Up on the Roof

Last night I looked out my window and saw this beautiful rainbow. So I went up on my roof to have a good look....

An Acoustic Motorbike in the Dutch Monsoon

This is the Dutch Monsoon season. After the hot days earlier this year, we now have to deal with the wet days. Sometimes you get lucky and you just see all the rain from inside your home or your office, and you can sit there, staring for a little while, daydreaming, all these romantic songs about rain in your head.

But then you get the days when you look out the window and you realise you need to go somewhere, and that you are going to get wet. Like today. Just when I am getting ready to leave work it looks pretty grey, but not too bad really. Then I have to organise a few things I haven't gotten round to earlier, and by the time I leave it is actually quite wet outside. I don't usually mind too much, and I'm used to it all, and I always think I have good weatherproof gear. Well, I don't.

Going just round the corner from my work I realise that my raincoat has this really wide collar, so, really, you need to use your hand to keep it a little closed and to keep the rain from coming in. The only disadvantage to that is that you gradually get the rain seeping in through your sleeves. And at every corner you have to put both hands on the handlebars anyway.

Gradual is a good word for this process really. At some point, still somewhere in the town centre, I can feel this tiny damp patch appearing on the outside of my right knee. It's always the same place. Then I can feel it spreading. I guess it's both the strong and the weak point of my rain trousers, that big zip at the side. It makes them easy to get into, and it lets the water in.(Just as I'm typing this John Fogerty is singing "Who'll Stop the Rain" at the Glastonbury Festival, which I recorded. It's one of those days. And I guess it was apt for Glastonbury as well).

Usually by the time my right knee is thoroughly wet I reach my house, but today is different. Just as I am cycling into the park, I can feel another damp patch appearing on the outside of my left knee. A first in this process. And here it starts spreading too. For some reason on the right leg it spreads up, on the left one it spreads down. Can anyone give a scientific explanation for this?

At this time I can also feel my socks getting just a little damp, and I can feel the moisture on my arms and shoulders. Today by this time it gets pretty bad, and I don't feel very comfortable cycling under the trees with the thunder and lightning around.

Then I reach my exit out of the park, and I move my foot down just a little to accelerate as I have to climb out of the park. When my sock touches the sole of my shoe with some force I can feel the sock absorb the water and it goes from damp to soaking wet in two seconds flat. Just in the right shoe though, the left just gets a little more damp.

I go into the garage to park my bike there, and as I walk up and out I can feel that the water has by now reached a lot of other parts of me that I shouldn't care to mention here. When I get in I need to change out of all my clothes.

It takes me a little while to get dry again, and then, when I am wearing all these lovely dry clothes again, I get the urge for going. So I grab my bag and I'm off. It's dry outside now, but within 10 minutes I am in the pool. Lovely, all this water...

Bright Eyes

What is it about Conor Oberst and Bright Eyes that can cut right through your soul?

Church Music

Luka Bloom was going to appear at a special, secret concert somewhere in Amsterdam to launch his new album "Tribe". I heard about it some time ago, but the only way to get into the concert would be to order the new cd and then hope you would win a ticket. Now, being the true fan that I am, I ordered the cd from the website when it was first released, so was I going to get another one? While I was still thinking about that I saw at an Amsterdam record shop that if you pre-ordered the cd there you would get a ticket, so I figured that might be a better option. I'd have another copy of the cd, but that is okay because I don't mind giving away Luka cds as a present. Then I heard about a competition you could simply enter through the internet, one very difficult question, "what is Luka Bloom's real name", and you could win two tickets. So I thought I'd try that one first, and if it didn't work, I'd go and order the cd.

Well, I ended up winning tickets for the concert in the Amstelkerk today through the competition of the record company, so I was very happy. An unexpected Luka concert at an unusualy venue and at an unusual time. The concert was held in the daytime, so the sunlight was streaming in through the high windows of the church. Luka could see his audience as well as we could see him. The Amstelkerk isn't a traditional church building, it's a little like an open square with the building surrounding it, even when you're inside the building. I think Luka enjoyed the atmosphere. He mentioned 4 seconds during his childhood when he had considered being a priest and this was probably as close as he was ever going to get. So he started with "We are gathered here today...." The setlist was a little different from most concerts, and different from the concert last night in Utrecht:

Throw Your Arms Around Me (for Chris from the record company, celebrating his 20th wedding anniversary today)
As I Waved Goodbye (rehearsing for a performance before the Dalai Lama in Derry in July)
Here and Now
Sunny Sailor Boy (a chance for the congregation to sing)
Lebanon
Tribe
I Am A River (with the help of Paddy Apple)
Out There (with Paddy again)
Change (with Paddy)
Exploring the Blue (where he forgot the words to one of the verses and needed a little time to recover)
Wave Up to the Shore (Luka was inspired by the atmosphere an he sang this a capella and "unplugged": it was very powerful and beautiful.)

Encore (both songs were requests):
Primavera
Black Is the Colour (ending unplugged again)

The set really suited the venue, and made this a very special and unusual concert. Some of the new songs for the first time live for me, and then this beautiful old song "Wave Up to the Shore". Luka seemed relaxed and he was in great voice. He came out to sign cds after the concert and took time to chat to people, which was nice. I'm looking forward to the concerts in October now.

Literary Ladies

Last night I was being all cultural again, I went to a reading by three women writers, Edna O'Brien, Esther Freud and Rachel Cusk. Chair for the evening was the Belgian Kristien Hemmerechts. She was the reason I went to this evening, really. I've read almost all her books, and find her writing extremely moving, exciting and challenging. She makes me think. She also demands a lot from her readers, and when I've read one of her books I need to read some other things before I can go on to the next one. She signed one of my books last night, and I am very pleased about that. The reason why she was chair for the evening is that she is a lecturer in English Literature at Brussels University. She created a pretty good and lively debate.

I've read a few books by Edna O'Brien and like her writing, but I didn't really know the two other women. I liked Esther Freud though, her clear thinking and outspoken ideas, close to home for me. Rachel Cusk seemed a little more chaotic and less in control, but she admitted that that was much the point of her writing. Life seems to happen to her much of the time, and in her novels she is in control. I did like that idea very much, it's one way of trying to make sense of what is happening in and around you.

The debate was about feminism, female writers, about illness and death, about political writing, and the themes seemed to come back all evening and be closely related. One of the issues was the use of autobiographical material in novels and that sparked a heated debate. Would a question about this be asked of a male writer? Is there a difference in this respect between men and women? Rachel Cusk got very fired up about this. And aren't all good books political without dealing with overtly political issues? I cannot imagine a good and worthwhile book that isn't in some way political. I guess it all depends on how you define the word political though. It was an interesting debate.

Edna O'Brien was very clear about most of the issues. She held that you do write from within yourself, from your own experience. That is what you start out with, and then you discard all the things you don't need. It's the discarding that fascinates me.

Just Around the Corner

OK, so I thought it was a good idea at the time, we all make mistakes. There is this small Italian restaurant just round the corner from where I live. I walk past it several times a week, the people always seemed friendly, and I like small, slightly unusual restaurants. So I went to have dinner there last night. I mean, just round the corner, Italian, what can go wrong?

Well, it's a little hard to order your dinner if the waiter only speaks Italian, and you don't really speak any. And if there is no menu, just a little piece of paper with a few choices in Italian. And then you order a glass of white wine and a beer for your dinner companion and you get a bottle of white wine instead. You manage to get across that you are a vegetarian, which is enough for the waiter, so he tells you. Shortly after you get a huge salad, very nice, but huge. And then you get a full plate of pasta, again, very nice, but a full plate. And just when you think it is all quite sufficient, you get a piece of pie, a glass of liqueur and a coffee.

I mean, it tasted quite well, but all I wanted was a main course and a glass of wine. And then, when it's all over you begin to wonder. How did this happen? Where was I? Why didn't I say something at the time? I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself. Usually. I managed to walk home, I managed to get up the stairs, but that is all I managed for the rest of the evening. I did try, but all I could do really was go to bed at 9.30 and go straight to sleep. And then wake up at 1.30 and stay awake for most of the rest of the night. And then you get a very nice friend tell you in the morning, all the way from Belgium, that you have a hangover. I mean, what is happening with the world? Hangover? Me? I mean, I thought it was a good idea at the time....

International Week

Sometimes things happen almost by accident. Last week I found a cousin of mine who's been living in the United States for the past 14 years, and I hadn't seen her or been in touch with her for all that time. I know the internet is a mixed blessing, but this is a really nice thing to happen. She lives in the mountains on a little farm, but I can still be in touch with her, exchange photographs and find out what's been happening.

And then, when I got home from the theatre last Saturday night, I checked my emails to find my brother in law on-line. So, I ended up chatting with a relative in Mexico. He's only there for a holiday, but it was nice to catch up with what's been happening with him. I just realised though, I forgot to ask if he has bettered his record on the 5 km. I'll have to wait until he gets back home. To Belgium that is. Where he lives.

And I didn't even get to leave the country.....