Category Archives: Silliness

Let The Jotting Begin!

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I’ve spent some days with my niece last week… It was fun! She was born just when I had left for London so I’d never seen her. They say she takes after me in looks and character: self-willed and stubborn… *hehe* She has all the typical Indonesian features and even my curly hair… Having the opportunity to spend some time with her and her little brother of eight months was a welcome break from all the hard work!

Im still busy with the eCommerce website for the African artefacts company. I’ve decided to start allover again with regard to the product images, they were in a bad condition: wrong sizes, all different sizes, wrong format, wrong quality etc. I’ve been cropping, retouching, colour managing and resizing the originals. About half of them and I’m still not done… but at least it looks a lot better than it was: a lot!

I’ve received a letter about the job in China, there might be a complication with regard to getting a work permit but I’m invited to send a CV in English and a few samples of my work. I need to contact the intermediary because he told me this semester was booked already so it would be for the next starting in January. I so hope this isn’t going to fail because of one small unexpected trivial issue *sigh*.

Tomorrow I’m invited for coffee at my neighbour’s and I’m looking forward to this. It’s always nice to meet new people! In the meantime I’ve been doing research after I had an extremely motivational chat with my sis-in-law last week. She said to follow my heart and dreams and just ‘do it’: what is keeping me? Nothing should be keeping me, so out with the Moleskine to jot down notes and make some sketches!

‘Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.’

~Henry Ford

I rest my case… *hehe* (my niece on the left, me on the right)

Busy little thing already… and yes it’s the same table: odd huh? ;)

Look at them curls! And humour too! ;)

China

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At times people ask me why I moved to London… It’s because I never really felt at home in the Lowlands and I wanted to explore and experience living in a different country with a different culture and society. When I was sixteen I dreamt about living in France and working there as an au pair. I never had to work as an au pair because I had friends in Paris which was almost a ‘second home’ to me and I could visit whenever I wanted to.

Later in life I traveled all over Europe so that nagging feeling was suppressed for a while but still there. At some point I realised that this feeling had nothing to do with countries or cultures. I came to the conclusion that it had something to do with my own identity and coming from two totally different backgrounds: Dutch and Indonesian. No matter where I am I won’t be able to shake that feeling of being split in two and not belonging anywhere.

It’s a feeling I can’t explain but I’m sure that those who are from two different cultures know exactly what I’m talking about. I was told once by a psychic that the only place I will instantly feel at home will be Java since I’m protected by a local shaman: my great great great grandfather. I’m more tempted to visit my dad’s home at Borneo to be honest it’s most of all less touristic and far more interesting to me because of my family history.

Anyway…

The nagging feeling is there again in the back of my head ever since I moved so I found the perfect opportunity to ‘test’ and see if I feel more at home in the far East. China that is… I’ve applied for a job at a Chinese university. It’s a teaching job in design and I fit the profile to a ‘T’ so I didn’t have to think twice and sent my CV. Visa and ticket will be arranged so if it’s up to me I’m ready for another challenge! Keep your fingers crossed for me…