FunConcertsFutureDownUnder...

Time flies when you're having fun eh?! Well i think that's definitely the case for me lately, not only am i busybusybusy with my job also i have been occupied with going to concerts, a bit of partying, a business trip to Melbourne & making plans for the future .

Future plans are very exciting, but mean i really have to put myself on a budget right now...i spend too much money on stupid things! Future plans are also something i don't want to write too much about yet, if you want to know i'll gladly tell you in person (or e-mail :P) but right now i feel like i'm jinxing my plan/dream if i scream it out too loud.

Concerts...yes lots of them Mêlée, Sneaky Sound System, Saybia, Maria Mena....they were all great! And my new addiction is to film some songs during each song, if you want to have a look just click on my youtube films on the left.

And so i have also been Down Under again, my boss asked me to participate in an Agent Training Week at the Monash University in Melbourne...well you don't say no to your boss in those cases do you?! ;) Will post links to the photos of that trip soon!

Here's just a couple of photos from concerts & the Melbourne trip to end this blog with....


Nighttime in Melbourne


Tine, Nicole & me with Melbourne behind us


With James (from Monash Uni) after the farewell dinner


With Emma on Saturday-Emmaday!


Sneaky Sound System at Paradiso Amsterdam, yes i was front row!


Binkie's still with me too...or is he?!


Saybia was wonderful!


And Maria Mena at Paradiso was magic, goose bumps all night!

This was in on the frontpage of the papers on Thursday here, all the Olympic medal winners visiting the Qeen:

I love the fact that there's about 3/4 guys in this picture & the rest is all women!
Oh and the swimmer dude is so tall he's totally taking the queen's limelight :-P

Meanwhile Binkie is enjoying the box of my new laptop


Oh and today it's Beatstad Festival in the Hague, Live is closing it tonight & the mainreason for going there hehe!

My favourite 7-year-old

It's been a long time since i posted here, and lots of stuff happened. Lots of good stuff.
Stina & Ailsa visited me in late April/early May and it was just the best week.
Then there were 2 job applications and 4 job interviews for those, in the end i managed to get both jobs...but i had an absolute favourite so it wasn't a hard choice. Instead of working for the Swedish embassy, which i always thought would be a dream coming true, i chose the job of Study & Marketing Coordinator at Kilroy Education NL. I love the company, i love the job, i love the fact it combines everything i've done before with the fact that it's a Scandinavian company, just perfect for me. Something i can & should do.
And last but not least there's been some great festivals & concerts this summer, i suddenly found myself a fan of Live & Melee.

Last week it felt like i was on top of the world, well kinda...i was happy and good things were happening.
But now everything around me feels different. I feel sad & angry.
And this all because my favourite 7-year-old is sick, very sick. They can't say much yet, after today's operation it's at least a week of waiting before they can say more.
So it will be a week of waiting, hoping & praying for the best outcome possible.

Live - I walk the line, Rockin'Park Nijmegen

Filmed this yesterday, it was an absolute stunning performance!

Krezip - Everybody's gotta learn sometimes

lovely days in adelaide

i'm a bit behind in updating, these are pictures from saturday may 12th to wednesday may 16th.
in between the partying on our arrival in adelaide on that saturday i also went to see josh pyke in concert, quite a famous singer in OZ by now & above all...emma's brother! which is why i was on the guest list hehe...
then on sunday the english girls & me went to see josh again, this time it was a nice & quiet free sunday concert in the adelaide entertainment centre. that night declan & me had to say goodbye to the english girls unfortunately... :(
monday the 14th i went on a wine tasting tour in the famous barossa valley north of adelaide, together with suzanne, claire & guy (all from the melbourne > adelaide tour), was a lot of fun!
and then on wednesday morning it was time to say goodbye to declan!

p.s. the horse is 'the world's biggest rocking horse'...australians like BIG things apparently

then there was the flu

so, finally i'm bloggin again...i had an excuse the last 2 weeks though...the FLU was killing me!
i really can't remember being so sick from the flu before, i seriously had a fever for more than 10 days in a row and for the rest my head was just full of you know what...and i just felt so c-r-a-p.
luckily i had my family & elise over here a couple of times last week, doing the groceries (lots of vitamins & biscuits), cooking (not that i ate that much) cleaning and telling me about what was happening in the outside world haha!

while i was sick 2 filled envelopes from cdon arrived, with some nice cd's...only started to listen to them for real the last couple of days, and am already totally crazy about the new laleh (see link to her website on the right) album, salem al fakir is taking some more time to get used to but i'm loving his album as well.

oh and it's probably totally inappropriate to blog about something over a month ago, but below i've finally posted some pix about the x-mas holiday i spent on vlieland with elise :)

one other thing, i've made a top 10 of my favourite songs of 2006. i think it's a nice idea although i find it very hard to make THE (as in definite) top 10...so the list might have looked slightly different if made on another day, but here's the one i made now anyway:

1. Sandy Mouche 'Spiderweb Suit'
2. Laleh 'Invisible (my song)'
3. Pete Murray 'Opportunity'
4. Deep Dish feat. Stevie Nicks 'Dreams'
5. Kleerup feat. Robyn 'With Every Heartbeat'
6. Scissor Sisters 'I Don't Feel Like Dancing'
7. Snow Patrol 'Chasing Cars'
8. Helena Josefsson 'By Your Side'
9. Lisa Miskovsky 'Mary'
10. Jenny Wilson 'Let My Shoes Lead me Forward'

If I could look beyond your face
And photograph your hidden place
Would I find you smiling in the picture

I don't know what you want
Because you don't know
So what's the point of asking

You're almost happy
Almost content
But your head hurts

Far too many ways to go
We learn so much but never know
Where to look
Or when we should stop looking

You're almost happy
Almost content
But your head hurts

...

'Almost Happy', K's choice, 2000

leave my mind

if i had a choice
i'd leave all behind
if i had a choice
i'd make you leave my mind
leave my mind

lene marlin (from 'leave my mind', 2005)

it's been a while

somehow i stopped writing in this blog after i was in harstad, but i don't think harstad is to blame though...

the rest of my last lapland trip went just fine, and we had the best weather! which all the guests and me thought was really funny as all we heard from NL was that it was pouring with rain there all the time...it even got as far that on the day we flew home from rovaniemi it was about 25C there and when we arrived in NL it was 'only' 18C or something.

a little week after coming back from the north i flew back to the north again, to my favourite town, starting with s and ending on tockholm :D
again, i left rainy NL behind me to fly to the sunny & warm north hehe!
it was only 15 people in that group, just like the last time i did the stockholm trip. on the free day on saturday some of the guests and did a boat trip to drottningholm the palace where the swedish royal family lives. had never been there before, which is supposed to be a shame when you've been in stockholm so many times before and even lived there for some time.
late on sunday afternoon it started to rain in stockholm as well then, and it didn't end for the rest of the night. in fact it rained so bad it kept me awake at night.
monday was the last day for me of this season as a travelguide, there was some time in the morning to do some last shopping...let's just say that the cd/dvd department in the åhléns must have been pretty happy with me that day.
12:00 sharp we left the hotel for arlanda, said my goodbyes to the guests (and again at the luggage belt in sciphol later that day) and checked in...

it's been a wonderful summer being a travelguide, let's see what happens next summer!

have been back home for the past 3 weeks now, working at uni a lot i can say. next week it's time for another trip to the north, but this time i don't have any guests with me...it's just me-myself-and-i flying to copenhagen, visiting stina! :D :D and meeting up with katty as well and seeing linda again as well, it's gonna be great!

will try to be back here more regularly, for now i'll end with my absolute song of the month:

Tie my shoes and zip my jacket
I lock the door and check my pockets
I'm leaving the light on just for the sight
Might make someone think that I'm still around

Sold my bed, no need to sleep these nights
Walking rounds in search for stars these nights
The sky is perfectly brown instead of black
Let my shoes lead me forward, please bring me some luck

It's ok, hey come on, no time for education so let's go
I can't stand all these rules,
I'm gonna turn my back to everything I know
It's ok, come on, I won't do the things they learned me

I pick up stones 'cause I might need them
You're gonna throw'em, aren't you
I tried with books but I'm not pleased yet
Come on and read it for me, read it for me
Sold my bed, no need to sleep these nights,
I'm walking rounds in search for, doesn't matter

It's ok, hey come on, no time for education so let's go
I can't stand all these rules,
I'm gonna turn my back to everything I know
It's ok, come on, I won't do the things they learned me...

Jenny Wilson - Let my shoes lead me forward

Anouk is COOL!

this tuesday i went to see anouk live in concert in the heineken music hall in amsterdam!!!

went there with sis leontien, sis karlijn & boyfriend jim and auntie annie (who actually got us the tickets, dank je wel!!!) and it was lots of fun! we met up early, got some fries at smullers on the way and arrived just about at the time the doors opened...so we could go right in. we checked the hall and found we could easily walk around a bit first and then still get a spot that would be good enough. so toilet visit, t-shirt stand (leo bought one) and drinks were first on the list :P
after that we found ourselves a nice spot and sat down on the floor as most other people were doing.

just before 20:00 everyone got up, as did we...and we ended up somewhere in the middle...like 1oth row or something....i think. the stage was pretty high so that was good.
drum 'n bass duo firefly opened for anouk, started to like them more and more through their set.

just after 21:00 the band and finally the rock diva herself entered the stage....2 italian fans besides me went crazy :O...they actually acted funny all through the concert, taking pictures, crying, screaming, calling their friends at home (at one point i could see the guy was calling a number starting with +39), filming, hugging each other...as you can read i paid quite some attention to them during the concert, just because it was so funny and they reminded me of crazy fans during concerts in sweden (not me, not me!)

anyway...anouk just rocked...don't know what else to say...she played a lot of songs from her last album 'hotel new york' plus the old hits of course. she also talked quite a lot in between, which she herself said she usually never does but had to do now because she was out of breath...'i'm going back to the gym next week!', 'you'd think there's 3 babies in here, but there's not this time'...
so all in all i just had a great night & i'm sure i'll go & see anouk again if i get the chance!!!

copyright photo: paul bergen

Dream on

Christian Falk feat. Robyn & Ola Salo

Thugs and badmen
punks and liars
fucked up interns
pigs and snitches

Rest your weary heads, all is well



You won't be strip-searched, torn up tonight
you won't be cut up, bleeding tonight
you won't be strung out, cold, shaking to your bones
wishing you were anywhere else but right here
So dream on

Thieves and muggers
tricks and hustlers
cheats and traitors
scum and low-lives

Rest your weary heads, all is well

You won't be sad or broken tonight
you won't be squealed on, ripped up tonight
you won't be back-stabbed, double cross, face down
teeth knocked out, lying in a gutter somewhere
So dream on



Freaks and junkies
fakes and phonies
drunks and cowards
manic preachers

Rest your weary heads, all is well

You won't be pushed down or messed with tonight
you won't be lied to, ruffed up tonight
You won't be insane, paranoid, obsessed
aimlessly wandering through the dark night
So dream on