Taking my time

Lately I've been thinking about taking life slower. I feel like the last years of my life have been wonderful and very full but I also have a constant feeling that I'm running after time and that I'm really tired.

I came slowly to the realization that I wanted to do things differently. First by the hairs raising on my neck when I am told to speed up (Vite, vite!), or when I find myself struggling to keep up with some of my friends cycling… I wonder what the rush is. But I sometimes rush in my own way too.

For a long time I thought I was quite late at doing things. Now I realize it's better to do things in one's own time. The beautiful expression 'to take one's time' says EXACTLY what it should, it is my time! I don’t need to go at anyone else's rhythm than my own.

So I took a conscious decision to avoid rushing permanently. This actually is the same as living in the moment, which I find pretty hard to do sometimes since I feel like I am constantly about to rush off somewhere else or making plans.

I have listed off the top of my head the things that I feel help me or will help me to live more slowly and I want to try and follow these guidelines in the next months and years, this post being a reminder.

• taking the time to cook more, trying recipes, shopping at the organic market, trying to chose fresh products grown locally


• continue to practice yoga regularly, meditate and breathe


• slow love, get to know people and not rush into relationships


• slow travelling, staying in one place for a longer period, couchsurfing, getting to know that place better [my ultimate plan is to spend 1 year (or more!) without taking the plane, but more about this later…]


• writing letters and postcards instead of emails (I have a stack of free cards ready to be filled with stories of daily adventures and sent off into the world), taking those few extra minutes to buy stamps, to walk to the post box


• plan less, not try to fill every free moment

I don't think the transformation will happen overnight, but I'm curious to see what amazing things will flourish from this decision.

I'm gonna die with a twinkle in my eye

Monday night I went to see The Cat Empire, one of my favourite bands, Aussie of course (because 'in Australia everything is better'!). As they started they told us it was their 700th concert! and they really rocked the Melkweg like I've rarely seen. They had the crowd shouting and jumping and there was an amazing atmosphere.

They played one of the songs which I adore: The wine song. Everytime I hear these words I get shivers down my spine and it puts a smile on my face, its a wonderful vision of life.

I'm going to die with a twinkle in my eye
'cause I sung songs spun stories
loved laughed and drank wine

Magic skies in Barcelona

Danish humour

With my Danish friend visiting for the weekend we talked of streetart and she told me of a famous Danish artist along those lines HuskMitNavn (literally Forget my name). His website has a lot of cool stuff on it, though you have to look for it...

This is what I liked the most. It completely cracked me up! Just imagine!!!

100 Mile Diet

Surfing the net in the calm at work due to the economic crisis, I came across this blog which I found really interesting. The idea is to eat ONLY things produced within a 100 mile radius from where you live. That means only fresh products that you can trace the origin of, no pasta if you live in a region where they do not produce wheat etc.

From what the writers of the blog explain it takes a lot of creativity and research, but it also increases human contacts and is a good investment into the local community... I find it a great idea / challenge and even if I wouldn't push it to this extreme it inspires me at least to buy more locally (at the organic market at Noordermarkt for instance).

It triggers a thought about the Netherlands... Just the distance is not a sufficient criteria here, as it is not really recommendable to buy out of season food produced in greenhouses which consume huge amounts of energy.

Storypeople rocks my world

Everyday in my email I receive a story from Storypeople... I find the way this guy thinks truly amazing. He manages to express really complex feelings in everyday words and relate them to random things often revealing the absurdity of the way we think and behave.

His words have been an inspiration for me to think outside the box since I discovered it. The colours and the child-like pictures suit the messages perfectly.

Dutch modern art

As I was cycling to work this morning on my usual route, I came across this in Valeriusplein:

I like this customised version of the statue and the orange traffic cone like a cherry on the cake! It put a smile on my face and I stopped to photograph it. It was a reminder that even on an everyday path surprising things are to be found...

Drink to moving on

Whilst writing about Amsterdam in the previous, I was listening to this song I like very much and the words came through to me really clearly all of a sudden. The words and the music seemed perfectly suited to the theme of settling down and moving on, which is eternally in some corner of average expat's or third-culture person's mind...

Ode to Amsterdam

Yesterday was the 3rd anniversary of my arrival in Amsterdam! One of the questions people seem to ask the most in this city is: when did you arrive? as people come and go a lot, it's still the port it originally was with people generally settling for a short period of time before moving on.

I can't believe it has been 3 years already, at the same time I felt at home immediately in this city.

I thought it would be a good occasion to write down all the wonderful people, things and places that make me love this city like no other.

• biking around town, everything is so close and easy to reach, there is no need to plan with public transport - i guess its the freedom i love of coming home however late I want, being able to go on a sunny day to discover the surroundings of the city, riding off when I need a break from everything
• the Melkweg and Paradiso concert halls at walking distance from my house and all the awesome bands, known and unknown I've seen in the past 3 years and crazy dancing nights
• my house, and especially my housemates who are truly amazing people, with who I had the most fun moments discussing life, dwarves and other insignificant subjects, the huge pasta dinners, the unexpected drinks and dancing, the parties that made it look like tge floor would fall through
• the wonderful friends I made in the most conventional and unconventional ways and with who I lived and keep living the city
• Sauna Fenomeen - my restful retreat for hours of zen, warmth and chilling out far from the rain and grey
• the Vondelpark and our millions of picnics and barbecues and general relaxing at the first ray of sunlight
• the beauty of the canals, that look beautiful under different lights of the sky
• speaking Dutch and keeping learning this language with its amazing expressions and original books (no book has moved me in the last years as much as 'Komt een vrouw bij de dokter' by Kluun)
• the amazing cultural life that Amsterdam offers - alternative cinemas, sneak preview, film festivals, concerts, squats, bars and restaurants - all of these really accessible to anyone and well organised. The OCCII that I only went to for the first time this week (twice ;-P) is the perfect example that this city still has so much amazing stuff in store for me :-)

All of this (and also much much more) is the reason why I haven't moved yet, why after 6 years of moving too much I have settled down for now. This is a city that helps you live in the moment.

Revealing mystic truths

This caught my eye on my way out of the Kroller-Muller modern art museum in the Hoge Veluwe. I guess I liked the cryptic message and the way it was presented in a neon way (somehow making fun of the neon messages bombarded at us all the time).

Looked it up when I had a moment and found out the artist is Bruce Nauman, he made this in 1967 and here you can read some more. I find these explanations give it even more meaning.