A few weeks ago Ted Judah contacted me about making a podcast about me and my Voorwerp for ‘365 Days Of Astronomy’ and it came out a few days ago. I only heard about it the day before and life got in the way of me ‘blogging’ about it sooner. In a very good way though…
My friend Graham came to visit me from Thursday till Sunday. I had those days off from school anyway and he managed to pull himself away from his business to visit this little country. On Thursday we went for dinner and a walk in one of the tourist spots in Limburg: Valkenburg. It’s nice to look at places like that through the eyes of a foreign visitor. We watched a film afterwards and the next morning our mutual friend Marcel, a.k.a. LP, picked us up for lunch at Zuyd University.
The Friday afternoon was all about making music, which we did in the music classroom (which has everything you want for making music). We played and we sang until it was time to go for ice cream in Epen. The ice cream guys over there are rather famous in Limburg, as they sell the biggest and the best ice creams, with a lot of fun. Marcel let me drive his car, to improve my skills, and Graham was amazed by the hills we have here. It is a beautiful area indeed.
After that we went shopping together and enjoyed our dinner on my cozy balcony, watching the Sun go down – making place for the stars, with candles, wine and a guitar. Add the good company and what more do you need to feel life is good?! Especially with the nice weekend still ahead of us. The next morning Marcel would come and pick us up again, to go to the theatre in Kerkrade, for The Joelfeest.
The Joelfeest is an evening organised by students and teachers from Zuyd University, which you can compare to a sort of open podium night. The acts do audition first though, but you can expect singing and dancing as well as cabaret and comedians. The atmosphere is always brilliant and I was on that stage a few times, when I was still a student. In fact, the picture with my first blog here was taken in the dressing room backstage when I was in my final year. Anyway, Marcel played with a few acts – with among some of them friends of mine – and Graham would enjoy the evening, even though lots of it would be in Dutch.
The next day we had a look around Heerlen, when I realised I still didn’t write about the podcast. But with Graham having to go soon, we just enjoyed the view and the company, until he indeed had to get ready for his trip back to ‘The Big L’ and I started writing this story.
The 365 Days Of Astronomy, for which Ted interviewed me, is a project which will publish one podcast per day, for all 365 days of 2009 – the International Year of Astronomy. The episodes are written, recorded and produced by people around the world and you can find mine on their website, on the 21st of May. It was fun to do. I think it was 5.00 am in the USA, where Ted’s based, when he called me through Skype and I like how he put it all together. I hope you’ll enjoy it too.
When we finally finished our ice creams, this friendly cow came to lick my arm.
Picture: Graham Bowes.
Inge, Frank, Marcel and Laura on ‘The Joelfeest’ stage, during rehearsels.
Picture: Graham Bowes.
7 Comments
Thanks Hanny and Marcel for such a lovely weekend of music, good company, food and fun. Looking forward to the next time
x
Thank you too!
x
good blog Hanny!
and what a nice joelfeest picture Graham!
it was indeed a lovely weekend…
Glad you guys all had fun, i wish I could have been there
Hi guys, glad to hear the weekend was a success, and Graham that last picture awesome!
Thanks Henny, good to meet you btw
Hi Hanny, this was a nice comment that someone posted after listening to the 365 podcast:
“Listening to Obama talk to the Atlantis’ crew and this WONDERFULLY done podcast this morning, gave me one of those feelings of realization. It is because of events like these and what surround them, humans should live for. They are the epitome of what meaning is. They speak about accomplishment, perseverance, the spirit, the spiritual, etc but from a larger point of view, they are inspiring and gratifying. It made my day, thanks! – Nico Camargo”
Thanks again for all your help Hanny.