Tag Archives: Coffee

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…

I’m Addicted

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I think I’m addicted… to games and coffee… You see, I have this new game and I have to play it each and every day for an hour or more. It’s relaxing in a way although I still need to use my brain and think hard *hehe*. It’s Sudoku, well actually it’s Sudoku Master and it’s for my Nintendo DS. I just had my New Super Mario Bros. phase but I gave up on it because I can’t get to the next level. I’m stuck each time at the first four worlds and keep jumping into an abyss, so for the moment I can’t be bothered to eat mushrooms, kick Koopa shells or climb into clouds and jump through hoops. I’d rather use some brain power and logical thinking, it’s challenging and relaxing. I’ve finished 80 easy ones and 10 of the normal ones… I must say, the normal ones are hectic and at times it takes me 25 minutes to solve one. So if you ever need a mental challenge and you own a Nintendo DS I would say: go for it! 😎

So I ended up playing games because I really needed to relax a bit over the last week: I have been busy contacting recruitment agencies, writing emails and adjusting my CV. I also designed and built a separate online portfolio in Flash that I could show when needed. And in between jobs, I’m trying to help out Farfallina from ‘A Roam to Rome’ with some problems she ran into. Today I was called by one of the agencies and I have an appointment with them next Wednesday. They sound like a nice bunch of people so I’m happy that I can go there for a chat and register with them. I hope things will be picking up soon now and I have to admit it’s not as easy as I thought it was but I’m getting there. I guess my patience is tested once again but it feels good so I trust the process to work out just fine.

I also received a really cool gift from Christiaan and it’s sitting on my desk right next to me within reach. It’s another amazing gadget: an awesome USB cup warmer slash USB hub. I don’t know what made him think of this but I remember when I was still working at the Rietveld academy we had rules and one of them was that the students weren’t allowed to bring any kind of food or drink in. This was to avoid having to clean up the mess after them and to protect the IT facilities that we were managing. It also meant that we had to set an example so often I would have to leave my coffee at my desk, help out a student and by the time I was finished my coffee would be cold.

I have the same problem here because I just tend to forget that it’s there when I’m busy. I guess Christiaan knows me too well… 😛


Finally I can have hot coffee all day! *yay*