Back!

Back from Harlem to Haarlem. That is about 6.200 km, a seven hour flight (and almost three hours of my life at JFK, an airport that I’m starting to hate more and more) and an 'a' extra.
It was good to be in NYC again. But it was nice coming home again too. Hey, I do have a lot to come home for! :-)

Not really gone

These two weeks you can visit me for updates at www.teruginnewyork.blogspot.com (in Dutch)

To New York

So much for summer in Holland, I think. After all that rain we had in June and July, I was hoping for a long and summerlike September/October. It seems to be nothing more than wishful thinking. Since a few days there’s a chill in the air and it is here to stay. Some two weeks ago Bies stated on his blog that autumn had set in. It’s true what they say about the shifting of the seasons, he said. He was right.
Don’t get me wrong: I like autumn. It might even be my favorite season of the year, provided that it brings heavy showers with some lovely sunshine in between. I love the smell of rotten leaves in the gutter and long autumn dawning at the beginning of the evening.
But, on the risk to being called a hypocrite after just proclaiming this, with great contentment I find that hi-temperatures in New York in the upcoming week will be between 26 and 29 ˚C and I will enjoy every summerday I can get these next two weeks! On the other hand: there will be showers and possible t-storms, the weatherman of the New York Times tells me.
But the main thing New York has to do for me is get my mind of off work. And she will do that. In her own overwhelming way.
It will be good to be back in The Apple. Although I will be on my own again, which shouldn’t be the case really. But D., as you know, left me (and is now for some reason crying out how she loves England). And my dear friends E. and M., who tell me every year when I come back from NYC that they will definitely go with me next year again had to cancel on me when the chance came up (with very good reasons by the way).
But I won’t be alone, don’t worry. In New York Manhattan is my mistress. And she is truly a handful.
I will stroll along the rivers and get dazzled again by the sight of that beautiful Brooklyn Bridge. I will hang around Little West 12, drink coffee in Little Italy, wander through Soho and Greenwich, go see a movie at the Angelika at Houston Street, enjoy the street markets of China Town, find myself a delicious coconut popstickle in Battery Park (why don’t they have those here in Holland?!). I will see some shows at the Bowery Ballroom, Knitting Factory or where ever the Village Voice will bring me. I will visit Joe in the Red Lion bar in Bleecker and Lach with his weekly antihoot in the East Village. I will smile at the squirrels and be nice to the homeless. And off course there is Gee and my good friends Roger and Miss Blue. New York will be New York for me. Although I could think of one that I would very much like to share her with...




See u in 2 weeks!

Vacation is work!

My house is still not clean! I have been cleaning all day now and still I haven’t even got to the kitchen nor my work-room. There is dust everywhere. Am I a pig?
I promised E. to get the house nice and clean before my vacation because she will stay here to look after Oeps while I’m gone.
I should clean more often, I got that clear!
There is probably a more organized way to do this, I’m sure.
I had planned to start tidying up on Thursday, but the little birthday get-together I held the day before was still going on till early on that morning. And after that some serious sleeping was in order. So I lost a day.
The birthday party was very good by the way. Nice people, good laughs, lovely presents and – except maybe for too long of a discussion about the new city-slogan – nice conversations. It felt good!
Okay, one more day to get the house and me ready!

Dreamer

You may say I’m dreamer. But I’m not the only one...
I guess there’s all types of dreamers. You have the kind that dream of world peace and equal rights and chances for all human beings. The kind that dream of the world to become one. They are the ‘heroic dreamers’.
I am a dreamer, but not like that. My dreams are not meant as a statement. They don’t symbolize a vision on a better future for everyone. They are not flags to be carried on some sort of battlefield, nor contain ethical guidelines to become a better person.
I’m no John Lennon and no Martin Luther King for that matter.
My dreams benefit only a very small world: mine.

So: You may say I’m selfish . But I’m not the only one…

There’s more of us, I’m sure. And I don’t think my dreams will hurt anyone. At least I hope so. Because my dreams are only meant to bend reality and make things right or at least bearable for me. To tie all good and pretty things, that in real life I find shattered everywhere and so often get lost between impossibilities, responsibilities, securities and fear, closely together so they can be enjoyed as one lovely and magical picture – a fantasy as you like.
That might make me a foolish dreamer or a dreamer without a cause. But that is who I am.

Sometimes the dream gets smashed, though. Reality got too close and that is, as everyone knows, deadly to all dreams. I usually try to fix the dream then, apparently out of some strange and almost self destructive urge to endlessly hang on to it.
Until there is really not much left of it. Not enough to hang on to, that is.
Those are the bad times.
When they have arrived, for dreamers like me there’s not much else to do than to find another dream to survive.

Keep on dreaming!