Beer me!
Beer has always been an important consideration for me. I only can like a country if I like the beer.
I love for instance, Belgium for this. The best beer in the world? You won't find me arguing. Duvel, Chimay, various Trappists, Leffe. I love what they have to offer. Where I was at first apprehensive about living in Brussels, beer soon took my doubts away.
I find that one can judge a country by its beers. The USA's main beers are nothing short of weak, watered down yellow piss, which I will not touch even in the middle of the Sahara, dried out and waking up next to a 300 pound ugly girl. Yuch. You have some good specialty ones, but 95% of the stuff is flat, unimaginative, calorie free and tasteless.
The UK and Eire have some really good, but off the wall stuff. Plus they insist on drinking their beers luke-warm and without any head whatsoever. I can appreciate the beer, but fully understand it? I don't think I ever will. Just like the people then.
Poland's beers are underrated, strong, very tasty and in fact better than Czech beer
(IMHO). Most people have never heard of them, which is a shame and good because I can seem different when I'm bragging about my beer knowledge. :-)
Is there anyone out there who can please start importing Okocim, Zywiec, Warka Strong, Tyskie and Eb please?
German beers are good. Simple. There are some dodgy ones of course, but overall the quality, taste, craftsmanship are just plain and simple engineered perfection. And that's why I like Germany. You never really get an ecstatic high being there (expect when I'm navigating Fuchsrohre) but it always satisfies and never disappoints. I like that.
Dutch beer. I don't like the country, and I don't like the beers. They're crap. Expect for Grolsch, which is made in my place of birth. It's the only place in the Netherlands I can stand, and Grolsch is the only Dutch beer I like. Strong, hard, no nonsense and an acquired taste. Just Twente then.
China though is giving me a hard time. By far the most famous (and best) Chinese beer is Tsing Tao. Not bad by any means, (it even complies with the famous Rheinheidsgebot) but somehow....... very Heineken. And for somebody who's a Grolsch man through and through, you have to understand that means it's too weak, not enough kick. A great shame, and it's something that will always come between everlasting love for China.
But the only problem I really have with this theory are the Nordics. Finland, Denmark and Sweden especially have beer that can only be described as vile. But I very much like being there. The people are nice, the landscape is beautiful and they make some really decent Vodka.
So what's with the reindeerpiss? Can anyone tell me? I'd love to uphold my theory, but the Nordics screw it up!
*4 hours till beer o'clock* <(c) Prof. Dr. in Beerology Ross McL.>
Drool material
OK, now for something completely different.
My favourite new car and favourite new bike. If I had the money, these'd be in my garage post haste.
The Pagani Zonda. There are a few versions available, but I like this picture of a "Zonda S" the best. Cost: at least 500.000 euro's.
An the 2006 Yamaha R6, 17.500 rpm (!!!!) the coolest exhaust available (although everybody else thinks it's ugly) and it's available in Uni black. Nice. The guy riding it (Colin Edwards) has the same colour leathers as I have, so this gives me the opportunity to see how cool I would look riding it. If I had some skill, mind you.
Cost: 10-12 thousand euro's depending on the country. Somewhat more attainable then.
Kidney donor it is.
Mingle
Today went and got my hair cut. In a place where nobody spoke a word of English other than 'thank you' and 'please'.
Managed to get out OK, ie. not looking like a buffoon, so something must've gone right.
I got the hardest massage ever though, this girl was convinced that my scalp needed a serious re-adjustment and therefore managed to hit all the pressure points in my head. I saw her arms later, they were tiny. Soft, nice massages are not on the menu here.
But it shows again how much gestures, sounds and pointing really account for communication. Now for the cultural understanding part.........................
Dunglish
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DunglishToo funny and quite accurate too.
The mix of Dutch and English can be confusing sometimes, but once you have mastered it, it is hilarious to have an entire converstation in this hybrid language.
Or not then? ;-)
View from the window
Taken by my flatmate
Who said that Pudong was lame?
(except for me of course....)
Required viewing
http://www.astateofmind.co.ukSaw it last Friday. Very impressive to see how a government can influence a person's mind, desires and needs. How life is like in North Korea. An eye-opener.
A thought that sprung to mind was: if Koreans think the way they are told to, who says we are not in the same boat? The 'history' books from there are hilarious to most other people, making false claims like MLK being killed by the FBI etc. But how do we know they're false? Who knows what really happened in history? History's written by the winners, not the losers. And it's always second hand. We have to trust the word of the witnesses and the people who transfer the info. Perception of truths, agenda's and just plain lies get in between somewhere. And somewhere along the line, true facts are lost. Shame.
The truth is (like always) somewhere in between. And I'm not quite sure I can handle it.
Where's Jack when you need him?
Recommendations
Some random stuff I think everyone should see or hear.
The No-Twist. Rock music, bit like coldplay but much better.
A Perfect Circle. I love this band, they're a bit dark, but I like it that way. Download some stuff of them, listen to it, and you won't be dissapointed.
Sin City. OK, it's completely messed up violence wise, but it's cartoon violence and the movie is highly entertaining.
40 year old virgin. Watch it! Haven't laughed so much in a long time. The humour is not all that sophisticated (but then, look at the title) but it's great and much much better that most other comedies out today.
Alcohol
This WE showed again what a crazy place Shanghai actually is.
Went to the Dutch Unions monthly piss-up, where I met a schoolteacher who came from a town really close to my home town. Tales of my region, the culture there and life in Shanghai (she's been here for 4 years now) were very good fun. After that I went to Devrim's party. Good fun. I dicked around around with the music selection and a Kiwi called Ken told me off, untill I started playing Daft Punk. That was all right is his book. Had a really good chat later. At aroudn 2AM we wanted to go out, and off to Bar Rouge we went. But only after playing 'comfortably numb' for Rohit. I thought he was going to fall asleep right there.
In Bar Rouge we danced in the rain. We're romantic souls. Or just really pissed. You decide.
After they turned on the lights we went downstairs again to do some Karaoke. Sounded liek a good idea at the time. Rohit and I got in the elevator to join the others, when all over sudden I heard a lot of girls speaking Dutch. Sloshed as I was, I checked around the elevator, and could only see Chinese people, myself and Rohit. HUH???? Then I just said something in Dutch, and 4 Chinese girls starting screaming "Hej, we're from Amsterdam". Oh, OK..........
Turns out their parents moved to Holland, and now they're back for a bit learning Chinese. They dragged me into their taxi and took me to eat some Hot Pot. Basically fondue, but nasty. Yuch. Hell, I tried it though :-)
Another Dutch guy joined us and a lot of bullshit was exhanged. Went to bed at 5.30, tired as hell.
Now you'd think I learned, but Saturday was Ewa(a colleague)'s B-day party, and more booze was consumed. A lot more. Too much more. So Sunday was spend feeling desperately sorry for myself. 'Nuff said.
A very usefull WE then. Cannot wait for the next. :-)
I love for instance, Belgium for this. The best beer in the world? You won't find me arguing. Duvel, Chimay, various Trappists, Leffe. I love what they have to offer. Where I was at first apprehensive about living in Brussels, beer soon took my doubts away.
Poland's beers are underrated, strong, very tasty and in fact better than Czech beer (IMHO). Most people have never heard of them, which is a shame and good because I can seem different when I'm bragging about my beer knowledge. :-)
China though is giving me a hard time. By far the most famous (and best) Chinese beer is Tsing Tao. Not bad by any means, (it even complies with the famous Rheinheidsgebot) but somehow....... very Heineken. And for somebody who's a Grolsch man through and through, you have to understand that means it's too weak, not enough kick. A great shame, and it's something that will always come between everlasting love for China.
