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Meredith Willson: “Never let the demands of tomorrow interfere with the pleasures and excitement of today.”

Pohoda 2011 was once again AMAZING and filled with some interesting experiences! The theft of our mobile phones obviously was a major bummer and causes quite some inconvenience, but it was not able (by far!) to ruin the spirit and terrific atmosphere of this festival!
A great line-up with the highlights dEUS, Pulp, Lamb and Madness on Friday plus M.I.A. and Portishead on Saturday satisfied our ears. The beer, rose wine, vodka-red bull and ciganska took care of our mouths, and well, our eyes were happy too! 😉
Cosmos also played its part this weekend: we managed to be with the police three (!) times these days, and all that at the very same time that I got my right to drive back and thought I was done with police for some time…(my driver’s license is still in Norway though, but that’s a story for another time)
First we were at the police station for two hours on Saturday morning to file a report for the theft of our mobile phones. We actually had a great time there and made some new friends! An officer even brought us back to the festival terrain by a police car (without blue lights on my request 😉 ).
Today we had our second and third encounter with the Slovak police force: this afternoon we got stopped when we left a gasstation for not having a vignette (we completely forgot about it 🙁 ). The vignette costs just €7, but the fine was €140!! Luckily we managed to cut a deal for €40 (which ‘coincidentally’ was the same amount of the cash money we had left).
And then, while driving in Bratislava, searching for our hotel, we took a wrong turn and ended up in a pedestrian area…and since the police is always there when you don’t need them, we got a €30 fine as result (6 receipts of €5 and an escort to the nearest cash machine).
It is Un-F’ing-Believable, no idea what cosmos tries to tell me…I plan a relaxing evening tonight to figure that one out! 😉

Aaarrrggghhhhh!!! Some fuckhead stole our mobile phones from our tent last night, WHILE we were sleeping!!! Robbert’s Blackberry, my Dutch iPhone 1 and my Norwegian iPhone 3GS are gone… 🙁 we are now at the police station to file a report.
Luckily Robbert left his iPhone in the car, so in case you want to reach me, call or sms at +31639667054.
Jeez, this is SO not Pohoda!! 🙁

Yay, the first full Pohoda day has just started! With just a tiny ‘day after the night before’ feeling 😉 , yet charged with energy from a splendid first festival night we are ready for a great festival day! The sun is shining but the temperature is very doable due to some wind. That wind might give some problems later though, it is increasing every minute and the organization is already taking precautions to avoid a situation like two years ago…now that I think of it, the situation is actually pretty similar; we are laying in the grass, listening to classical music performed by the Janáčkova Filharmonie Ostrava orchestra with the storm expected between 14:00-17:00…uhhh, deja-vu?!?
The organization just informed us that it shouldn’t be too bad (a typical summer storm, fingers crossed!) and since there is nothing we can do to change the weather anyway, we’d better enjoy Gershwin’s ‘Summertime’! 😉

Splitting the Pohoda roadtrip in two, turned out to be a fantastic idea: besides the recommended and wonderful €39 experience of Motel Pelikan (haha, I even became Foursquare Mayor of this place! 😉 ), we also arrived at the festival terrain in bright sunlight and didn’t have to solve the ‘how to set up a tent in total darkness’ puzzle! 😉
Oh, AND we haven’t had *any* traffic jam, first time ever! 😉 So, it’s all good, we are ready to celebrate life with Moby tonight as our guide to PARTY!!

Part 1 of the roadtrip to SK starts NOW!

Somewhat mixed feelings to leave NL these days…I said goodbye to Kissy’s grandmother yesterday and it is good now.

We are leaving one day earlier than usual, splitting the 1450km roadtrip in two parts (because I am still not allowed to drive, coming Saturday is the turning point of that chapter of my life! 😉 ). We will try to reach the picturesque Motel Pelikan close to Würzburg for an overnight stay (and the promising bratwurst/blutwurst breakfast! 😉 ) and continue the roadtrip tomorrow.

Keep an eye on my Facebook page or the Twitter box on the right-hand side for updates of our roadtrip to the Pohoda festival in Slovakia!

Coming back in NL was a bit different than expected after a very nice and relaxing vacation; we directly went to see Kissy’s grandmother. She has been ill for some time, and has reached the final stage of her 86 year life now…no one knows exactly how long she (physically) stays with us, but after looking in her eyes tonight, I don’t think it will be much longer than a day.

Jaap & Sonja are driving through the night from Norway at the moment, let’s hope grandma still has those clear moments that she had tonight, so he can say his last goodbyes to his mother…

Aristotle: “What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.”

In other words, Paradise in Corsica!

It has been another BE-AU-TI-FUL sunny day at the beach, it ended with an amazing sunset, white wine, french cheese (Brie is as far as I go with those, and although some say Brie is for sissies, I just love it! 😉 ), GIANT shrimps and dorade (Gilt-head bream) on the BBQ, more white wine, The Doors on the iPad (it is 40 years ago today that Jim Morrison passed away, at the age of 27, what a shame!), sound of waves on the background and uhh, some more white wine! 😉

Paradise exist, it is called Corsica!

Ramsay Clark: “Turbulence is life force. It is opportunity. Let’s love turbulence and use it for change.”

Corsica gives a LOT of opportunities for great pictures, and since I am not in ‘tulip’-country at the moment, it is time to change the header graphic to one more appropriate for the location and time of year, don’t ya think?

So, the ‘spring tulips’ header graphic is out, and the Corsican winefields are IN! 😉