« October 2004 | Main | December 2004 »
November 28, 2004
cobblestone
the sidewalk surfaces of portugal are often made of cobblestones, white and black, and often they would form a pattern of some sort. the most popular being ocean waves or rays of light/sun.
most portuguese women, i notice, love wearing high-heeled shoes. not the ones with clunky heels, no, no, they simply would not do, certainly not elegant enough. these heels are more of the kitten heel, stiletto variety.
and i wonder how these portuguese women can walk with so much ease on the sidewalk without gettting their heels caught in between the cobblestones. perhaps if one had an entire lifetime of practicing walking in such conditions, you'd be a pro like they are.
Posted by Yasmina at 10:56 PM
back home in NL
i miss portugal already, wishing that i am there. i miss my bedroom in my parents' house, with the balcony overlooking the tagus river. in the hot summer nights, i would sleep with the windows and balcony doors wide open, the river's cool breezes sweeping in and i'd lie awake, listening to the night sounds: the garbage collector, the cute boy across the street coming home after clubbing with his friends.
i miss the pantry of my parents' house, where all the cupboards are filled with food, glorious food. well, my kitchen here is well-stocked too, except my parents' food looks much better than mine. probably because they have better stock of indonesian food, hehe...
i didn't make it to lisbon last week; stayed in oporto all week. i love oporto too. i think if i went to lisbon on my own, i'd be a bit sad. all the memories of these places i used to go with my mom, my dad, my sister, my friends and robert. the same sad feeling i get when i go to london; like, it's a city that was once mine, but it's moved on without me.
i was sad to leave mom, yacinta and xavier yesterday. especially since yacinta and i had a huge screaming fight with each other in the afternoon, before i left. i'm hoping to pop over again to portugal at christmas break and see them.
i spoke to tante isti last week and she says she is coming to oporto with the children and if i'm around at christmas, she'll be hosting a christmas party, to which i am invited. sounds good. so i might just spend christmas in oporto.
the other alternative is staying in NL. being with trudy, karel, francine, robert's parents and robert. exchanging gifts. trudy's annual christmas dinner: canadian turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts (i actually like these), garlic shrimp cocktail, tiramisu.
hummm. difficult. choices, choices.
Posted by Yasmina at 10:43 PM | Comments (5)
November 24, 2004
taking care of xavier: part 2
my mom is here in oporto now, so she is having a lot of fun with xavier. he is so friendly, and loves to meet new people, and doesn't mind being carried off by other people. some babies get cranky when they are separated from mom or dad.
xavier's being spoiled with all this attention we're giving him. he wants to play all the time, and eat all the time, and doesn't want to sleep (so we have to pretend that we are also sleeping).
this is xavier, the smallest cutest jedi knight ever! :)
you can see more photos of xavier hereand <a href="http://www.bananeira.net/stories/archive/000310.html" target=_blank>here.
Posted by Yasmina at 03:35 PM | Comments (6)
faces of xavier part 2
Posted by Yasmina at 03:28 PM
November 22, 2004
faces of xavier: part 1
Posted by Yasmina at 09:42 AM
taking care of xavier: part 1
update at 19.22, portuguese time
yacinta is now home, so she and ana are playing with xavier before bedtime. judging from his wailing, i think they are trying to give him a bath. my dad saw the photos of xavier below and his comment was: "Coba photo yang posisinya bagus dan lucu." Translate that: "Can't you try a good, cute position when taking photos?" 0_o
my dad also said that they forgot the rendang at home! oh no! *ga jadi makan rendang deh minggu ini* mom is getting here on wednesday; fortunately, the pempek palembang and bakmie GM is stored safely in her suitcase. yay!
____________________
update at 14.26, portuguese time
okay, i just had a shower and eaten my lunch. some quiet time to myself. taking care of a baby is so knackering, and it's only my first day. xavier so far has thrown up on me, pooped, peed, burped, cried, rolled around the carpet, listened to music, tried to eat his shoe, my mobile phone, and my bathrobe sash. thankfully, he has now talked himself to sleep. :)
____________________
i actually have no idea how to take care of a hyperactive 7-month-old baby. :(
as you can see, instead of feeding him properly, i went snap happy with my camera.
Posted by Yasmina at 12:14 AM | Comments (7)
November 20, 2004
packing
i don't know why i always leave packing till the last minute. i toss everything into my rucksack in random order. often i've ended up at my destination with 20 knickers and 1 bra, or 4 skirts, 4 trousers and 2 tops.
i would also be horrible and not do my laundry before i go, so when my mom unpacks my stuff after i get to her house, she would often get mad at me when she discovers that she has to do my laundry.
such is the case tonight. :(
Posted by Yasmina at 01:21 AM
November 19, 2004
milk
it does your body good...
Posted by Yasmina at 10:26 AM
November 18, 2004
yay! 2 more days...
...until i go to portugal!
i finally booked my flight to portugal, leaving saturday from amsterdam, direct flight to oporto, and returning the following saturday. am staying with yacinta for a week. hooray!
my roles next week will be:
1. babysitter: yay! babysitting my nephew xavier while his parents are at work!
2. resident chef: my sister can only cook one thing, and that is nasi goreng, fried rice (but she makes the best fried rice ever). she calls me sometimes, tearful, missing my cooking, telling me that she'd only eaten indomie instant noodles for dinner. pitiful. *aduh ade, kasian deh lo, ga bisa masak*
3. dissertation mentor: yacinta has been a bit stressed about her thesis so we're going to sit and work together on it next week. if i thought ravensbourne was giving their students very little support in thesis writing, yacinta's university offers even less. oops, you're not supposed to say "very little support", at ravensbourne they call that "encouraging independent thought".
4. design consultant: am helping the subudyouth with their nomads website project. i am working together with silvia, so i may have to pop down to lisbon, or she comes up to oporto for a day. nomads is a roadtrip starting from lisbon, portugal and ending in innsbruck, austria, lasting for five days in july 2005. any subud youth (or anyone who feels young, that is) from any country is welcome to join. it will be good fun, and you'll meet lots of young people from all over the world. maybe i will see you there :)
phew! that is a lot to do in a week, isn't it? that's not all though...
5. spoiled daughter: my mom is arriving in portugal sometime in the middle of next week! yay! i have asked her to bring me the following: pempek palembang *yang banyak ya, ma*, bakmie GM; *ma, jangan lupa sayurannya diambilin biar ga basi selama perjalanan*, and rendang (specially cooked by my aunt anne)... yumm, we're going to have a food fest...
i'm happy, i miss portuguese living, i'm soooo looking forward... :)
Posted by Yasmina at 05:35 PM | Comments (3)
November 17, 2004
eid al'fitri
a time to celebrate and enjoy togetherness. yay! we're cleansed! now we can pig out on glorious delicious food and see friends and family and have a laugh.
oh, i sooooo miss ketupat, lontong sayur, opor ayam, sambel goreng hati, krecek, es cendol, and gathering with family and doing "sungkeman" with my parents and grandfather.
this is my fourth eid al'fitri away from home. when i was in uk, i would come home for xmas holidays, and eid al'fitri was around xmas time anyway, so i would always manage to spend it with family there.
Posted by Yasmina at 09:59 AM
sore
sore ass. my sore ass came from our sunday snowboarding trip. i tripped getting out of the ski lift and now i have a sore ass. :(
Posted by Yasmina at 09:38 AM
November 16, 2004
snowboarding sunday
so last sunday, on the big eid al-fitr day, while most of my family in indonesia were celebrating together and being thankful for all the food they were about to consume, i was freezing my ass off in landgraaf>;/a>.
there was no family gathering for me. no lontong sayur or ketupat or sambal goreng ati ayam or opor ayam or es cendol. no sungkeman or angpauw.
instead there was -2C temperature, a dutch mountain, snow, concrete and a lot of pain in the ass. robert, remco and i went with robert's friends from college; these are the people he goes with on his annual snowboard trips.
i think it's been proven that i am not a snow bunny. i am really the kind of person who trips getting out of the ski lift and end up sliding down to the start line on my rear end. i kinda feel bad because robert is really into it and it's not really my kind of thing.
i found it really uncomfortable to sit on my office chair when i started work today. my butt and lower back was still really sore; i fell on an icy bit of the slope on sunday, and landed on the bit where the snow had been scraped away to reveal pure concrete underneath. big owww.
we're going again in two weeks with his parents, and jeroen and carolien, so that must be the perfect way of making me look silly in front of his entire family. omg.
Posted by Yasmina at 09:15 PM | Comments (4)
November 13, 2004
eid mubarak, selamat lebaran
dear everyone,
eid mubarak, selamat lebaran 1425H, minal aidin wal faidzin, mohon maaf lahir dan batin... amidst the escalating violence between extremists in the netherlands, i would like to wish you all a good lebaran/suikerfeest/eid-al'fitri this year...
love,
yasmina
Posted by Yasmina at 11:11 PM | Comments (4)
November 10, 2004
the bottom of pete's sneaker
the weird lighting in this photo was caused by another camera's flash going off at the same time i took this. i never use my flash, even when taking night pictures. this was taken at monica's party on her last night here last week.
Posted by Yasmina at 08:25 AM
happy bday joão
querido joão,
feliz aniversário, meu amigo! para ser original, não comprei um presente para te dar, hahaha. tenha um dia realmente grande!
beijinhos,
yasmina
Posted by Yasmina at 12:02 AM | Comments (4)
November 08, 2004
this sweet life
Posted by Yasmina at 09:05 PM
life is sweet
life is especially sweet when the wonderful robert kortenoeven is your significant other. :)
oh yeah, i don't think i mentioned this earlier in the blog: our trip to indonesia is definitely going to happen. our manager approved our request for a sabbatical (unpaid) leave last week. so the idea is that we go to indonesia in the last week of january, to make it in time for my cousin aditya's wedding.
we'll be in indonesia for 3 weeks or so, and we are thinking of going to thailand for a week where i can lie on my back in the sun and read a stack of books (any book suggestions, anyone?) and robert can windsurf all day. yay!
the time off i get is actually 2 months so i don't know yet if i will travel around indonesia for that amount of time, or better to return to europe and do some travelling here. visit karen in berlin, pop over to see patricia in sweden and watch the northern lights, bug alex and james and gaya in london. hummm, so many friends to see, things to do and places to visit.
can't wait. in the meantime i am planning to visit my sister in oporto for a week or so before xmas. just trying to find a gap in my work schedule and then i'm off. yippee.
Posted by Yasmina at 08:56 PM | Comments (4)
November 07, 2004
new skin
so i had some spare time and decided to change the look of this place. i still don't really like the header image, so that might change in the next few weeks.
edited version this is not the original post. i got spammed by comment spammers and somehow my entry got deleted and was replaced by their casino-promoting message instead! :(
Posted by Yasmina at 06:39 PM | Comments (1)
candy packaging: hopjes
i was at the bakery getting some bread and saw this candy box. nice packaging. not such a good picture because of the glare, but it made me think of joão and his birthday. joão collects boxes like these, and i thought maybe i could send some over. it's his birthday next week.
Posted by Yasmina at 06:27 PM
month
the month of october. a month where i abandoned you. i'm sorry for that. i promise that with november and the months to come, i will spend more time writing you. xx, yasmina
Posted by Yasmina at 06:02 PM
missing monica
bye monnnnnnnnn... i miss you already... come back soon!
edited version
this is not the original post. i got spammed by comment spammers and somehow my entry got deleted and was replaced by their casino-promoting message instead! :(
Posted by Yasmina at 12:06 AM | Comments (2)
November 04, 2004
levitating monica to chicago
so tonight's monica's last night. we are having a little gathering at her place tonight, for which i'd made the invites
the movers came for her stuff yesterday so we'd probably be sitting around in a yogi-like lotus position on her floor all night; hence, the levitating theme.
it's really hard to say farewell to someone you love so much; it doesn't get easier at all, even with my years of experience in moving around. i don't think it can ever be easy. the reality that she's leaving tomorrow hasn't really sunk in yet.
oh but anyway, dubya won, so that means mon will probably be back in europe within a couple of years, haha, just kidding mon, if you're reading this ;)
ok, i'm off, must pick up a bottle of wine at the shop before i go to mon's.
Posted by Yasmina at 07:15 PM
monica's invitation
a quick invitation i made for monica's leaving party tonight. it's called a levitating party as a joke, since the movers came yesterday to collect her stuff, and we have nothing to sit on...
Posted by Yasmina at 07:06 PM
