March 29, 2008

revive

*crossposted on my Vox, all the links don't translate here, unfortunately, so head on over there if you want to see some photos*

Wow, how dead is this blog? I've been terrible... There is just so much going on and there's so much to write about but the words don't come out.

In the 6 months since my last entry, the husband and I have (jointly and separately):
- visited Kathya and David in Wiesbaden (twice!)
- eaten at Taco Bell's (wow yeah, a Taco Bell's in Europe!)
- binged on American junk food
- done a workshop on Public Toilets in Amsterdam
- travelled to India to attend the wedding of our good friends
- had a lovely reunion with old friends (once upon a time we all lived in the Netherlands) during our week in India
- had a 3-hour detox-relaxation-reinvigoration Ayurvedic treatment every day for a week
- wave-dived into the Arabian sea
- found a lovely beach to stroll along on
- eaten ridiculously good South Indian food (a sustainable way of eating: on banana leaf and with our hands)
- fallen in totally love with the crazy, chaotic, bursting-with-life and positively colourful experience that was India
- travelled to Indonesia to fulfill our obligations as daughter and son-in-law :-D
- visited one of the oldest and largest Buddhist temple complex in the world
- stuffed our faces full of yummy Indonesian comfort food
- spent quality time with the people we love over the holidays
- got close to nature and loving it in the family mountainhouse
- drunk fresh mango juice every day that I practically turned yellow!
- spent New Years Eve in tropical Singapore (a bit tame partying, actually)
- ate ridiculously good Taiwanese dumplings
- gone to the Turin chocolate festival
- moved into a lovely new apartment in a typically Italian "ringheria" apartment block
- promised ourselves to purchase consciously and cook and eat healthy organic foods

I don't know why I have more and more problems expressing myself in writing, especially with things and events that have happened to me. I have no problems talking about current events in the news or my thoughts on work-related topics, but when it comes to the every day personal life things, I guess I just internalise.

Anyway... I will post more here for sure. If you need to know my up-to-the-minute updates, I have a Twitter-enabled blog too.

Posted by Yasmina at 03:40 PM | Comments (0)

November 19, 2007

Out and about in Singapore

We're in Singapore now but tonight we will fly to Trivandrum, India. Woooo!

Posted by Yasmina at 09:46 AM | Comments (1)

August 20, 2007

Roadtrips with friends

Found these four sunset scans while I was looking for old project files. Karen had scanned them in for me.

It was us on one of our random roadtrips. João, Laszlo, Karen and myself. We ended up in Brugge and Zeebrugge this time. It was frikkin cold on the shore that day but the sky was eternally blue and Karen's jacket was so bright, this visual memory still freshly etched onto my memory. I had a very tasty French onion soup that afternoon, on a beachside bistrot.

I miss us. I do, I do.

Posted by Yasmina at 08:54 PM | Comments (0)

February 06, 2007

Pastry-Eating Frenzy

I love the pastries they make in bakeries here... I swore off pastries for this week but then Eva came over this afternoon with a plateful... How can I resist?

Nearby our flat are a couple of really great panificio/pasticceria/bakeries, where we usually stock up on fresh bread (if the husband doesn't feel like making his own), get our focaccia for our soups and salads, catch a morning coffee with a freshly baked brioche, and getting seasonal pastries.

I love the selection of seasonal pastries, like chiaccere (sp?) which is a crispy fried dough sprinkled with powder sugar that you can find only during carnaval season. As well as pastries and pies that use seasonal fruits like mirtillo (blueberries) and fichi (figs) and lampone (raspberries).

Posted by Yasmina at 10:03 PM | Comments (1)

January 29, 2007

idlehands

Milan is a great city to live in if you're working hard, and you love your work, and afterwards you and your friends go to apperitivo-dinner-dancing to celebrate or commiserate.

Milan is not great when you don't have anything to do. There's only so many times you can go to the Triennale or other galleries. Not to mention that my social life has shrunk in epic proportions since everyone graduated and buggered off to their next destinations. My friend M has started a Tuesday night get-together to exchange information on the intersection of design and culture and prototyping (he's a technologist), so I'm starting to go to that and meeting new people that way.

I did spend a couple of weeks lost in transition but that's all over now. I spent some time working on my good friend Kathya's website; she's a photographer. It was fun to do, and I'm just finishing things up. I've also been talking to a few prospects on possible collaborations and they've all been mostly positive. Work is starting to snowball around me... Exciting, and I'm feeling really positive, energetic and enthusiastic towards anything that comes my way.

Posted by Yasmina at 06:58 PM

January 14, 2007

lost in transition

I'm getting used to seeing friends on Skype and knowing that I won't be seeing them for lunch, or apperitivo, or Sunday movie night. I'm getting used to being able to just work on my own projects (namely, knitting, *which is going horribly* and soldering robots and electronic kits *which I'm better at*). It's been a week since we got back to Milan and it's a new kind of daily routine that I'm trying to get used to; even if only for a little while.

Last week, I was updating my website, and talking to some people about possible collaborations. I can't talk too much about that yet, only that I'm fortunate to know so many people who are happy to open their doors for me. In the meantime, I am keeping myself busy with new ideas and projects, and making new friends.

I'm glad we are staying in Italy for longer. I like my life here, with Robert. Hooray for 2007.

Posted by Yasmina at 05:18 PM

December 03, 2006

Monza, Sunday Afternoon

After waking up late on this very gray Sunday, and breakfasting on chocolate panettone, vanilla yoghurt and coffee, we caught a train to Monza. The initial idea was to walk around Parco Monza, but when we got there, we decided it was too cold and rainy to walk in the park. We ended up walking around the shopping streets instead.

We found a Citta del Sole so we bought an inflatable globe, a toy airplane, a wooden car and an Il Piccolo Principe memory game for X. On the phone, X asks us for a toy hammer... but I can hear his mom (my sister) in the background shouting to get him educational toys instead. So it's a sort of compromise.

We keep thinking we must go to Indonesia and see him before he gets too big (to be tickled, held upside-down, spun around and all that good stuff). We spoke to him on the phone yesterday and he keeps asking us where we are. Hence the idea of the inflatable globe, so he can see where we are in relation to his position.

Anyway, I hope next weekend it will be sunny so we can go to the park. :-)

Posted by Yasmina at 07:18 PM | Comments (1)

November 02, 2006

Musical Neighbours

Ahhh... finally. The piano kid living in our building learns a new song to play. For weeks, I've listened to the soft sounds of Beethoven's Für Elise in the distance, somewhere in the building. I thought the kid lived upstairs, but now we actually think the kid is downstairs and the awesome rock guitarist lives upstairs.

The kid often practises on Sunday mornings, not too early, around 10 am, and sometimes during the weekday evenings. The rock guitarist plays mostly on evenings; sometimes we don't hear him for a while, but then he/she would play a couple of nights in a row, around 8 pm.

You might think having a piano kid and a rock guitarist in the building is a hassle and makes a noisy living space, but we actually quite like listening to them (within a repetitive threshold).

And what song has the neighbour kid learned to play this time, you might ask? Heart and soul, of course.... ;-)

Posted by Yasmina at 07:25 PM

October 18, 2006

Guitar Guy

Most days on my daily commute to school, I see him, jumping metro carriages every two stations, toting his guitar and his paper cup with change. He's probably my age, South-American looks, long dark hair tied into a ponytail; sometimes he looks sad or nostalgic but his voice always carries clearly, floating across the carriage, above the din of the train travelling on rails in the underground.

His eastern border on the green line is Lambrate FS, my stop, and he would exit the northeast-bound train, cross the platform and catch the train going back into town. In the other direction, I've seen him as far as Porta Genova station, also my stop.

The thing that drives me a little bit crazy about him is that he's always either singing "La Bamba" or "Guantanamera". Just those two numbers. Nothing else. Or at least, I haven't heard him sing any other tunes. It's getting to the point of recognition when I put a coin into his cup and we'd smile, nod, an acknowledgement of presence, and I swear he looks embarrassed sometimes, as if thinking, "Oh, she heard me sing that song, again..."

Anyway. I haven't spotted him since school started. I hope he's okay.

Posted by Yasmina at 12:10 PM

October 09, 2006

Trespassers of Social Boundaries

Referring to this post of mine, I ponder upon ideas of social boundaries and its trespassers in online communication channels.

In response to the above post, A talks about giving 3 strikes before they're out... My good friend, M, once talked about only continuing friendships only with people who keep up the same effort and block out the others... My final project talks about the emerging behavior of scopophilia (combination of voyeurism and exhibitionism) in social networking and developing solutions for revealing, concealing and camouflage: opening up, closing and hiding communication windows.

All deal in some ways with trespassers of social boundaries...

The more I analyse it, the more rules and exceptions I come up with in social interaction, specifically in my case of last week: like, I don't expect a reply when I send out a mass email with general news or so, but I expect something when it is an individual email with specific personal questions.

Also, if the online relationship mirrors the offline relationship, upon which the online contact is based, I tend to be more forgiving. For example, my friend L is terrible at returning calls when we were living in the same city, so it's OK if he doesn't reply to my message now that we're in different countries. But when it's someone who is dependable and constant with the offline relationship, and their online behavior is the opposite, I become puzzled and stumped. Especially with the ease of emails/Flickr/IM these days, it's easier to offend by a non-reaction.

During the Applied Dreams workshop this year, one of the teams came up with a project on Social Boundaries, certain rules that apply and get broken. Shame I can't find it as reference for now, but if I find it, I'll link it.

OK, back to the project drawing board.

Posted by Yasmina at 10:31 PM

September 10, 2006

Back from Ars Electronica 2006

Wow. What a week! I had a fantastic time. So good to get away from Milan, disconnect and immerse myself in symposiums/lectures and interactive exhibits and music parties...

This week I have:

* taken over 1Gb worth of pictures and video
* met a lot of interesting new people
* ran into an old friend by accident
* gotten to know some of my classmates better
* walked in my bare feet in the grass
* fallen asleep twice on the grass; once on the sunny banks of the Danube, and another in an Austrian countryside monastery
* browned in the sun
* attended an Arduino workshop and sat next to an overenthusiastic American, who turned out to be Golan Levin
* bought the new Arduino board
* gotten the Arduino board to work
* been told by John Maeda that he liked my work and ideas on 'simplicity'
* got a signed copy of his latest book
* read half of that book
* been completely star-struck after meeting Golan Levin and John Maeda
* sent my husband photos of myself through an internet phone booth
* drank a lot of Austrian white beer
* drank a lot of bad coffee
* eaten a lot of sinfully yummy Austrian cakes and pastries
* eaten a lot of healthy vegetarian, bio meals
* not gotten into bed at a reasonable time due to self-inflicted party-abuse
* not gotten out of bed at a reasonable time due to self-inflicted party-abuse
* worn a Threadless t-shirt every day of the week (not the same one)
* only seen 2 other people wearing Threadless t-shirts at the festival
* thrown some LED throwies at a passing tram
* painted with light with friends at Hauptplatz
* burned my eyeballs at the Ars Electronica Animation Festival
* attended some pretty amazing (digital) music performances
* played with some really cool tangible and embedded interfaces
* seen more interactive art exhibits than you could shake a stick at...
* been to a wine festival

I'm still editing the videos, and also trying to catch up on the Siena Design Project report which needs to be handed in before the new semester starts next week, plus some client work so now I am back to work mode in Milan. Busy bee but happy to be together again with my lovely husband :)

Posted by Yasmina at 02:51 PM | Comments (1)

August 07, 2006

Ars Electronica 2006

Cool, the Ars Electronica 2006 festival program is up. Annoyingly too late to signup for the Arduino workshops. On the other hand, the Arduino workshop is an intense five-day ten-a.m-to-seven-p.m activity and it seems a shame to miss out on the other bits of the festival.

The events that look quite promising are down below...

Conferences:
- The Simplicity Symposiums Part I (a.m) & Part II (p.m.)
- Goblin City
- Redefining Public Service: What is Public Value and What do Community Media have to do with It?

Hauptplatz/Mobile City
- As If We Were Alone...
- Mobile Assassins
- Regrets

Also, the play The Electric Grandmother by Franz Schwabeneder, based on a short story by Ray Bradbury, sounds good. Would love to catch that while I'm there...

School will only be paying for 2 days' accommodation in Linz, and I know I want to stay until Sunday, so I am now looking for 3 days' accommodation, possibly sharing with Huie. Need to find train or air fares as well. I like the idea of travelling by train and looking out the window. Wonder if the prices are sky-high though, and what kind of student discounts they'll have.

Also published on my vox.com.

Posted by Yasmina at 01:16 PM

July 16, 2006

bread porn: lazy sunday bread

Saturday afternoon is usually the time when Robert and I go round the neighborhood getting our weekly shopping done. Sure, during the week, we nip to the shops once or twice to get fresh ingredients, but Saturday is when we do the full-neighborhood tour: the greengrocers, the butcher, the supermarket, the bakery, the gelateria.

The promise of Robert's homemade bread, made us skip the bakery entirely yesterday afternoon. Whether it's raisin bread, or croissant, or plain white bread, Robert's homemade breads is always made with love and always comes out perfect...

Delicious bread porn by Robert on Flickr...

Posted by Yasmina at 02:57 PM | Comments (2)

July 03, 2006

sunday at the lake

Robert, Joris and I woke up early on Sunday *surprise, surprise* and spent a lazy day on the shores of Lake Como. We took a train from Milano Cadorna to Como Nord Lago, then a fast wingboat to Menaggio.

We spread our towels, slathered sun lotion, and swam in the lake. Or rather, the boys sawm and I bobbed in the water. The water surface was warm, the water colder as I dived to the bottom. I like swimming in the lake; it's not salty like the sea and no salt crusts in my hair afterwards. I miss swimming. I should swim in Milano.

Afterwards we ate gelato and went for a nice stroll in Menaggio, looking at all the beachfront properties. Then, we explored Como's walking streets. Shops were having massive sales but we sat in a bar and had a drink before dinner.

We're awfully lethargic after our afternoon in the sun. And poor Robert is terribly sunburned too... oh dear... I gave him temporary treatment in the form of calamine lotion and an ibuprofen, but tomorrow I must get some kind of aloe vera lotion or so from the pharmacy.

You can also view photos on Joris' Flickr page.

Posted by Yasmina at 12:28 AM | Comments (2)

June 26, 2006

notte bianca 2006

Oh, I've been terrible this week. Going out every night after school this week, because it has been too hot to be at home... The temperatures have been soaring, I find myself getting to school later and later, wearing shorts, skirts and flip-flops to school, apperitivo in the evenings with friends, and gelato breaks takes precedence over coffee breaks.

On Friday we ended up in the English pub on Via Torino watching South Korea get beaten by Switzerland. Joe was so gutted, I think he must have been thinking about the South Korea loss all through his flight to L.A on Saturday. He'll be gone for a couple of months and I'll miss his chatter quite a bit.

After the game we went to Duomo to watch the free Sting concert. It was absolutely packed and incredibly hot but it was good to be there with friends. Sting is fab live; the songs sound exactly how they're meant to be sung.... Rox-anne....

This Saturday was Notte Bianca in Milan, which is when various free events take place all over the city and Milan becomes party central.

So, Saturday we went to see the jazz in Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele but the acoustics makes them sound like they're playing in a bathroom, plus the noise from the stage in Duomo was overwhelming, which was a shame. Should have organised that better.

So we ended up in La Feltrinelli where I bought a few books for the summer: "Freakonomics" by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner, "The Disappointment Artist" Essays by Jonathan Lethem, and Haruki Murakami's "Birthday Stories". I'm annoyed because I left a couple of Banana Yoshimoto and Haruki Murakami books in Amsterdam and Jakarta. I also was reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "Love in the Time of Cholera" on my flight back to Europe, but I seem to have misplaced the book and I can't find it anywhere... grrr...

In the evening we went to another jazz show at Teatro No'hma near our house. It was okay, not fab; I think Robert is a bit spoiled that way, he's seen so many fantastic artists live, so he gets fed up and leaves when the band is not playing so well.

Sunday I had a bit of work to do with Kinjal and Huie. Afterwards, Huie and I played a couple of games on Playstation2, and drinking the iced coffee that I made. Dinner was at the Indian place in P.ta Venezia, with Robert, Joris and Huie. Then it was beers at the English pub to watch the Dutch-Portuguese game.

I told Robert and Joris that I would support the Netherlands by not cheering for the Portuguese. Fair enough, no? I felt bad when the final blew though, because Joris looked devastated. Ah well, he'll probably cheer up when he sees England kick some Portuguese butt next week.

Posted by Yasmina at 12:11 AM | Comments (3)

June 12, 2006

weekend away

Last Saturday, Lili, Ana, Robert and I ran away to the Ligurian coastal town of Levanto... We spent an afternoon basking in the sun on the beach before Ana headed back to Milano. It had been a while since I'd swum in the sea and I'd forgotten about the salt drying in your hair, and the salty taste of your skin after swimming. The water was cold, fresh. It was great.

In the evening, we walked up the hill to the castelo and watched the sunset. We had a birthday dinner for Robert at Scaramouche Cave, owned by the theatrical Massimo. The food was excellent and Lili and I shared a chocolate fondue for dessert.

Sunday started out hazy but as we approached the fishing village of Corniglia, the sun stopped being shy. We sampled wine at an enoteca and I discovered the wonderful *serak-serak basah* voice of Folco Orselli, who sounds like a jazzy, slightly less-angsty, Italian version of Tom Waits, and whose CD became the official soundtrack to our trip ;-)

Being on the beach, driving through Cinque Terre and the little villages, was truly a lovely way to spend the weekend. I wish we were there for longer. Robert and I promised each other we would do one roadtrip a month, at least, while we are living in Italy. He wants to move out of Milano and live in the mountains.

Posted by Yasmina at 07:06 PM | Comments (4)

June 05, 2006

Heliuphant: Urban Street Game

Last week, we were running around town, participating in Alejandro's experience prototype, as he calls it. I was in a team with Aram, who, by the way, has posted all these dodgy photos of me during the game on his Flickr.

* All images originally uploaded by blese.

The ransom note.

1st task: draw a chalk graffiti on the pavement

2nd task: hugging a stranger over 50 in the street

3rd task: spheres and circles

We got stuck on 3...

The people we asked didn't know the right answer, either...

So, we Google'd it...

And still got the wrong answer...

Putting clues together with the other groups...

Fnally, Heliuphant...

Posted by Yasmina at 09:25 PM | Comments (4)

May 06, 2006

eating my way back to italy from indo

OMG, that must have been the longest journey I ever made from Asia to Europe. I left Jakarta on Friday, 12.20 Indonesian time, arriving in Singapore at 14.55. My Singapore-Amsterdam flight didn't leave until 23.45, so I went over to Thalia and Ari's place, hung out a bit before going to meet Rani and going to East Coast Park to eat some chilli crabs and other yummy crustaceans. The food was super-duper good; the crabs were perfect and tender and spicy, the prawns and squid crunchy, the kailan not too soggy, not too crunchy in their garlicky deliciousness.

I was in my cut-off jeans shorts, sandals, linen tunic, drinking beer by the beach on Friday night. Some 13 hours later, when I arrived in Amsterdam, it was 4C outside! Eeek! It was 07.15 when I arrived, and my flight to Milano was at 19.20. I deposited my luggage in the lockers and made my way to meet Gerard.

Gerard was so sweet, picking me up at the train station and taking me to his parents' house so I could have a nice hot shower and a nap. I felt terrible for barging into their homes like that. I wish Gerard and I had more time to hang out together, but he had loads of work on, so after a while he drove me to Rotterdam, to Laszlo and Lesh's.

Laszlo and Lesh's new apartment is supercool, light and airy with skylights and the double glass doors leading to the terrace balcony. I was happy to have had the time to hang out and catch up with Laszlo because we didn't manage when I was in NL last March.

We then walked into the town center to see what celebrations were going on. The stroll through their neighbourhood was a great experience: so much to see and touch and smell. Vendors were barbecuing lamb sausages in the street, various shops selling Afros and incense and plastic multi-colored beads.

We stopped off at this Turkish sweet shop where we bought pistachio and nut-honey pastries. That shop was fab! Imagine, a shop that just sells delicious Turkish sweets. I could have bought entire trays of sweets.

In town we visited Lisa and Damian, who had a market stand selling secondhand stuff for the day. We drank beer and went on a walkabout through the secondhand market. There were some nice pieces but also a lot of junk. I ate a dodgy bratwurst sandwich in the center of town, and we are the sweets we bought earlier from the Turkish shop and they were so so so good I wish we'd bought more.

Around five I got back to the airport only to find my flight was delayed till 23.00. Buses from Bergamo to Milano don't run that late so I rescheduled to a morning flight and stayed over at my parents-in-law. I ate a lot of my mother-in-law's potato salad, which is the best potato salad, I swear, drank Hoegaarden and smoked eel sandwiches. I was sad in the delay of seeing Robert again but at least my belly was full of yummies.

Sunday morning I finally made it to Milano. Boy and girl together again :)

Posted by Yasmina at 07:28 PM

April 13, 2006

hospital days

Delayed posting because I stayed in the hospital Wednesday night and today and I couldn't figure out how to get online. No images (yet) because I'm sneaking dialup connection from the hospital desk while the nurses are not looking ;)

*copied and pasted* Wednesday night, April 12th 2006

It's been an eventful day. Started out with lunch with some Flickr friends at Jittlada in PIM2 Jakarta. OMG, the food was SO tasty and delicious and I was pretty hungry and we were endlessly chatting that I didn't take so many photos. Huie is going to kill me now, because she specifically asked for food photos.

We had Thai green curry with chicken, red beef curry, chicken wrapped in pandan leaves *omg, heaven in a green wrap*, Thai fried rice with pineapples *I ate some before I remembered I was allergic to pineapples* and mango salad, which I'd never had before and the flavor and texture was interesting because they'd coated the mango in a light batter that reminds me of the batter on dim-sum taro balls. Of course, we had the obligatory tom yam soup as starters.

Dessert was interesting because I never had that dish before. It's singkong with a light coconut cream sauce. I don't know the English word for singkong, must look it up, but it's a sort of potato, I guess. You can just fry slices of it as a snack, or ground it up to make all sorts of sweet and savoury dishes. I think it's a plant that is particular to the region of South-East Asia. You can also eat the leaves, which tastes slightly more bitter than spinach; I love the leaves stewed in coconut milk, a dish called Sayur Daun Singkong.

It was an educational day into Thai cuisine for me today. Thanks to Satya and his dad, for taking me to lunch today! :)

After lunch I met up with this girl, who I met through GF. We ended up in Starbucks, at Citos, where we drank frappucinos and talked and talked and talked and talked until Mr.GF himself decided to show up ;)

After a week of fresh fruit juices, I really wanted a cold cold beer, so we went to a pub and resumed the conversation there. Then, a bunch of other guys turned up and we just started drinking.

I'm now hanging out with my grandfather in his hospital room. He's generally OK, just a bit of Delhi belly really, but he's 92 and doesn't recover from these things as quickly as the rest of us and he tends to get dehydrated, hence the overnight stay in the hospital. I've rolled out my bed for the night, the sofabed, and I'll keep him company till one of my cousins relieves me of duty tomorrow night. I'm sitting in the dark, typing this, listening to my grandfather's gentle breathing.

I don't know why, but hospitals, especially the ones here, give me the creeps. I swear that they are all haunted, especially the central hospital, RSCM, in the Menteng area of Jakarta; built during the colonial Dutch times, I'm positive many pre-war headless Dutch ghosts wander around its halls at night. Or some scary Indonesian ghosts, which, in stories, are almost always a woman, with ghastly pale skin, long flowing black hair and blood red lips, wearing a white dress and having some pretty serious unfinished business with a former lover or husband's jealous mistress.

Check out Thalia's Beautiful Ghosts Around the World series.

I guess I'm just one of those people who don't like hospitals; even when they are bright and clean and shiny.

Posted by Yasmina at 07:41 AM | Comments (2)

April 08, 2006

bleh... paperwork...

Heh. Well, the bad news is that it's taking longer than expected. Will have to postpone my return flight back :(

The consolato in Amsterdam told us the wrong thing (getting nulla osta at Questura, instead of the Comune) so now Robert has to get the nulla osta and FedEx it to me... Tuh kan, kalo tau gitu, gue stay di Belanda deh...

However, we're wondering why we need a nulla osta since the Questura told us we didn't need one since Robert is an EU citizen and if you look into the esteri.it website, the family members of an EU citizen doesn't need one. Nyebelin kan? Bener-bener deh, tangan kanan ngga bicara sama tangan kiri nih namanya...

The good news is that broadband here work fine, both at my parents' home and at my dad's apartment in the city. So I guess, if I have to miss more of school, I could manage by hooking up through Skype. But people wouldn't want to be on my team, I guess, since it is not easy working like this. And working remotely here is going much worse than when I was in NL, because of the five-hour time difference :(

In the meantime, I am doing my own people research and looking into the mobile phone culture here in Indo, which is definitely interesting and livelier than in Europe. I'm taking loads of photos for all the moodboards and scenarios and I wish I'd brought my other lenses.

I love being in the tropics though, the natural light just makes all my photos amazingly vivid. It's warm and I wish I'd brought more skirts and sandals.

It really is good to be home. Spending time with my parents and sister and nephew. Also seeing a lot of my cousins, and other relatives. Everyone just wants to feed me. It's so sweet!

So far I have eaten pempek Palembang (thinking of Kat as I ate it), cwie mie, bakmie GM, bubur ayam, sayur daun singkong, ikan asin, ati ampela goreng kecap mentega, and drinking lots of fruit juice.

P.S. Gue kangen kamu banget, Mr.K!

Posted by Yasmina at 05:48 PM | Comments (1)

April 05, 2006

I am gone

Will be back in a couple of weeks, I guess...

This is for you, Mr. K ♥ ♥ ♥

Posted by Yasmina at 09:07 AM

April 02, 2006

João and Yasmina: together again :)

Saturday morning I picked João up at Schiphol Airport. I was SO HAPPY to see him. The last week I'd been somewhat lost without Robert, and feeling estranged from friends and feeling stressed out with all the paperwork, the move and schoolwork, and I just want to get back to Milano, and then I see João, and we just picked up where we left off and everything was fine again... :)

Posted by Yasmina at 12:20 PM | Comments (4)

March 28, 2006

conversations: Gerard and Yasmina

email one: Yasmina to Gerard
Hello! Good morning!

Why didn't you wake me up? Thanks for the breakfast :)
And, sorry for clogging up your shower drain with my hair!

Have a nice day!

+ysmn.

email two: Gerard to Yasmina
g'morning to you too

next time I'll wake you up OK :-)

and I think it is my hair in the shower!

see you soon

G

and do pick up the phone.....

email three: Gerard to Yasmina
yas

we have a guest this evening by the way

Cindy is visiting around 20 hr....

G

email four: Yasmina to Gerard
Cindy van Bremen?

Do I make myself scarce? Is she coming for dinner?
Does she like chocolate cake?

email five: Gerard to Yasmina
do not make yourself scares

yes I think she would like cake

she is coming to see the place

Gerard

email six: Yasmina to Gerard
Eh btw, what time do you eat dinner if Cindy's coming round at 8?
I must still be stuck in Mediterranean times... :-O This is Cindy van
Bremen, the designer, right? The one I know?

email seven: Gerard to Yasmina
we can eat around that time...

possibly get a pizza?

I have no need to eat at 6!

so you suggest!

g

email eight: Yasmina to Gerard
I'm looking for little muffin-style baking cups that I can stick in the oven...
Do you have some? If not, do you have oven-proof little bowls? It's for
the chocolate cake, have you had them before? The ones with dark dark
chocolate and when you poke them with your fork, the melted chocolate
inside bubbles out to the top... I don't have an oven in Milan, see, so that's
why I want to make some whilst here :)

email nine: Gerard to Yasmina
Need to buy them

I do not have any baking forms - would love to have them
close to the AH is a Blokker - will pay you back
Also a Kruidvat but I do not think they have that stuff

yes it is Cindy van Bremen

gr

G

email ten: Gerard to Yasmina
yas,

I am "home" around 18:30 - Do I need to pick anything up for dinner or baking or anything?

G

email eleven: Yasmina to Gerard
Hummm, OK, pick up 10 eggs, 500g of dark dark chocolate (70% bars)
200g of white flour, 200g of sugar.... just for the cake...

I'll figure something out for dinner, something quick and easy, is Cindy
eating with us? My lecture is still going on and on but lunch break should
be soon and I'll go pick up your drycleaning...

Ciao ciao

In the end, I made roast chicken (sorry, I forgot to take photos) and Gerard made some yummy spinach with ginger and nutmeg and a salad. We ate at seven which is early for me, so after this I'm going to eat a couple of bananas. Then we had the chocolate cake, which was REALLY SINFUL... :)

Posted by Yasmina at 11:40 PM | Comments (1)

not quite a new life

By a strange twist of fate, Robert is now living in Milano, unpacking all of our stuff all by himself, and I am still stuck in the Netherlands, desperately trying to get out.

Am now living at Gerard's house. He's at work during the day, so I can sit in his study with my brand spanking new iBook and Skype into class through Huie. Skyping in is the best way to follow lectures, I guess, because we tried iChat video and it keeps crashing.

It's really hard to listen to Walter talk in class because he'll start saying things like, "We're going to start with this point here..." and somewhere in class he's probably pointing to a line or segment which I cannot see, so I end up Skyping Huie or some other poor classmate and asking, "Which points? What coordinates?"

Yesterday's session was really hard because we were doing 3D engines and stuff, and I really lost the plot after a while, omg...

Living with Gerard is cool; kind of like living with Eva, like having housemates. I like having housemates; and he's been looking after me really well, almost kind of being a babysitter. In a really cute kind of way. Eva is like that too.

Anyway. Class is supposed to be starting soon, so I better go.

Posted by Yasmina at 09:47 AM | Comments (1)

March 21, 2006

nosebleed

WARNING: IMAGES OF GROSSNESS IN THIS POST >> MOM, DAD, CINTA, ROBERT: LOOK AWAY NOW

Augh! Today we had a day of Processing at school and tonight I just had the worst nosebleed in my life! Not good! Should have labelled the class with "Might cause nosebleeds"... j/k :P

Well, at least tomorrow I am in NL and I will definitely swing by my GP to see what's wrong. I had something similar to this a couple of summers ago and they ran blood tests on me but everything turned out normal and nothing was wrong, so it could just be a repeat... I'd always been prone to nosebleeds as a kid, but not so much as an adult...

edit: I really am OK, I am now in NL, no nosebleeds or anything on the plane. Called my doctor and I will see him tomorrow re: frequent nosebleeds. :)

Posted by Yasmina at 01:10 AM

March 14, 2006

menyebalkan...

dari tadi ngisi never-ending formulir asuransi, jam segini masih belom selesai juga. gue dan robert sekarang pake expat service salah satu bank di belanda untuk menyatukan semua asuransi kita, mulai dari asuransi kesehatan, asuransi legal advice, asuransi perumahan *kalo-kalo ada yang mau merampok rumah kita di milano untuk nyolongin handbags gue*, dan asuransi accidental *kalo-kalo gue ngerusak barang orang like dropping their pbooks or something*...

dude, what is up with all these forms??? satu booklet geto lohhh...

and i have a feeling this is not the end of it... minggu depan gue balik ke belanda untuk ngurusin pindahan rumah, dan ngurusin visa itali gue yang berantakan gara-gara konjen itali di eindhoven ngasihtau gue bahwa gue engga perlu visa dari kedutaan itali, cukup pake KTP belanda gue doang, dan surat check-out dari belanda... *doh*

robert besok balik ke belanda... dan si eva udah pindah ke apartementnya yang baru... goodbye sunshine, hello loneliness...

Posted by Yasmina at 12:27 AM | Comments (6)

March 11, 2006

one

this time last year... and how i wish we were back in bali...

Posted by Yasmina at 07:58 PM | Comments (2)

March 04, 2006

dent

today huie and ana came over to do some group work at my house. we were making really good progress, and i felt much much better about the project. then, ana tripped and brought my pbook crashing to the floor, as i was working on it (!)

there was a sickening, unhealthy thud that made my heart splash into my stomach and the pbook landed on its side, then back to normal viewing position.

not a happy camper.

i am now copying all my data onto my ipod because i noticed, after a restart, that my poor baby pbook was doing odd things; namely, itunes and mail not starting, and safari crashes when i try to fill in certain text fields, hence no titles on this post and flickr images... during the data transfer, popup windows kept coming up saying there are problems copying stuff so i've had to copy every folder one by one.

although the bottom left frame of the screen has the most damage physically, the screen is actually working fine. no fuzzyness or weird black spots with dead pixels.

it's most likely to be a hardware problem so there's nothing i can probably do at this point. just get my head down, my butt down and get to work. deadline on monday.

*sigh*

Posted by Yasmina at 10:28 PM | Comments (11)

March 02, 2006

bruiser

i woke up feeling not so hot this morning. so, for some reason, i decided to dance myself into a good mood. i don't know what possessed me. i danced and jumped around my room for a good half hour until i was dizzyingly breathless and sweaty. it felt good.

until i hit my shin on the wooden corner of the bed. ow ow ow! big ouch!

but an even bigger ouch...

eva is leaving me!

boo hoo! she finally found a room in a flatshare near her school, and she is leaving me in about a week. i am SO going to miss her! in the couple of months we'd been living together, we really bonded. i feel like i'm getting divorced or something :-(

Posted by Yasmina at 10:44 PM | Comments (1)

February 18, 2006

kathya + angela

on thursday, after a very hectic crazy way of getting to milano, kathya and angela finally arrived! they'd missed their flight to bergamo, had to catch an afternoon flight into treviso (which is near venezia and nowhere near milano) then take the train from venezia into milano and some further added confusion of meeting up with me in centrale FS...

friday night the girls walked around and then we met up in the evening after i finished school. we went into every shop on corso di porta ticinese. bliss. shopping with girls and not having husband drag you quickly past handbag shops.

dinner on naviglio, at a wine restaurant. dessert was at fabbrica, where i went on thursday night with some friends from school. on the way home, we stopped by the wonderful 24-hour bakery/bar, princi in garibaldi for some cakes to bring home with us.

today we are going to do more shopping. eva, yasmina, kathya and angela. 4 girls + 0 husbands/boyfriend = retail therapy + dancing + drinking :)

Posted by Yasmina at 12:39 PM | Comments (4)

January 27, 2006

snow!

it snowed all day today and milan is covered in snow!

Posted by Yasmina at 12:39 AM | Comments (4)

January 24, 2006

mid-week posting

well, i got upgraded to MT 3.2. since i screwed up the stylecatcher plugin installation and MT reset my template files, i am currently using one of the default styles. hopefully i have time tomorrow to look the css over. :)

i had a rough start of the week. monday morning i took robert to centrale fs where he caught the bus to milano orio al serio airport. it was hard to see him off. i don't know what is happening to me emotionally, but i was functioning fine during the two weeks that we were apart, i was getting along fabulously, meeting new people, hanging out after brain-drain lectures.

then robert comes over for four days and i get used to him being around again, to having a warm body to wake up next to, feeling how life would be with robert in milan. actually, that's how life should be: robert and i, in milano, happily ever after.

so i spent monday sulking at school because i felt life isn't as it should be; robert isn't in milan and i miss him SO much. and it's almost as if it would have better if he hadn't come over at all. i know that sounds terrible. i don't regret robert coming over, sure, it was great to see him again but somehow i feel like that: maybe if he didn't come over, i wouldn't feel so down.

ah, well. i'll get over it soon. anyway, i'm grateful; i have nice friends who are always ready to cheer me up, especially this guy in eindhoven, with loads of skype hugs to bestow upon me ;)

Posted by Yasmina at 08:24 PM | Comments (5)

January 12, 2006

long distance marriage

thanks to the wonders of skype :) but perhaps i should invest in an iSight so i can actually see my husband. he has a webcam but i don't and the video thing doesn't work one-way, probably to prevent all that one-way stalking by freaky perverts out there.

RAWRRRRRRRR I LOVE BEARDY MEN

WARNING: EXTREME SILLINESS

A VERY BEARDY MR.K

A GOODNIGHT KISS FROM MR.K

ZOOLANDER-STYLE PUCKER

Posted by Yasmina at 10:59 PM | Comments (3)

January 04, 2006

naviglio afternoon with robert

robert was sick last week so he didn't go with us to naviglie grande. today we timed ourselves travelling from our flat to the domus academy campus. 40 minutes if taking metro and walking, or 30 mins if metro and bus from porta genova. :)

then we walked around the naviglie grande. it was sunny outside and quite warm compared to last week's walk. we had a coffee at mag cafe, then popped into a church to steep in silence and i lit a candle. robert thinks it's scarilegous if i took photos in church so we ended up just sitting in the pews for some time.

we were looking for new shoes for robert but he didn't like anything he saw today, and i know better than to tell him what to wear. it was a good day out. tonight we're going out to some bars for music.

Posted by Yasmina at 06:52 PM | Comments (3)

December 30, 2005

days in milan

last night, karen, andreas and i went to birrificio di lambrate which is just around the corner from my apartment. it was around eleven when we got there, and the place was packed. i really identified with the clientele there: youngish, twenty-something crowd, they look like designers. or overgrown skaters. it was a cool place to hang out and have drinks with friends.

today, after a late start, karen, andreas and i went to explore the naviglie grande area of milano. pentako and ulrich came along too. it was really sunny outside, but really cold. the melted snow puddles on the sidewalks had begun to crystallise again.

we went into a couple of bookshops, that had beautiful art books, as well as more up-to-date design books. as i looked over the antique books, i thought of anton, who'd definitely love these books.

we met up with david and eva, and went to forma. forma is a photography institute, located not far from the naviglie grande.

they were having an exhibit on martin schoeller, who did these close-up facial portraits of celebrities and people. the bigger exhibition was Storie di sguardi, which "consists of a broad overview of 150 years of photographic inventions and creations, which explore the different glances through a series of key images." shame that all the accompanying text in the exhibit was all in italian.

anyway, it was a nice day out with friends today. robert was still sick so he stayed home alone. right now i am waiting for dinner to be ready. i am SO hungry. karen and andreas are preparing a german dinner, since they brought me fresh maultasschen (sp?) from germany.

my upstairs neighbor is playing the piano and it is nice to listen to her/him play. the other week they were playing the piano and the guitar, which was also enjoyable to hear. i hope they don't become irritating in the future though.

Posted by Yasmina at 08:06 PM | Comments (1)

December 23, 2005

first day in milano

yay! we're finally here!

after a hectic morning at schiphol airport, we got to milano orio al serio, where we met up with kathya, who flew in from frankfurt. we settled into our new apartment in milan; it's in a great location, the neighborhood is full of character, and the flat is retro with high-ceilings and tile floorings. we explored the neighbourhood a bit, had an italian lunch around the corner, then went to duomo for photos and a walkabout.

more stories later...

Posted by Yasmina at 09:01 PM

December 15, 2005

christmas packets of ultra awesome-ness

happiness! today i received not one, but two packages in the mail! omg, i have really generous friends, i am counting my blessings! christmas is starting early for me this year, i think, heheh...

the first package came from thalia in singapore. she has started a new project called the avocadolite farm, which is a collection of mini crochet characters that she made and designed herself. her husband ari, is in charge of writing each character's stories. the mini figures are available for purchase on the site. each character is one-of-a-kind and has their own unique stories.

quick! adopt them before they run out!

the second package came from kathya in germany. kathya the überfräu-oh-mighty-chef made us a batch of homemade dark-chocolate-dried-cherry-pecan cookies, packaged in a beautiful christmas tin, with a lovely accompanying card. time for milk and cookies for me then!

in the last weeks, i've also received packages in the mail from adam in new york and from patricia in sweden. :)

seriously, guys, thank you SO much for everything. your happy packages just made my day (and robert's too)... i hope he gets home soon, otherwise i'll eat all the cookies...

*sprouts wings and flies off to the clouds*

Posted by Yasmina at 01:03 PM | Comments (5)

December 13, 2005

thomas + chocolate-chip muffins

baking chocolate chip muffins with marie and thomas. marie downloaded a really yumm muffin recipe from the internet and they came out really delicious! light and fluffy and chocolatey!

robert and i came over with bagel sandwiches to have lunch at marie's. she and david had just had a second baby, a little brother to thomas, called oliver. i should have photos of oliver but he was sleeping so i didn't take any. he was such a quiet baby, sleeping in his pram in the living room, even though we were cooking and eating together and thomas was running around the apartment hyperactive on chocolate-chip muffins.

Posted by Yasmina at 11:38 PM

December 11, 2005

'tis the season to be baking

last week i went over to visit cathrine and little ebbe and spent an afternoon baking traditional norwegian gingerbread cookies. it was fun! although we were a bit silly for forgetting to buy any cake icing to decorate the cookies with. we did have cookie cutters though, so we made different shape cookies.

the cookies came out really well, and i've been munching on them whilst enjoying my afternoon tea. it's been so cold lately outside, and homemade gingerbread cookies and herbal tea is the perfect companion for when i am curled on the couch, reading my new books: jonathan safran foer's "extremely loud & incredibly close" and banana yoshimoto's "hardboiled | hard luck".

Posted by Yasmina at 10:06 PM

November 19, 2005

last lunch. last day.

fu ho was in town for a day to sort out some paperwork so we had a dim sum lunch together. he'd resigned last month, and he is now going to work for vodafone in london as an experience-design manager. or something like that. good for him! i was really pleased for fu ho, but i've really missed him since he left. no more dim sum lunches for me!

also, yesterday was my last day at work. whew!

it felt kind of weird. i've been working there for nearly five years. the day i resigned, i felt an immense relief and at the same time, i realised how much i would miss working with friends like judith, michael, marie.

the last couple of days i was cleaning my desk and collecting my personal belongings from the office. i found loads of little post-it notes from monica; she used to leave me sweet messages like "i came by to return a hug", with her signature curly monica cartoon at the bottom. it made me sad because she left around this time last year and that means no one has come by to give me a hug for a year!

after work friday, robert and i went to meet angus, damian and stuart for drinks at this new bar, efffes, around the corner. then loads of people started to turn up. it was a good crowd; it kinda felt like the after-work drinks at mezzo four years ago.

so now i am free! except for 4 hours a week teaching at the TUE till the end of term, i am free! yippee yay!

Posted by Yasmina at 12:06 PM | Comments (14)

November 14, 2005

work incidents

random incident at work this week:
patray *from hong-kong* and jessica *from NL but has indonesian-german-jewish roots* are at my desk and we're discussing some design issue or other, when we saw our manager leading a group of serious-looking men in suits around the studio. our manager makes a beeline for us, and, as he approaches us, he makes a grand gesture with his hands at our little trio and flashes us a huge smile and says, "and as you can see, gentlemen, our studio is really comprised of multinationals."

OMG. LOL.

random conversation with john:

you know those situations where your conversation partners says something in such a way that you don't really have a reply?

john: ufff, i've been so busy this week that i don't even have time to go to the bathroom.
me: huh?
john: yeah, you know, like, taking a dump or having a pee. i don't even have time to do those things. i'm too busy. how bad is that?
me: then you must be full of shit *embarrassed silence from my side*

on the phone with joão:
joão was supposed to come over from brazil. i called him to confirm his arrival.

joão: *picking up the phone* hi yasmina!
me: hi joão! how are you?
john: *pauses from reading his document* huh? i'm fine, thanks.
me: *confused, then starts laughing*

gee, i'm going to miss sitting next to john.

Posted by Yasmina at 01:58 AM | Comments (2)

October 12, 2005

honest.

after going to the post office today, i went for lunch. *ketauan banget gue masih engga puasa* i went to toko murah, which is a little indonesian food shop in centrum.

i'm familiar with the staff there. *abis kalo lagi pengen masakan indo dan males masak sendiri, gue lari kesitu, hehe* the owner is a motherly-looking woman, really friendly, and kind. when she brought my food to my table, she told me, "i overcharged you for the lontong you bought, so if you wait here a bit, i'll give you your change."

hah? lontong? kaya'nya gue order lontong for the dutch wedding deh. which is 2 months ago. udah lama banget!

the lady returned with some change and apologised for overchanging me.

wasn't that a nice thing to happen to me today?

Posted by Yasmina at 08:07 PM | Comments (2)

October 11, 2005

queue at the pharmacy.

so i noticed last sunday that i've been coughing blood. eww, i know, i know, that sounds nasty and is not too healthy. my GP checked my lungs however, and there's nothing wrong there, and he thinks i've been coughing so hard that my airway is irritated. so he's prescribed some codeine for me. strong stuff, right? that's why i am so woozy.

anyway, so i'm at the pharmacy getting my prescription, and i notice that several customers get surprises as they walk in. see my little illustration below.

as you can see, the waiting area of the pharmacy is concealed to anyone that walks in. so if i were in the street, and i look into the pharmacy, i can see maybe one or two persons being served at the counter. a-ha! empty place, no queues! that's when people decide to come in.

however, once you're in, you realise that the seating area is actually in an alcove on either side of the entrance, and that there's a roomful of people giving you dirty looks because you've walked in straight to the desk to be served.

orang kan jadi kecele gitu loh. oke, dan disinilah ketauan banget kalo Interaction-Designer mode gue = ON, karena selama gue nunggu giliran gue, gue perhatikan ada beberapa skenario dan akhirnya gue bikin flowchart tentang scenario-of-use:

the entry scenario
orang masuk ke apotik. perhatian mereka hanya tertuju pada counter, jadi mereka engga sadar kalo ada kita-kita yang udah duluan ngantri dan mereka berdiri di belakang orang yang sedang dilayani. nah dari sini, skenario menjadi:

the ticket machine scenario
orang tersebut akan melihat mesin tiket dan LED screen yang menunjukkan tiket nomer berapa yang sedang di-serve. pas dia melihat tiket ditangan dan LED screen dan perbedaan nomer yang besar, baru lah orang tersebut akan celingukan liat kanan-kiri, dan menemukan antrian yang sebetulnya. at this point, the person tends to do 2 things:

leave
because they think it will take too much time (it usually does). or because they can't handle the looks given by the people in the queue (ranging from dirty/angry to amused to "ha-ha, you did that too").

joins the queue
sambil tersipu-sipu malu. ato sambil merengut. ato sambil melototin kita-kita.

anyway. maybe you can tell that i have run out of things to do at home while i am sick.

Posted by Yasmina at 11:19 AM | Comments (7)

October 06, 2005

ewwww

ok, so a few days ago, we'd noticed a strange smell in the bedroom and we couldn't quite figure out what it was. robert is always tidy and cleans all the time, so we were quite puzzled as to what it could be. nevertheless, we frantically cleaned and tidied up some more in the hope of eliminating the odd smell. *gue sampe bakar-bakar incense segala, dan selalu buka jendela walopun diluar dingin banget*

then, robert noticed the stack of wedding presents lying next to the TV in the bedroom. we'd unwrapped all the presents the day after the wedding but because our flat had been the central meeting place, and sleeping place for out-of-town visitors, and was in such a mess, we wrapped everything up again and placed them in a neat stack in the bedroom, to be unwrapped and used another day.

one of the gifts was a beautiful bowl from laszlo and lesh. only now did we remember that when laszlo and lesh gave us this present, they had put two bananas in the box with the bowl! ewww... so that's what the strange smell was!

soooooooo disgusting, ewww, ewww.

but don't you think the bowl is beautiful? and so blue?

Posted by Yasmina at 03:18 PM | Comments (6)

October 05, 2005

nap.

so i come into work today, feeling really shitty. my sore throat has developed into a cough, and i still haven't gotten rid of my cold. it's an epidemic in the studio. designers are dropping dead like flies. john, who sits opposite me, also has a sore throat and a cold.

me: *sitting miserably at my desk, sniff, sniff, nursing my runny nose*
john: *looks at me pitifully*

repeat the above situation all morning long. then...

john: hey yasmina...
me: what?
john: why don't we go find a couch and take a nap together?
me: *wonders if the words 'we', 'nap' + 'together' should be in the same sentence*
michael: *starts laughing from his desk*
john: *the coin drops* oh! i don't mean napping together as in together together. *gives me an embarrassed look*

hummm. well. thanks for the offer anyway.

so i am now home. sick. i want my mom.

Posted by Yasmina at 01:47 PM | Comments (2)

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 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)

August 28, 2005

not speaking the same language

you know how sometimes in the working environment you encounter people who just don't speak the same language you do? someone who comes from a totally different level, someone you want to turn around to and say, "i don't know what planet you are from, but english is spoken here."

him: people should be flying.
me: cool idea. let's think of how we can achieve that goal.
him: we should fly. i want to be flying. why aren't we flying?
me: yeah yeah, i get you: the future is flying. let's brainstorm how we can do that, shall we?
him: i want to fly! everyone should be flying by now! it's a wonder that no one is flying right now! *starts singing R.Kelly's 'I Believe I Can Fly*
me: would you like A. a personal rocket pack, B. a consumer hovercraft or C. be pushed out of the window?

Posted by Yasmina at 03:38 PM | Comments (7)

August 22, 2005

are you scottish?

bisa-bisanya ada orang menyangka gue orang skotlandia. asli bingung gue, gimana si supir taksi bisa salah tebak meleset total gitu yah? heh, that's a first. sebelum-sebelumnya i've been mistaken for an american, a brit, a mexican/central/south american *pokoknya spanish-speaking deh*, a portuguese, a filipino and japanese.

and the thing was, i barely said 10 words to the cab driver! the first thing i said to him after "hello, how are you?" was our destination, and all this was in dutch! *i do all my transactions and some business meetings in dutch now, i'm so proud of me* then i turned round to speak to cathrine in the back seat.

and the cab driver asked me, "are you from scotland? are you scottish?" hah? scottish? apanya gue yang scottish yah? dan si cathrine sempet confused juga tuh. "apanya elo yang scottish yah, yas?" dia nanya pas kita udah sampe kantor.

entah. tapi jarang banget orang nyangka gue orang indonesia. lucu ya. apa english gue yang misleading? over the years, i picked up different accents. my american friends say i have an english/dutch/european accent. my english friends say i have dutch/american accent. and obviously, to this dutch cabbie's ears, gue punya scottish accent kali yah? OMGLOL. :)

btw, kalo mau dengerin english gue, ada disini.

Posted by Yasmina at 10:36 PM | Comments (5)

August 16, 2005

the dutch wedding

well. the day we had been preparing for finally arrived. we were strangely relaxed and totally not nervous. i think kathya was more nervous than us, running around taking photographs. :)

the song for when we signed the wedding papers was "You Sexy Thing" by Hot Chocolate. wildly inappropriate, there were some raised eyebrows in the room, but our friends in the back giggled really hard.

walking out of the den bosch city hall, our friends and family showered us with rose petals. after some photos at the city hall, we drove to the castle where the dinner + reception was held.

our guests were really impressed with kasteel maurick. it is a beautiful location, with lush gardens all around and elegant rooms for dining and receptions.

we had champagne and a toast *to happily ever after*. we also cut the wedding cake. robert and i couldn't decide on a proper wedding cake *we both hate icing* so we picked five of our favorite cakes from de bijenkorf instead. :)

after some time lounging + mingling and eating hors d'ouvres and drinking wine, we all went to dine upstairs, where a 3-course meal awaited us. the meal was very yummy. yummilicious. i had wild mushroom soup, duck breast in berry sauce and a sorbet with forest fruits.

everyone else started arriving just as we finished dining. so onwards to the ballroom for a dance. radek had arrived and was spinning the decks already. we danced and danced and danced. the castle staff flitted between people, discreetly topping up wine and removing empty glasses. the chemistry between people was great. the music just rocked, everyone was on the dancefloor, radek is just the best.

it was so so good to spend this special day with our friends and family. we had a fab time, and from the feedback and compliments we've been receiving, the party was a smashing event. it was a really international group that we had that night; global nomads that have travelled and lived everywhere.

i was especially pleased to see the sillem family: faisal, luzita, kohar, hassan and aisjah. i had not seen them in a couple of years, since they went to south america. they travelled extensively in south america, and i had seen kohar's pictures of his visit to his brother and sister there. i thought hassan and aisjah wouldn't return to the netherlands, but they are back! yay!

also susje was so so sweet. she must read my blog often, because every time i introduced her to someone at the party, she would remember them from a blog entry. that's so funny!

you can view the indonesian + dutch wedding pictures in my flickr set. thanks to everyone who helped made this day truly beautiful for us :)

p.s. and send us your photos!

Posted by Yasmina at 02:39 PM | Comments (3)

August 11, 2005

the day before

one more day to go. :)

monica arrived this morning from chicago. she drove down in a rental car, and came by the apartment to say hello to my parents *sambil ngemil martabak telor bikinan nyokap gue* sekarang dia lagi facial di dorint hotel. gue pengen facial dari minggu lalu tapi takut jerawatan ntar ah. risky banget.

i'm going to pick up kathya in about 10 minutes, at the train station. dia datang dari jerman naik kereta karena si david engga bisa ikut dan harus kerja weekend ini. tuh kan, it's all george bush's fault that david couldn't make it this weekend to our wedding.

sore ini kita akan ambil wedding cake, ambil menu card and seating card di printer trus ke kasteel maurick untuk meninjau lokasi pernikahan. gue dan robert sih udah sering kesitu, dan nyokap gue juga udah pernah kesana desember lalu, tapi kathya dan bokap belom liat. sekalian drop off wedding cake disana sore ini.

ntar malem gaya dan joachim tiba dari london. horee! jadi nanti malam kita akan pesta rendang, pesta pempek palembang dan pesta tom ka.

and tomorrow, robert and i will repeat our vows in front of the people we love, and run away to the castle for celebrations. yay! i'm so thankful that we have come to this day :)

Posted by Yasmina at 02:02 PM | Comments (2)

August 07, 2005

wedding + reception countdown

woo hoo! our dutch wedding is in five days. it will be a busy week for us. robert did the clever thing and has taken all week off work. i have to work monday and tuesday :(

my parents will arrive on tuesday morning. 05.40 in the morning, a rather ungodly hour, if you ask me. our car is broken but michael has kindly lent us his volvo :)

on thursday, more visitors will arrive. gaya and joachim from london. kathya (and hopefully, david) from wiesbaden. karen and patricia from berlin. monica from chicago. yay! :)

i wish joão could have made it, but i know he is with me in thought.

Posted by Yasmina at 02:51 PM | Comments (5)

July 29, 2005

highlight week 30

so you know i've been doing my timesheets when i start titling my blog entries with the week number.

charlie and the chocolate factory
went with robert, and during the movie i stuffed myself with a bag of peanut M&M's and a tub of Ben&Jerry's Cookie Dough ice cream.

this is such an amusing movie! i read charlie and the chocolate factory for the first time when i was 10 and i've read it many times over since; it is one of my favorite books. tim burton did a fab job translating roald dahl to the screen! you have to go see it!

shopping night
thursday night is late-night shopping in amsterdam so i went with denise and her friend, patricia, who is on stopover from hong kong to rio de janeiro on a business trip. we walked all along the negen straatjes, tried a few clothes on in the sale at shops in magna plaza.

i am looking for an evening bag, for our wedding party in august. i fell in love with every other bag and shoes i saw, but i managed to restrain myself from buying anything until i find the stuff i need for the wedding.

i looked at some jewelry as well, and made an appointment at an atelier for saturday, to look at some pieces i like, and see if they can be made to match the colors of the wedding outfit :)

then denise, patricia and i went to japanese pancake world for an okonomiyaki dinner. i stayed over at denise's new apartment. she lives 5 minutes away from leidseplein, on the top floor of a building that overlooks the vondelpark. arrrggghhhh, i want a flat like that!

denise made me a very yummy chocolate cake when we got home. it was souffle-like and very chocolatey. poke it with a fork and all the chocolate sauce goodness just bursts forth. i had it with vanilla ice cream. so so yumm. i went to bed happy :)

have a good weekend everyone!

Posted by Yasmina at 01:33 PM | Comments (2)

July 20, 2005

breakfast for robert

i wake up every morning earlier than robert so i can make him breakfast before i go to work (and yes, i come home earlier than him also most of the time, so i can cook him dinner).

today i made dutch uitsmijter: toast with bacon, cheese and eggs. specially-made egg hearts for robert :) this is my submission for flickr fridayfoodfiesta eggs week.

don't worry, our breakfasts are usually healthier than this: fresh croissant or bread, with jam or topping, fresh fruit and homemade smoothies.

Posted by Yasmina at 02:03 PM | Comments (10)

July 14, 2005

weeknight in amsterdam

last night i went to amsterdam with gerard, judith and jessica. gerard had tickets for us to see a concert at the magnificent concertgebouw in amsterdam's museumplein.

the concert was a mix of classical music, spanish guitar by pepe romero, flamenco dances, and opera. the orchestra and spanish guitar played one of my favorite pieces, Rodrigo's Aranjuez. :)

the opera was heavy, i'd never been that interested in opera anyway. i thought the singer and dancers for the flamenco dance were very good. i'd seen flamenco dances in spain before and one christmas in madrid, i managed to get tickets for a joaquin cortes performance.

before the concert we went to the japanesepancakeworld to eat some of joachim's lovely okonomiyaki. i had a negiyaki butatama this time, and a green tea milkshake. so yumm! i thought of kathya as i was eating, and i thought maybe if i thought of her hard enough, in wiesbaden she'd get zapped by the delicious psychic flavors.

we got home pretty late, around two am. so today i am quite tired. must get to bed early tonight.

Posted by Yasmina at 12:11 PM | Comments (4)

July 12, 2005

flickr'd cherries

last night i posted at flickr saying that my upload quota has been used up this month, so please could everyone look at my blog instead? but this morning i found a cool comment from kathya saying i should look again at my upload quota. hooray! :)

kathya and david got me (and robert) a pro flickr account! yay! hooray! we're so happy! thank you thank you thank you! we're so thankful that we have generous friends :)

*i am a bit overdosing on the cherries i bought today at the market. i ate almost all of lisa's, who bought them in the morning on her way to work, and at lunchtime i popped out to buy another half kilo of cherries and i've almost eaten them all*

Posted by Yasmina at 04:24 PM | Comments (6)

July 11, 2005

north sea jazz 2005

picture is highlights from sunday's NSJ festival. went with robert and remco. i thought gerard might be there, but he was floating on the north sea without the jazz. it was fun, although i wasn't feeling so well, so i was really tired. plus one of the fusion jazz bands really gave me a headache; i didn't know where the next note was going in that music.

we managed to catch afro-cuban all-stars, candy dulfer, steps ahead (with richard bona, who we saw 2 years ago and he is good), the first 5 minutes of guaco (we left because it was not what we expected) and at the end of the night we found a nice cozy small room where joey difrancesco was playing. it was such a nice session. everyone was lying on the floor, on the carpet, listening to the band play. good end to NSJ 2005.

Posted by Yasmina at 10:49 PM | Comments (6)

July 07, 2005

london explosions

ugh. i cannot get hold of my friends in london: gaya + joachim, mbak murni + mas yusuf, daniel, james, alex, ben and james. none of their phones are connected. i hope they are okay. :(

*update* well sms is working so i got hold of james, gaya, ben and mbak murni. james says everyone we know are safe. gaya also says that she, her husband joachim and her brother ari are ok, they are at home, can't go anywhere as roads are shut and no public transport available. mbak murni says her husband returned home after the first explosion happened when he was still at chalk farm tube. ben and his girlfriend karen are also fine, since they left early so they were out of it by then. :)

allan says he's also ok although he doesn't know the whereabouts of richard and tak.

my thought and prayers are with the friends and families of the victims.

*update* please please let richard and tak everyone be safe from harm tonight.

Posted by Yasmina at 12:31 PM | Comments (4)

July 04, 2005

fourth of july weekend

we did so much this weekend i don't even know where to begin!

the story of kathya + yasmina
so kathya and i became friends when we were maybe 12, living in the washington d.c area. we liked the same music, hard rock stuff, we even went to see *gasp!* poison in concert! huahahaha, now i cringe when i think about poison and the band members' hairdo.

i moved away when i was 14 and lost contact with kathya. earlier this year kathya found me through friendster, and we discovered that we live near each other; she's about 3 hours away from me in wiesbaden, germany. how cool is that?

so thirteen years later we are back in each other's lives! kathya and her husband david came to visit us this weekend, and it was so so good to see them! it was not at all awkward or anything, just this nice rediscovery of each other, and of local food, hehe.

the eerie thing is that kathya and i grew up to be similar type of people: we're chocolate addicts, we're totally into food, we like stubble on guys *ahem, our husbands*, we pick our scabs, we sometimes walk around with our cameras permanently attached to our faces.

boekie woekie
this is my favorite bookshop after fnac chiado in lisbon, and foyles on london's charing cross road. boekie woekie, on amsterdam's beerenstraat, stocks limited edition, one-off books from artists and photographers. i love their stuff.

i took kathya and david here, after we'd walked round the other bits of negen straatjes. my ritual is to get a newspaper, have brunch at nielsen's across the street and when i'm done, i go into boekie woekie and see what new things they have in stock. i love the little delicate illustrations on the books; you're buying art, not books. i love the pocketbooks and reading them on the train on my way home.

this time i bought two small photo books of someone's journey to china. i love picture books.

food, glorious food
where do i begin? to tell the sweet love story that is older than the sea, the simple truth about the love he* brings to me, where do i start?

* = food, not robert, huahahaha

kathya and i are so so passionate about food. i think if i wasn't doing design, i would be cooking, cooking and cooking. i was joking with kathya that she should move to amsterdam and we'd get ourselves a brownstone house on one of the grachts, have a cafe/bar downstairs and a design studio on top. so if i got hungry i could run downstairs and kathya would feed me, hehe.

this weekend we consumed the following:
1. tom ka soup that i prepared
2. poffertjes with ice cream (i had mine only with butter and powder sugar)
3. david had strawberry tarts after the poffertjes
4. a box of chocolate from the boulangerie
5. lots of white beer with a slice of lemon, i love you hoegaarden...
6. bulgogi salad with naan bread (me)
7. roast lamb salad (david)
8. some sort of seafood in a cream sauce (kathya)
9. 'death by chocolate' chocolate cake (kathya)
10. pistachio parfait (me)

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11. breakfast of fresh croissant, banana smoothies, mon chou cream cheese spread, orange juice, tea, coffee
12. osaka-style okonomiyaki with marinated beef, onions and spinach (me)
13. osaka-style okonomiyaki deluxe with everything (kathya)
14. hiroshima-style okonomiyaki with salami and cheese (david)
15. green tea milkshake (kathya & david)
16. cocktail of vodka, calpis and 7up (me)
17. more white beer with slices of lemons
18. tiramisu
19. rendang
20. gado-gado
21. ayam goreng pazri nanas
22. sate kambing
23. nasi putih + garnish (srundeng, acar, sambal goreng kentang, kerupuk udang)

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24. breakfast of fresh croissant, banana smoothies, fresh strawberries with cream cheese, tea and coffee
25. tahu isi dengan saus tausi (stuffed to fu with tausi sauce)
26. ayam bungkus rebung (chicken wrapped in bamboo shoots)
27. jellyfish with duck and cucumber salad
28. nasi goreng
29. ho fun (kwetiau) with cha siu and roast duck
30. chow fan (cakwe dibungkus pake bahan mie trus disiram kecap asin)
31. prawns and mango wrapped in pastry, with a mayonaise sauce
32. deep-fried prawn balls (in indo: udang mayones)
33. turnip cakes with chinese sausages
34. fried salted squid with chili
35. ...

hey kath, did i get everything or did i miss something?

for food pictures, check out kathya's flickr page

we went to amsterdam specially for the okonomiyaki. we went to this place, which is run by joachim, a german guy from ulm, and his japanese wife (who greeted us in bahasa indonesia, what a pleasant surprise!). joachim gave a great thorough explanation on the history of okonomiyaki whilst we watched him cook our food, as well as talking about our personal backgrounds. it was such a great experience, this is one place you should not miss when you are in amsterdam. :)

anyway, kathya and david have left me now, and i was sad to see them go. we didn't manage to get all the food spots i wanted to take them to. i hope next month they return to NL for a longer time, hehe...

have a good week everyone!

Posted by Yasmina at 10:32 PM | Comments (2)

June 29, 2005

haircut

robert's hair was getting a bit long so he started to cut his own hair in front of the bathroom sink. typical. the last time he did his own haircut turned out disastrous; he had to quickly drive up to his parents' house and get his mom to fix it.

the boy just never learns. i thought cutting-your-own-hair disasters only happened to people under the age of six.

this time, he cut the front bit of his hair (too short, in both of our opinions) and i did the rest. it looks good! i am quite pleased with my handiwork on robert's hair. :)

Posted by Yasmina at 07:45 AM

June 24, 2005

sushi wushi lunch

today peter and i went to the japanese place (which was thankfully air-conditioned) down kleine berg for a sushi lunch. we shared some oshinko-, tekka-, sake-, kappa- maki and some tamago and sake nigiri. yumm! forgot to take pictures, so what else is new.

it reminded me of having sushi lunches with my father. not that peter reminded me of my dad or anything. i just miss being able to just have lunch with my dad sometimes. and when i ate with my dad, we end up in a japanese place most of the time, hence this flashback during lunch today.

whenever my dad came to visit me in london, he always wanted to go to this japanese place in soho, where he'd always order the sashimi bento or the toriteriyaki bento.

a few years ago, i was down in lisbon, visiting my parents. my dad had found this great little japanese place in alcantara but it was expensive and i was broke so i figured if i swung by his office, he'd take me out there. hehe. little miss sneaky pants i was.

so my dad and i had a delicious lunch, over which we dran