Aalst, Stad van het Jaar 1980

Ik woon nu al sinds oktober in Aalst. Nieuwerkerken om precies te zijn, of Reetveerdegem zoals het in literaire middens beter bekend is.
Komende uit Leuven kan je toch wel spreken van een lichte cultuurshock. Niet dat de mensen minder vriendelijk zijn, integendeel! En niet dat Aalst geen potentieel heeft, absoluut niet... Maar dat is het nu juist. Veel potentieel, weinig wol.
De stad heeft een boel pleintjes, markten en straten waar slechts een minimum mee gedaan is qua stadsrenovatie. Het lijkt alsof men op het stadsbestuur nog nooit gehoord heeft over stadsplanning, pleinaanleg, herbestemming, groene zones, ...
De buurt aan het water trouwens... een droomsite voor lofts, groen... maar in de plaats daarvan een fabriek in volle activiteit, die regelmatig onfrisse geuren door het centrum verspreid.
Odeur local, heet dat dan.
De hele stadskern lijkt te zijn blijven steken in de jaren '80, en er is nochthans zoveel mogelijk. Tonnen prachtige huizen, die nog voor een normaal gezin betaalbaar zijn. Water, pleinen en veel winkels.
Nieuwerkerken, een randgemeente, is er bijna nog slechter aan toe. Donderdag info vergadering voor de heraanleg van mijn straat. Hoop doet leven. Misschien arriveren we binnenkort in de jaren '90!

n

Travel stories

I pulished a few old travel reports, you'll find them in the archives section under 2002-2004... Ha, this also gives people the impression that i was a blogging pioneer. Sorry to dissapoint you...
Hope you enjoy reading them...

greetz,
n

Travel pictures

Aaah, the good old days when i still got out of the house and travelled to far off countries.
9 months since i last travelled, a new record i fear. Well, right after i post this message, i'll go and check the booking sites for cheap flights! Better keep it short then: i 've been uploading travel (and other) photos to Flickr. You can find photos from South America, Scotland, ... (i'll add more) on Nico's Photos!

Enjoy, and comment if you like the pics :-)


bye for now,
n

(PS: picture from New Zealand, somewhere on the North Island if i remember correctly)

Deus

I went to a Deus concert last night. Pretty good, though i really hate the venue. Takes so much time to get there and find a parking spot, and the hall lacks intimacy. But anyway, great show, some brilliant song versions, and needless to say, Mauro Pawlowski is a god.

You can find more info on deus on www.deus.be or on http://www.myspace.com/deusbe
For Mauro, check out http://www.mauroworld.com/

Saw Zita Swoon 2 weeks ago, and that concert was absolutely brilliant. The group was playing in the middle of the audience, and that created a really intimate atmosphere. Also, they are just incredible musicians and the songs from their last album are some of the best material Stef has ever written. The addition of the backing vocals to the band was a brilliant move... Anyway, i can rave about them for hours more, i can only recommend you check them out yourself!

bye for now,
n

PS

Link to our improv group website: www.improger.be

Link to another blog from a group of people i'm doing an improv course with: http://www.improvisatie.blogspot.com/

In dutch...

n

improvisation theatre

Together with some other people from my improvisation theathre group ImpRoger, i performed three times last week, for a mixed audience of bank managers and, uhm, bank clerks. Hey, an audience is an audience, and they actually paid us for having fun. Not alway an easy crowd, but very good feedback afterwards (some actually asked if we were professionals ... haha).

I'll post photo's if i ever get my hands on some...

bye.

haha

I've noticed that i promised myself to post more a few months ago. Resolutions are clearly not my strong point. Good intentions, now that i can do. I've been trying out some new internet sites, both out of professional curiosity, as out of interest to see if i can actually create something nice and useful from out of all those cool ideas.

so you can check out www.nicoverplancke.be from now on.

My own web page. i actually feel quite proud.

till later,
n

Brick Testament

I just remembered, wanted to post this as a shout out to all religious fanatics out there!
No respect!

Check out the fabulous Lego/Bible combo... very edutaining :-)
The brick testament

Best friend's Stag Night

Stag night of my best friend. His brother an i spent quite a bit of time preparing it, and i think it was a super night! Probably best if i let the photos speak for themselves...

Outside temperature: 10 degress celsius. Mission: collect hidden pisco sour ingredients. And suffer. (PS: don't swallow the water. oops. PPS: why didn't you use the wet suit?)












Climb Freddy, Climb!









Shake it, shake it like a polaroid picture.












You can see An thinking: "That's my man. At least i think it is. Though it doesn't smell like him. And the skirt is causing doubts. Hmmm.... there is a small possibility that my future husband has had a bit too much to drink too."













Together at last. Just pray they never, ever have to sing again. Glen Medeiros, Nothing's gonna change my love for you. A timeless classic. Cough.

Back again

Hey,

I'm back again.

I have the very real and very sincere intention to post at least two messages a week from now on. Oh well, at least one now, shouldn't be too optimistic and dissapoint my audience of 1.

I know it might be cheating, but i'm gonna see if i can post my travel stories here, dating back to 2002-2003 and 2004. On both occasions i travelled for a bit more than 5 months, mainly in south-east asia and south america. Mark the presence of the word 'south' in both destinations. If i wanted rain i would have stayed at home. Though it's amazing how much rain you can get in the Andes, in the dry season, when an irish girl and a belgian guy go for a walk. Even an australian representative could not balance the scale back to the sunny side of life.

Today i'm in germany, in the town elected 'Sexiest-named-City' of Europe: Darmstadt. Acné-sur-mer was a close second. This is probably lost on all of you who don't speak dutch and french though. Sorry.

Anyway, attending a conference here at the Fraunhofer Institute. Was quite interesting actually, but i guess i've sat in one chair long enough for today, and it's time they wrapped things up here.

That's all for now,
n