Alternative reality

Every day we make choices and we live our lives. But what would've happened if we had taken the other option we had? For every decision we make, in an alternative reality, our other selves make a different choice.

Feelings of deja vu's are supposed to be glimpes of this alternative reality. They say that only a few people are able to cross the window between these worlds.

Wouldn't it be great if we could see the results of the different choices we made?

Do you know how many decisions you make in one day? And what if one stays indecisive?

Hidden in plain sight

How could I've been so blind I keep on asking myself. She was there all along.

A new journey perhaps? Do certain things happen for certain reasons?

Smiles 'r us today!!

Humble Pie

When things go to far...

When one person overly dominates another...

When there is a complete loss of control...

There are always repercussions.

Beach Apartheid

Now normally I am against discrimination of any kind, but today I think I found a whole new arena of legitimate population control. I was sat at a beach club in Zandvoort with a collegue and we were enjoying our Sunday. Good conversation, lovely weather, fine drinks and an even finer waitress, when all of a sudden an ear splitting banshee's yell completely obliterated the serene atmosphere.

The origin of this earth shattering scream was a small child whose parents had told him he wasn't allowed a second ice-cream. Apparently the child felt that the appropriate response was to ruin everyone else's gezellig time!

This incident made me reveal my plan of Beach Apartheid to my collegue. It's simple yet effective. People who cannot keep their genes in their trousers and feel the overrated urge to reproduce should feel the consequences of this insane act. Therefore, when coming to the beach with their offspring they should be segregated from those who have chosen more wisely in life. This of course should be enforced by law.

My collegue said he couldn't agree more with me and even opted for a "Parenthood test". After all if you need a license to drive a car, why not get people tested on proper parental skills. Now I wasn't sure if he was serious about this, but the idea is certainly worth more research.

Santiago de Compostela - part 1

In my last blog I talked about Change and I had questions about why or when people change. This really was food for thought. I realise now I was fed up with work for a long time and I had been taking on far too much.

I think it was sometime in late April I realised I needed to make a change as well. Work, sports, going out, meeting up with friends, all good fun but it I felt like being in a loop. Same people, same places, same chats, over and over again. It was a Saturday evening that I was supposed to go out with a mate and at the last minute he cancelled because he wasnt feeling too well. I was sat in my appartment thinking what to do next, who to call, when it struck me.........I didnt want to be alone on a Saturday evening, I didn't want to spend time in my appartment alone doing fuck all.

Actually, when I realised I didn't like my own company that much I freaked out. Now, who doesn't like being alone for a bit? I started to think how much time I was alone and what I did at those times. Apparently I spend my alone time in oblivion as I couldn't really tell what went through my mind, probably being on automatic pilot.

Was I disappointed in myself? Well yes!! I started surfing the internet about being alone and how other people were going about it. After a while I found this website where a woman told about her journey to Santiago de Compostela.

Now I dont know if you ever heard of this before but this city is located in the north west of Spain and ever since the 9th century it has been a medieval pilgrimage route. The story goes that the disciple Jacob has his grave in the cathedral there. The route is known as the Camino de Santiago.

Many pilgrims have taken this route and since the 1st of July and I am happy to pronounce I am one of them! I'm still smiling when writing this down....

I've walked many, many miles. Starting in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, I received my official pilgrimage-pass "the Compostela" to show for it. I know it is nothing more than just a piece of paper but I have learned so much about myself, I have met so many wonderful people.

I have input for so many blogs, the next ones about this topic are soon to come. But first, I am going to sit on my balcony, enjoy the sun, a good glass of wine and my own company ;)

People change!

The other day I ran into an ex of mine, she looked stunning and we had a little chat. Apparently she was single again too. I had not spoken to her for two years and we decided to meet up again soon.

So yesterday we went out for drinks and a meal and I had a good time. She told me about how she changed jobs right after we'd split up, and that she became close friends with a female collegue at her new office. This new friend told her about fetish parties she'd like going to and invited my ex along.

Honestly, I never thought she'd be the kind of girl who would be up for those kind of things. She had my attention though, lol! She told me all about these fetish parties and the kinky outfits that she'd been wearing and how she got to meet lots of interesting people.

She told me she was no longer the woman I once knew, and it made me think about what she was like now. We had been in a relationship for about for 7 months or so and in that time I got to know her as an independant, ambitious type of woman. Come to think of it, that might have been just what had put me off her. She had never shown her vulnerable side, she never had that real softness I like in women. But on the other hand it was her female agressiveness I was drown to when first meeting her.

Anyway, she told me she had become very interested in the D/s thing and instantly I thought of her as a mistress in black leather holding a whip. How wrong could I be? She than revealed that this whole experience had brought out her submissiveness. She bent over to me and whispered that she loved being at a mans feet doing what ever he wanted and her only goal would be to please him. I think I nearly choked in whatever I was eating when she said that, but I kept my pokerface. She had me hanging of her lips thats for sure.

Coming to the point I wanted to make, no matter how often you are confronted with people changing, it still surprises me everytime. These kind of things make me wonder, why do people change? Ok, we all know that big events in life, break-ups, death of a beloved and so on, tend to open peoples eyes to the relevance of things and thats exacty when they make changes. Do people stick to their newly invented selves or do they - slowly - go back to who they always were?

I've never really changed a lot, I think. I'd asked people who knew me for a long time, and they said no - and then asked if I was going through an early midlife crisis. Hmmm....ah well, food for thought.

My ex invited me to come along to one of her D/s events...... and part of me wants to go, and not only to get my curiosity satisfied, but who knows what is hidden underneath all these layers of civilisation? A dominant master, a foot lover, a leather boy, a submissive slave or a bit of it all?

Never mind the classics

I was in the pub the other day and a friend told me about a CD with classical music he had recently bought (can't remember which one). Although we had drunk quite a few, we had a nice discussion about composers. That is, 3 of us because the 4th person in the group couldnt care less about classical music, he referred to Bach as "the twiddly one that is all sad". We sent him to the bar to get us some drinks and we asked ourselves the question: "What is the most overrated piece of classical music?".

Here is the list we came up with, mind you this is not just my opinion but also those of a couple of pissed twats who are supposed to be my friends.

- Fur Elise (which is ridiculous; it doesn't represent Beethoven's genius at all), Pachabell's Cannon in D, the opening 'fate' motif of Beethoven's fifth symphony.

- Saint-Saens' 'Le Carnaval des Animaux'. He himself said he was embarrassed that such a trivial joke of a work (not even important enough for an opus number) should become so popular. Also, 'O Fortuna' the opening and closing piece of 'Carmina Burana'. Any dramatic film has a theme that's ripped off from O Fortuna, and yet no-one has heard the great pieces in the middle like Tempus Est Iocondum or Circa Mea Pectora.

- Beethoven's 14th Sonata in C Sharp Minor. I hesitate to call it by its popular title, Moonlight, as thats so unrepresentative of the majesty of the pieces. Only in the first movement is music suitable to imagine the moon shining on a lake, and all the other pieces are dwarfed. People are attracted to this apparent simplicity, and that direction (the one every pianist wants to see) to hold the sustain pedal down the entire time. This does not work on a modern piano, but that stops few. Consequently, this work is almost as overplayed as it is over-recorded - and the morons who have actually bothered to listen to the last movement claim it to be one of the hardest pieces Beethoven wrote; it simply does not compare to the 21st, 23rd, 26th, 29th or 31st sonatas, or the Diabelli Variations. It's just loud and fast, but not that challenging.


- 'Romeo and Juliet' fantasy-overture by Tchaikovsky. Recognize that love theme? That's because they play it in every love scene on television or in cinema post-1950. It's about as popular and overheard as the Nutcracker suite, which has around four or five pieces that everyone can whistle along to, but yet no one can name.

- Bach has some undeserving pieces, especially the simplistic Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565. Although I wish I could play that on the organ every time you walk into an old church or decrepit house. The fugue is actually pretty much on par with the rest of Bach's works, but no one would recognize any of those pieces past the first half page.

- Rachmaninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto: In my opinion, it's nothing but a not very well crafted piece of romantic clap-trap, composed solely for the purpose of showing off the pianist's technical skills and to sell concert tickets.

- Of course, there's always the good old 'Eine Kleine Nachtmusik'. I have never met anyone who didn't recognize this tune, but it took an unbelievable amount of digging to find out the title and composer. Do you know the tune by name, or who wrote it?

As for me personally, I just like most composers, I am a whore that way....but I am not that taken with Bach like everyone else is. I'm afraid I really don't understand what all the fuss is about. His music is pleasant enough, but much to mathematical for me at times. To me he will always be runner-up, second-best.....so who you think is my number one ;)