The rearrangement of words

Sometimes, people say things or write things, and in normal circumstances, they sound offensive or hurtful.

But in a different context, they have the most beautiful intentions.

A note of encouragement from someone at home that I care about a lot, and obviously, cares a lot for me too:

"Enjoy your successes and stay away from us - It's doing you good."

So many dimensions to acknowledge

"We're always being stereotyped. Let's play more interesting roles."

The Beat Juice Street Press

Cos that would just make you an asshole

"...Don't make her fall,

if you don't plan to catch her."

- The Quote Whore

Ummmm.... dude, where's my bike?

Riding around town all smug on your bike doesn't do you any favours.

It just means you feel the shock more when your bike gets stolen .

Like mine did, tonight.

Wow.

So, this is what it feels like.

Where there's smoke, there's fire... And I smell smoke...

The Nordics are rocking my (culinary) socks

When I was in Denmark and Finland last year, I sampled some typically Nordic food.



Reindeer. Red currants. Wild strawberries. Rye Bread concoctions. You know, that type of thing.



Well, they are really making the culinary world stand up and take notice at the moment.



Earlier this year, A Danish restaurant upped the ante and went up 2 places to win the top spot in the San Pellegrino "World's Best 50 restaurants" .



I found this article in October 25th edition of TIME Magazine, about some stuff and stuff that is happening in Finland at the moment, in terms of food, and it sounds awesome.



I want to spend my life reporting on this stuff.

The Teflon Pan theory

I have a theory. Hear me out.

How does the significant man/the man you hope to be significant in your life treat teflon pans?

Why do I ask?

Because cooking is about nurturing. Nurturing your soul, body, and mind. And to create a dish spectacular enough to satisfy the needs of all these sensitive things requires a level of gentleness and responsibility in preparation.

The teflon pan is a necessity to cook these days. It's pretty delicate. Tough and sturdy, but requires a visible demonstration of tender, loving care.

You take a fork to the surface of one of those babies, and in my book, you are pretty much saying; "I couldn't give a shit about your pan, this meal, or anything that happens between now and eating what I'm cooking. I just want what I want, and what I want is to eat."

OR, alternatively,

"I have no idea what I am doing, and even less of an idea that I am scratching the fuck out of something so valuable, thereby ruining it for future use, altogether. I am a moron. "

So.....

2 in a row

In August I went to a little place called Proef Restaurant in Amsterdam for quite a unique dining experience. I wrote about it here.

I turned the fun time into an article, which just got published today. You can read it here.

Happy days.

A Good One

My boss asked me to look into inspirational quotes to put in meeting rooms around the new building.

There was a shortlist - I looked at it and instantly felt dread at the idea of some of these quotes.

It was a really good task to look into it, and today the list came back - with revisions.

The new shortlist has over half of my quotes and Inspirational figures listed as the new meeting rooms names.

Yep, that was a pretty cool moment for me.

Listening to your Inner Peanut

Laura: I think your inner peanut is good. You should listen to it more. Sometimes your outter peanut goes a bit crazy, but your inner peanut knows what's happening.

(In reference to listening to my intuition, which coincidentally, her boyfriend and her have named "my inner peanut." Funny because back in the day a 'Pinda' (Peanut) is what dutch people used to call Indonesian people, but in a not so polite or affectionate way.)

Coordinates don't really matter, just need a torch...

"I'm not lost, I'm undiscovered..."


- My friend Cally.

Even if they turn the lights out, the show is going on...

" Never ever put 'em down,


You just lift your arms higher,


Raise them til your arms tired


Let em know you're there


That you're struggling, survivin'


That you gon persevere


Ain't nobody leavin'


Nobody goin' home


Even if they turn the lights out,


The show is goin' on..."






I fell off my bike. In the middle of Dam Square. On a Saturday night/Sunday morning.


It was raining. I was leaving a bar. It was 3.30am. You make the connections.

Vulnerable was my middle name at that moment in time.

But, you got to pick yourself up, and dust yourself off, and keep cycling.

Because these things happen. And all you can learn from it is that once in a while, shit happens.

It hurt. I'm still hurting. I wonder if there was something I could have done differently to change what happened.

But I know if I had my time again, it would have all happened anyway. Some thing are inevitable, and you can't avoid it, no matter how many precautionary measures you take, or no matter how much experience in bike riding you have, you are sometimes going to fall. Hard. In public.

It was only a matter of time before it happened again.

It's not the first time, and it won't be the last.

Overextended + Under resourced

Some things I have been up to lately that prohibit me from blogging

• National Novel Writing month: Ambitious much? http://www.nanowrimo.org/
• Taking some 360 photos of the east side of Amsterdam for an LA based travel site, who are currently revamping their entire business model and website. *Deep breathe*
• Writing for a Berlin based travel website about various places in Amsterdam
• Working my little behind off at the day-job.
• Preparing to go to London for some B2B Awards night next week, and then to Berlin for a conference in early December. Seriously, pinch me.
• Attempting to maintain my friendships, sanity and health. Possibly failing at the first two areas, definitely failing in the last one. *Cough, splutter*
• Loving Ben L'oncle Soul, and Tahiti 80 - see below
• Attempting to transcribe an interview and profile a man who wrote an encyclopedia about Street Culture : I had the pleasure of meeting and talking to a fella by the name of King Adz, who wrote: "Street Culture" for an assignment for my Time Out Amsterdam writing course
• Researching/strategising on how to become an official freelance writer in the official dutch way

Adulthood is a hard state to permanently be in