Showing posts with label Dutch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dutch. Show all posts

Wednesday 31 December 2014

Celebration Time




My article on: Celebrating 20 Years of The Groninger Museum has been published, in the December 2014/January 2015 issue of The Holland Times.
Available both online and in hardcopy, The Holland Times offers Dutch news to anyone who wishes to be kept up to date in English.









© Alison Day 


Monday 20 September 2010

The Kiss



This summer, on holiday in England, I was party to what I can only describe as the best kiss ever! 

In the words of INXS…two worlds collided...’ and boy did they, as it was a kiss of total abandonment, insatiable in it’s duration, hot and familiar, but in its action uncanny, as we had literally just met.

Upon reflection, I will admit that the cause of this was probably partially due to a night on the town with my sister-in-law and the predetermined pub-crawl with ‘a half in every pub’ along. Poison of choice was cider, and, several pubs later with ample amounts of the golden beverage inside us, the wheels of the lack of inhibition had been well oiled. 

Our tour of the pubs ended at a club, as by this time it was well after midnight, belting out good music, and a heaving dance floor, plus. It served cocktails as well - fatal mistake, but a very tasty one. The cider was traded in for a funkily named Woo Woo cocktail and we joined throng on the dance floor, which seemed to be just about anywhere you wanted it to be in the club.

How to make a Woo Woo:

1 ½ oz Peach Schnapps
1 ½ oz Vodka
3 ½ ox Cranberry Juice


Pour all ingredients into a highball glass over ice cubes, stir and serve.






Well, one Woo Woo, of course led to another and after a while I was definitely feeling no pain. All of a sudden, a tall, dark and very fit, handsome stranger appeared at my side and asked me if I knew of anything to do around here.  Much to my amusement, during our conversation I found out that he was Dutch and on a couple of days visit from Amsterdam. Laughing, I replied that although this was my hometown, I lived abroad and had done so for many years, co-incidentally in the northern Netherlands, and wasn’t up to date on what there was to do in Oxford except the obvious: visits to museums, bars and restaurants; discovering the colleges and a bit of punting along the river. After that the Woo Woo’s were replaced by Sex on the Beach cocktails, the taste of which I have absolutely no recollection!

Well, one thing led to another, and by the time the club closed we were kissing passionately on the street, outside the club with my sister-in-law and his entourage standing by staring at us in bemusement. It was obvious that this was a kiss with a mission and it wasn’t going to let up for a while. When I finally did come up for air, I made a Cinderella-like dash for a black-cab (which oddly enough had white paintwork), we’d manage to hail, leaving behind my website address scrawled on a piece of paper, for if future contact was desired. Whatever happened to a simple phone number, I hear you ask? Yes, I did kick myself several times the next day, but let’s not forget I was totally Woo Woo’d at the time and it seemed a less threatening option with possible potential in the long run - who am I trying to kid!

So, why do we kiss? Putting one’s lips to those of a stranger is not only very intimate, but a total invasion of body space not to mention the potential exchange of a vast array of bugs on both sides. Also, hanging onto someone with the sucker-like tendencies of an octopus tentacle and at such a close proximity too does tend to obscure one’s vision of the other person. I managed to clear up the last point by demanding that my sister-in-law describe him to me the next day.

Quick surf on the Internet and I find an article where kissing is said to have possibly stemmed from the pre chewing and passing of food by mothers to their offspring. It’s also equated with social bonding, and the exchange of pheromones during such an interaction can become a prelude to courtship and even sexual encounters!


Back to my pheromone encounter, although I won’t see Mr tall, dark and handsome again, maybe he’d like a re-match one day. Until that time, it goes on record as a kiss to remember – ‘Ow Zat !




The Kiss - Auguste Rodin



Are you up to scratch on kissing, try: Kissing Quiz




© Alison Day
Alison Day Design 




Tuesday 13 April 2010

Shona van Dam - India, Meditation and Minerva




An interview with Shona van Dam took me to her degree show in the Academy Minerva in Groningen. A long, narrow, totally white interior filled with white scrolled pillars of card in various heights and breadths and each poised on a sketchbook. Both imposing and unusual this installation requires interactivity from the viewer to reveal its secrets.

According to Shona the installation is based on a 30-meter high dome-like building, which is the focal point of a community called Auroville in Tamil Nadu, India. Built in concentric circles, the design is based on the galaxy. The dome is known as the Matrimandir or ‘Soul of the city’ has an inner chamber with 12 white pillars, which serve as décor rather than being functional. In the centre of the white marbled inner chamber there is a large ‘crystal’, globe measuring 70 centimeters in diameter, this is the largest optically perfect glass globe in the world. Daylight that emanates from a hole in the ceiling passes through an installation and emerges as a beam of light that passes right through the crystal from top to bottom, ending up in a pond full of lilies. In this chamber the atmosphere is one of purity and calm, and here meditation and reflection are practiced. The ethics of the community are to live in harmony whatever their race or creed, outside of the predetermined restrictions of other countries or states. 

Auroville is Shona’s birthplace. White pillars feature in her work, reflecting calm and purity. By placing rolled up cardboard in pillar form on top of her sketchbooks, the viewer is made to look down into the ‘pillar’, to view her work and thereby physically interact with each work individually. Sometimes you have to stoop down low, at other times stand on tiptoes, or by moving the pillar. In this way the experience is more intense and is in total contrast to the experience provided in most museums, where the observer often remains disconnected from an exhibition, by not being allowed to touch or move anything.

What one sees at the bottom of each tube is an image combined with a spiral of text. This is her way of releasing as she says an ‘over load of the mind’, as a result of the stimuli of life and the world around her. ‘The setup is designed to give the viewer the opportunity to peer through a ‘mini-scope’, into my thoughts, ideas and emotions’, said Shona. Some images are drawn but by burning the paper she creates others. This is done systematically and in diverse ways. One sketchbook shows the use of a very red pigment in combination with the paper. This was created using soil, a kilo of which was sent especially by her mother from Tamil Nadu. Shona has a fascination with the unique characteristics of the materials she uses and their reaction upon contact with paper, as well as the textures, imprints and grains that are left behind.

The daughter of a Dutch mother and English father, Shona originally left India at the age of nineteen to come to Holland to ‘learn art and how to earn her own money’. The former she has accomplished the latter she says she is still learning. She plans to return to India in October to get back to her roots, after which she wants to travel, starting with New Zealand.

To learn more about Auroville their website can be found at here


© Alison Day

First published in the Connections magazine #9 July 2005 




Monday 22 March 2010

The Gold Office.



The Goudkantoor (Gold Office) was built in 1635 and was then known as the ‘Collectehuis’. It can be found in the Waagstraat complex behind the old City hall. Over the years it has been used for many different purposes. Presently in use as a café-restaurant, it was also once a ship museum, a tourist information office, and a part of City Hall.

This is a delightful building to see and stands amidst the modernity of the shopping district in the centre of Groningen. With a rich historical background this building was once actually used as a tax office for Groningen and the surrounding provinces. The Latin proverb on the front of the building ‘Date Caesari quae Caesaris’ means ‘Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s’ which referred to the collection of taxes.

The name the ‘Goudkantoor’ comes from the period when it was used as an assay office for gold and silver pieces, during the 19-th century. Here gold and silver objects were assessed for their quality and given a hallmark accordingly.

Built in the Dutch Renaissance style, this building has a very striking façade. The eye catching shell-like forms that appear above both doors and windows are said to be the handiwork of a sculptor from Bremen. Tests on the paint remains of the bricks (in red, ochre, gold and blue) are said to be the original colours. Motifs on the walls are from the 17-th century with origins from South Scandinavia, the German coast and the Low Countries. This kind of decoration was often used in preference to glass and Goblin tapestry.

Acquired at the beginning of the last century by the City Council of Groningen the original coat of arms of the province was immediately replaced by that of City of Groningen. This was seen as a great conquest as between Groningen and the province there has always been a great rivalry, as long as can be remembered.

© Alison Day


First published in the Connections magazine #8 July 2005,