Miracle

Today, I would like you to listen to the title song of a dutch movie. It's in dutch cinemas at the moment though I haven't seen it as the plot did not look very appealing to me. 

In contrast to that is the title song which I like very much and which I purchased on iTunes. It's called "Miracle" and is sung by no less than famous dutch singer Ilse DeLange and can be found on her album "Incredible". I did not find a video of the song though there is a youtube version where you at least can listen to the song (which is what I want you to, after all). ;-)

Someone put a lock on this old door

It's been beaten up and used and more

It's been kicked a hundred thousand times

Keeping all the memories behind

If you read the lines between the paint

Look beyond the cracks that store away

It's hidden in the windows of the walls

Right behind the eyes that saw it all

Given all the facts of circumstance

I did not believe that a romance

Would show itself in all this dark and blue

That's the only place I ever knew

You put me outside my safety-zone

Outside all the lines that made my home

To find out that no one really lives

Without giving what it is you give

A miracle looking in my life

A mirror-ball showing me all these faces

A miracle looking in my life, after all

A miracle looking in my life

A mirror-ball showing me all these faces

A miracle

I've been living underneath my skin

Everything I felt I kept it in

It carried all the words without a sound

It got me, it almost got too loud

But now that my arms are holding on

To someone as sacred as a song

To the one who wants to be my own

I have found that blood can come from stone

A miracle looking in my life

A mirror-ball showing me all these faces

A miracle looking in my life, after all

A miracle looking in my life

A mirror-ball showing me all these faces

A miracle

A miracle looking in my life

A mirror-ball showing me all these faces

A miracle looking in my life, after all

A miracle looking in my life

A mirror-ball showing me all these faces

A miracle looking in my life, after all

A miracle looking in my life

A mirror-ball showing me all these faces

A miracle

Someone put a lock on this old door

It's been beaten up and used and more

It's been kicked a hundred thousand times

It's keeping all the memories behind

I hope you like it as much as I do, I think it's really beautiful. As mentioned before elsewhere here, I'm a big fan of soundtracks, I just love these kind of songs and music. Yeah, I agree, it's a typical song for me to like, kind of romantic... after all, I'm hopelessly romantic and always a dreamer... a tender hug and kiss for you.

Ciao - a movie.

Today I came across a trailer of a gay movie that fascinated me the moment I read the story. I can't wait to see it. Here's the synopsis from the official site of the movie:

A man dies very unexpectedly and leaves behind two men: Jeff, his best friend, and Andrea, an Italian he’s been corresponding with online. Jeff informs Andrea of Mark’s passing; Andrea writes back to express his shock and sympathies. On a whim, they continue their correspondence and a rapport grows between them. They eventually meet, where they extend their e-mail exchanges into more personal and intimate conversations. They talk about their respective countries, their jobs, their families, their lives. Mostly, they talk about Mark. What began as a tragedy that linked two strangers from different ends of the world becomes a deeply realized friendship that may change their lives forever. 

There is a group on facebook about the movie: CIAO movie | Facebook

and an official movie site: http://www.ciaomovie.com

Have a brilliant weekend everyone, hugs.

Lounge visit

As usual, the story I have to tell today is probably not very interesting for most of you - because it's airline related and I'm the only geek around here about that... ;-) Still, I feel like sharing it with somebody. So maybe I should start it with "Dear diary..." hahaha, just kidding.

What I want to share is about something work related (somehow) I experienced a few days ago. I had the chance to visit the VIP lounge of the airport of Amsterdam. I was lucky enough that the lounge was completely unoccupied and I got a personal tour. Unfortunately I cannot show you any own photos but I have included some photos from the promotional folder so you have a better idea of what I am talking about. 

I had to go all the way to the newest part of the terminal in Amsterdam airport, find my way through a giant crowd of Hajj passengers that were checking in and being accompanied by an even bigger group of families and friends and in the very last corner is a side entrance of which the sign says it leads to the press centre. When I am about to ring the door bell it miraculously opens and of course I'm impressed already... ;-) I entered, climbed up some stairs and entered a different world, so much quieter and calm than the hustle and bustle of the "ordinary" terminal. One floor higher, in a completely different surrounding than the "ordinary" terminal downstairs you find the lounge of the famous and important people where they rest and wait before their flight takes off. The facility is provided by the airport and is only available to the so called "very important" people from governments/embassies and such, though it's not meant for the rich and famous so you would most probably not bump into famous pop or movie stars ;-) Though from what I heard that might change in the future and become a little more commercial.

The whole occupied space seemed very large to me; though to my surprise it felt less luxurious than I had expected it. If you have ever walked into lobbies of luxury hotels then you somehow get the look and feel of the lounge.
The overall design is very modern, with dutch accents but trying to avoid typical dutch icons like tulips and cheese... ;-) Even more surprising to me was the Royal Lounge, the lounge that is used by the dutch Royal Family during their stay at the airport.

I felt it is very modest, in a very modern design in white, blue and orange tones. A little cabinet holds the toys for the children, a few "family" photos try to give it a little more "personal" touch. The couches you see on the photo are standard and can be bought in stores I have been told but have been modified for better, slightly more comfortable seating (as they are very  [too?] low). But there were no immense luxuries that you might expect in the Royal lounge. Other space of the VIP lounge is used for a bar or other lounge rooms,

all in modern designs with more or less subdued colors or here and there a colorful accent like you see here in the bar. There is even a shower room which is a pleasant walk-in shower room, yet not overly luxurious, again something you will find in First Class lounges of airlines. Finally, the lounge even offers a pleasant waiting room for the drivers of the limousines of the VIPS where they can wait in a pleasant and comfortable (yet a little hidden and windowless) space for their next duties, including free coffees and soups... ;-) Last but not least, a sober not to big room is used for press conferences at the airport. I liked its design, a light, white walled room with black chairs (only one in a special "cow" design) on a carpet that was made from a photo that shows an airview of the landscape on approach to the airport while the ceiling shows the blue sky above the airport.

All in all, I think one can compare this lounge a little bit with the First Class Terminal that my employer offers at its hub in Frankfurt. Though I have never seen it personally I think one can compare the features and design and concept of the terminal with that of the smaller VIP lounge in Amsterdam. 

The funny thing was to learn that many features designed by the architect do look great from a designer's point of view but are terrible to work with from an employee's point of view :-D 

We have the same problem at our ticket counter which looks great but has some serious design issues - but that of course is another post yet to be written. ;-) 

I am very thankful to have been able to see the lounge, as it's truly something very special only few people will ever see. Hopefully I could give you a little impression on my imaginary walk around this lounge.

A very important hug.

Sorry, my friend.

Nooo, I haven't done any bad things to him. I didn't hurt him. But what I do though is being like a limpet, at least sometimes. I am aware of that. I use him as my little straw to hold on to while being in a maelstrom of emotions. I feel very attached to him, I trust him and I know he understands me a lot. But I always forget one thing, that he has his own life with lots of friends, a boyfriend, family, his hobbies and his own problems as well and that he cannot always be there for me even though he wants to. 

But I know I don't leave him space to breath, I come too close too often. That is one of my bad characteristics, to try to claim people. So I guess I will have to learn to keep some distance. I don't always have to speak to him when I see him online or contact him in other ways. Let's see if I will manage. I know I'm not good in these things.

I am sorry, my friend, I apologize.

Life of a moth.

What can I say? Not much I guess. When being asked what I did this weekend I answered "the usual", meaning I worked and did nothing. 

I feel not bad, there's just that emptiness inside. There are some things that I really look forward to in the coming months. So, there are little highlights on the horizon. But on the short term? Even then: I look forward to Christmas, not the holiday but something that is more important to me than that but hopefully will take place around that time.

I'm the kinda guy that people like, it's nice to have me over for a coffee, or maybe have a dinner with but not the kind you would call. You just don't think of someone like me, I guess. Hey, it's nice if I call and ask you out, ask for a date to meet, yeah. But most would never think of calling me. Maybe I'm not entertaining enough, not funny enough, not intelligent enough to have a good talk. I don't know, it's a guess, a very wild one. I developped that theory from facebook. I noticed. I look at some people and they constantly are busy, get comments and have nice, sometimes even funny "chats" with their friends. I never belong there, for a multitude of reasons. I understand those reasons. Unfortunately for me, I seem unable to build this myself. I just can't and I don't know why?

I compare myself with a moth, circling around the light. The light is another friend. Lots of moths circle around that light. I'm just a moth, not the light where other moths circle around me. ;-) A funny picture maybe, but kind of true. On facebook I keep on commenting on other people's comments, status or whatever and if I'm "lucky" I do get a reply. It doesn't happen very often though that someone reacts on something I do. I regularly get those invitations for some kind of app, yeah sure. But frankly, many of the few friends I have do have much more friends and therefore get much more attention by more different people (I guess). I wonder if that's deep and satisfying but at least it's some kind of attention... I still refuse to believe in those mass friendships, I still try to build "real" friendships, if that's possible at all? Same on flickr, if I don't comment regularly on others' streams or post very "provocative" photos, very few really care it seems.  Though I feel it costs me way too much energy for little or nothing in return. I have no clue if I do something wrong or what I should do different - maybe there isn't anything I can do more or different, maybe that's just the way it is? Maybe I have to accept that people just like to have me in the background, not too overly present, as a kind of human decoration in their lives? 

I find it hard to "just" be the moth, I envy the "lights", the guys who have that natural popularity. I should be used to it by now, it was never different in my life. So, I should not complain, go back to my chat and wait another minute or three before it's this moth's turn again for an answer... Don't get me wrong, I do understand, I always have, always will, that's how I am.

That's - I guess - the life of a moth.

P.S.: my comments are made in general and don't have any reference to a particular person; it's meant as a general observation of how I feel and I really do not refer to  anybody in particular.

To the unknown reader.

Hello dear reader.

Yes, today I am talking to you. I don't know who you are but obviously you know me and for some reason are interested in some way in me and my life. That's amazing, as it is not very special or exciting. But nevertheless, you come here regularly and I don't know who exactly you are. It's a pity because if you read my blog carefully you would know I like to meet new people, so why don't you say "hi" to me? The other day Jelle said to me he heard from someone at work (and I didn't bother to ask, I don't know why) that I had written something on my blog about my parents. That of course started me thinking who in the world you could be. Obviously you speak more to my boyfriend at work than to me and still my life seems interesting enough for you to follow it here on my blog. I think it's a bit sad that you do not approach me directly, if you are interested in me. Or am I not interesting enough for that? But then again, why bother following my blog? Oh well, I may never find out who you are and I can live with it. After all, it's a public blog and I have to take such things into account. But still I would be happy if you leave a mark here, ask me if you have a question. If I can, I'll answer it.

Besides all that, thank you for your interest and enjoy your stay here. ;-)

Project Grandpa, continued.

Alright, so you may have seen these photos before ;-) But that's simply because they are not mine but I have 'borrowed' them from my lilbro's flickr stream. I especially like the second one, by the way.

So, what's this post about? Simply put, the makeover of yours truly. :-P Yes, I am still busy to get a little more modern look and I gladly use the help of my beloved lilbro. So during the weekend break of my training at Zurich I went down to Madrid to visit Dani and Sera. We again had a great weekend and as you may have read in his post as well we did some shopping. Unfortunately, time was very limited but Dani nevertheless tried to squeeze in as many shopping opportunities as possible in such short time. And as you can see, we were successful! Don't you like my more modern look now? I do in any case, I really feel much better (in german they say "Kleider machen Leute") and it was much fun to do the shopping with him. I look forward to continue that as this seems to be a long term project... Also Jelle likes the new look of his boyfriend. ;-) Dani had sent him the pictures before I returned home and Jelle could have a look personally last weekend when I first wore the "new look"- items for our visit to the cinema. It's amazing, a "little" change (it seems) to your clothing and you feel better, more self assured maybe. At least it felt comfortable. So, during the next weeks I will have to add more items to my wardrobe and I can't wait to go shopping with Dani again, a whole afternoon (don't you dare to plan anything else in between... hahahaha).

I really regretted that Dani wasn't in Zurich the last evening I walked through the lovely shopping streets together with my colleague Gaby because we came across a great shoe shop, they had lots and lots of great and cool sneakers and I really wondered which one Dani would have chosen for me... ;-) You all may think it seems crazy that I do not choose my own clothing. But I like to rely on Dani's advice as in my eyes he has a good taste and knows what suits his bigbro. Those who know me personally have seen the result when I choose my own and as a result I rely on lilbro's advice now... hahahaha. Honestly, if you let me choose my own stuff, I go for the "safe" but boring style. I guess I simply don't have that gay fashion gene... :-)

Besides our shopping it was a great though short weekend. We went to two family birthdays which I both enjoyed, we met our wonderful friend Alex for a drink in Callao and we had a nice dinner on friday and a just as nice lunch on sunday!

I definitely always eat too much when I'm with Dani and Sera, you guys simply know to enjoy life ;-) Besides of the good food, Dani also spoiled me with a movie of 'Sex and the City' and the first season of 'LOST', YES!!! I was speechless, he always surprises me with such things though it's not necessary at all. The greatest gift to me simply is his friendship. Thank you so much lilbro for everything, I truly enjoy all your gifts but remember they are not necessary ;-)

Before we headed to the airport on sunday because I had to return to Zurich to attend the second half of my training there, we visited Jose and Miguel who were receiving their first visit of family at their new house. It was my first look at their lovely new house too and I really enjoyed the visit too (even though we were not really able to communicate as my spanish is very very very very modest, to say the least...). :-)

Anyway, at the airport Dani dropped me off and we parted after another great weekend. Thanks again, lilbro for the fabulous time I had once again, kisses to you and Sera. Looking forward to see ya again soon! :-)

P.S.: If any of you has suggestions for my "Project Grandpa", feel free to drop me a line ;-)

A grandpa-ish hug to ya'll (no worries, it's definitely not contagious...sigh) ;-)

Training at Zurich.

I have been quiet for the last weeks. But that had a reason: I was away for two weeks. My company had sent me to Zurich in Switzerland to undergo a training. Why? Because since the 15th of November we are handling the ticketing for Swiss Air Lines and they work with a completely different computer system than the one we have at our airline. So all our ticketing staff have to be trained for that. So, together with my colleague Gaby I went to Zurich. I had a great time I must say! It was really a lot of fun with Gaby and we enjoyed the training and having the possibility to learn something new! We were really lucky with our hotel which was brand new and after a fabulous breakfast every morning (with real good fresh bread, soooo good!) we felt prepared for a long day of training ;-) Swiss had a great training facility and the course was really interesting (though I must say that we felt like going back in time, their system feels so outdated and complicated and way too lengthy). What I always like about these trainings is the international atmosphere. This time, we met colleagues from Yaoundé, London, Florence, Montreal, Copenhagen, Zurich (but native japanese), Auckland, Nairobi and New York! I really enjoy this every time I attend a training. Beginning of next year our own facility will reopen (after some years of rebuilding) in Seeheim in Germany (close to Frankfurt, our main hub) and everybody is already looking forward to the new trainings there! ;-) We ended our training with a test, luckily though we were allowed to use all our materials so it was not that difficult. But still I managed to make a slight mistake in something (that's at least one thing I know for sure already) and I am really mad at me since I had all the time in the world to check it or avoid it but unfortunately I didn't realize it... oh well, I hope I still passed... :-D

Besides the trainings 

we did not have much time to do anything in Zurich. In the first week Jelle visited us and together with him and Gaby we had a great dinner in the city center. During the weekend break (in 

which 

we could fly home) I opted for a short visit to Madrid to my lilbro Dani but I will tell you later in a dedicated post about it. At 

the end of the second week Gaby and I decided to "celebrate" the end of our training with a nice dinner in town (all other nights we ate in or close to the hotel in the airport's food court or at the staff 

cantine). It was a great evening out and a good end to our two weeks. It truly was a pleasure to have had the possibility to attend the training together with Gaby, a first for me to go on a training together with a colleague. It was so much more fun and you also had the possibility to exchange your thoughts and worries about the system and problems. I would not call it a vacation as some colleagues but still it was a great experience and I enjoyed it. ;-)

Thanks Gaby for the great time together, I enjoyed your company a lot!

Size does matter!

I came across this amazing advertisment the other day: famous Dr. Ruth Westheimer is admitting "I collect"... First of all, I do too.  ;-) Second, my collection is that of m...odels (of airplanes I flew with) and I think Ruth is right: after all, size does matter! :-P

What a funny advertisement, I just love it. LOL :-)

(seen in: Airways magazine, p.81, issue Nov.08)

A huge hug.

Quantum of Solace

Saturday night, Jelle and I went to see the new James Bond movie "Quantum of Solace". I didn't like it too much. I mean, it was entertaining, I didn't get bored but I didn't like it as much as the "first" new Bond with Daniel Craig. His acting was good, I still like him as new Bond actor. But the movie itself was less attractive.

There was some resemblance with the "classic" bond movies, like beautiful people in beautiful and famous places (e.g. Siena), a few trials to make a joke, a hint to Bond's drink (but neither shaken nor stirred), no real bad jerks like a Goldfinger or such..., no fabulous gadgets... it more felt like a "standard" action movie, all the ingredients that used to make out a Bond movie were missing in my eyes. Though the previous Bond to this one did also away with many of these items it still felt like a Bond movie - this one didn't. I didn't like the many but average action scenes combined with fast scene cuts, shaky camera shots that obviously were ment to give it more rhythm. A few things exploded but I actually don't know why other than for the effect of it... The movie started with a lengthy action scene and at the end of it presented a "bad" guy. This bad guy later appeared again during the movie (why? I didn't understand how and why he escaped alive from the begin scene) but wasn't at all the one that the movie was all about - so a lot of fuzz for nothing... It was an entertaining movie but definitely not a good Bond movie in my eyes.

Interestingly, though the movie started in Holland already on th 6th of November the cinema yesterday was full (well, okay it was saturday...but still). We had purchased tickets online and came to the cinema late and were confronted with long lines in front of the box office, the ticket machines and the bar... sigh... since we "only" needed to pickup our tickets (I still don't understand why I have to exchange my confirmation with barcode into a ticket... why can't they simply scan the code at the entrance?) Jelle queued at the machines and I at the bar to purchase our cola and fanta and M&M's and chips (I hate popcorn). The machines didn't work so Jelle later joined me in my queue and after about almost twenty minutes wait we finally received our tickets at the bar and our refreshments. During the wait I had noticed that our movie in the meantime had sold out! But not only our show, there was also another cinema showing the movie, at the same time, next to us, which was also sold out and the later shows were also sold out. That movieplex alone had about 25 showings of the movie on saturday, amazing! So when we entered the cinema, of course it was full and we didn't find seats next to each other anymore (why the hell with all these electronics and stuff can't they assign seats for popular movies? Ridiculous!). So we had to sit behind each other and Jelle wasn't too amused about that and almost wanted to go home... oh well, we stayed and watched. ;-) Jelle said he never experienced a sold out movie theater before. I am sure I have but can't remember which movies it was...

Anyway, it was an interesting experience and for sure we will never go on a saturday night to an obviously popular movie... :-)

A hug.

Not much to say.

Lately, I don't have much to talk about. Obviously a sign it's going pretty damn well with me. ;-) There are a few things on my mind to write about but at the moment I don't find the time to write about it. There are things that deserve a well written post and not just a few dropped lines like this one. I can only do that at home and I not always have the peace do concentrate on the things I want to say... anyway, this week is keeping me busy to prepare my stuff as I leave on sunday for two weeks to go to a training for my job to Zurich. For the first time I'm not going alone but together with a colleague. So I kinda look forward to it though I am still a bit hesitant to go as I feel I might feel lonely and isolated, missing to be able to (daily) talk to my loved ones. Therefore, I even look more forward to the weekend break of the training on which I will leave Zurich and head more southwards to... oh I will tell you later about it... ;-) 

Last weekend, Jelle and I went to the city of Arnhem where we strolled through the centre, had some delicious fish (see the photo) and later cake and simply enjoyed a relaxed saturday afternoon. We came there after we attended a nearby cruise fair where we collected a lot of the latest cruise brochures to update ourselves for our holiday plans next year: yeah, Jelle and I are thinking of taking a little cruise again... ;-) Basically, that's all I have to tell about the things I did lately and the things that are planned in the nearby future. Nothing special, as you can tell.

Many hugs.

Proud about Dani: The Noken Master!

 

Today, I want to draw your attention to my lilbro Dani's latest achievement, a self written program! True, it may come with his job that he is able to write a program, but still, I admire his talent to do it! He wrote a program for the sole purpose of making it more easy and fun for himself to learn Japanese. Head over to Dani's post and read all about his program, how it works, what it does and why he wrote it! It's amazing, I am stunned!

 

I am really so proud of you Dani, my lilbro, you are simply fantastic! For sure the way to go!

 

A hug.

Vamos a la playa!

My idea of a nice day at the beach, yay! :-)

A cuddly hug.

P.S.: yes, I'm definitely an airline geek :-D

Masks, screens, faces and mirrors

May I direct your attention to a very interesting post over at the blog of Finnegan Bell? I found it very much worth reading. Have a look here.

P.S.: Coincidentally, Finnegan chose a picture to accompany his post that reminded me of my own picture I took of such (the same?) mask this year in Scheveningen, The Hague.

...and the honour really goes to...

Okay, now don't laugh about what I am going to tell, since it's completely insignificant but when it comes to flying and airlines in general and to my logbook in particular I can be as geek as certain people about their movies and mangas or other stuff... I have to make a little correction: in my post about my trip to Dani for his birthday I mentioned that Korean Air has had the "honour" of taking me on my 700th flight. But I made a mistake in accounting my flights and discovered I had forgotten two flights from the beginning of this year which I now added to my logbook so unfortunately Korean Air has to give up this honorable mention. I therefore announce the operator of my 700th flight as being LAN Chile on my flight from Madrid to Frankfurt, together with Jelle. So my number of flights now totals in 705. See, I told you not to laugh... but for a geek these things are important... ;-) My flight logbook is updated accordingly, you can find it here.

A hug.

Sick at home.

Luckily it doesn't happen too often to me, but on sunday it did: I became sick. I had been at work for an early shift and I hadn't slept well. Actually I felt terrible that morning but still I decided to go to work. But arriving there I felt miserable: I sat behind in our "back office", just to come by. But suddenly, my blood pressure went wild and since I know that feeling I did what I know helps me in that case: I lay on the ground. But it was pretty cold and it is not comfortable, naturally. The chair in the back wasn't comfortable either and suddenly I had the urge to vomit! I did not make it to a toilet in time 'cause it came really quick and I had to use the waste basket in the office! I felt soooo bad and so stupid and kind of embarrassed. My colleague was sitting in the front and I was throwing up in the back... It helped a little but still I did not feel comfortable so my colleague sent me home. I had hoped to get home without any more throwing up but suddenly in the train it happened again so I hurried through the train and at the last minute I found the toilet... Luckily, I could get out fast enough as I was just finished when the train already was stopping at my station... At home, I went to bed immediately and still, I woke up several times and had to go to the toilet to throw up two more times... I stayed in bed until four in the afternoon because I felt really bad, tired and weak. My skin was very sensitive and it felt like I had a cold, every move felt unpleasant. I think I probably caught some kind of virus or I ate something bad the evening before. Jelle was very sweet and looked after me, gave me tea and salty pretzel sticks, dry bread and more tea.
Today, I am still drinking tea and soup only. My lilbro advised me to try some rice too so I added that to my soup (as you can see in the photo), that's more tasty and has some bite to it. I don't like the dry bread too much I must admit...
Luckily, today I feel better already. Jelle was very sweet and concerned and my lilbro is just as caring and it feels very pleasant to be pampered... I have reported sick for today as well and it feels good to be able to recover a few days as I am off duty for two more days as of tomorrow. The rest, sleeping and to not feel the draught (which we have a lot at the counter) feels good. It's really untypical for me to report sick but this time I felt I had to do it. The last time is years ago and I normally only do it if I really, really feel bad. So you can tell how bad I felt yesterday.

Anyway, I'm on the upwards path again but I felt I give in impression on what's going on - after all, that can be part of a blog as well. So I hope to be well and alright tomorrow or wednesday again.

Many hugs.

Thank you for the music, Sera!

The other day when Dani, Sera and I were at Sera's house before we would go over to Dani's place and while Sera was getting ready, Dani and I listened to some music on Sera's iPod. Suddenly Dani played a piece of music that I knew for so long and didn't know what it was. So immediately I got excited because I wanted to know what it is but when Dani told me what Sera's iPod claimed it was I knew it wasn't the right title. But god bless modern technology: I asked Dani to use his iPhone's smart app Shazam (which Jelle recommended to him, just for the record... :-D ) to listen to the music (and occasionally lilbros do obey their bigbros wishes) and within a few seconds it returned the answer and I finally was able to download this wonderful piece of music! I think I know it from my childhood as the opening tune to some famous Radio Luxemburg show (back then, RTL was a very popular radio station in the Cologne/Rhineland area but broadcasting on FM from Luxemburg, it even had cult status especially amongst the younger audience - at that time, Germany did not know any private radio or tv but only public stations so RTL was a popular alternative to the dominant public Cologne based WDR).

So thank you so much Sera for bringing back this wonderful tune and with it some great childhood memories. May I present it to you? Here it is:



Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra - Love's theme

If you want to know more about the song, there's even some wikipedia info on it! So much for the seventies, welcome back to 2008!

Kisses to Sera and Dani, hugs to you all. ;-)

Think before you speak!

Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag, Mama!

 

Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag, Mama!

Today, my beloved mom celebrates her birthday and so I went to Cologne for the occasion to give her my birthday kisses personally. ;-) She was very happy and also my dad was very happy to see me. Mama prepared some simple but oh so tasty lunch and in the morning after my arrival I enjoyed a delicious breakfast with some typical german things I like for breakfast. 

Then, way too early I already had to leave again to go back to Amsterdam. I was only one day off which I had specially requested due to her birthday so I could only go there in the morning and come back the same day. But it felt good to see them again. They were very sweet to me, I enjoyed seeing them, talking to them and it made me really happy to see that my mom was so happy with my visit!

 

In the afternoon, Mama and Papa drove me back to the airport and before I had to go through the security control we had a last espresso and that's where I took these pictures. 

I hope there will be a chance soon for them to come over to Amsterdam or else for another visit of me to Cologne.

Updated, pictures included! Going to Madrid: 28 Cumpleaños Dani

Korean Air Airbus 330
Originally uploaded by CruisAir

Today, I want to give a short trip report about my trip to Dani's birthday.

On Friday, after a very short night because I simply stayed up too long (say, til' around 1.00am...) and after my early shift that started at 05.00 in the morning I was able to catch a plane to Madrid.
As you know, I like airlines and planes and if possible I try to fly as much as possible on different airlines and aircraft and different routes... (and you thought YOU were strange, huh?...).

Anyway, coincidentally, this trip was special: first, it was my 700th flight ever! The honour for taking me safely to my destination goes to Korean Air. I took their flight KE925 which started in Seoul and made a stop in Amsterdam on its way to Madrid. It was a nice and pleasant flight. I was a bit disappointed though that I did not have personal inflight entertainment which I had expected on a long haul aircraft. The catering though was pretty good, a warm (!) meal was served for the two hour flight which was a bit delayed (because the aircraft already left Seoul too late). All in all, I would rate the flight (despite the warm meal) behind the recent LAN Chile flight from Madrid to Frankfurt.

The second reason why this trip was special was THE reason to go anyway: my beloved little brother would turn 28 on that weekend and it meant a lot to me to be there with him and to celebrate. As I said before, Dani is very important in my life for a trillion of reasons. Therefore it was a true highlight to be there and personally congratulate him.

When I arrived on Friday, I "amused" Dani a lot: I guess he thought I was retarded because I couldn't find where he was waiting for me but I swear, the signage at Madrid's T1 is terrible and will lead you anywhere but your destination! My god, it took many calls to him to get directions before blond me finally found him patiently waiting outside... did I mention that I even sent him to T4 in the first place, assuming my plane would arrive there...? And did I mention I told him I would arrive after only a one hour flight...? My god, it must have been my sleep shortage that day... and I even work for an airline but all I did and said that day was simply, ehm....retarded :-D

Dani, Sera and I went to a gigantic mall on Friday evening. They invited me for dinner (I'm never allowed to pay, I seriously have to talk with you guys about that!) at a very good asian buffet restaurant where we had a great dinner with lots and lots of food!

Saturday, Dani and I did some shopping for the evening when some friends would come to join the celebration. Dani prepared a quiche in the afternoon (another of his "famous" recipes) which was really good! We made sandwiches and cheese/ham/tomato sticks and had the usual party ingredients like chips, nuts and that kinda stuff.

In the evening, his guests arrived and it was truly a really nice night! We laughed and talked a lot and I was simply very happy to be there when it turned 12:00 and my lilbro turned 28!

Dani got some really nice presents and I think he loved them all. It made me soooo happy to see him happy too!

Me and Dani wearing one of his presents he received

After opening all his presents and even more laughs and talks we went to a totally packed Irish pub close by for a final beer and we all went home after that. It really was a great birthday celebration, I loved it!

On sunday, after we slept long we had lunch with his friends

Jose and Miguel 

and his mom at a very good chinese restaurant! After that, Dani and Sera met some friends to go to a theater show while I met with Alex to have a drink which was very nice. After it, we met again and went home to conclude another wonderful evening at Dani's cosy home!

I had a great time, it was awesome, sensational, brilliant and simply fun to join Dani for the first time on his birthday and I guess I can call myself a really happy man to have a friend like him! Thank you, my beloved little brother, for the wonderful time again and being the friend to me that you are! I am so lucky, so happy, so blessed.

Feliz cumpleaños, Dani!

Today, my beloved Dani, the man who during time became my best friend and who I dearly love, for being the "little brother" I never had but always wanted, for being the true friend one always desires to have, turns 28:

Feliz cumpleaños, querido Dani

With all my heart dear lilbro I and also Jelle wish you all the best for your birthday and the new year in your life. I hope it will bring lots of beautiful things to happen in your life. May your love to Sera blossom as never before, may you always be healthy, may all the dreams and hopes you have come true - if I can be of help of any kind you can count on me, always. The greatest gift I can give to you is already with you since long. It's getting bigger, more precious and unique with every day. What more can I add, except for my extra special and sweet birthday kisses and the most tender hugs your bigbro can give you.

How...very saucy...

At the moment, Jelle and I are catching up with watching "Desperate Housewives". I've missed too many episodes when they first aired so now that they are on our cable on demand services we watch them from the very beginning to the end. The other day we really had a very very good laugh about Bree (what gay man wouldn't love her?) in one of the early episodes of season 3. Bree is looking for her son Andrew (who she had dumped) and meets Pearly... here is the video that includes the scene in the very beginning:

"Pearly Gates, you can't get to heaven without going through me..." and Bree responds: "...How...very saucy..."

Muuuaaaahhhh.... ROFL... this is soooo funny, we really got a kick out of it... soooo sooo funny, really! I hope you liked that, at the moment we are both really addicted to "Desperate Housewives", I also started watching Grey's anatomy (again, well just like "DH" from the beginning) but I put that on hold due to lack of time. On the "waiting list" is "Prison Break" now and "Heroes" and "Brothers & Sisters"... I think I know someone from whom I can borrow the DVDs for the first two waitlisters as they are not on our cable yet... ;-) Uhm, Dani, are you finished watching them...? :-#

Have fun, hugs to you all.

Elvis lives!

If it wasn't so sad it actually would be funny: a hacker was able to fool the system that reads electronic passports at Amsterdam airport. He was able to let the system read a manipulated passport and the system did accept the false ID without any problem. So all the security hype (especially of the americans) about stricter controls with electronic passports is basically for nothing... it does not even seem too complicated to do that as the hacker even demonstrates on his website in a video:

When I see this it really makes me angry as the authorities always make you believe it's for my own best and protection and blablabla... but it's not safe and it's only costing a lot of money for nothing - it's all about pure cosmetics to simply fool the general (especially american travelling) public to make them think all became much safer and the government has everything under control - not...

A hug.

A fresh new look, courtesy of Dani

May I proudly present my new blog design to you? 

I am pleased to announce that with immediate effect the look has been changed to a new template that was kindly designed and installed by my beloved and very talented lilbro Dani! 

Since quite some time I wanted to change the look of my blog and bring up the first design change since I started this, not quite a year ago. I was trying to establish a three column design but I don't have a clue about these things if it's not drag & drop... So my lilbro kindly offered to help me and now came up with this splendid new design! I especially love the header which Dani designed for me as well. It's pretty cool and I love the resemblance in style with Dani's own blog.

I don't plan any further changes to the cruisair blog content, I am quite happy with what I have on it now. I might fine tune one or the other sidebar item but in general I have what I wanted.

I love it very much, I hope you all do too, lets give him a big round of applause (and I promised him something else as reward...hehehe)! Many many thanks Dani, I appreciate it so much - besitos! 

Hugs for all of you.

If you can, you should do it.

One of these days I received a mail from my friend Stewart. I was so much impressed by the video it linked to that I decided to rather make a post than to email it to only a few other friends.

It's a story of a father and a son. The story is about integration, it is about love, it is about abilities, it is about endurance, it is about strength, it is about believing, it is about so many things that you would never imagine this inspiration comes from them at first sight.

I would like to share this video here with you.



If you want to know more about Rick and Dick, you can read a little about their story here or go to their website Team Hoyt to learn all about them. 

It is true, in so many ways: if you can, you should do it.

A hug.

I love typography.

I think I haven't spoken about this topic so far but nevertheless this is something that I really like: typography. I find it absolutely fascinating to see different kinds of lettertypes being used in different kinds of media, like brochures, books, magazines but also online usage. I am neither talented enough nor have I the patience to design a lettertype myself (though it would be something that I find interesting) but reading about how famous lettertypes have been designed is very interesting. There are very creative people out there who have developped the most fascinating lettertypes. I don't always like those typefaces (sometimes they are so artistic that I cannot even read them anymore - but that's of course the purpose of a letter so I think that's more art than useable lettertype) but very often there are beautiful examples used for the most diverse purposes. As a child, in the pre-computer era, I loved to draw different lettertypes and "design" posters and stuff using different typefaces. That of course looked very unprofessional but with the introduction of computers and the different kinds of desktop publishing software this became faster, easier and looked more professional. Now the occasional letters and other print matters I create really look nice. Of course I have one favorite lettertype, or more actually... I wonder if my choice for a specific typeface says something about me... probably it does, I just wonder what... :-D Anyway, one of my favorites is the Lufthansa lettertype which is a special variation of the famous Helvetica lettertype, especially designed for the airline. It's a plain and clear lettertype which I prefer in general.

There are even books that deal only with the different kinds of lettertypes and present the types and their practical usage. Of course one of the blogs I read is about typography and of course it's called I love typography. They regularly publish wonderful photos and examples about the often interesting, sometimes beautiful application of lettertypes. Have a look at the blog and look what beautiful things can be done with simple letters, it's amazing. I just wish I had more knowledge and expertise to properly use the many different lettertypes that I managed to collect on my computer. Often enough, on the rare occasion that I can design something that involves lettertypes, I tend to use my preferred types in very traditional ways due to the lack of my design knowlege. Oh well, I still enjoy that creative side of me every once in a while. Usually it's only me or Jelle or some family or friends who get to see the results, seldom a "wider" audience when I create some slides for my work (to be used as a screensaver for our workstations) and very rarely I use it in creating photos for flickr.

 

Exclusive: Making a cheesecake with Dani

I proudly present to you the exclusive photo report of the "Making of" of Dani's famous Philadelphia Creme cheesecake! 

On a recent visit to the Master of Cheesecakes himself, Dani-chan treated us to a very exclusive insight view of the making of his famous cheese cake. I can assure you that the cake was as delicious as it looks on the photos! Try it out yourself. Of course there's nothing above the  real original one but only few lucky ones get to taste him, er... it.

Let's start with the recipe, here's all the ingredients you will need to prepare it.

Also, this photo shows already the first step, the crunched cookies in the form that is used to make the cake.

Follow the recipe along and have a look at Dani's expert moves.

Again, if you don't know exactly how to crunch those cookies, here Dani shows you en detail. Let your imagination inspire you in the crunching process... ;-)

The cheese and other ingredients as per recipe (of course, mind the pronounciation...) have to be mixed and heated up.

Dani demonstrates how simple and easy this can be accomplished.

Some special powder thingie (hey, have a look at the recipe yourself, why do I need to do all the work?) needs to be mixed with milk and stirred perfectly before it can be added to the warming up cheese.

Make sure you mix all the stuff real good, don't leave the oven and prevent the milk/cheese mix to get burned! 

As you can see, it is really easy if you follow the expert's tips!

If all is heated up well, stirred perfectly together you can then poor the fluid milk/cheese mix into the prepared form.

Mind you, what you see here is a variation of the original recipe. Don't get surprised that the crunched cookies will float up -

 later you will see it won't be a problem for the finished cake, in contrast - it's the desired effect (well, hey, what do you think, here are the experts talking and cooking and showing!).

After the cake has been put into the fridge for hours (look at the recipe for the recommend time) you simply turn the cold and stiff cake with the form upside down - but don't forget to put a plate under it so you can place the cake on it... ;-)

Now, another creative part in the process of making the cheese cake starts: you have to decorate it! Again, use all your imagination. Our expert chef suggests - as you can see - a strawberry flavour element which gives the cake a wonderful red color. Other known variations (tried by your's truly himself) are a yellow jam, like peach or orange or such. That all depends on your personal taste. But that's the fun part, you can use whatever you fancy, isn't that great?! After it, you put some sliced almonds (or nuts, hey there's the creative variation again...) on top to finish the decorating process.

Guess what? You're done.

Put the Nespresso on, have a seat and enjoy!

Tadaaa! Our proud Dani, the cheese cake expert, with the final result!

Let me tell you, it was as fantastically delicious as it looks. 

For cheese making courses please contact the chef himself, new trainings start each month and training classes are kept small in order to assure very personal attention to every participant! Apply immediately, I can only highly recommend his trainings - they are fun, excellent and delicious, what else do you want?

A cheesy hug to you all. :-P

Men in the shower

Stress at work, feeling tension, need some relieve? Here's something exciting to watch... (be advised, some nudity involved...):

You did not expect something else, did you? :-P

Thoughts.

No, nothing happened. But every now and then I fight with some feelings that are bothering me. I have to write a few words about it to get rid off it - well, I wish that would work like that... ;-) What I will write about does refer to my friends in general and is not referring to a specific friend. 

A great exception though is Dani who is always there for me (be it by phone or chat or email or even in person or by his thoughts and even though he doubts that himself!). Also Franc is calling me and chatting to me more or less regularly and Katja who calls and visits a few times per year. I'm not being polite here, that's the way it is and how I feel about you. So guys if you read the following, it's not about you. ;-)

While I try since months to build up new and rebuild old friendships, find new friends, become more social I sometimes feel I make no efforts at all. You see, I sometimes call people (the least of my means of communication that I use I must admit), I more often send SMS, I once in a while send emails and I'm available for chat many hours of the day, more or less. But often enough, nothing happens. Of course I do know and understand people live their own lives and I know often enough the reason why people are so busy with their lives (e.g. new found loves)... but still, that does not prevent me from having that lonely feeling that I wanted to get rid off. So, sometimes I feel a bit sad that there are ten people present in the chat program and not a single one is interested in chatting to me. Of course I can pick any of them and initiate it myself, but friendship to me is a two way thing, isn't it? I'd sometimes love to be surprised by a warm email, a nice chat or SMS or even a call. To get the feeling one of my friends thinks of me... Jelle just said to me, maybe it's now paying back to me what I did to my friends years ago... well, maybe... but I don't really believe that. I know, I am impatient. This all takes time (a long time actually) but sometimes I'm really frustrated by things around me and then speaking to a friend could make all the difference. Jelle also mentioned to me that the fact that many of my new found friendships are "only" virtual make it maybe less serious friendships but I don't agree with that. Of course you can have superficial virtual friendships but I consider the "real" virtual friendships that I found good and serious ones. Nevertheless I try to make those virtual friendships "real" friendships by trying to meet the (usually) men and get to know them personally. The best of all friendships to me then develops when I speak, chat, listen, call, SMS, visit, see the one as much and regularly as possible - that luckily happened with Dani. Naturally, it's a logistical problem in real life to meet regularly if you do not live in the same city, I understand that. Finding more friends in my own city therefore would be an advantage but I haven't figured out yet how I want to do that. 

Don't get me wrong - I am happy with the friends I found. I just miss your contact, I guess I'm in need of a lot of attention and unfortunately I cannot get it as much as I want to. I do enjoy regular chats with some of you, like Russell and Alejandro. It's really a pleasure to turn to you and speak. But that doesn't replace "real" friendships and that's what I miss. For example, for me it's important to have something to look forward to in my life. Some event to live up to, well, look forward to. Like going to meet someone, going on a vacation, meet with a friend, go watch a movie, have a coffee, eat dinner... to be honest, there is nothing at the moment or in the near future that I can look forward to. Sure, there is a training in November that I have to follow for two weeks in Zurich. But to be honest I am a bit "scared" about the thought, being away from home, the possibility to contact someone by computer, being on my own, knowing nobody, being cut off from MY world. I'm not too shy to speak to the colleagues there but I know I will feel lonely and that's certainly not an idea I am looking forward to. Of course there is the plan to make a day trip with Franc some time soon or go to see a movie with him, but nothing fixed yet. All these things (and probably a few more) add to my overall feeling and I hope that explains a little why I sometimes can feel really down. 

I am glad I wrote a few words about this. Honestly, I feel better. But most of all it helped speaking to a friend. Thanks lilbro for lending me your ear once again. 

Lots of hugs and kisses to you all.

P.S.: Dani, you know why I exempt you from the above? It's very simple. Don't forget that we are in contact very very often. You always try to say at least a few words to me as you often know how important it is for me. You often respond to emails I sent you. You do that despite the fact that you are very busy these days and don't get treated well either but still you manage to think of me and show your support to me. So for that reason don't worry if you not always answer every SMS or email - the things you do are so much that they easily compensate for what you think you lack to do (which you don't). I do feel guilty that you probably feel a certain pressure from me, that I make your life just a little more complicated than it could be. But maybe it becomes a little easier when I tell you that it's sometimes that simple smiley from you that makes all the difference for me, the "virtual" kisses you send or the hugs you give or that friendly, cheerful comment you make or just that smile and your laugh I can hear through the telephone that make me smile too, cheer me up, make my day! 

I honestly appreciate all you do, as you said yourself, that's what friends are for and I am most fortunate that fate brought us together.

Needless to say, I try to be just that for you too. Maybe that's the reason why I call you more often than you would normally expect. I am probably just trying to compensate for lack of other (direct) communication. After all, I am interested in your life as well and I want to hear what happens to you too. I know there is a difference of some kilometers between us and somehow I strive to bridge that distance. So bear with your bigbro ;-) 

P.P.S.: it really felt good to hear Sera's voice, I was very happy to hear him say "Hi" in the background! Please tell him he always has a very positive effect on my mood too!

P.P.P.S.: Damn mobile phones! :-)

Bello por dentro...

...vello por fuera! :-P

This is the first result of my "Project Grandpa" - Dani, Jelle and I went shopping in Madrid to look for some more modern or contemporary clothes for me... of course and as usual Dani as well as Jelle found nice t-shirts except for me, typical! But then, one evening in Chueca we passed a sex shop (!) and they had at least this nice shirt for me! So finally, the first step is made - for future developments watch my flickr space (there's even a special set!)... ;-) 

I'm curious to see the results during the coming months... hehehe

Any suggestions from your side? I welcome your inspirations while I await the next shopping tour with my mate Dani, who's not only my best friend but also personal adviser in this giant project... :-D

A hug from grandpa.

P.S.: Sorry to those who already saw this on flickr - I liked the idea so much so I decided to make a blog post of it too. ;-)

Compiling.

"Compiling" © xkcd

I swear this came up randomly! With a special dedication to Dani... :-P

The Rain In Spain Falls Mainly On McCain (from: Joe.My.God.)

There is a "revealing" post over at Joe.My.God. about Mr. McCain. He was interviewed by a spanish radio station and the interview did not exactly turn out to be very flattering for Mr. McCain's knowledge about world politics in general and Spain in particular. :-D 

I'm shocked, no, on second thoughts no I'm not... it doesn't really surprise me that Mr. McCain is as ...uhm...let's say 'uneducated' as I feared he might possibly be:

Click here for the interesting post!

A friendly hug.

Happy Birthday!

© danoliverm

It's Sera's birthday today and Jelle and I extend our warmest and sincere wishes to him: Happy Birthday Sera! Many kisses from us! Hopefully you'll get lots and lots of tasty chocolate bears (at least as big as the one in the shopping window in Berlin). ;-) Many happy times for you together with your hubby Dani! Lots of love from us!

Guido and Jelle

Funny.

"Names" by xkcd. More here. 

Seen there.

Those were the days...

It's been a while (how many days exactly...?) since I last posted something about aviation. Then again, it's one of my passions and I don't carry that a i r in my nickname for nothing... so here we go, another round of videos to share some airline nostalgia with you:

The first video is from an airline that most of you probably don't know if you are not interested in airlines and stuff: Wien Air Alaska. As a kid, the name always fascinated me and I always wondered where it came from. Because you must know that "Wien" in German is the name of the capital of Austria, Vienna. So you can imagine that I was pretty confused as a child what Vienna had to do with an airline in Alaska... ;-) After all, at that time there was no internet to look up all the facts...

The next commercial is of one of the former major airlines I unfortunately never managed to fly (yeah, us airline geeks "collect" flights and airlines and routes and types... no, don't bother to comment, I know I'm nuts...): Eastern Airlines

Neither have I flown on this one: Republic Airlines. They have been absorbed by Northwest Orient Airlines back then and I have flown them... but that doesn't really count, does it?

I just mentioned them before and yay, I managed to fly them! Even better, I love this commercial as they obviously have been a trendsetter: to ban smoking on planes - hooray for that!

...and OH MY GOD is this terrible, a commercial that looks as if a school class has thought of the plot and made the film...

Esthetically one of the beautiful commercials and I will 'love' United Airlines forever for their wonderful slogan "Come fly the friendly skies" and the use of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in blue" since ages in their commercials and on the telephone... ahhh... airline advertising the way I love it:

From the same airline here is a more vintage commercial, promoting the then brand new DC1o aircraft - look at the lounge in Economy class!!! Unthinkable of in today's hard economic times...

In an effort to differentiate themselves from their competition, Braniff Airlines declared the end of the plain plane. In the end, it did not help and today, the airline has long disappeared from the skies, no more BIG ORANGE (their bright orange coloured 747 jumbo jets) coming in to land at an airport near you...

Maybe the next airline has indeed been doing best what they did - they are still around and are comparatively healthy for an american airline. I always liked their color scheme, the classic ultra clean typeface, the silver bare metal colored fleet of aircraft and the use of the american colors white, blue and red:

And look at this marvel: TWA! Yes, I've flown them but not on the aircraft they advertise as brand new in this commercial, the L1011. Look at the spacious economy class cabin, again something that you will not find on any of today's airlines. Or look at the meal service: a full (giant) tray with a steak on it! Unbelievable! Nowadays, on some airlines like United you now even have to pay for a meal in Business class (on some flights)! Awww.... those were the times...

Well, I hope you enjoyed my little walk through airline commercials archives. If not, may I suggest to read any of my other non-aviation posts instead? Or maybe have a look at my blogger friends' recent posts? Check out their sites and click on the links provided to the right.

Thanks for your interest anyway and come back soon.

A bear hug.

This post was inspired by an article I read here.