May the Schwartz be with you!

Yesterday evening I went out with some friends for dinner and a few drinks. We discovered a great and very affordable Japanese restaurant in the centre of Rotterdam, but that's probably not of interest to you. Next to the more important things in life, we briefly touched on favourite films.

I would like you to ask yourself 3 questions:

What do you consider the best film you ever saw?

What was the films you watched most often?

Why are the two answers above not the same? For those readers who actually did answer both questions with the same title, please come back another time ;-)

Isn't it true that most of the best films you know, you only saw once, whereas probably everyone has one or two really crap movies that he or she has seen a billion times!

And indeed, I am not an exception. The film I have seen most often in my life is without a doubt one of the finest pieces of hollywood art: Spaceballs.

For those of you who don't know a thing about Spaceballs - I suppose you won't be an exception and I even don't blame you for it - it is a parody of Starwars and other 1970s and 1980s science fiction junk, starring Lone Star, Dark Helmet, Yogurt and Pizza the Hutt.

Okay, despite some real gems, the 1980s aren't exactly recalled for their very refined contributions to the film industry, but Spaceballs really was one of a kind when it came to utterly senseless moviescreen polution. The movie theme "Spaceballs" - how appropriate, has also been a hit record at the time and was in itself also a textbook example of what the 80s had to offer. And the awful truth is: I loved it all. I saw the film just after it came out, but what is more: Years later during my studies in the 90s, after going out (and I have to admit, drinking sometimes just a tiny bit too much) me and some friends turned it into a good habit of putting the Spaceballs tape in the VCR (for all you under age readers, a VCR is a Stone Age predecessor of a DVD recorder with a nasty habit of never recording the last 5 minutes of a film). Watching Spaceballs once or twice in the middle of the night was the perfect background setting for a couple of nightcaps and the perfect ingredient for developping a terrible hangover the next morning. May the Schwartz be with you! What more could we ask for?

Dark Helmet: I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate. Lone Starr: What's that make us? Dark Helmet: Absolutely nothing! Which is what you are about to become.

Sorry, I couldn't resist...

Now that I come to think of it, I know the perfect gift for myself for the holiday season!

   

 

Today listening to: David Guetta

What's the purpose?

Have you seen what my (limited) profile states? Interested in almost anything. Isn't that just great, you might think? This is one of those persons with whom you can talk about everything. Of course you are right, but there is a flipside!

This broad interest is both the cause and the result of a very serious condition; lack of focus! Not with the smaller things in life, but especially when it comes to the bigger things. Okay, I am married, have a beautiful daughter and number 2 is on the way. So far, so good, I am very happy with all of them. But what's next? What drives me? Where do I want my ambition to lead me? I have no clue. Might this have anything to do with the name of this blog? I turn out to be unable to determine where I want to be in, let's say, 5 years time. What is my ultimate goal that makes my clock tick?

Take for example this blog itself, it serves not just 1, not even 2, but 3 purposes already and I only started 2 days ago. I want to write about myself to share my thoughts with the world. I use this blog as a sandbox to determine my own writing skills and I also start using it to structure my own thoughts on my ultimate goals. At least I have enough knowledge of myself to realise that 1 single goal will never be enough for me. Anyway, I suppose that this is the first, but without a doubt not by far the last posting on my personal quest. So be prepared, and yes, every bit of advice along the way is welcome!

Today listening to: Good Charlotte

Shhh...

...is what I said and then it took me just over 2 seconds to realise that it made absolutely no sense at all. For the first time in 3 years it didn't. For the first time in 3 years it made no sense to be quiet when going to bed. For the first time in 3 years it made no sense to peek into the second bedroom to see if our little girl was sound asleep. For the first time in 3 years the house seemed emptier than ever before.

For the first time in 3 years, my little girl was staying with my in-laws. Last Saturday Ms Fudge Factor and I went out with some friends and it was the perfect moment to have our daughter staying over with my in-laws. If all goes according to plan, she will have a little sister at the end of November and it seemed like a good idea to see if she liked sleeping at their house just in case it might be necessary at the time. The good news is she did! Of course when bedtime arrived, she was somewhat reluctant but all in all she liked it. And so did we. We had a terrific night out and we kept on telling eachother how we really should do this more often. It wasn't until we sat in the restaurant - our friends hadn't arrived yet - that we realised that normally 90% of our conversations at the dining table are centered around the little one and kids in general or that we are constantly interupted by the sweet lady and that this was the first time in ages that it wasn't like that. Apart from this little conversation of course.

Funny how the little lady (and her future little sis) make up such an enormous part of your life. Of course this is just great, but it took the two of us some time together to realise how much we missed it! Knowing that the little lady was in capable hands we hardly thought about her for the rest of the night.

Until we got home and stepped into the livingroom which seemed emptier. Until we moved upstairs and I noticed the closed door of her bedroom - when she sleeps the door is never fully closed. Until Diana called my name from our bedroom and I said "shhh...." And this kept going on until we had breakfast together next morning.

A very late breakfast, because for the first time in 3 years we had a long lie in!

Today listening to: The Veronicas

Taking the plunge - Sorry!

So here I am, on the brink of a new phase in my life. Am I exaggerating? Most likely, but the fact is that I have been thinking about starting a blog for quite some time already and yet it took until today. Trying to find excuses not to start earlier and getting stuck in trivial stuff like blog design and colour schemes – a nice way of saying that I had to set the right background colour!

But then it hit me like a hammer, the first blog posting is probably the hardest one ever has to write. From here things will get easier by the minute. And therefore it seems best to get on with it.

So, hello world! Like there aren’t enough blog writers around yet, I am going to vent my personal ramblings as well! Please bear with me for a while and see if you like it. As for where this journey will lead me – and you – I have absolutely no clue. Right now I have so many things spinning round in my head and often very strong opinions on basically anything that coherence will not exactly be the keyword of this blog.

So you might find me writing about music, language, fashion, kids, holidays, cultural differences, books, relationships and friendships, and my personal life – to some extent – as a husband and daddy as well. You name something and I most likely will have something to say about it! Well, perhaps I will steer away from politics because this is often a national topic that might not appeal to the enormous and ever growing international crowd of readers that I expect during the months to come! But apart from that I will use my blog as a rather anonymous but really honest platform to really show myself. What you see is what you get, but no, for the time being, I don’t do autographs. Sorry ladies...

Yes, ladies – please let me explain, before I am labeled a male chauvinist pig and this blog is doomed to be banned by all of you. No offence, but I wonder how many men go for autographs altogether? Okay, as a kid you might have found yourself by the side of the football field stalking your favourite player for one, but I think there it stopped for most of us, right?

One more thing I would really like to point out is the fact that another major reason for this blog is to check how good my English actually is. Why? You might have expected as much, but no, I am not a native speaker. I might have reached some near-native level in the past but right now, this might even be too much credit for me. So I would like to see where I stand and how easy – or not – it is for me to write English prose and how naturally it feels.

I share a dream with so many millions of other people around the globe and aspire to be a successful writer at some point in time. But as I am not one to take the easy road, I thought it a fantastic idea to complicate things for myself and not do it in my own native language, (Dutch for those of you who didn’t realize). Isn’t it a splendid idea to start with a disadvantage to all you native speakers around and trying to catch up in the process. Don’t ask me why, but it just feels like the right thing to do. So this blog will serve as a writing exercise for myself as well. So if anyone gets hurt in the process and if me abusing the English language beyond belief might bring tears to your eyes, I am sorry, I am really sorry! But on the other hand, please cherish these words, as I really plan on not using them anymore for a long time.

Sorry and stay tuned!

Today listening to: Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Green Day