Adolf the camera cat

Couldn't resist posting this picture I found on the intriguing website CatsThatLook LikeHitler.com. Another fun site for cat people is Mr. Lee's catcam, showing pictures of a cat-mounted camera, which automatically takes a picture every few minutes. For everyone else who is wondering what their cat is doing all day...

Dutch audiences and the devaluation of the standing ovation

I am really puzzled by a phenomenon I encounter in Dutch theatres increasingly often. Normally, when you appreciate the performance of an artist, you applaud. When you are really overwhelmed by the performance, you might even give the artist a standing ovation. Wikipedia's definition of a standing ovation is as follows: A standing ovation is a form of applause where members of a seated audience stand up while applauding. This action is done on special occasions by an audience to show their approval and is done after extraordinary performances of particularly high acclaim. Mind the words "special occasions" and "extraordinary performances of particularly high acclaim".

The problem is, that in theatres in the Netherlands, it has become common practice to stand up for every performance, the standing ovation has devaluated! The difficulty with this new tradition is twofold. First: what do you do when you liked the performance, but didn't think it was brilliant enough to stand up? All the other people around you automatically rise to their feet, because that has become the normal thing to do. When you stay seated, you might send the message that you think the performance was very bad, which you don't want to do. So the only option seems to be standing up as well, but that doesn't feel right either! Peer pressure in practice... Second, what do you do when you think the performance was outstanding? Standing up doesn't show this anymore, since this has become the normal way of applauding. So how can you show the artist that you are really very much impressed?

I wonder, is this a typically Dutch phenomenon? Am I the only one who is bothered by this? How did this happen? Can we stop this devaluation, or can we think of new innovative standing ovations?

Testing Flock

I'm testing a new web browser called Flock. Interesting about this browser is that is combines a lot of social networks (Facebook, Flickr, etc.), blogs (including Blogger) and that your contacts from these sites and Gmail, Twitter, etc. are automatically shown in the browser. One click on the blog button allows you to post a message on your own blog, your friends latest status on Facebook and their latest posts on Twitter are shown, etc. It looks quite good, but is also feels kind of creepy that your browser 'knows'  all these things of you when you log in for the first time!

Another thing to post is a picture of my new car! Just bought it today, don't even have it yet! But I like it, a shiny blue car, previously owned by the Dutch Ministry of Defence (including a nice army green first aid kit!!). This cuty will bring me to Leuven every day from April 1st onwards!

Our cat seen from below

We have three clear skylights in our kitchen roof. Our cat Babet sitting on one of them results in funny pictures!

Last day in Stockholm

This is the Blue Room in City Hall, where the Nobel Price Banquet is held every year. We actually assumed that the official ceremony was held here as well, but it appeared to be the banquet and dance only. Impressive building though! After a tour we walked to the old city centre again for the Royal Palace, where we were the first to enter and had the palace for ourselves because all the other visitors stayed outside to watch the change of guards. This was pretty creepy, a depressing, dark palace with high ceilings and heavy marble stairs with nobody else but us! Luckily, the guardess had no-one else to watch but us, and we of course looked very dangerous, so she closely followed us around to make sure we made no pictures. Next, we took the elevator to Södermalm (really, see picture, it's an outside elevator which takes you to 38 meters high, where a gangway brings you to Södermalm!). There we did some shopping (bought a t-shirt for €3, which probably doesn't really fit into our eco-friendly travel goals), and wandering around. We also visited R.O.O.M., which is a more posh version of IKEA, with interior design stuff (and cappuccino). We retuned to Södermalm for a veggy dinner (to compensate for the shirt) and some great pies (again, really, they know how to make pies here! Any pie, blueberry, raspberry, chocolate, nuts & caramel, they're all fantastic. This is worth a trip on it's own...).

Sunny outdoor day

Today we had great weather, sunny, the snow was (almost) gone and it was less windy then before. We started the day with a search for the right bus to Djurgarden, which appeared to be 5 meters from our hotel (which we of course found out after running around for 20 minutes). We were very much impressed by the Vasa Musuem (see photo above), which displays a war ship that sank almost 400 years ago. In the 1960's it was lifted out of the water and completely restored. The ship was in a brilliant condition and the museum was great! The ship was obviously the centre of attention, but the building was beautifull and the information in the museum very good (interesting, not too much). After seeing the Vasa ship we walked to Skansen, the world's oldest open air museum. Very quiet and very nicely located on a hill with great views over the city. This was also a very entertaining museum housing a Snicker factory (which turned out to be a furniture workplace), lots of very old buildings, huge Dala horses ;-) and typical Swedish animals (reindeers, owls, seals, wolves, etc.). Whoever can tell us the difference between an elk and a moose, please do so!

Snow & museums

Museum day today. We started (after a cappuccino in Kaffekoppen) in the Nobel Museum, which was for quite a large part under construction, unfortunately. After a slippery walk to Skeppsholmen we explored the Moderna Museet and the Arkitekturmuseet. The Morderna Museet was nice, not too big and lots of different pieces. No photography allowed, wich an attendand told us after two illegal pictures. The Arkitekturmuseet was a bit chaotic. Good cafe, with nice salads, sandwiches and chocolad cakes ;-). In the afternoon we briefly visited the St. Jakobs Church (see picture) and the Dance Museum, which had fabulous costumes and cutely dancing toddlers in tutu's (seriously!). Finally, the Kulturhuset was quite interesting. It is a sort of place where beginning artists can show their work (some nice pictures, clothes, etc.) and people just lounge around in designy seats or cafes. Now we're back at the hotel and going for dinner later.

White

Yesterday evening it seriously started snowing! At least, for us Dutch people it is serious snow. The Swedes don't really seem bothered by it at all. Unfortunately, it turned out to be really slippery when Anita and I walked back to the hotel yesterday after some Murphies in an Irish pub, so we're hoping not to break any legs today.

The very scarce rays of sunlight of today...

Our first day in Stockholm was rather cold and windy. The occasional rain and wet snow didn't particularly made things better, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway! We started the day with a (partly) organic breakfast and then we took off for Gamla Stan, the historic city centre of Stockholm. We wandered around, saw some churches, did some shopping (hats, gloves, USB card readersand other essential items), had fabulous cakes and cappuccino at Chokladkoppen and just strolled through the old narrow streets. Now we're having an intermezzo in the hotel, going for dinner later on. More culturally sensible activities tomorrow!

Flying green

Ellen discovered that you can fly green these days...