September 2017

 

 

September started with a walk through memory lane, Back to Brussels. The event where all alumni of the European Student Forum can come together in Brussels to meet again to talk about the good old times and about the current 🙂 We had dinner at Vieille Bosnië, where we ate some nice meat. After the dinner we went with a small group to Funky Monkey, which is a nice bar and where we stayed till the early hours of the day 😉

Saturday I went in the early afternoon to the center and after strolling a bit in town, I went to Zaabär for a chocolate workshop. There i made my own chocolate creations 🙂 Before dinner, there was first a Jazz concert in L’Archiduc on the program, that was really nice.

The dinner was across the street at Como Como which is a tapas bar, but a special one. The tapas are passing by like you see sometimes in sushi bars.

The day wasn’t ended yet, after dinner I went to café Béguin to see another jazz concert. It is a nice café where i went more often often since that evening.

Sunday started different then in the months before. As already mentioned in my last post, September would bring something new to my life. In this case a new girlfriend. When I told my friend about Emmanuelle, he was laughing for a while, since she is born in France and if there is something i have an allergy for… it’s France. We went together to a wonderful place, an small island where is a good restaurant to have a great brunch. The restaurant is called “Le Chalet Robinson” in Ter Kamerenbos, the only way to reach the resto is by “boat”. We spend some nice time there before it was time to leave Brussels, but I was a different man :)))

Thursday 7th I went with my colleague to Antwerp to have a first meeting with partners on the project proposal Talentdevelopment by Optimal Match. Together with the city of Antwerpen, Gent, Lille and Kent County we had our first meeting to see if we could work together on the mismatch between cultures on school, home and street.

On Friday the 8th I went by train to Remeich. This for the special occasion of the 40th birthday party of my friend Emine. It was a remarkable day for her. She was pleasantly surprised by the efforts her husband made.

Saturday I went not back to Rotterdam but back to Brussels. Another long travel by train. In the evening i went together with my Marni, to enjoy a concert of Bruno Castellucci and John Higham Quintet, which was really enjoyable.

Sunday we strolled in St.Gilles before going back to Rotterdam.

On Friday the 15th two of my friends from the municipality Brasov in Romania came to Rotterdam to for a cultural exchange. Four artisan came along and together with Niffo they made a three day program. On the Friday students from the Albeda V.E.T. School.

In the evening I went to the first official concert of skinner at Paddy’s. It was an amazing concert.

On the 16th I went to Brussels to be with my girlfriend. In the afternoon we went to the annual market of St.Job in Uccle, where lot’s of artisan artists were showing their crafts.

In the evening we went to La Tentation in the center of Brussels for a dancing evening. They had open door day, and had several dance workshops. I joined the Tango, Salsa and Lindy Hop. It became an unexpected evening. Together with music performances of Arabic, Galicien, etc.

Sunday the next visit was Van Buuren house museum, with a picturesque garden, labyrint and sculptures all around the premises. Wonderful place for lovers 😉

On Monday the 18th I had a conference in Brussels organised by Eurocities in cooperation with European Foundation Centre, the topic “cities together towards inclusive education for refugees”. It was an inspirational day. And it was nice to see Ali Kahn after such a long time.

Tuesday I went to see a movie Dark Tower, next to “Kingsman, the golden circle” movie. So just a few movies in September at pathé. Both movies were enjoyable.

23 september started with a good coffee at Lebkov near the main train station of Rotterdam, since i was picking up my girlfriend. It’s one of the many good places in Rotterdam to drink coffee.

In the afternoon we went to the arthouse movie theater of Rotterdam, Lantaren/Venster to see the movie Neko Atsume House, a Japanese movie. Before there was a Japanese market in the theater. It was a cool movie about cats 🙂

In the evening it was about my upcoming Birthday, 80s90s party in Hal 4 aan de maas. Before the party Robert and René came to my house to have a drink before. At the party place we met some other friends among two from Breda. It was a wonderful evening/night 🙂

Sunday afternoon we slowly went to Jordy’s for a late brunch, before walking to the lake at the Kralingse Bos. For the late afternoon we went to Spijkenisse for a nice coffee with a brownie at Brownies and downieS with my sister. In the evening we went to Delfshaven, to see another part of town, to eat at my favorite Libanese restaurant Le Souq. It’s always a pleasure to eat there.

Monday 25th, no working day, since it is my birthday. It seems to become a tradition to not be in Rotterdam that day. First a great latte at Mockamore, but then we went to Den Haag, to visit Panorama Mesdag for the first time in my life. It’s the oldest 19th century panorama with a view on Scheveningen. At the moment they were restore the painting. I can recommend to see it when you’re in Den Haag.

Before we left Den Haag, we ate “bitterballen” at Dudok. It’s a real treat 😉 Diner was in Rotterdam at the saté bar, one of my favorite dishes, Nasi Goreng with Saté. And to end this special day, there was a birthday cake :)))

29th of September I had another meeting in Antwerpen, this time with partners in the 2Seas region to further develop the Youth Desk in Rotterdam. After the meeting I went to Brussels, Back to the one I love. In the evening we went to grand place to see “Fête de la federation Wallonië” with different French artists sing one or two songs.

On the last day of the month it was car free Brussels, that was a nice 🙂 We went to MAD Brussels which is a fashion and design centre. Already the building it photographic.

Afterwards we visited iMAL which was an festival with internet goodies and performances.

For dinner we went to café Béguin grand opening with afro natural fire barbecue and performance of the Men on Fire and the Soul Soldiers.

August 2017

Thursday 3 August, I saw one of the 8 movies of August, namely Valerian and the city of a Thousand Planets. Luc Besson, made a great fantasy movie.

On Tuesday 8th of August, I went to my usual August vacation city… my beloved Budapest! I flew in the evening from Schiphol, so didn’t do much that day. On Wednesday I made a long walk through the city, all the way up of Gellart Hill. I had my traditional Vapiano dinner and walked back to my hotel.

 

Why every year in August to Budapest? For the ones whom knows me, know the three reasons, first I have many friends in Budapest, and I love to visit them from time to time, secondly it’s just a wonderful city, always changing and like Rotterdam divided by a river, third is the Sziget festival on Óbuda Island. I pick always a day with two great artists, it’s a 8 day festival. This year I had chosen the Thursday due to the fact that in the main line up was Jamie Cullum and Tom Odell, as free gifts I have seen Biffy Clyro, Wiz Khalifa, Chef’Special and Kensington. It was a sunny day, with great concerts.

On Friday morning I left to Romania, I always pick a neighboring country to visit for some days and this year it was Romania. Since I have been many times to Cluj, Arad and Timisoara, I had a new plan. I went to Deva, a seven hours journey by train. That’s my maximum for a train travel usually, although i did three times a twelve hour trip by train. I met in Deva my friend Andreea from Cluj-Napoca, whom also traveled some hours. Also I was able to drink my favorite non alcoholic drink from Romania, Fanta Madness ^^

Saturday we went to Petrosani, another new destination for me, right in the mountain area, which I love as Dutchie with a mountain of 322 meters above see level 😉 While strolling through the city we found a river, which was cool to see and be at.

Sunday afternoon we went back to Deva to stay there another night. We made another walk to other parts of the city and went up a more real mountain ^^

On Monday afternoon it was time to go back to Budapest. Another travel of 7 hours by train. I don’t mind traveling by train, but 7 hours is normally my max for a travel alone. Half past 8 I was back in Budapest. Another tradition is to have JD Burger at TGI Fridays, and today was that day to keep the tradition alive. I enjoyed again my yearly treat.

On Tuesday the 15th, I met my long time friend Mariann, it was great to see her. We catched up our life story and spend some nice time together. Sadly my days were over in Budapest, I left at ten my second city. The next day I was as usual back at work.

On 18th August, I had my second festival of the Month, Haarlem Jazz and more. Steffen Morrison and Postmen were for me the two names which attracted me to the festival. After all those years, it was great to see the Postmen live. They can still rock the show.

Sunday 20 August, was also a day for a smaller festival, the Oude haven festival, for me Ruben Hein was the main artist here and by chance I saw again Steffen Morrison, I could come even closer this time to the stage.

Monday 21st of August, I had the honor to be one of the guides for the new students to show them as public servant and inhabitant of Rotterdam my city to a group of fresh students. I used to do this when I was a student within my student association AEGEE, and now in my real life job, also… great memories.

Friday 25th of August was the try-out of a new band named Skinner, I know the bass guitar player personally from his former band Kingfisherlive, and was nice to see in a small setting their first gig with family and friends. Was special to be present.

Saturday I went to Delft, to visit Delft Jazz. I really like Delft, it’s nearby and have some nice festivals in a year,. I always start the festival season in Delft in February the Blues festival.

Sunday became a day, which at that time couldn’t imagen, would change my life upside down. I showed my city to a friend, whom I met for the first time in person, and for the next weekends till the end of the year, we saw each other every weekend except one due to two work travels of mine which were close to each other. But more on this in my next entry 😉

July 2017

July started this year with a Saturday, where I went to the city to have some “poffertjes” with my best friend. Also I saw the movie Baby Driver, which is till now one of the top movies I saw this year. On Sunday I went to Metropolis for the first time ever. It’s a music festival in Rotterdam (South)…  There were some great performances, with really different music styles, from Turkish psychedelics to hypnotic folkpop and from Soulful rock’n roll to Lo-fi post-punk. I really liked the band The Dawn Brothers (photo down), once again I bought a CD on a festival 🙂

On Monday we said goodby to our student worker Lea, she had been co-working with my colleague Anthony mainly. She helped me during the conference in May in Brussels. We went unsurprisingly to the Greek restaurant Elliniko where we had some great dinner.

The second weekend of July started wonderful with North Sea Jazz festival, where I invited my father to join me this year. We were lucky that there was one change in the program, Joss Stone came due to cancellation of Emily Sandé concert. And Joss Stone was the highlight of the evening. We also saw Grace Jones, Jamie Lidell, Cory Henry, Typhoon & Jef Neve, to end with a short while of Usher.

The day after I went with my best friend by train to Maastricht and Valkenburg, so to one of the best area’s of the Netherlands. When we just turned 18, we got a free public travel card and then we went each weekend to three cities. This time we went to just two. We ate some wonderful “vlaai”. On our way home at the station of Valkenburg we saw a icecream shop where they had my favorite beer ice 😉 We got late back home, but not too late to go to the pub, not with my best friend but with another friend. So it was a long but wonderful day. On Sunday we went with the family to ‘van der Valk’ for a nice dinner, due to my fact that my father finally was fully on pension.

During the middle weekend of July, I went on Friday to see again the movie Despicable me 3 with a friend, and after the movie went even dancing at NRC and the Pub. The highlight of the weekend was the Sunday in Leiden at Werfpop. It was the first time I went to this festival. You had two main stages, which were far away from each other, and in between a nice big area to sit and relax if you wanted. For me Michelle David (photo down) whom also performed at North Sea Jazz earlier this month, was one of the highlights. I saw also among others Dool, Pink Oculus, Dubioza Kolektiv, and Gentleman’s Dub Club.

In the last week I went to Vapiano and saw the movie Retour en Bourgogne on Monday, on Wednesday I saw the movie Spiderman: Homecoming. Saturday was Summercarnaval time, normally this is the day that you know that in Rotterdam is a dry and sunny day, but sadly enough it was as sunny as usual, there was mainly rain… But that couldn’t stop us, to enjoy this day and dance on the streets as if we were in Rio!

On the last Sunday of the month, I went to Brielle. In my youth I went there regularly due to the fact that my grandparents had a vacation house nearby. Now I went to go to Brielle Blues, mainly to see Tim again with his band Shakedown Tim and Rhythm Revue, besides this there were other great performances like Slapback Johnny, Meena Cryle and The Chris Fillmore band (photo down).

 

 

June 2017

As promised in my last blog entry I would write faster, so here I am. June 2017 was a fine month.

On Saturday 10th of June, I went to Wantijpop. Last year I went there for the first time, and I’m sure I will go now regularly. It’s a free music festival, with some bigger artists, but also unknown ones. My main artist was this year Waylon, every time I see him, he gives a wonderful show. Another headliner was Broederliefde, but they really disappointed me. On the popcentrale stage, you had the crazy group Frans Huxie; one thing I can tell about them, they can make a crazy, really crazy show 🙂 Dr. Justice & the smooth operators was nice, but Magnacult was amazing; some deathmetal. The day after Wantijpop, I went to the movie Beauty and the Beast with my sister, and it was a great movie.

The week after Wantijpop, I went to Kannen en Kruiken a new festival in Rotterdam. It had really a lay back atmosphere. The weather was again wonderful, and you could drink some nice beers and wines, and off course the food trucks were not missing. That evening I ate for the first time the best “Bal gehakt” in town at the Ballentent, it’s minced meat, but really great.

On the 19th and 20st of June I was co-organizing the Child in the City seminar, it was an European seminar, but there were world wide participants, which made it even more attractive for me. The Princess of the Netherlands, Laurentien gave a presentation and everybody was impressed by her talk about her foundation Missing Chapter. Also the workshop with the children and adults with lego was great. The topic was Urban Planning, so Lego really fitted the seminar.

Sunday 25th of June, I went to the Bluegrass festival in the Netherlands, which takes place in my old Neighborhood Ouden Noorden. Again a festival with a lay back atmosphere, great music, from small bands to bigger ones. I was even caught making pictures by my family, I received an message with a photo of myself, that was funny.

Still on track

2017, started in London. I was there together with an old friend Andreea from Cluj. We saw the firework at the London Eye, which was great. London is always a good place to be for a couple of days, although the hotel prices for the days around NYE are amazing high, so those first days I stayed near the airport, and afterwards I moved towards the center.

January became really an all English month, since in the last week I went for work to Leeds, to learn more about Age friendly cities and Smart City Innovation, our host was really the best, he showed us around Leeds to see wonderful projects and people. Also the meeting with the mayor is one to remember 😉

February is the month where always my festival year start with Delft Blues, it was great to see Tim again with his new band. I still like a lot his performance.

In March I could finally add again a country to my list which I visited it, Finland. Since for the Edina project we had our project meeting in Helsinki. It snowed even still in Helsinki and there was ice… so spring hadn’t arrived yet here 🙂

April was for the first time since 2014, that I joined one of the distances of running during the marathon of Rotterdam. After 2014 the Marathon, I was smarter since it’s not healthy, I did the 1/4 marathon, in exactly one hour. Which was a great achievement, due to the fact I again didn’t trained too much 😀

In October 2016 my father became 65 years of age, and in the end of April we went together with my parents and sister’s gang to Centerparcs to enjoy for a midweek that my father soon will be a fully retired person. We enjoyed this midweek a lot. Right after, I went to my beloved place Budapest, since Les Anciens had there a meeting. Were amazing days, as if we were again students 😀

When I got back from Budapest, it was time for my mothers birthday, not as in the past with the agora’s I came this time on time for her birthday on the 5th of May. The week after I had the working group meeting Education in Antwerpen of Eurocities. Instead of being three days in Anwerpen, I had to go back in the middle to host public servants from the city of Munich. It were three crazy days, but I love to work internationally, so I don’t mind that much.

18th of May was my big day, for months I was preparing for the innovation in care conference in Brussels, which I organized as main coordinator. The room was still full at the end of the day, so we did a good job with the organizers team. Three different key-note speakers, the first gave a global view since she was from the WHO. The next gave insight in the integrated care, and the last gave more insight in the differences in health policy in Europe. We moved then on to three parallel sessions on different topics to come back in the main room at the Committee of the Regions to conclude the seminar with views from the youth.

Right after the conference I went for a weekend to Middelburg, the saturday was great with a wonderful night at De Zaak. Due to the fact that on Sunday Middelburg is dead, a visit was made to Vlissingen. Where i had a nice long walk next to the beach.

Pentecost was on the 25th of May this year, and then traditionally I go to Breda to join Breda Jazz with one of my old study friends. We were lucky, that one of our favorite bands, Along comes Mary was again playing this year on Breda Jazz.

So, the first 5 months were for me a blast, had wonderful events, music festivals and even more. Not to forget that after 18 years finally Feyenoord won the league, which was an amazing happening! Keep updated, will try to write faster 🙂 Enjoy life to the full max, that’s what I am are doing!

Back on Track 3

It has been a while since I’ve posted here. December 2012…

What happend since then? In 2013 all was fine, traveled a bit around, like Birmingham, Dublin, Stockholm, Zagreb, Arad, Cladova, Lipova and Belfast. To name the places i’ve been and where you can see pictures on my website: renekeijzer

In 2014, the year started perfectly, was happy for 4 months, ran the marathon in 4 hours and 36 minutes and then thunder hitted me not long after that…

… for 1,5 years I was living in my darkest period of my life. But at the end of 2015 I found a bit of myself back, and on 20 March 2016 the energy was back in me.

Rotterdam City Hall

So after a period of no travelling, no shooting pictures, no going to music performances, I got back on track… nr. 3! I hope I don’t have to honor my name again, to be reborn. But at the moment I’m full of energy and feel free like a bird in my mind.

Just last Sunday I went to North Sea Jazz, with the ticket I bought on 20 March… It was amazing with performances of Gregory Porter, Simply Red and Joe Bonamassa.

Gregory Porter @ North Sea Jazz

Before I went 25-28 May to Athens, 2-5 June to Berlin, 15 June to Antwerpen, 5-8 July Triëst and soon I will go to my beloved Budapest and Romania 🙂 Even after that trip I will go to Bucuresti after 9 years of not going to the capital of Romania.

At the end of June I co-organised a conference about Innovation in Care, which I really loved to do, it was an amazing event, I ended up showing my city and even Delft 🙂
On 21st of September I will be again co-organising an conference, this time, about 21st century skills, this time I’m more involved in the planning and can really organise, something what I’ve showed to be capable of.

Delft

So, instead of staying in the past, I can look forward to great music festival Sziget, wonderful trip to Brasov, and organising an hight-level conference for 100 persons …

Life is again in me… Always look on the bright side of life… Always look on the right side
of life…

Soon more news!

 

Solnuyshko

 

Thank you

For every drop of rain

You have frozen in time

With your sunshine

 

For the unforgettable journey

You have allowed our hearts to embark upon

And the privilege of your graceful ways

 

Each frozen drop reminds me

Memory perpetuates eternity

In a fleeting moment

When shared between two hearts

Copyright (c) 2012.09.12 by Werner Domroese

Happiness Express

A train to happiness is waiting for you
You’re running late
But it came in early on platform two
And you contemplate
On what to do

For the moment this train will stay
Will you hop on
Or wait for that next one to come along
For sooner or later
It will leave for another station

While another one
Might be heading your way
Possibly with a different destination
Maybe winter
Perhaps the sun

You know there is one waiting right now
Yet your heart is suddenly unable
To say what’s on it’s mind somehow
Check out the timetable

Ask yourself
What could you lose
If you would choose
To ride this train with me

When our final destination
The journey itself
May be

Copyright (c) 2011.10.29 by Werner Domröse

“I DON’T HAVE A JOB BUT I’M WORKING ON IT”

On Wednesday 5^thof October the city of Rotterdam organised in the framework of the Cities for Active Inclusion project a seminar with the title “I DON’T HAVE A JOB BUT I’M WORKING ON IT” – Talent development in the Netherlands.

The seminar was opened by Rotterdam vice-mayor Hugo de Jonge. His speech focused on the prevention of dropout and unqualifi ed school leaving. Rotterdam reached an agreement with the school boards in Rotterdam on a common strategy to tackle this: a 4-year programme, called “Attack on Dropout”.

Vice Mayor Hugo de Jonge

Mirte Kortbeek from EUROCITIES gave an introduction presentation on EUROCITIES and the project Cities for Active Inclusion, and their latest research on youth employment in 9 European cities.  The next presentation was about the Youth Counter by Alice Vlaanderen. She has been just the week before to Stockholm and Copenhagen to show the best practice of the Rotterdam Youth Counter, since this is unique in Holland, it’s an integrated approach towards youth. After a short coffee break, there was a presenation on active inclusion of young people with disabilities or health problems, Edwin de Vos, is conducting a reseach for Eurofound, and gave already a preview on our seminar.

Edwin de Vos

After the lunch, we had two international best practice presentations, first of the city of Copenhagen, about their jobcenter, and afterwards of Hjulsta school in Stockholm which was a movie, and showed how pupils whom almost dropped out of the educational system to keep them inside the system by giving them a more practical project.

Then the group splitted, the youngsters went up to a special room, where they had a skype conference with youth from Birmingham. Since normally the practicers are talking about the youth but never involves them in their debates. It was a nice debate. At the same time the others had an interesting panel debate on entrepreneurship and talent development.

Panel debate (from left to right): Denise Dehue, Regional manager, Young Enterprise NL; Jens Sibbertsen, Head of Department at Jobcenter Copenhagen; Livia di Nardo, Junior Achievement – Young Enterprise Brussels; Aetzel Griffioen, Rotterdam SkillCity; Hendrik Halbe, executive director of HOPE.

Skype debate with as observer Elisabeth Sörhuus & Aza Lemmer, Desiree Klijn and Laura Keereweer with debate coordinator Arianne van der Meer.

After the panel debate and skype debate there was a short time to refresh with some drinks, the last part was a feedback from the youth about their discussion, they were questioned by Piet Boekhoud, whom was the moderator of the day. After a moving anecdote of Piet Boekhoud how he activated one drugaddict, they day ended with the usual networking moment, some drinks with snacks.

After the event Elisabeth Sörhuus from the Education Department in the city of Stockholm answered to some questions on the topic of talent development.

The seminar had as topic talent development, what do you think should change in the educational system so the talent of the youth can florish better? 
I think that we must start very early to encourage and support all kinds of “talent -expressions”. We normally encourage the baby´s small steps of development but at a certain point we stop praising what children can do and what they are good at. In order to build a good self-confidence built on a good self-esteem you must go on promoting what children can do.

In the Swedish curriculum there are goals which stress entrepreneurship, ability to take initiatives and creativity, so we have to consider that when we plan for education  for all ages. In order to discover talents there must be lots of opportunities in the schoolday for pupils to show their talents!  If you just go on with ordinary lessons, strictly conducted by the teachers, no talent will turn up. But most of all it is a matter of attitude and approach. If you really believe in the idea that everyone has a talent out of the ordinary your way of treating young people will be encouraging enough. They will feel your belief and transform it to support.

 Should we involve the youth more in our discussions and how? Is it usefull?
Of course we must involve the youth. All resent research show that if you are involved your motivation increase. You can create focus-groups with young people and ask them about their points of view, you can encourage pupil councils to give pieces of advices or you can make questionnaires directly to youngsters in order to get to know what they really think.

How do you involve youth in Stockholm?
By working with pupil influence in school according to the goals in the curriculum. In Stockholm we have emphasized entrepreneurship as one way of taking care of young talents. It is not only a way of encouraging young people to show and develop their talents –  it is also about policy. To be an entrepreneur is e.g. about being curious, creative and taking risks and that you will learn if the atmosphere and surroundings are permitting and encouraging.

 What is one the best practices in Stockholm, where other cities can learn from regarding bringing youth from Education to Work?
There is a national program for high school students (16-20 years) where they work with starting a business. The goal is to to experience a business life cycle  – starting up, manage and close down a business –  during a year. It is supported by teachers and advisors from local businesses. Half of all high schools in Sweden let the students work with their own business projects the last school-year. There are also “Working markets” for young people where you can get help to get a job or to go on with studies.

What have you learned from this day?
I appreciated very much to be part of the conference and my conclusion was that there are so many similarities between us in our different countries and that we can learn much from each other.

To hear another voice (the youth), Aza Lemmer, from the studentassociation AEGEE-Rotterdam answered
some other questions.

What have you learned most out of the discussion with the youth of Birmingham?
What I have learned from the discussion with the youth of Birmingham is the difference between Dutch young people and those from England.  I think we Dutch young people have more motivation to go to school in the purpose of reaching our goal. The youth of Birmingham lack the real motivation they just  looking for money and forget the knowledge they will gain from school or work.

The seminar had as topic talentdevelopment, what do you think should change in the educational system to use more the talent of the youth?
What has to be change in the educational system is a lot! The educational system that we now have is based on old formulas, it is target to a target group that does not exist anymore. We all know that the concentration level for this generation of students  is quite low. Listing one or two hours to a theory class does not work anymore. We need to engage in more practical assignments were schools works close with company’s in their specific academic training course.

How was it to be asked questions by the moderator?
The moderator asked me some questions in front of all the adults about the discussion session with the youth of Birmingham. I must say I really liked it because it improves my presentation skills and the message about the discussion had a bigger reaching point.

How did you perceived the day?
How I perceive the day it started with some presentation that were target to the adults for me personally it was boring but that has to do because my concentration  ability is quite low. However the presentation were good and helpful for the Dutch people that attend the seminar. The live skype session with the youth of Birmingham was so lovely I learned allot and it was so pleasant! Going upfront for all the adult was so awesome It gives your ego a boost that you can spread your message to them.

How could we involve the youth more in these kind of discussions, do you think it’s usefull?
The involvement of the youth is at most important because they are the target group and you need to understand and know your target group that is what we have  learn from marketing! It is useful because you need to think from their perspective. We need to get schools and young people more involve by sending them invitations for this kind of events.

Do you have any other recommendations?
My recommendation is to organized it more because it is really helpful and it has giving me even more motivation to finish school.  So get young people more involve!

It’s a new dawn

“It’s a new dawn,
It’s a new day
It’s a new life
For me
And I’m feeling good”

A song written by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse in 1965, for the musical The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd. It became famous sung by Nina Simone, and lately by Michael Bublé. And it feels like this song sings about my, and that I honour my name, René 🙂

Monday 17th October 2011
On Monday I had a lunch date with Shalmain, finally, since we tried to meet up already for months. First we planned to eat in the street Witte de With, where I saw a nice sticker “Do Nuts”, since she was too late, I had to go to the real center at the coolsingel. We at at the Tosti House, which was pretty ok.  For the rest nothing much to tell 🙂

Tuesday 18th October 2011
In the morning we had a departmental meeting about the employee satisfaction survey and the future of the department, since in the upcoming 9 months there will change a lot. It was a weird day, a nice emotional rollercoaster. Late in the evening Werner paid me a visit for a talk and also to help me with Indesign and to finally be able to change the background on my netbook.

Wednesday 19th October 2011
About Wednesday, there is nothing much to tell, I took for the first time my laptop with me to work to make the newsletter follow up about the Social Affairs Forum and Cities for Active Inclusion seminar. I had a nice lunch date with Liese in Picknick, which is a nice place. I had a cool tosti as you can see from the photo. That evening I had an evening for my own, I just watched tv and played a bit on my laptop.

Thursday 20st October
For the second time I took my laptop with me to work, to work with Indesign on the newsletter. I made progress and made a nice draft.  I went early to home, since it was possible that Werner would be there at 6 at my house… but off course that’s just a dream… while I was walking home in fast pace, I received an sms that it could become after 7, then I texted back, that’s not good, that he should be earlier, and he tried to be between 6 thirty and 7.  Now I could walk a bit slower, and do my shopping for dinner more relaxed. I made macaroni for us. Naturally he was late, even after 7. So after dinner time, there was not much time left to see how his administration is working, since I will try to make a better and easier one for him. Why wasn’t there enough time, since Werner, Mark and I went to the movie 3 Musketeers 🙂 It was a nice feel good movie.

Friday 21st October
It became a quite Friday, I finished the newsletter of the Social Affairs Forum & Cities for Active Inclusion, I left as last person at 5 my department, you could really see that it was a Friday, and even a Friday in a children vacation it was so serene 😉 I went to my parents for dinner. As usual the dinner was “Rode Kool” my favorite dish. My father was still home, since his back is hurting, and he had enough time to think about annoying questions for me, like my bike and my sleeping room 🙂 When I got home, I rested on the couch and had a quiet evening.

Saturday 22nd October 2011
I had planned a weekend with just free time, and wanted to stay in bed after noon, but already the first day it didn’t went well. I was again so early awake that after 1,5 hours of seeing each corner in my bed, I got out at 10.30 in the morning. I started with some pc time, and in the afternoon I did some cleaning in my bed room, finally I can see again some desk, it’s not full with stuff anymore 🙂 Around 4 my best friend, Werner came to help me with my bike. Both my tires were flat, he could easily remove my front tire, and we took that one to the gasstation to fill it with air. For dinner we did it easy, we ate patat, after the dinner Werner went to work. In the evening I got an invitation to visit my friend Suuz, and it became a long night of talking, I took the rosé I received from Marcus in Malta with me and the Polish vodka, I received from Ági whom stayed for 3 nights at my place earlier. The rosé was very tasteful, and I made a nice start with the vodka, but there is more then enough for the next time 🙂

 

 

Sunday 23rd October, I woke up at 6 in the evening, I had planned to fixed my back tire of my bike, but it was already to late. After a short while of awakening, I went to Turkish kebab place to eat some Turkish Kebab, this is something I used to do on a Sunday, but it was already a while ago since I did this. When I was finished, I met up with Mark to go to the movies. We went to Abduction, I didn’t had high expectations of that movie, and after all I have to say it wasn’t a bad movie.