It was time to go 'home'. First time going to Belgium and especially the new house. I obviously took Hannah with me and we flew on Boxing Day. About an hour after we got 'home' the whole family flooded in. My grandparents, aunts and uncles and especially all my cousins. Great day hanging out. Had a whole Christmas party with big Christmas dinner again and caroling, but staying in the house. We didn't go disturb other people. My grandad made me conduct, it was hilarious! Good bit of 'Silent Night' and 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing'. Very funny videos were made, but I don't know if I want to put them up... But yeah, it was a very fun day. Great food, great seeing family and catching up and especially awesome seeing all the little cousins. I think they're between 4 and 7 and it's adorable. It's great to get to spend the day with them, they're so much fun. The cousins weren't all just little kiddies. I have three cousins that are 13, 17 and 20. We've always been great friends and I've always looked forward to seeing them and just messing around when I come to the Netherlands. This was all the family from my Mom's side of the family.
So the following days were spent seeing my Dad's side. We started by picking them up from the train station and made our way into Maastricht town center. Maastricht is one of the main cities in the south of the Netherlands. Very beautiful city with a very cool little Christmas market with food, clothes and a few attractions like a Ferris wheel, slide and ice skating. Pretty cool and very Christmassy and cute. We then went to have a very nice dinner all together and caught up with them as well.
Then Loek, my oldest cousin, stayed over and told us about his big plans. He's always been a very hard working, optimistic and ambitious guy. For his gap year he went to Australia. He surprised his parents by coming home on Christmas Eve with only the tank top, shorts and flip flops he was wearing and his passport in hand in the snow. That was it! Everything else was like sold or stolen. Now that he's graduating from university in Amsterdam, he's organizing his Master's program and he wants to come to the land of opportunities and really get in to what he wants to do. Econometrics in the U.S.A. Very impressive list of colleges he's applying to. MIT, Stanford, Berkeley etc. All over the place. But obviously, being the beach bum that he is he wants to study in one of the two California colleges most, so very excited for his endeavors and I'm very inspired by how hard he's always working.
But anyway, he stayed over and then the next day we went to drop Michelle off at the Brussels train station because she was spending New Years in England. The rest of the day we spent sight seeing around Brussels. Very beautiful city and some very funny sights. Like there's a little statue called 'Manneken Pis', which loosely translates to 'Pissing Boy'. Souvenir shops filled with with these little boy statues peeing! After that, I went into a Hard Rock Cafe for the first time ever I'm pretty sure. That was pretty crazy. All the memorabilia on the walls. Can't remember exactly what was there, but I think it was David Bowie's hard written set list and Shakira's top and Eric Clapton's guitar and all sorts of stuff like that.
After that we dropped Loek off at the train station and began to get ready for New Years.
New Years is very crazy in Belgium and the Netherlands etc.
We started the evening by watching my mum's favorite film, 'Coming to America'. Very funny film. Apparently so funny that it was what made my mum laugh so hard that it made her begin giving birth to me, so that was a special time! Eddie Murphy's in it doing his signature 'acting as multiple characters' and it's very clever.
After that we started the real New Years traditions. We started watching the Dutch and British New Years shows with Haim, Tom Newman and many more.
Once it came around to Beglian New Years, there was a lot of excitement. There was champagne and Oliebollen, which are the Dutch traditional New Years cakes, and we were ready to count down. You could already hear some fireworks by now, but once 'the ball had dropped' as it would in New York in 6 hours time(!) the skies were well and truly lit up. First, of course, we had to have our 'welcome to the year' kisses with our partners and wish each other luck for the year (apparently that's a Dutch thing). After that, there was literally non-stop sound from the fireworks and this was heard from inside the house. We went to all the highest windows to see any and every bit of fireworks. Sadly there are a lot of trees surrounding our house, but luckily our neighbor was there to save the evening. He stood there in the middle of his horse parading area and let rip! We just watched his little show (little being a huge understatement) for about 30 mins. He just kept shooting off firework after firework. An absolute array of the finest things you will see unless you are like in the big city watching the real professional shows.
After he was finished we went back inside and watched the Jools Holland New Years while we waited for the British to catch up (obviously due to the time difference!) Once, the British New Years came around it felt very much like old news. I'm pretty sure Hannah and I were teaching my parents how to play Canasta. Once the British how got there, we obviously immediately got up and sang Auld Lang Syne' with the rest of Britain lead by Jools. I'm pretty sure there was still non-stop fireworks going on until well after I'd gone to sleep, which must've been at least 2 or 3am.
The following morning we followed the tradition of watching the New Year's Concert on TV from Vienna. It's a always a fantastic concert playing plenty of jovial Strauss marches etc. This year Daniel Barenboim was given the honor of conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and he had such an aura of power and assertiveness. While we were watching me, my parents told me that they enter the raffle every year to try and win tickets to that concert. It's probably the most important Classical concert in the year and it would be incredible to go once in your life. It's got something for everyone. Great music from a great orchestra lead by a great conductor; great ballet with great choreography with great dresses and suits and one of the most beautiful concert halls dressed up with the finest flowers the planet has to offer.
The next few days were all preparation. Hannah was returning to England to do her first exam at university; I had to pack for our skiing holiday as well as preparing for returning to a Berklee and trying to unpack some stuff so my parents knew if they could throw anything out. Also, I filmed the holiday drum cover in the next few days. I had a lot of fun doing that. 3 cameras, trying out new drum microphones and microphone techniques and placement. It was a really fun song and I would really appreciate it if you would check out! It should be on the front page of this website. So if you click the 'Home' button at the top of the screen you should be there.
After that, it was a very sad, but exciting day. I had to take Hannah to the airport to say goodbye for a week as she returned home for her exam, but after that my parents and I were going to set off and drive to France.
We set off on our 8 hour drive and before well left, my parents joked about me having a stint on our way in my Dad's Audi A7. Little did I know, they weren't joking. About 3 hours in we stopped at a service station for me to switch in. I was pretty scared because I tried driving my parents' old cars, which were also automatic, and I really couldn't get a hang of the brakes, but this time the car was just the easiest thing to drive. It was great! Anyway I drove for about an hour, playing around in sports mode etc. before I switched out again and then my Mum took us into France.
Then we arrived in the most beautiful ski resort and mountain range I had ever been to. Also, a snazzy new hotel that had their grand opening while we were there. Beautiful, modern spa with rooms of all random conditions imaginable. Like, Turkish steam room, sauna, igloo room and 100% humidity rooms. Naturally, I wanted to take my new toys out to play, so I tried taking the mini Bath rugby ball Hannah got me for Christmas, but they didn't allow it. After which I proceeded to sneak it in in my bathrobe every day. Not sure if all the Russian tourists approved... One down side though, was the horrendously tiny room only big enough to fit the beds and barely a walkway around it. Anyway once we got our skis and found our way to the lifts there were no more complaints. Beautifully sunny, blue skies everyday. There was occasionally some snow lacking.
Later that night, my Dad and I had a great idea... We should get a GoPro. We could film these beautiful sights while we ski and it's still such a cool and amazing camera for normal life anyway. I'll definitely use it for my drum covers in future. So yeah, the next morning we bought it, strapped it on and hit the slopes. It was weird thing to get used to, but it took some amazing videos! So the next few days were all about the same sort of schpiel, but my Mum and I became more and more adventurous each day until the last day when, I would say, we got a bit too adventurous. We just kept traversing across to the right until we almost fell off the planet, but it was some of the most beautiful skiing I had ever seen, but eventually we did probably start to regret it... A dog chased me, we got stuck in some bushes and then there were very deep, icy moguls. Not the best ending, but the top of the mountain was breath taking. Once the week was over, I began skimming through a lot of video and putting them into a little montage of our holiday. If you want to see it just copy and paste or click on this link - www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxilAFJnXxs - it's got some amazing sights, me jumping and plenty of me falling!
When it was time to drive home again I got 2 shifts this time. 1 hour in the middle along the boring moterways and the last hour and a half taking us home. It was amazing! That car is lush!
Then I only had one day to pack ready for returning to Berklee. My Mum had to wash all my new clothes and I had to make sure I didn't forget any presents I was giving or any I had received. And of course I had remember all my foreign person papers to make sure I could actually get into the US.
On my way back to Berklee, I took a little detour back to Cambridge for a day. I took the Eurostar for the first time to get there. It was very stressful because we left a bit late and we couldn't find the directions to the station. Once we got there I ran through everything to make sure I got in. I didn't even get a chance to say bye to my Mum. So I will take the opportunity now. Bye Mum! Thanks for taking care of me again and letting Hannah stay over. I love you and can't wait to see you in summer and tell you all the new stories.
Anyway, so I stayed one more night with Hannah to say bye to her properly before I went back. We went to Nandos and watched Mandela. Perfect evening! Mandela was such a beautiful and inspirational film. I really want to watch all the historical films that have been coming out recently... I really should get onto that.
I thank you very much for taking the time to read this. I hope you find this anywhere near as exciting as I do. I just want you to see how amazingly contrasting and interesting this world can be.
And if you've enjoyed this maybe you'll also enjoy my drum covers? You can find them in the tab at the bottom of the home page labelled 'To my other videos', which should take you to my YouTube page.
Please stay tuned for the next installments and I will try to get them out more frequently, but I'm trying to make sure I get enough content in and I spend enough time to thoroughly write this.
Hope your life is well
So the following days were spent seeing my Dad's side. We started by picking them up from the train station and made our way into Maastricht town center. Maastricht is one of the main cities in the south of the Netherlands. Very beautiful city with a very cool little Christmas market with food, clothes and a few attractions like a Ferris wheel, slide and ice skating. Pretty cool and very Christmassy and cute. We then went to have a very nice dinner all together and caught up with them as well.
Then Loek, my oldest cousin, stayed over and told us about his big plans. He's always been a very hard working, optimistic and ambitious guy. For his gap year he went to Australia. He surprised his parents by coming home on Christmas Eve with only the tank top, shorts and flip flops he was wearing and his passport in hand in the snow. That was it! Everything else was like sold or stolen. Now that he's graduating from university in Amsterdam, he's organizing his Master's program and he wants to come to the land of opportunities and really get in to what he wants to do. Econometrics in the U.S.A. Very impressive list of colleges he's applying to. MIT, Stanford, Berkeley etc. All over the place. But obviously, being the beach bum that he is he wants to study in one of the two California colleges most, so very excited for his endeavors and I'm very inspired by how hard he's always working.
But anyway, he stayed over and then the next day we went to drop Michelle off at the Brussels train station because she was spending New Years in England. The rest of the day we spent sight seeing around Brussels. Very beautiful city and some very funny sights. Like there's a little statue called 'Manneken Pis', which loosely translates to 'Pissing Boy'. Souvenir shops filled with with these little boy statues peeing! After that, I went into a Hard Rock Cafe for the first time ever I'm pretty sure. That was pretty crazy. All the memorabilia on the walls. Can't remember exactly what was there, but I think it was David Bowie's hard written set list and Shakira's top and Eric Clapton's guitar and all sorts of stuff like that.
After that we dropped Loek off at the train station and began to get ready for New Years.
New Years is very crazy in Belgium and the Netherlands etc.
We started the evening by watching my mum's favorite film, 'Coming to America'. Very funny film. Apparently so funny that it was what made my mum laugh so hard that it made her begin giving birth to me, so that was a special time! Eddie Murphy's in it doing his signature 'acting as multiple characters' and it's very clever.
After that we started the real New Years traditions. We started watching the Dutch and British New Years shows with Haim, Tom Newman and many more.
Once it came around to Beglian New Years, there was a lot of excitement. There was champagne and Oliebollen, which are the Dutch traditional New Years cakes, and we were ready to count down. You could already hear some fireworks by now, but once 'the ball had dropped' as it would in New York in 6 hours time(!) the skies were well and truly lit up. First, of course, we had to have our 'welcome to the year' kisses with our partners and wish each other luck for the year (apparently that's a Dutch thing). After that, there was literally non-stop sound from the fireworks and this was heard from inside the house. We went to all the highest windows to see any and every bit of fireworks. Sadly there are a lot of trees surrounding our house, but luckily our neighbor was there to save the evening. He stood there in the middle of his horse parading area and let rip! We just watched his little show (little being a huge understatement) for about 30 mins. He just kept shooting off firework after firework. An absolute array of the finest things you will see unless you are like in the big city watching the real professional shows.
After he was finished we went back inside and watched the Jools Holland New Years while we waited for the British to catch up (obviously due to the time difference!) Once, the British New Years came around it felt very much like old news. I'm pretty sure Hannah and I were teaching my parents how to play Canasta. Once the British how got there, we obviously immediately got up and sang Auld Lang Syne' with the rest of Britain lead by Jools. I'm pretty sure there was still non-stop fireworks going on until well after I'd gone to sleep, which must've been at least 2 or 3am.
The following morning we followed the tradition of watching the New Year's Concert on TV from Vienna. It's a always a fantastic concert playing plenty of jovial Strauss marches etc. This year Daniel Barenboim was given the honor of conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and he had such an aura of power and assertiveness. While we were watching me, my parents told me that they enter the raffle every year to try and win tickets to that concert. It's probably the most important Classical concert in the year and it would be incredible to go once in your life. It's got something for everyone. Great music from a great orchestra lead by a great conductor; great ballet with great choreography with great dresses and suits and one of the most beautiful concert halls dressed up with the finest flowers the planet has to offer.
The next few days were all preparation. Hannah was returning to England to do her first exam at university; I had to pack for our skiing holiday as well as preparing for returning to a Berklee and trying to unpack some stuff so my parents knew if they could throw anything out. Also, I filmed the holiday drum cover in the next few days. I had a lot of fun doing that. 3 cameras, trying out new drum microphones and microphone techniques and placement. It was a really fun song and I would really appreciate it if you would check out! It should be on the front page of this website. So if you click the 'Home' button at the top of the screen you should be there.
After that, it was a very sad, but exciting day. I had to take Hannah to the airport to say goodbye for a week as she returned home for her exam, but after that my parents and I were going to set off and drive to France.
We set off on our 8 hour drive and before well left, my parents joked about me having a stint on our way in my Dad's Audi A7. Little did I know, they weren't joking. About 3 hours in we stopped at a service station for me to switch in. I was pretty scared because I tried driving my parents' old cars, which were also automatic, and I really couldn't get a hang of the brakes, but this time the car was just the easiest thing to drive. It was great! Anyway I drove for about an hour, playing around in sports mode etc. before I switched out again and then my Mum took us into France.
Then we arrived in the most beautiful ski resort and mountain range I had ever been to. Also, a snazzy new hotel that had their grand opening while we were there. Beautiful, modern spa with rooms of all random conditions imaginable. Like, Turkish steam room, sauna, igloo room and 100% humidity rooms. Naturally, I wanted to take my new toys out to play, so I tried taking the mini Bath rugby ball Hannah got me for Christmas, but they didn't allow it. After which I proceeded to sneak it in in my bathrobe every day. Not sure if all the Russian tourists approved... One down side though, was the horrendously tiny room only big enough to fit the beds and barely a walkway around it. Anyway once we got our skis and found our way to the lifts there were no more complaints. Beautifully sunny, blue skies everyday. There was occasionally some snow lacking.
Later that night, my Dad and I had a great idea... We should get a GoPro. We could film these beautiful sights while we ski and it's still such a cool and amazing camera for normal life anyway. I'll definitely use it for my drum covers in future. So yeah, the next morning we bought it, strapped it on and hit the slopes. It was weird thing to get used to, but it took some amazing videos! So the next few days were all about the same sort of schpiel, but my Mum and I became more and more adventurous each day until the last day when, I would say, we got a bit too adventurous. We just kept traversing across to the right until we almost fell off the planet, but it was some of the most beautiful skiing I had ever seen, but eventually we did probably start to regret it... A dog chased me, we got stuck in some bushes and then there were very deep, icy moguls. Not the best ending, but the top of the mountain was breath taking. Once the week was over, I began skimming through a lot of video and putting them into a little montage of our holiday. If you want to see it just copy and paste or click on this link - www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxilAFJnXxs - it's got some amazing sights, me jumping and plenty of me falling!
When it was time to drive home again I got 2 shifts this time. 1 hour in the middle along the boring moterways and the last hour and a half taking us home. It was amazing! That car is lush!
Then I only had one day to pack ready for returning to Berklee. My Mum had to wash all my new clothes and I had to make sure I didn't forget any presents I was giving or any I had received. And of course I had remember all my foreign person papers to make sure I could actually get into the US.
On my way back to Berklee, I took a little detour back to Cambridge for a day. I took the Eurostar for the first time to get there. It was very stressful because we left a bit late and we couldn't find the directions to the station. Once we got there I ran through everything to make sure I got in. I didn't even get a chance to say bye to my Mum. So I will take the opportunity now. Bye Mum! Thanks for taking care of me again and letting Hannah stay over. I love you and can't wait to see you in summer and tell you all the new stories.
Anyway, so I stayed one more night with Hannah to say bye to her properly before I went back. We went to Nandos and watched Mandela. Perfect evening! Mandela was such a beautiful and inspirational film. I really want to watch all the historical films that have been coming out recently... I really should get onto that.
I thank you very much for taking the time to read this. I hope you find this anywhere near as exciting as I do. I just want you to see how amazingly contrasting and interesting this world can be.
And if you've enjoyed this maybe you'll also enjoy my drum covers? You can find them in the tab at the bottom of the home page labelled 'To my other videos', which should take you to my YouTube page.
Please stay tuned for the next installments and I will try to get them out more frequently, but I'm trying to make sure I get enough content in and I spend enough time to thoroughly write this.
Hope your life is well