Saturday Inspiration

A lot of "once in a lifetime" opportunities have been thrown at me since I have been living in Amsterdam, and I feel very fortunate to have experienced so much.

It seems like I always got everything I needed, even though they were not always things I wanted. The universe works in quirky ways.

Some people that I met here 9 months ago have been overwhelmingly hospitable, and have been kind in offering me their worldly take on things, advice, shoulders to cry on, ears to listen to random stories and to help work things out, invitations to interesting events, and even sanctuaries to live in. Most of all, I have been mostly grateful to have some really genuine, lovely people in my life here, who didn't know me from a bar of soap but have opened up their hearts and lives to me, and let me in.

Other people that I met here over the 9 months I've been here, have faded as quickly as they appeared in my life, and no doubt, for good reason. I am actually very okay with this, as deep down, I knew that they were not going to stick around for very long.

Fortunately for me, my friend Pia falls into the former category. She is talented, kind, inspiring, and ultimately, very very giving.

She has continued to give to me in ways that she can (including offering to take me on styling shoots, and giving me the experience of a lifetime by asking me to housesit her houseboat while she was back in Australia for Christmas.)

She has now asked me to help her with the book launch of her second book; "Amsterdam: Made by Hand", and on Saturday, we cycled along the canals and I kept her company as she distributed book launch invitations to the artisans, store owners, and designers that feature in her book.

As expected, I had a great time with her, and not even the damp weather could bring me down. We peddled around, weaving around canals, canal bridges and little laneways, chatting as we cycled, stopping by markets to peer at vintage Christian Dior spectacle frames, plump ripe eggplants, and sundried tomato and feta muffins, then hopping back on our bikes to glide by churches with steeples that glistened against the dark clouds, I felt overwhelmingly consumed with a sense that I was experiencing something that money just can not buy. Even the Amsterdam grey and chill seemed to be quite fitting for what was one of my best days in Amsterdam yet.

Pia took me to no less than 10 stores that feature in her book and I met all the owners and designers personally, and standing in their stores, talking to them about their work and their reactions to viewing the advance copy of Pia's book, felt amazing.

It was Amsterdam from a whole other perspective, and it made me see what I had been blind to for so long, and made me realise and learn so much.

This city has a million treasures that I have yet to discover, more faces and more importantly, more fascinating stories behind faces that I still need to get to know, and I need to get out more on the weekends, and just wander, because I have been given the opportunity to LIVE in a city and get underneath it's skin, when some people can only have the chance to experience this jewel of the world for a day or two and see a few streets and a few bars.

I need to stop living life with my "sleep-eat-work-drink-exist" mode on and switch the button to "Wake up, breathe in the air, and LIVE".

Secondly, meeting all these talented furniture restorers, jewellers, designers, craftspeople, milliners, ceramic curators inbedded a stronger will to be more creative, and be braver in pursuing what I want to do in life. Some of them were humble, eccentric, quiet, confident, outgoing, but they all had one thing in common: they are passionate contributors to making this city what it is - A world class creative city. And all because they had a dream, believed in it, and have become part of this city's creative landscape. Most of them are not just contributors, but in themselves, are fixtures in the city's creative landscape.

We finished the day with pancakes in the nine canal district. (Banana, chilli, bacon pancakes!)

Pia had no reason talk to me, let alone trust me, or even meet me when a mutual friend set us up for an introduction from London, and she has given me one of the best things you can give another person: inspiration, and it is one of the most precious gifts of all when you're making your way without a compass, or stuck in a cycle of monotony.

Pia has also asked me to help her make some window displays to be featured in bookstores around Amsterdam, and I can't wait to get my hands dirty and help her out.

Her blog, called "Enhance the everyday", is pretty phenomenal, just like her, and I know it's corny, but the private tour I had with her on Saturday afternoon made me see that I can enhance every one of my days.

Check out some press she's been getting for her new book here.