Category:Travel
Paid a visit to “Ground Zero” this morning. I knew 2 persons that persished in the 9/11 disaster. So this was special to me. Paused to think about my friends and to realize once again that New York will never be the same. I navigate the city by its landmarks and it used to be easy: all you had to do was look up and find the Twin Towers. And I find myself still doing that. Only to realize every time that they’re no longer there. And it’s not just the towers that are no longer there.
The rest of the day, I went hunting for clothes. I don’t think anyone will ever notice me wearing new things. And quite possibly I’m out of style, so all the money I’ve spent is in vain. But at least I look decent. And… I no longer wear stuff that is at least 2 sizes too big.
Listing to:
Empty Sky – Bruce Springsteen
We Didn’t Start the Fire – Billy Joel
The Rising – Bruce Springsteen
You’re Missing – Bruce Springsteen
My City of Ruins – Bruce Springsteen
… in beautiful New Jersey! Said goodbye to Charlot (happy birthday!!!) and Delphine who kept me good company on the plane. Took a taxi to my hotel. Dropped my gear and took more than a moment to enjoy the awesome view from my hotel room.
Gasped as the bus drove by the Meadowlands Arena. The anticipation filled my heart with joy… I think I’m ready for Saturday. I know I can’t hardly wait.
Headed into Manhattan to get myself reacquainted with the site again. Took a little stroll, checked out the commercials on Times Square and ended up in photography heaven. Spent a sh*tload of money of course.
And now an early night… Sleep deprivation and 6 hours time difference are taking their toll. Tomorrow is another day.
It has been 3 years since I’ve been away on holidays. My world has changed a lot in those 3 years. I had to fight for my survival and for some of the things important to me. I lost my self confidence and almost lost my faith.
This trip to NYC is a lot about reconnecting with my faith I guess. Another big step towards bein’ me again.
I look forward to my 1st Springsteen show in this tour. It’s gonna be an emotional roller coaster, I’m sure. And there is nobody there to catch me when I fall (I miss my baby sisters and my big brother already). That kinds frightens me!
As I boarded the plane for Newark (a NorthWest Airbus A330) those famous line of Sinatra’s New York New York popped in my head: If I can make it there, I can make it anywhere. I’m hopeful, but also full of doubt…
Listing to:
Frank Sinatra – New York New York
Bruce Springsteen – Leap of Faith
Billy Joel – New York State of Mind
Dixie Chicks – Long Way Around
Bruce Springsteen – Working on a Dream
Bruce Springsteen – Devils & Dust
I just got back from a 3 day trip to London. Saw my 28th Bruce Springsteen show last Friday. Bruce and the band played for 3 whole hours. It was my longest show so far. And what a show it was! He played a couple of my favorites that I had never had seen live before: Point Blank and Glory Days (finally!).
I love the stories he tells in his songs. They are a source of inspiration and consolation. I’m gonna have to admit: Bruce is God!
The rest of the weekend was very relaxing, shopping time and lots of fun. Thank you Alain and Anouk for keeping up with me. Even if I kept you up all night with my snoring and breaking glasses.
I spent the last couple of days in Paris for a training course: my least favorite city in Europe and the course wasn’t really interesting. But I managed to have 5 minutes of fun… shooting this pic of the Eiffel Tower.
Actually no… I had more than 5 minutes of fun. I also enjoyed having dinner with my colleague Alex too.
We spent last weekend in Paris, France. Nothing too much exciting. We went to Paris to go see Mylene Farmer at the Palais Omnisport de Bercy. We bought the tickets for last Saturday’s concert in December of 2004.
Mylene Farmer is one of my favorite artists. Her concerts are renowned for their extravagance: beautiful costumes, lot’s of dancers, excellent lightshow and many surprises. She decided to promote her latest album Avant que l’Ombre… with just 13 shows in Paris. She did not want to play concerts anywhere else.
I was expecting it to be big, but I have never seen a stage show like Saturday’s concert! I was just blown away: 2 stages, big video screens, lights everywhere, surround sound effects. It was awesome. Ticket prices were quite high, but it was worth it every penny.
The only drawback of the night: the hostesses that we guiding us to our seats asked us for a little token of appreciation. We paid 132 EUR per ticket and those girls actually had the nerve to ask for a tip!
Before goin’ home, we went for a walk along the banks of the river Thames. We took the time to shoot some photos of the London Eye and Big Ben. I was surprised to see how quickly this weekend has passed. Fortunately, London is not far away and it’s easy to come back to.
We spent most of the day at Legoland Windsor and it is just one big photo opportunity for me and Luc. We never got any further than miniland and just shot a bunch of photos of all the models there.
It is amazing what they build with those colorful little bricks. I wouldn’t mind to be an engineer there.
Since Kelly and Thomas were asleep already when we got back from the concert yesterday, we had Luc’s little birthday bash tonight. I think that the bottle of champagne I smuggled along did the trick.
We left for London—for a 3 day trip—early this morning. Way too early actually. On to Brussels to catch the Eurostar to London. The 5 of us (Thomas, Kelly, Luc, Lies and myself) checked in at the London Marriott and then got on our way.
We started our trip with a little geocache on Abbey Road. The famous Abbey Road Studios have a webcam overlooking the crossroads where the album cover for the Beatles’ album Abbey Road was shot. The cache (GC6F12) was easy to find and with a little help from our friend Robert, we managed to grab a couple of webcam pictures that allowed us to log the cache. Of course we have a couple photos from the cache on our gallery.
Our visit to Madame Tussaud’s took most of the afternoon. I love Madame Tussaud’s. It’s the ideal practice ground for an amateur photographer like myself: all the models are famous and patient, and all of them will have their photo taken as many times as I want. I have a
couple photos posted in our gallery.
We spent the rest of our evening a Heather Nova concert at Shepherds Bush Empire with our friend Luc. He’s a big Heather Nova fan, and it was his birthday. So he was very excited to go to that concert. And so was I. Great show, great finale… Heather closed here show with a cover of Springsteen’s I’m on Fire.