Last Wednesday we went for our ultrasound (20 weeks). Quite exciting, but also fun. The baby is developing normally and we could see it move. I can feel it move a lot as well lately. It's a very special feeling. But I can imagine it could keep me awake when the movements are getting more powerful in a few weeks... We didn't want to know the gender of our baby, so that will still be a big surprise :)
I also had a regular check up at the midwife last week, during which we heard the baby heart beat again.
For the rest, there's not much to tell. I'm now wearing a new t-shirt which I ordered here and I already got a lot of positive reactions about it, which is of course a lot of fun.
Wat is de Nederlandse taal toch moeilijk. Regelmatig vallen mij in de lokale krantjes artikelen op die geschreven zijn door mensen die blijkbaar zoveel mogelijk informatie in zo min mogelijk zinnen willen proppen, wat gewoonweg foutief Nederlands oplevert. Vandaag in de Weekendkrant een artikeltje op de voorpagina over een dementerende vrouw die vermist werd (en gelukkig weer gevonden is): "De 61-jarige dame werd gezocht door haar dochter bij wie ze op bezoek was". Nou denk ik dat men bedoelt dat de vrouw bij haar dochter op bezoek was en daar verdwenen is. Vervolgens werd ze gezocht. Het lijkt mij namelijk raar dat ze gezocht werd, terwijl ze gewoon bij haar dochter op bezoek was. Pfffff... maar ja, dat is natuurlijk een veel te ingewikkelde en lange manier om het verhaal in de krant te zetten...
Afgelopen weekend bracht mijn schoonzus een doos mee met allemaal positiekleding van haar zwangerschappen. Gisteren had ik geen puf om de boel te gaan passen, maar vanmorgen heb ik eens even alles aangetrokken en de berg in twee stapels verdeeld. De eerste stapel met kleding die niet past, me niet staat, of absoluut niet mijn smaak is. De andere stapel met kleding die past en die ik leuk vind. De tweede stapel is best groot, dus ik ben helemaal blij. Joepie!! Weer wat meer variatie in mijn garderobe! :D
En nu snel de schoenen aan, we hebben straks een afspraak bij de verloskundige.
Last Thursday it was my birthday, but I didn't celebrate it that day. I had to work, and in the evening I was singing with my choir. On Saturday our parents and brother and sisters came by and we celebrated my birthday with a delicious lunch. The weather was so good, we could even sit outside in the garden! I can't remember such nice weather on my birthday before.
One of the presents I got, is a CD with baby a cappella music called "Little voices". It's a CD with pure all vocal, classical music for bedtime, sung by the Swingle Singers. After my family had left, I was quite tired and when listening to the CD I fell asleep during the third song, so I think the CD also works for tired mama's-to-be ;)
In the evening we drove to Oss, to attend a Rock4 concert in our favorite theater De Lievekamp. We had front row seats. I loved the show, especially because it was even better than last time. I think ever since Peter and LucN were replaced by Lucas and Harry the group needed some time to grow closer, vocally. I really enjoyed it, and afterwards we had a chat with Luc and Harry for a while. We got home after 1am, which is way after my normal bedtime looking at the past four months. But I had a great birthday!
The coming week we have an appointment with the midwife and we have to go to the hospital to have the 20 weeks ultrasound. We're halfway!
Eerder deze week kwam manlief thuis met twee kortingsbonnen van Lief!. Dat is natuurlijk altijd mooi meegenomen. Vandaag ging ik eens even kijken in de winkel. Het assortiment van Lief! bestaat voornamelijk uit kinderkleding, maar ze hebben ook tassen, accessoires en verzorgingsproducten. Een erg leuk winkeltje. Doordat er wel veel dingen specifiek op jongens of meisjes gericht waren, en wij niet weten wat het gaat worden, had ik mijn keuze vrij snel gemaakt. Vergeet wat ik vorige week schreef over kleding, het eerste babypakje ligt nu in de kast! Een groen truitje met lief! er op en een groen-wit gestreept broekje. Heel lang zal de kleine het niet aankunnen, want het is maat 50-56. Maar om alles op de groei te kopen, is ook niet leuk, toch? Dit worden misschien wel de allereerste kleertjes die dat trappelende kindje in mijn buik straks aan gaat hebben :D
Mama-to-be voelt zich verder goed deze week! Een druk weekje op het werk, maar toch heb ik heerlijk gewerkt en heb ik mijn energie goed kunnen verdelen, zodat ik niet weer oververmoeid het weekend in ga. Ik leer het wel ;)
There we are, 18 weeks and the little baby inside is 20 cm now! Whooo, can you imagine? That's quite big already! Sometimes I feel a little movement inside my belly and I'm quite sure it has nothing to do with digesting my food ;) On the other hand, the movements are very small, so I'm still not 100% sure it's him/her.Although, what else could it be? :P
The amount of energy I have varies from day to day and sometimes even from hour to hour. I just have to deal with it and as long as I go to bed early, I'm quite fine.
Today we were shopping at the garden center, because we needed a birthday present, and we found a lovely music box which plays the all-known cradle song from Brahms. We just had to buy it... :)
Het zijn de Mama Mazzeldagen bij Prenatal. Tot 20% korting op het gehele assortiment! Daar moeten we natuurlijk naar toe. We hebben een heleboel spullen nodig, lijkt me. En het is leuk om ideeën op te doen, toch?
Daar lopen we dan, in een overvolle winkel tussen spelende kinderen en vrouwen met nog dikkere buiken dan ik. De afdeling babykleding slaan we over, als ik daar ga beginnen, dan is het einde zoek. Nee, die kleertjes komen vanzelf wel, daar maak ik me geen zorgen over. Maar de rest! Help, wat hebben we nodig? Alles wat ik zie is leuk of handig of onmisbaar, maar de keuze is zo groot dat het me al snel duizelt en ik moet zelfs echt even gaan zitten om bij te komen. Waar te beginnen, wat nu al kopen en wat kan later nog? Wat kopen we hier, en wat zoeken we wel op een andere plek? Ik ben het helemaal kwijt. Nadat we de winkel twee keer rond zijn gelopen, belanden we in een lange rij voor de kassa met maar liefst 1 artikel. Een badstof hoes met een leuk tekeningetje er op voor om het aankleedkussen. Maar pffff, als ik zo besluiteloos blijf en telkens door de bomen het bos niet meer zie, hoe vaak moeten we dan nog winkelen voordat die baby-uitzet compleet is?
Thuisgekomen pak ik de hoes voor om het aankleedkussen uit en ik ben blij dat hij past (ja weet ik veel, misschien bestaan die dingen ook in verschillende maten?). Het ziet er heel schattig uit en ik ben helemaal blij. Ach, als ik na elke aankoop zo blij thuiskom, dan is het ook niet erg om vaak te moeten winkelen, toch?
Whoo! A lot has happened this week. I went shopping with my mom and found some nice clothing which I will be able to wear the coming months. Martin and I also had an appointment with the midwife. We heard the heart of our little baby beat - it's so special to hear this! We are also slowly furnishing the baby bedroom and clearing out things. For instance, I'm reorganizing my wardrobe and we're moving some things from the baby bedroom that can be stored in the attic. We also visited a store which left us overwhelmed with ideas. We could have spend a lot of money there, but we didn't. I'm sure we can find cheaper places! We're not going to spend 900 euros for a baby buggy! We're also almost done organizing things with the day care center. And, most important: I feel less exhausted in the evenings!! :D
Wat een heerlijk weertje gisteren!! Ter ere van Anne's 65e verjaardag zijn we met z'n elven naar Zutphen geweest en daar hebben we eerst koffie/thee gedronken in De Pelikaan en daarna hebben we een boottocht over de IJssel gemaakt in zo'n luxe sloep. Heerlijk in het zonnetje gelegen op een kussen voorop de boot en gerelaxed :) Daarna nog lekker uit eten en toen was de koek ook wel weer op. Een ietsje pietsje meer energie zou ik wel graag weer willen hebben, want zelfs na zo'n dag "niets doen" ben ik kapot. Maar, het was wel erg gezellig. En wat hebben we het getroffen met het weer!
's Avonds na thuiskomst nog even op internet gedoken, want ik heb er iets gelezen over "tintelende vingers" en dat dat ergens op duidt. En laat ik daar vanavond nou opeens last van hebben. Weer zo'n raar zwangerschapskwaaltje? Na een snelle google search vonden we dat het kan duiden op het Carpaletunnel syndroom of op een hoge bloeddruk. Tja, ok. Nou ja, na een nacht slapen is het vrijwel helemaal weg en aan het einde van de week moeten we toch weer naar de verloskundige dus dan kunnen we het eventueel nog vragen. Zal ook wel weer goedkomen. Voel me verder prima hoor! :)
This weekend VPS KeK had to perform twice. Of course, I came along to make pictures, and to capture audio and video material. Don't ask me if they sang okay, because I was quite busy operating the three different devices (photo camera, video camera and sound recorder). But, as far as I can judge their performance, it was great. The audience was really enthusiastic and so were the guys themselves.
This summer all the audio and video material will be used to make a cool movie of the group, which will hopefully lead to some nice bookings. All I am now waiting for, is my own hoody with "vps KeK crew" on it ;-)
Our garden is beautiful (thanks to the previous owners of our house), but slowly we're changing small things to make it more a garden of our own. We had to cut back a lot of bushes and trees in the past few months and planted some new bushes, because some died last winter. On one side of the garden we have a lot of roses. First, I loved them, but not anymore. There's always the problem with when and how to prune the rose bushes and fighting the plant lice. It's been said (and probably true) that roses put a lot of energy into flower production. So it's important that they get proper food care, which of course, I never give them. Our roses are blooming now, but I'm sure they could be ten times prettier if cared for better. Oh, and I haven't mentioned the enormous thorns that make it almost impossible to weed between the bushes and that during winter it's an ugly sight just to see the leafless, prickly bushes.
No, I'm not so fond of roses anymore.
But what has this got to do with McDulls lawn? Well, last week I've removed a part of the rose bushes to make a two square meter big grass-land. Our guinea-pig loves grass and now he has a nice place to browse! :) And I think there might be a good chance that we'll get rid of the other rose bushes as well....
Only one question remains.... will the grass grow under this tree? We'll see....
McDull loves his lawn, he started eating grass as soon as he saw it!
Planning a holiday is supposed to be a nice activity, right? For us, it often comes with some stress. That's because we are always a bit late with planning our holiday. In the past we would always go camping and we never made reservations or whatsoever. But the past few years we like to go a bit further away and reservations are inevitable.
This year, we thought about going to Norway. In April I went to the travel agency to get some brochures, just to get an idea of all the possibilities. Time enough to find a nice place to stay, you'd say. But for some reason we just didn't find time to sit down together and decide where exactly we should go. Norway is a big country and to see all is not impossible, but we just don't want to be driving all the time.
In the end, I planned a tour from Oslo to Bergen, which we could travel in two weeks easily, with three different places to stay.
But, we found out that two of the three apartments (the ones close to the coast) were not available anymore. And unfortunately Norway does not have as many hotels/apartments as for instance the islands of Greece, so we couldn't just pick another place to stay. Moreover, we chose the apartments because of their unique and beautiful location, so we didn't want to stay somewhere else.
We were a bit dispirited then, frustrated about this bad luck and wondering why we didn't plan this all back in January. Days passed and we were thinking about what to do. Probably the coast of Norway is a favorite place for a lot of people, the fjords must be pretty breathtaking. After we had survived the busiest weekend of the year (a weekend full of music, a.o. Vocal Festival Amusing Hengelo AND the festival Den Bosch Goes A Cappella), our heads were empty and clear and within half an hour we decided we would drop the idea of traveling along the coast (but we'll go there another time for sure - and then we'll book the trip in January!) and we would just travel across the inland of Norway, from Oslo to Trondheim.
At the travel agency the places we wanted to stay were checked and we had to wait for several days, because they had to contact Norway to see if there was still an apartment available.
Today we got the phone call with the answer and it made me really happy, because the trip as we planned it can take place! WHeeee!!! So we are going to fly to Oslo, hire a car, stay some time in the first apartment, stay several days in a second apartment, drive to Trondheim and fly back home from there.
I'm already looking forward to the beautiful scenery, the quietness and just the two of us. And only now the fun part of planning a holiday can start!
Back in March I made some recordings for the vocal group Drienerlalala during the Dutch Festival for Vocal Ensembles in Almelo. Today I discovered the movies are online on YouTube, so if you like a cappella you should have a look. They don't sing every note in tune, but their subtle humor and the fun they have during the performance make them a group I always love to watch when I get the chance.
Pay attention to the persons in the back that are most left and most right at the end of the song. That's what I mean by "subtle humor"!
With the following song the group won the Harry Bannink Tribute Trophy.
One of the things that is keeping Martin busy these days is singing. Not only with his quintet Amusing, which has actually started to be more amusing in the past few months (which is a compliment really), but also with his still pretty new vocal group VPS KeK. Thanks to RJ the group now has its own website and I can recommend you to check it regularly, because they intend to upload new things all along: www.vpskek.nl!
(still Dutch only, but going to be translated into English later)
And after that busiest week of the year came another busy week, with two nights filled with a cappella music in the theater and lots of other activities. Meanwhile, my "to do" list has grown and is not really shortening yet...
But, today, I've finally planted strawberry plants in our garden, I've been to the travel agency to get some travel brochures (wheee! :D) and I enjoyed the beautiful weather! It's just a pity my energy level is a little low, else I could already have written two concert reviews, finished my choirs website and finally cleaned the windows...
I think reviving the blog is being continued in May ;)
concerning birthdays...
Next Sunday it's Martins birthday and I've just chosen the cakes I'm going to make tomorrow. So if you like cheesecake or "Fantaschnitten mit Pfirsichschmand", you should come over on Sunday to try some :)
Now all I have to do is think of something to eat for dinner for 6-10 (?) people on Sunday... And make a grocery list!
I'm in a James Bond mood, sorry. I was just practicing a medley for my choir with James Bond themes - that's all - and I thought it was about time to write something in my blog. I almost never have time to kill, but if you are bored I guarantee the following will fill at least the next hour, if not the next two hours. Let's say it's a small a cappella sub road I'm taking here. Maybe you've heard of the following artists, maybe not. Let's start with Corey Vidal, which I first only knew because of his interpretation of MoosebuttersStar Wars Medley. If you like it, you should check his other videos on Youtube. If you like interactive videos and want to know about his disgusting but hilarious blender adventure, you should start here. Talking about Moosebutter, you might also like Mr. Tim. If you're into computers, you should check out his Hacker's Holiday! If you want to hear about a more serious subject you should listen to Professor Bernhard Steinerhoffs lecture about rhythms of life (and you might want to check Beardymans Youtube channel afterwards). Last but not least, if you're not bored, but actually really in a hurry, you could listen to the 30-Second Original A Cappella Festival. Oops, we're completely back to a cappella now... sorry. Well, considering that fact, I could also add the note that the weekly podcast Mouth Off is really worth listening, as long as you can handle two Americans with a slightly irritating way of talking (probably "typically" American, as we should say?) as hosts. Have fun :)
I'm browsing the internet to find the best place to buy some a cappella cd's. I was hoping to find one online shop where I could find all the cd's that are on my wish list. Not that I would buy them all at once (I don't want to hurt my bank account too much all of a sudden), but just to know that I could buy them all at once (and by knowing, maybe I would buy them all anyway). But that shop doesn't exists, I guess. The European shops don't sell the American albums and vise-versa. And another 'problem' turns up: While searching, I discover more and more cd's I'd like to buy...
Maybe I should just start buying music on iTunes - it's probably a lot easier. But actually I prefer to hold a physical cd in my hands...
Anyone got tips? Advice? Group therapy?
It's been a while since I wrote a review for my website. I haven't visited that many concerts in the past months, due to... due to what actually? Maybe the fact Martin and I are both too occupied with other things (singing with VPS KeK, singing with Amusing, singing with Half Past Nine, you name it...) caused it. Anyway, to see Rock4 last Friday was definitely a good thing to do! And I even found time to write a review about it :D
The pictures are not that great, but considering I was sitting far, far away it's not that bad. So go check it out on my website and don't comment here, comment in my guestbook instead and make me happy ;)
By the way, I actually wrote two reviews. The second one is in Dutch and will be published on the website of BALK soon.
I'm updating my a cappella fansite. I will probably upload the newer version in another couple of days. Slowly my website is growing into a compilation of all the a cappella / vocal groups I know. Right now I've listed 68 groups on my website:
A'Cappella Expresss, Aquabella, Audiofeels, Basix, Basta, Bauchklang, The Bolyki Brothers, Boyz Nite Out, Cadence, Cash-n-go, Chapter 6, Cluster, Cosmos, D-Base, Echte Kerle, Flying Pickets, Fork, Füenf, 5 vor der Ehe, Gabbahey, HighFive, The House Jacks, The Idea of North, iNtrmzzo, JuiceBox, King's Singers, Klangbezirk, U-Bahn Kontrollöre, LaLeLu, The Magnets, Maybebop, Medlz, Montezuma's Revenge, M-Pact, Mundart, Musix, New York Voices, Ommm, Overboard, Overtone, Pust, Rajaton, The Real Group, Riltons Vänner, Rock4, Rockapella, 6-Zylinder, Shiva Knows, Sonos, Stimmrecht, Stouxingers, Straight No Chaser, Swingle Singers, Take6, The Glue, Tonalrausch, Vane, Velvet Voices, Viva Voce, Vocado, Vocaldente, Vocal Six, Voca People, Voice Male (USA), Voice Male (BE), Voices Unlimited, Waschkraft and Wise Guys.
Did I forget any significant others? (I probably did) Feel free to let me know :)
Aaah, the fifteenth Sparkassen-A-Capella-Festival in Dortmund is coming up (May 23/24)! I don't know if we'll go there, but there'll definitely be a good chance. Here's the line-up:
Vor dem Start des Festivals schnuppern Newcomer große Festival-Luft: In diesem Jahr stehen who’s that? aus Köln auf der Bühne.
Die 6-Zylinder gehören schon viele Jahre zur ersten Garde der Vokalsembles. Mit ihrer neuen Show „Acapulco“ haben sie einmal mehr bekannte Popsongs, unbekanntes Liedgut und witzige Eigenkompositionen zusammengemischt: Also auf nach Acapulco, die Sonne putzen! GANZ SCHÖN FEIST sind Grenzgänger zwischen Comedy und A-cappella: Popacappellacomedy nennen die drei Kleinkunstpreisträger ihr eigenes Genre. Ihre Programme sind schönstes Miteinander von Comedy, Musik und dreistimmigem Satzgesang. High Five aus Offenburg begeistern ihre Zuhörer und Fans aller Altersklassen mit jugendlichem Charme, authentischem Auftreten und einer erfrischenden Musik. BLISS (Schweiz) entstand 1999 spontan – und hat sich nach zahlreichen Auftritten zum festen Bestandteil der schweizerischen A-cappella- und Kulturszene entwickelt. MundArt aus Leipzig stehen für "Voc'n'bass" und erobern als fünf selbsternannte Kreuzritter der Mundspagatdisziplin die Herzen der A-cappella-Fans. Rockapella (USA): Die fünf Gesangs-Virtuosen sind Superstars in Amerika. Schließt man beim Zuhören die Augen, fällt es schwer zu glauben, dass die Musiker – allen voran der beste "Vocal Percussionist" der Welt, Jeff Thatcher – keine Instrumente benutzen!
I read a nice article in the local newspaper. It's about workshops for (amateur) photographers, among them a workshop about photographing a live band. Wow, I bet I can learn a lot of cool stuff there!! This week I took a look at the events website..... the prices to participate start at 200 Euro..... and after reading all about the event I guess I'm a bit too much an amateur to participate....
*I want a new digital camera, one that looks a bit more professional. Maybe then I'll dare subscribing*
I still don't know the word 'boring'. The past week has been a good example of that. I decided I could write about it in this blog, which I hope to revive the coming time. With so many different things I do during the week, there should be enough to write about, right?
So here's an overview of last week: Saturday Dutch Festival for Vocal Ensembles. I spent the complete day in Almelo, heard/saw many groups and filmed the performances of VPS KeK and Drienerlalala. Also loved Pur Sang, the Groove Factory, Dutchmen, Fem@il. Unfortunately I couldn't hear Hifive, who won the festival. Sunday Started editing (cutting) video material (VPS KeK) and visited a concert of Amusing in the afternoon, which was fun. Filmed their performance as well. At night I can't sleep, my head is full of music. I decide I could make a teaser video for VPS KeK. Suddenly my mind is clear and I know exactly how I want it to be. After that I fall asleep. Monday My day off from work. Thrilled about this review. Spent most of the day behind the computer, making a teaser video for VPS KeK. Making the video was pretty simple and I finished it a lot sooner than I expected. To read the comments on Facebook was a lot of fun and I kept checking their brand new Facebook page and saw the amount of fans grow. In between I cleaned the bathroom.... housekeeping..... *sigh*.
Tuesday Looong day at work. I started at 8.30. First I wrote an evaluation report for one of 'my' kids, then I installed the printer, that's been waiting to be installed for over a year, on the kids computer, and installed some plugins (finally we can watch YouTube on the old thing!) and watched this video with them. The rest of the afternoon I worked with the kids as usual. I had dinner at work, because I had to do a presentation in the evening and traveling home and back again takes too much time. I was pretty nervous for the presentation, which I shouldn't have been because all went well. Got home at 22.30, tired but satisfied. Wednesday Another day at work. In the morning there was a social skills training with the kids. In the afternoon an evaluation with my trainee and her teacher from school. In the evening I was more than tired and did nothing but checking mail, facebook and cutting some videos (Drienerlalala). Thursday Partyday. Followed workshops djembe and salsa with my colleagues. Despite the enormous cost reduction my organization is facing there's money to pay this.... Loved the workshops though ;) Normally Thursday night is choir rehearsal night, but it got canceled because of our director being ill. So instead I redesigned the website for VPS KeK. Always nice to do some designing with Photoshop. Friday A very normal day at work which ended with frustration because the computer system we use is so damn stupid!! After a year, I still can't use it without facing problems. The interface is the most customer unfriendly I've ever seen.
And now? Friday night... I'm waiting to get hungry. Then, I'll do some cooking and tonight will probably be filled with more webdesign, or video editing, or maybe we'll watch a movie in our home cinema (we haven't even done that yet this week!). Or I'll write another blog post, about music, computers, websites, something like that. Sometimes I wonder whether or not I chose the right profession. On the other hand, when my job would be filled with music, computers, video editing, webdesign, my life would get boring, wouldn't it? Working with my kids gives me the perfect variation I like.
Let's see if my honey is getting hungry. He's upstairs right now. Cutting video material ;-) And I can hear him singing.
*sigh. I love my life*
Maybe he'll even cook today?
With Facebook as a main tool to communicate with friends and stay up to date with lots of people and vocal groups around the world, this blog is slowly becoming unnecessary. My main interest at the moment is expanding my 'a cappella collection', by finding and listening to new vocal groups.
The scope of content at Facebook is growing enormously, and an attempt to do networking there, in a qualitative manner, easily disappears in the everyday flow of info about people's various activities.
So, what I need, is a site with a focus on one field of human activity: the world of vocal music. The Real Group launched a website for this purpose only and I'd like to invite all my friends in the vocal world to join this community.
Maybe, one day, Facebook will become unnecessary for me as well. And so we move on, and move on, and move on, and move on.
Despite the two hours delay on the way there, caused by a problem with one of my rear tires, and despite the storm on the first night, I had a wonderful weekend camping with friends in the dunes near the North Sea.
I'm really glad I noticed the ticking sound in my right rear tire when I slowed down because of a traffic jam and I'm also glad I decided to leave the highway to find out what it was. To cut a long story short: I needed a new tire immediately. If I would have continued driving, I definitely would have had a blown tire.
We were using the new tent of one of my friends and found out it withstands heavy rain, thunder, stormy wind and hail as big as M&M's. Our neighbour, in a caravan, told us we could always wake him in the middle of the night if things would get worse. A very comforting thought, because we couldn't imagine the weather getting much worse from there. Anyway, we stayed dry and safe.
On Saturday and Sunday it was sunny and we enjoyed the weather and the beach. Personal beach tennis record: 93! Wheee! :P
Monday night we got back home from our holiday on the Azores. We spent one week on the island Faial and one week on the island São Miguel. Both places were beautiful! We've been exploring the green islands and saw big volcanoes, hot sulfur springs and steaming fumaroles, huge crater lakes, steep cliffs, beautiful waterfalls and about a dozen sperm whales.
The over 1800 pictures have already brought back to a selection of 670 pictures, which is still to big to put online. But we'll do our best to upload a smaller selection in our Picasa Webalbum later this week.
With not much vocal activities right now (no choir rehearsals, no festival organization and administration, etc.) there's lots of time to watch movies in the evenings. I can recommend V for Vendetta, The Prestige, The Wedding Planner and The Holiday. The first two are really great if you love original, unexpected plots and the last two movies are more 'girls only' and should be watched with a friend and lots of M&M's.
The only bad thing about this week is that I can't go to Europa Cantat and I'll miss Rajaton.... :(
Today I felt a bit like a kid on fathers day. You know the feeling when you made something special in school for your dad, with a little poem which said "you are the best dad in the world!" and you'd feel proud when you could give it to him.
Today I felt so proud of my dad. He came to visit us - and he came by bike. For those who don't know: he doesn't live next door, he lives practically on the other side of the country. Luckily, the Netherlands are not that big, but it's still 162 kilometers!!
After work, I was waiting for him at the end of our street, and there he was:
And because all good things come in three: I've written another review for my website. The last one for this season. It's a review from our trip to the island Borkum which included a Wise Guys concert. Apart from the concert, we had a wonderful weekend on the island with sun, sea and beach.
I've just uploaded a new review on my website. This time an English one, describing the concert from Vocaldente in a cave in Balve (Germany) last Saturday. It's less detailed than usual, but I don't think it's short. Somehow I am not able to write short reviews. But I can write short blog posts! -end-
Endlich ist es da, mein Bericht vom A Cappella Festival in Dortmund zu Pfingsten! Ich weiß übrigens nicht, ob ich nochmals ein so langer Bericht auf Deutsch schreiben werde. Pfffff.... das hat Stunden gedauert! Hahahaha. Wäre schön, wenn ein paar Leute es lesen würden und mir davon berichten, ob dass es gut ist ;)
I'm still here, don't worry. Just a bit busy. June is a pretty full month this year. Our vocal festival Amusing Hengelo took place last weekend and it was fantastic. Due to this festival though, I didn't have time to finish the review I'm writing about the a cappella festival in Dortmund, which was also absolutely fantastic. I hope to finish writing it today. It's a bit hard, because my notes are too short and not so clear, and I decided to write in German which goes a little slower than English or Dutch. I'll have to dig my memory for the final details. After that I still have to select, edit and add lots of pictures, which I'm already looking forward to :) Maybe I can upload the review tomorrow...
The coming weeks we have planned two small a-cappella-concert-trips to Germany and I'm still doubting if we want to make three of it. Our summer holiday is also coming closer and we still have to think of a sunny, warm destination we want to visit. It's probably going to be a last-minute flight to somewhere south, I guess. Tips and ideas are welcome. Keywords: non-touristic, peaceful, nature, scary-disease-free and I prefer not to fly too long...
This story is bizarre. Nine years ago, my father-in-law sold the Landrover they had owned for years. The Landrover was very typical for my father-in-law, because he had converted it into a mobile home. He was a very handy man who liked to invent things. They always went camping with the Landrover and when Martin and his sister were young, they all four slept in the car. Mom and dad in the back, Martin on the front seats and his sister in a sort of hammock/bunk bed above him. A tent could be attached to the car to provide more living space. There were dozens of other funny and handy things about the car.
This is during one of our holidays together, in 1999. In the picture Martins mom and dad, my sister, Martins sister, Martin and my parents
He sold the Landrover because he wanted a camper, which would be more comfortable. At some points he was disappointed about the "luxurious" camper, and soon this vehicle was also including typical inventions ;)
Somehow he heard stories about the next owner neglecting "his" Landrover, the axis being broken and the car being demolished. He was sad about it, because he had always been very careful all these years. Maintenance was very important to him.
My father-in-law died in 2004, much to young.
We've always believed the Landrover was demolished, but today my mother-in-law discovered it in our town! She called us, we quickly went to the parking where she'd seen it - and we couldn't believe our eyes. This was really weird, there it was - dads car! A bit older, not so clean and polished as it used to be, but with many of the old attributes. We've been peeping through the windows for at least fifteen minutes. The old cupboards, the small hot plate, the curtains, the rail to attach the tent to the car, etc. Especially Martin recognized many tiny things that all remembered of his father. On the dashboard was an old compass. Martin and his mother have been searching for it a couple of years ago! They never knew it was in the car when they sold it.
Tadaaaa, here it is!
It's really weird what happened today. I wish my father-in-law could have seen it. He'd be so happy to know the car is still there.
-
Those who didn't know about our Landrover-love will now also understand the choice of car on our wedding day:
Die Regeln
1. Beantworte die Fragen und füge Sie auf deinem Blog ein.
2. Ersetze eine Frage die du nicht magst durch eine neue und füge zusätzlich eine weitere Neue hinzu.
3. Tag 8 weitere Leute! Was, 8?? So viele Blogschreiber kenne ich gar nicht!
Das Spiel
1. Welches Parfüm benutzt du zur Zeit? Gar keine, ist das schlimm?
2. Song des Tages?Also heute? k.A. Blöde Frage, die streiche ich!
Meine neue Frage: Was hast du schon viel zu lange nicht mehr gemacht? Gitarre spielen
3. Was ist dein Lieblingsfilm? Lord of the Rings finde ich immer noch sehr toll. Aber ich habe letztens auch Madagaskar gesehen und The Hunting Party und und und. Eigentlich finde ich jeder Film, der wir in unserem Home Cinema gucken toll... ;)
4. Was ist dein Highlight des Tages? Die Lieferung unsere Gärtenmöbel heute Mittag. Und heute Abend gucken wir Madagaskar II :D
5. Was willst du unbedingt lernen? Technische Details der Fotografie. Ich tue nun immer nur was mir so einfällt.
7. Was hast du zuletzt gekauft? Gärtenmöbel!! Die werden heute geliefert!!
8. Was ist dein Lieblingswetter? Ich bin gegen Regen! Obwohl der Garten im Moment anders sagt.
9. Was ist dein momentan wichtigstes Ziel? Nach diesem Blogeintrag aufstehen und der Haushalt machen...
10. Was denkst du über die Person, die dich getagged hat? Ich habe sie nur einmal getroffen, war aber ganz nett. Würde sie gerne wieder treffen wenn ich in der Nähe bin.
11. Wenn du ein komplett eingerichtetes Haus irgendwo in der Welt bezahlt bekommen würdest, wo würdest du es hin haben wollen? Auf den Malediven. Und wenn, dann möchte ich auch mal tauchen lernen (Frage 5)
12. Was würdest du, wenn du könntest, an dir ändern? Höchstens etwas mehr Selbstsicherheit. Ansonsten gar nichts, ich bin wie ich bin.
13. Wenn du für die nächsten Stunden irgendwo auf der Welt sein könntest, wo wärst du gerne? Hong Kong, eine Freundin besuchen.
14. Was ist dir bei Freunden wichtig? Das man Spaß hat, auch wenn man sie etwas länger nicht gesehen hat, und das die auch in schlechteren Zeiten für sie da sind.
15. Wen würdest du gerne mal treffen? Öhm... ich habe keine Ahnung. Darf man auch zwei Fragen streichen?
16. Was ist dein Lieblingsstück in deinem Kleiderschrank? Die neue Hose die ich vor zwei Wochen gekauft habe. Aber die liegt im Moment nicht in meinem Kleiderschrank, ich habe sie an.
17. Was ist dein Traumjob? Die ganze Welt bereisen und Reiseprogramme im TV machen. Würde ich aber nicht machen, weil ich nicht so lange von Hause weg sein könnte. Aber wenn man das könnte, wow, das ist echt ein Traumjob.
18. Welche sind deine Lieblingsbands? Maybebop, Vocaldente, iNtrmzzo, The Glue, Wise Guys.
19. 3 Dinge die dir ein Lächeln aufs Gesicht zaubern: Sonne, Freizeit, Liebe
20. Was ist deine Lieblingsgroßstadt? In Köln und Hamburg fühle ich mich sehr wohl.
21. Was ist zur Zeit dein Lieblingslied? L'Elixir d'Amour von The Glue
22. Was ist deine Lieblingsserie? "24"
23. Was hast du gerade an? Meine Lieblingshose, ein T-Shirt. Ziemlich casual.
24. Was ist dein Lieblingsbuch? Ich mag ganz viele Bücher, aber "Ich bin dann mal weg" von Hape Kerkeling habe ich schon zweimal gelesen und würde ich ohne Probleme noch ein drittes Mal lesen.
25. Mein Mittagessen: Eine Brotscheibe mit Käse und eine mit Schokostreusel. Sehr Niederländisch.
26. Beschreib dich selber in drei Worten: lieb, perfektionistisch, strukturiert
Vocaldente has finally uploaded sound snippets from their new album and the latest videocast is online.
I always like the Maybebop podcasts, there are 22 of them already! I just watched their latest one.
Voicemale is about to start their new show "At the movies" which sounds like fun.
Just when I think I know quite a lot of different vocal groups already, my brother sends me a link with a movie from a (new) vocal group from Israel, the VOCA people, which is awesome. First, they seem a bit weird, but the more you hear, the better and funnier it gets.
That was the discovery some friends and I made yesterday. I meet these friends few times a year (because I don't live so nearby) and almost every year we are spending a weekend together somewhere in a holiday-residence. But yesterday we only met to drink tea, chat, make and eat dinner and watch a movie in the evening.
A couple of years ago, we said: What will it be like, later, when some of us have kids? Will they play together and join us on our trips and days out?
Well, the "later" has really started. Yesterday, five kids were running, crawling and lying around. It was a lot of fun. The youngest only 8 weeks old, the oldest 2,5 years old. Toys everywhere. Baby bottles, bibs, diapers, high chairs, stair gates and kitchen cupboards with child locks. Time to talk was rare, because every minute another kid was interrupting the conversation. Yep, the old times are over :)
Later as I wanted, but still sooner as expected, is it online: My new website!! Rebuilding it was necessary, because I wanted to share so many information. The old structure of the website didn’t quite fit to that. I hope people will like the new design and content!
I want to invite you to have a look at corine.located.nl and I would love to read your comments in my guestbook.
...ich habe gerade entdeckt, dass wir die Wise Guys in diesem Jahr wahrscheinlich gar nicht sehen können. Ich wollte eigentlich noch Karten für das Konzert in Osnabrück kaufen (November), aber da ich an dem Abend Generalprobe für zwei große Konzerte mit 'meinem' Chor habe wird das wohl nichts. Dann gibt es noch die Möglichkeit, Ende Juni nach Köln zu fahren für das Konzert im Tanzbrunnen, aber Martin hat keine Lust auf ein Stehkonzert, ich will nicht alleine, und am nächsten Tag "müssen" wir auch schon nach Vocaldente, dann wäre das WE auch ein bisschen zu voll, mit zuviel Fahrerei.
Gibt es nur noch eine einzige Lösung: Wir fahren für ein Sommerwochenende nach Borkum, inkl. Konzert.
Eigentlich gar keine schlechte Idee.
Ein Jahr ohne Wise Guys kann doch nicht sein?
Oder?
Martin?? Können wir mal reden?
My grandmother is 83 years old and some years ago, she got a computer and I taught her how type and how to send e-mail. Her handwriting is very bad, so now she can communicate with people by writing e-mail or by writing a text in Word, printing it and sending it as a normal letter. It is fantastic how she learned this and I'm proud of her!
Today my mother had to come over, to "put a new pen into the printer" (a new cartridge). My grandmother has got a printer which can also copy and fax papers. In the printer my mother found not only blank sheets of paper, there was also a CD in it. My grandmother had tried to copy it for one of her relatives. Apparently she does know it is possible to copy CD's, but how to do it? I'm already looking forward to her next e-mail, in which she might tell me all about her attempt to copy a CD ;)
Yesterday it was my mothers birthday, but we decided to visit our new-born nephew first. It was only a "little" detour - we didn't mind. After 450 km and having seen many relatives we got back home and found a hungry cat waiting for us :)
It's the 12th of April and I haven't blogged anything in April yet! It must be the beautiful weather, I'm outside in our garden most of the time right now. I've removed old leaves and lots of weeds and I've been staining the banisters (finally got that job done). In the meantime I'm working on my new website every now and then, with help from Martin. The website will be published in the first week of May! Promised!
Martin has been searching for the right cables and speakers to make our home cinema ready. A friend is coming over tonight and then we'll watch the first movie together! It's really cool :)
I've also become an aunt again yesterday! My second nephew is born and we'll go and see him tomorrow :) So we're busy and happy!
It's still too cold and wet to sit in our garden, but already there are beautiful flowers. And considering the concert free weekend I had to find something else to photograph...
Das ist mal ganz außergewöhnlich: Sechs Wise Guys melden sich innerhalb eines bestimmten Zeitraum zu Wort auf ihrer persönlichen Gästebuchseite und so tauchen sechs Bilder gleichzeitig nebeneinander auf. Dieses Bild wird es wahrscheinlich nie wieder geben - deswegen sollte es mal in meinem Blog 'verewigt' werden *g*.
Sehr interessant dabei ist natürlich Clemens' Eintrag, in dem er erzählt wie das Leben als nicht-Wise-Guy ihm gefällt.
Today Piet moved in. Piet is the aged cat of my mother-in-law. Since my mother-in-law moved to an apartment last year, it was always the plan that Piet would come and live with us one day, because she doesn't have enough room for a cat. This is Piet:
So what's new? Not much actually. We still have to find and buy chairs. We still have to stain the banisters. And we still have to connect the DVD-player to the TV, which is most important *cough*, because there are three (!) very nice a cappella DVD's coming up this year and I want to have them all and be able to watch them ;)
New is, that I found out how to take a shower without leaking water! The doors of our shower cabin are a bit weird, but I finally discovered how to close them properly! Very useful indeed.
I'm busy at work, because I have to catch up for the time I took off in January and I'm also doing a course about first aid and stuff. Today I learned how to revive somebody and next week I'm going to put out a fire. Also very useful.
Our free time is mostly filled with a cappella music, in many ways. Kin' de Lele is playing over and over again in the CD player and when I don't hear it I practice the "wa p t ba da da t ba ba chi ki ba tsao" from the Real Group (Chili con carne). I have to learn some songs by heart, because there are two concerts coming up with my choir with new repertoire. Besides this, I somehow planned to visit six concerts within four weeks (which is too much, but so much fun), I wrote one review and have to write another one this weekend.
In the mean time I've read 'The Kite Runner', which is a book I could hardly put down. A moving, but beautiful story! New reading tips are very welcome!
And now it's time for the weekend... in which we will also fill in the tax papers. Wish us luck!
Und Gläser mit Wasser auch. Das müssen die Jungs von theGlue wohl gedacht haben als sie ihre neue Outfits inklusiv Wasserrücksacke ausgesucht haben. Aber, ich muss sagen, es sieht geil aus. Und vielleicht ist es auch nur praktisch, während des Singen schnell ein Schluck Wasser trinken zu können.
Wie theGlue live bei diesen Bildern klingt, weiß ich leider nicht. Aber auf das neue Album Kin' de Lele finde ich hauptsächlich tolle Songs mit überraschenden Rhythmen, originellen Arrangements und geile vocal percussion. Und es gibt auch mal wieder ein paar sehr eigenartige Texten dabei.
Ich hätte gerne eine Reise nach Basel inkl. Konzertticket zum Geburtstag.
Mist... mein Geburtstag dauert noch viel zu lange...
Due to moving houses I didn't find time to report about concerts we visited in the past few months. But now I've found time to write a story about the fantastic concert of Vocaldente in Marienthal! Ok, I have to admit, the report is a little longer than I'd planned... Check it out at corine.located.nl.
Or whatever it's called ;) But it's very, very nice and sweet!
Here's the recipe:
500 gram peanuts (I used salted ones)
half a packet of biscuits (+/- 120 gram)
2 bars of white chocolate (I used bars of 75 gram)
3 bars of dark chocolate (I used bars of 100 gram)
(you can always use more chocolate...)
honey, at least 150 ml
Cut the peanuts and biscuits in small pieces (1), add 1 bar of melted white chocolate, 1 bar of melted dark chocolate and the honey and stir it (2). Put it in a round baking dish or cake tin (don't forget the baking paper, else you will never get it out again). Then melt another bar of dark chocolate and pour it on top of the cake (3). Put it in the fridge for a while to cool down. Then turn the cake over - the dark chocolate layer will be the bottom of the cake. Melt the final two bars of dark and white chocolate to decorate the cake with. Again, let it cool down in the fridge for a while. And then.... yummy!
At the moment, we receive many guests who are curious and want to see our new home. A lot of friends and family came over already. Yesterday Martins colleagues had the chance to see our house and they all stayed for dinner. And because of occasions like this we bought the resizeble table, which can be this big:
Question: Thursday night, Rock4 is playing in Enschede. They're playing "A Night at the Opera", which Corine has seen twice already. Corine has choir rehearsal every Thursday night, also in Enschede. What would she do?
I attended the choir rehearsal! Never thought I would do that, didn't you? ;) But I just like singing so much and because I'm singing in a small choir, I don't want to miss it too often. Martin and his mother wanted to see Rock4 and because they needed transport, I had to drop them off at the theater. Man, that's a bit annoying, I wanted to go with them!
Singing with the choir was fun and I didn't regret. But when I got the chance to leave a little bit early, I left and drove to the theater, hoping to get the chance to sneak in... it was just after ten. Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to get in, because I was told that "these men only sing, without music" and I would disturb the show. Ok, I could understand, I know I might disturb them, but I just wanted it so badly! *grrrr*
Ten seconds later, Jeanine came out (she's the manager of Rock4) because she had to prepare the CD stand. When she saw me, she told me to get in. They were going to sing one more song! Show must go on! Yeah! And so I got the chance to see Rock4 with their new man. Thank you Jeanine, you made my day! :)
Some people are interested in our home cinema, so here are some pictures. It will take a while before we can watch movies in this room, though. This room is also the place where guests can sleep. Because my family and many of our friends don't live close by, this room will probably be used for this purpose more often at first.
Here you can see Beddinge, which is a couch but also a bed for two persons, and Klubbo, which is the table (hurray for Ikea and its beautiful names...haha), and the beautiful "cinema-red" carpet:
Who wants to come over and be the first one to test Beddinge? ;)
I didn't expect it to happen so soon, but it happened today... When I drove home from work I took a wrong turn and ended up driving towards our old home hahaha.
Think I'm just tired and ready for the weekend :)
...and the internet is up and running again!! :D (the phone isn't yet, for those who are wondering why they still can't reach us.)
We've been busy the past few days, but the big, huge, enormous mess has changed into a normal mess and I'm sure it will be tidy one day. I don't understand how all our stuff fitted in our old house.
I'll post some pictures soon, for now I just wanted to say: We're doing great and we feel so much at home!
Moving-Day is coming soon! It's a chaos in the old house. Right now, there are no curtains in our living room, they are being cleaned tomorrow and then hanged in the new house. The hallway is full of boxes and every time we open the door to the hallway, it bangs into the boxes, because for some reason we seem to forget we've put them there time after time. Every closet we open is almost empty and all the pictures have been removed from the walls. A lot of boxes (at least 30) have already been moved to the new house and in the new house it's almost invisible that we've put them there, because the house is just too big and there are many closets to hide the mess ;) Today we also wanted to move some boxes to the new house, but we had some bad luck: Our car was standing on the parking with a flat tire! Damn! So first thing tomorrow, before going to work, is going to the garage to have it fixed. Tip for everybody: Make sure the air pressure of your spare tire is correct. I guess ours has never been checked before and the pressure seems pretty low. But it'll do. Next Tuesday our internet/cable is moving already. I'll probably be offline for a while now. Next blog-post will be from the new house! Keep your fingers crossed for us please, I hope everything goes well in the coming week. Biggest concern, because it's not in our hands, is the carpet that has to be laid on Friday... CU! X
I'm feeling a bit sick since Saturday and it's not getting better. There's an influenza epidemic in the Netherlands, maybe this time it will get me too? I hope not, there's too much work to do! The past couple of days I was free from work and I've been busy cleaning, packing and moving small things.
Things are really going on well, but I wish I could have done it without the headache, sneezing and sniffing... *sigh*. And tomorrow I need to work again... *bigsigh*
These are some of our books, now temporarily stored in a closet in the attic of our new house: I have to tell you that the pile of books in this particular closet has grown even more... I think we've got too many books. But as it fitted in our old house, it will easily fit in the new one.
The plasterer has done his work and this is the result:
And today we removed the floor protection and this is how our living room looks now:
The biggest thing that still needs to be done is the carpet in the bedrooms and on the stairs, but we have to wait for it another week. The next three days I'm free from work and there are many other things to be done as preparation before we can actually move houses. The only not very nice circumstance is the fact that I'm starting to feel ill... Think I'm going to bed to have a good rest now.
Dutch people love to complain about the weather. It's probably the number one subject for small talk. But when winter really is winter, like it is now, everybody loves it. I didn't hear any complains about it yet. Minus 15 degrees Celsius at night, wow! Snow and ice with blue sky and sunshine - it can't be better! Okay, it's cold and it took me about 20 minutes to get the car ready to drive this morning, I had to scrape the ice from the outside and the inside of the windows, the drivers side of the car was frozen and I had to get inside on the other side of the car. The windshield wipers had disappeared under 3cm of frozen snow. But who cares? It's winter! :) And eventually I arrived at work in time.
Of course, it is very clever to have the plasterer working in our new house in this week, exactly when the central heating has been removed. There are ice drops on the air vents in our house right now... maybe we'll have icicles inside tomorrow? And there's so much moisture in the house as well. I really hope it all ends well and nothing gets damaged because of cold or moisture. I'll be happy when the plasterer is done with his job! Not only because it will be so much prettier after he's finished, but also because Martin and I can't do much right now and we'd love to get on with our own work!
But instead of worrying about those things, let's enjoy the winter and its beauty. I just saw a beautiful report on TV with images of skating people on big lakes in the western part of the Netherlands, where I used to live. And although I never watch sport in TV, I'm longing, like many other Dutch people, for an "Elfstedentocht" (Eleven Cities Tour), a legendary skating marathon in the Netherlands which haven't took place since 1997.
Unfortunately the report I just saw, is not yet online... so I'll just add another video, which also suits the occasion. It's from my favorite Dutch cabaret artist (and it's in Dutch, sorry for those who don't understand).
Yeah!! Finally I had time to go ice skating today!! I love it :) Many people have been ice skating in the past week, but I didn't have time for it. This morning my sister-in-law and I woke up early to enjoy the last bit of ice. Afterwards it started raining and the ice is really defrosting now. But we really loved it!
Because there's not much work to do in our new house at this moment, and because we were a bit lazy from last night, we decided to start packing some things. By the way: we will probably move at January 24th!
I also had a regular check up at the midwife last week, during which we heard the baby heart beat again. 
One of the presents I got, is a CD with baby a cappella music called "Little voices". It's a CD with pure all vocal, classical music for bedtime, sung by the Swingle Singers. After my family had left, I was quite tired and when listening to the CD I fell asleep during the third song, so I think the CD also works for tired mama's-to-be ;)
In the evening we drove to Oss, to attend a Rock4 concert in our favorite theater De Lievekamp. We had front row seats. I loved the show, especially because it was even better than last time. I think ever since Peter and LucN were replaced by Lucas and Harry the group needed some time to grow closer, vocally. I really enjoyed it, and afterwards we had a chat with Luc and Harry for a while. We got home after 1am, which is way after my normal bedtime looking at the past four months. But I had a great birthday!
Our garden is beautiful (thanks to the previous owners of our house), but slowly we're changing small things to make it more a garden of our own. We had to cut back a lot of bushes and trees in the past few months and planted some new bushes, because some died last winter. On one side of the garden we have a lot of roses. First, I loved them, but not anymore. There's always the problem with when and how to prune the rose bushes and fighting the plant lice. It's been said (and probably true) that roses put a lot of energy into flower production. So it's important that they get proper food care, which of course, I never give them. Our roses are blooming now, but I'm sure they could be ten times prettier if cared for better. Oh, and I haven't mentioned the enormous thorns that make it almost impossible to weed between the bushes and that during winter it's an ugly sight just to see the leafless, prickly bushes. 
(click to enlarge)
Things are really going on well, but I wish I could have done it without the headache, sneezing and sniffing... *sigh*. And tomorrow I need to work again... *bigsigh*
