Tag Archives: Office

Quality Time

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Life was bliss for three weeks. No rushing, no nagging, no disturbance, just peace and quiet and dealing with an extremely hot summer. It was the best three weeks off I’ve had in a while because I didn’t have to share my time with anyone else. It was just me and it felt awesome. I took the goldsmith course which was an amazing experience as well. Especially when the person teaching -a professional goldsmith- tells you that you have the skill set, patience, creativity and the exceptional natural ability to do this kind of work. I was flattered because she was not the kind of person to give compliments. I’m sure she must have noticed my passion for designing and making jewellery.

The friend who passed away about a month ago, used to be a goldsmith as well. Her ex-partner gave all her tools to me when he heard I was going to take this course. I didn’t use them yet as they were in a small flight case and I had to go through all her stuff first and clean it. It took me three days to sort it, clean it and give it some extra TLC. I had to sand down the inside of the flight case as there was glue stuck allover. After sanding it down I painted it white and cleaned all the aluminium edging and corners on the outside. It looks so much better now, it’s ready to be used. All I need to add over time, is a proper desk, gas torch and tank, hoses, saw, hammer and ring mandrel.

I’ve bought a Garmin vivosport activity tracking device a while ago and have been keeping an eye on stress levels since. They were extremely high, especially in May and June this year and although I didn’t feel stressed most of the time, it was telling me that I really had to slow down and try to reduce this. These past three weeks levels had dropped significantly which was a real eye-opener. I’ve started working again so I’m curious to see what will happen this month. The fact that temperatures were extremely high and I was forced to take things slow must have contributed to lower stress levels as well. I’ve been craving for some serious long spells of rain and thunderstorms for weeks now!

I’ve met up with friends for dinner and really enjoyed their company as I hadn’t been able to see most of them for at least six months, some for over a year. We had lots of stories to share! I’ve updated my jewellery business website and added more pictures in the portfolio section. And I’ve been playing with electroforming but that didn’t go well, I was expecting better results. I’ll have to look into things and see what is causing issues. I think I might have contaminated the bath as I was experimenting with fabric on gemstones. Because of the heat my conductive paint dried waaaaay too fast and I’m guessing it didn’t seal parts completely, also the liquid rubber I’ve used was a new technique.

I’ll try to fix it this weekend. Going back to work was kind of hard because it was 32C at the start of this week and 29C in my office space, too hot to focus on things that need to be done. Today I’m working from home and have some extra time to get chores done and write a blog in between. Still there’s too much on my plate, I can’t seem to focus because of the weather and not sleeping very well. Summer is great but these temperatures are driving me nuts. Last week the government announced an official drought and shortage of water, because of this trees and plants are dying, use of tap water is still fine and not restricted (yet). Thunderstorms and rain is expected tomorrow, we’ll see…

First things first, let’s get some work done ;)

Sambal and Coconuts

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‘Laugh at yourself, but don’t ever aim your doubt at yourself. Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don’t leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory.’

~Alan Alda (Oh, how I loved to watch M*A*S*H)

I’m such a Katjang* at times… I just had toast with goat’s cheese, no cow’s cheese for me since being half Asian comes with having no enzymes in my system to digest some of the sugar in cow’s milk. I can hear you think: what’s wrong with having toast and cheese?

Well… I added a thick layer of Sambal Badjak extra hot/spicy on top of it, the kind of Sambal that makes some of you run for the water tap *hehe* That’s what you get when you mix two races… *LOL* At least I can laugh at myself and my weird cultural habits.

Another one is having leftovers for breakfast, not just any leftovers but Nasi Goreng for instance. I remember some of my Dutch friends had this weird look on their faces whenever they caught me having my Indonesian or Chinese leftovers covered in sateh sauce for breakfast the next morning.

I can’t get my favourite Sambal Badjak here, actually it’s hard to find any Indonesian ingredients here especially the boemboes [pastes]. My friend K, who is a quarter Indo and lives in London as well has the same problem. There’s only one solution which is preparing it all from fresh ingredients. Read: lots of work!

Luckily when I went to the Lowlands in April to move my stuff to London I bought two of the biggest jars of Sambal Badjak that I could get 750g each. There’s a bigger size still but hey… there’s no need to exaggerate right?

:P

Last weekend I bought three coconut palms to add a nice touch to my office. I remember my dad kept one for years in the cellar, he brought it to the Lowlands when he moved from Indonesia. I remember I asked him about it when I was a little girl, I didn’t know what it was, he told me he wanted to plant it one day, he never did. So these brought back memories and I simply couldn’t resist… Remember to always follow your dreams and take steps to move closer. Even something as simple as planting a coconut…

Have a beautiful weekend!

*Katjang means peanut… In the Lowlands Indos are sometimes called Katjang which is considered name-calling to some but others [yes even Indos] consider it to be a nickname…

A spoon and a jar is all I need :P

My coconut palms sitting on top of my cool chest of drawers flightcase :)