Veluwe: Valentines, Van Gogh and a Very cute squirrel

Not that I’m complaining, but we had been doing lots of out-of-country holidays lately and decided to spend our Valentines weekend in Holland! So, Kaushik rented a car and we drove (well Kaushik drove..I handed him water and cookies as needed) about 2 hours to our rented cabin in the province of Gelderland.

It was a lovely scenic drive, which along the way we managed to spot a man wearing clogs! The Netherlands is often a cliche of people wearing clogs and growing tulips, but the only people you see wearing clogs these days are farmers or people living in rural areas. So yes, it was quite a treat to see and one which I greeted with an enthusiastic “Oh my god that man is wearing clogs!!!”

Once we arrived at our cabin and packed our fridge full of copious and probably un-necessary amounts of food, we hopped back in to the car and drove to Veluwe which contains the national park, Nationaal Park de Hoge Veluwe.

There wasn’t much daylight left once we arrived at the park, but we were still keen to check it out so we went on in (there is a 7 euro entry per adult) and helped ourselves to their courtesy bikes provided.

I can’t tell you how amazed I was at the ever changing landscape of this national park! One moment it looked like you were in a dense woodland in the Netherlands (funny that!) but then the trees would clear, sand would appear and it seemed like you were all of a sudden in the middle of an Australian desert. Keep riding, then you’re in Africa! It was amazing. And this was only seen through our short 10km ride that afternoon, I couldn’t wait to come back tomorrow and see what else this landscape had to offer.

Tired and hungry, we drove back to our cabin and dined on some obligatory romantic wine and cheese, it was Valentines day after all! Then it was time for dinner which was a delicious mushroom risotto ala Kaushik, and then I made a ridiculously decadent chocolate fondue with strawberries.

We also watched a particularly unromantic and heavy film called Children of Men. It was a fantastic movie, one which involved me yelling and sitting on the edge of the couch, but not one I would recommend if you’re in the mood for a chortle.

Good night!

Next morning I got up pretty quickly for I was hoping and wishing to catch a glimpse of a squirrel (Dutch word: Eekhorn) which I had been told by my boss at work I would probably see. I was preparing some pancake batter when Kaushik called out “Look there he is!!” so I ran to the glass door and sure enough there was a squirrel, bouncing around in the distance! We went outside very carefully and left some bits of biscuit in hopes of luring him closer.

This did work, momentarily…he came right up to our cabin (with us inside excitedly whispering and dancing around) but he didn’t seem too fussed with said biscuit and he hopped away, breaking our hearts. So we snuck outside again and left little bits of banana in hopes that perhaps he had more of a sweet tooth. Which he did! He came back and we managed to take about 72 photos of him, this being one of them:

Aaaanyway I think I’m dwelling a little too long on him….he was just extremely cute, tiny and had pointed ears…I can’t help my excitement. So, we ate my pancakes and drove back to the national park for an epic 26 km bike ride!

Mind you, we did stop for lunch and a tour of the Kroller Muller museum which is situated in the middle of the National park. This particular art gallery is home to the second largest collection of Van Gogh paintings in the world, so we were naturally excited. Here we are with our favorites from this particular collection:

Back on to our bikes to complete our journey through the park where we faced very rainy and windy conditions! It was certainly hard slogging and a lot of work, but I found it really rewarding to push myself.

See what I mean about the ever changing landscape here?

An old hunting lodge situated in the park (yes the lake is frozen!)

Me looking very intelligent, making a hole in the ice with a stick

Ahh, we finally made it back to the car with thighs that felt like truck tyres! We finished the night off with some greasy chinese food to ruin all of the goodness we did for our bodies that day.

Oh and to cut a long story not very short, Nationaal Park De Hoge Veluwe has been one of my most favorite trips so far. I can’t explain how beautiful and strange the scenery was and I love how you could feel like you were in the middle of nowhere. I’m looking forward to going back when it’s warmer, but riding around in the rain was half the fun!

London

My first impression of London? A girls skanky behind. Seriously.

We got off the train from the airport at Victoria station and were heading towards our hotel room when these two girls walked past us and made me stare for all of the wrong reasons, then when I did a double take, her skirt was so short that I could actually see her bum crack, from below!

Then we thought we were about to be mugged by this group of teenagers straight out of Vickie Pollard’s friendship circle from Little Brittain. Luckily we didn’t, they just offered to sell us a stolen phone.

Finally we made it safely to our hotel room to drop our bags off and then it was time for dinner at a lovely Turkish restaurant where we stuffed our faces. Good food from restaurants is very unpredictable and inconsistent in The Netherlands, so we were excited to be in London where there’s a lot of variety.

Bed time already after a few cocktails which helped me have a deep night sleep, something I hadn’t experienced for a while.

The next day started with a delicious coffee, another thing I miss since living in The Netherlands. The Dutch drink a lot of coffee….but it’s generally quite unpleasant. Or maybe it’s just different to what I’m used to?

Then we caught a bus to the London Bridge which we of course walked across. I think Holland has toughened us up in terms of dealing with cold weather, because while we were simply sporting  jumpers, most people around us were rugged up in ski jackets, scarves, beanies and anything else you would wear if it were actually freezing.

We look like lego people with lego hair

The sun was in and out of the clouds that day, made for this unique lighting

More walking took us to the Borough Markets where we ate some lunch (Kaushik had his token fish and chips) and then we continued on to the Tate Modern art gallery. I really like Kaushik’s honesty when it comes to art. I do, I’m not being sarcastic. He doesn’t wank around, trying to see meaning in artworks or why they chose this color etc etc. He simply likes it, doesn’t like it or thinks it’s ridiculous that it’s in a gallery in the first place because it looks like anyone could have made it.

I often feel the same, but on the other hand believe that art doesn’t have to be something you spend days, months or years on. Just because it may have only taken minutes to splash the paint on to the canvas, it shouldn’t determine whether it is art gallery worthy or not.

Moving on, we did more walking which took us past a skateboard park where we stopped and watched for a while, as did most passer by-ers as it just seemed so out of place, but pretty cool.

Onwards towards Big Ben. (We skipped the London Eye: at 30 pounds per ticket and probably 2 hours waiting in line, we could think of 376 better things to do with our time and money.)

Before we get to my touristy photos of Giant Benjamin, I want to share this photo with you. Might I add, this isn’t the first humorous photo I have taken of Ms. Hilton in a pile of garbage. Also note the title of the article.

Having done enough site seeing, it was time to meet up with our friends Matt and Trixie  from Sydney who have moved to London. We really enjoyed hanging out with them, indulging in a few too many drinks which lead to us going to a Purple Sneakers-esque type of night called After School Club. I think it really was an after school club because the patrons mostly looked about 18 years old. I’m getting old! Never the less we still had fun dancing around to Vampire Weekend and other fun music being played.

Matt and Trix

It was time for bed, after walking for about an hour back to our hotel. Another night of good sleep!

The next day started a little more relaxed and slow, but we made the treck to the famous Camden markets where it quickly became extremely busy and a little full on! I scored a beautiful green coat for just 15 pounds, and I could have easily bought more so I reccomend dropping by these markets if you’re after anything vintage at a good price!

Well, that’s probably all you want to know about our trip to London….that’s if you even made it this far!

I’m still here!

I’ve just been busy…..and lazy with the whole keeping this blog thing updated. I have a feeling there have been 100086 other blog posts which have started like that, sorry for the banality.

Once I get around to scanning my latest roll of developed photos, I will post our latest adventures in London, Prague and Veluwe which is a beautiful national park in the Netherlands where we did an epic 26km bike ride.

In the meantime, you can have a look at what has been keeping me busy. Basically where I work, they have a lot of projects running. One of which is a website called Apple Pie Pussy, a website which sells jewelry, you perverts.

One of my bosses makes these necklaces, bracelets etc and I’ve been taking photos of them to be used on their website and magazines. The links to my photos are here (click on the products link under each category to see more of my photos):

here

here

here

here

here

and here (I wish)

I’ve been up to a lot more, but my work for those projects aren’t online yet. I really have learned a lot from working here so far, I try not to imagine if I didn’t manage to get a job over here.

Too much information

Okay, so the Dutch are known to be pretty relaxed with the whole nudity and sex thing. Some examples of this are:

• Pornography on free to air T.V (the other night was “fat” porn, don’t worry it was just the commercial for it that I saw!)
• The Red Light district of Amsterdam where ladies stand half naked in windows, basically advertising what they have on offer
• It is not unusual to see breasts in printed advertising
• Windows in the Netherlands are often quite large and curtainless….say no more

All of the above is totally fine with me because if you know me well enough then you will understand that I’m the type of person who scoffs at people for getting easily offended about such topics.

On the other hand though, there is one advertisement aired on Dutch T.V which really has  me feeling awkward and icky whenever it comes on.

Watch and squirm.

Too much information? I think, yes. Especially for a female, watching this makes you feel like everyone is finding about the secret life of Aunt Fanny. Plus, I generally don’t delight in imagining what other women’s treasure troves get up to during the day, because basically the camera angle used in this commercial is specifically what it makes you do! Unless I’m just some kind of pervert.

Give me the Beaver commercial any day! I can’t believe it was banned. Imagine if they aired the douche ad in Australia? Chaos!

A poem about two young brothers who catch my bus

They were fair brothers.
Fair as in light in skin and hair.

They were also thin brothers.
Thin as in bearing resemblance to a crooked pin.

While I watch the brothers talk on the bus, they hunch over and protect their insecurely spoken words.

Once they arrive at their stop and proceed to cross the road, they do so with extreme caution, reminding me of deer.

I imagine their father to be a strict man.

Strict as in drunk with a mean tongue.

That pretty white stuff

When I was young, I would sometimes sit and watch the rain fall from the sky. I would concentrate on each rain drop and imagine it becoming larger and frozen, like snow. Of course because I lived in Sydney, my fantasy never came true.

So you can imagine the first time I saw snow falling from the sky, I thought it was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen!

It has snowed a few times in The Hague this winter. Kaushik and I had a token snowball fight but didn’t get around to building a snow man, which I hope we can do eventually if it does snow here again. It also snowed a whole lot when we were staying in Antwerp, Belgium. The snow flakes began small, but then built up to be the size of if you were to make a circle with your thumb and pointer finger! It was blanketing tables, cars and trees and we managed to find shelter in a restaurant and watched from inside as we were getting too wet.

As it often happens, the snow melted and we thought that was it for a while. But the next day it piled so high within the space of 4 minutes I couldn’t believe it! I know it seems like i’m so easily excited by snow…..but the truth is…I really am!

Antwerp

Antwerp

Antwerp

Antwerp

Antwerp

Our window (The Hague)

Across the road

I’m Loaded (sort of….)

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while now, but other funny/crazy things kept happening that I wanted to post about. I also didn’t want to get ahead of myself in case it didn’t work out…..but it has….I have a job!

For about one and a half months I spent my spare time looking through job advertisements on expat websites which were suited towards English speakers….well that was usually the introduction to the job ad. Once you clicked on the ad to find out more, you discovered that not only do you have to speak English, but you had to speak Italian, French, German and Swahili on top of that! Despite all of that I still managed to apply to quite a few jobs which weren’t necessarily my cup of tea, but I just needed something to keep me occupied and supply my bank account with some moolah. I heard back from pretty much no one and began feeling worried I wouldn’t be able to contribute financially.

Just when I thought it was looking impossible to get a job over here, I sent a few emails to some design agencies around my area and I received a response from the one I was most excited about! Loaded Ink asked me to come in for an interview, which I did with enthusiasm and hope.

Loaded Ink is located here in Scheveningen (the office is about 5 minutes from here)

I was welcomed by a young married couple who seem to be doing really well for themselves. As with most interviews we discussed the usual stuff and looked through examples of my work. The difference with this job interview though was that it seemed really positive and promising, so I left feeling like maybe…just maybe I would actually be working as a graphic designer in The Netherlands!

Well as you know by the start of this post, I did indeed get the job and have been working there full time since December. I’m really loving it there; Mariko and Mark (the owners) give me lots of room to use my creativity and I feel like they trust my judgement. I also get along with them as well as their PR girl, Yvonne.

Oh! And they have a cat called Dee Dee who lives there (the design office is also where they live). Although she hasn’t been overly friendly with me, I truly enjoy her loud “MEEEOOOOWW”s when she wants something or simply just feels like being heard.

I feel so lucky to have found a job….and a graphic design job at that! It will make such a difference to my future career because I feel that the rest of the word have lots of respect for Dutch design.

So, to anyone job seeking overseas: don’t give up! You will eventually come across something so long as you keep looking of course.

UPDATE:

Woo! One of my first projects is up on their website! I made the concept and illustrated the UNICEF advertisement    (bottom row, 2nd tile)

There’s no place like home

The best christmas present I got last year was going home for the holiday! Sure it was expensive and a long….long….long way away, but it was totally worth it! Being on the other side of the world makes you appreciate simple things like having a cup of tea with your mum.

After the long haul back to Sydney, walking in to my “real” house was so bizarre because for some reason it felt like either I had grown 1 foot taller from living in Holland (the land of giants)…or my house had shrunken!

So…. I had escaped the “exotic” traditions of Holland’s Christmas (technically Sinterklaas Avond, not related to “our” holiday) and was entering the familiar traditions of an Australian Christmas…..one of which is the making of Christmas fruit cake!

Every year, mum and I use my nanna’s (her mum’s) special recipe which is written by her on several pieces of paper with specific instructions, so cute. It is the most rich, fruity and moist (I usually detest the word ‘moist’ but there was no other suitable term) fruit cake I have ever eaten. Because I knew I wouldn’t be hanging around for very long after Christmas, I ate as much of this cake each day because I hated the thought of missing out on it’s deliciousness.

Mum holding nanna's christmas cake recipe

Me in our green kitchen

Christmas itself started with mum and I exchanging presents like little kids who couldn’t wait for the other guests to arrive! Then Kaushik arrived and we sat down to a fruit salad and pancake breakfast. My brother also swung by for a visit, one of the few times I see him each year…although to be fair he’s been busy working and studying lately.

Before heading off to visit my aunty Pat and her partner Peter (P overload!) in Wollongong, I dropped by Kaushik’s house to wish his family a happy Christmas. His family (like most) cook up a giant lunch which could feed a small country. I also love how his dad will deliberately go for a brisk walk before lunch, thus working up an appetite

So anyway, mum and I set off to Wollongong with a picnic lunch stop on the way. I can’t tell you how much I was enjoying the sun and heat after coming from a winter climate! Once we arrived I surprised my aunt with my new hair (did you notice in the photo?) and enjoyed a leisurely afternoon of cups of tea and catching up.

The next day we visited the Nan Tien Temple which is the largest Buddhist temple in the Southern Hemisphere. It was so refreshing to go inside the temples and be greeted by calm and peaceful statues of Buddha…it’s such a contrast to visiting a Catholic church which is often filled with grim and frightening depictions of death which leave you feeling guilty and scared. The surrounding gardens and lotus ponds were also very beautiful and I would love to go back one day with a picnic lunch. Yep…..food.

Aunty Pat and mum being cute

Me, aunty Pat and mum

One of the lotus ponds

We then visited Peter’s lovely parents house who’s backyard is filled with home grown vegetables and chickens. I really want to live that way one day, it seems to keep them young…not to mention the money they save and it’s benefits for the environment.

It was time to drive back home to Sydney where mum and I rented “Little Miss Sunshine”. I had been planning on watching it for a long time and I’m glad we did….what a ridiculous ending! Loved it.

The rest of my time back home was spent just hanging out with mum and catching up with some of my friends. It’s funny that no matter how exciting and different travelling is, I look forward to the day when I go back to my “normal” life. In the mean time, I’m really enjoying living overseas while it lasts!

Block your ears…

…..on The first Monday of every month at 12:00pm in The Netherlands.

Why? Because that’s when they test their air raid sirens! There are approximately 4200 placed around the country, one of which is situated right outside our apartment. I recorded the siren with my crappy web cam, but it gives you a good idea of how it sounds, especially if you turn your speakers up. WARNING: The recording might make you want to simultaneously throw up and poo your pants…I’m just saying.

The first time I heard this, I was home alone because Kaushik had started work. As soon as it started I sat up in my seat and completely stopped whatever it was I was doing. It continued whaling it’s eerie song so I got out of my chair and carefully walked to the lounge room window to look outside to see what airplane was about to bomb us, because that’s what I honestly thought was about to happen!

What I saw outside the window was the opposite of what I expected; everyone kept going about their business as though nothing was happening. So, I paced around a little until the siren finished scaring me half to death.

When Kaushik came home I told him about the siren, which he didn’t seem too spooked about because he hadn’t heard it and probably didn’t understand just how loud it actually was.

Fast forward to the next first Monday of the month, which at this point I still didn’t know was a test. While it still managed to make me feel nauseous due to the images of WWII it brought upon, I didn’t panic as much that time.

When Kaushik came home this time, he was all worried that I was scared because he did some research and found out that the siren I mentioned last time was a test they do each first Monday of the month at 12pm. Of course, I had to youtube the siren straight away when I knew it was a regular thing, to show Kaushik how it sounded, which he reluctantly listened to.

I know I probably seem a little over dramatic about it all, but until you hear it for real and unexpectedly at that, it’s hard to understand! This girl called Sarah who is incidentally living in The Ntherlands also blogged about the siren, you can read her reaction here.

Zwarte Piet: a “fun” or racist tradition?

Traditionally, Christmas (sinterklaasavond) is celebrated on the 5th of December in The Netherlands, but they also celebrate the 25th to a lesser extent. So like in any overly westernized country, the weeks leading up to this event are filled with festive themes of mini ice-skating rinks set up, shops adorned with tinsel and holly and white people painting themselves like minstrels.

Sorry? White people painting themselves to look like black face characters? That has nothing to do with the Christmas we grew up with! Kaushik and I came across this tradition when walking around the streets of Haarlem and were confronted with minstrel like characters, parading around, supposedly celebrating the coming of Sinterklaas. We laughed and looked around awkwardly, realizing no one else was finding this situation a little odd and noticed little kids had also painted their faces black.

What Kaushik and I saw

The Netherlands (and a few other European countries including Belgium) tell a story about Santa Claus (Sinterklaas) which is much different to the one celebrated in other western countries. To be fair, “we” stole their idea and simply changed it.

Sinterklaas/Saint Nicholas was a Greek bishop of Myra, Turkey and became the saint of children due to stories which tell of him resurrecting children from their death. He looks more regale, like a pope, rather than “our” Santa Claus who is a little more casual and less concerned with his figure. They do however share similarities of long white beards, the wearing of red, giving out presents and probably bad breath (when I was little, any Santa Claus I would recite my Christmas wish list to had terrible breath!)

Sinterklaas (image sourced from wikipedia)

Anyway, on to the controversial side of the celebration of Sinterklaas. The controversy comes in the form of Zwarte Piet (Dutch for ‘Black Pete’), who in this modern day is considered to be Sinterklaas’ happy helper. But if you research the history of this celebration, you will discover that Zwarte Piet was a name for the devil during the middle ages. Zwarte Piet, a supposed devil character, was shackled by Sinterklaas and made his slave on Saint Nicholas’ eve. Zwarte Piet would kidnap any naughty children and take them to Spain.

Not only is the history of Zwarte Piet a little on the racist side, but their costumes/make-up also scream minstrel like I mentioned earlier.

Zwarte Piet. Aparantly the kids love him. Personally, I would be shit scared.

Typical minstrel make-up...a remarkable resemblence to Zwarte Piet (minus the cliche afro)

So for an “outsider” like myself witnessing this tradition, it is a simple equation of adding up a history of slavery plus a minstrel style make-up for me to come up with a solution of racism.

On the other hand, most local Dutch people will defend this tradition as fun and just something for the kids. Some also explain that the make-up is simply soot from climbing down chimneys and delivering presents.

To anyone who uses that as an explanation, I ask you to take these 3 steps.

Step 1: Find a chimney

Step 2: Climb down it

Step 3: Look in to a mirror and observe

Did you gather soot on your face? Yes, a little. Did you magically grow an afro and bright red lips? No, it seems I didn’t.

From reading forum topics about Zwarte Piet debates, it just seems like Dutch people who defend this tradition cannot see why it is so racist. Would they use an overly characterized Jewish person from the holocaust as part of a fun-filled festival? No, they wouldn’t because it is distasteful and an issue close to their hearts. I feel like they should also be sensitive to the topic of slavery, but when they refuse to see these connections it just seems impossible.

In their defense, why should they have to change their traditions for foreigners who move here and make a fuss over something they have celebrated for years and years?

In my defense, because Black people live here too. Why should they be reminded of a horrendous past? You would think The Netherlands would be able to understand, but in their eyes, it is foreigners like myself who don’t understand.

A solution? I feel that Zwarte Piet could just turn in to “Helpen Piet”. The same joyful character dressed in the same colorful clothes who hands out presents to kids but isn’t tied to racist routes.

He could be anyone of any color and would still make the kids happy, which is what most Dutch people say is the best thing about Zwarte Piet. So what’s the big problem with change if the kids would still be happy?

Another option would be to keep Zwarte Piet but make him more dignified like this in advertising:

Photo credit to http://www.awfulgood.com/

Rather than like this:

Added note: Any Dutch person reading this has every right to think “Who is this girl? She lives here for 2  months and thinks she knows what’s best for our country?”. But I also have the right to an opinion, hooray for democracy!