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September 28, 2005
dutch. indonesian. italian.
so robert and i decided to make thursday nights as our italian night. when we would only speak italian to each other. errr. right. that would be the night where we speak the least amount to each other then.
we had attempts at language before. we started with dutch. one night a week, we spoke only dutch to each other. robert went round my apartment, tagging everything with yellow post-it notes and the names of the objects in dutch. singular and plural forms. i cheated and call everything with a "-tje" so i don't have to figure out whether it's a "het" or a "de".
when we got engaged, robert wanted to do an indonesian night one night a week. he thought he could impress my family by making the wedding toast in bahasa indonesia. haha. i told him to start the speech with, "bapak dan ibu haryono yang terhormat, jangan kuatir, saya sudah disunat."
robert resorts to his indonesian magic word of "apa?!" whenever indonesian conversations get beyond his level. repeat that a couple of times and people will leave you alone, thinking you don't speak bahasa or are totally deaf.
so now we are at italian. let's see how well we master this. at the moment i am better at vocabulary than robert, simply because of my linguistic knowledge of french, spanish and portuguese. pain, pan, pão, pane. chien, perro, cão, cane *humm, not good example, spanish was the odd one out*
oh well, back to the rosetta stone CD for me...
Posted by Yasmina at 06:48 PM | Comments (6)
September 25, 2005
tiring but inspiring
Well, I'm still recovering from this week's events. First, at work, we've had a week-long annual meeting with designers from the other branches in Asia, Europe and USA. Workshops and symposiums and meetings from 9-5, every day for five days, then afterwards followed by social events.
The main topic of the event was Design Sustainability and I found the symposium speakers to be really inspiring: David Kirkpatrick of Fortune.com, Prof. Anil Gupta, and Bob Adams of IDEO.
The social events were great as I got to meet a lot of colleagues from the other global branches. We would start off with dinner first, then had parties in the Klokkentoren, Clock Tower, in Eindhoven. I was happy to be meeting so many interesting people. Although I am really looking forward to going to Milano, it kind of made me sad because this is my last two months at the studio and I realise I am really going to miss working with some of the great colleagues I have here.
This week was also the Philips Simplicity Event at L' Espace Grande Arche in Paris. I've worked on the Next Simplicity concepts for a good part of this year and we were finally able to implement and exhibit here. So we came over for the exhibition and the book launch. Yippee! Everything looked fab, and worked fantastically and the public's feedback has been wonderful! So we are really happy :)
Posted by Yasmina at 02:30 PM
September 18, 2005
daily dose of fruit
Ever since Robert bought me a blender last May, it's been so easy to get our daily dose of fruit. I make a fruit smoothie most mornings, or as a healthy drink before dinner. Since it's been summer, we've had an abundance of summer fruits like strawberries, frambozen/raspberries, blackberries and I've been making lots of berry smoothies.
My personal favorite is a strawberry yoghurt shake: 500 grams of fresh strawberries, 1 cup vanilla yoghurt, 1 cup very cold milk, 1 tablespoon aloe vera. I get pure aloe vera extract from the health shop and it's good for your digestion and immune system.
Another favorite of mine is the mango-mint-and-aloe-vera smoothie: 1 mango, 1 handful of fresh mint leaves, 1/2 cup of yoghurt, 1/2 cup of milk, 1 tablespoon aloe vera. Yumm yumm! :)
Mangoes can get expensive if you buy them at the Albert Heijn or supermarkets, but I buy mine from the Tuesday market in the centrum, where I can get fresh mangoes and avocadoes, for 80p or €1 each. Sometimes I also get tinned mangoes from the Chinese toko and add the sweet syrup into the blender with all the other ingredients.
The Tuesday market in town is the best place to get fresh fruits. Satsumas, mandarins, avocadoes, summer berries, cherries, etc. I know I must sound really domesticated but hooray for fresh fruit smoothies! :-)
Posted by Yasmina at 09:11 PM | Comments (3)
September 13, 2005
twenty-four-and-a-half
this is laszlo's light in his livingroom, isn't cool? we went over to his place sunday night to see his holiday pictures, and eat a lot of moroccan take-away food from bazar. he and lesh went to morocco for a couple of weeks.
morocco through laszlo's eyes is just gorgeous. laszlo just bought a D70 camera and i think he is still learning to get to grips with it. his photos of marakesh and essaouira reminds me of tunisia, actually. i need to scan in my negatives from my tunisia trip and show them to robert. i'd love to return to tunisia with robert.
anyway.
so today i find out that i still have 24.5 holiday days left. omg. omfg. that's a lot of days. that's practically 5 weeks off! and i have no idea where the half day comes from, but it's really weird, maybe it's because i changed my working hours back to full-time, plus i had the sabbatical leave this year.
i had to recheck twice to make sure i got the right amount of days, and it's really true! so now i have to see what i'm going to do with my days off. :)
robert only has 10 days left this year though; he had 1 month in indo last march and 1 week in august for the dutch wedding. so we were thinking we could have a short one-week break at end of october and another in december, getting out from work early for the christmas holidays.
i'm really happy. can't wait to get away with robert for a little while. he's been so busy and working so hard lately; it would just be nice to travel together someplace. any suggestions?
Posted by Yasmina at 08:00 PM | Comments (5)
September 10, 2005
norwegian cheese
gudbrandsdalsost. norwegian brown goat's cheese. so so good. it's mild, tangy, sweet and buttery, and just melts in your mouth. it's like caramel.
the first time i had it was in 1997. i was in manhattan visiting my norwegian relatives and this was served after dinner. so yumm!
the last few months i've been working with cathrine, who is norwegian, and last weekend she went to the norwegian shop in rotterdam and bought me some lovely lovely norwegian cheese! how nice is that?
she also only recently found out about the norwegian shop, and i'm quite curious to see it. based on her description, it sounded like a norwegian log cabin (inside a former church), in the middle of rotterdam. intriguing... well, i'm in rotterdam tomorrow so if they are open, i'll have a look.
Posted by Yasmina at 01:02 PM | Comments (7)
September 07, 2005
sushi wushi night with robert
robert needed to get some more content for his TV concept at work so we went to the sushi place in kleine berg in the hopes of getting some footage.
we're regulars at the sushi place, and the proprietor let us film them make the sushi, so we got some cool shots. :)
we ordered a california temaki roll (hand-roll sushi with avocado, tuna, mayo), oshinko maki, futomaki, and a mini sushi-combo for robert, comprising of sake+tuna+crab nigiri and kappa maki.
after that, we ate some beef teriyaki, fried rice and a bowl of ramen with thinly sliced beef. for dessert we had green tea ice cream. :)
happy happy, belly full of lovely food. toothache all forgotten, hehe.
*tapi rasanya masih ganjil kalau mengunyah dengan bagian kanan mulut, rasanya ada yang ngeganjel*
Posted by Yasmina at 11:13 PM | Comments (8)
September 05, 2005
monday toothache
last friday while we were having dinner at zierikzee, one of the filling in my teeth fell off. i actually crunched on it and had to spit it out. well, since the dentist is not open on weekends, i couldn't do much about it. just made sure i kept my teeth superclean.
*masa mau ke emergency room sih? tapi emang rasanya super-aneh karena lidah gue bisa meraba lubang di gigi gue itu*
i managed to survive the entire weekend without any complaints, until last night. ohhh, my jaw and gums just started to throb. this morning i woke up and my jaw was all stiff. i worked from home but my jaw just hurt and soon my head was throbbing as well.
lucky for me, i got an appointment at the dentist this afternoon. so i went, with a pounding headache, in the summer heat. the dentist was young and supercute. and i went and drooled all over his hand! the filling of the tooth cavity was done quickly and painlessly *i asked for an injection* usually i do without and end up being in pain *i have a very low pain threshold*
now i'm just waiting for the anesthesia to wear off. it feels weird. half my mouth is numb. the food flavours disappear in the right side of my mouth, but i can taste everything in the left side of my mouth, ehehe...
Posted by Yasmina at 04:27 PM | Comments (6)
September 04, 2005
a phone call home
today my grandfather turns 92 years old. alhamdullilah, so far he enjoys good health, a long (spiritually-) rich life full of friends and family. usually we have a family gathering to celebrate with traditional javanese tumpeng and lots of yummy food. i miss this very much.
jadi tadi nelpon ke jakarta. pas semua orang lagi kumpul. biasa deh, jadi the phone was being passed from one person to another. it was so nice! members of my dad's family just have such good hearts, this infectious energy that absorbs you like a sponge and hugs you in their warmth.
a snippet of conversation with my granddad:
eyang: hoe laat is het in eindhoven?
me: tien uur.
eyang: waar ben jij nu?
me: ik ben thuis.
eyang: met wie ben jij daar?
me: robert.
eyang: waar is hij dan? *probably wondering why robert hasn't come to the phone*
me: hij slapt.
eyang: voelt hij niet zo goed?
me: nee, hij is fijn. waarom?
eyang: *the early-rising early bird* het is tien uur, of niet? waarom slapt ie?
me: *gubraksss*
eyang kakung sekarang hampir selalu berbahasa belanda dengan gue. gileee, masih fasih banget bahasa belandanya...
________________
a snippet of conversation with my uncle:
oom djoko: oom udah liat foto-foto ngunduh mantu kemaren. di castle. kamu ternyata liliput ya?
me: *gubraksss, my uncle just called me a liliput* ...
oom djoko: si xavie lucu loh! kamu kapan bikin xavie-xavie belanda?
me: *mulai stress* kan mau sekolah dulu, oom.
oom djoko: oh, ya udah, latihan aja dulu, produksinya ntar kalo udah selesai sekolah.
me: *gubraksss* ...
________________
a snippet of conversation with my aunt:
tante ann: as, sori kemaren engga dateng ke belanda. denny udah mulai sekolah sih.
me: engga apa-apa tante, tapi ntar dateng ke milano yah?
tante ann: jadi ya kamu pindah kesana?
me: iya, bener lohhh ditengokin ya? kan udah dua taun engga ke eropa, jadi taun depan ya.
tante ann: iyaaaaa, pengennn...
me: *starting the propaganda, tante gue addict prada soalnya* kan di milano bisa shopping... apalagi monza deket milano, jadi ntar denny + robert disuruh karting ato nonton F1 di monza sementara kita shopping...
tante ann: *thinking of prada outlets* kalo gitu summer depan kali ya?
me: *mikirin semua barang yg akan gue titipin: majalah femina, pempek, rendang, etc* ...
________________
a snippet of conversation with my cousin:
tjippy: apa kabar lo?
me: baek-baek. happy birthday yah...
tjippy: hehe, tengkyu. gimana nih? elo udah berisi?
me: *gubraksss* hahh? kan masih disarungin!
tjippy: hah, kok disarungin? kan udah legal?
me: *semakin stress* kan gue mau sekolah, dodolll!
tjippy: oh, iya yah, lupa gue...
Posted by Yasmina at 11:45 AM | Comments (6)
September 01, 2005
the one about moving on
so last night a bunch of us were sitting in a pub, having a farewell drinky-doo for gina, who is leaving the netherlands to work in new york *OMG, how exciting, i love new york!* i got to know gina last year when we worked together on the ambient experience project so we sat in what remained of the sunshine, drinking cold cold Hoegaardens and chatted.
then we ended up in the markt, in the regular chinese place, because it was the only kitchen that would serve us at 22.30. there was some weird random concert happening in the markt. loud dutch country-folk music and partying on a wednesday night of all days *how random and weird is that?*
then we ordered too much and ate too much. too much chinese food, too much beer and too loud dutch country music. i'm sure gina will remember her last night in eindhoven for a long time.
it really is time to move on. soon it will be my turn :)
for those who don't know it yet, i will be moving to milano, italy in january 2006. yippee! i've told my manager at work and he understands the situation and we've agreed on me working till the end of year. so italy, here i come!
i will be doing my master's degree in interaction design at what was formerly known as interaction design institute ivrea but has now merged with domus academy. i got a scholarship, so it's actually cheaper for me to study there than in NL, plus milano is a very exciting place to be in *and all that gorgeous italian food* so yeah, i'm quite happy about that.
everything just seems to fall into place: the application, the interview, the acceptance, the enrollment, the scholarship, the apartment. so i guess, i'm really meant to be doing this. i am so grateful at the way things turned out :)
Posted by Yasmina at 08:26 AM | Comments (8)
