Welcome back @PamPurrs Pam! You showed COVID who’s boss!
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I am still here, El Guapo!
Just haven’t had much to say of late.
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Hey there. Long time no see. I am back from the Slovakian border with my friend from Ukraine and her kid. Her husband stayed in UA to fight. Hope you guys having a good time across the pond and wish us good luck. See ya, in the future.
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Good luck man and thanks for helping out there! It’s tragic. The folks there need all the help they can get and you are doing great things by helping your friends. Well done.
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Keep up the good work mate. What’s going on is horrible. I had a friend in a fellow Babymetallhead who was in the Ukrainian army, who was shot by a Russian soldier a couple years ago.
Hope your friends are safe.
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Hats off to you and yours @wellbi
Terrible times in that part of the world
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The Bass Buzz Humanitarian prize of the month goes to @wellbi
Awesome you could help out. I hope your friends husband stays safe and uninjured.
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um
yeah
well, it must’ve been early 2021 when I kinda caved in mentally. After having been without work for a year following my recovery AND a year of lockdown, it was bound to happen.
I distinctly remember watching tv on Jan. 6, 2021, and thinking, right, okay, we’re all fucked, you know what? Let’s just stay away from social media for a while, and indulge in studying programming and playing the bass guitar in splendid isolation.
In the meantime, I got me a new job per October '21. So that’s fixed.
The good news is it pays well.
The other good news is that it’s in the centre of Rotterdam, where parking space is at a premium, and more expensive than unleaded fuel.
Pray explain – how is that “good news”?
Well, it took me an hour or more to get there by car and metro.
A colleague, who lives quite close by, told me it takes him a little over half an hour.
“Dang, I want that too, how do you do that?”
That evening, I had a 5 minute debate that started as follows:
“Honey, I would very much like to take up biking again.”
This was kinda veto’d in 2006 (I think), but this time her response was “yes… it was a matter of time, wasn’t it?”. She actually went as far as to buy me a suit and a pair of winter gloves from her own pocket money.
So I got me an NT700, which is a medium weight touring bike with shaft drive and a decent fairing (for the bike-savvy among you: using the same de-stressed V-twin engine as the Transalp, which will outlive you and your children). I can park it in the basement under our office building together with the other bicycles and motorcycles, so I now ride straight to the office rather than to the metro station. On top of that, I’m enjoying this very, very much. I was always one of those who would ride throughout the year (unless the roads are icy, that’s where I draw the line) and I still do that.
So… got any new gear we should know about?
I did not get any new basses – believe it or not, it’s still the Samick Jazz, the Cort PJ and the Yamaha TRBX.
A few years ago, I vowed that I would never ever play for an audience larger than 2 cats, so the little Harley Benton practice amp was more than big enough.
However, I have caved in.
Two weeks ago, a local drummer asked me to join his little jazz-standards outfit – drums, guitar, female vocalist and now a bass too. Nothing fancy, but I ain’t no Jeff Berlin either.
This does mean that the little HB won’t cut it. The drummer smirked when I told him.
He hasn’t seen the amp and cabinet I got yesterday yet, for the pretty silly amount of 300 euros. I suppose there will be no smirking; I’m pretty sure I can make his snare resonate. 
At a little over 70 pounds, the cabinet is way too heavy to drag up to the Jazz Cave, so it currently lives in the same garage as the motorcycle. If I’d have been 15 years younger, it would’ve looked like a proper midlife crisis in there… but then the bike should’ve been a Harley, the bass a Rick 4001, and the bass combo an Aguilar.
Oh… in case you wondered: I managed to get by COVID-free until January this year, when Omikron hit me. Sailed through that in three days.
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It’s great to have you back!!
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Welcome back @peterhuppertz
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Welcome back @peterhuppertz
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Hey! Welcome back!
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Welcome back @peterhuppertz ,
It’s been a while, great to see you have moved on, the bike and amp look way cool,
Cheers Brian
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@peterhuppertz you must be living quite close to me (Dordrecht)
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About 45 mins (motorcycling minutes). I do visit Dordt every now and then – my photography supplies shop is FotoFilmFabriek.
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So, Sebastiaan finally caved, kicked out Frans and asked you to join 
Sounds great - enjoy!!
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This would be a good time for you to wake up.
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In Europe, this bike has a name as well as a more formal type designation (much like the GL1500 is called Goldwing, and the XL600V is called Transalp. This bike’s name is Deauville, which is the name of a rather posh French seaside resort.
In England, they grabbed the name and ran with it, changing it to Dullville. On paper, this bike has absolutely nothing going for it – only 65 BHP, not particularly lightweight or nimble, no frills or gadgets… and -gasp!- integrated saddlebags, like the ill-fated Pacific Coast. Only when actually riding it, people found out how brilliant the package works… and as a result, in Europe, it sold like hot cakes.
But it’s not cool. And I don’t give a rat’s ass. It’s bloody brilliant. 
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If I would ever need a reliable, practical, comfortable and affordable commuter bike, the Deauville would definitely be on my list.
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It’s pretty safe to add “fun” to that list as well. While it doesn’t look very athletic, the Deauville doesn’t mind being thrown about one bit.
I did a lil writeup on it, which you can find by clicking here.
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