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It is quite late on an ordinary Wednesday night to be still in the office…the reason is a typical one; we are working our asses off to finalize a tender response with a deadline of tomorrow.

Ha, insomnia is the key, though not so easy after already a very short night yesterday (plus, working for 40 hours straight last week has not helped my overall fit-tired balance). I am not complaining though; I am the lucky one delivering the offer to the customer in Copenhagen tomorrow so I get a chance to see the lovely Little Mermaid woohoo! 🙂

For now, the ‘all day…all night’ song keeps me awake and sharp: this is Sak Noel with Loca People…so WTF y’all and Njoy!! 🙂

Spontaneous ideas are the best, and this one will be no exception 🙂 and it is called Norway in a Nutshell! Booked only yesterday afternoon, is a trip through some of Norway’s most beautiful fjord scenery! Obviously the idea started off with the Tesla needing a road trip 🙂 and from one thing came another. Two days to experience the scenic Bergen Railway, the breathtaking Flåm Railway, the Aurlandsfjord, the narrow Nærøyfjord and the steep hairpin bends of Stalheimskleiva, and…the weather is fantastic!!

Looking forward woohooooo!!

After nearly 3,5 years of ‘electrifying your car‘, that game is changing, BIG time: byebye Nissan LEAF, hellooo Tesla Model S!! Woohoo! 🙂

My LEAF experience has been amazing, it is a fantastic drive with really only one downside; the range. The advertised 175km seems reacheable only on a warm summer day while driving a whopping 20km/h 🙂 , the actual range is more like 125-140km in summertime and about 80-100km in wintertime (both heavily depending on the use of the climate control)…not enough for me.

The Tesla Model S is really a BIG step up, a game changer in the car industry (car 2.0), a change of the concept of owning/driving a car! Besides the looks (great design), many elements in the car are software based which makes it possibly (&easy) to upgrade the car with a software update; a nice example is the recent update giving the owners more horsepower to play with (!)…it is like owning a whole new car overnight! 🙂

The first kilometers have been truly amazing and something tells me that this car will not stop to amaze me…so, to be continued! 🙂

My mom turns 66 today (you wouldn’t say! 🙂 ), which we (pre-)celebrated yesterday with the whole family. Living abroad makes it even more valuable to be there in person and commemorate this special day (after all, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my mother (and father 🙂 ), especially when everyone is present!

It was great to see Bro and Sis again, and as always, heaps of fun seeing Misha and his nephews and niece challenging each other (in a nice way 🙂 ) and playing around the house (run until you drop, no one dropped! 🙂 )!

All in all a very nice prelude to a Happy Birthday Mom!

I am in bicycle country 🙂 this weekend and found this YouTube video therefore somewhat appropriate. Somewhat, because this is bicycling the opposite way, messing with your brain and actually a pretty interesting experiment!

Unfortunately it is not easy to try this at home, I would love to give it a go and experience the brain twist myself! 🙂

I could not resist and watched the live-stream (via my Apple TV 🙂 ) of Tim Cook’s keynote speech yesterday, opening the Apple WWDC (World Wide Developer Conference), even though the first signs are very apparent that the Apple keynote speech myth is on its decline (clearly marked from when Steve Jobs passed and Tim Cook took over)…it is just not the same, will probably never be the same anymore and yesterday showed this all too well, unfortunately.

Yes, there were some interesting (/good, not great, and mostly known) announcements, yes, Apple still has its momentum, but mannnnn, it went on waayyyyy too long! The keynote has always been a Sales show-off, but this one seemed to take a questionable TellSell route… 🙁

Hope the future will be better, and some of the old magic returns!

Anyway, to lighten up this post, have a look at the YouTube video below, a fantastic keynote speech parody/commercial! ROTFLMAO!! 🙂

For years now I have had the pleasure of a nest filled with young Tits, around May/June. It is only two years ago that I found out that these are not Great Tits, but Blue Tits and to see the process of them building up the nest for weeks and nourishing their newly borns now, really is nature at its best!

Especially on a sunny day as today, it has been magnificent to watch both parents fly in and out with small pieces of food for their kids. This year also had a Blue Tit premiere; the second bird house has also been used for its original purpose (unlike last year when it served as a wasp nest!!). Those Blue Tits made the leap into the big wide world a week ago when I was in NL, so I am closely monitoring the second bird house…I really want to see the little ones fly out this year!!

Oof, it has been a pretty slow day after a fan-friggin-tastic FLYING DUTCH event yesterday!! What a party, Dutch DJs truly rule the dance scene!! 🙂 The weather was surprisingly good @ FD as the sun overruled all of the predicted rain, yay! The wetness from above counters today though; ray ray rain at the last day of Parkfeest bluhhh.

Oh well, dressed in rain ponchos we will survive (and mostly enjoy!) the last evening @ Parkfeest, as always, heaps of fun with friends, bands on stage and some occasional beers! 🙂

Another day, another party! 🙂

Today you can find me dancing at The Flying Dutch dance festival where ten of top Dutch DJs in the world will play in three different cities around the country. How you ask? Well, in style obviously. 🙂 Following a carefully crafted timetable, the DJs will circulate between cities by way of helicopter, woohoo!

On stage: Mike Mago, Yellow Claw, Oliver Heldens, Nicky Romero, Afrojack, Fedde Le Grand, Showtek, Hardwell, W&W, Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano and best of ‘m all: Armin van Buuren!

Dance ’till you drop baby yeahhhh!

End of May, time to open the festival season 🙂 and it doesn’t come as a surprise that this year’s first festival is Parkfeest in Oosterhout once more! As it is my fifth time in a row here, I think it is safe to call it a tradition, one I like!

It won’t be a whole weekend at Parkfeest though; I will dance my ass off with the best Dutch DJ’s at The Flying Dutch dance festival (Amsterdam edition) tomorrow (woohoo! 🙂 ).

Still, I am much looking forward to Parkfeest (tonight and Sunday), starting with a coverband/80’s night and performances of U2NL, Letz Zeppelin and Bryan Adams Tribute. Wind and rain is also on the program, traditions are to be kept, ha! 🙂

Today, May 17 (‘syttende mai’) Norway celebrates its Constitution; a nationwide party day, so GRATULERER MED DAGEN Norge (Congratulations Norway)!!

But, it is windy, rainy and just +4C (brrr!) so most of the needed/wanted ingredients for a great outdoor party are unfortunately somewhere else. 🙁 Oh well, we will make the best out of it; we just came back from the traditional ‘barnetoget’ (Childrens’ Parade) in the village centre in which Misha and his kindergarten friends participated, and are about to go to Oslo for a traditional norwegian shrimp dinner in Cafe Amsterdam yummm.

As every year, it is really nice to see everyone dressed up (and holding a Norwegian flag in hand)…ha, the Vikings won’t be stopped by some shitty weather on their national day, woohoo! 🙂

Today is ‘the’ day of the year where one day is making me a whole year older…aahhh it’s my Birthdayayayay! 🙂

I am turning 43 and it seems to be an ‘in-between’ year; last year at 42 I was the answer to The Utimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything and I will apparently become The Master Healer at 44, next year wowWoW! 🙂

Oh well, age is mostly just a number as ‘they’ say (indeed an expression that is used by ‘older’ people 🙂 ), so I’d rather enjoy every minute of Now! 😛

Find the number 8 in the ‘9s’ picture below and let me know how fast (or slow) you did! It should definitely be done within the minute (take a visit to an optician if you didn’t! 🙂 ).

Oh, and to put on some extra pressure; it took me less than 2 seconds! 😉

Happy Easter everrrrrybody!! 🙂

The kid who wrote this answer to a test question must LOVE to dance! Of course he/she could also have been ‘brainwashed’ by his parents or he/she just saw one of the Madagascar movies! 🙂

For those of you who don’t understand the answer, check out the YouTube video below and dance to it like we all used to do, way back in the 90’s…I like to MOVE IT! 🙂

This performance of the Andrea Bocelli & Sarah Brightman song ‘Time to say Goodbye’ by Solomia, a 13 year old girl participating in the German version The Voice Kids, just brings me to tears…WoW!!!!

(yes, she *is* only 13 years old, I can’t believe it!)

Public transport is by definition not cool 😉 , the Danes though have succeeded in adding some coolness to public transport. ‘Some’ coolness?? Well, watch the Youtube video below and you will agree; this is *the* most epic ad for public transportation ever created! I guess you too will be practicing to say “I am cool” in Danish. (“Jeg er cool.” 🙂 )

Well, that was three years ago, recently the Danish public transit company Midttrafik released the sequel…must admit, the bus is COOL!! 🙂

‘Other women’ are probably *the* #1 cause for arguments (/fights) between men and women in relationships…check out the Youtube video below in which Dennis Prager of Prager University explains and debunks this. Yes, men and women *are* different, there is nothing new with that and surely nothing to worry about!

Hmm, now only hope that women will understand it!! 🙂

(perhaps Dennis Prager should have been Denise Prager?! 🙂 )

The Northern Lights are just pure magic in the sky and last night was the first time since I moved to Norway that I witnessed it conveniently at home!

At first it looks like some shady clouds are closing in from the northern horizon, then these ‘clouds’ start to move from left to right, they move faster and faster, towards an incredible speed as if a t.l. tries to light up, and then you realise; hey, these are no clouds…something magical is happening in the sky…those ‘clouds’ are actually somewhat greenish instead of hazy white…the flares are everywhere, there, there *and* there…left, right, directly above me and even more at the horizon…Northern Lights mannnn, I love it! Unfortunately they were a tad weak, at least too weak to be captured on my iPhone (despite a special camera app allowing for a long shutter time)…so, less spectacular and far from the intensity that I experienced last year, but hey, I got a falling star as a bonus so no complains here, ha!

Check out the Youtube video below which was taken (not by me) in Oslo yesterday:

I recently saw this YouTube video being shared by some of my Facebook friends and found out that I still didn’t put it on the blog even though it has been in my ‘blog-bin’ for months now…shame on me as this is to be seen by all, powerful stuff by the late philosopher Alan Watts! 🙂

In the two minutes that the video lasts you will still be trapped in the future and its imaginary promises, right after you will rethink your life and understand that: “You can’t live at all, unless you can live fully now!”

PS. A version translated in dutch done by the ‘Vrije Denkers‘ can be found here.