New traditions

I'm almost on my way to a newyear's eve party. As always (well, the last four years at least), we're barbequeing (mind you, in winter) with a fairly fixed group of people by now.

When I would tell people about it at first, they'd look at me weirdly. By now, I just got a shrug and a 'oh right, again huh'. Teehee.

Happy new year everyone, hope you're as excited about the year ahead as I am!

Little vegetables

Over the last few days I've been listening to a cd called Hang on little tomato.

Everytime I see the cover and this title I have to think of something that happened over 12 years ago. Strangely enough, it's one of the memories that stand out most of my year in Hobart - my hostbrother talking to his food and saying: "you just sit there, little broccoli".

(Honestly, he was quite normal the rest of the time! Well, as normal as teenage boys can be.)

2007

I can't resist doing this post.

If I would have to summarize the year: rollercoaster ride.

The first two-thirds of the year were overall pretty crap, with the occasional good thing thrown in. The last one-third of the year has been the complete opposite, with me bouncing around all over the place.

The bad:
* jobhunting, on and on and on and on..... seemingly never ending and having it take over my life;
* too much uncertainty about where the hell I was going;
* seeing too much of certain medical people, ugh;
* being spooked too often by those people above;
* seeing every new idea turn to nothing again and again;
* dating bad men;

The good:
* the fab new job, wheeee! I can't begin to tell you how happy I am that this is working out. The long wait has been so worth it.
* S.
* St. Petersburg, London, Bulgaria, Belgium - anything that required a plane or a longish trainride!
* being excited about new plans, new ideas, new inspiration.
* having my friends stick with me.

Questions

Part of the fun in my job is the big variety of questions people ask. The most recent hit:

"Do you have Kim Dae-Jung's postal address?"

Uhm, no. Weird stuff.

Eek!

So, this trip to Morocco.

It started out as a not very serious comment (or so I thought....) on a second date: 'hey, maybe I should convince you to come to Morocco with me!'. I laughed it off then.

And now look what I've gotten myself into. I still can't quite believe that I am really going. Next time I see the person who made that comment is middle of next week, in Madrid, after just seeing him off at the airport to Athens.

Eek!

Back in time

Through Jules and Cookie, just because I felt like it.

— 10 years ago —

1) How old were you?: 19

2) Where did you work?: student at the time, part time work at my parents' hotel
3) Where did you live? Leiden
4.) Where did you hang out? would go back to my parents regularly, and was only slowly getting to know people.

5.) Did you wear glasses? Yes

6.) Who was your best friend? P.
7.) How many tattoos did you have? 0
8.) How many piercings did you have? 4 (two holes in each ear)
9) What car did you drive? very occasionally my parents'
10.) Had you been to a real party? yes. Are there non-real parties?
11.) Had You had your heart broken? no.

———–5 years ago———–

1.) How old were you? 24

2.) Where did you work? still a student. no parttime job as far as I can remember.

3.) Where did you live? Leiden, again after just returning from 12 months in Osaka.

4.) Where did you hang out? SSR - student club; various bars/cafes around the city (Mr. Jansen, de Kroeg etc)

5.) Did you wear glasses? yes

6.) Who was your best friend? T. & M.
7.) How many tattoos did you have? 0
8.) What car did you drive? none

9.) Had You had your heart broken? no

10.) Taken/Single/Married/Divorced? very single

—————-2 years ago——————-

1.) How old were you? 27
2.) Where did you work? ESA
3.) Where did you live? Leiden, had just returned from six months in Tokyo
4.) Where did you hang out? around Leiden (the Burcht, van Engelen); spending more time in Amsterdam.
5.) Did you wear glasses? yes, always
6.) Who was your best friend? different people - T/M/H/J
7.) How many tattoos did you have?: 0
8.) How many piercings did you have? 5
9.) What car did you drive? none
10.) Had your heart broken? nope
11.) Were you Single/Taken/Married/Divorce? single

——————–Today——————–

1.) How old are you? 29

2.) Where do you work? at a government agency
3.) Where do you live? Leiden, still
4.) Do you wear glasses? yes, lenses don't work.
5.) Where do you hang out? spending a lot of time in Amsterdam, at good restaurants, at friends' houses etc.

6.) Do you talk to your old friends? most of them, yes. although some have disappeared.

7.) How many piercings do you have? 5
8.) How many tattoos?: 0

9.) Has your heart been broken? still not.

10.) Are you Single/Taken/Married/Divorce? surprisingly, taken.

Winterwonderland

Isn't it gorgeous?

Well, that was fast

In my current work I don't do anything with Japan. In the interviews I made clear that, despite my cv being so much about Japan, I really was okay with it; that I was looking for something else; that I really hoped to do some different things.

Despite all that, it's probably almost inevitable that it'll pop back in my career at some point. And that's fine - in five years or so I wouldn't be surprised if I would love to do something Japan-related again.

I was pretty much offered the Japan-job today. I was pretty sure it would happen at one point in this job (it's just silly to have a Japan-job, but not have it worked by the only Japanese speaker in your department) but not within three months!

I said I'd think about it, but that my initial reaction was not to take it as I'm so happy doing something quite different right now.

Weird huh.

Hooked?

In April of this year, I had never been to Antwerp, Belgium. Ever. Which is strange considering I've travelled across half of the world, and Antwerp is much closer than even my parents' house.

So, it was time to change that.

I guess I liked it so much that I went back last month.

Weirdly enough, I am going again on Sunday (for the essential Christmas shopping) ....
How does that happen? Not go to a close-by very fun city for 28 years, and then go three times within six months?

Kimonos

Shamelessly stolen from kimonomomo:

go dress your own kimono-doll!

Very fun. Oh, and if anyone still needs ideas of what to buy me for Christmas, you now know where to find the gorgeous stuff at the kimonomomo-site ;-)