Month: December 2012

I managed to land two tickets to the upcoming Neil Young Concert at the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam on June 5 next year.

The last time Neil Young was in Holland, the tickets were sold out within no time and I missed him as a result.

Fortunately this time around, my music-minded son Maarten found an article about the concert in the morning newspaper and asked me if I knew.

I dropped everything, ran upstairs, fired up the computer and went online. Then before it was too late, I forked out two hundred euros for a couple tickets, but it'll be worth it.

Too bad that I have to wait more than half a year before the concert.

This is what my iPhone looks like (not today though).

Have a look at this video it's pretty good.

She Likes to Dance. She has the fire,
but it's burning now, from hand to hand, from palm to palm, floating in
the air she tries to hold it there.

-- Neil young, She's Always Dancing

I would say that the best way to approach things is with an open mind, but that is easier said than done. It's not as easy as it was in the good old days, things are more complicated now.

You've got to get things done, and there's not much time to think it over, make sense of the situation, understand what is going on before making important decisions. The deadline is approaching quickly, watch out or else.

So there is not much room over to hesitate, just get the job done or else. Don't panic, just do what is expected, whatever that is.

Talking with people isn't that easy, and figuring out what they actually mean compared to what they want to say is a challenge in itself. Try to be patient and understanding.

Step in their shoes, listen carefully and do not be afraid to expose yourself, that is what it is all about.

In the book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying a nurse has recorded the most common regrets of the dying which are:

1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I hadn't worked so hard.
3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

Looking at myself, if I were suddenly to come to realize I'd be dying tomorrow, I'd also regret items 1, 2, 3 and 5 (not 4). However, in order of importance I'd say 5, 1, 3 and 2.

Here's the newspaper article where I found this.

Since I hadn't really played much golf in two months, I was afraid that I'd be duffing and shanking the ball all over the place. Despite the weather I decided to give a go anyway.

I was the only one at the driving range this afternoon, I mean who'd be crazy enough to go to the golf club in such lousy freezing weather? So it didn't really matter how poorly I hit the ball, it was just me and mother nature blowing wind and rain at me in cold bursts of inclement disappointment.

For starters I chose the pitching wedge and placed it carefully behind the ball. Looked in the distance and focused my attention on the yellow flag at one hundred meters. I took a grand swat at the ball, my first swing in ages and there it went. The ball sky-rocketed upwards, straight as a whistle, and landed about three feet from the yellow flag. How's that possible?

And that's pretty much how things went as I worked my way through the three buckets of balls. Bang, bang, bang. I did mis-hit a couple balls, shanked twice and duffed just once. In general much better than I ever could have expected. Not bad at all, I guess there's still hope. The magical groove of golf is still ingrained in my mind and body.

An interesting trend though was that the more balls I hit the worse the shots became. Not that they got really bad, but there was a tendency to hit the ball less purely and start pulling it to the left. Like at the beginning you are slightly stiff, just stiff enough so that the plain of the swing stays in line and the swing is not quite hard enough that the chances of hitting fat or thin are much less. The more I swung the looser my arms and hips, and thereby the wobblier the plain of my swing. Harder to control, more concentration needed, something that I definitely hadn't practiced in awhile.

Pulling the ball to the left, consistently to the left, how come the ball is going over there? Well, got to practice some more this week and in the weekend. Next year more stellar rounds and possibly an even low handicap, we'll see.

While I slept last night it snowed like mad, just as they had predicted. When I awoke I could sense the extra weight pushing down ever so slightly on the roof of the house.

The creak of winter and an occasional layer of snow breaking off and sliding past the trees.

I looked out the window. As far as I could see in every direction the world was covered by a blanket of white. The usual morning sounds were buffered by the softness of winter, no sounds at all, different muffled sounds.

My youngest of four kids Maarten has passed his driving test with flying colors, and now he's the fourth in line for a driver's license. Congratulations young man.

I figure that in total all kids included the driving lessons alone cost more than six thousand euro's. That's quite an investment I would say, but all part of the job of being parents these days. A worthwhile investment.

Before I realize it, he will also be bugging me to use the car to go out, pick up on girls, and terrorize traffic.

I'm sure glad that phase is now finally all over with.