IFFR 2004
Mood:  suave
Topic: Night life & other action
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2004; normally I’d go to the big city to see as many movies as possible. Having just returned from a snowboarding trip in France though, it was rather impossible to move on to Rotterdam right away, so I had to stay in my own little city and feed on the small selection in the recently renovated “Art-movie house”. Though I always preferred the big city because of a wider selection in movies and the very special atmosphere, I must say that for the latter one it was really ok this time in Maastricht. The crowd, consisting of all kinds of people suffering Cinemania; young and old, alternative and traditional, students and “working class”, white and coloured... there sure was a good vibe. However, having seen the first film after an already exhausting day I felt so sleepy I couldn’t stay to enjoy the atmosphere. I saw “The Python” from Letland, a movie that in it self had some funny scenes that didn’t have enough impact though to carry the burden of a movie which on itself rather lacked a storyline.

Today was better; starting out with the Japanese “Ramblers” was good enough because even being quite a slow movie with not much of a story as well it was actually amusing enough to be entertained at 10 in the morning. But for me the jewel of the IFFR was definitely the Korean “Resurrection of the little match girl” from Jang Sun-Woo. Rarely I’ve seen a movie with a story of such originality with virtual reality as a main theme. Please stop talking about a movie like the “Matrix”; it doesn’t even come close ! Only “Strange days” (1995) had a story as good as this one.

Flaine 2004; great boarding & broken legs...
Mood:  chillin'
Topic: Night life & other action
Still waiting for government approval from Malaysia, but already took some steps in selling my house. Last weekend we came back from a skiing trip to France. Well skiing; that is: all the woossies went for skiing, but the real men of course took their snowboard for some real action. That this was not the perfect idea for everybody turned out to be very true when one of us made a wrong move when getting out of the ski lift. Even though not taking a very hard fall, he had to be taken to the local hospital with what turned out to be a fracture of the lower leg. Paul and I accompanied him to the doctor’s office. Finally the doctor turned up with the photo’s and put them on the wall. We didn’t even give him a chance tot talk; a glance at the pictures was enough for us to say instantaneously something like "Yep, a tibial fracture; let’s get him to the hospital". The poor guy could do nothing but confirm it and arranged for transport. The days after that we had some really great snow and in between the visits to the hospital we took our advantage of that and did some pretty extensive boarding. I guess it’ll be the last time for me to go out snowboarding with the guys...

Back again... Troubles in Paradise; Zaventem Airport
Mood:  cool
Topic: Everyday life (weirdness)
My flight back to Brussels went quite OK. On arrival, the only awkward thing was the intense cold again. My car was still right where I left it and seemed to be just fine, it even started right away. But when I wanted to drive away and hit the accelerator pedal I found out that it was totally paretic on the bottom of the floor ?!!! Turned out the cable connecting it with the engine had broken. I had to get to a garage to get it fixed. By then, my carefully arranged itinerary was already messed up and I arrived 3 hours late at work.

The test in Malaysia went quite good, as well as the interview. As the matter of fact, they already decided to take me, so it’s just waiting for government approval now. The only other thing still bugging, besides the fact I won’t be paid there, is that apparently I won’t be allowed to work after finishing the masters program because my degree is not recognized ??!! That’s really silly ! I have to find some things out about degree recognition and stuff, and also about possibilities to work in Indonesia afterwards and the procedures for that. After all, in the end my exams will all be British based, so that should be good for something. I still think I’m gonna go through with all this; I’ve really had it with a lot of things over here.

Last-minute to KL
Mood:  rushed
Geez, I can hardly imagine kids nowadays play computer games so often; during my 10 hours plane ride I played Nintendo for half an hour and for the rest of the trip my thumbs really felt numb and sore pushing these buttons all the time... Do these kids have special thumbs ? Do they work out ? What’s their secret ? When I was a kid we played with Lego, but I heard on radio last week that sales decreased dramatically last couple of years....

Happy return to cold areas ?? OK when you're everybody's pet...
Mood:  cool
Topic: Everyday life (weirdness)
When leaving Malaysia I felt quite OK, knowing that I wouldn’t have to camp out all the time in a little room with everything I owned stuffed in a backpack. When I finally arrived in the Netherlands though on Monday morning I knew in an instant why I don’t like living in this country. It was cold and wet and dark; anything you’d expect from a descent Dutch autumn/winter. It’s not exactly my piece of cake. I picked up my car and after thinking for a full minute about whether I was going to drive on the right or left side of the road I decided to stay on the safe side and picked the right one. It turned out to be a good choice and so I arrived after a 2 hours drive in my hospital, because I had to go for a late shift right away. Even though I might not be so happy to be back again the welcoming in the hospital was quite heartwarming. Why I stayed away so long, how they missed me and how quiet it had been while I was away. Ah well, it’s easy to be everybody’s pet when you’re the only male around. But it sure feels good …Even my bosses had missed me and to proof it they had saved up a stack of about 50 patient files that had to be turned into a letter during my coming nightshifts….