27 februari was het dan zover: de uitzending van “Lauren en de Liefde” over de liefde van bijzondere stellen, waarin mijn partner en ik te zien zijn.

In één jaar tijd werden wij door drie verschillende media uitgeroepen tot een bijzonder stel.

HP de Tijd noemde ons het perfecte koppel. [en mijn man is geen Nederlander, maar Amerikaan]

Een Israëlisch dagblad noemde ons het Ideale koppel. [Ik ben niet Joods]

En een Frans magazine riep ons uit to het koppel van het nieuwe Millennium. [We zijn beiden geen Fransen]

Dat was de aanleiding voor Lauren om ons een bezoekje te brengen en te kijken hoe het nu, dik 15 jaar later met ons gaat.

Waarin zijn wij dan zo bijzonder?

Ondanks veel moeilijkheden op ons pad zegeviert de liefde nu ook nog na 20 jaar.

Ons geheim?

Bekijk het item:

“Gigolo Shai had nooit gedacht dat hij de ware ooit zou vinden tot hij Cora tegenkwam. Zij was één van de eerste vrouwen die seksles gaf op de Nederlandse televisie en samen zijn ze nog even gelukkig als de eerste dag dat zij elkaar tegenkwamen”.

Shai is nu al lang geen gigolo meer. Onze liefde heeft hem geinspireert om te gaan zingen en niet zonder succes. Hij zingt o.a. romantische liedjes uit de tijd van Frank Sinatra op trouwerijen, [bedrijfs]parties en in clubs. In Nederland is zijn stem vooral bekend achter de schermen in veel TV commercials.

Wij hebben elkaar niet zomaar toevallig ontmoet. We hebben heel wat voorbereidend innerlijk werk moeten doen om eerst onsZelf te vinden, ieder voor zich zodat we als het ware als twee magneten tot elkaar aangetrokken werden. Ons samenzijn is niet altijd even makkelijk geweest. Je kunt stellen dat wij tweelingzielen zijn.

Meer over tweelingzielen lees je in dit heldere artikel.

Je kunt de hele uitzending ook zien op NPO uitzending gemist.

With Shai Shahar @ Las Vegas

Wil je ook een lang en gelukkig huwelijk of partnerschap, laat je inspireren of maak een afspraak voor coaching.
Seks heeft altijd een belangrijke rol gespeeld in onze relatie. Het is de jus dat alles sappig en vloeiend heeft gehouden. Het is het meer dan waard om daarin te investeren.

Ik coach vanuit de wijsheid door opgedane ervaring, dus niet alleen vanuit boekenwijsheid of een paar “workshopjes” gedaan.

Geniet van Shai’s heerlijke repertoire vol met romantische liedjes , breng een bezoekje aan zijn website: shaishahar.com

Of plan een romantische avondje en geniet meteen van zijn Playlist op Reverb Nation

They say a healer should go where the need is greatest…

And so I was asked would I please come and give a “How to Handjob” playshop to 15 young women as the highlight of a birthday party for a businesswoman in Istanbul. Naturally this was a challenge I couldn’t resist!

Hunting for dildos
But where to find dildos with suction cup bottoms to use as practice models? That turned out to be even more of a challenge!

To start with, Istanbul does not have “sex shops”, instead it has “erotic shops” which by law are not allowed on the ground floor.

I went online and in a few clicks, and to my great surprise, I found a listing for the only “erotic shop” in all of Istanbul claiming to be run for and by women. So there was hope…

I made a note of the adress and set out with my partner to go see. It sounded easy, but once we got to Taksim it still took almost an hour of searching, and asking locals where the street was until we finally found ourselves surrounded by shabby buildings in a run down neighborhood, and I was having doubts. Could there really be an erotic shop here? But a hundred meters further, down some crooked steps and onto a narrow side street we found ourselves standing in front of a sad, grafiti covered entrance with the right numbers on it, next to which was a tiny red sign with the name of the shop. It looked anything but female friendly, and if my man hadn’t been with me I would have never gone through that door…

Once inside we found things even more depressing...all we could see was a barely lit stairwell, and nothing to indicate that a shop was on the premises..not on the first floor like it said on the website, or on any of the doors on the flights above. Disappointed and convinced that this was all a bad joke or a bad dream we headed back down the stairs and were on our way out when suddenly the unmarked door on the first floor opened and a small middle-aged woman poked her head out and asked in Turkish what we were doing here. My man said Erotic Shop? and she gave a smile and a nod and opened the door wider to let us in. She was the owner and her “shop” was really a very small studio apartment divided into office space and tiny “showroom” with walls of peeling grey paint and the floor covered in heavily stained dark brown carpeting

Culture shocked!
She did have suction cup bottomed dildos for sale but could barely speak a word of English, and her assortment was just as meager. Must the Turkish women get by with this, I wondered? What a world of difference between here and the Netherlands. We are truly spoiled for choice with all the truly female-friendly sexshops we have, filled with all sorts of toys, lubes, oils, books, DVD’s, & sexy lingerie for every taste and fantasy. I said a silent thank you to our Dutch pioneers like Hanni Jagtman, Ella van der Gang, Esther Suijker and Jeanette Westerveld. This so-called female friendly erotic shop was even worse than the seediest sexshop in Holland, and to top it off I found myself confronted with a shelf full of rubber pussies, obviously for male use, which did anything but arouse me. So…

Lets try this again..
The combination of poor selection and poor communication proved too much to cope with so we decided to try again next day at an erotic shop I had seen listed in Moda, not far from the apartment we were lodging in. This also turned into an unexpected challenge as, on the way downtown, we were confronted and delayed by thousands of demonstrators marching against the government. And of course the adress we were looking for was on the other side of the shouting marchers. We weren’t really sure what they were shouting but believe me, you don’t have to understand Turkish to know it was something very angry..and though the shop adress was easy to find, it was also across the street and down a ways, behind the cops and barricades, so we had to worm our way through.

We eventually managed but again as we stood in front of the right adress we were having doubts as we saw only a sidewalk clothing stall run by a very conservative looking elderly Turkish man wearing a knitted hat, and dark coat over a long blue apron. But my man took the lead..he whispered the name of the shop we were looking for to him and after a brief glance at me the man smiled and pointed to the steps at the back of his stall that led up into the building.

The erotic shop was on the 5th floor. The elevator was out of order so we had to take the stairs. Huffing and puffing we reached the top and immediately saw the big colorful sign on the door. This was already looking better. A young Turkish man answered the bell and cheerfully invited us in to what looked to be a very modern office with red furnishings, a plush sofa on the sidewall and 3 phones on the desk.Behind the office was the shop which was bigger, brighter and looked much more friendly. The assortment was large and varied, with the latest toys, and a rack full of upmarket DVD titles..and yes, two shelves full of dildos in all sizes, including just the ones I was looking for. Problem was, the young man did not speak a word of English. So we ended up on his laptop using Google translate to negotiate a price.

Busted!
So we agreed a price but now it was a question of the husband of the birthday girl coming to get the dildos in time for the party. I called that evening and gave him the info, and crossed my fingers that all would go well. The next day my man and I went window shopping in Moda, were taking in the sights and smells, when to our utter surprise we saw the husband sitting at the window table of a Turkish pizza palace munching a “lachmajoun”. At first he didn’t see us standing and staring but when he did he blushed a deep red and waved us inside to join him, generously offering us some of his Turkish pizza and pointing to the big bag at his feet. Inside the bag were the dildos wrapped thickly in brown paper, tied off with twine. He confessed to eating here instead of his office because he did not want to be seen by his employees or have to explain the package. “You busted me”, he exclaimed rather sheepishly. Now he had the dildos but he still had to smuggle them into his house without his wife seeing so as not to spoil the surprise. We arranged that he would have me picked up and delivered by taxi later that evening….the taxi company already knew his address.

Across Istanbul by cab..
It took 45 minutes to get from the Asian to the European side of Istanbul, through heavy traffic and over the majestically lit bridge by the Golden Horn. We drove the hills and valleys, passing rows and rows of towering, brightly lit apartments. For me it was a magical journey to a mystery location. As I peered at the strange skyline I wondered what kind of women would be at the party and how would they react to my playshop.. and all the dildos. What had I got myself into..sitting alone in the back of a cab, driving at night through a city of millions more people than lived in all of the Netherlands? To make things even more unsettling, my driver was now stopping every few hundred meters to ask directions (!?). But eventually we arrived at the entrance to the gated community we were looking for, complete with guardhouse. This was certainly the neighborhood for the upper class residents. A minute later I was ringing the bell and being warmly greeted by birthday girl, who ushered me inside to meet her 15 giggling girlfriends, all eagerly crammed in the corner of her big living room, around a table full of erect dildos.

Women are women all over the world..
After a few glasses of wine things really got going. I got them to agree that whatever was said in the room would stay in the room. And that made everyone feel a lot safer. Then I gave a short intro to what the playshop was all about and had them share the dildos in groups of 3. I had figured one dildo each would have been prohibitively expensive for hubby and they would probably only be used this one time anyway…It was interesting to see how a few of the gals grabbed greedily for the mock cocks while others could barely touch them. Oy, I thought, as I held my breath, realizing how much of a taboe it was for women in this culture  just to even touch a dildo!  I would have to tread very lightly and more seductively if this was going to be a success…

 I made it clear to them that if you want a man to understand you then first you have to get his attention. And the best way to get a man’s attention is to grab his cock!

That was the kind of straight talk they could all understand. As luck would have it my openess and candor proved irresistable and soon the dam was broken and the room was flooded with the happy noise of women giggling, making jokes and comments as they practiced the exercises with enthusiasm, and asked me all the right questions. At the end of the session my ears were burning and the women were all smiles. A few of them were greedily stuffing dildos into their bags to take home “for further practice. Success! Two hours and a few glasses of wine after ringing the doorbell and there I was, riding the taxi back across Istanbul, back over the bridge to Asia.

And now the men..
The very next day I was told that many of the women went home and enthusiastically demonstrated their new skills on some very surprised and delighted husbands. It was also suggested that perhaps the men should be sent to a playshop to learn some skills of their own. So..seems like there is more work to be done in Istanbul. And believe me when I say, it really is a place where practical “sex-ed” is urgently needed. 

I don’t believe in protest marches, the kind that are always met with violence like the ones in Istanbul. I much prefer the tactics of seduction. You don’t have to love your enemies but you can still seduce them! Seduce them with charm, wit, empathy and, yes, sexuality. Make Love, Not War, has always been my motto.                                                         

Encore!, Encore!
On New Year’s Day my man called me from Istanbul to say he had a chat with the birthday girl and a couple of her friends and they were all deeply impressed with my way of teaching sex: how open and clear I was, my sense of humor…and they wanted more. That means a lot of travel back and forth. I’ve broken a lot of new ground and taboos in Holland, opened new doors, made a name for myself as a pioneer, to the point where after almost 30 years I am now known as THE Sex Coach of The Netherlands. Perhaps it is time to conquer another land. Once a pioneer, always a pioneer, I guess. But I realize this is not a challenge without some very considerable risks: Turkey is a decidedly Moslim country with a very conservative government that seems to be  trying to take the people back to the 1500’s instead of forward into the 21st century, certainly with respect to sex and “morality”..and the equal rights of women. But then, the job of any healer, or educator is to go where the need is greatest, to answer if you are called…and I do feel I am being called.

This is going to be a daring new year, I think

I wish each of you a horizon expanding and very sexy 2014

Cora Emens

My adventures as a first time Porna Star. From  Amsterdam to Brighton and back in three crazy and rewarding days.

All pictures copyright petrajoy.com

Strip at the airport.
Here we are, Rozemarije de Ronde, who will be the second camera woman and I, we go through check-up, to be sure that we are not terrorists and I am asked to take off not only my coat, but also my vest and …. my boots.
I am in a good mood, so I happily strip for the guy. I am going to be the star in the next movie by the award-winning  erotic film producer, Petra Joy. She shoots explicit erotic films from a female perspective, also known as ‘artcore’ porn or ‘porna’. So this is nothing, I am not ashamed. But he is not satisfied.
He also wants my money, my identity and my communication devices to the outside world. And if I behave I get it all back, with a smile. Of course I get it all back, I am a good girl. I am no threat to society, am I?
Who would suspect that I am going to be having sex in front of the camera in Brighton, shhh, don’t tell! So keep smiling and the whole world smiles with you.
Am I wicked for what I am about to do? Am I a bad person? Do I think of myself that way? As a threat to society? No, luckily not, but still, going to play a part in a porna movie feels a bit like I’m breaking all the rules. And that is fun and exciting.

Why “Porna”?
When Petra asked me to be a star in her next porna movie she told me she had just the right co-star for me. She had just won the first Porna award presented to her by Dusk TV in Amsterdam during a big party where we met up. And she wanted me! “The time was right”, she said “..for older women to celebrate their sexuality in an alternative porn film.  Petra is unhappy about the portrayal of older women in mainstream porn where they are usually degraded and not celebrated and adored. And until now older women have been invisible in alternative porn films by female directors. And I could not agree more. Just minutes before I had asked Rozemarije what about shooting older women in sex scenes and here is Petra asking me. Of course I felt honored and without further thinking said yes. I had met Petra for the first time in Berlin in 2009 where she was awarding first-time female erotic filmmakers with her Petra Joy Awards. She handed me the special jury prize for my erotic short film “The Rose” based on one of my special erotic memories. I liked her and her work and I like to be a movie star. Reasons enough already, but not just be a movie star, to play other people’s stories and emotions, using their words.. but to “play myself” and just be “me”. Just the way I am. And I trusted Petra that she would give me that chance. My Ego,  got an enormous boost of course. I am an older woman, yes, I have to accept it and be it and be proud of it that I made it till this far and I am still kicking. So let’s celebrate and dive into the ocean again.
I believe that it is sex and the surrender to ecstasy that keeps us turned on to life, to the force, our source. And I am happy to turn other people on too.

Being a role model.
So many times I get to hear that for other women that I am their role model, still being sexy at 56. So I better really do what I enjoy doing. Showing what I have been trying to teach in so many other well accepted ways, like workshops, radio and TV shows and introducing a new profession in Holland, sex-coaching. My playshops are all about “doing” and one of them is called “Sexy4life”. And just recently I was portrait in a leading Dutch newspaper glossy weekend insert “Telegraaf Vrouw” as one of Holland’s sexiest women over 50. I am also added to the site of “Nederland’s Mokkels”, (Dutch Babes). And I am proud of it. But this is a step further.

Seeing 444 everywhere.

Lately I have been seeing the number 444 several times daily. On my clock, day and night time like waking up in the middle of the night and sitting straight up at 4.44. Or the amount on a bill that I have to pay. It got under my skin and I understood that I needed to pay attention. So I typed in google the number 444 and the word meaning and found several sites telling me that specifically that number means that you are on the right path, in the right place at the right time. And “the Angels” were with me”. And I needed to understand that at that moment. I needed to be reminded of who I am and that that I’m ok. So here I am, on an adventure again and doing what I am meant to be doing.

A match made in Heaven
My co-star Jes flew in to Gatwick airport from Berlin about the same time, and here we are meeting for the first time face to face at the airport. Petra had previously arranged a Skype chat between me and Jes, to make sure that we would like and desire each other. Petra only shoots with lovers who have chemistry as her motto is “Feeling it, not faking it!”. The sparkle I felt during our online chat immediately translates in real life – I see a pair of piercing blue eyes with a tingle in them. My eyes go up and down. He is tall and lean. His embrace is warm and his kiss is wet. We click, the three of us. This is a good match, this is going to be magic. We all travelled with a cab that Petra had ordered, to Brighton. Star treatment first class. On the ride we talk a bit, he is into Tantra, gives all kinds of massages from Tantra to Lomi Lomi and is a scuba diver teacher. As I find out later, he has hands and other body parts that make you melt. He is not the average male porn star. He is a lover, as am I. A lover of life, of being alive and of being physical and sharing bodies. A “player” in the right sense of the word. Well done Petra for understanding people that well and trusting her gut instinct to put two complete strangers together to be a match. But hey, don’t all women dream of the perfect stranger? The stranger who is perfect.

The story
Petra had suggested a fun story line we all agreed on. The scene was going to be all about me, my pleasure, my satisfaction and orgasms, as the title this film is going to be “(S)he Comes”. The film will be out in 2014 and then you can see how the sexy story developed and fitted us like a glove.

Full moon in Leo
That night is the first shoot. It was the only day left available for the fantastic location that Petra had discovered for us. It is a popular room and with reason. We better get going. So first a beautiful lunch, a toast with champagne and then get on with it. Interviews for the behind the scenes documentary, going through the mood board, choosing the right clothes, make-up and before I know it we are on THE SET the scene. When we have steamed up the windows and have to open them for some fresh air I see a full moon over the sea. Full moon in Leo, my sign. Indeed the time is right.

The Angels
I decided to wear jewelry that I inherited from the women in my family.  A golden ring with a ruby from my grandmother from my father’s side, the golden wedding ring set with a small pink stone from my grandmother from my mother’s side, my mother’s ring with with a ruby and her golden wedding ring.
It suits the room, but that is not the reason. Somehow I feel my mother and grandmothers are with me and I wish their sex lives had been more satisfying.  Maybe that is part of why I do it. To show that you can overcome your upbringing. To show that I freed myself, that I could feel free even feeling them so close. No shame, no guilt, no excuses. I hope they enjoyed the show.

As a fish in the water.
Everything is right, the setting, the crew, the light, the mood. Even my slightly spotty ass cheeks look right with some make-up on. Here we go…. Of course we are on a set, the end product is an illusion, a make believe of what happened. A story to get your dreams wet. That is the “art” part of it. How to get the viewer to suspend belief and get them involved. But the thing is we DID get involved- in each other and that must show. There was magic, an understanding of each others’ body, instinctively knowing how and where to touch. No words needed. I could say that I felt like a fish in the water, but I relate more to dolphins and mermaids. Whoever said that mermaids can’t fuck because they have a fishtail got it all wrong. They have dolphin  fins and I felt just like one. Wet and sensuous and jumping for joy, floating through a sea of lust, enjoying my multiple orgasms…

Getting to know each other some more.
The next days we are off, free to do whatever we want. Rozemarije, Jes and I stayed in the beautiful house that Petra had rented for the occasion.  As long as we did not walk around naked with the curtains open or had sex in the overlooked glass conservatory , we were free to do anything we wanted. We talked a lot and we decided to take a long stroll on the beach to the Brighton pier. And we talked some more, sharing intimate life stories and debating philosophical questions about life, healing, life changes and purposes. It felt like family. Especially when you have already shared your most intimate act of letting yourself be watched while having sex and experiencing bliss, people are most of the time much more open and willing to share their deepest thoughts and emotions. And we shared. It did not matter who played out the role of voyeur or of the exhibitionist. We were there to share and to inspire each other. To enrich our lives and with the intention that it would enrich other peoples’ lives as well.

A song to sing.
Suddenly I am aware that I am singing again. It has been a while, but the mermaid is back. I had felt kind of stuck lately and not in my flow until I got the message. I should have known because I always felt more like singing after having sex, but lately lots of worries about the state the world is in have overwhelmed me. It is hard to stay in touch with who you truly are in a society that encourages anything that makes you forget.  They make you feel guilty or inferior the moment you are born for being human, for being a mammal. Strip away all gadgets we have, including our razors and take an honest look at how far we really have developed from being mammals. I have never understood why are we fighting that part of ourselves till the point that we are willing to kill for it or give up all our human rights to be free. One of the songs that came to me was a song I had written long time ago and is titled “Remember your dream”.

IF YOU CAN DEAM IT…
Oh and did I mention that my co-star makes music as well, soundscapes like me? Sex and music belong together. Ask my life partner Shai who made singing his profession following his life long dream. Ask him his secret….It seems all of us dreamers have come together to help each other to make our dreams come true. Petra always refers back to this famous quote of Walt Disney “If you can dream it, you can do it!” when explaining on why she decided to make female fantasies a reality on film…

Another shoot.
Petra is so happy and inspired by our chemistry she suggests another completely spontaneous shoot and Jes and I are more than happy to go for it. So day 3, the last day of our stay a few hours before we are scheduled to leave we shoot with just Petra and Rozemarije in the bathroom – no other crew is present and only minimal equipment: two hand-held cameras.  It is a big leap of faith for Petra to delegate the main camera to Rozemarije, as Petra hardly ever trusts anybody else to translate the images in her mind into a film. We are all willing to experience something beyond our borders. Rozemarije has been making films with real couples. Here she is filming two complete strangers who are able to trust themselves and each other to make a connection and experience intimate sex magic.
I came twice standing up and, after the first time, my knees are already shaking. After the second one my legs refuse to support me any longer and I collapse to the bathroom floor. After that it is rush-rush to get to the airport in time. ….We are being treated to another fantastic lunch with champagne,  a goodie-bag and lots of presents. It is good that Petra had paid for  check in luggage, enough to hold 20 kilo’s. With all the outfits already in it, I was happy to still have some spare room to take it all home with me. To get us to the airport on time and stress-free, a taxi has been called. So kiss, kiss, hug, hug and bye-bye. Talk later.

Home again.
I was so happy when I finally came home and did not have to walk or use my legs any longer. Happy to be picked up by my partner, lover, spouse or how would you call a man you have an intimate love relationship with for more than 18 years? A warm welcome kiss, a quiet [still] ride home, under a still  full moon. Anticipation and savoring the moment that we are with each other again. Knowing we have stories to tell and something to celebrate. At home there is champagne once more. We talk and talk and have sex like animals till deep in the night. Shai is a good lover too. It is good to have variety and now it is good to be home. Shai will be leaving to sing in Istanbul in a few days. He can use all the sex we can have to sing and be the star he is.

I am writing again.
I am turned on, my mind is racing. I have a story to tell. My body feels wonderful and I’m still glowing, because yes “She Comes”.   Porna is about sharing – giving as much as receiving. Mainstream porn sadly seems often to be about taking from and using the female performers. As well on set as living and playing together in one house and getting to know each other on so many levels. As Serge mentioned: “I don’t like small talk”.  And I agree! Let’s share as much of ourselves with each other as humanly possible. Body, mind and spirit.

Naked on facebook.
I am really proud of what I have done and Petra posted some pictures of the shoot on Facebook. They are beautiful and I reposted them. But then I realized that Facebook can shut down my account  without any warning just for repostings these pictures of myself. I reluctantly take them off, very aware that I am complying with rules that are obviously there to control our lives. Pictures of naked people or people somehow involved with mammal behaviour, be it breast-feeding or sexual intimacy are threats to society.  I found a way to show them to my Facebook friends anyway, using Facebook(!) So am I a threat to society after all?  Who cares? I certainly don’t . I have tried but I can’t be anybody but myself. So be it.

Being a bad girl.
Would I do it again? Yes, without thinking and even more eagerly if possible – as long as I could shoot with a director I can trust 100%, play with a performer where the chemistry is right and in a nutshell – as long as the porn is actually porna – porn from a female perspective, artistic value and authentic sex. I have much more to show. We’ll see what comes back to me. How people will react, I have no idea. But I have learned a very important lesson in life. Whatever you’ll do, some people will like you for it and some won’t. You can’t make anybody else happy besides yourself. It is the same with sex, a man can’t give a woman an orgasm, she gives herself permission to have one, (or more) with him. I had as many as my body could handle. It did not hurt anybody and it definitely did not hurt me!  If that is what  being a bad girl is all about, then count me in. Just let me keep my Facebook account ,and let me travel to beautiful destinations in nature to shoot some more…..I’ll strip again at the airport, if I have to.

Cora Emens