Tuesday 30 March 2010

Overload

Last weekend was loaded with culture - very inspiring. The not so ideal man and I went to see a performance at the Royal Theatre on Saturday night. The performance turned out to be somewhat disappointing, but the ambiance of the theatre has compensated a little. We also made an attempt to enjoy some modern live music performance at the Supermarkt afterwards, but with little success.  We had to use Häagen-Dazs Belgian Chocolate ice-cream to make sure the evening ended well.

Sunday afternoon we managed to gather a group of five people to visit the Gemeentemuseum  for the Kandinsky and Der Blaue Reiter and the Haute Couture exhibitions. We spent almost four hours at the museum and my head is still spinning trying to digest all the visual information.

After I checked with a couple of friends whether their family and beloved ones are safe in Moscow I thought back of my many trips in the Moscow metro.  Lubianka - one of the stations attacked - leads not only to the former KGB building, but also to one of the largest book stores in Moscow. My mother and I went there less than a year ago...

On my way home I walked past the CDA headquarters when a couple of cars stopped in front of the building and the Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende stepped out of one of them and headed towards the door surrounded by the bodyguards. I was the only one walking past at that moment. There was no one else around except for a man who was occupied with his car some hundred meters further down the street. Even though Balkenende was surrounded by the bodyguards, the whole setting seemed so peaceful.  I was struck by the poignant contrast between this relaxed, almost serene scene and the news from Moscow...

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