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Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Having friends, having faith.

Sometimes I don't have much to tell, because I feel absolutely great. That's good of course but it is boring in a blog... ;-)


So what have I done lately? After I went to Berlin with Dani we had our american friends Daniel and David visiting which was great. There was the Eurovision evening at Timo's where I met Mika for the first time personally which was a great pleasure. I enjoyed that a lot, even Jelle went with me. I managed to watch Hairspray recently together with Jörg who visited me so we could watch it together. That was a really pleasant and funny afternoon with a lot of laughing! Dani had recommended and given the movie to me and Jörg, Jelle and I felt like the last gays to finally watch it. ;-) On Jelle's unspectacular birthday we went to a concert at Carré (my first visit there) and we saw a pretty good performance of Gilbert OSullivan. Then Dani and Sera visited us in a weekend and we had a fun time with visiting Trijntje Oosterhuis in concert in Carré and enjoying a very special dinner at an arabian themed restaurant where we lay down for eating, very special. Thanks to Dani and Sera for inviting us for it, it was fabulous, Jelle and I truly enjoyed it, most of all because it was in your company! 

You know why I feel great? Because I have great friends. Because I am happy the way my life is developing at the moment. After a very long period of self chosen social "isolation" I now enjoy being in contact with my newly made friends. Jelle is also slowly opening up and I like to see that as well. It sometimes even feels very tiring, being constantly busy and not really having time for yourself. So I am two days off now and I enjoy having nothing planned.
On the other hand, I miss when I don't get emails, no news on facebook, no comments on my photos by anyone. I love the attention of any kind. I need to have confirmations. It's probably a thing of insecurity that's still buried deep inside me.

Most of the friends I have are still virtual friends. Though I have met some of them personally now. I am very fortunate to have met you very special, very great guys I must say!

I have met Jörg a while ago and even though we don't see each other too often or chat very often I feel very connected to him. Every time we meet it feels like we pick up the lines where we last left them. 

Physically, Timo is the closest of my friends as he lives also in Amsterdam. I am very pleased we became very good friends. I like his easiness, we can spontaneously decide to have a coffee after work or do other things. We chat and mail very often and do see each other frequently. Okay, maybe this sounds pretty normal to you, but to me it's a big change in my life as for years I did not have this. Therefore I enjoy it and I am happy it's with Timo. 

Don't get me wrong, I don't believe in judging people and friendships in grades of quality. So if I say something about them here it more reflects the intensity I know, speak and see them rather than the quality of our friendship. I treasure all the friends and friendships I have, each are individual and every single one is important to me. 

When I was pretty down a few months ago I met Dani and he stands by my side ever since. He is the greatest of all friends and I cannot praise his beauty much enough - he has a pure heart of gold, shares his love with his friends and is the most generous and kind person! There's so much to say about Dani, how funny, how smart, how great he is! Every time I think about it I cannot really believe I am so fortunate to have met him. Though the term "friend" does not really suit the importance he has for me. He truly became my little brother and I feel honoured and privileged he allows me to call him that and that I am his bigbro. You all might get pretty tired of me talking about lilbro but this is simply an indication of how important he is to me. But just place yourself in my position and you will understand. There is something Dani does that builds up my self confidence. He makes me feel safe and protected. I can notice on myself that it happens much less often that I feel down and insecure. Luckily, Dani became part of my daily life. He and also his friend Sera grew close to my heart in no time. They are very dear to me and the only thing I really miss about us is seeing them more often. But considering the physical distance between us we still see each other quite frequently and I am pretty happy about that. I trust Dani. I can tell Dani anything, anytime. He understands me like no other and he always knows a "cure" to my problems. But I say these things here because it's difficult for me to tell someone directly. I know Dani usually reads here so this is a way for me to tell him how grateful I am, how precious he is and what wonderful things he does to me. Thank you Dani.

I truly consider myself lucky and happy. Because I have everything in life. I have a friend who is with me since more than ten years. Who stands by me even though I was confused about my feelings, who bravely accepts my attention shifting sometimes more to my friends, sometimes back to him. He accepts my search for the right balance. He is my friend who loves me. And deep inside I know I love him too. Even though I don't show that very often to him lately. But I think he understands somehow. His understanding helps me a lot. Thank you Jelle for being there for me, for loving me, for accepting all the stupid things I may do. I do love you too. 
I also have a job which is pretty okay and which luckily permits me to easily see my friends and family who are not close by more often than I could normally see them. I am healthy, I don't have to starve, I can even permit a little luxury compared to many other people on this planet. And of course I am blessed with my friends, very special ones. What else could I ask for? So the little inadequacies that run through my life constantly, like an underlying theme, are small and negligible. And if they occur, there is someone there to help me - because I have friends, because I have faith.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Howl's Moving Castle


Howl's Moving Castle
Originally uploaded by CruisAir
It took me quite some time but today was the perfect day for me to finally watch what turned out to be a wonderful movie: "Howl's Moving Castle" by Hayao Miyazaki.

Already a while ago my beloved little brother has given me the DVD of this amazing movie which to that point I didn't know, neither did I know the director nor the producing studio. That changed meanwhile as Dani is very enthusiastic about his movies and is a big fan. Naturally he wanted me to see this movie too. So today I took the time and could enjoy all by myself this wonderful and amazing movie.

To me, it's an animated movie about love and it is absolutely fantastic! It has been quite a while that a movie has fascinated me that much. There are so many surprises in it, it's a touching and moving story and it's even funny at times. In the beginning it reminded me of the tv series "Heidi" that I watched and loved as a child. But very fast I got used to the characters and the drawings and suddenly the magic of movie happened: I surrenderd and dived into this other magical world which always knows to fascinate me, to captivate, to entertain, to trigger emotions. The setting of the main character Sophie's hometown looks like Heidelberg I noticed... whereas other cities that appear in the movie seem to stem from the U.K. I liked the mix of old charme Europe, beautiful nature sceneries combined with fantasy flying machines and oldtimers, fantasy figures and "normal" characters.
Though the story itself is not by Miyazaki (but by Dianna Wynne Jones) he knew to make a really captivating movie. The characters I loved most were Calcifer, Howl's fire demon and the scarecrow which I think was cute. It was very interesting to see the story develop, to follow the girl Sophie and how - after having been cursed to be old and dull - she seems to surrender into her fate but then when love takes over she becomes young again towards the end of the movie. Of course there's lots to tell about the story, the characters and the movie. For example the music, it is wonderful and perfectly accompanies the pictures. I especially like the title song. I watched the movie in the japanese original with dutch subtitles.

I can only highly recommend to watch this movie as it is a gem of animated movies. Gladly, my lilbro has given me this DVD so I could enjoy it. It was a great introduction to Miyazaki's world and I now look forward to discover more of him. I am sure my lilbro is more than willing to introduce me to more of his brilliant work. ;-)

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

The Hector Dolphin

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Guido Merkelbach
1:51am Jun 3rd
The Hector Dolphin
To guido.merkelbach.cruisair@blogger.com
 


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What a great weekend.

Finally, even though it's already way toooo late at night, I manage to write a few words about some things that happened recently. So the few of you who follow my life are updated again. ;-)

On Friday, my little brother Dani and his boyfriend Sera arrived on the IB flight from Madrid. Of course I picked them up right at the gate (hmm... for some reason Dani "knew" I would do that...) and it just felt awesome to take my little brother into my arms and hug him! I could have done that for hours but there was also Sera waiting and it felt just as good to see him again too!
Jelle stayed at home as he was preparing the dinner for us. We have had fondue and of course we talked late into the night... Us four doña's had much to talk about after we had last seen each other in Berlin. ;-)
The next day after I overslept (shame on me) and got up half an hour later than we had planned and after having a nice breakfast we all took a leisurely stroll through the city where Dani bought flowers for his Sera , where we walked into a CD/DVD shop where Dani scandalously bought DVD's for me and Jelle under my eyes and I didn't even realize... (thank you so much, but you shouldn't have done that!!!), where I once again bumped into a flickr member who's one of my contacts and who I hadn't met before* and where later in the afternoon we met Timo for a coffee. We went back home just to change clothes to head right back into the city as we had tickets for a concert of Jelle's and my favorite singer Trijntje Oosterhuis who was performing a concert in Royal Theatre Carré. Dani and Sera like her music too and I think Trijntje had a flawless and immaculate performance, I was fascinated by her voice again, it was beautiful and I really enjoyed it. I hope Dani and Sera also liked it but I think they did. ;-) After the show we went to a restaurant on Rozengracht to have late night dinner and that was a real pleasant surprise! We all just loved the ambiance and the food and the whole concept! It was arabian themed, you lay down on lounge couches without chairs or tables. The staff was friendly and sat down to us and explained everything. There was enough time to eat in between courses and I really liked the possibility to simply lay there which felt so much more comfortable than sitting in a "normal" restaurant! Before the main course was served they even offered a massage but only Jelle took the opportunity and took a foot massage. After main course and dessert they even offered a water pipe that Jelle and Sera gladly tried out. Dani and I tried one "sip" but refrained from further smoking... The restaurant stays open until 03.00 in the night, so lots of time for us to enjoy and chill out. Dani and Sera insisted on inviting us to this great dinner and I must really thank them lots and lots for their generosity - guys, you really shouldn't have done that!!!
Unfortunately it rained when we left the restaurant but luckily the bus stop was not too far away and we did not have to wait too long for the night bus service back home. 

Sera y Dani


The next day, after a good night's sleep and a nice breakfast we again headed for the city where we wanted to meet Timo again for yet another coffee... ;-) We were a little late 'cause we took a little detour from central station while walking to Nieuwmarkt to meet Timo. But eventually we got there and Timo gave us a tour of the flea market that was helt there to show us some things he found interesting. After that we really had the coffee. ;-)
Then, unfortunately, it was already time to return home to get ready to go to the airport. I accompanied Dani and Sera to Frankfurt where they would board their flight to Madrid. Luckily I was able to check them in myself and assign some nice seats for their Frankfurt-Madrid-flight. The perks of working for an airline... ;-)
At Frankfurt I had to say goodbye to my dear friends, my beloved lilbro. After we shared a last coffee and had a frozen appel cake (tasted good, but was way too cold, almost frozen) we hugged and kissed each other goodbye. I was the most happy person on earth at that moment as I left them with the feeling of thankfulness, joy, love, pride, happiness. For a change I was not deeply sad when I left my beloved friends but truly happy. Because they made me feel so special, because they gave me lots and lots of the most precious a friend can give: their love! When we parted, Sera said he hoped we can make many more of these travels together hoping they will end not like in Berlin. It meant a lot for me that he said that to me! 
Obviously Dani and Sera had a good flight as Dani called right after they landed and told me. I was glad he called as it felt good to know he arrived safely and his mom had picked him and Sera up by car and they were heading to Sera's home now. A beautiful weekend had come to an end but to me, this all is simply the continuation of a miracle called "Our wonderful friendship".
____________________________________________________________________

* Isn't it a coincidence? It's unbelievable that again I met a flickr contact by pure chance! I mean, consider the chance that you meet someone whom you only "know" by internet in a big city like Amsterdam - first I met encarneviva in Madrid and now it was Erik in Amsterdam (yes Jörg, the Erik...). Isn't it weird? ;-)

The look of joy.

Me


On sunday, I received a CD from my little brother as a present (which, after having returned home I already listened to and as Dani expected I love it!). He gave it to me in Amsterdam at the airport before we left with the aircraft to Frankfurt. On board of my return flight to Amsterdam I opened it. I could not wait to get home and listen to the song. I had to read the lyrics right there. There I sat, a whole business class row for my own. I read the lyrics of the song he dedicated to me. It touched me deeply and made me proud and happy. It brought tears to my eyes. But not because I was sad but because I was so happy. Because it means so much to me what he said to me, besides all the other things he always does for his bigbro.


Thank you from the bottom of my heart Dani.