Isle of Man - pebbles

If the beach is as empty as this (very empty) and the weather is like it was (very sunny) the pebbled beach on the Isle of Man is perfect for pebble play.

And if you are visiting – those masterpieces might still be there! (I made them near the Ayre visitors centre and the Point of Ayre lighthouse)

One thing I always wonder about is: why are there so few shells on the beaches in the UK? Or is it different on other parts of the coast?

Manx icecream

What more do you want me to say? You need to have your priorities straight.

Award winning Davisons: The best Luxury Manx Dairy Ice Cream, made on the Isle of Man.

You can get them in Peel which has one of the finest Ice Cream Parlours in the UK.

Enough said.

On the left side of the road

I collected lots of Briton points last week on the Isle of Man.
For a whole week I started my day with a full English (breakfast). That in itself is an accomplishment I would say.

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Heaven on the Isle of Man

Maybe you will understand why I want to go back.

Tea on the Isle of Man (Niarbyl)

The older man walked up to me for a little chat.
“This is the best view of the island” he said to me.
“I believe you right away” I smiled at him. (and the picture doesn’t truly show it)
“So where are you from?”
“London”
“Ah” he said, and he didn’t need to say more, I got what he meant.
“First time here?”
“Yes” I said.
“And?”
“Definitely not the last time”
“I know that” he smiled.

I know that too.

I am back in London, but I am far from back.

Isle of Man

Tomorrow I will leave for a week of holiday to the Isle of Man.

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South Foreland Lighthouse near Dover

With a long bank holiday approaching last Friday and the weather being lovely, I decided to escape London, again, and impulsively booked myself into a friendly B&B in Dover.

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is sunshine and magical music.

[audio:020508.mp3]

Complete films are playing in my head when I hear this song.

Crawling up

When I walked to the tube from my corporate monkey suit meeting in Euston, I noticed those 3 spiderman wannabees climbing up the building.

Now that demands some skills.

Skills on toast – if you have seen Son of Rambow (if not, you should!)

Dog in boat, IJsselstein

• Never before have I been struggling this much to come up with something decent to write here. But in stead of waiting for the right inspiration to strike me, I am now just going to write something just to see if I somehow can get back into the groove.
• I changed the layout here slightly. It is not exactly done yet, but I’ll give it a go like this for a while.
• I did have a drivers lesson a week or two ago. And being lucky living around the corner of Parliament Square, and the Big Ben, that was exactly where he took me.

  The busiest traffic in London!

  I have to say that driving on the other side of the road was not really a problem, you just follow the flow of the traffic. Having the steering wheel and gear stick on the other side of the car is a bit more weird though. My biggest issue was to remember that the biggest part of the car now is on the left of me, in stead of on the right, which is really important to remember if you are passing parked cars in a street on the left of you. Don’t drive to close to them!

• I tried to plan two more lessons this weekend, but seeing as all driver instructors seem to be away this weekend (it’s a bank holiday on Monday) I did not succeed. I hope the Isle of Man is quiet enough for my currrent car driving skills. I am sure it will be fine.
• The Isle of Man is 10 days from now, and I am really looking forward to it.
• Greece is the latest country for The Girl in the Cafe on tour, and that brings the number of countries on the list to 24.
• And no this won’t be turned into a dog blog. There are blogs that are much better at that. But is he cute or what, this dog in a boat.

I am off to the Netherlands for a couple of days. My grandfather (94 – and don’t dare to say that that is old because he will tell you he is not) broke his hip recently and my grandmother has had a tough time alone while he was in the hospital so I felt the need to go and visit them.

I will leave London tonight and will be back Monday evening.

I know that updates here are very irregular which is normally not my style. But I seem to struggle a bit with what to write on this weblog recently. I will have a think about that while I am away.

Have a nice weekend!

So I took my backpack and discovered that Love never ends

A train at 9.47am on a Sunday morning – after a short night and weather that could not be more depressing – demanded a lot of willpower. But I had my book and the prospect of a train trip, and even if it was going to be rain all day, that was enough to have me leave my bed and hop on board to Eastbourne. The BBC promised heavy showers all day.

While approaching Eastbourne it magically cleared up and the grey clouds turned into sunshine and while setting a first few steps on a very steep hill in the direction of Beachy Head I discovered a couple of things:

I really need to work on my condition
Love never ends
and most importantly
I live in one of the most beautiful countries in the world.

Warning: Lots of pictures in this post.

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Dogs II

• An egg/bacon sandwich for breakfast. I know, I am so British sometimes.
• Good friends. Even when they live 200 miles away. We actually managed to watch Love, Actually together on the telly this week while chatting on MSN, demanding complete radio silence when “he” was in view. Yes we are both 12.
• The fact that BFI is screening Absolute Hell. Didn’t think I would be able to ever catch that one on the big screen. How cool. And how young he is!
• The trip to the sea last weekend made me realize that I had to do this more often: trips to the sea. So I googled some good places near the coast (I live on an island after all so there is lots of coast around!) where you can find nice lighthouses and Sunday it will be the beautiful red and white Beachy Head lighthouse in Eastbourne. May the weather be nice.
• 22 days until departure to the Isle of Man. Five lighthouses!
• Flashbacks of a fool (Daniel Craig), Happy Go Lucky (Mike Leigh’s new one), In Bruges (duh? yes but Ralph Fiennes) and Street Kings (duh?? yes but Hugh Laurie! I don’t like the hospital bits of House, but I do like House!) are all hitting the cinemas in London this weekend.
• I don’t know what it is with series built around hospital life, but I happen to like Grey’s Anatomy a lot too. Neither here do I like the hospital scenes!
• Am currently reading Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks I had not heard of Sebastian Faulks before a friend recommended and gave this book to me. I love the book and can’t wait to spent more time with it. Another reason why he will be on my radar: he has written Devil may Care, a new Bond novel which will be released on the 28th of May.
• New on the photoblog: Shells and Under a blood red sky
• Seeing as you all did so well with the previous one, please add your caption to this picture too (and no this is not turning into a daily thing). Leigh-on-Sea was a dog paradise.

  Here is mine:

  “No I really should not have eaten that. Really not!”

• Enjoy your weekend!

Add your caption

Here is mine:

“OK, when we come home, I can take them off right? Right?? Hello ??”

On the beach - in Magrathea

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God of Carnage

Oh this was good, so good …

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Imagine, New York

• Yes that’s New York. Which I kind of have an ongoing love and longing for. This picture is taken in November 2007, on the same place as this one. It’s peace, rock, passion and imagination in one.
• George Clooney is in town, now that doesn’t make my heart beat any faster, but I am amazed by the attention he is getting (drinking tea with Gordon and all …). Seems like the whole of London is swooning for him. Come on, he is just an actor.
• On Sunday however, now that we are with “just” actors, Daniel Craig will be in town too, to promote his new film Flashback of a fool. Now my thoughts on Daniel are quite clear: he has one pair of incredible blue eyes. But I am sure loads of women (and men!) are going to want to see this film with a trailer that is as “revealing” as this one. I will say no more … And ehrm, yes, I want to see the film too. Not because of that scene, but because he is such a great actor. OK, also because of that scene.
• The sad news, from a Bill perspective, is that the release of Valkyrie has been moved to 2009. That means no Bill films whatsoever in the cinemas this year. Waaah!!

  2009 however will be an amazing year with no less than 4 Bill films coming out! (G-Force, Underworld: Rise of the lycans, Valkyrie and The Boat That Rocked). I can’t wait!

  And for the record – he is not “just” an actor.

• My script is finished. Wow. Only took me about 2.5 years to write it (from the initial few word – there have been long breaks during that period though), which is kind of shockingly long!

  I am prepared for the gap that will appear in front of me, now that it is (temporarily) off the list of “Things I want to do in my life”. I have enjoyed writing it though. Will it ever be turned into a movie? I couldn’t tell – chances are not high, but where would we be without hope. And imagination.

• So what’s next? The next script! The story has already formed itself a bit in my head and after a short break I will start writing it. It will be a romance/drama. Still with funny stuff too, of course.
• I have booked a holiday. I will visit the Isle of Man for a week, starting the 10th of May. I think the Isle of Man is going to be the new Bornholm for me. And if it is half as good as that I will make it a yearly return. Apart from the amazing coast, the wonderful nature, the peacefulness and the fact that it is a small island, it has 5 light houses! Time to dust off my camera I guess.

The Feature Script mountain

I had several problems to solve in the script and it felt like an impossible task, something like climbing the Mt. Everest. This weekend I was relaxed enough to take one step at the time, and it is very close now, actually, it is so close that I dare to say that it will be finished this week.

Now “finished” sounds very final but scripts never are. With finished I mean that it will be in a state of which I am happy enough to send it to some friends to read. To get some comments from the real world.

So that’s how I have spend my weekend: writing in a cafe. There isn’t much I’d rather do.

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Be careful London

I have had this plan for a very long time, and I don’t know why it took me this long. Next Saturday at 9.30am (blimey that’s early!) I would keep away from anywhere close to Pimlico if I were you.

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Tube tragedy

(See also: Tube Tragedy I)