May The Force Guide You

While surfing the internet today I discovered an awesome initiative by Tom Tom. They now have an option to get the voices of your favorite Star Wars characters on to your Tom Tom device. Click this link to get to the Tom Tom Star Wars page.

Enjoy!

Dining in The Pink

During last weeks trip in Ireland I got the opportunity to visit long time friend Femke who is living in Dublin. After finishing up work in Kildare for Nike, I took my rental car and drove 50 minutes up the M7. I parked the car and after checking in at the hotel we headed out in to the city. As the bar, where we were heading in the first place, was closed for a private venue we ended up in The Pink. The Pink just opened it’s doors two months ago and is a members only club. Between six and nine PM however the restaurant is open to everybody. The kitchen serves up some great fusion cooking out of a variety of Asian cuisines and has some good wines to go with it. Here is an impression of The Pink’s interior.

Fast Flash Copenhagen

As the year comes to an end I am clearing the memory card on my small Canon IXY digital which is a standard item in my travel pack.
Just before the snow and ice hits the whole of Europe, I already got a sneak preview in Denmark while I was there to visit two stores for NIKE. In between the visits I stayed at the Hotel Fox in Copenhagen. This hotel is a great design hotel in the city centre. Check out there website to get an impression of what there rooms look like. As the weather turned for the worse and I only had a night to spend in Copenhagen, I did not get to see much of the city. Fortunately there was a great sushi restaurant attached to the hotel. Here are some fast flashes from the trip.

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Nike Factory Store La Reggia

From the 13th to the 16th of December I was part of the opening team of the La Reggia Nike Factory Store. With the construction nearly done it was time to step up the game and raise the store to the Premium Nike level. With a great local team of new Nike employees and an experienced crew from other Italian stores the new Factory Store came to life. With plenty of delicious local espresso’s and a lot of fun the store opened on time for the deadline and gave the La Reggia Factory outlet another great store.

As the outlet centre is located on the outskirts of Caserta I had a great view on the Vesuvius volcano and the city of Naples. Here are two shots from my hotel room. The first one is taken early in the morning and the second one at the beginning of the evening.

Here are some of the photo’s of the finished result:

Allen’s AE86

As you might have read in my guest blog on Speedhunters I met Allen Lorenzo back in 2006 at the Tsukuba circuit in Japan. Even though it is not very often, we still keep contact and share the passion of having fun with friends, cars and racetracks. Today I found this real cool clip about Allen and his AE86 Toyota on his Facebook. I got to ride shotgun in this great machine and if it wasn’t for my big ass, I could have driven it as well. The sound of that engine is great on film but even better in real life. So if you wonder what  I am talking about. Check out this clip!

Here are some other shots from both Allen and myself of this great Hachiroku.

Westwood x Selfridges

During the recent London trip I ran in to the exclusive Vivienne Westwood exhibition in the basement from Selfridges. The exhibition featured more than 200 pairs of her iconic shoes and showed pieces of great photography and a variety of catwalk shows on a big screen. This is the statement from the Selfridges website concerning the exhibition:

This month Selfridges London is proud to present the latest project from the grand dame of British fashion,Vivienne Westwood. A retrospective of the designer’s most iconic shoe designs spanning five decades. Throughout her career Westwood has taken inspiration from British heritage, including Victorian dandies and pirates, to create collections that capture and inform the zeitgeist. Her shoes have also been the catalyst for some of fashion’s most memorable moments, including Naomi Campbell’s famous catwalk tumble whilst wearing the Super Elevated Gillie platforms in 1993. From the Pirate Boot, first seen in 1981 to the Sahara Plimsoll of 1999, Westwood’s shoes have become fashion icons in their own right.

Okidokyo @ Autumn Drift Matsuri

http://www.vimeo.com/16922457

My friend, Remi Schouten, is currently living the good life in Japan with his girlfriend Pui-Yuk. They went there to learn Japanese and enjoy the beautiful country and culture. To let the world know about this great adventure they have started a great blog. It is called Okidokyo which tells the story of their everyday life in Japan. As Remi is as much as an Auto Otaku as I am, he is visiting some of the most well know events in motorsport while he is out there. With the famous Autumn Drift Matsuri now a week behind us, Remi created a great film about his experiences at the track. If you want to see more of their adventures please visit Okidokyo

London Baby!!!

At a recent Nike trip the team and I ended up in London. With only a night and a day to spend in this vibrant city we made the most of our time. A tip for any hungry traveler, try to make it to Momo. Great food in an Arabic ambience with a night club just down the stairs. Some nights the club is for members only but you will have as much of a good time chilling and eating in the restaurant. Down below you will find my London snapshots.

Snaps from Milan

Past summer I helped out during the remodel of the Nike Factory Store in Fidenza, Italy. As the works were completed sooner as expected the store opened a day in advance of the original planning. This gave our team the chance to go and see Milan, a city which had been on my “To see list” for a very long time. Down below you will find random snaps which I took during the day. The main purpose was to go and see shop windows and get inspired for upcoming projects.  The photo’s are random shots that I took of things which inspired me or just put a smile on my face.

A Tomei Visit, Speedhunters Guestblog

A few months ago I got the opportunity to write a guestblog for Speedhunters. Speedhunters is an international website which covers all aspects of car culture, motorsports and everything else a petrolhead would love to talk and read about. As it was readers month I sent in an article, I wrote, about the famous Japanese tuning company Tomei Powered. I am very glad that the editors liked it enough to have it posted on the site.

While I was working in Japan for IKEA, Allen Lorenzo of Tomei Powered gave me the chance to visit their Factory. He gave me a full tour of the facilities and let me do a photoshoot to show everybody what’s going on behind the doors of the company. All the info he told me about the company provided me with enough inspiration to write the article.

You can read the full story and see my photo’s on the Speedhunters website:  A Tomei Visit