Today in the Dutch newspaper:

Esmee Denters from Holland has done it! Eight and a half million YouTubers have looked at her clips, and 12 record companies have shown interest in her singing…

Five months ago she started making little ‘karaoke-movies’ with the webcam of her sister. By now she has recorded over 40: covers of Beyoncé, John Legend, Mary J. Blige, and some self-written songs.

Have a look…

Many huge record companies have invited her to talk about a contract. She recorded a song with Destiny’s Child-singer Kelly Rowland. Flew to Sweden to record one of her own songs with Macho Psycho, producer of Pink. And she performed at a dinner of People Magazine, America’s biggest celebrity-glossy. And what did she say: ‘…Never have done THAT before!’

She is flippin’ 18 years old… what the hell am I doing? Even better…what the hell is Sarah doing? We should buy her a webcam! Go girl :D

for SuNnY people

I was so pleased to find out that Alan Arkin had won an Oscar for the best supportive male actor in Little Miss Sunshine! Last weekend I saw this amazing movie, and I can recommend it to everyone!




The rest of the winners…I have no clue.
Oh yes, sorry, the Departed! Also a good movie…I guess… I have to admit that I saw it twice when flying to and from India, but I fell asleep both times. Not good advertisements for the movie, but let’s say I was tiiiiiired ;)

cOoL

This is amazing...Found it on a random blog...and thought...
i LOVE the Dutch!!! (I'm a bit biased though)

TiReD ?

Such a sad day

Not much to say

Finally weekend

But feeling like crap

Not even chocolate can help me today

Tiredness is getting to me

...

I think I'll just go back to bed

sorry,

but I had to take the music off... I have tried to link some real carnavals-music to the slideshow, but no luck

Maybe next year :D

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Roet, geel en greun

I’m in Holland. I’ll be spending some time with my Nan, as she is feeling a bit ill lately. But Carnaval has arrived to my town, and the first day i arrived home ‘den optoch’ (parade) is preparing to start! I get dressed in about 5 minutes, try to convince my parents to do the same (which I give up after 5 minutes) and off we go.

The parade is FAB! It's about 18 degrees! Children are all high on sugar and candies, which is thrown out by the millions by the prince and princess of the parade. Initially I help some small kid who hasn’t been able to catch any candy, because some other stupid kid dressed up as an evil pirate is ten times faster. But after a while I get slightly hungry and decide to go for it myself. And there is this big beautiful truck full of princes and princesses… I shout and hold out my hands. These guys must have good stuff to throw, not just some old sticky caramel gum from last year…no…Let’s say I’m hoping for some good quality chocolate or a bag of crisps… but what do I actually catch? A bag of Thai Green Curry with Fish Balls (instant fried rice)!! I cannot believe it!! What the Hell???


Some good news though: the beer cost 80 pence a glass!!!!!!!!!!! Do I have to say more?

After the parade we end up in a small local bar, where I meet Audrey, who becomes my ‘sjoenkel’(dance) -friend and had lost her boyfriend (who appears to be about 50 years older than her!), a woman with a massive Mexican mariachi hat (totally drunk and whose boyfriend lived in San Diego), a man who is convinced he knows me from the counter at the local supermarket, and a guy whose butt has grown to the chair at the bar. I think he only gets up if he needs the toilet (at least I HOPE he does…). He spoke Dutch, so he’s not even a real local (we speak this dialect which sounds like a mixture of German and Danish), and so I decide to make fun of him for an hour of two :) The songs are amazing, and I am shocked to find out how many of the lyrics I still know!!

Seven hours later and we queue up at ‘d’r Ben’, our favourite snack bar for friet and a frinkandel speciaal (you HAVE to try this sometime). I LOVE this place...however, my parents only go there in real emergencies... which was yesterday because no-one remebered their first name by time we arrived there ;) I met a girl who I went to primary school with and I made some more friends, while my food got cold. The whole English ‘eating is cheating’ becomes real, and we decide to go home after 1 last pint with Audrey.

It was a great day!

This morning I still had a green-golden-purple face, and a smallie hangover. Tonight I’ll make my Thai green curry with fish balls. I’ll let you know what it tastes like…Alaaf!

this happened yesterday...

Yesterday I went to an Open-Mic night with Sarah. Not just for fun and beers although that is the main reason of our weekly Tuesday meetings. The reason for my one and only beer in a week had a purpose this time. Let me explain:

Sarah has an amazing voice. Sarah can play amazing songs on her guitar. And so people who have heard her play are sure she will be the next Sandi Thom, although that would be hard if she keeps playing only for friends. So I took it upon me to push harder and make her perform on stage.

That’s why the open-mic night at Trof , a great place in Fallowfield! I loved it 4 years ago, and I still love till this day. This night it could have been great as well, weren’t for Beavis and Butthead hosting the night. I have not seen two more bizarre looking guys, totally in their own bubble, who love Satan-music (if you don’t know what I mean, please wait till you see me next time and I will scream some Satan-music in your ear…) and will make sure everybody will have a headache within 30 minutes after entering the place. If I would be capable to kill, their heads would be sitting on my desk right now!

Anyway, the monkeys decided that maybe it would be a good idea to let the artists perform who have been on stage for about 10-15 minutes, getting their heads blown off by the amplifier that doesn’t work half of the time. This scene had made a great picture. I was too annoyed to actually think of making pictures. Shame.

The first artist was a numb head, singing out of tune, about ‘a friend with a tumour, but there is nothing to worry about’. I didn’t know if I had to laugh or cry. It was really out of tune… The second one was a girl, with a great voice but a wrong choice of songs. Dunno why the first guy got to sing three ‘songs’, and this girl had to go off stage after only two! She was good. I think girls are more self aware, and will not perform if they aren’t SURE they are good. Anyway, next one. Two actually. One with a guitar, one with a mandolin. Also a depressive choice of music, but the second song had more rhythm, which made my night. However, by this time my mood had sunk into my shoes, which was amplified by the two monkeys who turned up the bizarreness and the volume.

I walked home. I didn’t need to say more to Sarah. She got the point I hope. Next week I’m in Holland, so no Trof. But when I am back the week after, I expect her to blow the monkey’s heads off. Seriously.

news (without capital n)

Ok, waking up at 7-ish is in the past, since I couldn’t keep up with the early bedtime. Of course Sarah dragged me out for some blablabla and beer, which knocked over my whole believe system (getting up early and WORK)…but we had a great night :D
Last night I ended up watching Friends till 1am, after a movie (Bridget Jones…I love you!) and the most annoying news EVER.

I dunno if I ever elaborated about the news in Britain…but it sucks. WITH a capital S.
Sucks. No sorry, with 5 capital letters. SUCKS.

This country is so incredibly selfish, it has no clue about the rest of the world!! Thirty minutes news means 20 minutes about terrorist attacks, which have been prevented apparently (and let’s be honest, we NEED to hear the same update every 5 minutes, plus a load of crap discussions about what if and maybe and…), 8 minutes about some rich Sheik who wanted to buy the Liverpool team (is he insane???) plus some real sports, one minute about HIV in India, and to finalize 1 minute last-update from this arshole standing somewhere in a street in Birmingham telling us that no arrest have been made so far, so we are clueless about this whole terrorist attack…

If you have no news…SHUT UP!!!!!!!!! Or try some worldwide news for a change!! Fidel Castro, Microsoft Vista, Unemployment in Europe (lowest in last 13 years!!!!), Illegal to sell dogs and cats in Belgium animal shops (hahaha), something, anything! Or let me watch the end of my movie!!!

Thank God I missed that whole Big Brother episode. That must have ticked off millions of sane foreign people!!! What the fuck?

I need more sleep…