Travel & Hotspots

Marie Claire in Malibu

One of the best things about living in Malibu is definitely the fact that after twenty years I live close to my friend Elsje. Her name already reveals that she comes from the Netherlands. We sat in class together at the Utrecht Conservatory. She plays piano and I play violin, at least we did that all day long back then. Now that I live here, we can not only enjoy chatting during our morning walks but also make music together again. We are carefully picking up our Mozart sonatas again and feel just as connected as before. That is special. Our children go to school together and can play nicely in Dutch. Our husbands work together for the program we are making here. Jeroen sings and John plays double bass. In short, we do a lot together.

”And as the icing on the cake, she took me to LA's best-kept secret.”

So it happened that this week I went along for a day to Elsje's work in downtown LA. She has a nice job as the director of the conservatory there. She also works closely with an organization that enables underprivileged youth from the neighborhood to participate in an after-school music program for free, keeping them off the streets and giving them a purpose in life. And as the icing on the cake, she took me to LA's best-kept secret. A sushi restaurant where they make the best sushi in the city. You do have to stand in line for a bit - with only Japanese people - but then you know right away that it's worth it. It's called Sushi Gen in Little Tokyo.

A wonderful day with a lovely friend!