Another week

This is my mom and dad. I took this photo a couple of weeks ago when we went walking in the dunes. For my mother it was the longest walk in months, since she got a new hip in May last year. She's doing great now. By the way, my plan to take her to her old neighbourhood last week worked well. She was delighted. She kept on talking about her childhood memories and we had a great dinner at this very nice restaurant. It's good to see her like that. I see her worrying too often.

About this new year: still so far so good. Sorry that I keep coming back with this subject, maybe it's just me counting my blessings before things turn bad. Well, I actually got a raise this week! Can you believe that? Just a few months before a lot of people at my work and maybe me will get fired, my boss gives me a raise. As a 'token of appreciation', he told me. A humble 'thank you' on my side was in order, don't you think? Heehee!

It's going well with the concerts too. Yesterday I saw a very odd concert of a Dutch band called Solo. The audience had to wear headphones in order to hear the band play... ! Tonight I'm going to see the cd-presentation of Haarlem's own Kirsten (check her out on www.kirstenonline.nl ). Tomorrow I'm going to see a double-concert of the French band Encre and the Danish Kitty Wu. And than Monday I'm going to my big hero Elvis Costello (check your local newspaper for my interview with him...)! What a week.

Love, Richard

Taking my mom down memory lane

My mother has turned 72 last Wednesday. She likes to joke and turn the figures around, saying she just went 27. Good hey? Unfortunately I couldn’t make it to her birthday. I had to work. I was at the office in the day time, and in the evening I went to see Green Day in Amsterdam for a review. Wow, they were good! They really put a smile on my face. And two days later I was even laughing out loud because of them. That was when I saw what some of my colleagues had written about the concert. Pretty hilarious. Making an album with a strong protest against George W. Bush and still having fun on stage – that was a bit too confusing wasn’t it? Heehee!

Anyway, I still regret that I couldn’t be at my mothers birthday, but I promised her I would make it up to her this weekend. So I arranged a little surprise-dinner for her – with my dad and I – tonight at a very nice restaurant in the neighbourhood she grew up in. Although the restaurant is new, It’s going to be a little trip down memory lane, I reckon, and I know she will love that. Before we go to the restaurant we’ll go walk the streets she used to play in. You know, as a little girl she had her initials carved in one of the bricks of the house she grew up in. And they are still there! That will bring back some memories, don’t you think? And we can share them over a very nice meal. That will be pretty good, I’m sure.

About 2005… is it me or did the year really started of with a gentle smile? I still don’t know what this year is going to bring, but I beginning to hear a little voice inside and I think it’s telling me that there’ll be good things. But hey, maybe it’s just me enjoying today's and yesterday's sunshine, right?

A new year

The year 2005 is now one day old. So far so good. I wonder what the new year will bring. The last one brought me some very precious moments. I think of my week in the inspiring city of Berlin last May, I think of the new friends I have met. And I especially think of my two weeks in New York last September. New York - the city of my heart, the city of my dear friend Gg. My stay at her place brought me my new dog-friend Roger!

There are in fact a lot of good things 2004 brought me. That is something to keep in mind when I think of the sad things of last year. We lost our dearest friend Marijne. Wim is no longer with us. Losses like that are hard to deal with. On a national scale: Holland has turned into a strange, directionless country that sometimes frightens me for its coldness. The world? We all know what’s going on in Iraq, we all know that a lot of people in Africa are starving, and we all see the pictures of the disaster in Asia.

Yesterday, on New Year’s Day, I watched the dvd of Live Aid, what brought back old memories. It’s almost twenty years ago that millions of people all around the world for one day shared the feeling that they cóuld make a difference. Well, I still like to believe that we can...
What 2005 will bring us? No-one can tell. I myself have got a good chance of losing my job, because of the fatal combination of bad economy and terrible management at the newspaper that I work for. And even if I keep my job it will be much less satisfying because of dramatic budget cuts. Holland might get colder when political issues as immigration and the influence of the islam will keep on turning people against each other. The world? Well…
Two months ago I met Cyndi Lauper in Rotterdam for an interview. She had a simple but very important message: ,,Stay connected to your heart. And hold your vision.'' Let that be my wish for this new year. Hold your vision.