Vacation

In every profession you have to make choices. Are you going to make more money, but make less good work or would you rather invest in an agency where you can be totally creative? How much of your spare time are you going to sacrifice for your career? What if your ambition affects your health?

The best is to find a satisfying balance. Since I've been working at Lemz, almost 1,5 years ago, things have been quite easy going compared to Duval Guillaume. I can go home quite early, I don't have to work over a lot and there's not a lot of pressure. And I have nothing to complain with regards to the work I'm making. Lately, things aren't going like I want to (difficult briefs, clients who are fucking things up. Well, all creatives have to plough through the bad times). But overall, things are going in the right direction. And I can even have a private life. Every Monday I'm going to the Nieuwe Anita to watch a cult movie. If a friend calls me to have a drink, most of the time it's possible. And because I don't have to commute, I have more time to sleep in the morning. I didn't really have a lot of vacation since I work at Lemz, because a normal working week feels like vacation to me.

Still, I was a bit exhausted the last few weeks. It's been exactly more than 2 years ago since I took more than one week off. And very slowly I start to notice that. Today, my 2,5 weeks of vacation officially started. And I'm going to start my vacation at the Lowlands festival, where one of the artists is the electronica emperor Aphex Twin. After this blasting start, I will just spend two weeks in Amsterdam. I love my work, but it can't hurt to forget about work for a few weeks.

Singing in the Rain

No, I'm not like most Dutch people who complain about the weather all the time. I knew, that as soon as I cross the border I'd have to deal with a lot of rain. So I knew what I was getting into when I moved back from Belgium to Holland. Who cares if summer has been exchanged for autumn. More time to spend partying in clubs.

But what I do mind is that these dark clouds have been terrorizing Pluk de Nacht, the coolest filmfestival of Amsterdam. This festival is organised by movie enthusiasts, and they ask no entrance. They depend on donations of the audience and sales of drinks. And they play independent movies that didn't get the attention they deserved in Holland. The problem is: it's in the open air. And it has been non-stop raining since the opening night on Thursday.

On the opening night last Thursday I was watching a German movie (Ueber Uns Das All) in a beach chair and every once in a while I had to open my umbrella because of the rain. It didn't matter to me because the movie was very good.

In trade for a donation, one can reserve a beach chair. So I gambled a bit and reserved chairs on Wednesday and Friday. On Wednesday the weather was impossible. Let's hope it's going to be better tomorrow. And otherwise I'll stay in a warm pub with a cold beer, watching the rain outside, knowing that my ten euro goes straight to a good cause.

35

Yes, today is my birthday. And this reminds me that I'm already writing a considerable time for this blog, because I remember the day when I became 30, another milestone, as if it was yesterday. I was in the Miami Ad School typing on my old laptop at that time. And when I look back at that post, I haven't really changed a lot.

Of course, a lot has happened since that time. I was an ambitious student, who went back to school to make his comeback in advertising. I can truly say that all my expectations came out. I've worked at two great agencies since then, made the work that I wanted to and I won the awards that I wanted to. I haven't been sitting still in that time. And that's a good feeling.

If my past is representative for my future, I'm looking forward to another five years that will be extremely exciting.