I have been recently volunteering at the Academy of Fashion and Design (AMD). Neither fashion nor design is my field, but I filled some gaps in necessary management disciplines. To my surprise, a student of fashion management, Ms Mia Just, chose me as a second reader for her thesis on the ambiguity between creativity and commerce in fashion …
Iceland does not feel like changing scenery - it is like changing planet. Going for a week off road in Iceland’s South is a good thing to do, while on my construction site the house foundation went through the finish line. April is a little to late for a good chance to see Northern lights. But Iceland has a lot to offer: glaciers, volcanos, waterfalls, geysers and all you need to push a 4x4 to the limit …
Recently, I enjoyed “Postcrossing” after I heard about it on a German radio station. It is a global platform organizing the exchange of postcards among enthusiasts. As I buy postcards in most places I go, …
On my way out, I picked up a 5G tablet computer. It’s running on Android, and one of the beauties is that I can really write with a “pen” on it. While many predecessors felt more like writing with a banana in the sand, this one is really (!) good. I also considered e-ink tablets like, for example, the …
As I continued coming to Hong Kong, even during the pandemic lockdowns, I could now feel the optimism of an awakening city after hard years. Troubles started in 2019 with violent riots on the streets and then two years of being literally cut off. Still, crossing over to the Mainland, has some quarantine regulations in place, …
t’Eiland Marina near Lathum, Netherlands
With some patches of summer arriving, I am using the time, not just to stay on the boat, but also to get it ready for a move. It is a Campi 320 made by the Polish shipbuilder Rivo. With 9,60 meters long and a displacement of 4,5 tons, it is rather handy. The 320 version is a bit special, because, compared with the 300er, as it allows for a 1.40 m x 2.00 m bed in a separate room. The boat has a living room with a spacious front terrace and a bathroom with a shower. A small back terrace can be reached through an extra door, and here is where also fuel, gas and electrical infrastructure is in closed compartments. The engine is mounted on the frame and it allows up to 25 PHP motorization. Given that I want to start moving it from town to town, probably starting next year, I currently test the Yamaha 9.9 High Thrust. It is a very efficient engine, and because of the flat propeller mounted, equivalent to about 15 BHP. Given the high wind drag of such a “houseboat” though, I am not sure how it will be able to cope with strong winds. It is a riverboat. But even in that category, it goes more for the canals than anything with strong currents.
The current location is in Geldersee (Netherlands") and faces a beautiful lake connected to the Ijssel, which is a distributary of the Rhine and, for the Netherlands, a rather fast waterway. To test the waters there a little bit last weekend, I took me and my dog on a Talmarex 3 m dinghy, powered by a small 4 BHP outboard, to the Rhine connection. On my GPS, I measured about 4 m/s currents at a low water level. So, it took me about 2 hours to travel upstream and 6 litres of petrol for the return trip, staying at 3500 RPM (measured by sound, not instrument).
The houseboat in the current motorization would probably cope with the Ijssel. But I consider it unwise, because of the waves caused by cargo ships. For some of these “guys” time is money, and being overtaken a few times at high speed, where the ship literally sucks 1/3 of the whole river’s water through its system, I don’t think the riverboat copes well with the waves. The maximum specs are at 2 feet. But, I would not like to try.
In memory of the three heroes of the 1977 movie Mimino, set in Dilijan (trailer, see below).
My first introduction to the Armenian diaspora was in the early 1990s through Hasmik Papian, who was performing at the Bonn Opera. I also had the privilege of meeting some of her friends and family gathering in her home in “Weststadt” of the city with late “Gründerzeit” architecture. Back then, being a young science student, this was a formative introduction to an interesting and new genre. Since then Armenia stayed in my mind, and with the many tragedies and disasters, it faced since 1915, which probably have still not ended with the 2021 ceasefire agreement. Of course, I remember “Pour toi Arménie”, a charity song by the Franco-Armenian Charles Aznavour performed by a group of French singers, to gather relief after the earthquake in December 1988. Even though, I have to say this is a little too cheesy for my taste. For long car drives to the Netherlands recently, I do have some other songs sung by Charles Aznavour in my playlist, for example, “La Bohème” and others of his early chansons.
It took more than 30 years until I set my feet into Armenia for the first time, and I remain being impressed by the country and its people. I was originally planning to go to Moscow last week, but with recent events in Ukraine and the implications this has on logistics, activities have been diverted to Dilijan, a small town two hours drive from Yerevan. With a very tight schedule, I did not have the chance to travel around. But Armenia will be one of my coming destinations, to explore more. What surprised me very much to find in Dilijan was the United World College. Inspired by the UWC in Maastricht, Ruben Vardanyan together with his wife Veronica Zonabend, founded this very impressive initiative and I am happy to see it flourishing and alive.
Mimino (1977). The story of a big dream in Dilijan.
5 years UWC. Another story of a big dream in Dilijan.
It is always a nice and special perspective to approach a countryside or city by boat. It is a detached world from the buzz. Living on a boat, is even a step beyond, specially in the Netherlands. And then there is the second Dutch mode of transport: the bicycle. As my Marina is close to Arnhem, I explored the ride on my folding bike to the city. One objective is also to take the bike to the train station and then fold it up and take the train to Tilburg University. This sounds like a nice commute. The best mode of commuting, I ever had was taking ice skates in winter from my home to the office in Beijing. But also, now boat-bike and train sound like a good option.
