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Today’s Prince concert has been postponed until August 2 which is a GOOD thing! The venue, Oslo Spektrum, is very close to where the bomb exploded and it might be impacted, but more importantly; I/we don’t feel like partying nor dancing on ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ after yesterdays events at all…

We and the whole of Norway are numb and silent…

I was planning to post a happy TGIF Song of the Day, but obviously none of that after today’s terror attacks in Oslo and Utøya.

At least seven people died and many got injured after a bomb explosion in the government area in the city center, and at least ten young people were killed at a shooting attack on a political youth camp…TERRIBLE!!

I was at work when I heard (and felt) a huge BOOOOMMMM around 15:20h…thought initially that it was thunder striking close by although it seemed too loud…who would have thought it would be as bad as it turns out to be…updates still come in every minute (check tv2.no, aftenposten.no, nu.nl or bbc.co.uk), the latest news tells us that the shooter on the Utøya island is Norwegian and can also linked to the car bomb in the city center, CRAZY!!

…this ain’t Norway, it all feels so unreal…

The Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg just said: “No one will bomb us to silence. No one wil shoot us to silence. No one will ever scare us away from being Norway”.

My heart and love goes out to the family and friends of the victims and we are burning a candle for the victims.

Telegraph.co.uk: “Merton, England, officials declined to say how much it had spent on trying to protect this minute patch of green. The council also declined to say which officer had made the decision to send a workman – or team of workmen – to hammer in the sign. “The sign was put up to remind motorists that it is illegal to park on the footway, and is designed to deter indiscriminate parking,” a spokesman said.”

Hahahaha…OMG!!! 😉

Yesterday Apple announced their Q3 results having all time quarterly revenue and profit records: $28.57 billion in revenue (up 82 percent from Q3 last year) and $7.31 billion in net profit (up 125 (!) percent)…one could buy countries with that amount of cash, crrrazy!

Today they launched new goodies that will generate even more cash: the latest and greatest of the Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) and…a great update of the MacBook Air with next generation processors, high-speed Thunderbolt I/O technology, a backlit keyboard and, obviously, Mac OS X Lion pre-installed.

The marketing tagline for it: ‘Everyone should have a notebook this advanced. And now everyone can.’

Nice! 😉

There is only one word to describe this video: WOW!!

The video was filmed on Lofoten by Terje Sørgjerd, read more about ‘the making of’ on his Vimeo page or check out his Facebook page…good stuff!

Lofoten is a group of islands between the 67th and 68th parallel North (just inside the Artic Circle), I was there last year, but unfortunately didn’t get to see the midnight sun. My parents on the other hand are there at this moment and enjoy similar views as in this video!

Once again…WOW!

It took a little over four months, but YESSSS, I have my driver’s license back in my possession!

As I mentioned last week, the license was still in Norway even after I got back my right to drive…I actually should already have it in NL by then: I made all the arrangements with the police, my friend Katka would pick it up at the police station and bring it to NL for me, I arranged a ‘power of attorney’ signed by the dutch community to authorize her, send the police an email one day before to re-confirm the previously made arrangement and then, when she was at the police station…the friggin’ policeman told her that he was o-so surprised for her to show up, since he mailed the driver’s license to my home address the day before!!! Oof, that really was the last trick they could pull on me in being non-cooperative, pffffff!!!

Anyway, I drove my first miles last week, as well as the big trip back to Norway, without the license in my hands (luckily without being stopped by the police!) and I picked up the license at the post office this morning…me happy, and I can finally put an end to this story!! 😉

GREAT, the third major road trip in a one week time is completed, in other words: I arrived at home, sweet home!!

Hmm, I realize it only now, but I have been almost *living* in a car the past week, being on the road for approximately 5000km in just ten days, ha, a nice average! 😉

I took the steering wheel for the last 1500km (!), since I am allowed to and love it so much…the NL to Norway trip proved to be a great way to get familiar with driving the X5, hehe I’m Lovin’ It! (c) McDonalds 😉

Today we will pay the last respect to Kissy’s grandma who passed away last Friday.

Yesterday’s rain faded away, and today the sun started to shine…it is as if the crying can be over now and we can let the sun warm our faces and light us up.

Directly after the funeral we will start my second roadtrip in a week time; a 1500km trip from NL to Norway. As I have been gone for five (!) weeks, it will be good to be home again.

Dave Grohl stopped a Foo Fighters concert two days ago when he saw a guy fighting in the crowd and gave him the 2011 alternative of ‘make love, not war‘! Check out the YouTube clip below…hehe, ‘You dance, don’t fight’, or ‘You fight, you’re OUT!’ 😉

‘You don’t fucking fight at my show you asshole. Let me see him, who’s fighting right now? It’s that fucking guy in the stripped shirt. Hey motherfucker look at me, get the fuck out of my show right now. You don’t come to my show and fight. You come to my show and dance you asshole. I don’t put up with that bullshit – you people come here to have a good time and that guy can fuck off.’

YESSSSS!! It took 3,5 months, but I *finally* could drive the new car today! I already had some practice runs behind the wheel last Monday (on the german highway with a french ‘bimmer-wannabe’, which actually managed a surprisingly good speed, uhhh, downhill and with tailwind 😉 ), and all went well (or, no blue lights around makes driving easy! 😉 ). The real test will be coming Friday/Saturday; the 1500km trip from NL to Norway, NICE!!

The X5 is a great car and a splendid drive, but honestly it is just a car…the feeling of freedom now that I am allowed to drive a car again is what really puts a BIG smile on my face…

And now you know why our generation is called Generation Y! 😉

(uhhh, not sure why our parents’ generation is called Generation X though!)

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…

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!

Willem-Jan turns 37 today, and since my parents moved ‘Up North’ for vacation (in Sweden at the moment) and we are in ‘Down South’ Corsica, there won’t be too much family attending the party tonight.

Oh well, him and I normally don’t make a big thing out of Birthdays anyway, I guess we both have been ‘infected’ by the Aboriginal approach after traveling through Ozzieland/Australia; you celebrate when you reach a next stage in life, having a Birthday is not an accomplishment as such (you just have to keep on breathing 😉 )!

Still, have a great Birthday Bro!

Corsica is not made for tall people like myself: I bump my head on every occasion I can find, we’re driving a small Renault Twingo (although that was by choice, being the cheapest rental car we could find 😉 ), the bed in the mobile-home is 1.90m so way TOO small, and as you can see below, even the trees are too small for me! 😉

Haha, “I’m not a tree, I’m an Ent!” (Lord of The Rings – Two Towers quote)

Aahhh, THERE I am! 😉