10 hands, one piano

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With the risk of this song playing in my head the rest of the day, I just had to share this. After Walk of the Earth presented their concept of 5 people on 1 guitar there have been many followers. But this one is pretty awesome so I’m sharing it to the world:

Craft ideas: scratching pole for your cat

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My cat loves to scratch his nails on the carpet, stairs, couch and so on. It was surely time for a scratching pole, but the bigger ones are always quite expensive so I decided to make one myself.
Things you need:
– an old bookshelf
– 24 meters rope
– cd holder
– fluffy cushion
– old scarf
– saw
– hammer
– paint
– glue
– nails

1. I used an old bookshelf for the top and the bottom of the scratchingpole. I cut in into two parts, one part bigger than the other so you get a stable base. Cost: €0,-

2. I bought a wooden cd holder to use as the middle part of the scratching pole. I would attach the rope on to this part.Cost: €2,- second hand shop


3. I painted the part of the shelf that’s gonna be the bottom part. I just searched the shed in the backgarden and found some blue paint. Cost: €0,-

4. I bought 24 meters of rope in a  hardware store and I wrapped this around the cd holder, glueing it at the corners. Cost: €10,-
5. Then I attached the top and bottom part to the cd holder and put an old fluffy cushion on the top so my cat could chill on that part. Cost: €0,-
6. At last I wrapped the rest of the cd holder with an old scarf so the whole thing would be covered. Cost: €0,-

And the result is there:


Easy, cheap and fun!

Bucketlist #57. Watch 50 movies! (21/25)

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This year, I want to watch at least 50 movies that I haven’t seen before. This is part three, movies number  21 – 25. Also check out my 2012 movies nr. 1-5, 6-10, 11-15 and 16-20 for movie ideas!
Please note: The descriptions I used are from the Internet Movie Database.
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Film 21 / 50  ’Take me home’  8 June 2012
Comedy / Romance 2011, IMDB Rating: 6.0
Description: In New York City, Thom is broke and jobless, illegally working as a taxi driver just to make some quick cash to try and pay his rent. Claire is a successful business-woman, but personally she’s in shambles trying to recover from a bump in her marriage and then comes the phone call that her distant father is in the hospital. Not knowing what to do, Claire hops in Thom’s cab and orders him to just drive. And so he does. The duo find themselves in Pennsylvania and make the rash decision to drive across the country. On the road to California, there are many detours, as the obstacles and secrets force them to learn about themselves and each other.
My opinion:  I finished watching the whole movie, but it’s not one of world class. It’s not the kind of movie that makes you laugh out loud, makes you cry or touches you. It’s a movie to just watch and don’t think too much. Very predictable.
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Film 22 / 50  Loverboy‘  12 June 2012
Drama 2003, IMDB Rating: 6.2
Description: Denise is unsatisfied with her life when she meets the charming Michael. He spoils her with luxuries and romance. Denise falls for him and thinks he’s the perfect guy, until he asks her to sleep with his friend for money.
My opinion:
It’s a Dutch movie, which I always find pretty shitty, but I do like the subject of the movie and I think it’s good people are warned about these things. Not a great movie, but good enough to keep watching.
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Film 23 / 50  Intouchables‘ 5 July 2012
Drama / Comedy 2012, IMDB Rating 8.6
Description: A rich quadriplegic, living in a mansion in Paris, requires a live-in carer. A young offender turns up for an interview, but he is not really looking to get the job. However, to his surprise, he is hired. The two men then develop a close friendship.
My opinion: A very well deserved 8.6! One of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time! I laughed my arse off watching this movie, fantastic actors (and the Senegalese dude is not bad looking at for a few hours), very touching story.
If there’s a movie you MUST SEE, it’s gotta be this one!
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Film 24 / 50  ’Mirror Mirror‘  30 August 2012
Comedy /Drama / Adventure 2012, IMDB Rating: 5.6

Description: After a beloved King vanishes, his ruthless wife seizes control of the kingdom and keeps her beautiful 18-year-old stepdaughter, Snow White, hidden away in the palace. But when the princess attracts the attention of a charming and wealthy visiting prince, the jealous Queen banishes the girl to a nearby forest. Taken in by a band of rebellious but kindhearted dwarfs, Snow White blossoms into a brave young woman determined to save her country from the Queen. With the support of her new friends, she roars into action to reclaim her birthright and win back her Prince in this magical adventure comedy that will capture the hearts and imaginations of audiences the world over.
My opinion: Wel.. you don’t want to compare this movie to a fantastic movie like Intouchables, but Mirror Mirror is entertaining for a lazy Sunday. (or long planeride..!)  Some funny moments make the movie still nice to watch.

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Film 25 / 50Savages’ 20 September 2012
Crime / Drama / Thriller 2012, IMDB Rating 6.8

Description: Entrepreneurs Ben, a peaceful and charitable marijuana producer, and friend Chon, a former Navy SEAL, run a lucrative, homegrown industry – raising some of the best weed ever developed. They also share a one-of-a-kind love with Ophelia. Life is idyllic in their Southern California town… until the Mexican Baja Cartel decides to move in and demands that the trio partners with them. When the merciless head of the BC, Elena and her enforcer, Lado, underestimate the unbreakable bond of the three friends, Ben and Chon – with the reluctant assistance of a dirty DEA agent – wage a seemingly unwinnable war against the cartel. And so begins a series of increasingly vicious ploys and maneuvers in a high stakes, savage battle of wills.
My opinion:  Pretty good movie. The movie has funny bits (and horrifying ones!) and the story is quite entertaining. The only thing is, it’s such a loooong movie! I think they could’ve cut quite a few parts of the film, this way you kind of lose focuss. But on the other hand.. 2,5 hours of looking at Aaron Taylor-Johnson is not all that bad 😀

Now that’s impressive!

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I love art. However, I don’t understand anything about the concept ‘Modern Art’. Some artwork is pretty cool, but what’s on the ground floor of the Museum of Modern Art in New York is just a piece of **** to me. I don’t understand why just randomly hanging your old coat on the wall is making you bloody rich. For me a good piece of artwork is something I wouldn’t be able to make myself, or is so creative that it’s really impressive.  Someone who really impresses me is Lorenzo Duran. He makes art from dried leaves he finds on the streets.

What do you think?

Bucketlist #54. See a dinosaur ✔

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25 August 2012

Some people know this about me, most people I haven’t dared to tell this yet. I’m talking about my fascination for dinosaurs. Most children go through the dinosaur fase, I’m still at the peak. I don’t want to be a paleontologist,  dusting off sand for hours and putting miniscule pieces of bone together is not my cup of tea. It’s pure fascination; these giant creatures used to populate the earth. Incredibly bizarre.  When I had to babysit a five year old boy in September last year I couldn’t be more thrilled. Books and movies about dinosaurs everywhere. Together we spent days watching movies and documentaries and reading all the books about the subject.
I think the it all started when I visited a park in France when I was a little girl. In the park there were many dinosaurs made lifelike, including sounds and movement. I remember full well how that massive T-Rex roared at me, and in my eyes he was real. When I close my eyes I can still picture how it moved and sounded, just like all the other dinosaurs at that very park. Other than that experience I also had sleepless nights after watching ‘The land before time’, where a baby dinosaur wants to find his parents accompanied by his friends. Ofcourse T-Rex tries to eat time many times. Terrifying. Still I’m curious, just like I am when I watch horrormovies. I watch them, even though I know they freak me out and I won’t be able to sleep in the dark for weeks.
When my mum told me she wanted to take me to New York I immediately knew where I wanted to go. Ofcourse I wanted to see the statue of Liberty, the 9/11 memorial and the Empire State Building. But the National History Museum would make a dream come true. Real dinosaurs. I’ve seen them! Call me childish but I don’t give a shit. They’re massive! How can you not be fascinated?!
 

How facebook can change your life forever. True story!

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You know them, these programs where people reunite after not seen eachother for decades. Brothers and sisters meet for the first time after being seperated from birth and parents and children get to know eachother after adoption. These stories are always touching and rarely without tears. Two weeks ago I got dragged into a story like this, that changed two people’s life completely.

Four years ago I went on a holiday to Ireland. Even though me and my friend were there for only a week, I fell in love with an Irish guy and so I kept returning to Ireland many times over the years. Here I met Tom, one of the closest friends of my boyfriend’s dad. I’ve met Tom a couple of times when visiting him at his house. Tom leads a very solitary life in his tiny cottage without electicity or bathroom. He still lives in the 60s, having the occasional smoke and listening to Bob Dylan records over and over again. He’s an interesting fella, who’s stories are as well interesting and funny as sometimes completely insane. A very kind man who you never get bored of talking to. During one of these nights at Tom’s, he told me about a woman he used to be in a relationship with. She was Dutch, just like me. They were together for two years when she left him, her being six months pregnant. After the birth of their daughter she sent him a card, saying the babygirl is his and a little birthcard with the baby’s name and birthdate on it, as well with an address. Tom wrote to her many times, but never got any reply. After a year he gave up, but still thinking of his daughter every single day. At the time he told me this story, it had been twenty years ago. He asked me if I might be able to find her, since I also live in Holland and she must be around my age. I told him I’d try.

Back in Holland I immediately tried to google her name. No results. Then I tried facebook and to my pleasant suprise five profiles popped up with the right first- and surname. Unfortunately all the profiles were blocked so I couldn’t see if the birthdate would match. Also the pictures were too small to see if she would be around twenty years old. I decided to send four girls as Robin is also a guy’s name and one of the profiles had a picture of a dark-haired guy in front of a ‘snowhite and the seven dwarfs’ wall  a message saying;

Evalina                                                                                                          25 June 2012
I have a bit of a unusual question; I’m urgently looking for a girl with your name: Robin …. , born on 11 January 1991. I can’t find a birthdate on your profile so the question is: are you the one I’m looking for? If you are, would you please contact me? Regards,  Evalina

For weeks I waited for the right Robin to reply to my message, but I never got any replies. Six months later I went to visit Tom again and he asked if I found his daughter. I told him I tried but I couldn’t find her.

A year and a half after I had send the message and had completely forgotten about it I opened my facebook and the red sign told me I had received a message. I opened the inbox and my heart skipped a beat. In my inbox was a message from Robin. A bit shaky I opened the message and it said:

Robin                                                                                                                  25 June 2012
Hey Evalina, I just read your message because it gotten into the wrong inbox. My name is Robin …. What’s up?
Regards, Robin

For minutes I’ve been staring at the message. Is it really her? Did I find her? She said it’s her right? Or does she just mean that’s her name? She wasn’t specific about the birthdate though. I kept reading her massage over and over again and decided to call my boyfriend. All hyper I told him that I might have found Robin. Now what’s the next plan? Now that I’d probably found her I all of a sudden realised I had to act on it. But what to do now? How do you tell someone you don’t know that her biological father is looking for her? How would she react? Does she even know about his excistence? What if she doesn’t and she already has a dad who she thinks is her real dad? I decided to e-mail my boyfriend’s dad.

Heya! How’s everything? To my big suprise I received an e-mail today over facebook from.. Robin! I’ve found her! No doubt its her; her name and birthdate match. Ofcourse she asked me whats up. Now I’m in need of your advice on what to tell her, because she might not know about Tom or the fact that maybe her dad is not her biological dad. How to go about it?

Ofcourse he was thrilled with this news and decided to tell Tom about it immediately. A few days later I received a letter from Tom, thanking me so much for finding her and advising me to make sure it’s her first. He gave me her mother’s name and asked me to ask her first if that name would also match. Then, if she’s aware that there’s an Irish connection to her life.

This sounded like a good plan to me, so I send her back the following message:

Evalina                                                                                             25 June 2012
Hey Robin, 
Wow, I really didn’t expect to ever hear from you and find the right person. Just to make sure: you were born on 11 January 1991? Is your mother’s name Eva? So sorry, it all sounds a bit strange, I’ll tell you what this is all about when I’m absolutely sure I got the right person. Evalina

My reply must’ve creeped her out a little bit because she responded:

Robin                                                                                                     25 June 2012
Hey Evalina, 
I was indeed born on 11 January 1991 and my mother’s name is Eva.. To be honest I find it rather strange to be approached this way by someone I don’t know but clearly knows a lot about me. So an explanation would be nice.. Robin

At this point me and my mum, who I had told the whole story, were rather nerveous about the whole thing. This was it, there was no way back, it had come to the point where I had to tell her about her dad. What would she say? I took a deep breath and e-mailed her back.

Evalina                                                                                             25 June 2012
He Robin, 
I can very well understand this is creeping you out, I’m sorry. I would probably feel the same way if I were in your shoes. I’m honestly telling you, I don’t know you either and I’m certainly not a stalker. I’ll tell you what the story is:
My name is Evalina, I’m from Amsterdam and have an Irish boyfriend who lives on the east coast of Ireland. Through him I’ve met someone who’s looking for you. Do you have any idea who this could be?

I thought this would be the best approach. If she knew, she would know who it is. If she didn’t.. I’d tell her to ask her mum. What happened next might be too private, but I’ll broadly tell you what happened.

She knew about it. She immedialy knew who I was talking about. Obviously she was shocked. I can’t blame her. I was bloody nervous and it had nothing to do with me. After her not responding for a while I finally got a message saying she was beyond happy to hear this news, she’d been looking for him a few years ago, but couldn’t find anything on the internet. So she had given up. She had thought she’d never know who her father was. When she was younger she had found a letter between her mother’s old mail. The letter was for her. It had the lyrics of a song, which she’d listened to all her life when she felt bad, knowing somewhere in the world was her dad, caring for her.

Now two months later, they’re sending letters back and forth, and getting to know eachother after 21 years. As far as I know, they’re getting on fantastically, and they might meet in the future. Tom is beyond happy and has a new meaning to his life. He now has a daughter.

As a thank you I received a pile of different kinds of chocolate!

PS All the names, dates and other details are changed in this story to keep the people involved anonymous

Walk your bike

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In Holland we love to cycle. We ride our bikes everywhere, no matter what the weather is like. Rainy that is, mostly. But cycling long distance sometimes makes your bum feel like you’ve been kicked in the arse a few times, pretty damn sore. When I came across this kind of bike, I immediately felt this is something for me. This new developed bike is more for people who just like to, hang out. The bike has no saddle, but a belt that keeps you from falling back to earth.

 

Check out the video, this looks awesome! Should we all change to this type of cycling?

 

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