Late yesterday night I uploaded the next issue of Hypoxia to the print shop. That was last on for this year, but I am very happy to say that I will produce the magazine also during 2010. Here is a peak on the front page.

Femke is off to London today, but only until tomorrow. And I am going shopping! Well, researching shopping in Amsterdam for a story that is.

Benin

Femke is back from Benin! I missed her. She had a both successful and interesting trip, as often is the case when she goes to West Africa. I took the liberty to select a few of her photos and post them here. Enjoy!

Beer instead of Benin

Femke is in Benin for a week of work, and I am languishing back home, trying unsuccessfully to work. As an antidote I tried out a new beer bar called Beer Temple together with our friend Sander. It has the same owner as another good beer bar (t’Arendsnest), but where the latter only serves Dutch beer (but close to 100 of them) Beer Temple is specialized in American Micro breweries.

I started with an Anchor Liberty Ale on tap, which was beautiful. We also compared two of the Danish brewing genius Mikkeller’s concoctions, the Mikkeller Single Hop Simcoe with his Single Hop Nelson. Both were nice but the one brewed with Simcoe hop was without a doubt the better one.

Dutch friends over for fika

Today Chantal and Pepijn came over for a fika at our place. They are both paragliders and that is how I got to know them. Living in Haarlem, it is not that often we meet, so it was really nice that they popped by.

Back in Amsterdam

After a month in Africa, it is nice to be back in Amsterdam and sleep in your own bed again. But I must admit I had a hard time getting going in the office, writing all those stories. You need recuperate after almost two months of constant travelling.

One way of doing that was to go to the Bokbier Festival in Amsterdam with Femke, then have a brilliant dinner at Restaurant Open. That way we also celebrated (if somewhat late) being together for five wonderful years :-)

I like Cape Town

It was wonderful to be back in Cape Town, if only for a few days. So much has happened since I visited last time, two years ago. Mostly to the better. Lots of new funny bars, restaurants and shops. And more new housing in the townships. But of course there is still a long way to go in South Africa, the poverty in the townships is a stark contrast to the cool bars downtown.

BTW, I stayed at a little design hotel called Antrim Villa, owned by a Swedish guy who moved down.

There will soon be a short story about it all in Expressen.

More photos here.

Paragliding in Wilderness

My plan was to paraglide five days in Wilderness together with Jan and Khobi at Cloudbase Paragliding, to produce a story about that, then continue to Cape Town for another story.
I followed the plan but was unlucky with the weather. So only got eight flights and around an hour in the air. Better than nothing but the potential in this area is huge. But these is pre-season and you can be unlucky.
I still had a nice time, drinking Windhoek with the local pilots and spotting whales while para-waiting.

You'll find more photos here.