Holidays

When looking at the latest and greatest in Independence Day activities my attention was drawn to the Nathan’s HotDog Eating Contest (wikipedia link). This is an interesting contest, that I could see my Mom-in-Law, Carolyn, participating in. Next year I have to persuade her to participate. I will definitely come over to take the pictures. The contest has been dominated by Joey Chestnut the past few years. How can someone eat 68 HDBs (Hot Dog and Buns) in 10 minutes?? Carolyn: don’t worry, yes? Last year’s female winner ‘only’ ate 41 HDBs. You can do that!!

Tonight they will actually show a live report of this event on ESPN America, so I’ll be sure to watch that!! It appears to be an international thing, obviously

You’ll find last year’s winner in the middle of the picture

Today America celebrates its Independence Day. It’s a beautiful day here to have a barbecue or do something else fun. I hope everyone has a wonderful day .

Today we celebrated our Memorial Day. Tomorrow is a day that we celebrate being liberated from the Germans in WO II. Every year we remember the people that died in peace missions and war on May 4th. At 8pm we hold a national 2 minute silence. The whole country comes at a standstil at this time (including trains, planes and what not).

This year the Memorial was disturbed and that very much disturbed me. A guy shouted so loud in a foreign language that people started to panic thinking that this guy was trying to commit a terrorist attack. Everyone started running. A group of people got lightly injured. Have we really sunken this deep?

The guy has been arrested, but not much can be done. The worst that this guy is facing, is disturbing the peace, which has a maximum penalty of € 160. Not much for an incident like this. I am really disturbed by this. This year I have experienced Memorial Day in a different way. It’s not for me. I am the person that actually would want to remember the people that I owe my freedom to.

I am disgusted.

This video shows what happened.

Besides Valentine’s Day on Februay 14th, we’ll also celebrate Carnival’s Sunday in The Netherlands. In the city that we live in this means the traditional annual parade. To refresh your memory and to re-visit Carnival 2009, you’ll find pictures of last year’s Carnival here. We had Carnival with our friends, which was a load of fun.

The preparations for Carnival 2010 have started full force. Preparations usually include bands making typical Carnival music and songs. The theme of the song is usually based on the latest news. The idea of the song is that it’s easy to learn and easy to sing along with. This is why you’ll find a lot of repetition in these songs. Below I share a video from a Carnival song based on the theme recession. Bottom line of the song: Recession or not… it won’t stop us celebrating Carnival.

Enjoy!!

Due to issues with uploading the video to YouTube, this video is a little late. Nevertheless, I managed to upload the video to YouTube. In this video you’ll find an impression of the sing-a-long and the fireworks. Enjoy watching

Hiiii…. after a good night’s sleep I am up and running. The weather outside looks a bit sunny; which is nice. It actually looks like a winter day here. On New Year’s Day a lot of people get ready for the traditional New Year’s Dive that’s being held at various locations in The Netherlands. The biggest one is held in Scheveningen, but we (our city) also has one. Below you’ll find a video of how things like that go. Notice the pieces of ice that you see in the water.

I think we’ll stay inside today. My plan is to watch the re-run of the Chick-A-Filet bowl in which the Tennessee Vols play (my team). Besides that I’ll watch the traditional ski flying event in Garmisch Partenkirchen on TV. Later today there’ll be the various traditional New Year’s Bowls in college football and this year we get to see NHL going outside in Fenway Park. I am curious to see what that is all about.

Stay tuned for more updates

We just rolled into 2010. Happy New Year to everyone. I hope this year will bring you prosperity and good health. We celebrated New Year’s Eve at my brother’s place. I took these pictures. Happy looking!

Video will follow later.

Traditionally Dutch people have Oliebollen at New Year’s Eve. Throughout the city you’ll find various oliebollen selling locations. These selling location are being setup as early as mid September. On New Year’s Eve these locations get really busy; especially those that are very good in making oliebollen (quality differs from location to location). How busy? See picture.

Today we went downtown to walk around a little. Leann treated us on lunch at De Keizerskroon. On our way back home the bus driver was a bit iffy telling us that we couldn’t bring our hot chocolate into the bus. He is lawfully right, but come on…. sheesh. Back home we just rested a little bit.

Right now we’re at my brother together with my family and the family of my brother’s girlfriend. We just finished dinner. It’s really comfy around here

De Keizerskroon

Yesterday we had a siing-a-long with the playstation from my brother. For those that missed it or weren’t there, you’ll find the video in this entry. Remarkable notes: you’ll find Leann sing in Dutch and you’ll find her rapping. Isn’t that something?

We just finished dinner. The pork roast worked very well. In fact everything worked well. Almost everyone left. Just Ritchie and Geoffrey are here and we are about to watch a Monty Python movie. We received some presents from my parents and from Donny and Chantal, which was very nice. All in all Christmas was a big success. The last batch of pictures are posted here.