Tragedy

Yesterday I was touched by the death of the german goalkeeper Robert Enke, aged 32. He took his life by jumping before a train. It was said he was depressed and never overcame the death of his daughter (2.5 years). He leaves his wife and an eight month old adopted daughter behind.

I think it's a tragedy that no one could help this man to overcome his grief for his child. It's a pity the only way out for him was to find the way to his deceased daughter. It was heartbreaking to see his wife on tv giving a press conference - amazing how strong that woman was, how she spoke of their hopes to overcome the loss of their daughter with their love for each other that as she said glued them even more together. Sadly, it was not enough for Robert.

Twitter?

I don't get it: what is the whole world loving about twitter? Yeah sure, I'm on there too. Until recently, I was even twittering publicly. But I decided to go private since I have unknown people following me and I simply don't like that idea and can't get used to it. Why would anybody who doesn't know me at all be interested in what I twitter? That's weird. So I threw out all unknown followers and went private. To come back to the beginning: what's the big deal about twitter? To me it seems like it's a sort facebook but reduced to status updates and public. But since I'm on facebook too it seems odd to update there and on twitter? And updating on FB and twitter differently is even more strange, why would I do that? The possibility of interaction with followers seems less attractive to me on twitter than on FB. Following a "discussion" with multiple comments seems easier to me on FB than on twitter. But maybe that's not the idea of twitter? So for me twitter at the moment is not attractive. I reduce my activity there. I stopped following most people since most of them didn't twitter anyway or very seldom and/or are (more) active on FB as well (so that's easy...hahaha).
If someone can explain the whole twitter idea to me, go ahead and tell me.

Dubai Fountain

Dubai Fountain
Originally uploaded by CruisAir

I've recently paid a short visit to the exciting city of Dubai. Here's a short video of one of the spectacular sights of the city, the Dubai Fountain. The sound and music you hear is that played during the performance, nothing has been added by me. The clashing sound you here is that of the water. It is an impressive show and they perform several a night, though they all seem to be alternating and different in length and music and lights. An amazing spectacular!
The building that can be seen in the background is the Burj Dubai. It's filmed from the bridge that connects Soukh al Bahar with the Dubai Mall.
Sorry for the inferior quality but I only have the possibility to record video with my Nikon Coolpix camera. But I guess it gives a good impression on how the fountain looks.

Emotional

There is this Whitney Houston song playing in my head all afternoon..., the lyrics "... I get so emotional baby, every time I think of youuuhuuuu..." going through my head. It strangely feels like a soundtrack though I don't know the lyrics at all except for that part I mentioned which keeps repeating in my head... like those annoying songs from time to time that simply stuck in your head without obvious reason... Does this happen to you as well, that you feel much more emotional on one day than the other? I can't think of any specific reason why I am like this today... but I am. The slightest thing touches me and I almost feel like crying aobut little things that I hear when we talked. Today is such a day that I physically miss you a lot, to hug and feel that very special and dear friend, to feel some warmth. I feel like I soak up every little piece of love, warmth, appreciation like a dry sponge. Usually it's not "thaaaat bad"... I can keep up my mood pretty well I think. But obviously there are days for whatever reason that I'm less perfect. Like today. Sure, I have my hubby and we are doing very well. Yet, there are things I miss. There's a deep desire for warmth, ..., love and all kinds of other attention, like nice words. For example, I wish I'd one day hear words of being desired too, like you speak of others. Not necessarily from you but to experience such a sensation of being desired. I sometimes get a hint of that on flickr but it does not feel real and is far away. But I think a lot about such things, wondering how certain things I never experienced in my life could be. I can't remember ever being desired by someone, physically. With passion. Not that you can do anything about it. But you know me and what I talk about. Sometimes I think I travelled my life in one big circle and somehow feel I haven't moved forward one single step since the end of 2007 in certain ways. Of course there have been positive changes for me, luckily. But other things haven't changed and I wonder if they ever will? Can you still change certain things at my age? Can you make up for things of which you think you missed them? Did I really miss them, anyway? Is it enough for me to soak up your stories about such things, to hear your "wild" stories and think of my "possibly missed opportunities"? I am thankful for having my hubby by my side. I need him and he is important. But as great as he is he can't change my shortcomings.

...and still all I hear is that "...I get so emotional baby..."

Paris.

Another recent trip took Jelle and me to Paris! It had been very long since our last trip to this beautiful city and so we were looking forward to a re-visit very much. Colleagues had been to the city by Thalys train and inspired us to try the same - so we did! And I must say we liked it a lot! We managed to get a special offer in First Class and that's really great travelling! During the trip you have free access to Wifi and they constantly serve you drinks, snacks and between Brussels and Paris even a full cold meal, like in an airplane! We loved it.



In Paris we had picked a very nice luxurious hotel, the Pullman Bercy. The location was not in the center but nevertheless close to the metro and very quiet and convenient. It is located near to a little park in Bercy and next to a small mall that was build in renovated industrial buildings. It was very cozy with lots of restaurants and all the shops and many people, you could hardly tell there's a economic crisis going on... We were very lucky with the weather and enjoyed a nice dinner outside in that mall.
We didn't have specific plans for sightseeing as we both had already been to the city before. We just walked around without plan and enjoyed all the impressions of a fascinating city. Though in the end we came by all the typical sights, like Notre Dame, Champs Elysée, Arc de Triomphe, Montmartre, Sacre Coeur and Eiffel Tower. We made some detours on our walk through one or the other park and also visited some of the many train stations the city has as we always find it interesting to visit stations.
After only two nights our visit ended already and we headed back to Amsterdam, again with the Thalys.
Jelle and I really enjoyed trip and city a lot and plan to go back.