"That's not a Tsunami, that's a California wave and you're riding it...!"
- Laura O.
Showing posts with label Spain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spain. Show all posts
Monday, May 9, 2011
The other point of view ...
"That's not a Tsunami, that's a California wave and you're riding it...!"
- Laura O.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Push the button.
I push buttons all day, everyday.
Keyboards for a start.
Phone keypads.
Light switches.
Elevator buttons.
Train doors buttons to open them. ( God forbid anything happened here out of courtesy, even the train doors aren't chivalrous.)
I push metaphorical buttons too: my boss, my colleagues, my friends, my suppliers. I may not like/mean to cause a stir, but the drama sometimes follows me.
I've pushed enough buttons now to be happy about where these jabs and clicks and index finger driven actions have taken me.
Tapped enough keyboards to create enough of the right words to have the damn good life that I lead.
Dialled enough wrong numbers to learn some lessons and punched a few right ones to get a few good answers.
Turned out some lights on some good and memorable nights, and flicked them on again to wake up to a new chance everyday.
Pissed off enough bosses to get me where I am today.
It takes a split second to push a button and those buttons, no matter how trivial at the time, will definitely shape your life.
"Send"
"Open"
"Delete"
"Buy"
"Confirm"
"Apply"
"Call"
"End call"
Cheers to the buttons, the fingers that pushed them, and the hearts that tell them "Just do it".
Friday, December 31, 2010
Retrospective #7: Reunion, Fate + Architecture
Thursday, December 30, 2010
The highs are high, the lows are low
It happened.
The holiday.
The amazing and random.
The discoveries.
The cosiness of being with familiar and loving people.
The thing that was a pleasant surprise that you couldn't have orchestrated even if you tried.
The moment you've been hoping would happen for months also eventuates.
After all the anticipation, it came and it went.
Then, the visitors leave. The alarm clock is back on. The familiar frustrations come flooding back. The uncertainty of 'what does it all mean?' wafts back onto your radar.
Now what?
The holiday.
The amazing and random.
The discoveries.
The cosiness of being with familiar and loving people.
The thing that was a pleasant surprise that you couldn't have orchestrated even if you tried.
The moment you've been hoping would happen for months also eventuates.
After all the anticipation, it came and it went.
Then, the visitors leave. The alarm clock is back on. The familiar frustrations come flooding back. The uncertainty of 'what does it all mean?' wafts back onto your radar.
Now what?
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Identity is fluid
When Papas and I were in Barcelona, we had one of the greatest things happen to us, that one can only hope for when you go travelling...
We stumbled across a tiny and awesome retro bar (called "Pile 43". Weird name. Good Bar.) that was just what we were looking for. I promptly ordered us some drinks and we seated ourselves amongst the bar dwellers. Two girls in a bar - of course, the recipe to have people start talking to us.
We met some expats, I mean, internationals that all worked at Hewlett Packard.
Guy 1: English
Girl 1 : French
Guy 2: Dutch
Guy 4: Born in Egypt but considers himself more Irish.
Girl 2: Unknown. She didn't say and I couldn't place her accent.
Guy 4 was of interest to me. He was 2 days away from going home and he was very, very excited.
"I can't take the heat here, I need to go back to Ireland."
Born in Cairo but preferred Ireland's weather.
Odd, right?
Or is it?
Who am I to say where this dude belongs and what he should prefer, just because I have ideas about his birthplace and his genetics? I don't. In fact, I think it's more of a cute juxtaposition. And this global village I live in is full of them.
I met a lady at a housewarming party last month who was raised born in the US, raised French, but also has an Israeli passport, lived in Amsterdam for 14 years.
In fact, nearly half the people I meet here can not give me an introduction about where they are from without a 45 second spiel as opposed to a one word answer defining their nationality.
My point is moreso about a couple of things that have been primary considerations in my motivations to experience life here: What is identity? Can labels really serve the function of describing something so multi-faceted as a human being? And does it soley rely on being the feeling of belonging, whether it is to a culture or a country or a race? Can the outside world serve as an accurate mirror to project to yourself who you really are, and where you should be?
I read somewhere that you shouldn't get too attached to any ideas of who you were, who you are now, and especially who you are likely to become - identity is so fluid.
I just read a blog article, written as a self interrogation by an Indonesian born, American raised, Belgian living mountain climber about identity and settling down, entitled, "So, what is home, to you?".(You can read it here.) I loved his description of himself:
"Indonesian by name, birth, and food-culture... American by upbringing, dreams, and aspirations ... Chinese by work ethics, humility, and compassion ... Franco-Flemish by pragmatism, appreciation of life, and beer-passion ... Small-town boy at heart with a global perspective in the mind ... Confused by identity and values but a big believer in the culture of tolerance at the end. Or so I would like to see myself to be ... (the rest see my blog, or decide for yourself)"
I also just read on the same website, an article about repatriating - the return home after living life abroad. "Going home", which you can read here. Blogger and author talks about our bodies holding the same water that comes from our place of birth. Interesting concept- home is where our genetic and physical structure matches the environment of our birthplace. But the author also talks about our concept of home being affiliated with a culture or a people, or a sense of belonging, and some internationals say "the source of contentment is within you and you don’t really need to change country to find that."
My friend Sarah says that she makes her home wherever she is. With her belongings, and her touches on the house, and her relationships with her environment, her inspirations and the people she loves.
Personally, I love all of these ideas. And after having Papas stay with me for a week, and being able to show her " a week in the life of" full of all my little hotspots, and my super cute apartment and introducing her to the people in my life right now, I can definitvely say, Amsterdam is a home.
We stumbled across a tiny and awesome retro bar (called "Pile 43". Weird name. Good Bar.) that was just what we were looking for. I promptly ordered us some drinks and we seated ourselves amongst the bar dwellers. Two girls in a bar - of course, the recipe to have people start talking to us.
We met some expats, I mean, internationals that all worked at Hewlett Packard.
Guy 1: English
Girl 1 : French
Guy 2: Dutch
Guy 4: Born in Egypt but considers himself more Irish.
Girl 2: Unknown. She didn't say and I couldn't place her accent.
Guy 4 was of interest to me. He was 2 days away from going home and he was very, very excited.
"I can't take the heat here, I need to go back to Ireland."
Born in Cairo but preferred Ireland's weather.
Odd, right?
Or is it?
Who am I to say where this dude belongs and what he should prefer, just because I have ideas about his birthplace and his genetics? I don't. In fact, I think it's more of a cute juxtaposition. And this global village I live in is full of them.
I met a lady at a housewarming party last month who was raised born in the US, raised French, but also has an Israeli passport, lived in Amsterdam for 14 years.
In fact, nearly half the people I meet here can not give me an introduction about where they are from without a 45 second spiel as opposed to a one word answer defining their nationality.
My point is moreso about a couple of things that have been primary considerations in my motivations to experience life here: What is identity? Can labels really serve the function of describing something so multi-faceted as a human being? And does it soley rely on being the feeling of belonging, whether it is to a culture or a country or a race? Can the outside world serve as an accurate mirror to project to yourself who you really are, and where you should be?
I read somewhere that you shouldn't get too attached to any ideas of who you were, who you are now, and especially who you are likely to become - identity is so fluid.
I just read a blog article, written as a self interrogation by an Indonesian born, American raised, Belgian living mountain climber about identity and settling down, entitled, "So, what is home, to you?".(You can read it here.) I loved his description of himself:
"Indonesian by name, birth, and food-culture... American by upbringing, dreams, and aspirations ... Chinese by work ethics, humility, and compassion ... Franco-Flemish by pragmatism, appreciation of life, and beer-passion ... Small-town boy at heart with a global perspective in the mind ... Confused by identity and values but a big believer in the culture of tolerance at the end. Or so I would like to see myself to be ... (the rest see my blog, or decide for yourself)"
I also just read on the same website, an article about repatriating - the return home after living life abroad. "Going home", which you can read here. Blogger and author talks about our bodies holding the same water that comes from our place of birth. Interesting concept- home is where our genetic and physical structure matches the environment of our birthplace. But the author also talks about our concept of home being affiliated with a culture or a people, or a sense of belonging, and some internationals say "the source of contentment is within you and you don’t really need to change country to find that."
My friend Sarah says that she makes her home wherever she is. With her belongings, and her touches on the house, and her relationships with her environment, her inspirations and the people she loves.
Personally, I love all of these ideas. And after having Papas stay with me for a week, and being able to show her " a week in the life of" full of all my little hotspots, and my super cute apartment and introducing her to the people in my life right now, I can definitvely say, Amsterdam is a home.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened...
Like I said in a previous post, every Spanish town has it's own festival to celebrate their patron saint. ("Festa Major" - meaning "Major Festival".) Sitges is a little seaside town, about 20 minutes drive from Barcelona, who's patron saint is Bartholomew. Technically you could travel Spain for a month and get amongst a festival nearly every day for every little town you may happen to stop at.
August 23rd is the day of annual festival. The reason that we came to Sitges is because our friends, Sarah and Georgina met two Spanish guys from Sitges about 6 years ago, when they first travelled Europe. These two little ladies lived with Miguel and Alex in Dublin and have forever been BFF.
A posse of 11 of us rented a villa for a week in the town centre, and lazed by the pool, drank a lot, and relaxed. We were all in various stages of travel - some coming from London on their way to do some backpacking, some on their way back to Sydney, some arriving in Europe to start new lives, some en route back to London from New York, some just from Sydney and London to be with us. We were a mixed bunch of friends, some of us had known each other a while, or only met once or twice, some for the first time. We left firm friends after such an awesome week. On Saturday, we bought matching dark blue tee shirts, as is the custom for friends attending the festival together that read; "Diables de Sitges " - literally, the Devils of Sitges.
Miguel and Alex and their girlfriends and friends all had tee shirts made, as they do every year. Their's said : "FM09 - Be lost" - designed around the Sitges town flag in white and red. So everybody, young and old, families, and friends, walk around the main street together in matching tee shirts - for bonding reasons and reasons of practicality. When there are thousands of people in a small street, it makes it easy to spot lost little souls. Also, some groups of friends get their names printed on the back of their tee shirts.
Alex and Miguel have a longstanding tradition with their BFFs, breakfast in the morning together before making their way to the main street of the city to watch the parade and carry on. Then, once the parade is all over, everybody goes home for a siesta, and then meets for the fireworks on the beach and more party times.
Everything about this day was amazing, there was nothing but love, joy and pride in the air; pride for city and culture, love for new friends and old friends and general togertherness, joy for being gifted with such an awesome day, and most of all - crazy fun times.
When everybody left the Villa on Wednesday, George, Tim, and Steph and I stayed, as we got one night free in the Villa. The feeling of emptiness and sadness that washed over me was something I had never felt before - I couldn't believe one incredible week had passed with such a big gang of us, and it was all over - it felt like a mega bad hangover was just setting in. So we... I mean.. I... tried to drink away the emptiness. Needless to say, that didn't quite work.
I left Sitges yesterday, and came back to Amsterdam, with hope that an experience like that wouldn't be isolated, that it would happen again some day soon, and in the meantime, soldiering on and focusing on making my own way, with a new sense of vigour and spirit.
Just arrived - eager to create some chaos, but waiting quietly to get to our Villa
Sitges, palm trees, beaches, sunshine, friends ... a recipe for bliss
Pretty much where we were all week... poolside
Casa Lola
The lifeblood of the holiday
Hanging outside the Villa
George: Feel my Chin!
Me: No! Gross!
George: Cmon Rani, I was going to pluck a splinter out of your infected foot - NOW FEEL MY CHIN!!
Me: Ewwww.... ok.... EWWWWWWW
Ridiculously good time - Ridiculous.
The best bar by the beach- "Picnic" - obviously Life is a picnic in Sitges
Paella
Sangria
Breakfast of champions - beer, toasted turkish bread, rubbed with tomatoes and then topped with cured meats .... aaaaah!
Team photo - Toros and Kangaroos
Ezequiel: If I ever see any of you Kangaroos drinking water today - I will be angry!
Basil is the plant of happiness
The girls that started it all - Sar and George
The main square
"Wave your hats in the air - wave 'em like you just don't care!"
Luke and Ezequiel rock on...
George, Kate and Gucci getting psyched
A few of the Sitges Toros - Sergio, Pepe, Alex, Jorje, Oscar
Get amongst it!!!
Me, Sar, Lauren, and George - Diables De Sitges... WOOOHOOO
The Parade starts - stick dancing
Ezequiel and me vamp it up...
Fireworks, fireworks, fireworks...
More fireworks - watch your head!
The little street gets hectic
The gorgeous girls of Sitges - it was hard to spot any locals that weren't beautiful
The stunning Gemma
Kate and I feel the love
Ezequiel and Alex
Miguel and Jorje
All photos are courtesy of Ezequiel, Kate, and Sergio's facebook photos.
August 23rd is the day of annual festival. The reason that we came to Sitges is because our friends, Sarah and Georgina met two Spanish guys from Sitges about 6 years ago, when they first travelled Europe. These two little ladies lived with Miguel and Alex in Dublin and have forever been BFF.
A posse of 11 of us rented a villa for a week in the town centre, and lazed by the pool, drank a lot, and relaxed. We were all in various stages of travel - some coming from London on their way to do some backpacking, some on their way back to Sydney, some arriving in Europe to start new lives, some en route back to London from New York, some just from Sydney and London to be with us. We were a mixed bunch of friends, some of us had known each other a while, or only met once or twice, some for the first time. We left firm friends after such an awesome week. On Saturday, we bought matching dark blue tee shirts, as is the custom for friends attending the festival together that read; "Diables de Sitges " - literally, the Devils of Sitges.
Miguel and Alex and their girlfriends and friends all had tee shirts made, as they do every year. Their's said : "FM09 - Be lost" - designed around the Sitges town flag in white and red. So everybody, young and old, families, and friends, walk around the main street together in matching tee shirts - for bonding reasons and reasons of practicality. When there are thousands of people in a small street, it makes it easy to spot lost little souls. Also, some groups of friends get their names printed on the back of their tee shirts.
Alex and Miguel have a longstanding tradition with their BFFs, breakfast in the morning together before making their way to the main street of the city to watch the parade and carry on. Then, once the parade is all over, everybody goes home for a siesta, and then meets for the fireworks on the beach and more party times.
Everything about this day was amazing, there was nothing but love, joy and pride in the air; pride for city and culture, love for new friends and old friends and general togertherness, joy for being gifted with such an awesome day, and most of all - crazy fun times.
When everybody left the Villa on Wednesday, George, Tim, and Steph and I stayed, as we got one night free in the Villa. The feeling of emptiness and sadness that washed over me was something I had never felt before - I couldn't believe one incredible week had passed with such a big gang of us, and it was all over - it felt like a mega bad hangover was just setting in. So we... I mean.. I... tried to drink away the emptiness. Needless to say, that didn't quite work.
I left Sitges yesterday, and came back to Amsterdam, with hope that an experience like that wouldn't be isolated, that it would happen again some day soon, and in the meantime, soldiering on and focusing on making my own way, with a new sense of vigour and spirit.
Just arrived - eager to create some chaos, but waiting quietly to get to our Villa
Sitges, palm trees, beaches, sunshine, friends ... a recipe for bliss
Pretty much where we were all week... poolside
Casa Lola
The lifeblood of the holiday
Hanging outside the Villa
George: Feel my Chin!
Me: No! Gross!
George: Cmon Rani, I was going to pluck a splinter out of your infected foot - NOW FEEL MY CHIN!!
Me: Ewwww.... ok.... EWWWWWWW
Ridiculously good time - Ridiculous.
Drinks by the pool on the second night before dinner
The best bar by the beach- "Picnic" - obviously Life is a picnic in Sitges
Paella
Sangria
Breakfast of champions - beer, toasted turkish bread, rubbed with tomatoes and then topped with cured meats .... aaaaah!
Doing what I do best, I suppose...
Team photo - Toros and Kangaroos
Ezequiel: If I ever see any of you Kangaroos drinking water today - I will be angry!
Basil is the plant of happiness
The girls that started it all - Sar and George
Gucci and Tim
The main square
"Wave your hats in the air - wave 'em like you just don't care!"
Luke and Ezequiel rock on...
George, Kate and Gucci getting psyched
Me, Sergio and Gucci
Tim and Kate give Sitges the thumbs up...
Tim and Kate give Sitges the thumbs up...
Luke, Kate, George, Tim, and Sar and me
A few of the Sitges Toros - Sergio, Pepe, Alex, Jorje, Oscar
Get amongst it!!!
Me, Sar, Lauren, and George - Diables De Sitges... WOOOHOOO
The Parade starts - stick dancing
Ezequiel and me vamp it up...
Fireworks, fireworks, fireworks...
More fireworks - watch your head!
The little street gets hectic
The gorgeous girls of Sitges - it was hard to spot any locals that weren't beautiful
The stunning Gemma
Kate and I feel the love
Ezequiel and Alex
Miguel and Jorje
All photos are courtesy of Ezequiel, Kate, and Sergio's facebook photos.
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