9 March 2010
7 March 2010
Holidays!
Hurrah, I have a two week holiday from school now. Not that I needed one so bad, because this whole year is like a holiday to me, but it's still nice, especially considering the weather is finally starting to get nice and sunny. If only it were less cold :(
At first I was planning on a trip to Liverpool & Manchester, but I didn't think I could afford, so maybe some daytrip to Brighton and/or Cambridge would be better. This morning I talked to my parents and they said they want to offer the trip to Liverpool & Manchester as an early birthday gift. Honestly, my parents are too kind. I wanted to turn it down, because we already decided my Lowlands ticket was going to be my present, and in the first place; I had already said I didn't want a birthday gift, because this year in England is expensive enough as it is.
However, they insisted on me going to Liverpool, now I have the chance. So Liverpool and Manchester are on for week after next week, I guess!
Other plans I have are finally doing some photography (have some projects/areas in mind already) and visiting some places I should've visited months ago (how can someone live in London for almost 4 months without having visited Hyde Park and the British Museum yet?)
Wednesday I went to see the Antlers at Union Chapel, still an actual church, turned out to be the perfect location for them. It was the best gig I've been to this year (so far).
Yesterday I finally went to see 'A Single Man', which was amazing. The film looks so gorgeous, you can see a lot of thought has been put into every little detail of the film, as it looks perfect. Great acting by Colin Firth as well, ofcourse.
Afterwards I had few hours to kill, as I was supposed to meet Robert in Camden for some drinks in the pub at around 9, so I browsed through a bookshop in Notting Hill, had a coffee at Liverpool Street Station, took a bus to Camden and had another coffee. Robert came straight out of work, so he needed some dinner from Sainsbury's. We ended up buying beer, and when we went to the pub, we just ordered a beer each, and when our glass was empty, we sneakily filled it up with beer from the cans, hoping the bar staff wouldn't notice....
Oh and you know you've lived in London too long when you try to open door the front door of your house with your Oyster Card....... happened to me this week.
At first I was planning on a trip to Liverpool & Manchester, but I didn't think I could afford, so maybe some daytrip to Brighton and/or Cambridge would be better. This morning I talked to my parents and they said they want to offer the trip to Liverpool & Manchester as an early birthday gift. Honestly, my parents are too kind. I wanted to turn it down, because we already decided my Lowlands ticket was going to be my present, and in the first place; I had already said I didn't want a birthday gift, because this year in England is expensive enough as it is.
However, they insisted on me going to Liverpool, now I have the chance. So Liverpool and Manchester are on for week after next week, I guess!
Other plans I have are finally doing some photography (have some projects/areas in mind already) and visiting some places I should've visited months ago (how can someone live in London for almost 4 months without having visited Hyde Park and the British Museum yet?)
Wednesday I went to see the Antlers at Union Chapel, still an actual church, turned out to be the perfect location for them. It was the best gig I've been to this year (so far).
Yesterday I finally went to see 'A Single Man', which was amazing. The film looks so gorgeous, you can see a lot of thought has been put into every little detail of the film, as it looks perfect. Great acting by Colin Firth as well, ofcourse.
Afterwards I had few hours to kill, as I was supposed to meet Robert in Camden for some drinks in the pub at around 9, so I browsed through a bookshop in Notting Hill, had a coffee at Liverpool Street Station, took a bus to Camden and had another coffee. Robert came straight out of work, so he needed some dinner from Sainsbury's. We ended up buying beer, and when we went to the pub, we just ordered a beer each, and when our glass was empty, we sneakily filled it up with beer from the cans, hoping the bar staff wouldn't notice....
Oh and you know you've lived in London too long when you try to open door the front door of your house with your Oyster Card....... happened to me this week.
6 March 2010
Portraits of Hidde
Pictures I took of my friend Hidde, first one is from 2007, the others from last year. Click to enlarge.
4 March 2010
Death
Here's some photographs I took as part of my final project for Art class in High School, last year. It's called 'Death'.
2 March 2010
CAN WE ALL PLEASE JUST CALM THE FUCK DOWN?
Ok, this could become a long post, as I haven't updated in about a month. Have been busy as usual, with school, gigs, 'being social' and film club.
I'm starting to feel quite lonely in school, as most my friends have left the school... Ashley is back in Korea, Robert and Richard are both finished with school (still in London though, Robert is working and Richard trying to find a job). In a few weeks all the people I've started with in January will have left.... Seems like I'm the only one who's going to be with Ross in the class for the rest of the year.
Speaking of Ross, last friday we experienced some more of his unconventional teaching methods. He said to us: ok, you're all going to different coffeeshops, you're going to order something, sit down and spy on someone and write down how you think this person lives, who he or she is etc.
It's the weirdest lesson I ever had.
And this week we were discussing language death and the possibility of a universal language, then he said: I'm going to talk to Ilse, she's going along with this and reply in Dutch, and we're going to see if we understand each other. So he started talking to me in something that seemed like a very bad version of Dutch, or some made up language with the occasional Dutch word thrown in... it left me in a state of utter confusion. Afterwards he revealed it was Afrikaans (which in some ways is very close to Dutch), he learned it when he lived in South-Africa for two years, when his father was working there. Funny how you can sometimes find out interesting things about him, as he seems overall a quite closed and reserved person.
Three weeks ago I was suprised by a teacher with the question whether I wanted to take over Film Club for the following two weeks, as he himself would be gone to do some work experience. Ofcourse I said yes, I felt honoured and was excited in the beginning. I felt trusted with a sort of responsibility, as it would entail buying the dvds, making the quiz, picking up the projector/laptop and setting it up. However, it didn't go very well, due to poor attendance (6 in the first week, 2 in the week after), the teacher having failed to tell anyone about me taking over (which means: projector/laptop + room 5 being taken over by a teacher) and technical problems (after room 5 being taken over I was put in a room with a tv which had no remote control, asked the teachers to find me some remote controls, they gave me a couple... without batteries, and in the second week I couldn't log in on the laptop..).
Concertwise I've seen, since I last posted; Surfer Blood, Jon Gomm, Air Waves, Pulled Apart By Horses, Beach House, Midlake, The Drums, The Maccabees, Bombay Bicycle Club, The Big Pink, Japandroids, Los Campesinos! and U.S. Girls.
Especially Los Campesinos! was great again, I saw them for the 4th time and it's still nowhere near boring.
I've missed some good stuff in Holland apparently. 'The Dutch Cabinet fell', due to disagreements concerning the Dutch military in Uruzgan [Afghanistan]. I'm too tired to explain the Dutch political system, so I won't bother.
Unfortunately, I will just about miss the general elections spectacle, as I'm still in London around that time. Victory could become Geert Wilders', the right-wing leader of the 'Party of Freedom', who compares the Qur'an (which he states 'should be burned') to Mein Kampf and wants to introduce a tax on wearing headscarves.
What I did notice in one of the videos concerning this issue I saw (didn't follow the whole thing that well) was the following; the use of the verb 'de zwarte piet krijgen'? What's up with that? Have I lived outside the Netherlands too long to recognize this use of the word zwarte piet? Since when is it a verb? Isn't it a little early on to speak of zwarte pieten anyway? + political journalism via pinning pictures of politicians on a tree is lame.
Another thing going on, in the Dutch music world, was the whole Lowlands hoax around it being sold out within a week (something never happens, always takes a few months), resulting into it actually selling out for real, as everyone starting buying their tickets. We can only assume the hoax was a marketing strategy?
Luckily I bought my ticket the day after it went on sale, and now most of my friends have their tickets as well, so it should be cool. Looking forward to it again! (probably the only thing worth looking forward to when it comes to going back 'home' in Holland)
From next week on, I have a two week holiday. Not sure what I'm going to do, have a couple of gigs planned and initially wanted to go on a trip to Liverpool & Manchester. That's probably not going to happen, as I don't have much money. I'm thinking about doing some daytrips, like Cambridge and/or Brighton and maybe do some photography projects and visit some museums...
I'm starting to feel quite lonely in school, as most my friends have left the school... Ashley is back in Korea, Robert and Richard are both finished with school (still in London though, Robert is working and Richard trying to find a job). In a few weeks all the people I've started with in January will have left.... Seems like I'm the only one who's going to be with Ross in the class for the rest of the year.
Speaking of Ross, last friday we experienced some more of his unconventional teaching methods. He said to us: ok, you're all going to different coffeeshops, you're going to order something, sit down and spy on someone and write down how you think this person lives, who he or she is etc.
It's the weirdest lesson I ever had.
And this week we were discussing language death and the possibility of a universal language, then he said: I'm going to talk to Ilse, she's going along with this and reply in Dutch, and we're going to see if we understand each other. So he started talking to me in something that seemed like a very bad version of Dutch, or some made up language with the occasional Dutch word thrown in... it left me in a state of utter confusion. Afterwards he revealed it was Afrikaans (which in some ways is very close to Dutch), he learned it when he lived in South-Africa for two years, when his father was working there. Funny how you can sometimes find out interesting things about him, as he seems overall a quite closed and reserved person.
Three weeks ago I was suprised by a teacher with the question whether I wanted to take over Film Club for the following two weeks, as he himself would be gone to do some work experience. Ofcourse I said yes, I felt honoured and was excited in the beginning. I felt trusted with a sort of responsibility, as it would entail buying the dvds, making the quiz, picking up the projector/laptop and setting it up. However, it didn't go very well, due to poor attendance (6 in the first week, 2 in the week after), the teacher having failed to tell anyone about me taking over (which means: projector/laptop + room 5 being taken over by a teacher) and technical problems (after room 5 being taken over I was put in a room with a tv which had no remote control, asked the teachers to find me some remote controls, they gave me a couple... without batteries, and in the second week I couldn't log in on the laptop..).
Concertwise I've seen, since I last posted; Surfer Blood, Jon Gomm, Air Waves, Pulled Apart By Horses, Beach House, Midlake, The Drums, The Maccabees, Bombay Bicycle Club, The Big Pink, Japandroids, Los Campesinos! and U.S. Girls.
Especially Los Campesinos! was great again, I saw them for the 4th time and it's still nowhere near boring.
I've missed some good stuff in Holland apparently. 'The Dutch Cabinet fell', due to disagreements concerning the Dutch military in Uruzgan [Afghanistan]. I'm too tired to explain the Dutch political system, so I won't bother.
Unfortunately, I will just about miss the general elections spectacle, as I'm still in London around that time. Victory could become Geert Wilders', the right-wing leader of the 'Party of Freedom', who compares the Qur'an (which he states 'should be burned') to Mein Kampf and wants to introduce a tax on wearing headscarves.
What I did notice in one of the videos concerning this issue I saw (didn't follow the whole thing that well) was the following; the use of the verb 'de zwarte piet krijgen'? What's up with that? Have I lived outside the Netherlands too long to recognize this use of the word zwarte piet? Since when is it a verb? Isn't it a little early on to speak of zwarte pieten anyway? + political journalism via pinning pictures of politicians on a tree is lame.
Another thing going on, in the Dutch music world, was the whole Lowlands hoax around it being sold out within a week (something never happens, always takes a few months), resulting into it actually selling out for real, as everyone starting buying their tickets. We can only assume the hoax was a marketing strategy?
Luckily I bought my ticket the day after it went on sale, and now most of my friends have their tickets as well, so it should be cool. Looking forward to it again! (probably the only thing worth looking forward to when it comes to going back 'home' in Holland)
From next week on, I have a two week holiday. Not sure what I'm going to do, have a couple of gigs planned and initially wanted to go on a trip to Liverpool & Manchester. That's probably not going to happen, as I don't have much money. I'm thinking about doing some daytrips, like Cambridge and/or Brighton and maybe do some photography projects and visit some museums...
27 February 2010
We're too old / We're not old, old at all
We're terrified of another
And terrified of that means
But we'll make only quick decisions
And you'll just keep me in the waiting room
And all the while I'll know we're fucked
And not getting unfucked soon
When we get home we're bigger strangers than we've ever been before.
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