Venice & Santa Monica With David

Last week, I went to Venice and Santa Monica, with David Decoster.

Because it was such a busy week, I wasn’t able to upload the pictures at that moment.

But here’s what we did.

First we went to Venice Beach to walk around and look at what was happening.

In Venice everybody thinks they’re an artist!
But believe me, they aren’t always good.
Its harsh to say but some of them are really without talent.
But they are having a good time.

Artist
Artist

Or this guy.
He’s just a drunk bum, who’s trowing all his bottles, from the night before, on the ground to jump into it.

Crazy artist
Crazy artist

But there are also people like these guys.
Giving a real show, doing crazy jumps, dancing, entertaining the audience en giving advice to kids.

Street artists
Street artists

Or the creator of this piece of art.
He recreated Bumblebee from the transformers out of trash.

Bumblebee
Bumblebee

Or the freak shows.
With the bearded lady (who’s just a man), the monkey man, the little man and so on.

Freakshow
Freakshow

But besides all the shows and craziness, Venice is also known for all the sport possibilities.
The Free outdoor gym, the basketball courts, the weird tennis, skate bowls, ….

So we walked towards all the sport possibilities, to check them out.

And with a views like this, the walk was more fun

The Beach
The Beach
On the Boardwalk
On the Boardwalk
The Beach
The Beach
Boardwalk
Boardwalk
Hippies
Hippies
Boardwalk
Boardwalk
The Beach
The Beach

 

Here we are at the skate bowl, where everyone is giving their best shot, because they know there’re always people watching.

There’s a really nice atmosphere.
Everybody is talking to each other without knowing another.
Clapping if somebody did something cool or asking, encase someone fell, if their okay or need some help.

Skate bowl
Skate bowl

Then there is the free outdoor gym with all kinds of attribute to workout.

Venice Muscle Beach is known is as a legend for working out.

So David couldn’t resist and had to 20 pull-ups.

MuscleBeach
MuscleBeach

There’s also an paid outdoor gym, so you have to be a member to use the machinery.
And the one’s working out in the outdoor gym, are really liking the attention of the crowd and constantly interacting with them.
Especially the guys, they think it’s the ideal place to pick up girls.
So there constantly showing off their muscles and what they can lift.

MuscleBeach
MuscleBeach

Afterwards we watched some random guys, playing basketball.

Playing b-ball
Playing b-ball

When we walked the whole Venice boardwalk, it was time for a cold beer.

Drinking some beers
Drinking some beers

After a couple of beers, we went to Santa Monica.

Santa Monica is completely different than Venice.
Not that many performers, no more hippies and crazy people, less activities and so on.

But it has other things to offer too.
The pier, a nice promenade, a lot of restaurants and shops, …

And in our case, we wanted to see the pier.

Santa Monica Pier
Santa Monica Pier

When we walked over the bridge, we saw the typical LA traffic.
There’re always traffic jams, no matter what our or where you go.
In this case it was a traffic jam towards Malibu.

Traffic
Traffic

But on that bridge you also had a nice view over the beach.

The Beach
The Beach

On the pier itself, you have a lot of possibilities what you want to do.
There are restaurants, tourist shops, an amusement park, fishing possibilities, …

Here’s a picture of one of the most known shrimp restaurants in America, Bubba Gump.
It’s that famous, that they even got a tourist shop.

Bubba Gump
Bubba Gump

Here’s the entry of the amusement park, but we didn’t went inside, because it looked like an amusement park for kids.
But still cool to see, because unbelievable that they build it on the pier.

Pacific Park
Pacific Park

While you walk around on the pier you hear different kinds of bands playing
or street artists trying to get the attention of the people.

Band playing on the pier
Band playing on the pier

But it’s really crowed during the weekend so the street performers get a lot of attention

Crowded
Crowded

Once your at the end of the pier, you get a really nice view over the beach.

The Beach
The Beach
The Beach
The Beach

 
After walking the whole day and looking around in the two cities, we had dinner and went back to my place.
David had to work early the next day and his hotel was located an hour from Los Angeles, so after one drink we called it a day.

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Lunchtime, Chick-Fil-A

Lunchtime again 🙂

Some people of the office suggested to go to Chick-Fil-A.
When I asked what it was they told me, it would be the best chicken burger you can get, in a fast food restaurant.
So I joined them, because I wanted to try it out.

Chick-Fil-A
Chick-Fil-A

The fast food chain is very religious, so its closed on Sunday and they want share their story, with all the clients

Their story
Their story

It was unbelievable crowded inside, but also in the drive-in.
I’m starting to believe it has to be a great chain for chicken burgers.

The menu
The menu

After one bite, I was convinced.

Even for a fast food restaurant, they had quiet tasty chicken burgers.

Our order
Our order

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David Decoster Arrived in Los Angeles

The Belgians keep on arriving, in Los Angeles 😛
What a coincidence!
First Filip Grossard, now David Decoster.

Normally David had some business meetings somewhere else in America, but they changed it last minute, to Los Angeles.
So he came over, to visit me.

Here he is, driving in my street.
In the right corner you see some children, selling fresh lemonade.

 

Arrival David Decoster
Arrival David Decoster

 

We sat on my terrace for a little bit and then out of the blue, there was a blimp flying over, so I had to take a picture of it.

Goodyear Blimp
Goodyear Blimp

But from the moment the sun set, it was so beautiful, I had to take another picture.

Goodyear Blimp in the clouds
Goodyear Blimp in the clouds

 

After a few drinks, we ordered a Uber (Taxi) and went to Santa Monica.

It feels like, there’s always something happening.

This time there was a guy dancing and doing funny things.
So we took some time, to see him perform.

Street performer
Street performer
Street performer
Street performer
Street performer
Street performer

Because we forget to reserve the restaurant and if we wanted to eat there, we had to wait for an hour.
So we decided to go to a sports bar instead, have a drink, eat some wings and Nachos and watch some UFC.

Mega Corona/Margarita
Mega Corona/Margarita
Watching UFC
Watching UFC
Enough TV's ?
Enough TV’s ?

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The 30th L.A. Marathon

On the 15th of march it was the 30th L.A. Marathon.

As a promotion it was illuminated by 124 skyward spotlights, the evening before the marathon.
It was incredible to see.

The high-power, vertical beams had illuminated the 26-mile route from Dodger Stadium to Santa Monica.
Here are some pictures of how it looked:

The LA Marathon
The LA Marathon
Lights
Lights with stars
Lights in the sky
Lights in the sky
Beam
Beam

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Renovations in the LA office.

The LA office of DQNA/Adsimilis recently moved to a new office space.
But there was still a lot of work that had to be done.

For instance, rearranging the office spaces.

I was working in a small office, together with the head of sales.
But the rest of the sales team sat in an office next to ours, but luckily it was only a temporally solution.

So they asked me to pack my stuff and work from home during the constructions.

Packing my stuff
Packing my stuff

Here’s my setup from a day I worked from home.

Working from home
Working from home

We even had our normal sales meetings, but now through Skype.

Sales Skype session
Sales Skype session

Here’s the new setup, much better!!
It feels more spacious and we have more interaction with each other.

New office space
New office space
Got our new TV
Got our new TV

The next room to remodel was the office of the Internal Media Buyers and their managers.

Here’s a picture of the room when it was still under construction.

Creating a new office space
Creating a new office space

And here’s the result

Media Buyers
Media Buyers
I think she doesn't like the airco
I think she doesn’t like the airco
Little set-up
Little set-up
Media Buyers
Media Buyers
Photoshop lessons
Photoshop lessons
Media Buyers
Media Buyers

It looks like the office mascot is happy with the result 🙂

 

The office mascot
The office mascot

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A day with Richard Clark

Yesterday I went to Richard Clark’s home, a co-worker from DQNA.

He and his family took me to Benihana, a Japanese show cooking restaurant.

Dinner with Richard Clark
Dinner with Richard Clark
Dinner with Richard Clark
Dinner with Richard Clark

At first the cook was very calm and serious.
So I looked deep into his eyes and smiled.

But I think I gave him the wrong impression.

I think i gave the cook the wrong impression
I think i gave the cook the wrong impression

Everything looked so good on that cooking plate, but it tasted even better.

Shrimp and chicken
Shrimp and chicken
Preparing the meat
Preparing the meat
Food
Food

Afterwards, Richard had to go to the pharmacy, so in the meanwhile his wife and son, showed me Costco and a Best Buy.
It’s unbelievable how big these supermarkets and shops are!!

At Costco
At Costco
At Costco
At Costco

After they showed me the Costco and Best Buy, we went back to their home.

Where I saw a box of tarot cards, so I asked her if she wanted to give me a reading
It was a very interesting reading, with a promising outcome.

Let’s hope it’s the same in real life.

These were my cards.

Tarot reading
Tarot reading
Promissing tarot reading
Promissing tarot reading

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