ook door dat gewerkt wordt met media die je niet verwacht bij moderne dans: een gedeelte wordt volledig beheerst door een groot videoscherm.

De voorstelling bevat meerdere onderdelen die niet allemaal bij elkaar lijken te passen. De verschillende dansstijlen maken het soms lastig om te blijven begrijpen. De mooiste stukken zijn die op een luchtbed – het lijkt wel alsof de dansers zweven, alsof ze in een zwaartekrachtvrije ruimte zijn zo vloeiend zijn hun bewegingen.

Niet de meest makkelijke of voor de hand liggende voorstelling dus, maar delen ervan zijn fascinerend juist vanwege het gebruik van sterke beelden in combinatie met krachtige dans. En het heeft mij nieuwsgierig gemaakt naar ander werk van LaLa.

LaLa#4 is nog een paar avonden te zien. Maar je kan natuurlijk ook naar een volgende Blind Date theater voorstelling gaan om nieuw talent te ontdekken!

Snow!

Winter was well and truly here last week. The city looked gorgeous, under a white blanket of snow.

I'm now hoping we will jump straight into spring.

[But with the current forecast for the week, and the fact it is only mid-December, I guess I have to either suck it up or emigrate]