Hmm... travel

I should really start making more serious plans for travel this year: I have it in my head to go to China. After looking through these pictures I want to go even more.

Right, let's try to figure out how to make it happen for real.

Random encounters

Ever had those conversations where you realize mid-way that the person you are talking to is very different from what you had assumed at first? (well, who hasn't?)

Tonight's scenario: randomly talking [(in this case) = discussing jobhunting problems] to someone at a bar, then realize that this person is the founder/owner of a recruitment agency where you have had several applications rejected. Gah. And he was kinda cute - well, funny and interesting at least. Maybe I should have handled the night differently? (seeing as I am home now...)

Oh well, time for bed!
(Really, what am I doing posting at this hour?)

Food tagged!

Well, I could've seen this one coming, Y has tagged me to list five food things, challenges. Right.

1) Learn to bake cakes and dessert-like stuff. Although that also means that I need to have more people over for dinner and so on because I won't be able to eat it all myself.

2) Grow my own herbs. I have a little patio thing with my apartment but it doesn't get any direct sunlight so I'm not sure if I can do it there. Friends of mine always use fresh herbs and it's so nice. Even if it's not for the taste, the idea of growing stuff yourself (but being in the city) sort of sounds good :)

3) Use my not-so-standard kitchen stuff more often: steam basket, grill pan, etc. I should be able to make loads of yummy food with it, I just need to make an effort to find some good recipes for it.

4) Take better care of randomly printed and cut-out recipes.

5) Use more seasonal foods. That probably means that I need to get my dad to teach me how to cook some of the less common vegetables. It's somewhat unclear to me how I can be the daughter of a chef, but not know some basic kitchen stuff.

Hmm, who to tag next? Who else but Cookie? This is definitely her kind of tag. Plus: Bonny, Kanakana (once she's back from the US of course) and Pompelmoes. Yoroshiku ne ;)

[Update @ 25/2]
I actually thought of another challenge that I should have included:
6) Cook more Japanese!
I made the best gyoza and okonomiyaki a few weeks ago, so will have to do that more often. But tonight I think I might dive into my Wagamama cookbook (okay, not completely authentic Japanese) for a good ramen-recipe. Yummm.

I'd rather live in: Amsterdam (part 1)

Hmm, I think I'm better off just moving to Amsterdam altogether (if only I could!). Haven't been there for a while but currently in the next week I have the following:

- dinner with J., who I haven't seen since Barcelona. But dinner might possibly change into going to the theater for the play Madame de Sade which is opening this weekend.

- a night out with Cheruchan to the jazz venue Bimhuis. Neither of us knows anything about jazz, but that's exactly why we want to check it out.

- Japanese literature and modern theater discussed at the city theater. This should be especially interesting if we do end up going to the play tomorrow night.

- and a full day for wandering around the city on Wednesday! Suggestions please :)
I have a university appointment in the middle of the day but am thinking of the Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibition and coffee with fellow-bloggers at the very least.

And yeah, I'll stop my complaints about having no money. It's not very credible when I go on like this, huh... Which actually means I should go and see the Reduced Shakespeare Company next week too, I think ;)

Natsukashii~

Feeling homesick - or nostalgic or however you want to call it - for Japan doesn't happen a lot but if it does, it gets triggered by small things.

Music, or a random comment on tv, or something like a pre-publication from the latest Haruki Murakami book. Which is what I was reading last night in a favourite magazine: Vrij Nederland. [The fact that the magazine has a pre-publication of a new book every week is part of why I like it]

The narrator was describing a place like Shibuya or Shinjuku with all its chaos and noise - karaoke signs, game arcades, Japanese kids on the streets etc etc. Ah, I'd LOVE to be back there again. Wandering the backstreets in Tokyo - better yet, Osaka - watching people, going out for great food on the 50th floor of some building in Shinjuku, etc etc.

Murakami is one of my favourite authors, with his book Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the end of the world on top of the list.

His latest book, After Dark, has been out in Japan for a while and the translation will be published next month (and the pre-publication was of this edition). I have a thing about wanting to read books in their original language, if at all possible. Theoretically speaking, it should be possible and I'm so tempted to get the book off Amazon even if I shouldn't be spending money (which I am as it is, so that's really not an argument). But, I still have half a shelf of J-books waiting to be read... :s
Not to mention the fact that I'm trying to stay away from my Japanese books because I'm struggling with French. Why did I ever think languages were fun?

[Can a Japanese reader at least let me know whether the book has been published in pocket-edition yet? Amazon only shows the hardback version. Ta!]


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Unrelatedly, I have to laugh at some of my engineering colleagues. My work is very very simple, but I just had someone on the phone asking how to use the fax machine... You wonder how they get around to doing their own work at times.

Well, I guess I knew it was too good to be true...

Anyone know of interesting job vacancies where I will at least get a bit further in the selection procedure...?

:-(

Ack!

Don't you hate those days when the office-network is (partly) down, and denying you access to the most important sites that you use for keeping off utter boredom?
Luckily, as you can see, I can still chat away on here.

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But what am I complaining about, the weekend is almost here! Yay!

Last night we went to the Leids Cabaret Festival, the semi-finals. After my ranting on here about our supposed failure to get tickets the theater ended up sending us too many tickets so it even got stressful trying to find a last person to use them all up!

It was fun though. Five contestants for three places in the finals on Saturday. Two guys were really good (or so I thought) although surprisingly one of them didn't get one of the three final places. The jury didn't think he was original enough. Well, the audience was laughing more with him then with some of the others but apparently that isn't quite enough. Two of the other final contestants were well deserved though.

But back to the weekend.
It'll be quiet as I'm spending it in Groningen. Relax a bit, get out of the city, catch up with the parents, etc etc. My mum and I are planning to go to the Buitenplaats museum, which we've wanted to do for, oh, about 2 years now. Supposedly the best part of it is the (sculpture) garden though and I now noticed that that is still closed. Hmm, looks like we'll need to find another way to entertain ourselves. Which reminds me, I need new shoes. :)

On Sunday, I want to go and see We Are Scientists. Apparently this is some new hip and happening band and as I haven't seen a live gig for aaaages this sounds like fun. Unfortunately neither the date or the location (Utrecht) is very convenient, so we'll have to see about that too.

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Hmm, I just got sent an email telling me that I'm apparently back-up for yet another colleague. This is starting to become slightly ridiculous.

Bring it on

Starting tomorrow, I'm temporarily taking over a project from a colleague who's going skiing for 1,5 weeks.

From Monday onwards, I'm temporarily taking over a project from a second colleague who's going skiing for 1,5 weeks.

Plus my boss is taking off 1,5 days next week and I've become her standard back-up. (her boss considers me indispensable after I helped him by c/p-ing an attachment from one email to the other email a few days ago. Ha!)

Finally. I can't wait. It looks like I might actually be doing a bit more than usual.

Of course, I still expect to be able to pop onto the internet every once in a while. [And this is not meant as an indication of how wonderful I am - which I am, of course - but rather of how absolutely mindnumbingly little work I usually have to do]

Exercices de style

In my attempt to become at least slightly conversational in French I spent the evening properly preparing for my next French tutorial on Monday. Sometimes I really wonder why I put myself through this... I also don't understand why I find it so hard after mastering a language like Japanese! If only I could speak this too...

In any case, tonight was a struggle. After cancelling last week's tutorial I had promised to send in my assignment not-at-the-last-minute (i.e. tonight, at the latest) to my tutor which meant I needed to finish it now. What we're doing is pretty tough though, if I may say so myself: we're (or at least, I am) re-writing our (my) own versions of Exercises de style. In a way it's a fun exercise, but much more demanding than just filling out grammar exercises in a book!

The original book by Raymond Queneau is a pretty fascinating linguistic experiment. One story, of two paragraphs, is re-written in 99 variations. It really is very interesting to see how he juggles the language to make it a fascinating read every time. I'm using the Dutch translation alongside it, but this would have been a major challenge for any translator!

So, I'm trying to do the same to my little story. Pffff... As I said, it's a struggle. But hey, it's me who wants to learn French so I really shouldn't be complaining, right?

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Unrelatedly, I've also been looking for good new films. There seem to be quite a few out at the moment. Any recommendations? Will try to see at least one of the following I hope:
Munich
Me and you and everyone we know
Paradise Now
Walk the line
They all seem good though.

[update - 27/2]

See, I really don't go to the cinema all that often. Two weeks after posting that I had oh so many movies that I wanted to see, I finally saw the first of those listed (Munich) last night. Good, I think. Although it wasn't as great as I was expecting. Still a fun night out though, as I also got to catch up with a close friend.

Ah well, still a long list of movies to go ...

Irrationality

I've been driving myself crazy this week. I'm completely knackered, while I haven't physically done anything at all (I mean, who can call 1,5 hours of Japanese calligraphy a physical activity?)

I am so happy that at least the working part of it is over, but unfortunately it still leaves one scary thing: the dental surgeon.

It's totally irrational. I don't really understand why I'm so scared about it, but well, I am. I have no terrifying memories of my visits to the hospital to have teeth pulled out when I was much younger (11-ish, I think) so why is this bothering me so much??

Okay - breath in, breath out.
I'll be fine. Just tell me to get a grip...