Nature | A Zestful Quest

Noticeable Oddities of the Day:

I find certain things in this country utterly amusing at times… Today the first day of proper snow and everything just stops working. Most Tube lines have been suspended early this morning and the London transport website mentions: ‘As a result of heavy snowfall overnight, transport services in London are severely disrupted this morning. The advice to passengers is to check before you travel, expect disruption. Further heavy snowfall is forecast throughout today and disruption is likely to continue throughout Monday.’

People just have a day off because of this. I can’t remember I ever had a day off from work in Amsterdam because of a bit of snow. You just have to find a way to get there no matter what it takes, the boss is expecting you. I think the amount of snow that fell overnight is nothing compared to the kind of heavy snowfall on the continent or even further up north in England or Scotland. It’s kinda funny to see that whenever there’s ~~a few~~ one days of ‘heavy’ snowfall the capital seems to stop functioning and everything turns to chaos.

I guess I’m ‘too Dutch’ to understand the wuss attitude, I used to cycle to work, whether there was a gale force 10 out there, 15cm of snow, a temperature of -20 Cº or pissing down rain.

07.10 this morning

07.45 this morning

08.00 this morning

13.00 No micro but it came out well: a snowflake

13.00 No micro but it came out well: another snowflake

If you wonder where I’ve been… Well besides being busy I had to come to terms with a few issues so I needed time to reflect. Things have been slightly rough again lately or perhaps they still were: I might have been a bit in denial for some time and were forced to face it over the last few weeks. I had some kinda wake-up call and I’m not so sure yet if I should be happy about the situation or not. Actually there are a few, not just one…

Some things can make me feel extremely helpless and leave me frustrated or upset. I see someone close and dear struggling and I see someone else being completely absorbed by a relationship resulting in losing identity. In the first situation it happens long-distance so I can’t do anything about it except being there when I’m needed and I seem to fail doing so because of my own needs, making it hard to juggle. This one is passionate and slightly complicated…

In the second situation I just found out that the person might not be aware or is just blissfully in denial. I can see change in character because of the influence of a partner. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been in a similar situation so I guess that’s exactly why my radar picked it up. Again I can’t say or do anything about it but sit this one out and when it does I better have the Kleenex and a spare room ready. I just need to figure out a way to deal with it in the meantime…

Now picture my chauldron filled to the rim with the above ingredients including an equal measure of my own concerns which aren’t exactly rosy at the moment either. Let it stew for a while… And after making a real meal out of it, the result is something that then needs to be consumed while it doesn’t really look tasty at all: a bit burnt even. Then after consuming there’s cleaning to be done so you might understand what all of this is heading for in the long run.

I’m in serious need of a time-out, so I’m taking one and only focus on the job section for now until that is all sorted. Yes it is kinda tough to me because I find it difficult to put myself first and it feels like I’m running away from others but I figured out that if I don’t put myself first I can’t be there for anyone else. So it will always be a Catch-22 if I don’t decide to do what is best for me. I’m a fast learner but a slow achiever neither is good/bad, just extremely inconvenient at times.

Last week’s other activities involved chasing up someone in the US about an order that I placed a month ago, voting for the first time in London and discovering a most beautiful art deco library [polling station] five minutes from where I live, finishing complex time-consuming flash animations, getting frustrated about recruitment agencies and their inconsistent terms of folio sizes and CV formats, I have twelve different versions of both: the number is still increasing…

So yesterday was May Day in the UK, my parents’ Wedding Day, Liberation Day in the Lowlands and a day for me to relax and clear my head. It was sunny and perfect to go for a stroll in the woods. Today will be another day of annoying recruitment registrations… At least my parcel from the US finally arrived this morning. A creative gift: something I wanted for years, to brighten my day and hopefully someone else’s when I will use it… and I’m eager to!