Category Archives: Friends

Dear Pheromones… (Leave Me Alone!)

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I took the train to Amsterdam yesterday to meet up with my friend IvS from Scotland who was in the Lowlands for a short vacation. It was fun! She rented bikes so we could cycle all across town, which was great. It was nice to be in Amsterdam again but I can tell that the city has no longer this vibe to me as it used to have. It wasn’t as busy as it normally is, probably because half the Lowlands is currently abroad but I don’t really feel the need to live there anymore… which feels odd in a way.

I bought three gorgeous dresses -wearing one this very moment while writing this post- two from Waterlooplein, both silk and Asian *of course* and the other I got from a shop called Streetclothes at the Albert Cuyp market. It’s a dress by DEPT and yes it was way over budget but amazingly beautiful and just my kind of style, something that will last for the next 8 years and still remain a pleasure to the eye, timeless… I was actually looking for new Doc Martens to replace the old ones.

But I was utterly disappointed in the quality of the brand, the leather is half the thickness of what it used to be, the soles were replaced with a less solid kind of rubber. Rubber that could easily tear or cut. I read somewhere that the actual factory in England took their business abroad and these shoes are now manufactured in India or Thailand. It shows… Coz the quality that I was used to (I’ve had these boots for 10 years!) has disappeared just like that. I fear they will lose lots of customers because of this!

So… since I decided not to spend the 149 Euros *YES! it was fine when the quality was right* on something that had lost its quality over time, I thought it was okay to spend half of it on the gorgeous dress… Anyway, on our way back from the market I ran into an ex of mine, I hadn’t seen him in a long time. Only once over the last ten years and I avoided him that day because he was with a woman and had a child with him. I didn’t want to disturb them so l just pretended not to have seen them and kept walking.

We had a fun chat, he told me he’d been married, divorced again and he has an eight year old son. It means he got married two years after I broke up with him and had his son the year after. Wow… hearing this from someone who didn’t want the commitment at the time is odd. He asked me lots of question and ‘joked’ that he wouldn’t mind hooking up with me again. I think meeting up one day to have a coffee with him and a nice chat is fine with me, so I gave him my business card which he asked for.

It was great to see him but that’s it *wink*. I don’t know what is going on at the moment but there’s been others as well. I’m being stalked by some idiot on FB, I keep ignoring his emails and friend request, what a moron. There’s another who tried a few weeks ago but I ignored him as well. Perhaps it’s because I’m enjoying myself lots lately, I feel more confident and better about myself, I get positive attention and feedback and I feel better about life in general. I guess it rubs off on others.

Men particularly…

Origami Wishes

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Today I’m working on my New Year’s ‘cards‘ that I will send to some close friends. I don’t do xMas cards anymore, call me a rebel but I try to make a difference and not follow the crowd blindly so I craft my own ‘cards‘ and try to turn it into something special each year instead of the regular stuff that is out there in the supermarkets. I want those that are special to me to receive something special, it’s about making the effort…

I’ll use my favourite paper that I bought in London at the Chinese wholesaler where I used to get my Asian groceries. I bought loads of the coloured kind and only a few sheets of the paper I’m now using for the ‘cards‘. The girl at the till asked me why I bought that much paper so I said to her that I’m a graphic designer and I just love the quality of it. She just responded with a quiet ‘oh…’ but I realised what she was thinking.

You see, this paper has a totally different meaning to the Chinese than it has to me, to me it’s ‘just’ another piece of beautiful paper that I can use to design something special. Paper made of rice or bamboo fibers with a beautiful coarse texture of ‘laidlines’. To the Chinese it’s ‘ghost money’ and used as an offering to worship the ancestors and to ensure that the spirit of the deceased has all the good things in the afterlife.

I don’t see why I couldn’t use it for another purpose: I think I’m only complementing this beautiful paper. I’ve chosen to hide my New Year’s wishes inside a cute Origami design and since it’s all handmade I’m only gonna send a few to a select company of people. Only those who will appreciate the effort, so instead of the ‘usual’ twenty five xMas New Year’s cards, I’ll reduce that to ten this year. Why only ten people?

Because I’m limiting some friendships… It’s time to shift the focus from others to myself and some of these so-called friendships simply seem too unbalanced so I’d rather nurture the more rewarding ones. I’d like to thank those who sent me a (digital) xMas message, some came as a total surprise to me *happy smile* Mine is -as you can read- still in the making and soon on it’s way around the world *wink*.

‘This above all: to thine own self be true.’

~Shakespeare

©Zesty Gal Beautiful paper… waiting to be cut and folded

©Zesty Gal Beautiful paper… waiting to be cut and folded