Random Ramblings (sort of)

Since my last two blogs were in Dutch, I have decided to write this blog in English. Besides, for my new job I will probably have to use the English language quite often, so I better practice a bit. This is good practice territory lol :D.

I will start tomorrow at the VU hospital. Curious what this new job will bring. Hopefully some more useful working experience. And I hope to learn more about the medical profession. Thanks to my job at the Radboud, I know quite a bit about Gynaecology, and I hope to broaden my scope at the VU.

A short note about the apartment I thought I had in Amsterdam. Paid a deposit along with one month of rent. But in the end, I became the victim of swindling practices in our capital :( :( :( :(. Result: no apartment. The entire story is too long and complicated to tell on my blog. So, you will hear more about this story some other time (if you haven't heard it already). Fortunately, I am not homeless now ;). I have family that I can stay with in Amstelveen, extremely grateful for that. Travelling between Oss and Amsterdam every day, that would have been too much for me.

Now on to something more fun, no stories about "fake" apartments anymore. Traditionally, I always (well almost always) mention sports in my blogs. So I won't disappoint this time ;). A friend of mine reminded me of another great sporting event that I forgot to mention (booh for me!). The "Vierdaagse van Nijmegen," the biggest walking event in the world. This year 39.933 people participated in the "Vierdaagse" and 36.504 brave walkers eventually finished on July 23rd. I sometimes dream of participating in the "Vierdaagse," I would love to walk on the "Via Gladiola" on the last day. But, alas, I am no walker (and I cannot even imagine walking 160 kilometres in four days, oy). I think there is a bigger chance of me participating in a marathon hihi. Unfortunately, I have crappy knees, so a marathon will also be way out of my league. My poor knees would not be able to handle the 42+ distance I am afraid! Still, I allow myself to dream from time to time :).

Today is the last day of the European Athletic Championships in Barcelona. Just watched the men's marathon. Ridiculous, the speed of those men, especially considering the extreme humidity/heat in Barcelona today. Usually, the Netherlands does not play a big role in Athletic Championships. But this time "we" did quite well. Young athletes Eelco Sintnicolaas (decathlon) and Yvonne Hak (800 metres) both won the silver medal! Hopefully, we will see more great things from them in the future. They sure have the right mentality! And the Netherlands made it into the finals of 4x400 metres relay. The relay team consists of runners who did not even participate in the individual 400 metres. So it is quite an achievement to make it into the relay final then....

Oh, perhaps I should mention something about the Tour de France as well. Ended last Sunday. Alberto Contador won again, this time by a very narrow margin (compared to last year). Dutchman Robert Gesink did very well in his first real Tour de France. He finished sixth. Hopefully he will be able to improve (especially in the time trial) in the coming months. Then on to the top five in next year's Tour. Or maybe even the podium!! Who knows!!

Next week the Eredivisie, soccer, will start. Might give my own prognosis if I have the time. I am terrible at predicting stuff like this. Although, I did predict the right World Champion soccer. But that was just pure luck :D.

Aah, just remembered that it is now almost a year ago that I moved out of my apartment in Brussels!! And that move was not uneventful. First, while cleaning up my apartment on July 31st, I bumped into the door (very smart, since that door had always been there). I went to the hospital and it turned out that I probably broke my little toe (toe is fine now). When I eventually moved out on August 2nd, my mother hit the corner of the bed and eventually received six stitches in her leg. Still, I enjoyed my time in Brussels. Loved the city, and its bonbons :D. Met some nice people that I am still in contact with. Also visited Paris, Strasbourg AND London.

I am not going to write too much about London, the city I visited three times in one year :P. Lol, on July 29th it was exactly a year ago that I saw La Cage aux Folles for the first time (lets just say that I have a great memory :D). I simply adored this grand musical and its leading men Roger Allam and Philip Quast (especially him!). I was also amazed how smoothly the supporting actors, AKA the Cagelles, were able to move around in dresses and high heels (NOTE: this musical offers a wide variety of drag queens lol). I tried on high heels last week and I practically fell over ;).

I am tempted to see La Cage aux Folles again when I visit New York (for the sixth time, ridiculous, but I simply love this city, dislike its baseball team though) in October. This La Cage has a different cast, big grumble (I am very picky when it comes to this musical :P). Although I am sure that it is still going to be a spectacle with Kelsey Grammer (from Frasier) and Douglas Hodge in the leading roles. Still have some time to determine if I am going to see La Cage. Otherwise, I will have plenty of other musicals to choose from :D.

Alas, the musical I am most desperate to see is not on Broadway. That musical is Mary Poppins and it just premiered in Melbourne, AUSTRALIA. My interest in this musical of course has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Philip Quast plays one of the leading roles (Mr. Banks) :D.
Of course, it would be no punishment (none at all) to see Quast perform as Mr. Banks lol!! Oh and OFF THE RECORD: I am still missing a stage door picture!! This is not really OFF THE RECORD, but well, just felt like sharing.... ;)

Here a fragment from a review I found online: "As the austere and repressed patriarch George Banks, Philip Quast is superb. This role in lesser hands could be a one-dimensional caricature, but Quast brings to it depth and gravitas as well as that marvelous voice. He is well matched with the lovely Marina Prior as Mrs. Banks."
NOTE FROM ME: What makes this role even more interesting, is that the strict Mr. Banks is such a departure from the character Quast played in La Cage, the very flamboyant night club owner Georges (for which he also received very positive reviews btw). To play both Mr. Banks and Georges so convincingly requires a certain (understatement) amount of talent.

Now on to the other actors in Mary Poppins, they also received rave reviews, most notably the leading lady Verity Hunt-Ballard (have to say she looks a little like the Dutch Mary). Her first big musical role and the critics love her! Great job! And the show is said to be even better than the Broadway version. Then it should be very, very good indeed! When everyone is fit that is. I read somewhere that, this weekend, most of the cast fell ill with a cold virus! (it's winter in Australia right now).

Here some clips from opening night, when the entire cast (fortunately) seemed to be just fine...

From the Herald Sun:
http://player.video.news.com.au/heraldsun/
(select the entertainment section and then move to the second page of this section, nice clip).

And from Ten News:
http://ten.com.au/watch
(Under the Entertainment Scoop you will find the piece about Mary Poppins).

Pff, it would be so much easier if I would be interested in the Dutch version of Mary Poppins! Well, c'est la vie ;).

This is it for today. Now I am going to prepare myself for my first working day in Amsterdam!

PS. Almost forgot about the Champions Trophy, hockey. Go Netherlands!! Will be difficult though to beat favorites like Australia and Germany. But you will never know. Hope that new coach Paul van Ass will be able to inspire his young team! Darn, the Dutch just got their asses kicked by Australia: 6-3!! Now they should just win all their remaining matches and eventually beat Australia in the final. If it would just be that easy ;).