TRAVEL AND LIFESTYLE DIARIES

Saturday evening. Dutchman and I were gasping and running our butts off to the Rembrandt movie theater. Fast, fast! We booked our seats via the online movie booking system, Belbios and that means we should be at the kassa (cashier) 30 minutes before the program starts. Ocean Twelve… Frankly speaking, the film was a disappointment. The storyline was fine in the beginning then it strayed off and went straight to the moon! Goodness gracious, for a movie with such high profile actors in its cast, it made me wonder where they placed their excellent judgment in picking movie projects(?). But then, I am admirably such a critic, more so the Dutchman. “ Ocean Eleven was surely better. ”, Dutchman said. Here is whats refreshing, the first half of the movie was filmed in good old Amsterdam. Seeing the familiar architecture, streets, stalls and even hearing the church bells ringing brought a strange déjà vu feeling. Amsterdam is beautiful, enigmatic, rustic and mysterious. And the reprehensibly...

One of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Masterpiece. Mona Lisa: Wut up? Wuh yu lookin at muh? What is her secret? Is she hiding something from us? Why is she giving that mischievous smile? The Da Vinci Code book. Quite a controversial piece... but then, I am not religious myself so I am not really surprised. Jesus loved a woman. That woman was Mary Magdalene. They were supposed to be married. And Mary Magdalene was never a prostitute. Then they had children. Jesus had children. Jesus was a man... after all. Jesus Christ!!! Have you read the book?

Finally, the Bebe Paña case has folded and was drawn to an end after 4 years of searching for her body, believed to have been killed and hidden by her cold blooded Dutch husband, Edwin. I actually just received the news today from the Dutchman. He called me at home (I am still on strike lol) that the case was on the headline news of the Telegraaf newspaper. I could not find the news on its online page so I went to the site of Peter R. de Vries , the host of Reality TV Crime & Detective stories. He has been very active with this case. It was indeed confirmed --- Bebe Paña was found, DEAD, just recently. For the full news and photos, click on Peter R. de Vries link above. Look into the red section of NIEUWS, then click MEER below. Bebe Paña with her son when she was still alive. Her remains were discovered under the cement floor of the murderer husband’s twin brother in Nuenen (The Netherlands), who obviously was an accessory to the crime. He is currently taken into police custody....

(I decided to split my last entry and make it a full blown topic) Dutchman and I just love the weekend uitslapen (oversleeping). We are the certified lazy butts and we cherish every moment we can get to linger in bed under the comforts of the warm duvets. Ah yes, we desperately need to win the Lotto!!! “We are going to the Centrum (center) after boodschappen (grocery shopping), okay.” I ordered Dutchman, whilst standing outside the toilet door. Yeah he is inside busy doing what he must do, lol. “Yes, that would be fine.” was all I heard from him. “Good...” I muttered and quickly rushed to get myself ready, with Mr. Paracetamol in tow. Although my body is still on strike on a Saturday, I felt the need to go out and get some fresh air. The weather was rather cold but dry, with intermittent rays of sun splashing throughout the horizon and its reflection mirroring the rustic Dutch architectures. We strolled the Centrum an window shopped, which in our book means - looking not buying, a...

This whole week has been a total defiance for me, well my body that is, because I was and am still sick. I visited my doctor last Tuesday and he referred me to another one. That’s the system here in NL, centralized with lots of red tape. It’s not the same in the Philippines or any other country where you can just go visit any doctor or drop by at any OPD (Out Patient Department) of a hospital anytime. In NL, no one will entertain you, they move here by appointments. *sigh* MAMMA MIA! A girl’s night out: the mother in law, sister in law and me yesterday Friday. I still wasn’t feeling well but the tickets were already bought last year. I just can’t cancel and say rain check, it’s € 60 (US$ 80) loss of money. So I went. The musicale play was held at this imposing Beatrix Theater in Utrecht right below Utrecht Centraal Station... which for me is 5 minutes away by tram or car, less than 10 minutes by bike and 20 minutes by foot from where we live. The theater was full. The ent...

It’s been roughly a week after the glorious 3 weeks of warm holiday in the Philippines. The reality has finally sunk down that we are back in the cold and windy land. Outside, I hear the angry swooshing of the wind, its tune reminding me of a choir whistling. And from where I am seated in our living room, I can see the trees and some flags swaying freely. Holland, a windy country. It is not really that cold, but the callous wind can make 9C feel like its 2C. It bites through leaving painful stings on our skin. I also have to grip myself tight so as not to be tossed and turned by the militant wind. Dutch weather sucks, big time. Now, on to some better reports... Yesterday Friday was The Dutchman’s birthday and since he hates growing old, I shall not reveal his real age online. He thinks though he is still 21 years old... yeah right, haha. So as usual, the whole schoonfamilie (in laws) was over last night to celebrate his verjaardag (birthday). Dutch birthdays are family syndications, ...

THE MOTHER Dutchman and I, together with my unwavering family, stayed in the same hotel in Makati for my brother’s wedding (last December). The Dutchman went flat out delirious when the mother at precisely 9AM-sharp, calls us out of bed for breakfast. Then a few minutes before 10AM, a follow up call from again, the mother, reminding us that breakfast in the hotel closes in 10 minutes. What would you do if your mother in law calls you every single day out of your bed, while you are still suffering from jetlag? OK so we finally got up after 12NOON and the phone rang again. “ Get it! Get it! ” screamed the Dutchman throwing the telephone to my side of the bed. “ I am sure it’s the mother AGAIN! ” On the line: “ I have bought brunch for the two of you. Your father will bring it up to your room. Do you want something else? ”, the mother said into the phone receiver. “ Aahhh, what a wonderful mother in law I have ”, grinned the Dutchman concluding... patting his hungry tummy, while his other...

Just a little summary of my 2004 year with monthly highlights… JANUARY – Winter Holiday! Dutchman and I went to the Canary Islands in Spain for a 1.5 weeks escape from the cold. Perfect, it was Dutchman's birthday too! The islands were fantastic geographically located beside Africa facing the south of Morocco and the north of Western Sahara. Enjoyably, it has a reliable 23C winter temperature by day and a soft 18C-19C at night. When I got back to the -0C winter in NL, I suffered fever and cold shocks that lasted for a month! The famous sand dunes in Corralejo, Fuerteventura, Canary Islands. A photographer's haven! FEBRUARY – Dutchman and I had a playful tug of war fight, kind of a bit romantic re: Valentines Day . He reasons that it is pointless for the supposedly cold-unemotional-pragmatic-Dutch to celebrate this futile commercial event since this act doesn’t exist in their book, thus no dinner and no gift! WAH! Eventually he cowered and treated me to the American ...

I am still overwhelmed by the Asia Quake - Indian Ocean incident. Every single day, I am glued watching BBC as the latest tragic news unravels right before my very eyes. It is just so painful and beyond belief to see the unspeakable video footages and pictures. It makes my nerves weak. Dutchman and I was in a bar-restaurant in Panglao Island (Bohol) on a Sunday early evening drinking our after dinner coffee when we saw the dreadful news. At first, we thought it was just a typical quake, but later that night at around 11pm, we came back to the same bar-restaurant for late night drinks (unfortunately it was the only bar that had the TV on in that area of the beach), then we saw how huge the scale of the catastrophe is. We could not stop focusing on Thailand: Phuket and Phi Phi Islands , since we have been there. Thinking about the tsunami made us feel vulnerable. Majority of the resort hotels in Phi Phi are housed along the very thin coastline strip, about 200-300 meters in width fr...