Amat victoria curam!

The National Gallery of Art has a great exhibit of Judith Leyster 1609 - 1660 - one of the few woman painters during the 17st century in Holland. She is quite similar as Frans Hals (with whom she worked in Haarlem).

Cassette - once a cool music format. Nobody uses them anymore (I do not even have them anymore)
Floppy disk - utterly useless from the time we calculated memory in bytes
CD - when we still thought of albums instead of songs
Book - from the time people used trees to read
Software - Once upon a time there was a company called Microsoft...
Cigarette - Silly habit
Home telephone - In earlier times only in hallways
Newspaper - Long, long ago people read (old) news only once a day - op paper.
Calender - before facebook and google wave we wrote things and contact in a paper notebook
photo film - when photographing was still an art form without photoshop.

I made a test ride on a BMW R1200GS Adventure in Friesland. It turned out a far easier bike then I had expected it to be. Altough it is huge and weights a ton, It is quite agile to ride. But before I can buy something like this - I have first to sell my Yamaha Tenere. So we"ll see.

Ever since his first book, “Invisible Life” I was a fan of E. Lynn Harris. I read all his books like
"Just as I Am,” "And this too shall pass,"“If This World Were Mine,” “A Love of My Own” and “Any Way the Wind Blows.” In total he sold more than four million copies of his books.
The themes are always the same: Black men (Athletes - College Football) on the down low — that is, men who are publicly heterosexual but secretly have sex with men. He created a whole new African American literature segment and culture. Just 54 - he died July 24th. Here a nice video of him.

Today the Gaypride activities started in Amsterdam - even Eddie has a gaypride exhibition. But the traditional boat canal parade - which originated during the gay games in Amsterdam back in 1998 isn't gay anymore: It's a straight as hell...

The mayor, All kind of companies, The military, Sportmen, Christians, Politicians: every straight person is on a boat tomorrow waiving to the astonished gay guys on the quays. The straights are so proud about their tolerant behavior that the whole happening has become a Straight pride parade ;-)

I will flee the city and hope that this nonsense will end someday.

A funny story about (Dutch) Haring in the New Yorker...

The new Coca-cola freestyle fountain machine lets you mix more then a 100 different beverages with the touchscreen. You never need anything else! :-)

It seems a marriage made in heaven: Nora Ephron directs Meryl Streep playing Julia Child. So one of my favorite directors and scenario writers, the best actress ever plays the funniest TV chef ever :-)

The art direction looks perfect and Meryl IS Julia. One of the challenges of the movie was the food itself - a nice artcle in the NYT about the food styling.
The Julie in the movie is Julie Powell who started a blog about her quest to cook a Julia meal every day for one year - she succeeded not only in cooking, but writing a very nice blog as well.

But where to look now
those eyes off you?
What is that which crosses the dark?
You have all the air of those who
for some 'time now
He gave his soul to disperse.

Do not kill pain
anaesthetized, the heart
there is one thing you can do that instead
if you want if you want if you want ..

Talk to me tell you
I'll listen
I would like to understand more
malaise that you have inside you.
Talk to me, you at least try a little '
you do not judge
because if there is a fault
not only can give to you.
Talk to me

Then when you saw how
the future for you
you see it as a stormy sea,
that frightens him so
I do not believe, however,
that at least one dream you have not in your pocket.

But because the dry hand?
Do not keep everything.
There is one thing you can do that instead
if you want if you want if you want ..

Talk to me tell you
I'll listen
I would like to understand more
malaise that you have inside you.
Talk to me, you tell me what's
I'll respond to it
But if you want to heal
test a little 'to love you.

Negarti not discover the beauty of
how many loves you can be cultivated flower
Always if you want ..

Talk to me tell you
I'll listen
I would like to understand more
malaise that you have inside you.
Talk to me, you tell me what's
I'll respond to it
But if you want to heal
test a little 'to love you.
Talk to me .. to-talk-with-me -
Talk to me ..

So Internet (media) Marketing in English?

The IAM1 Amsterdam Journey from Nalden on Vimeo.

>The IAM1 Amsterdam Journeyfrom Nalden on Vimeo.

The IAM1 Amsterdam Journey from Nalden on Vimeo.

This Top 10 foods to avoid while driving courtesy from insurance.com

1. Coffee. Even with a travel lid, hot coffee can find its way out of the opening when you hit a bump.
2. Hot soup. Many people drink it like coffee and run the same risks.
3. Tacos. Any food that can disassemble itself will leave your car looking like a salad bar.
4. Chili dogs. Huge potential for drips and slops down the front of clothing.
5. Hamburgers. From the grease to the toppings, it could end up on your hands and the steering wheel.
6. Ribs and wings. What's more distracting than licking your fingers?
7. Fried chicken. More greasy hands. You've got to wipe them off while you're driving.
8. Jelly donuts. It's not possible to eat one without watching the center ooze out.
9. Soda. Carbonation. Fizz in the nose. Lids that leak. Disaster.
10. Chocolate. Try to clean melted chocolate off the steering wheel without swerving.

We're lucky: the Holland board of tourism wants to atracted even more gays to amsterdam - a new campaign claims that EVERYONE is gay in Amsterdam! :-) I wish...

The German Movie "Reine Geschmacksache - A Matter of Taste" is a cute comedy about Carsten (Florian Bartholomäi) who starts to date his father collegue Steven. I hope that the writer / director, Ingo Rasper gets the chance to make some more movies.

The yearly Big Mac index from the Economist clearly shows how expensive Norway is: $ 6,15. Most burger for your buck in Hong Kong ($ 1,72). Amsterdam $ 4,62.

If only you could buy Bug Macs in Norway, most of the time you rae stuck with a microwave burger for $ 14,00 :-((

Since "Il Cammino Dell'età" I am a fan of Gigi. I downloaded his latest CD today and wasn't disappointed (which I was with the latest Eros) - It is a true Gigi. Happy music, sweet voice.

The main difference from the current Yahoo home page is that you can now customize the page with widgets/apps from third parties. Some apps have been pre-created by Yahoo and others. And others can be added as well, Yahoo will make the app based on the URL you supply. The key change, besides personalized content, is the removal of the tons of links to scores of Yahoo services. I like the current Yahoo homepage - and am not so sure what the improvement is. Next to that I haven't seen any personalized homepages being a success. But let's wait for the release this week...

I always knew it!
(but it is only a movie...)

This building was giving to the city by a man who wanted to commemorate his parents. The dimensions are based on the birthdays of his parents and their marriage date. Hence the funny sort of building inside en out.

Finally - good food, reasonable prizes, a language we can speak: We are in Germany :-)

One day left before we are home - after 4 and half weeks...

Our last ferry from Sweden to Denmark was on a huge - but empty ship. We had to fasten our bikes real good in order to prevent them from falling on the (sometimes) rough kattegat sea. Fortunately nothing happened during our 4 hour crossing. I only had to wash my hands several times...

The first Norwegian parlement was held in this house: in 1814

This time in his hometown Fredriksstad in the south of Norway.

While traveling round in Norway evreyone we see is wearing these jackets or these fleece. As much as we like them - we cannot take them with us on the bikes. So we have to search oline when we come home. Eddie likes the Swedish Tuxer jacket, while I like the Bergans fleece.

The only Norwegian car ever made: the Troll. Luckely for us it stayed with one prototype... ;-)

So after three weeks Scandinavia - what did I learn? Here are some observations:

Food - Except for large cities and Denmark it's either hamburger or pizza (even by the Chinese you can order pizza) The quality is awful. Vegetables deep freeze...
Prices - Norway is outragious expensive. A 25% tax isn't helping either. Sweden is rather cheap.
English - everybody speaks very good english
Emigrants - most are "locked"up somewhere in a distant northern town or village, especially in Sweden this seems to be the case where the Ethiopians walk around in groups of 4.
Roads - are excellent everywhere
Nature - overwhelming, Norway is one of the most beautiful countries I know
Weather - changing a lot big local differences and they are not very well predicted...
Fashion - People have highly fashion sense (Except for the crocs craze and the ultra skinny jeans.). Lot's of local brands who have international apeal (sports and other) Like Jack Jones, H & M, Cottonfield etc.
Ikea - everywhere in Sweden, none in Norway
Attitude - People tend to be friendly but reserved.

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