HX Report
Irishman in the Middle East
ANDRE RIEU CONCERT – 11 JULY 2022
Posted on July 26, 2022
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Abstract
Posted on December 6, 2019
Thanks to PA for the Abstract challenge.
Voila – MB’s offering:
On first impressions, the above small section of a vaulted church ceiling seems abstract in appearance. On closer inspection, one sees the remains of religious murals, mostly long disappeared by the vigors and passage of time. MB took the above shot in July 2019 during a visit to the Selexyz Dominican Bookstore in Maastricht, Holland, easily the most beautiful bookstore that MB has ever visited.
The church was built by the Dominican Order in 1294. All went swimmingly for exactly 500 years until French Emperor Napolian invaded in 1794 and expelled the Dominicans from the country. Since then, the church has served as a parish church, a warehouse, and an archive. In 2007 some bright spark had the great idea to turn the building into the stunning bookshop that we see today.
One can make out a coffee shop in the area of the former church altar area (if one has a magnifying glass!) in MB’s below pic. MB tasted its wares on his visit and can recommend it highly. What better way to enjoy a freshly-smelling new book than sitting in an old church altar, drinking tasty coffee and munching delicious fresh pastries?! Absolutely none, if MB can answer his own question!
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Dreamy
Posted on July 23, 2019
Thanks to Anne Christine for this week’s Dreamy challenge.
Who could not say that the Blue Danube is not a dreamy piece of music? Nobody!
If you happened to be in the Vrijthof Square in Maastricht last week with MB at the André Rieu concert, you just might have had a dreamy waltz in MB’s arms!
Warning – As ever, MBs vids are a tad ropey! So, on clicking onto MBs Blue Danube vid, click quickly to full screen for best viewing experience.
Dreamy or what?!
MB & Andre Rieu Concert, 11 July 2019.
Posted on July 22, 2019
One man & his Stradivarius
Posted on July 5, 2019
The English comedian Tommy Cooper, now long deceased, had a great joke about a Rembrandt & a Stradivarius, which MB may have told you all in the past. If he did, he now tells it to you again. It’s out & out MB’s favourite joke.
Man walks into a pawnbroker with a violin and a painting. Good news says the pawnbroker – you have a Rembrandt and a Stradivarius. Unfortunately, Stradivarius was a very poor painter, and Rembrandt made awful violins!
Anyway, MB is off to Maastricht in Holland next week, where he will hear and see a Stradivarius. A real one. One made by Stradivarius. Not by Rembrandt!
MB is taking his mom to see Andre Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra in AR’s home town of Maastricht in the south of Holland, next to the Belgian border. AR concerts are spectacular affairs and very visual, so MB will go a bit crazy with his camera (as usual). And he will do his damnest to take one or two decent videos. But decent videos are very much in the lap of the gods with MB, as MB has got to be the worst videographer in the entire universe. Anyway, he’ll give it a go and maybe you will all get to see the results.
MB is unsure why he is writing this post. Normally, he springs his adventures upon you all without forewarning, to collective inhalations of breath and gasps of amazement. But MB has spent the last hour or two watching AR vids and feels like sharing his news and a vid with you all. It’s as the Gods have willed it, it seems. MB has watched 4 entire series of ‘Vikings’ in the last few weeks, so ‘the Gods’ are also on MB’s brain a lot!
Enough of your rambling MB.
Ok ok lads. Ciao for now.
Be in touch.
XXX
MB
Enjoy – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqN9aS2S3L0
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