We just watched this movie. In a word: beautiful.
A friend has a 100 things to do list, and every time he strikes something off, he adds something. Just to keep going.
I, when I think about it, actually come up with a gazillion things, or only one: seeing Hukurila, the village where my paternal family comes from.
So, what’s on your Bucket List?
Last weekend Riga was the Blondes capital of the world for two days with the second edition of the GoBlonde festival. Apart from aiming to bring together the world’s blondes in one place, it also aims to support a charitable cause: playgrounds for children. Even though the parade on Saturday attracted thousands of people (many of them press and interested young men), the parade was not yet the carnival it aims to be next year. Nevertheless, helped by the brilliant weather, it was a bright and cheerful event, with great participation from a couple of companies like L’Oréal and Air Baltic. All in all, the Go Blonde festival has the makings of becoming a huge international festival. Maybe next year I’ll wear pink socks (like the beautiful brunette in the picture) and a blonde wig for it. Or even go blonde myself for a day, especially if it’s for a good cause.
Simon Tahamata was my football hero when I was starting to play. The smiling winger of Ajax and the Dutch National, and later Standard Liege, Feyenoord and Germinal Eekeren, was a great and creative player. But not only that, we are both of Moluccan descent, which in those days was also an important factor. I remember vividly his farewell match when he stopped playing professional football. It was a true exodus of Moluccan people travelling south to Eekeren in Belgium to see our hero off during a match between Germinal Eekeren and a selection of Moluccan footballers. One of them is now about to finish his career: Giovanni van Bronckhorst. As the number 5 of the Dutch national squad, Van Bronckhorst will play his last matches in South Africa, before joining the national youth squad as trainer. I just hope he’ll bring the Coupe Jules Rimet back to the Netherlands this summer.
The weather in Riga has been great the last week, even though it is raining now. And next to that, we had two visits of friends. It is nice to show our guests around the Riga we know it, and to share what have become great candidates for favorite places – the beach in Jurmala, the view from the Skyline bar, Kronvalda Parks etcetera.
And of course, having people over is a good opportunity to drive/walk around and discover new places of interest. That is how we got to have dinner at Galerija Istaba a few weeks back. This weekend, we visited it again and we like it even more. It’s a restaurant with only a few tables, above a shop where you can buy cool things. The shop closes at the end of the day, but the restaurant part still gives you a good view of it. As a starter you get a ultra fresh salad, with bread and some spreads. For mains, you can choose between different types of meat or fish. I ordered the lamb, while the rest of our party of three had the gambas. There is no menu, and you have no say about how your food is prepared. But when you get it, you know it is only for the better. It all is excellent. Plus, we were extra lucky this visit. In the shop area below, there seemed to be a party of sorts going on, with great live music – jazzy with a parisian tone. It was a great evening and Istaba is really hard on it’s way of becoming our favourite restaurant in town.
Yesterday I went out to play some football. It must have been about ten years ago I did that for the last time, so I was excited. I expected to be in bad shape and rusty, very rusty, but it went better than I gave myself credit for beforehand. I could still control the ball a couple of times, pass an opponent, hand off the ball to a team mate, and even score a goal or two. Although it was just a bunch of guys kicking the ball around, the match was rather exciting. We got behind, then got ahead again, until we got behind again. In the last 7 minutes we equalized, and pulled in front. At one point, with about a minute and a half on the clock, I got a high ball. I was in between three guys from the other team. But that wouldn’t be a problem. I was going to control the ball, turn, loose the three opponents, pass the ball to a free team mate who would give the final blow.
It didn’t happen like that, of course. I’m not that good, and I aged a bit. So, what actually happened was that when I tried to control the ball, I twisted my left knee so badly I could hear it crack. In the hospital they told me I had torn (or severely strained, which seems more likely) some of my knee ligaments. I am in pain now, have a knee immobilizer, can barely walk and will be back to normal in about 6 weeks. So no running for a while, no football and no participation in the Riga half marathon. And these first days I put an extra strain on my dear, personal, Florence Nightingale, who’s absolutely taking great care of me. But all in all, the feeling of roughly 58 minutes of pure football fun was worth it.
Spring officially starts around the 20th of March (in the northern hemisphere) and has to do with the tilting of the earth’s axis towards the sun, lengthening the days. It is when nature comes back to life after hibernation. In the Netherlands, though, we had a somewhat literary tradition that marked the ‘real’ first day of spring. Columnist and writer Martin Bril was always the one calling this first day of spring. In his definition, the first day of spring, called skirt day, was that day when as if by some sort of mystical sign, women collectively decided to shed their winter outfits, leave their panty hoses in their drawers and wear skirts for the first time that year. Skirt day, or ‘rokjesdag’ in Dutch, is not about women wearing more revealing clothes, but about the impression that they are tuned in to some message of nature that there is one day that actually marks the start of the sunny weather season. A message men do not know about, until they see it on the streets by the fact that women collectively wear skirts that day. Or maybe, it is about the perception of men. By the way, the phenomenon was also referenced by Dutch beer Wieckse Witte in a commercial.
But things sort of change. Living in a country with a different meteorological rhythm, makes that skirt day is on another day here than in the Netherlands. Above that, the last time that Martin Bril called skirt day was last year in April, 20 days before he passed away. Nevertheless, yesterday was a really beautiful day here in Riga. The weather was great, people were outside in the parks and on the streets. And it really looked like women collectively had shed their winter outfits. So, in honour of Martin Bril, I call yesterday Latvia’s 2010 Rokjesdag.
B and I walked up the three crosses hill this time. It was a warm walk, because the temperature is really rising in the Baltics now. Yesterday, when we drove down to Vilnius, we could almost see the temperature rise on the on board thermometer. Vilnius is about 300 km south of Riga, and more land inward, so it should not be that surprising. But it was nice anyway. On the top of the three crosses hill, just by the three crosses, we had a bit of a rest after enjoying the great view over Vilnius. If the weather is clear enough, this is certainly a nice thing to do while in Vilnius.
After that, and a lunch, we went for a little drive north. About 26 kilometers from Vilnius, in the direction of Moletai, the geographical center of Europe can be found. A group of scientists from the French National Geographic Institute calculated in 1989 that the center of Europe is at 54º54’N – 25º19’E, which places it close to Vilnius. A stone, the European flags, a compass card and a work of art mark this place, which is now surrounded by a golf course. B and I were the only visitors, but maybe we were so lucky as to just miss the bus loads of tourists. At lunch we saw several of these groups in the center of Vilnius.
When we returned to Riga, it turned out that the weather there had improved as well. Let’s hope it sticks.
Recently we premiered at the Latvian National Opera (LNO). Not that we had a show on stage, but we made our first visit. With our weekend guest, we saw the revival of the 1925 version of LNO’s Madama Butterfly. For a very reasonable price, we had three of the best seats in the house, and it was a great evening. The opera was a good performance, the main hall a beautiful, typical opera hall, and the atmosphere was great. Definitely a taste for more. Our next visit will be soon to see the premiere of Sleeping Beauty, a ballet. Can you imagine getting tickets for that at 4 Ls a piece?
When we decided to move to Riga, of course we had done some research on internet. One of the things I found, was the Riga Marathon. I was putting on kilo’s again, after I stopped running due to first an injury, and then sheer laziness. Next to that, I thought it was a nice way, as they advertise, to see the city from a different perspective. Once I am in the rhythm of running regularly, it becomes nearly addictive, but I need something to motivate me to start again. This was it. So, I registered. Not for the full marathon, that was too much of a challenge, but for half the distance.
As my twitter followers and facebook friends have noticed, I indeed started running again. Hesitantly at first, but more regularly now. And I need to. The marathon is in 7 weeks, and I am not trained enough to run that distance. Now I have a new inspiration in the form of a book: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by HarukiMurakami. It is a very personal collection of thoughts about running, but highly inspirational, emotional and hilarious at points.
So, if you are a runner, and have the same issues as I with getting started again: find a challenge, and read that book. You’ll be a happy runner again soon.
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