A book post

• am waiting excitedly for the sequel of the exchange which resulted in this book a little over a year ago. My book is waiting to be sent out (not telling what it is yet, in case the recipient is reading) but apparently some books have already arrived at their destinations.... very excited!
• my boss gave me his copy of De Joodse Messias yesterday (literally translated as The Jewish Messiah). I've read some of the books by the author, Arnon Grunberg, but this is quite a controversial book. My boss is now describing Grunberg as 'sick and perverted'. Very curious ...
  
• amongst the stack of books waiting to be read are books on Ruanda, Kazakhstan, Europe and the world in general. I think it'll be non-fiction for a while....
  

Escape vs. ...

This past half year has been really hectic, as you know.

One thing that I'm still happy about though, is not taking (all of) the initial professional advice that I got. The happy pills are still in my house somewhere, in a box unopened, and in a way are a reminder that I don't need them, don't want them and can be fine without them.

But sometimes it would probably just be easier. Either that, or allowing myself to escape.

Or I should just go to bed and sleep.....

Londinium, continued

Pictures from the three days in London are finally up here! Enjoy, as usual lots of buildings, very few people.

Antony Gormley

One of the coolest things we did in London was seeing the Antony Gormley exhibition at the Hayward Gallery. At first I wasn't quite sure what the exhibition would be like but it shows some fascinating stuff.

This must be a sign

I've been thinking for a while now that I should pop over to my old place of work to say hi and see how everyone is.

I think the universe, or something, is telling me that I should too: a letter and fancy certificate from the colleague I shared my office with, bumping into an old colleague on the train home tonight, a missed call from yet another colleague, and meeting even another one in the city. This is getting scary.

Wild Spirit

I first heard of this exhibition via I am not a tourist and had been waiting for an opportunity to take a look at Steve Bloom's photos.

They are definitely stunning! Unfortunately I only had a few minutes to walk past on my way to a meeting but definitely worth having a look when you're in the area.

Pampering

Dutchcookie started talking about Princess Days (tongue firmly in cheek!) ages ago, which caused a bit of an uproar on-line...

Tomorrow will be a true Princess Day though. Finally!

- sleeping in
- hairdresser
- shopping
- talking about me
- soaking in the sun
- and I might just add in a facial or something else nice

All very girly, but I can't wait. Absolute bliss. These past three/four weeks have felt so chaotic, but at least now it's time to spend some of that hard-earned money. Yay!

And then followed by a weekend of few plans (so far, at least) - even better.

Uhm, right.

Best (or just, plain dumbest) quote during the past weekend:

Him: "I wasn't here [shiatsu massage seminar] yesterday as I was at a workshop on Tibetan Buddhism. But well, it's pretty much in the same league, isn't it?"
Me: "Huh?"
Him: "Well, Shinto is the Japanese version of Buddhism, right? So it's pretty much the same thing."

Right. Sure. Bye.

Rotterdam

The above pictures are the view from my hotel last night. They're not as good as I was hoping they would be, but still, a pretty good view if you ask me.

But anyway, Rotterdam. I've been going there more regularly lately but it's still a city I don't understand. I'm only ever there to see a movie, or a concert, or whatever but never really in the city. Everytime I go, I get a stronger feeling that the place has potential. It is starting to feel like the kind of city that has some really cool places to go out at, to eat at, etc. if you only would know how to find them. Which clearly I don't. Yet.

Passing across the Erasmus bridge yesterday though, and seeing the architecture and so on in that area, the city has definitely done a great job on putting on a new image. It's definitely on my list of places to get to know better!

Speaking of Rotterdam, for more and regular shots of the city, check out this photoblog.

On scapula, supraspinatus, latissimus dorsi and more

If I ever come on here asking for advice whether or not to take another interpreting job - tell me not to do it.

I was thinking of getting certified, but unless my Japanese dramatically improves (and I see no reason whatsoever why it should) I really don't want to do this anymore.

The money is nice, but it's just not worth the stress, the anguish, the insomnia, the insecurity and so on in the week preceding and on the days of the job itself.

On the plus side, I do meet interesting and different people but it's just not good enough.

Luckily, tomorrow they will be talking about how to reduce stress so I'll definitely be paying attention! For now, I'm heading to my tv to watch the second part of the video that they sprung on me this morning... Argh.