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June 30, 2004
viva portugal
força portugal! woo hoo, my boys in red comes through again! :)
all day i've had to put up with the dutch football vibe. gerard SMS-ing me at nine this morning, saying that he's actually in lisbon and has tickets for tonight's game. how did he manage that? he was still at work yesterday? and ramon saying he might come in hungover tomorrow for work since he's watching the game with friends and lots of beer.
and finally fuho trying to get me to come to the irish pub to watch the game. yeah right. and be the only red-green amongst a sea of orange? no thanks. on my way home from work, everyone was cycling into town wearing orange. even robert abandoned me and went to remco's to watch football somewhere in the middle of rotterdam. :(
so i watched the game on my own, on the sofa, my powerbook on my lap, browsing yayhooray, threadless, victoria's secret, friendster and orkut. i needed this distraction because i was too chicken to concentrate fully on the game.
i get tense everytime the dutch got possesion of the ball; i just can't handle that kind of feeling for 90 minutes. i thought the portuguese played really well, aggressive and fluid. they only started to let down their guard (probably because they were knackered) in the last 15 minutes.
oh and there was only cold bottled Grolsch in the house since Sagres or Superbock (portuguese beers) aren't available around here. i ended up drinking white porto, with ice cubes and tonic water. haha.
at fulltime i called my sister in oporto and everyone in her house were running around screaming. they are going to send me a portugal scarf, haha. LOL.
p.s. in case you were wondering what my connection to portugal was: my parents lived there. ok, so i never officially lived there, but i totally love the country and i really really want to live and work in oporto or lisbon. any takers from portugal? ;)
Posted by Yasmina at 11:18 PM | Comments (6)
June 27, 2004
new yay!
wow! surprise surprise! new YH is up! and it totally rocks my pants! join now! i changed my username to bananeira, btw, because i got sick of my old YH name. so if you are new to YH, look me up!
my reaction to new yayhooray is conveyed below by emotion eric, a good surprise on a sunday night. :)
Posted by Yasmina at 07:27 PM | Comments (1)
playing 'congklak'
ahhh, another weekend come and gone! :(
saturday evening robert and i swung by monica's, since she was leaving to seattle sunday morning (but spending the evening in an airport hotel) and i had some packages to give to bella. mon's been playing latino messenger girl between bella and i for the last few weeks. ;)
laszlo also came round. he actually lives next door to mon, in identical (but flipped) apartments and i always ring both their doorbells when i pop round, just to see who gets downstairs faster.
mon was giving herself a total pedicure, and i decided that i wanted mine done as well. i am really messy though; i was the kid who could never color inside the lines, so mine went wonky all over my toes.
while we waited for the mail polish to dry, robert and i played a game of 'congklak' *yes, sorry about the image, i meant to focus on the board and the camera focused on robert's crotch instead, i'm not a perv, i'll have you know, it was on auto focus*.
congklak is actually the indonesian name for the game, although i'm sure it differs per ethnic group, and anyway it is known all over the world as this is a game that has existed for thousands of years; i think they used to play it by digging little holes in the ground and using seeds or pebbles before someone got the bright idea of making it into a board game.
robert had never played this before and i was really amazed. congklak was the first game that my grandmother, my 'eyang putri', taught me when i was little. i was maybe six years old and we'd moved back to indo after 5 years in geneve, and we lived with my grandparents while we waited for our house to be finished. eyang putri had a wooden congklak board in the family room and i never quite figured out what it was for, until we played it one afternoon.
she had shells, real seashells, to play congklak with. i wasn't very good at the game *i have small hands, ok* but eyang putri used to let me win *sometimes*. we'd play in the afternoon, after lunch or after siesta. we would always have tea and 'biskuit marie' or some sort of 'jajanan pasar', market snacks from the street stalls.
ahhh, those days with eyang putri. you know, because i spent so much time with her and my grandfather, 'eyang kakung', i think they were the people who really introduced me to the indonesian customs i was not brought up with in geneve. it's so nice...
these days, little things like seeing a 'wayang', javanese shadow-puppet dolls or kain batik reminds me of my grandparents, their home and their way of life :)
Posted by Yasmina at 04:57 PM | Comments (2)
June 24, 2004
rejoice! portugal vs. england
hooray! portugal won! happy happy joy joy! :)
fu ho was trying to drag me to the irish pub tonight to watch the game but i refused and went for a massage instead. i am quite chicken when it comes to watching games; i'm so scared my team would lose. anyway, tonight i am happy. :)
Posted by Yasmina at 11:42 PM | Comments (3)
errr, sorry, wat is 'uitkering' dan?
so today i had a client meeting and it was all conducted in dutch. woo hoo! i'm so proud of me, even though i asked stupid questions when i didn't understand things. however, that does not mean that my dutch friends like you, you and you should start speaking to me in dutch all the time.
went to motta after work and i managed to pick up a Pascal Comelade book and CD, called Logicofobisme del piano en minuscul. nice stuff. i love the track called 'Il Ventilator'.
random things: i seem to have a lot of lurkers and non-commenters on my site; i have no idea who reads my stuff, although some unexpected friends have confessed to reading regularly. :) irina sweetly made comments in my previous post after i mentioned this non-commenter visitors to my site.
i got linked to blogwise and theswanker'sindonesian blog, so that was nice. gee, i am getting into this blogging thing more than i thought i would be.
Posted by Yasmina at 09:08 PM | Comments (3)
June 20, 2004
ashtray at de hoogste tijd
Posted by Yasmina at 09:41 PM
dear panji
dear dear panji,
this weekend, naya came to visit. we started chattering away from the second we met at the train station, all the way home in the car, and all through coffee and snacks. the pecan nut roll and croissants even got burned in the oven since we were talking so much and weren't paying attention.
taking no risks of burning lunch, we went into town to eat dim sum , and we ordered beef ho fun *spt kwetiau cah daging sapi gitu*, prawn wontons, squid fried in chili and salt, chinese-style canneloni with prawns, prawn fritters *spt bakwan udang*, prawn siomay, and beef wontons *pangsitnya bikin sangat ngiler ngga*. how much do you think we love prawns? and you know what, jie? this chinese place serves lemon ice tea in the gang-selot style; just like it was at school! *semuanya enak bgt deh, jie kekenyangan deh kita*
robert joined us for lunch but he couldn't handle two hyperactive girls gossiping away so he ran away to do some errands and left us to go shopping. :)
somehow, we only ended up in three shops: hunkemoller, h&m, and de tuinen. i bought some yummy delicious-smelling bath and shower gel and bubble bath. typical girly things, i guess. this is naya being very "ceria" after the shopping because she managed to get some really pretty and yummy things during the afternoon's shopping session. you have to ask her yourself if you want to see what she bought. ;)
we got home and watched the football game between the dutch and czech team. naya's mom is czech and robert, obviously being dutch, was rooting for the dutch team, so i was sitting uncomfortably between them during the game. i just basically clapped and did a little dance everytime a goal was scored; the two of them kept frowning at each other. for dinner, we had homemade chicken soup and smoked eel sandwiches *jie, bhs belandanya broodjes paling, it's so good, pernah coba smoked belut ngga?*
naya and i had a very girly evening, where we continued to shop online, haha. ;)
we stayed up talking, shopping and watching holiday pictures on TV *streaming dari media server kita, jie, aduh seneng deh punya media server, nerdy bgt yah* this is naya dan robico looking very sleepy.
sunday morning, i made fresh croissant for breakfast. *diterusin dengan ngobrolin resep makanan, jie, gila ya, maklum cewek, mau gimana lagi?* if you were here, maybe you'd gotten sick of us. although the food would have kept you happy. ;)
i made bubur ayam while naya watched the process. apparently she is planning to make a very special bowl of bubur ayam for a very special person back home ... wonder who that could be? ;)
naya ate a lot of bubur ayam *sampe kekenyangan sendiri* and we also had ice cream. *wah enak deh, jie, si naya sampe bawa rantangan bubur ayam balik ke asramanya* :)
naya had to catch the train back to nijmegen in the afternoon, and we took this little picture before we left the house, to send to you. :)
so i hope your weekend was as good as ours, that you weren't sitting behind your computer all day, that you are also eating healthy and this is the point where we start to patronise you. sorry.
so we'll end this story and hopefully we'll see each other soon so we can make more stories!
best wishes always, *salam kangen*
yasmina & naya
Posted by Yasmina at 09:16 PM | Comments (1)
June 18, 2004
her ashes
thursday afternoon robert and i finally make it to the music shop in veldhoven. they specialise in brass and reed instruments. robert was after a mute for his trumpet. "like the mute miles davis used," he informs me.
in the shop we get taken to a back room where all the sheet music are and the shop keeper brings us three mutes; all of which look like the urns you keep the dear departed's ashes in. omg. an evil thought creeps into my head.
we buy the copper mute, which produces a muted but rich sound, closest to the original sound of robert's trumpet. i carry the mute carefully in two hands into the car.
we drive to albert heijn for groceries. robert eyes me suspiciously as i stroll across the parking lot with the mute nestled in my two hands. "what are you doing?" he screams. "i'm taking your grandmother grocery shopping!" i scream back. "she wants to make sure that we are eating healthy."
i make a mad dash into the shop and robert is chasing after me. but too late for him! by the time he enters the store, i was away in the fresh produce section, pointing out the seasonal vegetables (asparagus, by the way) to his "grandmother" in her urn.
and robert didn't get mad at all. he just pretended he didn't know me, even when i put things in his shopping basket. afterwards, he cooks me dinner and we go to meet laszlo at plaza futura for a birthday drink. robert's so lovely for putting up with me. ;)
Posted by Yasmina at 12:13 PM
laszlo's birthday
happy birthday laszlo! yes it was actually june 17th which passed 1 hour ago, and i didn't remember until 10 pm, but still ... happy birthday and many happy returns! you rock my world! we (me and robert) love you to bits!
Posted by Yasmina at 01:04 AM | Comments (2)
laszlo's birthday
it was actually thursday, june 17th, exactly a month after mine, that laszlo had his birthday ... but i was being silly and forgot about it until about 10 pm this evening .. oops! but happy belated birthday anyway, laszlo!
Posted by Yasmina at 01:01 AM
June 16, 2004
sunday with the kortenoeven's
part 1: robert's little accident
he slipped in the bathtub and landed on the bathroom floor instead of in the tub. nasty fall as the bathtub is a few inches off the floor. he took the shower curtains and the shower railing with him as he fell. he's generally ok, except for his foot. he cut it rather badly and it swelled up in no time.
maybe it's broken but he insists he can wiggle it so refuses to go to hospital to check. he's been wobbling around and all i hear is, "yasmina, can you get me a glass of juice," and "please can you make me some croissants" and "i want milk with my coffee."
poor thing. :(
part 2: parents and lingerie catalogs
so we're eating birthday pies (birthday cakes aren't cakes over here in NL, they're pies) and drinking coffee when his mum spots the victoria's secret product catalog on top of the magazine pile. his parents start to browse through it together.
*flashback to last year when robert left me in his apartment with his mum while he and his dad went to get groceries. the first thing she did after i offered her tea and biscuits was to plonk herself on the couch and pick up a cosmo mag off the magazine pile. she waves it at me, asking, "is this yours?" while i am staring at the headlines boldly emblazoned across the front cover 'How to Get Your Man to Give You Multiple Orgasms'. omg.*
am i being a prude here? maybe. robert's ignoring the dirty looks i'm giving him. " what," he asks me. "it's underwear. everyone buys underwear."
oh sure, if you put it that way. i'm glad they didn't look in the linen closet for the handcuffs, whips and PVC suits. ;)
part 3: the eating bit
jeroen and carolien came a bit later after the vs catalog episode. it takes some effort from me to keep up with dutch; i have to be in the mood to converse in dutch i think. so i run away to the kitchen and prepare dinner.
i made 3 roast chickens (since robert can eat an entire chicken on his own), nasi goreng, mixed salad with cucumber, and roasted vegetables. yummy. the chicken had been roasting for the last couple of hours, so the smell of them cooking have been filling up the entire flat and everyone seemed really hungry as they sat down to dinner.
for dessert, i took a nice walk down the street with robert's dad, to the italian ice cream parlour. we bought stracciatella, rum n raisin and caramel swirl with nuts. at home i served them with melon slices, and waffle biscuits.
i love family sunday dinners. :)
Posted by Yasmina at 12:11 AM | Comments (3)
June 15, 2004
what a moody sky tonight
Posted by Yasmina at 11:53 PM
gray ...
... is a sophisticated color. gray is the color of my father's eyes, the dark nearly black pupil fading into a gray edge. gray is the color of his hair, when seen from a distance. when close, you see the pepper streaks of white in his black hair. gray is the color of my father's winter wool suit, the one he likes to wear with his pink and green tie. gray is color of the sky with streaks of lightning when my father is angry with me for one reason or another.
Posted by Yasmina at 12:48 AM
June 13, 2004
moose
a moose is not a dessert made from eggs, chocolate and served with whipped cream. it's the animal that can be seen in the opening sequence of the 90s series "Northern Exposure."
Posted by Yasmina at 11:56 PM
schtoopid!
omg, i've been wondering why no one's been leaving comments on my blog. i thought no visitors had come by. now i find out that the comments box doesn't work. why didn't people just contact me and ask, i wonder?
anyway i fixed the link, although the css for the comment box isn't working yet. :(
*edit: ok the css looks okay now. i can see echa trying to catch up with her commenting, as she's left 2 comments already ;)
Posted by Yasmina at 09:12 PM | Comments (4)
dodgy strawberries
had a bowl of luscious juicy strawberries for breakfast yesterday. so good. however, by lunchtime i was feeling mighty sickly. as soon as robert dropped me off at home, i ran to the loo and ejected strawberry-flavour vomit.
i felt so much better afterwards that i immediately rearranged the furniture in the living room.
Posted by Yasmina at 12:23 PM | Comments (1)
after the party ...
... when all there was to do was to finish all the wine and clean up ...
Posted by Yasmina at 12:06 PM
June 12, 2004
de hoogste tijd, friday evening
Posted by Yasmina at 10:20 AM
June 11, 2004
happy birthday mr k
so robert turns 28 today. he won't admit it though, since he is afraid of the number 30. i went and decorated his desk at work with ribbons and streamers and spread winegums and candy across his desk.
tonight i'm taking him out for dinner. saturday night he's invited people round for food and drinks. sunday, his parents, with jeroen and carolien, are coming and we are having dinner together. :)
Posted by Yasmina at 04:19 PM | Comments (1)
June 10, 2004
pencil doodle
i was publishing a 55 MB flash file (don't ask) and it took so long that i started doodling on my sketchpad whilst waiting.
Posted by Yasmina at 11:27 PM
June 09, 2004
more lego boys
Posted by Yasmina at 11:26 PM
NL in heat! summer people-watching rituals
i love this weather! it's finally summer!
it's been so warm that i've taken to wearing skirts and my kitten heel sling-backs to work (but the heel broke off on my walk home from work, how crap is that?!). today i've noticed most of the girls were also wearing skirts, sandals and sleeveless tops. not me, though; not enough time spent at the gym to make my arms shapely enough.
one thing i love about summer is the fact that people dress better, and they dress less. i could just lie in the grass and watch people all day. the girls would wear halter neck tops, stripey, spotty, with asymmetric skirts, anklets around their ankles, maybe their hair swept up and tied back with a bandanna.
everyone would be drinking fresh fruit juice or cold cold white beer with a slice of lemons. i would try to guess the color of people's eyes behind their sunglasses. robert and i would take long walks after dinner and get an ice cream cone at the italian's, and we'd go to watch the outdoor films.
i love when guys wear less clothes, and their arms are so beautiful and shapely. i wonder if boys watch the weather report in the summer and say, "yay! it's gonna be hot tomorrow, the girls will be wearing less clothes!"
i think people are more beautiful in the summer. :)
Posted by Yasmina at 09:52 PM | Comments (1)
goo
i know that there's all kinds of goo but the type i imagine to one day stick on the bottom of my shoes would be a translucent green, with air bubble inside, bubbling up the surface, and when i try to scrape it off with a stick, a pen, whatever, it will swallow it up with a hiss.
*58 words inspired by the word goo.
Posted by Yasmina at 07:45 PM
June 08, 2004
lego men in acrylic
there is an acrylic tower near the townhall in eindhoven and today i approached for a closer look and it was filled with little lego guys!
Posted by Yasmina at 10:27 PM
ink
my uncle knows a way to cook squid in its own ink. it is a very yummy dish. he cooks it in butter and you have to eat it quickly, before the flesh cools and i love to eat the squid, buttery ink and rice with my hand, wrapping it into a ball and popping it into my mouth. yumm!
*60 words inspired by the word ink.
Posted by Yasmina at 08:26 PM
a guy and his sunlamp
so i find out robert owns a sunlamp. sunlamps are a 'bule' thing as much as whitening creams are to indonesians i guess; both something i don't completely get.
i mean, i think indonesians want fair skin because darker skin implies that they work in the fields or outdoors instead of inside an air-co office. and for europeans, dark skin shows you can afford expensive holidays abroad. something like that anyway. i am not sure.
i was fairly amused a couple of weeks ago when robert's mother told him he was looking pale and, has he been under the sunlamp lately? i was even more amused when we got home and he actually went under the sunlamp. it's his ritual before bedtime these days. set the timer and then the bedroom would be awash in UV-bright goodness.
for a 'bule', robert's skin tone isn't actually that pale, as of my former housemates' in the UK. on holiday to italy last year, ok he did get a sunburn on the first day, but by the end of the week, he was my glowing bronze god.
so last night i watch him get under the sunlamp again. he accidentally burned himself a bit over the weekend. i start a conversation.
"you know, you're not that sunburned anymore."
"did i tell you i accidentally sunburned my butt once?"
"how? did you sunbathe nude on the balcony? the old ladies in the other building must have loved that."
"no, i set the sunlamp on too long and it was aimed at my butt."
omg. that is going straight into my blog. ;)
Posted by Yasmina at 08:32 AM | Comments (1)
June 07, 2004
doctor
i have three doctors in my family and once upon a time, they all went to medical school together. my dad's sister fell ill when she was about 20, and had to have her appendix removed. the doctor was a handsome young man who she later married. how's that for a story?
and from my mom's side of the family, my mom's sister went to medical school, and fell in love with her husband-to-be. he eventually didn't become a doctor doctor, but a pathologist and his home office had jars of body parts pickled in formaldehyde. i loved how the sunlight would stream through the glass window and light up the jars.
anyway, they are all good friends and my mom's sister was the family pediatrician to most of my cousins from both sides of the family. :)
*137 words inspired by the word <b>doctor</b>.
Posted by Yasmina at 10:52 PM
happy monday
a little past nine the doorbell rings and it's the UPS guy. of course, mondays being my day off, i was still lounging around in bed, and was in a considerable state of disarray. not fit to see anyone really.
in my haste to get the package, and also because the apartment was in a bit of a mess, i forget to buzz the guy in. instead, i run around putting on the nearest wearable thing (a little cream silk gauze dress with spaghetti straps), and since my flip-flops were a bright pink with bollywood movie poster graphics printed on them, i slip on my black kitten heel shoes which were conveniently lying by the front door.
feeling a bit exposed, i grab the cashmere shawl robert bought me in india while i headed out the door to wrap around myself. in the elevator, i pray the lady living in the 3rd floor didn't come out to check her mail. she's in the habit of checking her mailbox wearing nothing but her manky terrycloth bathrobe and her hair still rolled up in curlers. what a sight we would have been to the poor UPS guy waiting downstairs.
i don't know what the UPS guy was smirking at when i arrived to open the door for him. maybe he doesn't believe that i just crawled out of bed? maybe i looked too dressy? why did i put on a dress? omg, do my legs look good? for a minute i was convinced that he was smirking because he didn't believe me when i said "oh sorry i just woke up, i didn't hear you buzz earlier, i'll be right down," but then i caught a glimpse of myself in the glass window, and my lopsided birdnest hair let me down again. :(
in the end, i had to invite the guy up to apartment anyway because it was unexpectedly a cash-on-delivery; i got taxed by the dutch government because the package was from a US vendor, lovely.
now that i'm over the shock of being seen in public (yes, the entry hall of my apartment block is considered public even though no one but the UPS guy was there) in such a state so early in the morning, i can tell you what was in the package.
it's my retail therapy from
i don't usually buy underwear online; it's much nicer to go into the shop yourself, and feel the material and try things on. i was a bit uncertain about how well they would fit but i was pretty good at ordering my size. they all look and feel heavenly. :)
oh, and to put off any freaks out there reading my blog and thinking what i must look like with my new purchase, fyi i don't look like any of the girls on the victoria's secret page. i am short and have puppy fat.
Posted by Yasmina at 10:15 PM
this little guy ...
... is someone i pass every day on my walk to and from work. he's not placed in an obvious location, but if you look away from the sidewalk once in a while, you'll see him smiling at you. :)
Posted by Yasmina at 06:35 PM
June 06, 2004
driving on the highway
Posted by Yasmina at 01:58 PM
June 05, 2004
going brown
so robert says my hair's getting lighter. going brown?
at least i am not going gray. although some indonesians might think i am "kurang gizi" because of the gradual lightening of my hair. now that he has said that, i really envy the girls in the 'Sunsilk' shampoo commercials. well, i always have before, but now it really bugs me that my hair isn't as dark as it used to be.
Posted by Yasmina at 09:01 PM
gas station stop
Posted by Yasmina at 08:35 PM
sick of my layout
i got tired of it, so now my blog looks like this. keep thinking that i should make a header image and a background texture, and i will, once i'm done doing laundry, cleaning the flat, cooking and dishwashing. *sigh*
i haven't changed http://robico.bananeira.com though, so you could still catch a glimpse of my old site there. except my site was in pale blue and gray instead of robico's green.
Posted by Yasmina at 05:51 PM
June 03, 2004
exchange
exchange. giving something to receive something in return, usually of equal value, although when we were younger, the older kids would get sneaky on the younger ones. exchanging a bag of candy for some rocks or something.
*37 words inspired by the word exchange.
Posted by Yasmina at 10:28 PM
June 02, 2004
solve
there are always problems to be solved.
am i good at problem-solving? depends what kind of problems they are? deisgn problems? yes, i like to think so.
i'm less decisive about life problems, though, like whether to look for a new job or move to another country. :(
Posted by Yasmina at 08:45 AM
