Amsterdam

Arrived in Amsterdam for a three-week honeymoon, so to say. We will visit my mother in Menorca, Spain, where my sister, who lives in the USA, and my brother will also be present. This will be the moment I can present my wife to my family. But first we have some time to spend in Amsterdam, my beautiful hometown.
We are staying at my apartment in the museum quarter, which I had rented out for the past three years. My tenants have kept the place in perfect condition, tidy and clean, so I was very happy to be back home again. I will find a new tenant for the coming year (or maybe two), as we will return to China in early October.
Amsterdam is really lovely. The weather was a bit chilly on arrival, but we had some very nice sunny days, with occasional rain and wind. It's Holland after all.
We visited the Rijksmuseum, which has been closed for 13 years for renovations. The new Rijks is incredibly beautiful and a pleasure to walk through. The bicycle lane passing through under the main building has been reopened too, and it feels really good to take this nice route to the center of town with my wife on the backseat.
We also visited the Hermitage Amsterdam, a subsidiary of the famous gallery in St. Petersburg. I was never there before, but this weekend an exhibition opened showing paintings and other works from French symbolists and impressionist from the Fin de Siecle, collected by wealthy Russians around the beginning of the 20th century. Confiscated by the state after the October Revolution in 1917, these splendid works are now part of the Hermitage collection.
Another art event took place at Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, where friend and artist James Beckett did a performance re-enacting an event from 1994 by British art collective Art & Language, involving live painting, live music, and a ceremonial closure. A truly interesting and well-executed piece.
Cycling along the canals of Amsterdam, walks in the Vondelpark, a boat ride with highschool friend Marc Paping, and visiting several other lovely people made this week unforgettable.
We also visited Delft, the city where I studied Industrial Design in the 80's, and lived for 15 years. Delft is like a miniature version of Amsterdam, with petite little canals, lots of monumental houses and pleasantly small for a walking tour. We passed by the places where I lived in the 80's and 90's. visited several old friends who are still there, and have teenage kids now. My previous employer Anton Montagne still runs his electronic design studio, and Chefren is slowly expanding his business in online tools for planning, organization and news gathering. On the way home we stopped in Aalsmeer for a visit to ex fellow student Jeroen and his wife Henriette, who presented us a culinary evening of the highest standard, including a performance on his Bösendorfer grand piano.
Back in Amsterdam, we also met Ineke Gudmundsson, founder of the Chinese European Art Center in Xiamen, who happened to be in Amsterdam at the same time as us, and lives right around the corner on the van Baerlestraat, less than 200m away. It was her birthday, coincidentally, and we met some friends we met in Xiamen earlier this year, who have been resident artists at CEAC. Another wonderful evening!
This weekend we will fly to Menorca, to visit my mother, and on the way back we will also spend a day in the beautiful city Barcelona, where I can guide Ling Ling on a tour of the fantastic architecture of Gaudí and other highlights. Looking forward to a great trip!

Our beach wedding party

We were legally married on August 13th, or the 7th day of the 7th month on the lunar calendar, which is actually the Chinese equivalent of Valentine's Day. Our wedding party took place on September 8th, after being postponed for a week because of a passing typhoon. It was a beach party after all, and we did not want to risk it being spoiled by bad weather.
Sunday the 8th was a beautiful day, and our wedding was an amazing and awesome event. A truly epic wedding party. Not in the least because of the perfect planning and organization by our friends and colleagues. Special thanks go to the Dutch team: Paul, Bob, and Sander, with the support of Linda, Amy, Nono, Crazy, all the musicians, photographer Yvo Muris, and of course all our guests, who made this a fantastic and unforgettable event.

We made it a special wedding, not only because of the location on our lovely Sun Bay beach, but also because of the Caribbean theme, me being dressed up as a pirate, taking my bride for a ride on our sailboat, after the more formal ceremony, and the epic fireworks launched while we were sailing away.
As soon as we took of, the party got started by Dr. Bird ska band, followed up by a series of performers, including Chris Diltz (US), Marcus (CA), David Murphy (CA), and Chinese friends who joined in with their instruments and great singing voices. DJs Devon (CA) and David Krings (DE/NL) completed the musical entourage. Cocktails were mixed on the spot by Sruna from the Groove Lounge, and delicious home made sausage and pork steak were grilled by the lovely duo Vito (PL) and Uwe (DE) from deguosausage.com.
In fact, the party was so special, that it was picked up by the media, and as a result full-page articles with photos were published in several newspapers and websites.

Pebble watch in the mail

About half a year ago I pre-ordered a copy of the much talked-about Pebble watch, with e-ink display and smartphone connectivity. This morning I received an email that a batch of 5000 are ready to ship, so I payed and confirmed my order. My luck is of course that it will be shipped to Amsterdam (they don't ship to China, neither can you order anywhere outside the US,  for now), and that I will just be there when it arrives!
The Pebble will be extremely useful as a sailing watch, because it can connect to apps running on a smartphone and display stuff like speed, course, and covered distance without ever having to let go of the helm. Its e-ink display is perfectly sunlight readable and best of all, it's genuinely waterproof.

Ling Ling got her Schengen visa, we're coming to Amsterdam!

And not the least type of visa. It's a multiple entry visa valid for a full year, with a maximum duration of each stay of no less than 90 days! The agency that prepared the documents for the application was as much taken by surprise as we were. They had prepared a detailed itinerary for 21 days, and we did not expect to get more than that, we were even prepared for a rejection.
Several of our Chinese friends have recently been denied a visa for short visits to Europe or North America. We still don't know what was the deciding factor: the fact that we are married (we used that), my house ownership in Amsterdam (used that too), or Ling Ling's temporarily beefed up bank account (by borrowing from her mother) to be able to supply an impressive bank statement. In any case, it all came to a beautiful conclusion. Now we can even go again next year without having to re-apply, given enough funds for the plane tickets (with KLM, directly from Xiamen to Amsterdam). Those are the most restrictive at the moment. It cost me more than two thousand Euros to get us tickets. But, we're going, and pretty soon too! Right after our wedding party, departing next Wednesday the 11th and arriving the same afternoon. Return is scheduled for October 3rd.
Not a very long trip, and not taking full advantage of the visa, but we can't afford to stay longer. So, get your agenda's ready and start planning coffee meets, picnics in the park, and other social affairs. We're on our way, but first: our wedding party!

Daring Duck 2013 promotional video

This video was shot and edited by Sander Westerduin during our activities in the summer of 2013, using a mix of Handycam and GoPro Hero footage from our summer camp and daily beach presence at Xitou Xia, Xiamen Island.