Beer

I was chatting with a friend the other day. She was doing a case study on beer bottles and asked me what brands of beer I have tried. I did try a list but then it dawned upon me that the list is very long.

Heineken, Kronenburg 1664, Cardinal, Feldschlossen, Hopfenperle, Amstel, Grolsch, Bavaria, Foster's, Carlsberg, Bitburger, Beck, Warsteiner, Lowenbrau, Braugold, Erdinger, Veltins, Peroni Molson, Harp, Bishop's Finger, John Smith, Carling, Bintang, Anker, Stella Artois, Stella, Budvar, Pilsner Urqnuell, Fin du Monde, Duvel, Chimay, Tiger, TsingTao, Asahi, Sapporo, Singha, Chang, Budweiser, Miller, XXXX Castlemaine, Victoria Bitter, Corona, Desperado, San Miguel, Estrella Damm, brands that I forgot after trying it, lots of local microbreweries, and the list goes on and on.

While I was reading TIME magazine there was an article on a bar called Delirium Cafe in Brussels. That place is now on top of my "places to go" list.

Canterbury (again), Bestie & Burnsie

I woke up Friday morning, looked outside my window and saw that there was about 10cm of snow. Yippee!! Then I realised I have to drive to the airport and get a flight to London City. A good time to test my car in winter condition.

Got to the airport in one piece and the plane managed to take-off even though there was abot 20cm of snow at the airport. Landed in London City an hour and a half later and it was blue skies without a single snowflake in sight.

Took the bus then tube then train to go to Chiswick to meet up with my girlfriend, then had some breakfast (at 11am), took tube again and had lunch with a friend (at 12.30 am), pottered around in paperchase then took tube and bus again to London City to pick-up car and drive to Canterbury via the M2. Got in Canterbury earlier than expected. Spend a nice weekend there.

On a sidenote: George Best - the best footballer ever not to play in a World Cup - and Richard Burns - a former WRC champion - both passed away this weekend. :(

Snowflake

It's freezing here. It was really nice in the beginning of November, at points it was even 20 degrees and sunny. Nobody believed it was November already. Then this weekend the temperature dropped and suddenly it's freezing cold.

And today I saw the first snowflakes of this winter!

Here's hoping for a nice and snowy winter...

Tomorrow morning I'm off for a nice (and cold) weekend in the UK. Have a nice weekend...

Everything iPod

When I was in Montreal I picked up a book titled "iPod, Therefore I Am" by Dylan Jones. It tells the story of the Apple, of the iPod and of the music of Dylan Jones. A great book if you are a music fan like me, better yet if you are an iPod fan as well. Turns out that I'm not the only one who seems to be obsessed by an iPod.

Since I got my new used car I couldn't play my iPod on my car anymore. It was frustrating as hell as I had to bring my CDs to my car. So I looked around for ways to make my iPod play on my car stereo. I went to this multimedia car mechanic who offered a solution for CHF 580 (around USD 650) where he connects my iPod through my car stereo via the CD changer input. Sound quality is really good but is very pricey. So I looked around on the internet and found that Griffin has a RoadTrip. It's better than the iTrip so I went straight to ebay and found one there for half the retail price (including shipping).

I just got it today and it works really well although the sound quality is not the best. Oh well, it gives me time to save money and get a better solution. But for the moment I am happy that I can listen to my iPod again on my 5 minute drive to and from work.

Honestly, I cannot leave my home without my iPod. I think it's the best invention ever.

Becks in Geneva

The England football team arrived in Geneva on Thursday evening for the friendly game against Argentina. David Beckham was interviewed by World Radio Geneva on Friday. Overheard from the interview was this bit of conversation.

Reporter: "So David, have you ever been here in Geneva?"
Becks: "Er, y'know, eh, yes... er, no... er, have I been here? Hmmmm, well, y'know, I'm not sure if I've been. I don't know."

Reporter: "So David, do you like Geneva then?"
Becks: "Er, y'know, Geneva is really nice y'know. It's a beautiful place, the view is amazing. And it's amazing that a country like Geneva will host such a big game on Saturday. Thanks a lot to Geneva."

(ok, words are not exactly the same but you get the drift, don'tcha?)

Red Eye vs Flightplan

Nowadays it's pretty much the norm in Hollywood to come up with two movies around the same time that are quite the same. Armageddon and Deep Impact. Antz and A Bug's Life. And now there are Red Eye and Flightplan, both suspense thrillers that take place on an airplane.

In Red Eye, Lisa Reinert (Rachel McAdams) is flying back to Miami on a late flight. Before the flight she meets Jackson Rippner (Cillian Murphy) and it turns out they are seated next to each other. What she doesn't know is that Jackson know a lot about Lisa and when he confronts her, he has this evil plan where she has to play part or she will lose her dad. It's a Wes Craven movie so the story goes quite well even though the ending is a bit naf. But not as tacky as Flightplan.

In Flightplan, Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster) is a mom whose husband died a week before and is now flying back with her daughter Julia from Berlin to NY. In this big plane she somehow lost her daughter and ends up searching the whole plane for her daughter and at the same time panicking some passengers. At one point she just seemed like a delusional mom but then suddenly the plot changes. The build-up was great (the first 45 minutes) but after that it just went down as if it was falling into a bottomless well.

Both these movies are not what you call quality movies. But they are entertaining. Red Eye is entertaining because of Wes Craven's storyline (the man behind Scream) and Flightplan is entertaining because of Jodie Foster. Both movies have their red herrings and plotholes but that is Hollywood these days.

If you can only choose to see one of them, go see Red Eye. At least you get to ogle at Rachel McAdams (or Cillian Murphy if you're a girl). The rest is just the same.

FC Thun - Ajax

When UEFA made the draw for this year's UEFA Champions League Pools I was thrilled when I found out that my beloved Ajax is in the same group as FC Thun. Not because FC Thun was - on paper - the weakest and most unknown team from all the qualifiers but because it means I can go to the FC Thun - Ajax game in Stade de Suisse, Bern.

Unfortunately, when the tickets went out I couldn't get hold of any and it was sold out within hours. So I frantically searched the internet and made biddings on the localricardo site. Everytime I bid on a couple of tickets I was getting outbid or the price was ridiculous. But I kept on looking and last Sunday I did another bid. This time I won the auction and got a ticket.

I received my ticket yesterday morning for Sector C6, balcony.

Yesterday during the day - while I was checking train schedules for Bern - my cousin from Amsterdam sent me a text message. "Are you going to Ajax - Thun tonight?". I replies very simple "Yes". Turns out that he was on his way with a couple of mates of him to watch the game as well.

So we met up just before the game. His mate insisted that I should try swapping my ticket so that I can sit with the Ajax fans. Otherwise it won't be nice for me sitting by myself surrounded by Thun fans. We tried and failed in our first attempt. We tried again with another ticket seller but didn't work either. But then we thought, let's just try to go in. After being checked by security we made it to the top of the stairs where the tickets were scanned electronically. My ticket was obviously rejected but then we pleaded to the woman to let me through. And she did let me through.

So there I was, watching FC Thun vs Ajax with all the travelling Ajax fans. It was very good, lots of chanting and singing. I had the impression that the travelling Ajax fans made much more noise than the Thun fans. Around 750 people must have outscreamed the other 30,000.

The game itself was very tense. Ajax managed to win it in injury time but they didn't play as good as the can. Oh well, they finally scored some goals and they won the 3 points needed.

"Ole Ole Ajax Amsterdam Ole Ole!!"