Today marks the last day of freedom.
From the 1st to the 30th November I will be attempting to write a 50 000 word piece of fiction.
So will a whole bunch of other people around the world as part of the National Novel Writing Month.
Why?
Why not?
The main rule is that you start on the 1st and you finish on the 30th.
The reward is that you actually do it.
Will I write anything worthwhile? A bestseller?
Highly unlikely.
But if you're really lucky, I'll post some of what I write on here!
So if the blog is empty for the next month, you know it's because I'm pulling my hair out trying to finish my very own novella!
31 October 2006
30 October 2006
The Words on a Page
I've always enjoyed books more than films.
I love that blank pages get filled with lots and lots of words.
What I love even more is that those words convey so much: drama, comedy, life, death, love, hate and everything in between.
And even more than that I love that I get to play a part in all of it. A great writer for me allows me to get caught up in their world. Maybe they envisaged their main character with red hair, but for me he has black. Maybe his colleague reminds me of a guy I once knew at school and so he takes on some of those quirky traits that my long lost friend had.
There are always extra dimensions in a book that each reader imagines in different ways.
There are no sounds or images in a book, just words on a page.
I like films but usually I'm not as moved as often as I am with a book.
So a really rare thing happened last night when I watched Shooting Dogs.
It's not a pretty film. It is based on one of our generation's most shameful events and our chosen inability to react to it: the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994.
And what's perhaps scarier than those events (and the failings of world governments and of the UN) is that we don't seem to learn anything from it.
I'm usually a believer in the good of humankind but then I'm confronted with something like this and I wonder.
What is wrong with us?
I love that blank pages get filled with lots and lots of words.
What I love even more is that those words convey so much: drama, comedy, life, death, love, hate and everything in between.
And even more than that I love that I get to play a part in all of it. A great writer for me allows me to get caught up in their world. Maybe they envisaged their main character with red hair, but for me he has black. Maybe his colleague reminds me of a guy I once knew at school and so he takes on some of those quirky traits that my long lost friend had.
There are always extra dimensions in a book that each reader imagines in different ways.
There are no sounds or images in a book, just words on a page.
I like films but usually I'm not as moved as often as I am with a book.
So a really rare thing happened last night when I watched Shooting Dogs.
It's not a pretty film. It is based on one of our generation's most shameful events and our chosen inability to react to it: the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994.
And what's perhaps scarier than those events (and the failings of world governments and of the UN) is that we don't seem to learn anything from it.
I'm usually a believer in the good of humankind but then I'm confronted with something like this and I wonder.
What is wrong with us?
29 October 2006
25 bottles of beer...
and a couple of bottles of wine.
It's been a weekend of eating and drinking with friends.
Friday night saw us going out with Jane and Edwin to celebrate that Jane and I are finally gainfully employed...at the same language school in Vught.
It's been a weekend of eating and drinking with friends.
Friday night saw us going out with Jane and Edwin to celebrate that Jane and I are finally gainfully employed...at the same language school in Vught.
When I went to reserve the table for the evening I was ready with my Dutch sentence: Ik wil graag een tafel reserveren voor vanavond voor vier personen om half acht.
The guy at the restaurant stopped me halfway through in English.
I asked him if he would speak in Dutch: In Nederlands?
He quickly replied: I don't speak Dutch.
Me: Neither do I.
Him: I'll get a Dutch speaker for you!
Out comes another guy who speaks Dutch so I can reserve in Dutch!
We met at 7.30 and got the 4 person house special which included lots of yummy Indian delicacies.
Yum.
Then last night we had Patrick and Sam over for dinner. Patrick and Nico know each other from their university days. Sam is the American half of Patrick who speaks rocking Dutch and funny southern US English.
We spoke about grammar, Campina, separating milk, kosher milk, lexis and many other nerdy things while appreciating white wine, red wine and a few bottles of beer.
I asked him if he would speak in Dutch: In Nederlands?
He quickly replied: I don't speak Dutch.
Me: Neither do I.
Him: I'll get a Dutch speaker for you!
Out comes another guy who speaks Dutch so I can reserve in Dutch!
We met at 7.30 and got the 4 person house special which included lots of yummy Indian delicacies.
Yum.
Then last night we had Patrick and Sam over for dinner. Patrick and Nico know each other from their university days. Sam is the American half of Patrick who speaks rocking Dutch and funny southern US English.
We spoke about grammar, Campina, separating milk, kosher milk, lexis and many other nerdy things while appreciating white wine, red wine and a few bottles of beer.
Feelin' the lurve, all y'all.
Would you marry any of them...or grammar?
OK, you had to be there.
The aftermath.
28 October 2006
NEWSFLASH!!
Australia's next top models have been announced!
And the winners are...
And the winners are...
The one on the left came in second as she just couldn't strike the same natural, photogenic poses as the one on the right.
And especially for all you readers, here is a photo that they tried to withhold from the press as it just doesn't show the same level of beauty as their official release above.
26 October 2006
All my friends are getting married!
What is it with all the engagements and/or weddings?
First it was Tomas and Jessica in Sweden.
Then on the other side of the world in Brazil, Fabs and Michele tell me they are planning their wedding for next May.
Brenda and Mehmet got hitched in Turkey. They managed to do everything in about a week or two...the proposal, the planning, the ceremony and then fly to Malaysia where they will be living for a while!
And last night Edwin and Jane announced that Edwin had popped the question, Jane had said yes and the church is booked for next July.
So why are all my friends getting married?!
Did they all catch a bouquet recently?
First it was Tomas and Jessica in Sweden.
Then on the other side of the world in Brazil, Fabs and Michele tell me they are planning their wedding for next May.
Brenda and Mehmet got hitched in Turkey. They managed to do everything in about a week or two...the proposal, the planning, the ceremony and then fly to Malaysia where they will be living for a while!
And last night Edwin and Jane announced that Edwin had popped the question, Jane had said yes and the church is booked for next July.
So why are all my friends getting married?!
Did they all catch a bouquet recently?
25 October 2006
20 October 2006
Ik kan lezen als een 3 jarig kind!
(I can read like a 3 year old kid!)
Yep. That's my most current reading material. But hey, what takes a Dutch kid about 3 years has only taken me about 3 months!
18 October 2006
Learning or the Land of the Nerds?
Some people like to learn languages, others music, others martial arts and others should learn how to write interesting blog entries!
I'm a fan of learning but that could all come down to the fact that I like to be a teacher's pet! Well, I claim that I just don't like to be the dumb one in class but others assure me that I just want to be the 'T.P'.
So maybe this is the reason I attract other, ahem, nerds.
Last night, Anke, Jane and I met at a cafe to discuss how to modify adjectives and the rules for forming comparatives and superlatives in Dutch.
But look, we also had a few rounds of bokbier...does that knock off a few points from the nerd scale and put a few on to the cool scale?
Well, it's a busy day today. I have to continue watching these morning programs for kids, I mean people studying Dutch, and then I have to do some homework for my class tonight. Actually, I have done all my homework so I'll just do some extra to give to my teacher...
17 October 2006
Dinner Date
Nico went to the Czech Republic for work last night, so my new found friends, Jane and Edwin, invited me to their place for dinner.
Good food, good wine...well, ok, it was a bit fruity, good stories and photos, a good film (Finding Nemo on their home cinema. No, I don't mean a wide screen tv, I mean a mini-cinema) and good company.
I need to work on my adjectives.
And just in case you're wondering, they really aren't that weird!
16 October 2006
12 October 2006
Short? Who, me?
Today I tried to shop for clothes for the first time since I've been here.
It has (again) been reinforced to me just how challenged I am in the height department.
At some of my regular-shopping-shops in other faraway lands, they have leg lengths of 'short', 'regular' and 'long'.
In the land of the gigantors, they have 'regular', 'long' and 'extra-long'.
I saw some other short girls in every shop I went into.
They too were shopping bag-less.
A tall friend used to sing 'Short people have no business...' to me. I'm sure it was playing on the inter-shop radio station today.
It's a tall-girl-world!
Donations of short clothes and platforms are now being accepted!
It has (again) been reinforced to me just how challenged I am in the height department.
At some of my regular-shopping-shops in other faraway lands, they have leg lengths of 'short', 'regular' and 'long'.
In the land of the gigantors, they have 'regular', 'long' and 'extra-long'.
I saw some other short girls in every shop I went into.
They too were shopping bag-less.
A tall friend used to sing 'Short people have no business...' to me. I'm sure it was playing on the inter-shop radio station today.
It's a tall-girl-world!
Donations of short clothes and platforms are now being accepted!
08 October 2006
What a week?!
I think it was that mostly sombre photography exhibition last Sunday and the change in weather (yes, I'm in the Netherlands so I must include a comment or two on the weather!) that had me not so motivated on Monday morning.
That or my lack of things to do.
Or so I thought.
I knew I'd be getting my So-Fi number on Thursday so I started looking for work and updating my CV. Fun? No. Time consuming? Yes.
But it has paid off...kind of.
I had an informal interview on Tuesday with an English woman who has her own small school here in Eindhoven. Interested in hiring me? Yes. Any work at the moment? No.
Then I was contacted to do some online teaching for a company I taught with in Turkey. The interview is this Tuesday. Interesting? Yes. Many hours? No.
And then the nuns called.
'The nuns of Vught' AKA Regina Coeli Language Intstitute, woke me up on Tuesday morning to invite me for an interview on Friday 13th! What kind of nuns are they?!
Well, the short answer is, they aren't nuns.
A few hundred years ago religious types were allowed to be involved in mainstream education. And then they weren't. So the nuns who ran and taught at a school for girls had to find something else to do. And what do you know? They got into language teaching. They were good at it too. They taught languages to the Dutch secret service and a lot of diplomats.
Now they perform their language teaching miracles at a cost of 2390 EUROS PER WEEK!!!
Except the nuns don't do it now. Just these foreigners who turn up in the Netherlands and live somewhere near Vught, somewhere like Eindhoven.
And then apart from all the job hunting I met an Aussie. She's 30. She's here on a working holiday visa. She's living in Eindhoven. She's been here about 2 months. She has a Dutch boyfriend. She's studying Dutch. She has an interview with the nuns on Friday 13th.
No I didn't meet myself.
She's from Melbourne.
So we went out for a drink on Friday. I'm trying to swindle her out of her vegemite. Good night out? Yes. Successful swindling? Not yet!
It was Nico's birthday on Thursday but he had some work bonding session on the day so I didn't have to bake and fawn! His parents came over on Saturday with bundles of gifts and he spent the rest of the day ripping cds to his shiny new MP3 player and making 'Senseo' coffees.
It was also his grandmother's 95th birthday! We went to her soiree last Tuesday with about 100 family members. She actually remembered me from when I met her for about half an hour more than 3 years ago! Young? No. Alert? Yes!
And to end the week(end) on a high note, the sun was shining today so we went for a 47.5km bike ride! Good exercise? Yes. Did my newish gel seat prevent the 'discomfort' in my rear end? NO!
That or my lack of things to do.
Or so I thought.
I knew I'd be getting my So-Fi number on Thursday so I started looking for work and updating my CV. Fun? No. Time consuming? Yes.
But it has paid off...kind of.
I had an informal interview on Tuesday with an English woman who has her own small school here in Eindhoven. Interested in hiring me? Yes. Any work at the moment? No.
Then I was contacted to do some online teaching for a company I taught with in Turkey. The interview is this Tuesday. Interesting? Yes. Many hours? No.
And then the nuns called.
'The nuns of Vught' AKA Regina Coeli Language Intstitute, woke me up on Tuesday morning to invite me for an interview on Friday 13th! What kind of nuns are they?!
Well, the short answer is, they aren't nuns.
A few hundred years ago religious types were allowed to be involved in mainstream education. And then they weren't. So the nuns who ran and taught at a school for girls had to find something else to do. And what do you know? They got into language teaching. They were good at it too. They taught languages to the Dutch secret service and a lot of diplomats.
Now they perform their language teaching miracles at a cost of 2390 EUROS PER WEEK!!!
Except the nuns don't do it now. Just these foreigners who turn up in the Netherlands and live somewhere near Vught, somewhere like Eindhoven.
And then apart from all the job hunting I met an Aussie. She's 30. She's here on a working holiday visa. She's living in Eindhoven. She's been here about 2 months. She has a Dutch boyfriend. She's studying Dutch. She has an interview with the nuns on Friday 13th.
No I didn't meet myself.
She's from Melbourne.
So we went out for a drink on Friday. I'm trying to swindle her out of her vegemite. Good night out? Yes. Successful swindling? Not yet!
It was Nico's birthday on Thursday but he had some work bonding session on the day so I didn't have to bake and fawn! His parents came over on Saturday with bundles of gifts and he spent the rest of the day ripping cds to his shiny new MP3 player and making 'Senseo' coffees.
It was also his grandmother's 95th birthday! We went to her soiree last Tuesday with about 100 family members. She actually remembered me from when I met her for about half an hour more than 3 years ago! Young? No. Alert? Yes!
And to end the week(end) on a high note, the sun was shining today so we went for a 47.5km bike ride! Good exercise? Yes. Did my newish gel seat prevent the 'discomfort' in my rear end? NO!
02 October 2006
World Press Photography
We went to see the World Press Photography Exhibition yesterday.
It's an annual travelling exhibition of the best press photos.
I've seen this exhibition quite a few times in the past and love to go check it out when it gets to a country that I'm in.
It is always impressive, but as you can imagine, the press is often more about 'bad' news than 'good' news. This year there are photos from the much publicised war in Iraq, the less publicised 'conflicts' in the DR Congo, Togo and Guatamela, the aftermath of the tsunami in SE Asia, the earthquake in Kashmir and Hurricane Katrina. The photos are very confronting and if you do have the chance to go see it, you might want to take some tissues.
But it isn't all like this. There are good things in the world and one of these good things is sport. There are great action shots from the Sahara Marathon, the horse races in Australia, bull fighting in Colombia, Nada Kusti in India, the Philly Roller Girls, boys in Afghanistan playing football in an empty swimming pool...
If you haven't seen the exhibition yet, check if it's due near you:
http://www.worldpressphoto.nl/index.php?option=com_calendar&task=view&catid=95&selectedItem=51&Itemid=83&bandwidth=high#51
If you have missed it, you can always check the photos online:
http://www.worldpressphoto.nl/index.php?option=com_photogallery&task=blogsection&id=16&Itemid=137&bandwidth=high
It's an annual travelling exhibition of the best press photos.
I've seen this exhibition quite a few times in the past and love to go check it out when it gets to a country that I'm in.
It is always impressive, but as you can imagine, the press is often more about 'bad' news than 'good' news. This year there are photos from the much publicised war in Iraq, the less publicised 'conflicts' in the DR Congo, Togo and Guatamela, the aftermath of the tsunami in SE Asia, the earthquake in Kashmir and Hurricane Katrina. The photos are very confronting and if you do have the chance to go see it, you might want to take some tissues.
But it isn't all like this. There are good things in the world and one of these good things is sport. There are great action shots from the Sahara Marathon, the horse races in Australia, bull fighting in Colombia, Nada Kusti in India, the Philly Roller Girls, boys in Afghanistan playing football in an empty swimming pool...
If you haven't seen the exhibition yet, check if it's due near you:
http://www.worldpressphoto.nl/index.php?option=com_calendar&task=view&catid=95&selectedItem=51&Itemid=83&bandwidth=high#51
If you have missed it, you can always check the photos online:
http://www.worldpressphoto.nl/index.php?option=com_photogallery&task=blogsection&id=16&Itemid=137&bandwidth=high
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