Gedinne, moulin de boiron

Holiday. We spend a nice long weekend in a hotel in the south of the Ardennes, Belgium near the French border. Good food, fine hotel, long walks, nice weather. View from our terrace and an impression of a heavy thunderstorm.

Vakantie. Een lang weekeinde in Gedinne, de zuidelijke Ardennen bij de Franse grens. Lange wandelingen, mooi weer, goed hotel, uitmuntend eten. Zicht vanaf het terras. En een fors onweer.

Hot day

Experimenting with colours: tried shaded trees on a hot day. Source Rami Efal.

Tarbes, last week

Stayed in the Rex hotel in Tarbes last week. In the same hotel the french police arrested the Tour-de-france cyclist Duenas on EPO use yesterday. I wonder: did he notice this olive tree in the courtyard of the hotel?
Op reis, in Tarbes. In dat hotel werd de tour-de-france renner Duenas gearresteerd voor EPO gebruik. Zou hij deze olijfboom hebben gezien in de achtertuin van het hotel?

Spa, course Ceran

During the French course, we made a walk through the center of Spa. "la ville de Spa glorifie des héros 1914-1918"

Cactus

Someone lost this cute small puppet (15mm long) in our hall. It ended up on our cactus. Gevonden: dit kleine poppetje. Hij zit nu op een cactus.

Tomy Cenzano

During my French course I had to follow SpeedLingua: music, pictures and pronounciation excersises. I saw this picture maybe 10 times. No idea who that is, Tomy Cenzano.
Partie du course Speedlingua: c'est inevitable de voire ce photo dizeine de fois. Je n'ai aucune idée qui c'est, Tomy Cenzano.

Spa, course Ceran

"Je fais des esquisses á n'importe quelle heure". Voilà, une des phrases trésor que j’ai appris dans le cours en langue français à l’institut Ceran á Spa. Grace á la patience infinitif de mes professeurs et le support de mes collègues-étudiants, j’ai maintenant des rêves en français. Probablement je vais faire les mêmes erreurs qu’avant; maintenant je sais lesquelles.

Last week I did a training in French language at the Ceran intitute at Spa. Tiring but rewarding.
Ne hesistez pas de me notifier mes erreurs!

Running

Nico, the trainer of our runninggroup STAP-brunssum has decided to retire. He was there for us each sunday for the last 10 years (and god knows how long before that; that's when I joined). He always made us sweat reminding us: "If I can do it, you can do it too". Yeah right. I made this painting for him.

Nico, onze trainer van mijn hardloopvereniging STAP, heeft besloten ermee op te houden. "Als ik het ken kenne jullie het ook". Een scan van de aquarel die ik voor zijn afscheid heb gemaakt.

Click on it to enlarge or download

Rianne geslaagd!

Rianne, my daughter passed her exams this week! Rianne is geslaagd voor het VWO!

Tarbes, last week

Visiting the south of France again. I stayed in Tarbes, in the fantastic design hotel "Rex". Once again a picture of my (bath)room. Tarbes (near Lourdes and the Spanish border) is not very interesting, but there is always something to sketch. Like the statue of Foch near the military academy and the horrible fountain near the market place.

Zuid Frankrijk, vlakbij Lourdes. Schets van mijn kamer in het "Rex" hotel. Tarbes is niet zo interessant, maar toch... een schets van het monument van Foch, en van een gruwelijk lelijke fontein bij de markthal.

Herbert Grönemeyer

Last friday Gertie and I went to the Grönemeyer concert in the Borussia stadium in Mönchen Gladbach.
This time we had no seats, but we saw the show on the field. Fantastic music-fantastic show. Only 4 encores. In the middle of the crowd you feel more into the concert than when you are seated. From memory I made a sketch of the lighttower standing behind us.

Business lounge

Last week I made a trip to France again. I was bored in the business lounge; so I made some sketches using my brushpen.

Patersweg

At last, last thursday we moved to our new house. Eindelijk verhuisd.

Patersweg

Still busy moving. Painters at work.

Patersweg

Redecorating our new house. De schilders zijn druk bezig in ons nieuwe huis.

The cave

China, Beijing, CCTV and Birdsnest.

The latest update on two of the most impressive buildings I have seen recently: the CCTV tower in Beijing and the "birdsnest", also Beijing. The pictures were made last week by our special correspondent (Floor, the tourleader of our visit to China last year). The weather looks more bright than what we had.

De CCTV toren en het vogelnestje (t.b.v. de olympische spelen) in Beijing. Foto's gemaakt door Floor, onze reisleidster van onze China reis.

Gala St.Jan

Gisterenavond was het schoolverlaters gala van het St.Janscollege. Rianne en haar vriend Bob in grootse stijl. De trotse ouders staan niet op de foto.
My daughter Rianne and her friend Bob, at the grand final exam gala, yesterday evening. Everything to be proud of.

China Dino (2)

The China Dinosaurus exhibition in the Maastricht library draws to an end. I went there today to make some more sketches. The first one is a 8 meter high Yangchuanosaurus. You would not like to meet him 150.000.000 years ago. The bottom one is a Mamenchisaurus. In reality his neck is 3 times as long, but it did not fit on the page. To see its head, see my post of 2 weeks ago.

DSM

Another try with my new brush pen, a sketch of a Edea-transformer station somewhere on the DSM chemical plant.