Delayed Blogging pt 1 - Fiets

Right, so its been a good long while since I last posted. (not sure if anyone noticed, or if there are even more then 2 people that read this)
Main reason/excuse; the prolonged absence of my laptop for the final round of under extended warranty repair, leaving me without and in withdrawal from early/mid August until my return to Canada on the 22nd of September.

Went to check out the "Fiets" (bike) show at the Design Huis in Eindhoven in on the 14th of september (I've decided I love the time stamping you get with digital cameras). Had to take the event in before I left, as it would be over on my return to the Netherlands in October.

Some of you may have seen some pics from some other person up at Core77, but my pics aren't as polished I don't think, remember, notoriously shaky hands.

Enjoy!



-bike - di cycle
-maker - gbo
(concept bike on the basis of sport meets form [giving])



-"Droomfiets" - some crazy bikes in a hall for the 'dream bikes'



-bike - lego was my first love
-designer - roel van heur



-wall-o-bells



-wall-o-seat saddles



-wall-o-bike bags



-bike - sqrl pro (left), tranza (right)
-company - nakoi nederland, gazelle
-designers - the people I work with



-stads fiets (city bike) - gazelle mpb (designed at van der Veer Designers) in a patriotic orange



-koeriers fiets (messenger bike[s]) - gazelle single speed against a backdrop of jerseys (I think from Alleycat races).



1 year as a cycle courier -
12500km of freedom and progress
3840 x taking off/putting on the bag
1440 packages delivered
1000 hours biked
768 L of beverage transpired
384 raisin buns as fuel
96 fried apple dumplings as (can't find translation)
12 flat tires
3 pairs of pants worn out
2 chains that have lost their proper tension
uncountable # of goodlooking women seen
1 life of freedom enjoyed
0 worn out brake pads

(the life of a bike messenger on fixie no doubt)



-cool displaying of cycle components



-transportfiets - transport bike section
-bike - babboe bakfiets
-company - de verhuisfabriek



-bike - feetz



-bike - cabby
-company - gazelle
(the new grocery getter of the cycle world? designed again by my co-workers)



-bike - brandweerfiets (fire dept. bike)
-designer - roel van heur
(the 2 fire extenguishers pivot up and attach to the frame above the rear wheel)



-bike - roadrunner
-company - springtime industrial design



-prof fiets - section on pro cycling



-more pro jerseys behind glass



-pro bikes - there was a 3rd bike in front of the row, but apparently the dutch olympian to whom it belongs needed it that day for something



-Koga track bike - oooooh, reminds me of my Koga singlespeed



-bike - 346
-company - suus bike shop
(I've never been a big fan of the beach crusier style bikes till as of late, they've definitely got style, and become individual street art, with loads of character)



-346 bike - ah the details

My 42hour 3 day work weekend

Week before friday past (the 15th), used up some overtime hours to take the day off. And clever me, I took the day off to work my part time gig ("catering" for special events). The venue was Lowlands (large open air concert), and I had to take the train there friday morning, leaving at 05:41. I worked 3 days of 0700-2000, and then got to take in some concerts after each day/on break.

Acts I caught while working the event:
-The Kooks
-Roisin Murphy
-Franz Ferdinand
-Underworld
-Sigur Rós

The highlight of the weekend for me was seeing Sigur Rós play.



-Jónsi (guitar/lead vocals) bowing his guitar



-5 piece brass ensemble - Apparently these guys have been touring with Sigur Rós for a bit, and this was one of (or) the last events that they're playing together for a while, them as well as the strings (which I think was Amiina).



-Cool snowy stage effect + lights



-One of the last numbers for the evening - If I had my laptop now, I'd be able to reference all the songs from my playlist, alas...

I tried to upload some video, but that was taking wayyyyy too long.

Perfect day to play hooky

It's that time of year, more then half the people at work are away on vacation, leaving something like 6-8 of us at work. Things aren't so busy at the moment, and since we've booked a decent amount of over time hours on a certain top secret project, which we get compensated for through extra time off, one of my colleagues suggested we take the afternoon and go windsurfing. The weather was perfect, at lunch we made the final decision that we would go.
In all, there were only 3 of us that went, but it was still a good time.
I haven't been windsurfing in... well... a while. So it took me a bit of a learning curve to get going, but considering we were only out for about 2 hours, and by the end, I was actually managing to surf, I was happy.



-Windsurfers at "Strand Horst" Ermelo - the view from the parking lot when we arrived

It was so awesome and picture perfect, there must have been like 50 kite surfers when we arrived, and between 70-90 windsurfers, and off in the distance you see the polder full of windmills churning away in the wind. Perfect.

It's great to be out doing things and keeping active. Last week I biked to work 4 times on the singlespeed, putting in around 280km. Tomorrow, biking again.

80+km on a singlespeed

Beautiful day today, made a family visit for a birthday, took the train part way, biked the remainder, and then all the way back, biking, against the wind, on my new singlespeed.



-These be the new wheels - one gear is all you need, really, it is. Um, current count now has me in possession of 3 bikes here, I thought storing all 3 downstairs in our storage just seemed greedy, plus the new bike looks pretty.



-Current state of my place - just to show what it looks like now that I've settled in (and a less zoomed in view of the new wheels).



-Panoramic view from my room - nice weather means more foliage, and nicer shots.

Long weekend in Praha/super-mini ID reunion

Woohoo, long weekend.
Last week weds/thurs were holidays here in the Netherlands, so I took friday as a vacation day, and rode the train to Praha (Prague) and back.
Since Christianne (LeBlanc) is currently working in Nürnberg, and also wanted to travel to Praha, I met up with her in Praha, and we had a super mini ID reunion/were travel buddies for the long weekend (May 1st was also holidays in a bunch of other EU countries).

Here's the highlights (over 500 photos were made).



-ID kids unite! - ... in a foreign country .... on the street



-Vltava River Panorama



-at Pražsky hrad (Prague castle) - beautiful weather made for a good time, and beautiful pictures



-Gold window - church at Pražsky hrad, there's a lot of nice gold detailing in Praha, and it's not just for bling' sake (I don't think) but seems quite beautiful and tasteful



-door of the church - Christi and I seemed possibly overly enthusiastic about this door, and the detailing



-Panoramic view from Pražsky hrad



-Národní Galerie (National Gallery Modern) - yes, we took in some culture too



-Lampa - Slovakian designed lamp, in the "Design Match 2008" design exhibit, which we conveniently caught there



-LIPI - Hungarian designed paper children's toy




-Sac à faire - make yourself a bag - Austrian design where the cutout pattern of the material also becomes the pattern on the finished product



-Singlebirds - porcelain ware, Austrian design




-Hot Chocolate Menu - something seems a little lost in translation with the idea of 'hot chocolate' or it's just a completely different thing here, culturally, as I didn't expect a hot cup of what's essentially Nutella the first time I ordered one (and didn't have this photo menu to go by)



-The Fred and Ginger dancing building - Frank Gehry



-view from Vyšehrad (old Prague castle)



-flock of sheeple on Karlův most (Charles Bridge) - so this seems to be the biggest draw in all of Praha, and was ridiculously busy pretty much all the time, we crossed it around 20:30-ish, when there was slightly less of a crowd



-Christi and I above the city - but not in that uppity sense



-Panoramic view towards Pražsky hrad



-very large statue - it looks like it has something of the communist era to it

Something worth blogging about

Its been a while, but now I feel I have something worthy of posting up, well some things I guess.

I'VE MOVED!!!
I'm now at my un-official adress, (and yes I do mean unofficial, seriously), if anybody wants the new digits, let me know and I'll pass them along.

I moved in progressively, and have now got all my stuff in here, finally. I also painted, and am in the process of trying to put up curtain rails to have curtains so I'm not flashing the whole of Utrecht inadvertently.



-room at sunset - I sure do like the windows

I'm settling in. Tonight was my first time using the gas cook top, ooh, instant fire.

Past Friday was the official grand opening of our studios, post renovations, which took place pre me. So, as far as I'm concerned, well, it's just always kinda been the way it is. It was a pretty fun day. I worked in the first half of the day, then, in the afternoon it was prep for the party. Clean up all the top secret projects, hide them away, clear off our desks of all our sketches etc, and I also vacuumed the entire upstairs, which is pretty big.
People started coming around 4, and I didn't go home till about 930.
My aunt and uncle who I'd been living with the past 5 months or so came. There was really good catered food, and a pretty swinging little band, that had a pretty cool style. We ran demos of some of the products that have been made at the company.
All in all a good time had by all, and I think I tend to consume more alcohol at work then anywhere else as of late. Friday night, I still felt the beer after my 1.5hr train commute and 10 min bike ride home. Yergh.

The company did a promo magazine that looks pretty swank, in the occasion of the reno. Anybody care for a copy, let me know. (there's a blurb about me in there, in dutch, and I also make two other photo appearances, one being in the centerfold... but it's not that kinda magazine)

I'm Moving!

Alright, hopefully this isn't too premature, but I'm moving.
I placed a deposit on the room today.
Get to move in 2 weeks (beginning of April).


-Room with a view - the skyline of Utrecht, in the distance the main cathedral (dom), and a bit closer in the foreground is apparently a prison (but on the other side of a canal), quaint.


-My room (to be) - with shared balcony access on the side (through the door)

The week in review

Last weekend, round the end of Sunday, wanting to still do something, I decided to bike to Tilburg. Just because. It was a nice route, I left around 16:30ish, so, notice the lack of lighting/very remoteness of part of the route I took. Given it took about and hour to get to Tilburg, then I biked around a bit, by the time I was biking back, it was dark. It went well until one part along the path where there were no lights anymore, and it was essentially biking through a pitch black forest, in an unfamiliar area, on my own, on bike.
I slammed on the brakes, did a bit of an endo, and semi fall, only thing that was damaged besides my pride was the rear brakes which were locked and I couldn't manage to get open.
I called for a ride for the last bit home, thankfully I had a cellphone and dropouts.


-"Kampina" - nature area/park between Boxtel and Tilburg, I never realized there was nature like this left in the Netherlands


-See, if I were really thinking, I would have realized, wow, the sun looks nice in this pic I'm taking while I'm biking, which means when I'm biking back, through this secluded area, it won't be there anymore




-Trapiste Brewerey/Monestary - part of my goal on the trip was to pass by/visit this Trapist brewery, which I discovered is under renovations, and not open to the public till May. Boo.


So, I'm also in the midst of finding my own place to live, as opposed to with family, since I'd like to not have 3 hours commuting time each day. (crappy train connections), thus I'd like to be in one of the large cities at either end of the train line which my work sits on. (either 's-Hertogenbosch or Utrecht). Finding a place is proving to be difficult. Who knew finding a place to live in the most densely populated country in the EU would be difficult.


-Some cool graffiti I saw in Utrecht after looking at a place that was a bit of a dive.


Today, decided to make a trip to den Haag. Took in some culture, traveled around by bike (my preferred method of transportation), and went to the sea. Despite a day starting out with stormy kinda weather, it turned out pretty nice.


-Springtime in den Haag - I think the building in the background was a palace, maybe the royal families, who knows in a country filled with those kinda buildings.


-My favorite painting of the day - I saw some Picasso display at a museum, and also paintings by Lucian Freud (grandson of Sigmund Freud, but apparently this doesn't have an effect on how he paints). Regardless of the paintings that got all the attention, this was my favorite painting I saw today, and I can't quite place my finger on why.


-Sun poking through at the North Sea


-a bit of wind, makes some big waves, but still plenty of people enjoying the weather.


-kite surfers on the beach


-kite surfers in the water - I was jealous




-Beelden aan zee - one of the sculptures from the sculpture museum at the beech, also, probably my favorite


-more sculptures, these more fun, I like the stylized nature of them


-hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil




-finger plugging the hole in the dijk - this'd be playing on the joke of the dutch person who's keeping the country from flooding by keeping their finger in the hole in the dijk

Hoo-rah!
I've got myself a new contract as Jr. Designer till 31.01.09.

Don't I look happy?

Alright, I took this pic (with the cool new gorilla-pod [I think]), for the company magazine they are working on putting out, they wanted a pic from everyone.

Either way, I'm here for a while now.
Expect to see me back in the republic of Northern Canuckistan 'round end of September '08.