It's been a while that I've been writing for this site. That has several reason, among which the most important one is that I have moved back to The Netherlands to finish my Master degree. It has been a splendid year with lots of warm people and cold weather. Thanks a lot to all of you.

Due the switch from one hosting provider to another, a lot of features, videos, files stopped working. I will try to fix this soon. Sorry for the inconvenience. If you're in a hurry reading or watching something particular, send me an email!

Three weeks ago, when Ruud (Elles' brother) was here, we discovered a bowling centre in the basement underneath the Kallio swimminghall, just a few minutes down the Helsinginkatu. It appeared to be a 'disco bowling night', an intermediate players' variation of the well known game...

It's been a while since I've put something new on this website. Not that I've been lazy or anything. In fact, I've been very busy working on some 'secret' project, and I will continue to do so for the rest of the summer. Besides this, my JVC video camera broke down a while ago and it is still in the repair shop...

Anyway, I have just written the obligatory report for the university about my experiences in Helsinki and in the University of Art and Design this year. It's in Dutch and probably only interesting for Dutch people who are planning to go to Helsinki to work or study.

Download the report.

The Finns are known to drink a lot of coffee. In fact, they consume the most coffee per capita. But it's amazing how often a Finnish cup of brown gold tastes like half warm, stale creek water; the last thing that one would expect when passing the Meira Oy coffee roasting factory, a few blocks away from our house in Kallio. Perhaps it is a matter of taste. The Finns who are responsible for most of the coffee seem to be quite happy with their products.

Me and Elles have found a few like-minded if it comes to making a proper cup of coffee. Perhaps they make the best coffee in whole of Helsinki. And besides this, they sell great ciabatta (chapata in Finnish), for example with graviera and grilled aubergine. I'm talking about the Gran Delicato Café (or 'Delicato' for short). Our favourite Saturday afternoon stopover café on Kalevankatu 34.

A week ago we went to check out the brand new shopping centre Kamppi in the centre of the town. Having spent just a few seconds inside the mall, we were surprised by a bar annex grand café 'Bierhuis Rotterdam'. Yes, a 'Dutch' pub! Of course we went in and spent the rest of the afternoon there, drinking Grolsch (Dutch) beer. The manager was very happy to have us, genuine Dutch people and in return of our effort to teach him and his staff some Dutch jibberish, we got some free Grolsch beers.. Proost! They are having a special on 'Koninginnedag' (Queensday) starring Willempie and Maxima (our future king and queen), so pay them a visit the 30th of April...