A day out in Amsterdam.

One of my good friends moved from Rotterdam to Amsterdam earlier this year, and she still always makes the effort to come to our group's parties in Rotterdam. So we thought we'd repay the gesture and drop by Amsterdam one afternoon.

We decided to go to a cafe, IJ-kantine, in Amsterdam Noord, for high tea...

Okay, stop press. Every time I have to say "high tea" when I actually mean "afternoon tea", my stomach turns over and I feel a part of me disintegrate. Let me just make it clear to my readers.

"High tea" is a working class meal served after 5pm and consists of heavy dishes, such as meat, fish and vegetables.

"Afternoon tea" is what everyone else who doesn't know better means when they say "high tea".

But, as the menu at the cafe and all my friends who aren't familiar with afternoon tea call it "high tea", I shall have to use this term so as not to cause confusion.

(Still, you read it here. Afternoon tea is where the scones, cakes and light sandwiches come in. Please know the difference and don't call it high tea anymore if you can help it.)

Because the cafe is in Amsterdam Noord, we had to take a little ferry ride across the water from the train station. Here are some pics.

The cafe is right next to the ferry stop, so we were there within a few steps. But first, let's sit on a boat bench.

The interior of the cafe is very much like the typical Dutch grandcafe. One of those old factory or warehouse buildings that gets turned into a restaurant or a cafe. It's nice and modern inside. Unfortunately, the service is typical Dutch. Slow. They have one waitress for every 20 tables. Absolutely ridiculous. And don't forget that the waitresses have their own lives as well. They're not just waitresses. They have to chit chat and sigh and laugh and do whatever it is they do to prolong your waiting time for the menu.

On the whole, though, it was a pleasant experience, if you accept Dutch standards of service as they are.

Now a little behind the scenes story. During our Facebook discussion, when Lenka (the one who moved to Amsterdam) suggested for us to have high tea, we enthusiastically agreed. I then later checked the price of the high tea and discovered that it wasn't very cheap at all, especially for someone who's very soon out of a job. But because I had agreed to have high tea, I just closed one eye.

However, when we arrived at the cafe, two of the girls had no idea that we had agreed on high tea and they didn't know the price. Being students, they were worried that it was a little expensive, and there was a tiny bit of friction over us having agreed or not to have high tea (we have to book in advance for it at the cafe). In the end, it was sorted out to everyone's satisfaction.

Then the discussion about what high tea is came up. Lenka said that before that afternoon, she had thought that it was just tea being served with your choice of hard liquor. Yes, this is coming from the girl who likes to bring vodka in her bag to parties, just in case the hosts have nothing stronger than beer and wine. So, not surprising. Gave us a good chuckle!

And that is when Adél also admitted that she had thought that high tea was tea made with marijuana, much like space cake or space brownies. Well, that made a little sense, seeing as we are in Holland after all.

See? This is why it's called the elegant "afternoon tea" and not "high tea" (which, incidentally, is because the meal was served on a high table you could stand around). Makes a great story, though, right?

After our delicious meal - by the way, they only served normal cream and not clotted cream, the bastards - we hopped back onto the ferry and walked around the city centre, by way of the filthy red light district. And by filthy, I mean, the roads and the people dropping their shit everywhere. I was constantly afraid to be stepping on gum and spit. Ugh, Amsterdam.

Because we had no place in mind, I suggested visiting the relatively newly-opened Apple store, which is supposed to be the biggest in the Benelux or Europe or something. It was the morning of the iPhone 5's release and I'd been hearing about the queues.

Well, as you can see, the queues had cleared up by that time.

So we just acted like total losers and took photos in the Apple store, of all places.

The end.

Dinner at Parkheuvel

Last Thursday, I got a surprise phone call from someone from Rik's company. He said that they were very pleased with a project that Rik had just completed, and that the client had also personally called him to congratulate him and sing Rik's praises. Incidentally, the client in question is the Ministry of Finance *ahem*.

That's just to illustrate how important this project was to the company. And so, this colleague of Rik who called me to tell me that as a 'thank you', they would like to treat both Rik and I to a nice dinner.

He said: "nice dinner", "enjoy yourselves", "nice restaurant", "surprise" and "no budget".

Oooooooooh!

After hanging up, I browsed restaurant review sites to find a good restaurant that matched those requirements. I found one that seemed to fit the bill and I reserved a table for Saturday.

Forty five minutes later, I got an email from the colleague, saying again that they were very pleased and to enjoy ourselves at the dinner, and to email him the receipt from the dinner to this address. And that there is an indication of € 200 to be spent.

Oh shit. Is what I thought.

You see, I had reserved a table at Parkheuvel.

Some of you may not know Parkheuvel. It has its own Wikipedia page and two of its own Michelin stars. I wasn't quite aware of its fame when I was making the reservation, but I did have an idea of its prices. Seeing as I was told specifically, "no budget", I had just gone for the best (obviously). But was € 200 going to be enough?

Here's a little back story to the restaurant. Parkheuvel was the first restaurant in NL to be awarded a Michelin star, back in 2002. Under its original chef, it had risen to a 3-star restaurant, but when it got taken over by the current chef, it lost two of its stars (sounds so terrible, but if you think about it, how many other restaurants have even one?). It received one more star in the recent past, making it to a grand total now of two.

As the dinner was supposed to be a surprise from work, I told Rik that I would just be taking him out for a dinner because he had been so stressed the past few weeks. He was happy about it... until I told him it was at Parkheuvel. Then he started fretting and sweating and "we can't afford this" speeches. So, of course, I had to then admit the truth, so that he wouldn't dread the whole dinner. He was obviously very surprised and pleased. Then he told me the story of our ex-boss, who was there with a friend for dinner, and had racked up a bill of € 800 (of mostly wine).

Oh shit.

So we set some ground rules before arriving at the restaurant. No alcohol.

I wore my nice clothes, Rik wore his nice clothes, and we set off.

We were greeted by quite a young and unsmiling girl who looked more like a page boy in her waiter's outfit. So first impression wasn't that awesome.

In the restaurant, it was kind of old (as in 1986, the year it was founded) French decor, but pleasant enough. It's a circular standalone building, sort of like a gazebo, so that everyone can look out onto the river Maas from their tables. When we arrived at 7.30pm, the restaurant was already pretty full with older couples, many of whom were presumably regulars (homagad, what do they work as?).

From then on, my impressions just got better. We were served by about three different waiters, all professional and courteous and wearing one glove on their serving hand.

Now for those of you who don't live in NL, it might not come as such a big shock, but the range of prices certainly made my colleagues jaws drop. At the time, the prices didn't mean anything to me except to keep below € 100 (per person). And so, it didn't register in my head that starters were ranging from € 30 - 50 and mains were ranging from € 45 - 80. To put into perspective, at an average restaurant, you can have a proper dinner with wine for € 25 - 30.

Okay, so on paper, this restaurant sounds expensive. But when you factor in the sublime service, the in-between courses that come complimentary and the fact that you don't have to worry about anything at all, not even calling a waiter or even asking where the restroom is (when you walk away from your table, there is someone who will politely indicate towards the restrooms), can you really fault them for charging so much? Training must come from somewhere. We spent three hours in the restaurant, and not once did we feel disturbed, rushed or stressed having to find service. And believe me, that is something you will tend to feel in any restaurant in NL.

What a splendid experience. One that we will always remember.

---

And to you Asians reading this, here's what we ordered.

Started off with an aperitif. We didn't want alcohol, so we had premium Swiss bitter lemon (which Rik said was superb) and I had apple juice with soda (which tasted normal to me, but apparently is something special).

A sort of degustation plate of: macaroon of oyster, prawn something, and two more things, and light crackers. Sorry I don't remember everything. They don't look like what they are, but they had exquisite flavours.

One more small light and complex teaser before the main appetiser (Rik, can you help me out with what we had??).

I ordered chef's signature goose liver. Course it came with some complex layers of flavour, which I'm ashamed to say I'm too bourgeois to remember. There was a piece of bread made from pinot gris, I remember.

Can't remember Rik's appetiser.

Then a vegetable-based in-between, which I wasn't very fond of because it tasted a bit more peasant than the previous in-betweens.

For the main, I ordered the chef's signature pork belly with caviar and bits of almonds and probably one or two other flavours.

Rik had wagyu beef (which was superb) and very well-cooked asparagus.

For the sides, we were served a choice of sourdough or cumin bread rolls.

Before dessert, we were served a French madeleine. Warm, sweet and perfect.

None of the desserts took my fancy but I had to order something. So I had a passionfruit tartlet, which turned out to be a passionfruit light cake which was just so-so, but with an awesome light coffee-tasting ice cream with delicious bits of I-don't-know-what on the side.

Rik had a beautiful creation of a layer of raspberries below a layer of thin hardened sugar (I think) and another layer of raspberries and another layer of something. And I think there was white chocolate in the mix somewhere.

---

It was a lovely experience and so relaxing. We could just focus on the food and on talking to each other. Makes you wonder why people would want to rush through their dinners and watch their phones when they can have a nice experience enjoying eating and talking to the person with them.

Watercolour I

Did a spot of painting a few weeks ago.

PHOTOS: World Harbour Days 2012

This weekend, Rotterdam is celebrating the Wereldhavendagen (World Harbour Days) and the Shantyfestival (Shanty Festival, duh). As you can guess, they are both marine-themed.

We are fortunate enough to live right on the doorstep of the river Maas and the marine museums (Maritiem Museum, Mariniers Museum and Havenmuseum), and today being an extraordinarily fantastic day for being outside, we took a walk around the vicinity to see what was going on.

Lovely flea market stalls - if you know me well, you would know that I have a passion for flea markets, but unfortunately, I'm terribly bad at asking for prices or bargaining them down - and lots of food stalls, as well as several choir groups singing marvelously jolly sailor songs. You can't help but feel light on your feet and all smiley as you walk around the stalls hearing the shantys (shanties?).

Just next door to Mariniers Museum is a wonderful old building, which used to be the tallest building in Europe for about 2 hours (okay, more, but I can't remember exactly), called Het Witte Huis. The architect was inspired by New York townhouses and made a version of them in Rotterdam, in the form of Het Witte Huis. It's a beautiful building, but unfortunately only one of its kind, and thus looks rather out of place and not very noticeable. Until you look at it properly and realise its beautifully detailed outer walls and windows.

Anyway, this weekend, if you pay € 1, you can go up to the rooftop and enjoy the view all around of the river and all the events going on. I took some photos that don't do it much justice, but it was such a great opportunity to be able to do this.

Colourful boats and food stalls on the canal just in front of our home.

Precious stone jewellery, handmade boots from Peru and stuff like that. With two pirates strolling about.

Rotterdam's world-famous cube houses with a few antique stalls in front of a pretty awesome looking small ship.

View from the rooftop of Het Witte Huis of the Maas and all her ships showing off and blowing their horns.

Cube houses from the rooftop behind the Westermeijer sign that I was pretending was the Hollywood sign so I would feel more glamourous.

Other side of the canal with even more boats and rowers.

View of the Willemsbrug (the red bridge).

View of me and Schrobbenmaster enjoying the sunny rooftop.

Back on ground level, one of the sailor choruses singing near our home, complete with clogs.

My proud purchase of the day from an antique stall. A Villeroy & Boch coffee jar for 2 euros. Gotta love em flea markets, doncha?

A little bit of nostalgia

I was clearing up my email from years and years ago and I found these two pictures of me. Thought it'd be fun to just post them up here.

Meeting other designers

Last Friday morning, I met up with one of the owners of a design studio in Rotterdam. It has been my goal for the past couple of months to get in touch with as many design studios I admire as possible, to expand my network and increase the possibility of getting a great job when I need it (or when it's available).

I was a little nervous because, well, you're showing your own work, your pride and joy and personal ability, to someone who should know better than you if it's good or not. I was just so thankful that it wasn't a job interview because I'd be ten times more nervous!

It went well, the guy was super friendly and he'd even been to Malaysia many times for diving, so there was some common ground. In the end, I'm relieved and happy everything worked out and I got positive feedback. I hope it gets easier the more people I see.

The Thinking Designer

I've created a new blog - no, not to replace this, but a blog for my design stuff. I like to separate work and personal life.

Visit here: The Thinking Designer

In this case, Tumblr works really well, because I don't want to write too much, and Tumblr is just made for that.

If you're on Tumblr, please follow! If you're not, see if you can just Like my posts ;)

xx

All the weddings in June 2012

It has been a while, and my holiday back in KL has come and gone. In fact, I just arrived back in NL this morning, so I'm quite tired but determined to stay up till a decent hour.

While I was in KL, I attended two weddings - one of them was Janice's wedding, one of my best and oldest friends from school. She married her boyfriend of eight or nine years and it was a really beautiful wedding. So happy I made it back for that!

The other wedding was Daniel's. Daniel is an ex-college mate of mine and it was through him that I met Schrobbenmaster. They were housemates while working at Nielsen and Daniel brought him to my Chinese New Year party way back in 2009. Sparks didn't fly immediately, but I grew to enjoy and appreciate, and heck, even want his company. Hehe. So Daniel's wedding was something both Schrobbenmaster and I could attend and relate to.

Besides those two main events, we did lots of fun things like sightseeing and chilling in Penang, hanging out in KL like old times (cinema, Bangsar, drinking, etc) and spending precious time with my family. I also attended Daniel's fiancee's bachelorette night - well, it was her second, as her first celebration was in Paris with a few close girlfriends.

It was that night that I met a girl, Ashley, who I later found out owns and runs a waxing and manicure beauty salon in Bangsar. I always support people who start their own businesses and grow it from the ground up. It's even one of my dreams to do that, so naturally, I have empathy for these people. She passed me her card later on at the wedding, so I thought I'd just plug it a bit on this blog, if anyone finds themselves in need of some brow/facial waxing or nailcare.

Her shop is called Apron Bay and it's on the first floor, so look up for signboards. I can't remember exactly where she said it was above, but it's on Jalan Telawi 4. The street isn't that long, so I'm sure you'll find it if you bother to look. If you want to make an appointment, the number is 03 2287 8081.

Let me upload some photos from my phone to my computer and I'll put them up in the next post... along with our new furry little addition to the house :) Till then, folks!

The story of Pim

I have been putting off writing this blog post because I knew that this particular post would have to be about Pim and I didn't want to face it before.

Not that I want to face it now, but I think it's time to write a little something about the dearest cat that ever lived.

I was never a cat person growing up. Always loved dogs and how cute, open and honest they are. Animals can't tell you what's going on, but somehow, with a dog, you always can. That was one of the reasons I was never into cats. I could never tell what they were thinking, if they were happy or not.

But when I moved to NL, I did miss having pets, and our living situation made it more preferable to have a cat than a dog. I decided to take the leap of good faith.

We visited the shelter to have a look at the cats and I decided that they weren't such terrible creatures after all. It seemed to be a sign that I was ready for a cat, because not two weeks later, Schrobbenmaster got a call from his friend asking if we would like to babysit his dad's cat for a few weeks while his dad went to the hospital to have chemotherapy and recover from it.

We thought: Hey, what a good chance to see if we can live with a cat! So we said yes.

And that's how Pim came into our lives.

I remember the first time I met Pim. We had gone to his owner's place at night. It was a small, cramped Dutch house, and he was a collector/hoarder. I had entered the house and was walking up the stairs when I first laid eyes on Pim. To my surprise, he looked exactly like the cat I wanted! It sounds cliché and like I'm making it up, but I promise you, I had settled on having a white and orange cat, and lo and behold, Pim was a white and orange cat! I immediately fell in love with him, he was such a beautiful creature.

But he was scared at first, of course. He ran back upstairs and watched us as we packed up his life temporarily in this old house. The old man passed away a few months later and Pim ended up ours for good.

For the first week, Pim was always hiding; either behind the TV cabinet or under the bathroom sink, wherever it was dark. We were, to be honest, a little mean to him at first because we selfishly wanted to play with him and to show him the place. We tried blocking his entrance to the TV cabinet so that he would have to walk around the house. But looking back now, we should have just let him be. Lesson learned.

He eventually came to trust us and he became the loveliest and most social cat. He would come sit with us at the computer, lie with us on the sofa and sleep with us on the bed. He would ask for attention and greet us at the door. I called him a cat-dog.

Then we moved house.

He became really stressed with all the change in scenery; the boxes piled up and things moved around. It wasn't his safe haven anymore. He started peeing outside his litter box and frustrated us a lot because we didn't know why. We bought him a bigger litter box, we bought him different food, we gave him more food and we gave him more attention, but nothing seemed to work. Finally, we gave him powerful calming tablets in the week leading up to the move. That cured his peeing problem, but it made him stoned and unlike his usual self. We had to feed it down his throat as well, because the taste was disgusting to him. It was terrible for him and for us, but it had to be done so that he wouldn't freak out on the day itself or misbehave in the new place.

The move was successful. He explored the new house immediately and seemed to like it just fine. He didn't misbehave much and everything seemed to be getting better.

We had many visitors and they all fell in love with Pim. Even Mumsy Bumsy, who is not a cat person. Pim just had this way of winning over people with his quirkiness. He was such a scaredy cat when it came to strange things, but he couldn't overcome his curiosity and would sit in the hallway watching everyone, with his head slightly cocked, like he was thinking very hard about you. He would even bestow his affectionate headbutts onto close friends' legs and chatter nonstop about wanting food or attention.

And then one day, Schrobbenmaster noticed that Pim was peeing way too much and drinking too much to be normal. We took Pim to the vet and that pretty much was the beginning of the end. He was diagnosed with diabetes.

Taking care of a diabetic cat requires some discipline and sacrifice on the part of a young couple. You are tied down to being with the cat twice a day at the same time every day for insulin injections. And let's not talk about the cost.

When first diagnosed, there was still a chance that Pim could recover after a few weeks of injections. So we decided to make the sacrifice for him and try to cure him. It wasn't as bad as we imagined, having to be at home for him. It became a routine, something that you no longer have to think about.

Pim even slimmed down and became even more beautiful. But slowly, so slowly that we didn't notice, he was becoming more withdrawn and less happy. When I look at old pictures, I see Pim lying around beside us or with us very often. We hadn't experienced that joy in a while by then. He would come to be with us, but he would more often lie on his scratching pole or curl up somewhere soft. I don't know if it's because we scolded him too much during his peeing problem phase or if it was also because we didn't allow him on the sofa where his fur would get all over it. Or if he was really not feeling well.

Besides his behaviour, his blood glucose readings were going haywire. In the morning, he would be extremely diabetic and 6 hours later, he would have so little glucose that he should have dropped into a coma. The vet had expressed her worry that it might be caused by a tumour that was messing with the insulin. It slowly started to appear quite likely.

After three months of battling with stablising his glucose levels, which should normally be 4 to 6 weeks, it still hadn't been stabilised. We had decided to keep observing him and adjusting his insulin as needed. But we noticed that he seemed to be in more pain every day. His legs were giving him trouble and one night, he sat at the foot of our bed, on the floor, staring at us and constantly extending and retracting his claws. That was very unusual and quite scary.

Then one afternoon, when I came home from an outing, Schrobbenmaster came to me looking really worried. He had scolded Pim for trying to attack him and Pim had reacted more aggressively than usual. Then he tried to make friends with Pim again, but was rewarded with a big gash in his knee. The whole afternoon, it seems that Pim had been hunting Schrobbenmaster as if he was a prey in the wild. I just thought that Pim was upset and thought nothing of it.

The next morning, it was my turn to get a fright. I had gotten my breakfast and went to sit at the sofa. Unknowingly, I disturbed Pim from his slumber. I apologised as I normally do and went back to my breakfast. But I noticed that he was different. He glared at me with strange, wild eyes and actually attempted to scratch me a few times. It really scared me because Pim was never the scratching type.

I got up to walk away, but I heard his ball rolling behind me, and when I turned, to my surprise, he was actually stalking me with the same wild look in his eyes. I got really scared and tried appeasing him by giving him some food. I was so scared of him that I almost didn't dare to walk back to the bedroom with him behind me. So I threw some food bits in the opposite direction and raced back to the bedroom to tell Schrobbenmaster what was happening.

We made the decision pretty quickly. We had noticed this wild behaviour from Pim for the past 3 days and I can tell you, you don't even want to spend 10 minutes being afraid to walk around in your own house. Cats' claws are incredibly sharp and hurtful when they're playing, imagine how terrifying it can be when they're actually hunting you down.

On Saturday 24 March 2012 at 13.07, Pim died peacefully in his sleep in a vet on Mathenesserlaan, Rotterdam. He didn't give much trouble but he was a fighter to the end. The vet had to give him extra dosages of the poison and Pim still got up and tried to leave the operating table. It was really hurtful to watch but that was the point of no return. I didn't start crying till I saw that Pim was well and truly gone. I guess while he was still fighting for his life, I could lie to myself that he wasn't actually dying inside. But in the end, no matter how much of a brave fighter he was, the fact is that there was enough poison in him to probably kill off two cats and nothing could reverse the process.

It hurts my heart to think about that moment now, but the only thing that can help me through is remembering how he had been suffering in the days and weeks before and how (I hope) he would have chosen this end eventually, before he got any worse. Sometimes I remember the way we treated him; how we didn't allow him on the sofa because of his tremendous fur shedding, how we left him alone in the house for whole afternoons... and I feel such deep regret for not taking him more into consideration. He was a really special cat, he never damaged any furniture intentionally and he never hurt us. Everyone fell in love with him.

And most of all, I guess I'm really scared to forget him. I don't ever want to forget him or replace him in my heart. But as the days go by, I know that I will eventually not think about him every day, or even every week. I will try to hold on to his memory as long as I can and I hope that it helps him, knowing that we are still thinking of and loving him from down here.

PHOTOS: Rotterdamse Museumnacht

I think most of my intelligent readers can pretty much guess that that means: Rotterdam's Museum Night.

Museumnacht is one night a year when participating museums, big and small, organise special exhibitions and shows from 8pm till 2am. People who attend have to buy a 'passe partout', the all-entrance passport, to access all these museums.

This year was my first time to the Museumnacht and I was really excited about it. The passport cost € 14 and there were 50 museums participating. So in 6 hours, I'd better know exactly where I want to go.

I'd heard that a few people weren't happy with the passport this year being a blinking LED button badge because it was so environmentally unfriendly for just one night. Why not just a normal paper ticket? I tell you why. Because Museumnacht is only once a year and it should be SPECIAL. There will always be waste. So why not put this inevitability to some sort of good use? I am really quite an environmentalist for the common person - I recycle all my paper, I make an effort to keep glass aside for the special bins and I turn lights off and don't use water more than I need to. But sometimes, just sometimes, for a special occasion, I think we deserve to enjoy ourselves and splash out on something fancy.

Besides, I think the blinking LED badge helped to lessen queues and bring people together for one night. Biking around the city, seeing people marching along with blinking green lights, was really very cool, like we were all in one gang, with one purpose. And at the museums, all the staff had to do was look for a blinking green light, so we never had to stop and queue up.

Okay, so I'm ranting a lot about this, but it's because I think that sometimes environmentalists ask for a bit too much.

Anyway, the first place we visited was the Arminius, an old church which I believe has been converted into more of an event venue. It still looks like a church though, so I'm not too sure about what I just said. Maybe just forget this whole paragraph.

The entrance to the Arminius. All participating venues had a green light shone on the entrances, which I think was a great nod to the concept.

Outside the Arminius, the Rotterdam Archive Council were serving free 'crisis soup'. They apparently, conveniently, just discovered this recipe in their archives and had made it for participants. I didn't really like it, but I appreciate the gesture. Who would refuse free soup?

Inside the Arminius was an installation about NL waiting for the next king. The country has been ruled by queens for a few generations now, but after the current queen, it will be her son who becomes king. So this couturier guy and another artist/curator woman decided to imagine the water land with a king. At least that's what the booklet says, although I'm not sure I could relate that to the installation. It was very beautiful nevertheless. Anything set in a church is bound to be awe-inspiring, and this didn't fail.

All the headless dolls were a little creepy but very cool.

Next stop was the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen. It's a very famous museum, especially amongst the arty ones. Embarrassingly, I admit that I haven't been to see their exhibitions, but I have indeed been into the lobby, the bookshop, the play area, outside the restoration lab and inside their amazing library. Contrary to how it sounds, it's actually quite a huge area, with some art pieces as well, which made me think I had actually seen everything (what a noob).

I wonder how long she stayed like that.

Schrobbenmaster's idea of taking a photo.

Success!

Then onwards to the NAi, the Nederlands Architectuurinstituut. Or with the same initials in English, the Netherlands Architecture Institute. Bet you guessed that already though.

It was pretty crowded at the bar area where there was really good club music being played by a live DJ. And this really cool thingy in the picture above. It's not obvious here, but it's actually a kind of 3D video projection from the phone. It's like those Sith guys in Star Wars communicating with each other through some projection. It looks really cool.

Some exhibition on Dutch-made inventions.

Some Dutch rubbish bins.

Do you know Bob Ross? Apparently he's very famous here. To me, he is so uncool that he's cool. He's this white guy with a kind of small afro and he had a TV show teaching people how to paint in watercolour. He had such a slow, soothing voice and would describe things so... quaintly. Oh, what the heck, here's a YouTube link.

I digress, but anyway, this photo above is of the Bob Rush masterclass. I'd wanted to join it but this guy was so not Bob Ross. Maybe the clue is in the name?

Then a hop, skip and jump to the Kunsthal, where I'm proud to say I have indeed been before. It's an art museum. There was a band playing there called Roosbeef, who Schrobbenmaster wanted to see. And I do agree, their music was really good. Here's a link and I would recommend you guys click and listen. Such an improvement from the terrible folk music most Dutch people love.

After that, we headed to the Sonneveld House to watch another band. We had to wear plastic covers over our shoes to protect the interior which is from the 1930s.

It wasn't my kind of music and I was kinda bored and wanted to roll my eyes, but if you dig that sort of music, then I think it would have been pretty good. They're called Yes Please.

We decided to head back and stop at a few venues on the way, one of which was Het Schielandshuis, which was showing work clothes and denim, and had a very nice arty market in the attic, except that I didn't want to spend money, and those markets are never really as cheap as you would expect. Very good club music though.

And lastly, we went to Laurenskerk, just across the road from our place, who was exhibiting something about food. Except we were there at 1.30am and there was only this left.

I'm always drawn to rows and columns of books.

Some display on world celebrations. This one here is Chinese New Year.

All in all, it was enjoyable and really nice to be part of a big Rotterdam thing. I think I would definitely go again next year just for the atmosphere and for the chance of discovering something amazing.

50 things to do before you die

I read somewhere that we all just can't resist a good ol' list. So we keep reading them and we keep making them and we keep failing to complete them.

Well, Mike Sowden of Fevered Mutterings wrote a list some time ago that I think we could all complete and be proud of it. Somewhat.

I found the list so inspiring that I had to make an easy-to-tick-off poster. Enjoy!

Click on it to view a larger version. Enjoy!