A Spaceman's Blog - Philippe Rose

Wednesday, 28 February 2007

Moments of 2006

Some trivia from last year

▪ Took part in a table football championship in Cambridge
▪ Went to Download Festival and - horror - saw Lordi perform
▪ Met with James and his Abscond friends at the Glade festival
▪ Invited Rita to Istanbul
▪ Met an impressive personality in Jerusalem
▪ Had brunch with T in Smithfields
▪ Moved out of London
▪ Got myself a cool pad in The Hague
▪ Visited the NASA Space Center in Houston
▪ Went to Durham - and didn't see Julian (punk)
▪ Rode a bike through the Sinai desert
▪ Met Liv in a pub in South Woodford

[28 February]

Tuesday, 27 February 2007

Mangal (part 1)

This is the first entry on the Mangal project. The designated cook, an Azeri friend, and I, the host (I'll be providing the venue, my flat), went out to the Turkish quarter in the West End of The Hague last night to look for a mangal and for a Turkish meat shop. We were led by a Turkish friend through rows of shops that looked like my favourite Turkish store on Wolworth Rd in London. We'll be back at the weekend to visit the bazar and buy spices.

[27 February]

Sunday, 25 February 2007

Montmartre

Petite visite à Paris, et occasion de rendre visite à Aline, pas vue depuis deux ans. Très sympathique tout ça.

phil et les 93iens

[25 February]

Thursday, 22 February 2007

Bike

Dom Dom showed me how and for the first time, I rode a Dutch bike racing through the streets of Rotterdam to catch the last train to The Hague. It feels so quaint, but they're pretty comfortable. A wonderful night!

[22 February]

Wednesday, 21 February 2007

Rotterdam

Quiz I'm going to Rotterdam this evening, not to do a quiz (by the way, we won!!), but to meet an old acquaintance from St. Gallen I haven't seen in a year and who's studying there. It'll be interesting to dip back into student life.

I wonder whether to be blase (been there, done that), nostalgic (I miss the good old days), or geeky (I'm still a student at heart). I might just be opportunistic, and show off my rolex to an impressionable crowd.

[21 February]

Tuesday, 20 February 2007

Quiz

What does it tell about me if I admit I'm going to a quiz night with a few friends. Does it mean I'm now closer to being 30 than to being 20? Or that I'm socially challenged and need this organised entertainment? It simply means that there probably isn't anything better to do on a Tuesday night in The Hague. So we will have fun together, because we need to have fun.

On my desk

[20 February]

Monday, 19 February 2007

Virtually dead

I have just noticed that my blog has been put in the category of "vitually dead links" by old friend Choffat, which pissed me off because I started blogging first (bastard). So I'm now trying to catch up, at least until I'm moved back into the category of live links.

To be fair, having one post per month isn't quite good enough to call it a blog. But a lot of my energy used to be taken from having to delete dozens of spam comments every day. Thankfully now, the problem has been solved. But I need to find my voice again (or at least cool pictures to post).

Belated news - I'm now based in The Hague, Netherlands, for the time being, instead of London. I left London last summer for better pastures and fewer pints. New flat, new job, new life, and fantastic flight connections from Amsterdam, 30min away. The world is at my doorstep, which is how I like it. I'm even a Privium subscriber, allowing me to speed through passport checks with a wink at an iris scan machine.

I've taken an interest in offsetting my carbon emissions from flying. This might seem strange to you given my professional background. I can then fly nearly every week with the comfort of knowing that with every take off I am responsible for a few more planted trees.

I'm giving myself a few days to clean up and update this blog, post pictures and get start again. And if I don't, then at least please have the kindness to send me an email reminder to post again.

[19 February]