Not your average cup of tea

We had a busy social life this weekend. A lot of our friends tend to want to come over to our place and every week we promise ourselves that we will keep the number of people visiting to a minimum. However, we never seem to succeed. Friday, Saturday and Sunday were packed with social encounters. We won't bore you with all of them, but would like to introduce our friends Bas and Jocelyn.

Bas and Joce, as she is fondly called, are our 'squash, gamin' and boozin' mates'. This Sunday, after our customary game of squash, they came over for dinner. Having finished what we set out to do with we continued with the equally customary boozing and of course we played some pool and a silly, alcohol induced game; the object of the game being to think of a character, sticking a piece of rolling paper on your hapless victim's forehead and making him/her ask questions to discover his/her identity ie 'Who am I?'

See here the catastrophic results...

Field Day

Most of the time we take the beauty that surrounds us for granted. Yet some days, like this Sunday, when we had a rare spell of sunshine, it all catches your eye. What else is there to do then get out your camera and capture the moment? These kind of days are field days for Photographer Jo. As you can see plants, trees, bodies of water, birds and even the cheeky boyfriend, they were caught by Jo's hungry lens...

Photographer Jo caught off guard at a typical burban scene: natural beauty and urban graffity

'A Birthday in B'

As the few of you that frequent this blog know Vally P aka 'the wicked mother-in-law' celebrated her birthday last week. Apart from heartfelt congrats, pressies and food we spent some time playing music. The Hagish burb known as Nieuw Waldeck was ever so lucky to be graced with four such talented musicians playing the exquisite piece 'a birthday in B(urbia)'.

Anyway, here are some pics of this already historical concert:

Gone Shoppin'

Life in the burbs can be terribly taxing... we actually have to walk to the shops, it's not far enough to drive or bike to! (as you can see below, even this tram driver has given up trying to find people to transport today!) As an ex-surf african this was a hard thing for me to accept when we first moved into burbs but for Barry it is quite the norm. The burbs of Johannesburg were a very different story. We were miles from anything remotely resembling a shopping centre and to get there meant begging and pleading with one of the parental units until they either gave in or we lost our voices due to hyperactive sobbing and loss of volume control!
This, however, is not the story in the Hague. Here we can walk to the shops within a matter of minutes and as long as you carry along a large shopping sack you have no problem getting your weekly groceries back home on foot.

The walk to the shopping centre is also quite pleasant.
There are not many car-friendly paths through this neighbourhood so the geese and ducks enjoy a relative peace throughout the day. The only worries they have are the occasional dog off its lead who may attempt to steal the bread the nice old lady around the corner is always throwing in the water for them.
Now that summer has arrived the park behind our house has exploded and is now awash with bright green leaves and colourful wildflowers.

As we near the shopping street itself it becomes apparent that the Dutch people also love colour in the summer. After the cold grey days of winter the streets comes alive with buckets of flowers and for those who do not possess gardens, balconies become the next best thing showing off their wreaths of colour for all passersby to admire. It always brings a smile to my face to walk down a street and see so many beautiful flowers brightening the facades of otherwise rather ordinary buildings.

The plain below is also the site of the Wednesday morning market where you can get all your fresh produce and a lot more besides for a bargain of a price. Saturdays, however, are reserved for other festivities. This particular day was to have been a day of big-band fun. Unfortunately it had rained all morning so only band turned up to perform but they still gave it their all. Oddities like this are more the rule than the exception here in burb-land and we burbanites may grumble and complain like old grumpy pensioners but we wouldn't have it any other way!

Cheerio,

Jodie

Burban High reports: At war with the sea

The Netherlands have been at war with an aspect of Mother Nature since the dawn of time, this aspect being the sea. The mighty sea threatens over 50% of Dutch soil. In the past both parties have claimed victories: the Dutch claiming land from the sea and sea taking it right back using its mighty waves to batter our dunes, smash our waterworks and drowning many people.

The last victory of the sea dates back to 1953, the great flood called the Watersnoodramp. During the night of the 31st of January 1953 many dykes in Zeeland proved illsuited to stand against the might of Springtide and a northwesterly storm. In one night the sea claimed 175.000 hectares of land including parts of Zeeland, Noord-Brabant and Zuid-Holland. After this tragic event the Dutch government decided to take precautionary measures to prevent this from ever happening again. With this in mind orders were given to start the Delta Project to keep future generations safe.

Our beloved burbs being in Zuid-Holland this warranted a visit to inspect these precautionary measures. I visited the Oosterscheldekering. The Oosterscheldekering using two huge arms that ride out into the waterway to break the force of the onrushing waves in the event of abnormally high tides. The Oosterscheldekering is only closed after a warning from the KNMI, the Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute. After my visit I concluded that this will have to do for now. This is Barry Heins signing off.

Apparition

Saturday I left for band practise without telling you about Apparition. First of all I'd like to say that Apparition isn't a one-burbanite-show. I, Barry, am the singer of the band, but burb Jo reveals herself as a person with multiple personalities, there's: Groupy Jo, Photographer Jo and Manager Jo.

Style
Apparition is a death metalband or so our reviewers say. Actually Apparition is more than simply metal. A category of music which non-metalheads often describe as *beep* loud. So I prefer to say that we make melodic metal with rock influences and layback (semi-)accoustic intervals. A 'style' that leaves you in the dark of what we must actually sound like. This is not just vague, but also appropriate because when we write new songs anything goes! This, in our humble opinion, keeps our music fresh, original and accessible for non-metalheads.

Gigs
We perform regularly so to give you an impression of what we look like on stage and of Jo's photography skills I've posted the pictures below.

Here's me screaming my lungs out

Nothing wrong with a good solo

Concentration is required

Pointing adds to drama :-)

Want to know more about Apparition? Check out www.apparition.nl. Here you can find: the latest news, mp3's, more pictures, a giglist and you can order you're very own copy of our first album Reflections. Feel free to leave a message in our guestbook!

Burbanites of The Hague

Just to give this a go I'll enter the first post of 'The Burbanites'.

Who are these Burbanites anyway you might wonder?
Well there's me and there's Jodie who live in the burbs of The Hague.

How did you come by the term Burbanites?
Well we got this label from my wicked mother-in-law, who isn't really that wicked :-) To be honest it is more sort of an honorary title. Jo and me tend to have some yuppie tendencies you see, buying a house, pooltable and digital cameras and such.

Unfortunately I have to go to band practise now, so catch you later. Next time I'll tell you more about us Burbanites and my band Apparition.

See ya!