raymondpoort.com

THE reason to be in NL this weekend (with Misha) was to go to the largest theme park in NL and one of the oldest in the world, de ‘Efteling‘, with the whole family (7 adults, 5 kids)…we spent most of today in het ‘Sprookjesbos’ (Fairy Tale Forest), a pretty unique and magnificent place for children, which brought back good memories from my own childhood.

Misha didn’t miss any opportunity to explore the park and has been running around the whole day…haha, daddy is pretty knackered now! 😉

A GREAT day!!

John Barth: “Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story.”

Now that Misha is two years old /young), he is no longer qualifying for the discounted ‘baby’ fare for flight tickets, so I enrolled him in KLM’s Flying Blue program to get at least some benefits back. His card came in last week, so today was his first ‘formal’ member flight! (I have to claim some earlier flights 😉 ). As always, he was mostly happy during the flight, just a tad frustrated when the fasten seatbelt sign ‘forced’ him to sit still, and having fun entertaining the other passengers and flight attendants!

My favorite Frequent Flyer! 😉

Logan Pearsall Smith: “Don’t laugh at a youth for his affectations; he is only trying on one face after another to find his own.”

Oprah Winfrey: “I believe that [everyone] is the keeper of a dream – and by tuning into one another’s secret hopes, we can become better friends, better partners, better parents, and better lovers.”

Most have (or should have) heard of Isaac Newton, one of the most influential scientists of all time, who formulated the Laws of Motion. You might remember his Third Law of Motion: ‘For every action there is an equal and opposite re-action’, yet I doubt that you know the equivalent Third Law of Emotion (Energy in motion)…

😉

Samuel Johnson: “If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself alone. A man should keep his friendships in constant repair.”

Two studies show an interesting paradox; while according to the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) the dutch are among the happiest people in the world (ranked #4, still beaten by Norway at #2 though 😉 ), they are also the most depressed people in Europe (a study by researchers at Australia’s University of Queensland)…the worldwide average of people being sick due to depression is around 10% of the time, in the Netherlands it is 16%!

Uhhhh…huhhhh?!? Not sure what to make of this…does this mean that the majority of people in NL live on one of the far ends of the spectrum? Being either depressed OR happy? (one cannot be both, or?)

Perhaps it is just a good example of how ‘true’ (/subjective) studies are…

Ralph Waldo Emerson: “The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.”

John Barth: “Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story.”

The car manufacturer would never approve this commercial (especially taken their country of origin); it is quite an unorthodox way to show off an life saving feature…pretty awesome 😉

Ali Vincent: “To think about your life is to create it. You have to take ownership of where you are right now and know where you want to go before you can get there. Keep collecting evidence for your success. You can believe it, and you can be it.”

It was Father’s Day today, uhhh…Father’s Day? Huh, in November?!? Yeah…while most of the world celebrates this day in June, Norway celebrates it on the Second Sunday of November, so today!

Misha got pretty creative (supported by the kindergarten 😉 ) as you can see below, NICE!

Haha, I guess I have to wait some more years for breakfast in bed! 😉

Ugo Betti: “When you want to believe in something, you also have to believe in everything that’s necessary for believing in it.”

A YouTube clip with well over 200 million views, made by two brothers from Norway, and I didn’t know about it?? Have I been living under a rock?!? Well…living yes, under a rock nah; I was enjoying Peru&Bolivia when the clip was released (and went viral on YouTube)…a good enough reason I’d say! 😉

Misha knows the sound and moves of almost all animals, but when he was ask about a fox by (norwegian) friends today, he was silent…and actually everyone was…until we watched the mentioned YouTube clip, a worthy Song of the Day: The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?) by Ylvis, a norwegian comedy duo consisting of brothers Bård and Vegard Ylvisåker.

HI-LA-RI-OUS!!!!

(thx Per&Ingrid!)

Kathleen Norris: “Disconnecting from change does not recapture the past. It loses the future.”

As mentioned a week ago, Steve Kardynal already released Part 4 of this Songs in Real Life series. The first three episodes were fantastic, so let’s enjoy #4! The clip is a good 7 minutes and trust me, you won’t be bored…be ready to ROTF and LYAO! 😉

‘Today you need to smile. You need to smile so big it hurts your cheeks’

Will Rogers: “Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.”

…was a lousy T-shirt 😉 , AND a *fantastic* experience, AND a CD filled with pictures to proof that! Good times on the Death Road! 😉

I am happy that the T-shirt and pictures made it all the way to Norway. I didn’t have time to pick ‘m up in La Paz, as I caught a night-bus to Uyuni only an hour after returning from the Death (Road)…yeah, I did make the most of my time in Bolivia (&Peru)! 😉

Phyllis Mcginley: “A hobby a day keeps the doldrums away.”