Mother's day

As I took it easy on Saturday my thoughts occasionally went out to a highly tiring challenge. Fridaynight, at George’s birthday party, Anke (a solar car team mate of mine) told me about her new undertaking. She’s constructing a recumbent tandem to cycle from Delft to Paris in record breaking time! Doing this unprepared is suicide and therefore, on this Saturday she had planned a 380 km tandem ride with her partner-in-crime, who must be either just as crazy, or desperately in love. 380 km! For training only….my God!

Sunday, mother’s day. Instead of her sons arranging something nice for her, my mother took the initiative for a day trip. She invited me to go listen to a choir (Chamber choir “Sjanton”) a colleague of hers is part of that was performing. In a church in Utrecht they sang short pieces from Anglo-Saxon composers (who I don’t know), a capella. I was impressed by the harmony a group of people can bring forth without any instruments but their own voices. Beautiful. The Leeuwenbergh church proved to provide perfect acoustics. The limited length of the pieces I appreciated too, as I was still dealing with a little lack of sleep. During the concert the singing was alternated with two saxophone intermezzi. Saxophone soloist Aubrey Snell (http://www.arteduo.scarlet.nl/Aubrey%20Snell.htm) surprised me with complex, modern pieces, which I enjoyed very much. The second piece, with soprano sax, was accompanied by a modern factory-like composition on tape. Strange, but cool.

After the concert, my mom and I traveled to Amsterdam to have diner with my brother Johan. We found a nice restaurant on the Brouwersgracht, probably one of the most beautiful parts of the city. The evening light twinkling on the Herengracht with the small boats passing by…Amsterdam at its best.

In the morning, I was invited by my neighbor to join her training group in track athletics in Leiden. I enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere at the track and the enthusiastic attitude of the famous trainer, Bram Wassenaar. I’m not used to the fast runs we did yet, but I could cope. I’m welcome to come again, they said, which I probably will. Unfortunately, later in the day a new injury knocked my door; a pain deep in my right knee emerged….<>...