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Eating Out

Wild

Thursday, April 9, 2015 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

image-2efe98dd-9dc5-4ba3-b190-650e2d77a652Yesterday, Nienke and I went to the movies with Ingrid for that second movie for her birthday last year… The plan back then was to go see Step Up 5, but we couldn’t plan it before the movie stopped showing. And now all three of us wanted to see Wild.

I met up with Nienke after work, and we made our way to McDonalds to meet with Ingrid, and eat. It had been ages since I’d been there, so it was real fun to go. I had some of the newer things they introduced since last I’d been there.

Afterwards we headed for the cinema and saw Wild. I liked the movie, but it didn’t really speak to me. The scenery was very nice, Reese Witherspoon did a really good job as she ususally does. I understood the character motivations, rationally and emotionally, and the flashbacks were good. The secondary characters were okay to good. But the pacing felt off somehow, a bit too jumpy? Too many short bits in a row maybe. I can’t really put my finger on it.

After the movie we said our goodbyes and headed our separate ways home.

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Eating Out, Friends, Ingrid, McDonalds, Movies, Nienke, Pathé, Photos, Review

Show ’em What You’re Made Of

Thursday, February 26, 2015 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

Oh, the teenage memories tonight! I went to see the Backstreet Boys documentary “Show ’em What You’re Made Of” with Ingrid and Nienke tonight. It was shown in cinemas all over Europe at the same time, and then afterwards there would be a small concert of the Boys shown live. I was a pretty big fan of them during their first three or so albums, in my early teens. I can still sing along to most of the songs if I hear them.

I was over at Ingrid’s earlier this week to have dinner and we got to talking about movies, as we still need to go see one with the three of us for her birthday. We did see Begin Again, but we couldn’t make Step Up 5 work with all three of our schedules and the times it was shown. While doing that, we noticed the Backstreet Boys film in the line up for tonight and we were both interested.

Once home, I showed Nienke, but she wasn’t really interested, so Ingrid and I decided to go with the two of us. I reserved us two tickets, which was a smart move as there were few seats left.  Since we had some time between the start of the show and when I was off work, we figured we go to eat someplace. As Nienke was also in the city in the afternoon, we agreed to eat together.

We settled on old favourite Pappa Joe and I met up with Ingrid, Nienke and a surprise Marleen with whom she had been out and about. We had a good time, but then we had to leave to make the movie in time. Marleen had to go the other way, so Nienke walked us to the cinema.

There, she changed her mind and decided that if the seat next to us was still free (we had near edge seats and the single one beside us was still free when I made the reservations), she would also go. We headed for the info desk, as we couldn’t get the single seat from the machine, and fortunately it was still available!

The documentary was fun, it showed the 20 year history of the band and followed them while they were making their last album and world tour, showing both the fun times and the struggles. Nothing earth shattering, but a glorious view back in time to my teenage years, and a glimpse into the lives they had and have now as people, and not just Backstreet Boys.

Afterwards, it switched to London, if I remember correctly, where the Boys were present for the European premiere of the movie and where they would do a short a cappella concert. They sang about seven or so songs, both old favourites as well as things from their last album. They still sound really good, although their voices have changed some as they have grown older which sounded a little bit strange sometimes especially with the older songs where certain parts are so ingrained in memory.

Posted in: General Tagged: Eating Out, Friends, Ingrid, Memories, Music, Nienke, Pappa Joe, Pathé, Review, Videos

Lilith

Friday, February 6, 2015 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

Yesterday I went to see Claron McFadden perform her musical theater piece Lilith. It was shown in the Grand Theatre, which was fun as I had never been there. I had to work before hand, but had some time in between work and the show since it didn’t start until 20:30. So, I met up with Gert and we had dinner at Pappa Joe’s after which we walked in the direction of the theater before going our separate ways.

The Grand Theatre is smaller than I imagined it would be, and also in a shabbier state. It does have a nice atmosphere, though.

Claron McFadden LilithThe show itself is a two player piece done by McFadden (in the flesh) and Jeroen Willems (on projected video) about the biblical Lilith. In Jewish folklore, she became the first wife of Adam, created at the same time as him, who later left him (as she would not be submissive to him) for the archangel Samael.

In the piece, we meet Lilith in a mostly modern-day setting. She and Adam have separated long ago and she tells us, in speech and in song, of her life both back then, with Adam, and her life after. This is interspersed with Adam, shown on a screen, in a talking-head interview style, who also speaks of Lilith and their life back then, and his current life with Eve and the kids.

Adam seems to have never quite gotten over Lilith, but also cannot live with her free spirit. Lilith struggles. She loved Adam, but she is a free spirit, her own woman, equal to him. As they both speak, and sing, we get occasional flashbacks where the projection changes to a top down view of a bed with Adam in it. McFadden then stands in front of the screen to play her part as if in bed with him while they talk, and argue.

As time went on, and Adam started being weirded out by her passion for life in all its facets and her willingness to embrace it. He becomes more restrictive, and wants her to obey and submit to him, culminating in an incredibly powerful rape scene performed by McFadden in front of the screen.

After this, Lilith left Adam, and ended up with Samael. But over the years, this has not made her happier. The same goes for Adam, he married Eve, had children, but he misses the life that Lilith brought. In the end, both can’t live with, or without each other.

I really enjoyed the show, it was something I hadn’t seen before. I chose the piece because I was intrigued by its description, not only of the story, but also of the fact that Willems’ part was on screen only. I also read he died shortly after the show premiered a few years ago, so I thought that might be the reason, but it was really done because it fits the piece much better. It leaves the focus solely on Lilith, which she deserves.

I am impressed McFadden is able to play with a video projection so well, even though she’s had years of practice with it by now. It must be tough, playing with someone you know isn’t there anymore.

The music wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I had read up on McFadden and knew she was a trained soprano, so I was expecting more classic like music. Instead it is much jazzier and much more down to earth. It takes some getting used to in the beginning, but then you realise it fits the story perfectly.

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Eating Out, Friends, Gert, Grand Theatre, Music, Pappa Joe, Photos, Review, Theater, Videos

Going Out

Wednesday, February 4, 2015 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

20150204_204008Went out to eat with Eva, Ingrid and Mellien again. We went out to eat at Het Koetshuys in October, which was a great evening. So we set out to repeat it and after long planning, we settled on tonight, at Kaap Noord.

I met Mellien on the train, and then we met Ingrid and Eva at the restaurant. I’d never been to Kaap Noord, but it’s a very rugged and rustic looking place. I like it.

I had a salad of smoked chicken and bacon with a chutney of pineapple, red peppers, and cilantro as a starter. Then for the main course I went with a Groninger mustardsteak with herb butter and finished with a cherry mon chou cheesecake for dessert. It was all very tasty, but the dessert was not my favourite. The cherries were kind of dominant, and I didn’t really like the crumble they used for the crust.

After dessert we spent a long time just talking, which was great <3 So long even that I had two cups of tea 😀

When we finally did decide to call it a night, Eva got to her car, Ingrid to her bicycle and Mellien and I headed for the nearest bus stop. Unfortunately, we missed the bus by a minute or two.

Waiting for the next one would mean standing still in the cold for half an hour or more. So we decided to turn back and walk to the train station. We ran into Ingrid who had to ride in the same general direction so she kept us company as we walked. It was a bit further than I thought, though, so that wasn’t very pleasant. We did manage it, and caught the next train home.

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Eating Out, Eva & Jarig, Food, Friends, Ingrid, Kaap Noord, Koetshuys, Mellien & Bas

Waylon

Sunday, November 30, 2014 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

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I went to see Waylon perform at the Oosterpoort yesterday with Kim and Ingrid.

We met up at Mr. Mofongo’s to have dinner first. I had this awesome beef tenderloin with roasted vegetables (red onion, paprika) and chorizo, on a bed of seasonal vegetables (haricots, parsnip, yellow beet, red beet puree, pumpkin and roasted chestnut) with baked potatoes and orange mayonnaise. It was absolutely delicious!

Dessert was a crème brûlée with red berries and raspberries and a glass of amaretto.

20141129_202703We then headed for the Oosterpoort and, once there, found ourselves some good seats. Most people were seating themselves near the stage or standing in front, but we went for a little further away and up. Since he was playing the small room, this was still close enough to see everything, and by sitting a bit higher up, we could see over the rest.

The concert itself started a little after eight and for the next three! hours, no break, Waylon sang, and talked, and it was fantastic. He played songs from his newest album, songs from his previous album and even a Common Linnets song. I was a bit disappointed, though, with that one specifically. It is an emotional song, and one of my personal favourites. He did most of the song very well but decided to mess up the last few lines, in an attempt to be funny, which so didn’t work for me. Besides this minor thing, I loved the rest. I definitely recommend going to see him if you can.

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Eating Out, Food, Friends, Ingrid, Kim, Mr. Mofongo, Music, Oosterpoort, Review, Theater

Lohues

Monday, June 2, 2014 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

I’m back from a glorious night out with Mommy dear. We had dinner at Het Feithhuis on their back terrace. It was a lovely place to sit, but it got a bit chilly quicker than expected. We had an amuse with potato cream and paprika and something, it was quite tasty. For the main course, I had steak and Mom went with chicken. The dessert was the best, it was a platter for two with seven or so (per person) tiny dessert items like pastries, ice cream, fruit and combinations thereof.

After that, we walked towards the Schouwburg to go see Daniel Lohues perform. He writes and sings beautiful songs about life in the dialect of Drenthe. Songs that are deceptively simple and straightforward and can hit you like a brick. Between the songs he told stories and anecdotes in typical Lohues fashion. All in all, it was a wonderful performance.

Posted in: General Tagged: Eating Out, Feels, Feithhuis, Food, Mom, Music, Schouwburg, Theater

Passion

Thursday, April 17, 2014 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

So… Tuesday my new manager, who I’ve had all of two weeks at the most, announced they’re stepping down. No word yet on successor, but that might take a while. Interesting to see what happens with a power vacuum like that.

Yesterday I went to the movies with Gert. We watched Divergent first. He hadn’t seen it yet, and I didn’t mind watching it again. After we had a little break and then went in to see Yves Saint Laurent. That was a very good film. Insofar I’m familiar with the fifties and sixties it seemed to me a fairly realistic film that gave a good picture of who YSL was and how he was shaped by his life and experiences.

We had dinner at Pappa Joe’s and then went for ice cream at Toscana, they have the best selection of flavours ever.

Tonight, The Passion was in Groningen.  A huge musical show and parade to play out the passion of Christ. Various singers played the key biblical figures singing contemporary songs to symbolise the emotions and events of each sequence. Meanwhile a huge group of people carry and follow this huge shining cross to the center of the celebrations. This is the third time or so they did this, and since I’m not a Christian, Easter has little meaning to me in this sense. Since, however, it was Groningen, I did watch it on TV. I tweeted some comments during (and really, they had the stupidest hashtag: tp14…) but in short: the guy playing Jesus had the right vibe going, especially beard-wise. The guy playing Judas is a musical star here and it showed. His voice was by far the best for an event like this and he had this brooding vampire vibe going which worked well.

Capture

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Eating Out, Food, Friends, Gert, Holidays, Movies, Pappa Joe, TV, Twitter, Work

Gone With the Wind

Wednesday, April 9, 2014 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

gonewiththewindYesterday I started at Webcare. Spent the day watching various people work to get a feel for the systems and the work. Today I actually got to do work. Since I’d done it before it was very well doable. I mostly did the stuff I knew and picked up questions about other departments as I went along. I don’t know as much about them as my “home” department, but that’ll come with time. I’m excited, it’s gonna be fun.

After work today, I met up with Ingrid for a night out. I’d bought tickets to a musical theater piece based on Gone With the Wind a month or two ago on a whim. I asked Ingrid if she wanted to come along, and she did. We ate at Satéhuis (yum!) and then headed for the theater.

The stage was fairly sparsely set. A piano on the left, cotton bales along the back and sides, and a sort pyramid-like thing with a giant metal horse on it on the right side. Since the film is rather long (I never read the book) I was expecting them to whirlwind through parts and that they did. The main narrator of the story was Mammy. She spoke about Scarlett and told her life’s story, where the key parts where then played out. The story is familiar I assume, Scarlett (played by Anna Drijver) is in love with Ashley Wilkes except he gets engaged to Melanie. Scarlett sees Rhett Butler (played by Nasrdin Dchar) at the engagement party and is intrigued by him. After being turned down by both men, she accepts a marriage proposal from Melanie’s younger brother Charles and so the trouble starts. The play then takes us through Scarlett’s life where she is privileged to all hell but never manages to be truly happy and inevitably loses everything including the man of her dreams, Rhett.

I really enjoyed the piece. The mix between the scenes, the songs, the set was really good. Plus Mammy’s narration brought the poignant points of that time’s culture and friction (civil war, slavery, the Klan) to attention and reformed them to something still very valid in the current day and age. The actors played well, but the supporting actors had a tad more life in their performances than the main couple did. Their chemistry was okay, but it felt a bit too stiff at times. Even taking into account the period it takes place in. In the end, though, it was definitely a show worth seeing and I’m glad I went with that whim to get the tickets.

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Eating Out, Friends, Ingrid, Photos, Review, Satéhuis, Theater, Work

Grand Adventures

Sunday, February 2, 2014 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

Had a check-up at the hopsital this morning to test hormone levels and such. Check up was a breeze. Bit of small talk with the doctor about how I was (splendid!) and did I have any questions (nope). Then it was on to the Needle Folk to take a couple vials of blood. Results in two weeks.

Then went to the mall with mom. Bought a book about Groningen between 1780 and 1850. Then we picked up Nienke after her exam and headed for the Hema for breakfast. Then we went to Ikea to look for new sofas.

We sat on many and finally decided to go for Ektorp after all. I decided we should get two three-seaters, since our living room is so huge, as well as the comfy chair that goes with it. I also bought a night stand and a chest of drawers for my socks and stuff like that.

With that being done, we headed for the check out and made an appointment for delivery of all the stuff. We got lucky, they could come and deliver the next morning! Afterwards we headed back home. I took a little nap and then got ready for the team outing. We went for dinner at Pappa Joe, then bowling. I had a great time, and even managed a couple strikes and spares. After our time was up, we headed out to go drink some more. I tagged along, but since that is really not my thing, I left pretty soon after together with two other colleagues. Halfway to the station I realised… I had no key. Nienke had a key. I contemplated going back, but figured I could stop by the Parent’s place and get their key, it wasn’t that late. So I went on towards home, and stopped at the Parents. Where I spent 40 minutes ringing the bell and calling them before mom woke up… She hadn’t heard anything. It turned out Dad had, but thought it was the phone and doorbell of the neighbours……….

After all that time I was rather pissed and freezing so I took the key and went along home to go to bed. Only to get up fairly early the next day because…

Sofa delivery day!

ikea1

That is indeed ten packages. The  two big ones are the sofas, the smaller big one is the chair. The three on top are the sofa and chair covers. The long one on the floor is Nienke’s new Billy and the two flat ones below that, the doors for said Billy. Finally, the bigger flat one below the doors is my chest with drawers. Of course I know that Ikea is king of modular furniture and that this would also apply to sofas. But somehow I hadn’t actually thought of the fact that I would be getting lots of boxes instead of ready furniture 😀

Nienke hadn’t come home until the early morning and was still very hung over when the sofas came. So I just left her be and started building, while occasionally sending her a photo. I started with the chair, on the premise that it’s the smallest piece so probably the easiest. And that it was, indeed. The back and the seating are attached so they just folded open. Then it was only a matter of putting some screws in to attach the arms to the frame and the feet to the bottom. Then all it needed was its cover, and done. Monkey approved 😀

ikea2 ikea3

The sofas had the same process, but it took a little longer because of size. Monkey approved of this, also.

ikea4

ikea5

ikea6

We stuffed the old sofas in the garage and then I spent the rest of the evening building the chest of drawers while re-watching Star Trek: Into Darkness. Then today I skipped Pilates, and built the night stand after which I hit relax mode for the rest of the day to finish Last of the Guardians.

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Books, Eating Out, Food, Friends, Furniture, Home, IKEA, Medical, Movies, Nienke, Pappa Joe, Parents, Photos, Sports, Transitioning, Work, World of Warcraft

Off to the Theater: C3

Friday, April 20, 2012 by Tse Moana 1 Comment

A few weeks ago Mom saw a review in the paper of a show by C3, called ‘Wil je in ons groepje?’ (Do you wanna be in our group). She mentioned it to me and indicated she’d like to see it. They were doing one show near here, and that was exactly on her birthday. So I asked her, for confirmation, if she wanted to go, and got us tickets.

Since I did have to work before hand, and the show didn’t start until 20:15, we decided to go out to eat as well. For ease, we decided upon the restaurant at the theater.

So, last night was the night. Mom picked me up at work, and we drove the short distance to the Oosterpoort theater. After parking we headed inside. We were a bit early for our reservation, but we could get seated early. After getting drinks served, the waiter discussed the menu with us. Because Cristina Branco was also performing at the Oosterpoort yesterday, they were having a Portuguese menu and were there any dietary things we needed. We both let him know that the starter, a fish soup, was not something we would like. Fortunately, the vegetarian option sounded great so we opted for that.

Shortly after, the starter was served, a truly delicious courgette soup with cheese and cream.  The main course was a skewer with chicken, beef and pork served with roasted veggies, skin-baked potato and salad (nom nom nom!). While we were eating, I decided to check our tickets to see which of the halls we had to be. That’s when I realised something. We were in the wrong theater…

Instead of the show being at the Oosterpoort, it was at the Stadschouwburg, the theater they’re connected with. We had a good laugh about it, what else can you do. I’d had the tickets for a few weeks already but never really bothered to read them properly, and we’d only seen mentions of Oosterpoort near the review so we totally missed it.

Fortunately our dessert (melon slices with orange flavoured ice cream and a vanilla pastry with cream) arrived shortly so that, combined with our arriving early to begin with, gave  us enough time to walk to the Stadschouwburg. We arrived there with about twenty minutes to spare. Had we been on time for dinner, we’d have been late for the show 😀

The show itself was quite good. C3  is a a cabaret/comedy group consisting of Mike Boddé, Onno Innemee and, this theater season, Jelka van Houten. They sang songs, some more comedic in nature, some more serious. It started off with Jelka singing a love song about New York. Not because New York is that great, but because the person she loves comes from New York. Onno sang a great comedic ‘cuntry’ song about being a cowboy. Halfway through the song it became clear through the lyrics that instead of being a real cowboy singing, it was a boy singing about playing cowboy and the patrons of the local cafe getting quite sick of his repeated Hyippi-ya-yays.

Mike played the piano throughout the evening (he is absolutely great at that) to accompany the songs. At some point Jelka sang a lovely song about not being able to sleep and begging Mr. Goldberg to help her. This led to Mike explaining to her the story behind it, and how it had led to this beautiful piece of music, the Goldberg Variations. In short: there was this count who had trouble sleeping so he went to Johann Sebastian Bach and asked him to compose him some music that he could have played by his court harpsichord (klavecimbel) player, Mr. Goldberg.

Mike then elaborated that the Goldberg Variations are basically the hardest thing to play for a pianist, and that he could not play it all. However, he knew the basic chord structure, so he could make his own Variations. Which he then did: Goldberg à la blues, Goldberg à la Mozart, Goldberg à la Chopin… It was very awesome.

He also dit a dramatic reading about a nice smelling man in a language built of archaic words, screwed around current words and screwed around translations of english words. The way in which he read this (as if he were preaching) and the speed with which he could speak all those out of the ordinary words is a total turn-on for me (I looooove words and language).

Too bad there’s no videos of this, or his Goldberg Variations online, even to just show a hint. Mike Boddé is brilliant with a piano and words.

There were also sketches. This was for me a much more mixed bag. I did not much care for most of them. I just found them unfunny and I had trouble finding the through line of the show and I do like me a through line. Random assortments of things without a discernible connection throw me off, especially when a show’s description makes me believe there is supposed to be a through line.

After the show, we quickly headed back to the car and went home for today was an early start. We had a great night.

 

Posted in: General Tagged: Birthday, Eating Out, Food, Language, Mom, Music, Muze, Oosterpoort, Parents, Review, Schouwburg, Theater
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