April 26, 2006
random stuff before leaving
I'll be back in Europe this weekend. Singapore stopover should be long enough for es kachang and katong laksa with Indrani, Thal+Ari and Yos.
Arriving in Amsterdam on Queen's Day of all days. I'll be sure to wear my orange Nike Waffle. If I can leave the airport, I'm either partying with Ally&co in Amsterdam centrum or I'll be hanging out with Gerard at his parents' and playing in the lake.
I want I want a Love-Hate T-shirt.
I'm going to miss my mom and dad and sister and little Xavie.
I'm all giddy from the thought of seeing Robert again :)
Posted by Yasmina at 07:15 AM | Comments (7)
February 22, 2006
love therapy
last saturday, angela, kathya and i walked around corso di porta ticinese and naviglio area again. in search of shoes. :)
i bought a couple of t-shirts from love therapy. an orange one with the white words Love Hotel printed on the front. and another in red, with the Coca-Cola slogan in white, except it says "Enjoy Milk" instead of "Enjoy Coca Cola". when plastered across my chest like that, it's just politically incorrect *or so angela says* but i think it's funny!
anyway, i love how the staff wrapped my new t-shirts in these tins! angela and kathya were wildly jealous when i came out of the shop with a cool shopping bag and my new purchases... so they went back on monday and bought t-shirts for themselves too, hihi...
Posted by Yasmina at 12:44 AM | Comments (4)
November 13, 2005
retail therapy
a somewhat stressful week at work since i had to work with video and i'm not a moving-image designer like joão and i don't know everything that's involved in video production, plus my renderings takes ages, and it was a nightmare transferring the files onto a DVD since i don't have a DVD burner on my work laptop. bla bla bla, it was tough and i was tearing my hair out.
of course, when the going gets tough, the tough go shopping, shopping and shopping.
i fell in love with the autumn collection of Noa Noa. delicate, feminine pieces, rich in textures and materials. brocade is a big thing with them right now, or so it seems. i bought a gray wool blazer, with a mint green ribbon sash. i also bought matching tank top and farmer girl shirt, to go with the blazer. i regret not buying one of their net tulle petticoats, to wear under my skirt for a layered volume look. hmmm, maybe i should get that this weekend.
Posted by Yasmina at 06:57 PM
July 08, 2005
on a lighter note...
penguin books turns 70... happy birthday!
in celebration of their 70th anniversary, they've published 70 penguin pocket books. you can buy them online here; the idea is that you can buy 70 titles for a boxset price of 70 quid. the spines of these 70th anniversary paperbacks are color-coded; originally, in 1935, it was orange for fiction, blue for biography, green for crime. they are also numbered on the spine.
i was at my local bookshop last week with kathya and david when i spotted the penguin books special. they were sold separately, and kathya and i bought some titles, different ones, so we can do a book swap later.
the titles i got:
3. otherwise pandemonium - nick hornby
4. summer in algiers - albert camus
43. something for the weekend - jamie oliver
50. seventeen poisoned englishmen - gabriel garcia marquez
69. murder - john steinbeck
70. on seeing and noticing - alain de botton
the other thing that made me happy today was that my order from hardtroze has arrived. yay! new bag! it's cream with a flowery pattern on the front, and wide straps for slinging over my shoulder. the size is perfect to carrying my powerbook, my camera, my mobile, my lipgloss, my facial oil blotting paper, water bottle, wallet, keys, mints, all those things girls carry round basically. hooray :)
Posted by Yasmina at 03:45 PM | Comments (2)
May 18, 2005
fleamarket + man at the jazz concert
we were walking through the center of den bosch last sunday, after we'd been to the fleamarket. i was looking for old medium-format cameras at the fleamarket, maybe i'd get lucky and find a treasured rolleiflex or yashica, and there were a couple of fodors in not-working order and polaroids and lots of super8s but nothing interesting otherwise.
i bought a wasabi-green 1950s zenith bowl for a tenner, bargain... also got a couple of 1960s/70s droste chocolate tin cans, with these lovely graphics on the sides.
in den bosch, a jazz festival was underway and the city was packed. we were squeezing our way through the busy streets when i had to pause and wait for denise and robert to come through the crowd. i noticed a well-dressed man standing near me by the heineken beer caravan.
he wore a smart corduroy blazer, in a navy blue that reminded me of my sister's school uniform in london. under the blazer, a cease-free white shirt, striped with thin blue and brown lines. his trousers were neatly pressed, shiny brown leather loafers.
dark blond hair, ruddy face, clean-shaven, maybe in his early forties, he had the face of a well-fed, preppy guy who probably was private-school-educated, whose parents owned a brownstone house on one of amsterdam's central grachts, and probably drove a bmw z3 (such a hairdresser's car, says robert)...
he held his pint of beer in front of him and his hands were really really filthy. his fingers was streaked with dirt, dirt under his nails, the skin dry and cracked. and the thing is, it looked as if he'd washed his hands, not like the dirt was fresh, not that he'd had to change a flat tire on the way to the jazz festival.
i wondered if he was a housepainter like robert's dad, whose hands are generally clean but permanently calloused and quite rough to the touch, or if he was a gardener or landscape artist, or just generally someone who worked with his hands, if he liked to sculpt with limestone or wood or maybe he'd been installing a new kitchen for his wife at home.
anyway. just my thoughts. i realise i miss working with my hands. i wish i made more stuff, designed more tangible things.
Posted by Yasmina at 08:48 AM | Comments (4)
January 19, 2005
yay! noodoll! mng! high heels! blog!
*edit: because i got requests from readers in the comment box to show a picture of the black stilettos that robert bought me, you can now view them here
noodollicious! today i got my noodoll stuff in the mail! woo hoo! i don't know whether yiying handles her own sales, but i suspect so because i got an extra t-shirt on top of my order *which is this and this if you're so curious*.
so yiying, if it was you, thanks so much for the tshirt! we should definitely meet for coffee or something when i'm in london next, i'm sorry i keep giving everyone short notices when i pop by. if it wasn't you, well, thanks for being generous anyway... :)
i was planning to work yesterday but the client in US cancelled our telco, so i shopped at mango before going home. *kemakan omongannya bu lely nih, bahaya deh, huhuhu* i managed to escape with only 3 articles of clothing *ya para hadirin yg terhormat! hanya tiga potong baju, percaya ga sih* i managed to limit myself by paying with whatever cash i had in my wallet. i got five cents change in return.
after the shopping, i sat at home and worked on making my blog pretty, with new header images and slightly modified layout *you like you like?* and i was also practicing to walk in high heels. i know that sounds schtoopid, but...
basically, for some odd reason, robert likes to buy me shoes, and he got me these beautiful black leather pumps. i feel kind of guilty for not wearing them often enough; i demand to be driven door-to-door when i wear them, to minimise the walking distance.
robert laughed so hard when he came back from work and saw me prancing around the apartment in heels, especially after i told him whyi was in heels. gosh, i do it all for love, why is that anything to laugh about? ;)
Posted by Yasmina at 12:00 AM | Comments (4)
January 10, 2005
shop shop, shopping
today, we finally bought our tickets to indonesia. we're flying with singapore airlines, which was surprisingly cheaper than KLM. better food, better in-flight entertainment and bigger seats too. i leave at the beginning of february. robert flies a month after me, but on the return flight we will fly together.
it's like a trial: let's see how well the newlyweds survive a 16-hour journey jakarta-singapore-amsterdam. ;)
remco and robert's parents also bought their tickets today; they are all flying singapore airlines. remco's excited because apparently robert told him singapore airlines have the prettiest stewardesses. ha!
i also went on an online shopping spree. i visited yiying wang's noodoll e-shop. yiying and i did our degrees together at ravensbourne and even in those days, she was forever drawing these really cool characters. i bought this and this.
i am so pleased. i am looking for pretty skirts and tops for my trip to indo; the summer 2005 collections aren't in the shops yet, hence online shopping to the rescue. i also looked at camper shoes.
i totally love the pink wabi boots for girls; perfect for weekend walks in the seaside *not for tropics though*. i also love the pink polka-dot mary janes from the twin collections; the problem is, i already have a pair of mary janes, plus two pairs of camper twins. uh-oh.
well. i have to make up my mind pretty soon so the goods will be delivered in time, before i leave.
Posted by Yasmina at 01:02 AM | Comments (3)
October 20, 2004
shopping for sheets
what is it with sheets not fitting the bed? it's a nightmare trying to find sheets to fit beds measuring 180x210cm, which is something incomprehensible to me, because most of the dutch (male) population stands at an average 190cm tall.
a well-fitting mattress should be approximately 20cm longer than your height, so either most people are sleeping on ill-fitting beds, or they are all members of a secret sheet society, where they gather in the middle of the night at secret locations (members' basements, probably), and purchase sheets that are made for mattresses longer than 210cm.
then i was looking here which is where i used to get my bedlinen, but then i realised that they only deliver to mainland UK only. boo hoo :(
well, better luck next time.
Posted by Yasmina at 12:43 AM | Comments (3)
August 09, 2004
online shopping
darn it! i keep getting these newsletters from victoria's secret and figleaves with details of their summer sale, so before my left hand could press apple+Q on my powerbook, my right hand was clicking on the links and before i knew it, i'd spent nearly a couple of hundred €uros on pretty underwear. omg.
i blame the heat for this act of temporary insanity.
Posted by Yasmina at 10:35 PM
June 07, 2004
happy monday
a little past nine the doorbell rings and it's the UPS guy. of course, mondays being my day off, i was still lounging around in bed, and was in a considerable state of disarray. not fit to see anyone really.
in my haste to get the package, and also because the apartment was in a bit of a mess, i forget to buzz the guy in. instead, i run around putting on the nearest wearable thing (a little cream silk gauze dress with spaghetti straps), and since my flip-flops were a bright pink with bollywood movie poster graphics printed on them, i slip on my black kitten heel shoes which were conveniently lying by the front door.
feeling a bit exposed, i grab the cashmere shawl robert bought me in india while i headed out the door to wrap around myself. in the elevator, i pray the lady living in the 3rd floor didn't come out to check her mail. she's in the habit of checking her mailbox wearing nothing but her manky terrycloth bathrobe and her hair still rolled up in curlers. what a sight we would have been to the poor UPS guy waiting downstairs.
i don't know what the UPS guy was smirking at when i arrived to open the door for him. maybe he doesn't believe that i just crawled out of bed? maybe i looked too dressy? why did i put on a dress? omg, do my legs look good? for a minute i was convinced that he was smirking because he didn't believe me when i said "oh sorry i just woke up, i didn't hear you buzz earlier, i'll be right down," but then i caught a glimpse of myself in the glass window, and my lopsided birdnest hair let me down again. :(
in the end, i had to invite the guy up to apartment anyway because it was unexpectedly a cash-on-delivery; i got taxed by the dutch government because the package was from a US vendor, lovely.
now that i'm over the shock of being seen in public (yes, the entry hall of my apartment block is considered public even though no one but the UPS guy was there) in such a state so early in the morning, i can tell you what was in the package.
it's my retail therapy from
i don't usually buy underwear online; it's much nicer to go into the shop yourself, and feel the material and try things on. i was a bit uncertain about how well they would fit but i was pretty good at ordering my size. they all look and feel heavenly. :)
oh, and to put off any freaks out there reading my blog and thinking what i must look like with my new purchase, fyi i don't look like any of the girls on the victoria's secret page. i am short and have puppy fat.
Posted by Yasmina at 10:15 PM
May 16, 2004
shopping in maastricht
after a stressful drive through the center of maastricht trying to find parking space, robert; and i managed to spend a few hours of saturday afternoon doing a bit of shopping.
maastricht is so much better than eindhoven for shopping in terms of independent shops. i dragged robert along because he always complains about me traipsing around in jeans and sneakers, and i wanted his input as to what i should be wearing. he's pretty good at picking clothes for me to wear, i'm pretty open to new ideas, unless those new ideas are frilly and lacy and see-through and have heels higher than 7 cm. eek!
robert ended up getting me a pink sweater. it's cotton so i can wear it all year long. so much for living in a four-season country, it seems like all the seasons melt into one another without clear distinction. i think the collar, sleeve and body stitching are really well-made.
next we got me a pair of white linen trousers. i like that the trousers were lat-front and had a nice crisp crease. the trousers being white freak me out a bit; knowing my luck, the first thing i would do after putting them on is probably accidentally spill coffee or milk or juice on them. i should be careful with them.
anyway, tomorrow night i want to take robert out for dinner. haven't made reservations anywhere yet. but i was thinking about in den bergsche tuin or la biba.
*shit, i just read the link and they're closed mondays. poooohhhhhh!
Posted by Yasmina at 03:05 PM | Comments (4)
May 13, 2004
happiness is ...
... paying my financial debt to my dad. i owed him some money from a couple years ago, and now i've managed to pay him back the €3300. so am happy. i could have paid it back earlier, but i was naughty and along the way i was buying myself toys like, a powerbook and a canon G5 and a mountainbike. i am sure glad my dad doesn't charge interest on his loans. phew!
... compiling a wish list in amazon, mostly comprising of DVDs and books. the book i really want is by lian hearn and it is called 'Brilliance of the Moon'. it is part three of the otori trilogy, a fictional-historical saga of clans and warlords in middle age japan. i have the first 2 books, and i found the 1st book completely by accident last summer.
robert and i were going to italy and i thought i'd better stock up on books for the holidays, and i had a couple of 'boekenbon' given to me as gifts from robert's parents. the cover of the book was appealing so i bought it and a few others. i didn't know that it was a trilogy, so was a bit pissed off when i discovered that. it was a good read though, really rich descriptions and poetic.
anyhoo ...
i was also looking in the powershot G5website for accessories. i was specifically looking at these three products:
- Conversion Lens Adapter, which i need to be able to put lenses on my camera
- the wide angle lens Tele Converter TC-DC58N<
- the 58mm Close-Up Lens 250D which would be great for taking macro photos and making lots of interesting abstract texture images.
the prices on the site are a bit pricey tho and if i google it, i'm sure i can find better deals elsewhere. it's just i haven't used my camera as often as i thought i would have, so i was thinking if i got some accessories for it, i'd be forced to go out and take photos. or is that not very clever psychology?
Posted by Yasmina at 11:38 PM | Comments (4)
May 03, 2004
new pink shoes
Posted by Yasmina at 09:58 PM
