USA Holiday preparation

There are only seven days until my departure to the USA, so a good time today to do any last minute holiday shopping on Amazon.

I ordered the following neccesary items:

  • SanDisk 4GB SDHC Secure Digital Card. Something tells me that I am going to take a lot of photos, and with both an 8MP and a 10MP camera, the file size of the photos will be large. I don’t want to take the risk of running out of cards, so I ordered another 4GB. Just to be on the safe side.
  • Lowepro Apex 20AW Digital Camera Pouch – Arctic Blue. A small more protective pouch for my Panasonic DMC-TZ4 pocket camera. Somehow I managed to get this for £7.49 from Amazon including postage, but it doesn’t show up for that price anymore now. I guess I was lucky!
  • A cute luggage tag and a lock. Yes ok they have hearts on them. But I liked them, and they will make my suitcase even more recognizable when it arrives at LAX airport.
  • Noise Cancelling Foldable Headphones
    It is going to be a long flight from London to LA, estimated flying time is 11 hrs 5 min, distance: 8758 km / 5442 miles. Wow!

    I have done a long flight like this before, from Beijing to London so I kind of know what to expect, but it is a long time. Good thing that BA has entertainment on demand in their aircrafts. And just to be able to hear the movies properly or listening to the onboard radio, and to keep some of the airplane noise out of my ears – noise cancelling headphones seemed handy.

    BA has taken The Boat That Rocked from their schedule again though, which is hugely disappoiinting. But they do show a Bill film: Notes on a Scandal, and they show other favourites like The Proposal. And there are actually some films on the list that I haven’t seen: The Knowing and The Hangover for example. I think time will fly. Literally.

  • The Boat That Rocked [DVD] [2009]. Yes what can I say, if BA doesn’t want to show it, I have to buy the DVD. For the extra material alone. Please, please let there be more material showing Bill Nighy dancing on Rolling Stones music.

I will now make a map of the locations of my hotels, and the things I would like to see. And write a long list of things I want to do, and plot them on the map too.

I bought two guides: Los Angeles (DK Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guide) for LA, and San Francisco and Northern California (DK Eyewitness Travel Guide).

So I am already having a lot of fun finding out what to do and see in both places.

Of course I am also keeping a close eye on the wild fires in the California, and especially Los Angeles but it looks like things are getting under control. Which is good for the people who live there, but also for me as a visitor.

If there is anything I absolutely should not forget to bring with me, let me know!

Snapshots of Ireland

Snapshots of Ireland

I am back in London after a wonderful long week in Ireland.

While Ireland is famous for its rainy weather, and I did in fact arrive in rainy weather, it all changed on Sunday and I had a week with marvelous weather, lots of sea, beautiful scenery, tea in bed and full english every morning, two lovely dogs to walk, light houses, yellow shells, sheep, black berries, seals, beautiful flowers, Davy Jones and the good company of my best friend.

It was incredibly peaceful and quiet and on our daily morning walk to the beach it was absolutely silent, no sounds at all. The step to a crowded London tube was nearly too big.

Ireland is to be recommended and some more photos are on their way. Now it’s back to working on my short film.

Off to Ireland

My bag is packed and I am half in bed typing this. I will leave for Ireland tomorrow, flying from Heathrow to Cork where I will be picked up. From there we will drive to Coornagillagh (Kerry).

It is a very quiet area on the south west coast, 4 houses and a pub, that kind of quiet. There is no internet connection and there won’t be any computers near either (so no response to emails for a while). But there will be good company, two dogs, books, notebooks and pens and loads of rom-com DVD’s. Oh, and ScraBill.

I think it is going to be good. I will be back in London on Monday the 22nd of September.

Be good while I am gone.

Getting back on track

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.

Imagine

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.