20070521

.: Headache
This weekend was kind of sucky, as I was afflicted by a massive, multi-day spanning headache that I couldn’t shake until late last night.

.: World Press Photo ’07
On saturday afternoon, despite my headache, I made it to the World Press Photo exhibition at the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam. I love going there each year, but I completely missed it in 2006, so I was determined to go in 2007. The photos were powerful and awe inspiring as they always are, and the topics were more diverse than they had been over the last few years. There was only one section dedicated to the war in Iraq, which surprised me, but there were sections on sport, war in Lebanon, climate change effects in Africa, poverty (in Chicago), hunger in Africa, and breakdancing. Powerful, invoking positive as well as negative emotions. Beautiful.

.: Dennis’ Birthday Present
However, besides that it was cool, because I finally got to give Dennis his birthday present, which was the culmination of weeks of organising, hindered by finding a good company to do what we wanted to do, get the funds together by convincing Dennis’ friends that they should participate, scheduling things, and scheduling problems due to illness. Yesterday, Dennis, Richard and I drove to Lelystad Airport and even up until the point where we walked in the aeroplane hangar he wasn’t entirely sure what his birthday present was. When I told him, he was very pleasantly surprised, and very happy with his gift. We sat out in the sun while we waited for his instructor and talked about all kinds of things as we watched planes fly by. The weather was nice so we were all in relatively good spirits (damned headache!) Then the instructor came, who was a nice elderly man with a lot of pazzaz who calmly explained to us which figures Dennis would do while in the air. It was so obvious he loved aerobatics, and his enthusiasm rubbed off on us. By the time he was done telling us which figures and how many G-forces Dennis would have to endure, I was even more jealous than before.

Richard and I got to watch the aeroplane do its acrobatics while sitting in the sun. It looked like a little hornet going every which way with amazing speed and agility. It looked very surreal, you don’t realise that someone’s up there, controlling the aeroplane (or at least, trying to) and working his arse off. That much became clear to us when the plane landed and came taxi’ing up to the hangar. We could see Dennis, with a big grin on his face, was bathed in sweat. Taking four or five G’s apparently takes a lot out of you. Cool!

.: Charity and investment
There’s an elderly man, obviously of diminished mental faculties and blind, who stands at the Grote Kerk in Amsterdam every saturday with a bag around his neck in which he has a tape-deck and he plays music. He holds out a copper cup, rattling with coins to the beat of the music. I always give him something when I pass him, because I cannot bear to walk past him and not give him anything. I was happy to see that he traded his bag/tapedeck combo for an electrical organ. He made a depth-investement that will certainly pay off, I think, since the music is clearer and he looks less like a beggar and more like a street musician. I was very happy to see that. :)