Monopoly and music

It's been two months since I last posted something here, but I haven't forgotten about my goals in the mean time:

Monopoly
The first goal I've worked on is that of the Monopoly streets. Three of the streets are in my own city, one actually only 20 meters from my house, so I could go there at any moment and take a picture but that would be too easy. So instead, I'm waiting for special occasions to "visit" these streets and take a picture. And last month, one such occasion presented itself when my mother-in-law and I walked the "4 miles of Groningen" (I was tempted to let this count as my "4 Mijl" goal, but I have to admit that that really requires me to run it). Just 500 meters before the finish, we entered the Herestraat. After already walking 6 kilometers (which, I admit, is not that much of an achievement for a 27-year-old, but my mother-in-law is not that young anymore and the weather was really bad so all in all, we were really proud of ourselves) I thought this was the perfect moment to take my picture. One down, 21 to go! Here is the *glorious* result:

Covered in rain and very proud of ourselves. Oh, and barely legible somewhere, the sign "Herestraat". ;)

And just two weeks later, the next Monopoly street came along. We were in Amsterdam for a concert (more about that below!) and while we were there, we also visited the Rijksmuseum. On our way back from the museum to the train station, we took a small detour to visit the street of the Dutch Monopoly: the Kalverstraat. The most expensive street, a good start!

Very legible this time!

John Mayer
The concert we were in Amsterdam for, was John Mayer. The first time I saw him perform live was in America, and that was amazing. Probably the best concert I have ever been to. So when I heard that he was finally coming to the Netherlands again, for the first time in years, I had to go there. Despite the fact that he was touring two new albums at once, and I didn't even know his new songs that well, the concert was great! And, it counts as one of my five big music concerts. :)

To prepare for the concert, I also listened to John Mayer's new album Paradise Valley. The style is quite different from his earlier work, but like with earlier albums like Heavier Things and Continuum, after listening to the songs a couple of times I realized that they were much more complex than they seemed at first. Especially after hearing them live, they really grew on me. So, new albums: 1/50!