Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Today there is some sad news for Ajax fans. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is leaving Ajax for Juventus in a bis transfer. The big Swede has agreed the terms and is moving to Torino today and will play against his former club in the Champions League.

I like Ibrahimovic. He is one hell of a player. His technical abilities are superior and he has shown it to a whole lot of people. During the Euro2004 he scored a stunning goal against the Italians. Or his goal for Ajax in the Champions League 2002 against Celta Vigo. Or his latest effort, a goal he scored against NAC two weekends ago when Ajax trashed NAC Breda 6-2. Fortunately Ibrahimovic has left the Ajax fans with that memorable goal. Amazing goal!

I'm also lucky to have seen him in action. Lyon vs Ajax, Champions League 2002. Zlatan received the ball on the right flank, just in front where I was sitting. He played with the ball to confuse the defender. At that moment I knew he was a special footballer. He's tall but he can hold the ball like no one else and has the ability to run with the ball or do tricks that you normally think only Ronaldinho can do.

I guess Ibrahimovic needed to change clubs. He can only go so far with Ajax and he's done a lot for the club. So I'm wishing him all the best of luck at Juventus. As long as he doesn't score against Ajax in the Champions League.

"I'm a one way motorway"

Happy Birthday Wiz!

1984-2004.

Oh Grow Up!

A friend of mine called me up yesterday after she read my blog entry and asked me "What happened in Amsterdam? How much did you grow up?". I told her nothing happened in Amsterdam, except for partying, and that I grew 1 cm. I wonder why she had to ask me whether I've really grown up a bit or not.

Isn't life a constant process of growing? As a kid you grow physically and as an adult mentally. Even though I still act like a kid, my body is an adult, so me too I should be growing. Everyday. Don't know how, don't know what. It's not a process you can stop and not something you can compare day to day. But sometimes, you just realize that you have been growing up.

Remember when you're a kid. You measure your height everyday. Obviously your height won't change overnight, but if you compare the marks between two years ago and now then you can see that you have indeed grown. Same goes mentally and it is constantly happening to all of us. You as well.

I guess I just needed somewhere else, some different place and different people (although still dear friends) to realize that I have grown up. A bit. Not much. I mean how grown up can I be when I still did a couple of - what some people might call - 'irresponsible' things?

Growing up should be fun.

Mystery

Last weekend was spent in Amsterdam. A place very close to my heart, because I was born and raised there. My main reason of going was to go to Mysteryland, the big party festival. But I was also there to meet friends, meet cousins, have fun, show the way to friends who are over, and obviously to party!

It's funny how in one weekend I feel a lot of things were going on and I became one weekend more wiser, stupider, funnier, desperate, victorious, naughty, or whatever. But it doesn't happen all weekends, only a few. But this weekend is one of those weekends were I grew up. A bit. And it made me realize some stuff. Just some.

Mysteryland is awesome. 50,000 people partying to different music. From hardhouse to chill. There were about 15 stages with different music iun each one of them. The big DJs were playing as well. Paul van Dyk, Tiesto, Erick Morillo with Tommy Lee on the drums, Benny Banassi, Sven Vath, etc. Hed Kandi had their own pavillion. Everyone was happy even though it was muddy. All in all just a f*ckin great party! I had so much fun.

I also got a new Ajax poster for my office cubicle wall. A new season, a new poster.

"Take it and you'll feel relaxed and light"

Off to Mysteryland

I'm leaving for Amsterdam tonight. For this party:


"You gotta fight for you right to party!"

The Dream Team no more and King Arthur

With the olympics on, everytime I turn on the telly there is some sport going on. It's pretty entertaining watching these athletes do their best to fulfill their dream of getting an Olympic gold. Yesterday there was some basketball between the USA (aka The Dream Team) and Puerto Rico. 11 out of the 12 USA players are from the NBA and the squad includes the likes of Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson, Stephon Marbury, and LeBron James. These multimillionares are considered among the best in the world, playing in the best league in the world. On the other side, Puero Rico is just a poor team. Some of them have NBA experience but that's only a couple of players and even them were basically NBA rejects. None of them are multimillionares and in comparison to the Americans, well these Puerto Ricans are just poor.

So Puerto Rico duly beat USA 92-73. It's not just a defeat for the bling-bling multimillionares, it's a humiliation. But it just shows that The Dream Team was only a real Dream Team in 1992 when it had the likes of Jordan, Bird, Magic Johnson, etc. Nowadays, the USA basketball team is a mere mortal. It can lose, it has lost and it will lose again.

I watched King Arthur last night. I knew bits and pieces about the legend of King Arthur and his Knights. What I didn't know is that in Britain there are high snowy mountains. Or that Lancelot looks a lot like Kirk Hammet. Or that Arthur took the sword from his dad's grave (didn't he take it from a stone or something?). Or that Guinevere didn't have anything with Lancelot (weren't they lovers before Arthur took her as Queen?). Or that the Knights came from Sarmatia (this is probably true). Or that the Woads lived deep inside the forests just like some ancient tribe. But what I do know is that Keira Knightley is hot!

Another thing: Absinthe is a nice drink. It's makes you high not drunk. Too bad it's illegal so it's hard to come by...

"You are my best friend here at this party"

Athens 2004 has started

Yesterday was the opening ceremony of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. It was funny seeing all the athletes come walking in with a videocam in one hand and a mobile phone in the other, obviously trying to tell their mommys that they are on TV. It's not just the spectators watching the athletes, it's the athletes watching the spectators as well. But it just got to Belgium and I left for dinner.

For the next 2 weeks it will be sports all around. There are lots of sports but it seems that swimming and athletics are taking the spotlights. In swimming everyone wants to see Michael Phelps beating Mark Spitz's record of 7 gold medals. In athletics there is such a huge doping scandal I don't even know who's not banned from running. But there's also football (my money is on Argentina), tennis (Roger Federer?), gymnastics, etc etc.

Anyway, there will be stuff on TV for the next two weeks and that will lead to some discussions and there will also be scandals. Some heroes and some villains, and the winner taking it all. Enjoy the Olympics!

Wednesday Special

I'm still busy with my iPod. Looking for songs, importing CDs, correcting song infos, creating playlists, etc. One of my aims is to get the songs and (if possible) make the playlists according to the latest Q (1010 songs you must own). If not, then at least the 10 songs that someone MUST have. I have about 5 of them on CD, a couple on vinyl, and some I just have to purchase somewhere. Maybe when iTunes will be available here.

Other random stuff:
* The weather is getting crap here. Last night I went out wanting to have a nice drink. I didn't count on the rain that was pouring all night long. Today as well, the clouds have already gathered and it looks like it's going to rain. Hey, now it's clearing up again.
* My knee is hurting everytime I try to bend it. I think there's something wrong with the cartillage, so I'm resting it for a while. A while for me means about two days. Maybe less. But I have to rest it otherwise I won't be able to run and play in September. My elbow still hurts, but I've given up on that one.
* I just ordered a couple of CDs from Amazon. I've been looking for these CDs for ages and can't find them here. But I'm sure by the time I get the albums from Razorlight, Ambulance Ltd and The open, I will find those albums here. It's always the case.
* I need the new Ajax squad poster. The one I'm looking at everyday (it's on my office cubicle wall) is from the 2003-2004 season and it has players that already have gone away or should/might go away: Andre Bergdolmo, Cristian Chivu, Andy van der Meyde, Cedric van der Gun, Abubakari Yakubu, Jelle van Damme, Wamberto, Sander Boschker, Petri Pasanen, Jari LItmanen, Nourdin Boukhari and Hatem Trabelsi. I'll get one when I go to Amsterdam next week.
* Friendster update: I'm at 207 friends but feel to lazy to add people. I open it to see what's on the bulletin board but I don't spend a lot of time on it anymore. Maybe it shows how good of a friend I am? That I prefer direct interaction instead of virtual friendship.

Anybody out there who wants to go out on a date with me sometime? Only one condition: must be female. If you're interested you can call me, send an sms, e-mail me, or just leave a comment.

"I want to get away, I need to get away"

iPod

I finally got it. An iPod. It's a bit weird that a music lover like me took ages to get an MP3 player. First I thought I would do fine with a portable CD player. But after a while I felt that one CD at a time is just not enough. Then I heard about the iPod mini, so I decided to buy one. At that time it was only out in the US and here in Europe it's been on hold.

The iPod mini finally came out two weeks ago. I ran to all the stores that carry apple products, but none of them had one. Then I kept coming back everyday and hassling the same guys. They all said "we don't have any". At the same time, the 4th generation of normal iPod came out. With a price difference of only 80chf, I'm getting 16GB more space. The only reason I wanted the iPod mini is because of the color.

But I had enough of waiting. I found a discount coupon for 6% and bought the normal 20GB one. And I love it! I've been playing around with my music, trying to put in all the music I have, creating playlists, looking for rare mixes on the net, etc.

They say that battery life is not good at all with the iPod. So what? At least I have one and it's good. I'm a happy man right now.

Oh, and here's what's on my iPod at the moment. I'll put a link on the right bar and will update it everytime.

Sven

Although I'm not an England fan when it comes to football, I do follow the news. And what is in the football columns lately is news about Sven-Goran Eriksson, the Swedish trainer of the England national football team.

Apparantly he had an affair with a woman who is working within the FA. On top of that, this woman had an affair with Mark Palios, the FA ex-president. Palios resigned a couple of days ago due to this scandal. But just so you know, Sven is unmarried and was involved in an affair before, with Ulrika Jonsson.

Anyway, what startles me is that Sven's position is being considered because of this affair he had. Not because of his achievements with the England squad in World Cup 2002 and Euro 2004. Which I find weird.

Since becoming coach of England in 2001, what has Sven done? The team have only one moment of magic so far, beating Germany 5-1 in Munich for the 2002 World Cup qualifier. That's it. In the World Cup 2002 England didn't do really well but went to the quarter-finals before being beaten by a Ronaldinho free-kick and against a 10 man Brazil as well. In Euro2004 England again looked shaky and in the quarter finals lost against Portugal on penalties.

On top of that, Sven has been using the same dull tactics over and over again. He has too much confidence in Beckham, when the whole world can see that he is not playing at the level he used to. He still picks Emile Heskey despite being an aboslute donkey. He plays more defensively than Italy. If this was in another country he would have been fired long ago just based on the results. Look what Holland did to Dick Advocaat. Or Germany to Rudi Voller. But instead, Sven got a contract extension which goes on until 2008.

And now he has this affair, an affair where both parties are not cheating on a spouse, and suddenly the English FA is considering Sven's position. What's wrong over there? For me, I don't care who he shags as long as he can bring results. No results, then he's out. Simple. But then again the two previous England coaches have been fired because of non-footballing issues too. Tabloids have more power than on-the-field results...

Oh well, enough about Sven. All I care about is how Marco van Basten will do with Holland. I'm telling you, San Marco will be Holland's saviour!

Aquaparc and Lake Sensation

Saturday I went to Aquaparc with my friends to celebrate my birthday. I just want to be a little kid again and what better place than a waterpark with slides?

There were 9 of us, 6 guys and 3 ladies. From the minute we hit the waterpark, the guys are acting like little kids. Running to the entrance (and pushing a couple of kids out of the way), changing into a swimsuit in record time, and before the ladies have even found the way to open a locker (it is fully automated) we guys were already ready to hit the slides. So the ladies made their way to somewhere else and we just ran up to the best slide. It was 8 seconds (10 for some slow guys) of exhilarating fun. Pure adrenaline! The minute we get off we just run up again. And again. And again. Oh how good it feels to be 8 again!

We did all the slides - even the boring ones - and then finished off at McDonald's next to it. The perfect 8 year old birthday party! Waterpark and slides can be such fun.

After that it was time for the Lake Parade. Well not the parade itself, because we missed that but the Lake Sensation which is the party afterwards. An unbelievable amount of people were on the streets dancing to different kind of dancing music - house, techno, jungle, drum n bass, even 70s disco (which I think should be banned from such an event).

But at 03.00am exactly all music stopped. Instantly. All 20 stages. On the dot. And that was it. If you want to party more you have to go to a club somewhere, by which you get there at 4, pay an entrance fee, and get kicked out at 5. Or you can go home. What you cannot do is party more. Even if you are at the peak of your partying time. That's Switzerland for you.