2016 The Year it Was!

Family Event: Charlotte's and Jorrit's wedding at Le Bastide in Le Provence, no words can describe the beauty and grandeur of this splendid moment in time. Every minute was a highlight, from Old Dan Tucker till the Lounge Party, the Gigondas and the Piece Monte, plus the next morning's breakfast, it was exquisite and with utter finesse. Fortunately we have strong memories and we made many pictures ourself, as the Maestro Photo-guy is still working on it. 

Inge's surprise 60-bash on the canals and in DaCosta with a truly nice turnout of long time friends. Having a bunch of special people all making great efforts to spend a Sunday afternoon with us in Amsterdam, thats called priceless. We had Fruitema's 150 in St. Maxime, exquisite setting, great atmosphere and meeting old friends and new friends. Graduation: Paul from Leiden University and the European Tour for project Halo with a surprise dinner in Lyon. 2017 will be Dagmar's Graduation and we are full circle, checking the box!

The year of "Old Friends" getting back again, we are brining the band together! Remarkable: Reuniting around Tour de Flanders with the Verpaalen Bros, there is no place in the world where the 3 of us could spend a weekend.  From de Muur, Oude Kwaremont tot den Berendries. Tons of stories about cycling and how we experienced this great sport throughout all of these years.

We had a surprising reconnection with Leo Wesel and Kim Boulakos in Nice (and with Kila and Armani). Deep conversations about the beautiful game with real insights and opinion sharing, music, life of old Roosendaal, influence of parents, art, food etc. It was delightful. Dr. Bob's 60th in Tilburg with great Surinam food, music and dancing and meeting some folks from my hometown Roosendaal.

Concert: Bruce and the E-Street Band in the Accor Arena, formerly known as Berc, must say also the performance at het Malieveld in Den Haag was very special. Album: David Bowie-Blackstar. Surprise Album: Rolling Stones-Blue and Lonesome. Notable: Bob Dylan winning the Nobel prize in Literature and at the event in Stockholm Patti Smith singing "A hard rain is gonna fall". Book: reading the works Jonathan Franzen, a.o. Purity, Vaders en Dochters van Hendrikje Spoor and Bobby Kennedy's making of a liberal icon by Larry Tye and of course Born to Run. TV Show: The Night Manager, a fine BBC series. The Americans, the show to me the real successor of Breaking Bad, also liked Peaky Blinders and the Fall. Thank you Netflix. Movie: Spotlight, the Infiltrator

Sad:
Farewell to David Bowie, Prince, Glenn Frey, Pierre Boulez, Paul Kantner, Keith Emerson, Leonard Cohen, Leon Russell, Toots, my daily pal Peter Van Straten and great inspirator Dutch Maestro Johan Cruyff

Disturbing: the great divide, unhappiness and dumb factor within large parts of the American society expressed by electing Trump for President. Brexit...The world is a real mess and with elections in 2017 in France, Germany and the Netherlands who knows in which shape we will be same time next year.

Other visits this year: Miami, Valencia, London, New York and numerous trios to the Provence. Crazy!