What a rip off!
I am so angry I can barely write
This guy describes himself as a yogi but he is just a thieving, talentless swindler!
The book is not a book it is a pamphlet with a cheap, meaningless picture of some flowers and an old metal watering can on the cover. The 'Stories' in total cover 8 pages - with double line spaces between every line - Actually probably about 3 real pages of story in total!
The vast majority of the book itself is lists of other titles (single line spacing) with ISBN numbers and blank pages!
I bought the Spanish edition to read while baby sitting friend's children. Total reading time not even 15 minutes - in a language I am not brilliant at!
There is more detail and better story telling on the last page where this Cambridge crook waxes lyrical about himself.
Despite his Christian upbringing in England he has the gall to describe himself as a yogi and an Easterner. He not a fan of 'Western modern influences' but he sure as hell knows how to play the capitalism game for all it's worth
He guffs about children needing love and happiness in their lives which if you're robbing their carers and parents is utter bullshit.
The children were at best sorely disappointed, very frustrated and didn't find the tales lovely at all "silly," "boring", "too short", were their words, with lots of "No!"'s and "Is that it?"'s.
It was a full 15 minutes of misery just before bed time!
"Irritating beyond words, pompous, banal" in my words.
This excuse for a piece of humanity is clearly in for some serious karmic backlash
Tuesday 19 July 2016
Friday 15 July 2016
Exhibition "Stilte" @ Galerie de Witte Voet
It must be said; I do have a penchant for the curating of Siobhan Wall!
Quiet/Stilte is to be seen until the 14th of August - I am still undecided and sorely tempted to attend the finnisage, despite the challenges to do so!
Unfortunately the gallery still have info about the last exhibition on the website - hopefully that will change soon!
This exhibition satisfies my heart in many different ways - Firstly because it is three women, secondly, thirdly enz. because the contrasts between the works, the quality of the works, the calibre of the artists and the emotional gamut that they draw the observer through are of the highest order.
The paintings of Tamar Rozenblat are evocative, intricate, monochrome, adventures that throw you into a weird, but strangely recognisable landscape or flick your eyes, is it representation of bubbles, DNA, ideas, concepts? all of them, what ever you like. Inside and also in the garden the black backgrounds, net'ie or stark outlines tell little stories as do the works of all these artists
Sujata Majumdar is one of very few photographers who work is without question art. The photos look like paintings. Simply mounted, layered landscapes. Representations of moments, spaces. Subtle observations that seem to speak.
Siobhan Wall's work at this exhibition is powerful, intense, dark, sombre, sometimes a bit scary and again sooo recognisable. The moments you know you are falling apart and just have to keep going, keep it together, blur yourself to serve your surroundings. Or maybe that is just what I see.
This is an exhibition I would really like to recommend women go and see, having said that there is no earthly reason why men shouldn't go or wouldn't appreciate in the same way.
Even at an opening, surrounded by chatter and laughter and the clinking and slurping of drinks each thoughtfully chosen and placed piece, pulls you into a moment where the background noise disappears.
All the pieces in this show placed before me the recognition of the importance of silence and quiet, making their absence and the challenge of finding and creating quiet moments in our lives so poignant, so present, so current, so real.
Quiet/Stilte is to be seen until the 14th of August - I am still undecided and sorely tempted to attend the finnisage, despite the challenges to do so!
Unfortunately the gallery still have info about the last exhibition on the website - hopefully that will change soon!
This exhibition satisfies my heart in many different ways - Firstly because it is three women, secondly, thirdly enz. because the contrasts between the works, the quality of the works, the calibre of the artists and the emotional gamut that they draw the observer through are of the highest order.
The paintings of Tamar Rozenblat are evocative, intricate, monochrome, adventures that throw you into a weird, but strangely recognisable landscape or flick your eyes, is it representation of bubbles, DNA, ideas, concepts? all of them, what ever you like. Inside and also in the garden the black backgrounds, net'ie or stark outlines tell little stories as do the works of all these artists
Sujata Majumdar is one of very few photographers who work is without question art. The photos look like paintings. Simply mounted, layered landscapes. Representations of moments, spaces. Subtle observations that seem to speak.
Siobhan Wall's work at this exhibition is powerful, intense, dark, sombre, sometimes a bit scary and again sooo recognisable. The moments you know you are falling apart and just have to keep going, keep it together, blur yourself to serve your surroundings. Or maybe that is just what I see.
This is an exhibition I would really like to recommend women go and see, having said that there is no earthly reason why men shouldn't go or wouldn't appreciate in the same way.
Even at an opening, surrounded by chatter and laughter and the clinking and slurping of drinks each thoughtfully chosen and placed piece, pulls you into a moment where the background noise disappears.
All the pieces in this show placed before me the recognition of the importance of silence and quiet, making their absence and the challenge of finding and creating quiet moments in our lives so poignant, so present, so current, so real.
Sunday 3 July 2016
Dabka Restaurant - Nieuwezijdskolk
What a rip off!
Dreadful food, horrible service
Before I went to the restaurant I checked a couple of reviews. One thought it was great, one thought it was over priced and noisy both said the staff were great and very friendly.
Was with a large party and from the outset, the staff did not seem happy about it. I asked immediately for a separate bill, when I went to order some food - didn't want to join in the bill sharing, I was told that my drinks had been added to the tables bill and it was 'too late' for a separate bill now.
The waiting staff are not unfriendly, but they are also not very good at their jobs - most orders took and age. They couldn't remember that one end of the table was ordering wine and the other end of the table beer - unintentional but it should have made it easy for them to deliver the drinks. Instead, after the drinks sat on the bar (arms reach away!) for 10 minutes - the wine getting warm, the beer getting flat!, they would wander up and down the table.
They didn't have any flat bread (in a Middle Eastern restaurant!). The bread they did bring took 25 minutes and was undercooked! (Can't cook bread in a Middle Eastern restaurant!)
What pissed me off the most was that more than a third of our order was swept off the table with the food still on it! All the salads were cleared away all the dips that came with other things were whipped off the table as soon as whatever they had been served with was eaten. e.g. Kibbneh come with a huge dollop of delicious yoghurt sauce, much more than you need for the measly four they give you. As soon as they were gone the waitress - despite being asked twice not to clear plates with food on them without asking - would sneak in and run off with it.
When I asked them not to clear plates with food on, without asking the waiter immediately came up asked if he could take a plate - there was an empty serving plate in front of me but he also took the plate I was eating from!
When they said they didn't have to type of bread we wanted, I asked the waitress what kind of bread they were offering - she couldn't tell me or describe it apart from to say "You want a sort of Lebanese bread that we don't have, we have another also Lebanese bread, cooked fresh." I asked her in Dutch and English if she a bit more of a description and she just repeated the last four words like either she thought I was mentally retarded or she actually is.
The salads are tasty - but I have better, cheaper elsewhere in the city. They tasted pre prepared rather than fresh which makes you wonder why it takes so long to put some slush on a plate.
The meat was appalling, absolutely dreadful, over cooked, tough and bloody cold!
The woman who complained about the air conditioner - it was not even vaguely warm last night was completely on the ball.
My only assumption is that the people who rave about it, don't know jack shit about Middle Eastern food - or any food or good service in general!
The two waitresses are great to look at. One was blonde, Polish (I asked) and didn't speak much Dutch(!) The other was dark haired, arrogant, rude, surly and generally seemed to feel that she was doing us a favour when she deigned to listen; lots of eye rolling and hair tossing when something was ordered.
Most importantly they were slow. Maybe because all three were so busy with their mutual admiration society, the customers came a distinct second!
Dreadful food, horrible service
Before I went to the restaurant I checked a couple of reviews. One thought it was great, one thought it was over priced and noisy both said the staff were great and very friendly.
Was with a large party and from the outset, the staff did not seem happy about it. I asked immediately for a separate bill, when I went to order some food - didn't want to join in the bill sharing, I was told that my drinks had been added to the tables bill and it was 'too late' for a separate bill now.
The waiting staff are not unfriendly, but they are also not very good at their jobs - most orders took and age. They couldn't remember that one end of the table was ordering wine and the other end of the table beer - unintentional but it should have made it easy for them to deliver the drinks. Instead, after the drinks sat on the bar (arms reach away!) for 10 minutes - the wine getting warm, the beer getting flat!, they would wander up and down the table.
They didn't have any flat bread (in a Middle Eastern restaurant!). The bread they did bring took 25 minutes and was undercooked! (Can't cook bread in a Middle Eastern restaurant!)
What pissed me off the most was that more than a third of our order was swept off the table with the food still on it! All the salads were cleared away all the dips that came with other things were whipped off the table as soon as whatever they had been served with was eaten. e.g. Kibbneh come with a huge dollop of delicious yoghurt sauce, much more than you need for the measly four they give you. As soon as they were gone the waitress - despite being asked twice not to clear plates with food on them without asking - would sneak in and run off with it.
When I asked them not to clear plates with food on, without asking the waiter immediately came up asked if he could take a plate - there was an empty serving plate in front of me but he also took the plate I was eating from!
When they said they didn't have to type of bread we wanted, I asked the waitress what kind of bread they were offering - she couldn't tell me or describe it apart from to say "You want a sort of Lebanese bread that we don't have, we have another also Lebanese bread, cooked fresh." I asked her in Dutch and English if she a bit more of a description and she just repeated the last four words like either she thought I was mentally retarded or she actually is.
The salads are tasty - but I have better, cheaper elsewhere in the city. They tasted pre prepared rather than fresh which makes you wonder why it takes so long to put some slush on a plate.
The meat was appalling, absolutely dreadful, over cooked, tough and bloody cold!
The woman who complained about the air conditioner - it was not even vaguely warm last night was completely on the ball.
My only assumption is that the people who rave about it, don't know jack shit about Middle Eastern food - or any food or good service in general!
The two waitresses are great to look at. One was blonde, Polish (I asked) and didn't speak much Dutch(!) The other was dark haired, arrogant, rude, surly and generally seemed to feel that she was doing us a favour when she deigned to listen; lots of eye rolling and hair tossing when something was ordered.
Most importantly they were slow. Maybe because all three were so busy with their mutual admiration society, the customers came a distinct second!
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