TRAVEL AND LIFESTYLE DIARIES

I have not been feeling well lately. Yesterday Saturday, I stayed in bed whilst my willing servant, the Dutchman was at my beck and call – get me some water, where is my brunch, give me my laptop, I want this and that for dinner. Ah, how ideal. I guess this is one of the advantages of having a Dutch man as a partner, they are not machos ;-) Dutchman will be away soon for more than 2 weeks traveling to Asia for work, so during his absence I will be taking the opportunity to take long weekend trips. Today, I have booked my spring trip with a friend from work to the traditional, picturesque, UNESCO world heritage coastal villages of Cinque Terre (finally!) in Liguria, Italy. We might also swing over to nearby fantabulous jet-set spot, Portofino. The excitement is so hard to contain, and it looks like its going to be warm weather down there which will be just perfect. I also still have to book another trip, but solo, to Xanten, an old Roman village in Germany near the Dutch border. They ar...

I have been so very very busy at work and everything is up to my neck! But I love it. Many people say money makes the world go round but nothing motivates me more than winning. Here are some snippets of yesterday’s cruise in the Amsterdam canals. The dark mysterious thin and leaning buildings of Amsterdam. Love to drink ‘rose’ (especially when the sun is out) and I had 4 glasses but surprisingly I didn’t get drunk? Bravo! Well, those are my ‘rosetjes’ ;-) I kind of like the melancholy effect in this shot. The almighty Dutch weather has never failed to entertain us with her peculiar manners. She creeps behind the clouds, casting gloomy shadows as we raft through the freshwater (our tour guide said it is indeed freshwater) canals. Sometimes she showers us with her tears of spring, and from time to time she shows us her glorious rays. Fotos are not rich in pixels as I took them with my mobile phone, but the quality is quite impressive for a little camera in...

Oudegracht in Utrecht and the voorzichtig! sign which means - be careful. This morning I was contemplating on visiting another pretty Dutch village. Barneveld (castle), Huizen (haven), Graft De Rijp (awarded best village), Orvelte (museum village), which one will it be? None of them really happened because I got stuck with my tax filing and chaotic administration (why is it that I am very organized at work and at home I am so cluttered?). I am late already and I can’t seem to figure out my online belegging accounts, sort out my documents, and most of all, I have forgotten (again for the 3rd time) my DigiD username and password! I was so annoyed at myself because here I am surrounded with unsightly stacks of paper and having a massive headache while outside is a beautiful sunny day. Since we didn’t have time to go to another town (it was 4PM already), Dutchman proposed we take a walk in the city center instead. We took the bike to the center with me saddled at the back and parked it i...

Sunday - I woke up 7 in the morning feeling like I was drugged the night before. It seemed like I had floated my way from the bedroom to the hallway to the kitchen and back while heating up our kant-n-klaar pancakes and kicking Dutchman’s butt to get out of bed. I hate hangovers, especially at this age when everything looks like a pail of piss after 5 glasses of booze. Signboards in Loonse and Drunense Duinen and Café de Rustende Jager (means something along the lines of the cafe of the resting hunter). As we all know, I managed to drag myself to the hike hoping that the pesky hangover would leave me at one point. Luckily at around 10AM, just when we arrived in North Brabant (this is actually in the south of the country) in the restaurant called Café de Rustende Jager (in Oude Bosschebaan, Biezenmortel near Udenhout) I started to feel a lot better. Good, it was about time. This is the interior of the cafe and I took this picture from upstairs where we had a great view of the inner ...

“Een kater hebben” means “having a hangover”, which is exactly what happened to me when I woke up this morning – drained, groggy, lightheaded, nauseous, and dehydrated. The last time I had a kater was last month in Budapest after the guys at work treated me to a round of wines that never seem to end. I was glad I made it to my hotel but woke up the next day feeling and looking like shit. This morning was another kater morning. We went to a friend’s 40e birthday bash in Utrecht center last night and I swear I only had 4 glasses of white wine, or maybe it was 5. I guess gone are the days when after a booze-filled evening I can wake up the next day like it’s just another day. “We are old. We can’t drink like we used to before.” the Dutchman resigns, admitting to the fact that we are past our nachtleven lifestyle. He only had 3 beers that night. Adding another one would be forcing him to wear just boxer shorts outside at freezing point. So we got home almost 2AM with me cradled nicely (but...

Recently, I have upgraded my ancient Ericsson mobile phone to a Nokia 6110 Navigator. I chose the Navigator simply because of its purpose other than being a mobile phone. At first, I was looking at Blackberrys because many of my colleagues have them (at work, we are free to choose our phones and subscriptions). The trend nowadays too is -- you are ‘cool’ if you carry a Blackberry (or an iPhone). As for me, I like the looks, the physical characteristics and design of the Blackberry Curve, and its savvy and impressive QWERTY keyboard too. So after a few weeks of online research, I was ready to go face up a dealer. Talking to the dealer was a major enlightenment to the less gadget-sophisticated me. Dealer was very straightforward (thumbs up to Dutch sales people, most do not really beat around the bush, and they will not sell you something you do not need), he asked what I wanted in a phone and what I am going to use it for aside from telephoning – ah, nowadays the mobile telephone has re...

Modern architecture in old Amsterdam Centrum Oost, just a bit in the outskirts near the ring highway. Amsterdam Centrum Oost (East, which is part of now Zeeburg) is a hip and upcoming place to be in Amsterdam. Fotos were taken in the area of Piet Heinkade, Piet Heintunnel and Czaar Peterstraat, near to IJburg and Zeeburg. Some of the touristy, leisure, and historical points in this area are the following: Artis Zoo, Scheepvaart Museum (Ship Museum - VOC), Het IJ, Tropen Museum, Ooster Park, NEMO, OBA - Amsterdam Public Library, Llyod Hotel, Panama, Amsterdam Ferry Terminal, Oude Haven (old port), and the Amsterdam Centraal Station is a little bit to the west.

These days I have been making pasta for dinner because its Dutchman’s favorite and he gets to order them here at home (with the usual line: WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO ORDER FOR DINNER TONIGHT? -- PASTA!), which I gladly make ever since I had my trip in Italy several weeks ago where I bought loads of pasta herb mixes! Vegetarian pasta – it’s been ages since I last took a foto of my culinary experiments. This one was our dinner last Sunday evening, per Dutchman’s order. So now, I don’t have much left of my pasta herbs and I am sooo dying to go back to Italy for a little shopping and sightseeing trip at the end of the month, but it seems we might have a different plan by then since its going to be a long free weekend. This is going to be the last of the meager Dutch holidays until Christmas. They say that the Netherlands has the least number of official holidays in Europe. *sigh* I am glad we have the 25 vacation days to cover up for the lack of it.

Every first Sunday of the month is ‘Koop Zondag’ in Utrecht (and in many towns in the Netherlands, although dates may vary going south). This means one thing -- shops are open. Europe is still, helaas, very conservative in many ways; a liberal and experienced woman who has traditionalistic ways (hmm, sounds like me, lol). An irony she is, isn’t she? There was a fashion show in Hoog Catharijne (biggest mall in the Netherlands and ugliest too, says many Dutch) of the brands in the building, and in the foto are models of the designer, Claudia Strater. I like Claudia Strater, in fact I bought an item there earlier but the clothes these young models were strutting off on the catwalk were not at all flattering and inspiring. By the way, fotos were taken by my Nokia Navigator phone - I was very impressed with the quality of the built-in camera! The concept of 24-hour commercialism is what I truly miss living in good old Europe. It’s still very medieval here when it comes to shop opening...

I was just checking old fotos in my Picasa foto gallery when I chanced upon this scanned 1992-1993 foto of me in Greenhills, Manila. It was during a party. I was then 23 and my eyebrows were still virgins. Very thick. Never been touched with a blade or puller. My eyebrows, 15 years ago! Moi now... Dutchman said I look drunk in this picture. Whatever! Not really sure when I started tidying my eyebrows? It must have been, ack, I do not know anymore! Back then when I was living and working in Manila, I was quite a very popular gal in the office. And for a reason. After work, my female colleagues would all line up in my cubicle area. They are like excited chickens waiting for their turn to be pulled. I mean their eyebrows being pulled, haha! Now, with my current work, I am surrounded with men mostly. IT or ICT is a man’s world, which I have been used to after all these years. It is refreshing to be surrounded by men. I tend to be allergic with cliques (read: women cliques i...

No more maniacally searching for that elusive parking spot before 9AM. No more competing with 5 other cars that spotted the ‘just available’ parking spot in the corner. No more cursing and pulling my hair. No more parking nazis that fines me €60 (argh, every time!) because the butt of my car is a few inches outside the parking perimeter or because I was not supposed to park there? No more 10-minute walk from the parking to the office in my high heels. No more 10-minute walk from the parking to the office in my high heels under the rain. No more 10-minute run from the parking to the office in my high heels cursing under my breath and under the pouring rain because I am late, and because it took me half an hour to find an available parking spot! ARGH Exclusive parking in Amsterdam. I am soooooooo glad I do not have these problems anymore!!! Now, I just step out of the office door, walk a few meters up to the parking on the next level - indoors, then get into the car, and driv...