Amsterdam Hoedown

I seriously can't stop smiling from Tuesday night.  Even with the sad reality that I'm not in Houston for Thanksgiving again this year and how much it physically hurts to not be home for this holiday, I'm still smiling over what a great time I had on Tuesday.

A long time ago, I booked a ticket for the Band Perry in Amsterdam....I pretty regularly do a google search for country music European tours, which most of the time pops up with nothing, but occasionally you get something interesting.  Like Brad Paisley in Dublin (WHAT). 

Anyways, I came up with the Band Perry in Amsterdam.  At lunch one day at work, I was talking about how much I miss good country music and some of the girls said that they were intrigued and would go with me.  Hence, I bought 3 more tickets and we loaded into a car and went. 

Now, you can argue if the Band Perry is actual real country music.  When I saw them at the rodeo a few years ago (thanks PwC!), they were definitely country.  Just starting out, selling out Reliant and singing songs no one knew other than "If I die young". They definitely aren't George Jones or Loretta Lynn, but they had a twang that was undeniable.

This show though dialed back the country a lot.  For about 75% of the show, I thought I was at a pop concert, which played out well given the fact that my girlfriends are not country fans.  But the show was still great - we saw them at the Melkweg, which is like the House of Blues but much smaller.  I think it holds between 400-500 people.  It was packed - I had no idea that there would be that many country music fans there.

My friends, who are all 6' + had a great idea - I got a spot on the wall where I could stand on a bench to see over everyone.  It was perfect.  That last picture was exactly my view, though I felt like I was closer than that.

The set list included all of their greatest hits... "Better Dig 2", "The Way You Lie", "Hip to My Heart", "Postcard from Paris", to name a few.  Crowd was super into it and there was a lot of jumping around and just being silly.  Tons of fun.  They also covered a few songs..."Fat Bottom Girls" and "I will always love you", which was perfect for my friends.  But the most memorable for me was their cover of "Amazing Grace...My Chains are Gone".  I got goose bumps....I know that makes me sound like Paula Abdul circa American Idol judge, but it was incredible.

They have a new album coming out called "Pioneer", from which they played at least 2 songs I hadn't heard.  They were both very nice and definitely had a country twang to them.  I love the fact that she preached American innocence between the songs - i.e. we are all pioneers and that there is hope for the adventure before us.  My friends thought this portion of the show was silly....but then there was the song about the chainsaw.....I never thought of country music as that hokey, but songs about chainsaws are hokey.  Luckily, they played "Better Dig 2" after that, which is just a foot stomper and everyone got back into it.  Although to be fair, the chain saw song had a good beat.  It was just hokey.

My two favorites were "Love all your life" and "If I die young".  They closed (encored) the show with "If I die young".  That song is so pretty, but sooo sad.  I just can't think about the lyrics.  It's actually kind of creepy to enjoy that song....I could see it being a good teenage cancer anthem (I'm sure someone has done this).  But such a beautiful beat and message.  I think the encore thing is just silly.  Everyone knows you are not going to close the show without playing your biggest hit.  Narcissism at it's best.  But not the Band Perry's fault - they all do that now.   

Look at those beautiful smiles!  Thanks S for the pictures!

On this Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for friends who indulge their crazy American friend's need to hear country.

And just in case you need to hear the Band Perry for yourself:

 

I've already booked a ticket for Dolly in London at the O2 on June 28th.  Unless another google search produces something, the next concert will be the ONCE IN A LIFETIME show of Dolly in London.  I'm tempted to buy a ticket to her show other cities in Europe and just follow her for the month.  Too much?  How dare you think that.  You can't have too much Dolly.

Vancouver - Tale of 2 trips

So this last week was by far the craziest week I've had with my company ever.  I can't believe the number of miles I put on this week.  If only United will pick them up in my mileage summary.....personal details that drive me crazy!

 

Anyways, I needed to be in Vancouver on Monday, so instead of flying over an ocean and not seeing my family (unadvisable), I flew last Friday to Houston to spend the weekend celebrating fake Thanksgiving (turns out just as good as real Thanksgiving) and fighting a monster cold/virus thingy (Thanks London!).  Thanks to the American ER, headed up to Vancouver armed with medicine, but the damage was done as I lost my voice completely.  I've never had that happen before and don't want to have it happen again.  

 

On Monday, luckily, a friend of mine volunteered to give my portion of the presentation and I only jumped in when I felt like I could add something to it (despite sounding like a run over frog).  The conference went great - speakers worked, slides worked, dinner was close and went well.  I cut out early to get some rest as I sounded awful, but all accounts are huge success.  YEA!

Tuesday and Wednesday were conference only days with no responsibility, so I worked on other stuff most of the time whilst listening to different presenters and networking a lot.  On Wednesday, 2 of my friends decided we had heard enough and booked a seaplane for a quick 20 minute aerial tour of Vancouver.  I didn't really get out to see much of the city until this brief tour, but this was totally worth it and highly recommend for an overview of Vancouver.  What an amazing city.  For my first time in Canada, Canada over-delivered!

 

 

Waiting for sea plane

 

 That's the plane type I went up in!  I love the Chevron station in the middle of the water...

Waterfront skyline of Vancouver

Seaplanes

Aussie friend and me before going up in plane!



Aussie friend and me in plane before take off!

Proof that I really did take off from the water

Gliding along after take off

 No idea what any of this is, but the pictures were so much fun to take.

 We survived!  S organized the whole thing, so she gets 100% of the credit.  M and I were literally along for the ride.

Found it - representing in Vancouver!

 

Hotel Fairmont where we stayed and conference was held.

 

After conference on Wednesday, I met up with a good friend from Vancouver, L.  It was so nice to catch up - I'll definitely be making a return trip to Vancouver to actually be a tourist some day (preferably when it's warmer!).

 

My flight back took me through Chicago and then on to Amsterdam.  Long day on Thursday/Friday of travel....KLM would have been direct, but I'm a miles junky for United.  Gotta keep that Silver status!

Adventurer Lindsay, signing off.

 

Swinging Low in London

A bit delayed, but another glorious weekend in London recap up next....

 

I took the 7AM flight from Schiphol on Friday to London City....that is one early flight my friends.  I have to be on the train at 5AM to make the flight and there are no trams running that early, so it's a 20 minute walk from my apartment to train station (cue...ah muffin, life's rough).  I took BA this time.  Given my Hamburg experience is so fresh in my mind, it will be a while before I choose KLM again.  Generally, I think they are a good airline if conditions are right, but need some space before I try again.

 

The benefits of a 7AM flight from Schiphol is that it puts me in London at 7AM, which means that the commute to drop my bag at hotel was fairly simple.  Commuting doesn't get into full swing until the 8AM hour, so I tried a different route on the DLR through Stratford to the Central line.  That's my new route of choice as there is only one escalator and NO stairs to get to the correct tube.  Success!

 

After dropping my bag, I headed to work and had a series of long meetings all day.  After all the meetings, we headed to the Bullfrog for pints:

 

Me and friend D. 

 

Super fun night - I really love the pub culture in London and the fact that you can meet so many new people just standing with friends.  Had a great time.

 

I was over in London for work, but the secondary purpose was tickets to Rugby on Saturday!  I've become quite the Euro sports fan, picking up rugby and cricket (and to a  lesser degree, football).  England played Argentina in a friendly at Twickenham, the home of rugby, so it only made sense to go.

 

I spent the morning shopping and walking around a quiet London.  I had a nice cooked breakfast...bacon and eggs.  It's the little things in life.  After that, it was off to meet friends for the match.  It was super cold - I layered as much as I could, but winter has come in a big way to Europe.

 

I had to navigate a whole new set of tubes, which made me a slightly late, but we made it to the stadium in time for "God Save the Queen", which just gives me chills.

 

 

The Argentinian National Anthem was not nearly as moving, but I suspect that had something to do with the lack of Argentinian fans.  This was definitely an English crowd.  I also happened to be back in London for Remembrance Sunday, which meant that they had a 2 minute silence before the game which also gave me chills.  I didn't get a poppy and go to the Cenotaph this time, but the whole weekend was still very moving.  Even at work on the 11th, we paused for 2 minutes of silence in a huge conference.  I know V-day is big in the US, but I really think it pales in comparison to the Remembrance day in the Commonwealth. 

 

I also learned that there is an official National Anthem singer for England.  She's paid to go from event to event and sing the National Anthem.  She was pretty good, however, the crowd was so loud, you couldn't hear her.  I also learned that the song of choice for English Rugby is "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot".  No idea why - very random.  But amazingly, sounded great in the stadium with 80K people singing it. Didn't get a video but sounded like:

"SWWWWINNNNNNGGGG LOOOOOOOOOWWWWW SWEEEEETTTTT CHARRRRIIOOOOOOOOOOTTTTT, COMMMMINNNNNGGGG FOOOOOOOOORRRR TO CARRRRRRRRRRRRRY MMMMEEEEEEEEEE HOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMEEEEE".  Brilliant.

Anyways, pictures from Rugby:

 

 

Pre match

 

England players coming on the pitch

Celebratory fireworks beforehand

Sold out crowd - 80K people for a friendly!

Rugby starting - going to be a lot of pictures of men wrestling.

 

 

 

 

 

The first half was very lively.  England scored 3 tries on our side of the pitch, so it made for some very good crowd watching as the English who are typically reserved go bat crazy when they score.  Lots of dancing and singing.  The second half wasn't nearly as good - the Rugby got very disorganised and just sat in the middle of the field.  To be honest, I was bored for about 20 minutes.  But then, they flashed David Beckham's picture up on the screen from his box at the stadium and everyone (women) seemed to perk up a bit.  Funny how that works.  Anyways, England won handily and probably should have won by more had the second half not been so awful. 

 

After that, it was off to meet friends for dinner and drinks.  Great Saturday! 

 

On Sunday, I found a Lutheran church...Luther-Tyndale Memorial Church.  Great church, felt like ULC.  And wouldn't you know it, they served a pot luck lunch after the service.  Definitely Lutheran!  I felt at home.  Interesting place - the pastor is from Brazil and the runs Portugese services in the afternoon.  The mornings are in English.  They also did a special remembrance day service, complete with trumpet call and special music.  Lutherans are so great at special music - even for a small service (less than 100), there was a trumpet, violin, organ, girls choir, etc.  Impressive.  Everyone was very nice and the service was wonderfully directed to the grace and mercy of Christ. What a fabulous way to begin my Sunday.

 

I ended up wandering around central London after that doing some shopping and then calling it an early night.  Monday and Tuesday were jammed with work, so much so that I almost missed my flight back on Tuesday.  What a weekend!