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Patty TrossèlLa Pat & Istvan Hitzelberger - Maria va (A Mercedes Sosa song)

La Pat - Cerco la luna (Seeking the moon)

Il pleut (It's raining) from Patty Trossel/La Pat:

Maayan Licht| The raptur'd soul - Georg Friedrich Händel

Jakub Jósef Orlinski 'The Cold Song'

Klaus Nomi "The Cold Song"

Santé! At Chinese-Indonesian restaurant Paradijs (Paradise or: 天堂), Canal city.

Oh, and by the way, this is Miffy! (In Dutch: Nijntje). It is the brainchild of Dutch Utrecht-based graphic designer, illustrator and writer of children's books Dick Bruna (1927-2017). I found Miffy on SL MP when I was looking for oriental things for the Chinese restaurant. As it happens, Miffy is extremely popular with Japanese and Chinese tourists. There is a Dick Bruna museum in Utrecht and you stumble over oriental tourists there asking for directions to 'Miffy museum.' So hence perhaps Miffy on MP is in the eastern corner. But I'm happy to have found this Miffy lamp (it's a lamp). By the way, I used to have Miffy curtains in my bedroom as a child :-).

There was something else missing from Canal city. A Chinese restaurant. That's not Dutch, is it? To my feeling and memory, it is. In the 1970s and 1980s, there were countless Chinese restaurants in the Netherlands and typical of the Netherlands: Chinese-Indonesian restaurants. A strange combination for other countries perhaps, but here in the Netherlands they determined the street scene for decades. There was one around the corner and we used to get Chinese there on Sundays. Or we ate there, but very rarely because we didn't have much money to eat out back then. In Canal city, I had little space (the houses on the bay are actually up against the neighbour's boundary) , so I had to cut off two-thirds of a house, adjust the facade to fit the streetscape, and there was just enough room for a Chinese bar there. In the house next door, I had a very small space for a dinner table where you can dine Chinese. And all in that lovely nostalgic kitschy Chinese style I know from my childhood. By the way, I read that the 'lucky cat' is not Chinese but Japanese. What do you guys think, still keep it or take it away? He is so cute :-).

enhanced version 🙂

Okay, I admit: if you have land, you may think you're done, but you never are. Because every day, you might get a new idea or adjust your old ones. Or you see bumps that you didn't notice before. For instance, I had first decided to close the back door of the café because there was no place (and no prim) to make a back garden. So I 'bricked up' the wall. But it still didn't sit well with me. Then I started scraping all the prims together by linking objects, looking in every nook and cranny to see if there were unusable objects that could go into inventory. This way, I was able to create a small courtyard after all. An 'achterommetje' as we say in the Netherlands. An alley leading to it with a small gate. And then I suddenly thought of the Utrecht gable stones. You have lots of them here. With pictures on them. Even around the corner where I live. There is a gablestone with a unicorn above a small gate. When I walk past that, I'm almost home. If I walk past the unicorn that's the signal for me to grab the house keys. So that unicorn had to be above the gate in canal city. I took a picture, Photoshopped some and placed it on a prim above the gate. Voila. I feel a little more at home again!

The music of Die Wilde Jagd is minimal with a strange brooding, mysterious effect and feels like a dark ritual. Live they are great! This is Himmelfahrten (Ascensions). Rüste zu Himmelfahrten Nicht ohne es mir zu verraten Bis der Tag der Nacht vergolten Und der Hahn den Morgen rief Prepare for ascension Not without telling me Till the day is rewarded by the night And the rooster called the morning

Les fragments de la nuit - Assault

Max Richter: The Four seasons recomposed, Spring.

An earlier song of Joost Klein, the eurovision song contest candidate for the Netherlands this year. This is a another song from him and is called 'Friesenjung (Frisian boy). Not sang in Dutch but German!

Olivia Pedroli, "This is where it starts.

Bettie Serveert feat. Peter te Bos - Love Sick.

Moondog - Bird's Lament

Dutch DJ Junkie XL (but he lives in states) with A little less conversation (yes, based on the Elvis Presley song!).

This is one of my all time favorites. It still sounds so good and current. So well performed and produced.

Dutch 90's dance music 4: Quazar with Unity

Dutch 90's dance music 3: Paul Elstak - Skull Dominion. We do know how to throw a party.

Love this one!

A mayor should have a chain of office. Tricky to find on MP, but eventually found it. And now I really must stop decorating, it's finished! (I said to myself a week ago 🙂

Haha, oh that would be neat to see that animation! Know those contests well ;-). For jenever, it is traditional to pour it all the way to the brim, which is why you should drink the first sip like this. But that kind of competition is absolutely frequent.