Happy New Year - Once More

Hey there people, friends and strangers,

2010 is here with heavy snow! So for about 2 weeks I had the impression everything's standing still. It took me about double the time - every day - to get to work, sometimes even not 30 min, but 90 min! Come on guys, move it!! Think - what would the Russians do?! ;)

Anyhow, this is how my street looks like - street's on the right, but this is the canal. Frozen and snowed on - brilliant! never seen anything like it! ;) could go ice-skating on it right now!

(joke - mom!!)

Hope your year stays magic!

Scariest Halloween ever

Scariest Halloween ever happened at Sugarfactory where me and Latina FishJewelry showed up fashionably late. We just grabbed some drinks and started to party when smoke came from the stage. There were about 4 desperate widows mourning, crying and shouting for their dead.. who knows?!

Then it happened - out of the coffin came this naked young Jesus-like man. All naked, all reborn, only with a sock around his thingy and an iPhone hanging to it. It is still until this day a mysterious way of God how he managed to tie the iPhone on his thingy. And he could shake it and phone some one. I wish I had his number and called him. I bet he got the freaks!

Anyhow, besides of the major act there were some others that are not worth mentioning, compared to the skills of little iPhone Jesus there. We just enjoyed. Then we landed on another place at a bachelor party where the to-be-groom was having the Amsterdam style tequila: salt sniffed like coke, tequila deep down and lemon squeezed in your eye. Ouch! And then we danced with the men all night. Whenever they were hitting on me, I'd show them some blood on my neck. By 4 am it got really bad.. spread around my neck, stuck to my hair, all gluey and sticky and just looking like it was supposed to - horror! what a night to remember!

P.S. Another episode to remember was that I've eaten zuurvlees at a friend's place - just meat (normally horse meat) cooked slowly in vinegar with a dash of apple syrup on top - delicious! Very south Netherlands habit, I'm so integrated right now!

I'm Human, Thus I Am.

Do you ever notice you're alive?!

I don't need to tell you that we're living in this world where:

- you need to work

- you've got to earn some money

- you have to pay the bills

- you will need to pay the bills on time, otherwise they're going to chase you for it (I should know it best, I worked for them!)

- you have responsibilities

- you need to deal with your responsibilities as a grown up

- buy this, consume that

- earn more to afford your life standard.

***And there comes the day! There comes one day when you're being so lazy, you're in denial with all of the above, you refuse to be a robot, to work from 9 to 6, to do your duties etc.

You're just drifting away powerless and relaxed.

That's how I spent my last weekend. I did absolutely nothing and enjoyed it!

I'm human afterall -

How Time Goes By

Tuesday

Get this, my friend, I'm about to see a high rated comedy! It should be sooo funny, I'll die. I have no clue what's the name of the film I've seen, I swear to God. It's like few weeks ago and I only know it was something called.. aaahh... how to get over or how to forget samantha.. haaloway?! or something.. anyhow, it's kind of funny, but don't ask me about details, should have been good enough for you to see it.

Wednesday

What kind of cruel world are we living in?! I need to wake up at 5 or 6 :(( I hate my life! I hate you all! so I actually put my act together, with a tight-ass suit and all, then I shake it to the Centraal Station and I'm on my train. I go out in Utrecht, I ask hey, there, lady! how do I get on that side, oh, follow me! after 2 minutes she says, actually, it's better if you go back! Make up your mind, lady, waky waky!! which way? so I'm at the car of my colleague and we're going to Namur. I'll give you at least one beer if you ever heard of this place in your entire life. It's a paesani dorp village at the trou du cul of Belgium! The office in there is also called the bunker. They all smoke in there and don't see sunlight. I suppose if you'd throw a grenade in there, they wouldn't feel the difference! But anyhow, I'm having my meetings there. I brought some Dutch stroopwafels and Dutch chocolate. Bastard sexy Belgium colleague of mine asks me - do they have chocolate in the Netherlands??!! silly me, it's like bringing a Dacia to a German. Or a pizza to an Italian. Or a bull to a Spanish. Or a joint to a Dutch guy. Or some sticks to a Chinese. So wrong, but he winked at me, must be good ;)

I drag myself back to the crib and enjoy dinner. Shortly. Then me and Sailorboy are out for something bigger than us. Knalpot. Electronic music with just drums and guitar. Brilliant! and i got to see Trouw, a very cool location, old newspaper factory, nowadays a club. Though they kind of didn't change much. At all. Dance event rocks on!! or dances on?? ;)

Friday

Well hello, I think I know you Limbo friend! take a seat, a wine, a visinata and some Turkish meal. We'll have a talk about everything, nothing and more. At the crib. Good one! didn't manage to get myself out of the chair to get to the Portugese party, damn! this means ta-tar, til next time!

Saturday

OMG, I've seen the mothers of stupid movies!! I won't tell you the name, maybe I can chat with some one about it, get treatment!!

Sunday

I get a good chat to the girlies - the Latin Jewelry Fish and the Bollywood Diva. We're next to Vondelpark where a kid rides his bike right into me. He had a hat on his eyes. Stupid parents!! Good I'm nice, I could have slapped him around!! I should have, naughty boy!! when I'll be old he could as much as ride his car over me!! damn punks!! oh well anyhow, we get into all the drama and spice of single and couple life, the passion, the tension, the love, the craziness, and then we chill. Gossip time done! time to get back to my Sailorboy and hit it. We're looking for this alarm which wakes you up with natural light?! how amazing is that? I can only think of the sun coming down and shining on me! we don't get it, so we're at this resto where the cutest coolest black cat comes to purr on me! I'm so happy!!

The Real Stamppot

Between some friendly visits of lady friends, one busy with Racoon and the other with putting headsets to her belly for the child to understand strategic thinking while listening to Beethoven, we went to eat the real thing.

The real Dutch food is like this: you bake meat in the oven for hours and hours or just put your juiciest sausage on top of mashed boerenkool.

Crystal clear, ain't it??!!

Until you've eaten that, you ain't Dutch.

And if you ain't Dutch, you ain't much!

So Sailorboy's mama, the Princess Cook, she just pulled it out on us and this gave like the best childhood-house-warmth feeling one could ever get!

It touched us so deep in the stomach, we needed to recover with guts! Monopoly's the game! Damn, I suck! I go out first! and the News Madonna wins the prize of the day! envy with sausage's my name!!

De 3 ori tradare

Zice Mada k n-a gasit bilet la Pixies, pai hai in Hollandia, k si aici canta, da pana la urma nu m-am mai interesat de bilete si cand am facut-o si asa era prea tarziu!! deci vine un prietin si-mi flendure prin fatza un belet k are el unu-n plus k ala alalat si-nca unu nu vor sa mearga la concert cu el si numa io i-am mai ramas din prieteni care ar vrea.. astea da prioritatzi!! da na, DA!! - Tradare! sorry Mada :((

Si la concert merg io cu 4 barbatzi intre 2 varste si in multzimea inaltzimea olandeza nu vad nimic!! ba sa ma ridice careva k n-am dat bani degeaba!! si cand ma ridica, il vad!! hooaaa baga-ne-am picioarele-n ele de fantezii cu muzicantzi, daca toate se duc in directia aia!! mai precis probabil k e kel, k altfel nu-mi explic caciula sau alb sau amandoua!! si cu burta burtoaia burdiha' poate in mod sigur sa omoare pe cineva!! OMG! - tradare!!

Nu mai vreau, nu mai vreau, bine, hai s-o vad si pe mamaie de mai baga.. frate da toti sunti ofilizti asa, Pixies astia n-au vazut si ei sala?! numa-n crashma stau si beau si unii mananca la fel de mult cat beau... in fine, da ce-i cu cantecele astea de 1min maxim 2?? asa au cantat ei tot timpu sau doar la batranetze?? cred k si-au cantat toate albumele, oricum intr-un sfert de ora cantau sigur vreo 2!! si s-au carat rapid.. na la varsta lor! si n-au cantat where is my mind!! - Booo!! Tradareeeeeee!!!

One Classy Evening

Sailorboy gets to celebrate his b-day again! What a lucky ass!! And they call me that!!
So he got a good-treat present and

we’re about to go to Kurhaus. Well then I can combine business with pleasure. I’ll be meeting the IT Goran for some tips on outsourcing. We land in this Mexican fiesta joint where we have a long list of options for very Mexican, very Columbian, certain amount South America, to very Dutch.. a mix of culture on a plate. That was also our conversation – fantastic mix of company talks to theories, facebook and cultural differences. Awesomes!

Then Sailorboy shows up and we’re romantically walking around with the terrible wind in our hair and sunset scenery as background. We walk by the kitchiest stores I’ve seen in the Netherlands in one place and we decide not to do bungee jumping.

Got to the venue. This looks like they’d want to shoot a film there.

I feel like I need to whisper, like at the opera. Man, I get uncomfortable in fancy places. When I think my every move should be perfect, I discover they messed up with the cutlery, so I need to use the second course knife..

disastrous! Excuse my French! The dinner is fancy and we’re acting like paesani when I take out the camera for a virtual tour. I forgot what we were talking about, I felt like I should say something important, but I know I didn’t. Instead I was enjoying looking at the old German ladies next to us, looking like they lived a good life and they’re laughing at us for being young, smiling like an alibi “I kwon what you’re doing”..

Yes, straight the pose!

Battle In Seatle

I’m reading this book now – Misère de la prospérité of Pascal Bruckner. It talks about a lot of views on how we get to the richness we have today. Amongst which – that the extremes are getting worst. This means – few people are getting rich on the expense of hundreds of people getting poor. No surprise! But what I actually needed to find out was – what was the Battle of Seatle.

I got to read more on the wiki source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Organization_Ministerial_Conference_of_1999_protest_activity
It was a protest against the WTO conference in ’99 when multinationals wanted to take over a lot of national rights and other discussions could (and would) have taken place, unless 40,000 people prevented this to happen.
I saw a Hollywood-like type of film about it. But if that’s not there, people forget what happened.

Maybe this helps: http://www.realbattleinseattle.org/

Autumn Film Time

Monday
Dragging myself to The Hague is reminding me a lot about the times I used to live there dragging myself to Amsterdam. But when I think it’s so much more enjoyable and don’t need to work on any more of those school projects, it’s such a relief!! Dining with the uni mates and drinking beer, catching up and making jokes on our projects. Awesomes!

Tuesday
No tv, I’m living in such a pure and clean environment. No tv, no smoke, no commercials and no asthma. Let us also be free in our minds – we saw “Milk”, check it out.

Wednesday
Kept up the good watching-films schedule with the classic “One Flew Over the Cuckoos’ Nest”, brilliant!!

Friday
Damn, I needed to destroy the good series – with a stupid “Break up” film – put it on your forbidden list!

Saturday
I continue my “Gadjo Dilo” without translations, just for the sake of a good one!

Sunday
The week is only complete after seeing a series of 10 short Dutch films. The humour, the freshness, the sensation, the unthinkable, the complicated and again, the fun of it got me in the right mood for a wonderful Sunday night with da sailorboy.

Better Than Romanian Skimmers

There's a new trick to get money away from you. Check this out:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/09/rogue-bank-statements

and beware!!