Let's just pretend that I didn't promise to post photos 'tomorrow', or maybe we can pretend that 'tomorrow' is today.
I need to take a break from work. I've been working since 9.30am this morning (it's 6.30pm now), and for the past two days, I've been working until 10.30pm at the office. There's just too much to finish before the festival starts, and I keep getting people asking for their items "now", "now" and "now". It's amazing I haven't collapsed yet, but I'm a strong gal, I am.
The upside to working so late in the office is that I get to order food delivered to the office. I go to Just Eat, which has a list of restaurants that deliver to the area. It's really convenient, and the list of restaurants that deliver to my office is waaaaay better than the list to my own home.
So on Monday, I decided I was really into Chinese food. Since Schrobbenmaster was eating with me, I kinda went a little wild with the dishes. I ordered spring rolls, char siew, pork fritters, foo yong hai and ma po tofu. Every time I type the names of those dishes, I have to remember not to spell it the Dutch way, the way I read it on all the menus.
Needless to say, it was yummy. And I have leftovers (lots), which I will eat tonight.
Then on Tuesday, I didn't expect to work late, but unfortunately, I had to. I even had to miss my ballet class, so I thought, well, if I'm gonna have to miss my ballet, I'm gonna make it worth it by having a nice dinner at the office. So I ordered Japanese.
We only have a € 15 per person budget for food, so as you can imagine, I couldn't order much from a Japanese restaurant. It was enough for me, but not for Schrobbenmaster :( Anyway, the food was really good, and I wouldn't hesitate to order from that place again.
Amongst the tiring amount of work being lumped on me, I have something to be thankful for - that I haven't had to cook since last Wednesday! Last Wednesday, we worked late and I ordered Thai (green curry chicken for me!). Then I think Schrobbenmaster made his sweet chilli chicken for dinner on Thursday. I don't remember what happened on Friday, I think we ate out. On Saturday, Hanselem's parents made us a wonderful Chinese dinner at his place (yummmm!) and on Sunday, Schrobbenmaster's parents came to visit and his mum made a simple chicken dinner. Then of course, there was the Monday and Tuesday which I just wrote about.
I love it when I don't have to cook. I never had to cook in KL - only simple pasta or noodle dishes. I love comfort food and I can eat the same thing all the time if I had to. Plus, I also had the option of eating top notch food from any of Mumsy Bumsy's restaurants.
I was missing KL so much last night. I was telling a friend that I go to work by car, and that the journey takes an hour. And I said, "I can't believe I work so far from where I live". Then, "I can't believe I used to work where I lived!". And followed by, "I think my life has somewhat gotten worse since I moved here..."
Sure, I have a nice apartment and I earn in euros (blablabla... I also get taxed an insane percentage). But I used to eat first-rate food in any restaurant in KL, and also delicious cheap food on the streets. I used to work at home every day and had the freedom to do whatever I wanted, any time of the day... I used to have my own company and had a goal: to make the name of Goodputty known.
But all that personal career growth is stagnant now. No one I know has any projects for me and I have to work extra hard to start a network here. No one knows me and it's so much harder when you haven't lived in a certain place for several years. You only know basically a handful of people. More importantly, they don't know you. Why should they trust you with their brand or with their project?
I intended this to be a continuation of photos from Madrid, but I think I've written enough for one post. And hey, you can't blame me for feeling the odd moment of homesickness and feeling like I lost something of myself when moving here.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Thursday, September 08, 2011
PHOTOS: Tapas and shopping in Madrid. What else?
As promised, the next batch of photos from Madrid.
By the way, I just watched the new Jonathan Ross show (love his show!) and Sarah Jessica Parker seems like she would be a great girlfriend. I hope I can be like that to my girlfriends too :)
Anyway, let's fly back to Spain...
This, I believe, is called Plaza de la Puerta del Sol. It's kinda like Dam Square in Amsterdam. Just like Plaza Mayor was like Piazza San Marco in Venice. With the Madrid versions being a little less impressive. Don't get me wrong, I still like Madrid :) They're just not very impressive with their plazas.
Haven't I seen this storm trooper in Dam Square? On another street, I thought I saw the same Eastern European beggar lady from Amsterdam as well.
Street performer getting ready for her act.
Baker Jo cannot resist a Desigual store anywhere, especially in Spain. I must admit that this Desigual store looked amazing. The photo doesn't show it, but it really looked like a museum to cool things. I almost bought a bag there. I was carrying it all around, checking myself out in all the mirrors I passed, but thank goodness Baker Jo took so long to try things on that I felt so guilty I eventually put the bag back.
Then we looked for a place to have dinner in the Chueca area. It's supposed to be very trendy, but as we only started looking for dinner at 10pm (typical Spanish dinnertime), there were only a handful of restaurant/bars open. We passed by this really cosy-looking restaurant and I decided to hop in and grab a menu and to check the interior, which was behind the back wall.
I was rewarded with a quiet, but very nice eating area. So we decided to stop by and eat here, since we didn't know when else we would find another place.
But look at the menu! It's already obvious we found a good place ;) I say it's fairly safe to judge a restaurant by how its menu looks and by how its bread is made.
When we sat down, there were only two tables taken, but towards the middle of our meal, there were people even coming in and being disappointed by the lack of tables. These Spanish sure do eat late!
The paintings on the walls were all for sale, but I didn't see anything I fancied enough to hang on my own walls. Shame.
The waiter was really friendly and helpful... and quite good-looking, though nothing to shout home for.
I told myself I wouldn't take photos of food and allow people around to say "typical Asian!", but this was just too amusing. Witness the plate of a salad shared by 3 Asians. No one dares to touch the remainder in the middle. I secretly wanted to though, cuz it was really delicious.
After dinner, we retraced our steps back towards our hotels and passed by the Desigual store again, this time, lit at night with coloured lights in its windows. It changes colour every few seconds and is just so amazing to look at.
I adore big screens on buildings, and especially big screens on old buildings. Those two saying Beefeater and Callao are really screens to show movie trailers on.
And this cinema has STAINED GLASS WINDOWS. How beautiful is that? I suppose it was an old, abandoned church. Ah, the state of the world today.
The next day and back at Plaza Mayor. It's actually in the opposite direction of the big museums, but I guess we were really into shopping.
Impressive old architecture.
Back to check trendy Chueca and its shops out. Um, even if the guy who stumbled into my picture doesn't look all that trendy...
Such a quiet street, but lined with amazing shops of all kinds.
Like this one, which, as its description on the window states, sells loads of cool stuff. This is where I bought my prized rabbit shadow thing. Those who came for my housewarming party will know what I mean. At least those who took the time to be shown around by me :P The guy manning the shop (in there with the green shirt on the right) was also really, really nice, even though he didn't speak much English.
I actually found that all the Madrid-ians I met were super friendly and helpful, guys and girls alike, even though we were speaking three different languages - including sign language - at the same time. That's really what makes me love Madrid.
Loving this bottle! Not a new concept, but always nice to see :)
Why am I wearing socks, you say? It's because I've been trained by living in this darned unpredictable country of The Netherlands to always be prepared for cold weather. I should have known that Spain would be awesomely stable and sunny.
Popped into another shop with a lovely interior.
It's so much like the Bangsar boutiques that I miss and love back home.
Bought two dresses here. Even though I didn't need them. And because of that, I forbade myself to buy a really special eel skin coin/card pouch in the next shop. I kinda regret not getting it actually.
A classic that Yelleh Belleh and I like to perform occasionally. Where's Wally?
I now leave you with a promise of more pictures tomorrow...
By the way, I just watched the new Jonathan Ross show (love his show!) and Sarah Jessica Parker seems like she would be a great girlfriend. I hope I can be like that to my girlfriends too :)
Anyway, let's fly back to Spain...
This, I believe, is called Plaza de la Puerta del Sol. It's kinda like Dam Square in Amsterdam. Just like Plaza Mayor was like Piazza San Marco in Venice. With the Madrid versions being a little less impressive. Don't get me wrong, I still like Madrid :) They're just not very impressive with their plazas.
Haven't I seen this storm trooper in Dam Square? On another street, I thought I saw the same Eastern European beggar lady from Amsterdam as well.
Street performer getting ready for her act.
Baker Jo cannot resist a Desigual store anywhere, especially in Spain. I must admit that this Desigual store looked amazing. The photo doesn't show it, but it really looked like a museum to cool things. I almost bought a bag there. I was carrying it all around, checking myself out in all the mirrors I passed, but thank goodness Baker Jo took so long to try things on that I felt so guilty I eventually put the bag back.
Then we looked for a place to have dinner in the Chueca area. It's supposed to be very trendy, but as we only started looking for dinner at 10pm (typical Spanish dinnertime), there were only a handful of restaurant/bars open. We passed by this really cosy-looking restaurant and I decided to hop in and grab a menu and to check the interior, which was behind the back wall.
I was rewarded with a quiet, but very nice eating area. So we decided to stop by and eat here, since we didn't know when else we would find another place.
But look at the menu! It's already obvious we found a good place ;) I say it's fairly safe to judge a restaurant by how its menu looks and by how its bread is made.
When we sat down, there were only two tables taken, but towards the middle of our meal, there were people even coming in and being disappointed by the lack of tables. These Spanish sure do eat late!
The paintings on the walls were all for sale, but I didn't see anything I fancied enough to hang on my own walls. Shame.
The waiter was really friendly and helpful... and quite good-looking, though nothing to shout home for.
I told myself I wouldn't take photos of food and allow people around to say "typical Asian!", but this was just too amusing. Witness the plate of a salad shared by 3 Asians. No one dares to touch the remainder in the middle. I secretly wanted to though, cuz it was really delicious.
After dinner, we retraced our steps back towards our hotels and passed by the Desigual store again, this time, lit at night with coloured lights in its windows. It changes colour every few seconds and is just so amazing to look at.
I adore big screens on buildings, and especially big screens on old buildings. Those two saying Beefeater and Callao are really screens to show movie trailers on.
And this cinema has STAINED GLASS WINDOWS. How beautiful is that? I suppose it was an old, abandoned church. Ah, the state of the world today.
The next day and back at Plaza Mayor. It's actually in the opposite direction of the big museums, but I guess we were really into shopping.
Impressive old architecture.
Back to check trendy Chueca and its shops out. Um, even if the guy who stumbled into my picture doesn't look all that trendy...
Such a quiet street, but lined with amazing shops of all kinds.
Like this one, which, as its description on the window states, sells loads of cool stuff. This is where I bought my prized rabbit shadow thing. Those who came for my housewarming party will know what I mean. At least those who took the time to be shown around by me :P The guy manning the shop (in there with the green shirt on the right) was also really, really nice, even though he didn't speak much English.
I actually found that all the Madrid-ians I met were super friendly and helpful, guys and girls alike, even though we were speaking three different languages - including sign language - at the same time. That's really what makes me love Madrid.
Loving this bottle! Not a new concept, but always nice to see :)
Why am I wearing socks, you say? It's because I've been trained by living in this darned unpredictable country of The Netherlands to always be prepared for cold weather. I should have known that Spain would be awesomely stable and sunny.
Popped into another shop with a lovely interior.
It's so much like the Bangsar boutiques that I miss and love back home.
Bought two dresses here. Even though I didn't need them. And because of that, I forbade myself to buy a really special eel skin coin/card pouch in the next shop. I kinda regret not getting it actually.
A classic that Yelleh Belleh and I like to perform occasionally. Where's Wally?
I now leave you with a promise of more pictures tomorrow...
Wednesday, September 07, 2011
PHOTOS: Madrid for the weekend, anyone?
I'm thrown a little of my groove right now because Blogger has changed its interface and I feel a little lost. I wonder if they added any emoticons while they were at it...
No, I guess not.
Anyway, two weekends ago, I flew alone to Madrid to meet up with Baker Jo who was there on holiday. For those not in the know, we used to work together at The Edge Publications in Kuala Lumpur.
I was pretty excited because I'd never been to Spain and I'd always heard how nice it is there. I was also looking forward to seeing an old friend.
(Besides the new Blogger interface, I'm also a little distracted by the friggin heavy rain beating down on my ceiling to floor windows at the moment. It's insane! Like I'm back in Malaysia during monsoon season.)
Here are some photos of Madrid. I don't think I'm in the right state of mind to write anyway. By the way, do you realise that the older you get, the more stupid language mistakes you make? For example, I just wrote 'state of mine' instead of 'mind'. And yesterday I wrote 'me two' instead of 'too'. I was also chatting on MSN today with Timstone and Nic, and kept typing Nic as 'Nice' and his girlfriend Jois as 'Joins'.
Okay, I'll stop rambling now. On with the piccies!
Yes, I know it's kinda tacky to take photos from the plane, but I was quite surprised by how brown Spain looks. It reminds me of Mexico (from movies and TV shows). Guess that's why the Spanish took to Mexico so much.
I checked in to my hotel on Calle de Atocha, just 15 minutes walk from the main Atocha train station. Okay, it was a bit more like 25 minutes for me because I walked in the wrong direction for a bit. I should have known that if I think I have to turn right, I probably have to turn left.
After checking in, I walked up the hill - yes, up a pretty steep hill - to get to Baker Jo's hotel, around 10 minutes away. After exchanging lots of news with each other, we walked opposite to grab some snacks from the pastry shop. I love that pastry shop.
I think most people would be sickened by what I bought. But hey, if they make it, it means people eat it, right? It was called a Trufa, and it was basically chocolate cake with chocolate cream and chocolate sprinkles. I love how they wrapped it!
Then Baker Jo and Cousin Kev (Jo's cousin, not mine!) played tour guide and brought me to Plaza Mayor up the street. They'd already been in Madrid for 3 days before I got there, so they knew the place fairly well. Nice and sunny!
Plaza Mayor overkill.
Baker Jo can't resist any yarn shop ;)
The drawings on the walls here remind me of Brussels.
Finally, a scene that doesn't remind me of anywhere else in Europe.
I think I was a tad disappointed with Madrid because it looked just like Paris, Brussels and probably a lot of main cities in Europe. The buildings looked the same and the streets looked the same. However, the people are completely different from anywhere else in Europe. I think that's usually the main difference between cities. The Madrid-ians are lovely! So friendly, so warm and so helpful.
Pretty street signs. Only in the centre though :)
Had to catch the nun in passing. I love catching these little incongruent street scenes.
Really nice shop interior. It actually reminds me of tourist cheese shops in Amsterdam. Except bigger.
Cerveza means beer. I also like snapping Spanish signs and recording how different countries design for their public.
Another one of my street snapshots.
And a really pretty shop board with an elaborate border.
Tomorrow, more photos!
No, I guess not.
Anyway, two weekends ago, I flew alone to Madrid to meet up with Baker Jo who was there on holiday. For those not in the know, we used to work together at The Edge Publications in Kuala Lumpur.
I was pretty excited because I'd never been to Spain and I'd always heard how nice it is there. I was also looking forward to seeing an old friend.
(Besides the new Blogger interface, I'm also a little distracted by the friggin heavy rain beating down on my ceiling to floor windows at the moment. It's insane! Like I'm back in Malaysia during monsoon season.)
Here are some photos of Madrid. I don't think I'm in the right state of mind to write anyway. By the way, do you realise that the older you get, the more stupid language mistakes you make? For example, I just wrote 'state of mine' instead of 'mind'. And yesterday I wrote 'me two' instead of 'too'. I was also chatting on MSN today with Timstone and Nic, and kept typing Nic as 'Nice' and his girlfriend Jois as 'Joins'.
Okay, I'll stop rambling now. On with the piccies!
Yes, I know it's kinda tacky to take photos from the plane, but I was quite surprised by how brown Spain looks. It reminds me of Mexico (from movies and TV shows). Guess that's why the Spanish took to Mexico so much.
I checked in to my hotel on Calle de Atocha, just 15 minutes walk from the main Atocha train station. Okay, it was a bit more like 25 minutes for me because I walked in the wrong direction for a bit. I should have known that if I think I have to turn right, I probably have to turn left.
After checking in, I walked up the hill - yes, up a pretty steep hill - to get to Baker Jo's hotel, around 10 minutes away. After exchanging lots of news with each other, we walked opposite to grab some snacks from the pastry shop. I love that pastry shop.
I think most people would be sickened by what I bought. But hey, if they make it, it means people eat it, right? It was called a Trufa, and it was basically chocolate cake with chocolate cream and chocolate sprinkles. I love how they wrapped it!
Then Baker Jo and Cousin Kev (Jo's cousin, not mine!) played tour guide and brought me to Plaza Mayor up the street. They'd already been in Madrid for 3 days before I got there, so they knew the place fairly well. Nice and sunny!
Plaza Mayor overkill.
Baker Jo can't resist any yarn shop ;)
The drawings on the walls here remind me of Brussels.
Finally, a scene that doesn't remind me of anywhere else in Europe.
I think I was a tad disappointed with Madrid because it looked just like Paris, Brussels and probably a lot of main cities in Europe. The buildings looked the same and the streets looked the same. However, the people are completely different from anywhere else in Europe. I think that's usually the main difference between cities. The Madrid-ians are lovely! So friendly, so warm and so helpful.
Pretty street signs. Only in the centre though :)
Had to catch the nun in passing. I love catching these little incongruent street scenes.
Really nice shop interior. It actually reminds me of tourist cheese shops in Amsterdam. Except bigger.
Cerveza means beer. I also like snapping Spanish signs and recording how different countries design for their public.
Another one of my street snapshots.
And a really pretty shop board with an elaborate border.
Tomorrow, more photos!
Sunday, August 21, 2011
A brilliant day out in Rotterdam - watch out for super long post, but lots of photos below :D
During summer, we have a different schedule for Dutch classes, and sometimes the teachers like bringing us out on field trips, which is awesome, so we don't have to sit in class for 4 hours doing the same things.
Last week, we were told that we would be doing the Fire Boundary Walk (Dutch site) around Rotterdam this week. I was quite excited about it, because I'd seen the walk before, and I even brought the map back to KL to show my dad something historical about the city.
And then I remembered that roads in the city centre would be closed the whole weekend for the Bavaria City Race. And I know this because they sent a letter to us to instruct us to move our cars away from those spots. Ah, the joys of living in the city centre can come back and bite us on the ass.
So, being the considerate person I am *ahem*, I informed the teacher about this, and that there might be difficulties in going for the walk. As a result, the walk was postponed to the week after. Which is the week I've planned to go to Spain!! Aahhhh.... :(
I ended up moaning to myself, telling karma that it had better be good to me in return for me being considerate and ending up missing this walk and having to have a lesson in the classroom instead. Hehe.
And karma did return the favour. In leaps and bounds!
This morning, as I arrived at the school for the lesson, I saw everyone milling around outside. How exciting! I love when something out of the ordinary happens.
I parked my bike and a classmate saw me carrying my huge dictionary with me, pointed at it and giggled. Because apparently we were locked out of the school and couldn't have the lesson. Instead, we would walk to a nearby park/playground and have an outdoor lesson. Well, I say lesson, but it turned out to be games instead. Not that I minded. Except for the fact that I spilt Chocomel all over my pants. Sigh.
It was one of the teachers' birthday, and he brought us cake and drinks. Me, being the clumsy, excitable person I am (really, you'd think I'd be more graceful after so many years of doing ballet), totally got excited about something someone said, knocked the paper cup I was holding, and promptly spilt the Chocomel all over my knees and my dictionaries. I can only be thankful that I was sitting next to two girls who, naturally, had tissues and water with them. Ah, girls :)
Anyway, it was a nice and different sort of lesson - weather was great, people I was sitting with were great and the park was great.
Karma wasn't done with me yet, though. After the lesson was over, a few of us wanted to go for a chat and drinks, and we decided to try the newly-opened NAI (Nederlands Architectuurinstituut) cafe.
I love it.
It reminds me so much of bars in KL, with the relaxed and modern al fresco seating!
That's Ihor from Ukraine. Behind him is a huge NAI logo painted on the side of the building. I love the building. I can imagine the kind of pressure on the shoulders of the architect who was commissioned the building that would be the Dutch Architecture Institute ;)
That's Diederik, who was suffering under the heat of the sun. He's not Dutch, I tell you. They normally love sitting out there till they melt like the butter on a poffertje. I normally dislike sitting in the sun, but I really like the fresh air that comes with it. Give and take, I guess.
Slovalenka enjoying the sun.
Ihor still explaining how the height of the Erasmus MC is being increased level by level.
The whole terrace. Doesn't it look like a kind of WIP or 789? Ah, the special treatment I used to get. Hehe.
A strange, but somehow captivating sculpture rising out of the water. I think the yellow pointer thingy looks like a Google Maps pin. I think I'm becoming too technologically-aware. I think I might have liked it more if my first impression of it would be to say that it reminds me of a butterfly discovering a candle flame and being so mesmerised by it that it stayed there day and night till the candle burned out and the butterfly turned yellow in memory of the flame.
Well, Diederik couldn't take the mighty sun anymore, so we moved inside and occupied the long sofa with beautiful cushion covers.
And then we ordered lunch. Mine was a BLT soup (yeah, I've never heard of it either). It was okay. Nothing to shout home about.
After this really lovely outing - I also visited the NAI bookshop, which was sooooo nice - I headed across the Erasmusbrug with Schrobbenmaster to look for a shop for lamps.
In the end, the shop didn't sell lamps, but we stumbled upon some sort of market/festival thing - again. I think I've earned the title of Queen of Stumbleupons :P
It was more of a kid's thing, but the stalls were quite interesting. Even saw an illustrator I've seen at the Swan Market and the design centre. I bought drawings from her before and she remembered us. What a nice girl :) She was there with her mother (I think). So sweet!
It's a really nice-looking neighbourhood. Very family-ish and peaceful. Nothing really for tourists, but it's nice to see a part of Rotterdam that looks more homey, designy and freshly cleaned up.
There was some sort of mashup between hip hop and flamenco from the guys and girls in black and red over there. Uh... I didn't really think they were very good, but everyone else was good-naturedly cheering for them. I actually felt a little sorry for them that they had to watch this substandard Latin-style dancing, when on the poorest streets in Spain or Latin America, you would be able to find really spirited and expressive dancing. But... yeah. That's a whole different story there.
I think a lot of Dutch people like to do these sort of dances just for the fun of it, and not necessarily to be the best at it. I don't agree with that concept, but I can understand that they find it fun and just want to experience it. My disagreement with that comes from the idea that if you want to learn something, you should put your whole heart into it and really want to do it well.
Saw this corner cafe which, I think, is a bookstore/cafe, or some literary cafe, and I am so gonna go back to try it!
One of the acts practising. See the little boy with the bike on the left? He is super cool. He has dreadlocky hair that's tied up into one big dreadlocky thing, which he tucked into his singlet, and it's so long that it poked back out from under the singlet. And it's held together by this steel plate at the tip of his dreadlock. I want a kid like that.
Cosy-looking old-style supermarket.
After having ice cream. I had to take a photo with the bench that matched my pants.
I've recently started watching old episodes of Super Trio Mega Show on YouTube and really enjoying them. Ah, YouTube :) I'm coming to you shortly.
Hope you guys enjoyed this super super long post.
Last week, we were told that we would be doing the Fire Boundary Walk (Dutch site) around Rotterdam this week. I was quite excited about it, because I'd seen the walk before, and I even brought the map back to KL to show my dad something historical about the city.
And then I remembered that roads in the city centre would be closed the whole weekend for the Bavaria City Race. And I know this because they sent a letter to us to instruct us to move our cars away from those spots. Ah, the joys of living in the city centre can come back and bite us on the ass.
So, being the considerate person I am *ahem*, I informed the teacher about this, and that there might be difficulties in going for the walk. As a result, the walk was postponed to the week after. Which is the week I've planned to go to Spain!! Aahhhh.... :(
I ended up moaning to myself, telling karma that it had better be good to me in return for me being considerate and ending up missing this walk and having to have a lesson in the classroom instead. Hehe.
And karma did return the favour. In leaps and bounds!
This morning, as I arrived at the school for the lesson, I saw everyone milling around outside. How exciting! I love when something out of the ordinary happens.
I parked my bike and a classmate saw me carrying my huge dictionary with me, pointed at it and giggled. Because apparently we were locked out of the school and couldn't have the lesson. Instead, we would walk to a nearby park/playground and have an outdoor lesson. Well, I say lesson, but it turned out to be games instead. Not that I minded. Except for the fact that I spilt Chocomel all over my pants. Sigh.
It was one of the teachers' birthday, and he brought us cake and drinks. Me, being the clumsy, excitable person I am (really, you'd think I'd be more graceful after so many years of doing ballet), totally got excited about something someone said, knocked the paper cup I was holding, and promptly spilt the Chocomel all over my knees and my dictionaries. I can only be thankful that I was sitting next to two girls who, naturally, had tissues and water with them. Ah, girls :)
Anyway, it was a nice and different sort of lesson - weather was great, people I was sitting with were great and the park was great.
Karma wasn't done with me yet, though. After the lesson was over, a few of us wanted to go for a chat and drinks, and we decided to try the newly-opened NAI (Nederlands Architectuurinstituut) cafe.
I love it.
It reminds me so much of bars in KL, with the relaxed and modern al fresco seating!
That's Ihor from Ukraine. Behind him is a huge NAI logo painted on the side of the building. I love the building. I can imagine the kind of pressure on the shoulders of the architect who was commissioned the building that would be the Dutch Architecture Institute ;)
That's Diederik, who was suffering under the heat of the sun. He's not Dutch, I tell you. They normally love sitting out there till they melt like the butter on a poffertje. I normally dislike sitting in the sun, but I really like the fresh air that comes with it. Give and take, I guess.
Slovalenka enjoying the sun.
Ihor still explaining how the height of the Erasmus MC is being increased level by level.
The whole terrace. Doesn't it look like a kind of WIP or 789? Ah, the special treatment I used to get. Hehe.
A strange, but somehow captivating sculpture rising out of the water. I think the yellow pointer thingy looks like a Google Maps pin. I think I'm becoming too technologically-aware. I think I might have liked it more if my first impression of it would be to say that it reminds me of a butterfly discovering a candle flame and being so mesmerised by it that it stayed there day and night till the candle burned out and the butterfly turned yellow in memory of the flame.
Well, Diederik couldn't take the mighty sun anymore, so we moved inside and occupied the long sofa with beautiful cushion covers.
And then we ordered lunch. Mine was a BLT soup (yeah, I've never heard of it either). It was okay. Nothing to shout home about.
After this really lovely outing - I also visited the NAI bookshop, which was sooooo nice - I headed across the Erasmusbrug with Schrobbenmaster to look for a shop for lamps.
In the end, the shop didn't sell lamps, but we stumbled upon some sort of market/festival thing - again. I think I've earned the title of Queen of Stumbleupons :P
It was more of a kid's thing, but the stalls were quite interesting. Even saw an illustrator I've seen at the Swan Market and the design centre. I bought drawings from her before and she remembered us. What a nice girl :) She was there with her mother (I think). So sweet!
It's a really nice-looking neighbourhood. Very family-ish and peaceful. Nothing really for tourists, but it's nice to see a part of Rotterdam that looks more homey, designy and freshly cleaned up.
There was some sort of mashup between hip hop and flamenco from the guys and girls in black and red over there. Uh... I didn't really think they were very good, but everyone else was good-naturedly cheering for them. I actually felt a little sorry for them that they had to watch this substandard Latin-style dancing, when on the poorest streets in Spain or Latin America, you would be able to find really spirited and expressive dancing. But... yeah. That's a whole different story there.
I think a lot of Dutch people like to do these sort of dances just for the fun of it, and not necessarily to be the best at it. I don't agree with that concept, but I can understand that they find it fun and just want to experience it. My disagreement with that comes from the idea that if you want to learn something, you should put your whole heart into it and really want to do it well.
Saw this corner cafe which, I think, is a bookstore/cafe, or some literary cafe, and I am so gonna go back to try it!
One of the acts practising. See the little boy with the bike on the left? He is super cool. He has dreadlocky hair that's tied up into one big dreadlocky thing, which he tucked into his singlet, and it's so long that it poked back out from under the singlet. And it's held together by this steel plate at the tip of his dreadlock. I want a kid like that.
Cosy-looking old-style supermarket.
After having ice cream. I had to take a photo with the bench that matched my pants.
I've recently started watching old episodes of Super Trio Mega Show on YouTube and really enjoying them. Ah, YouTube :) I'm coming to you shortly.
Hope you guys enjoyed this super super long post.
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