Hot Time, ...

..., Summer in the City

The back of my neck isn't dirty and gritty though. It's just hot hot hot hot hot! And I won't get any cooling today, not before the day cools itself and I am in the company (hopefully) of friends and friendly strangers, seeking warmth again from a wooden fire or fresh tea brewn in the open air.

But why am I complaining?

I'm not just envious of those people wo can move their 'office' to their terrace. I don't like heath much. In fact I don't like it at all. The only good thing about heath is the necessity and hence perfect excuse for eating ice cream.

A Taste of...

You Are Bitter

You aren't bitter at the world, even though you have a strong personality. Instead, you are sophisticated and cultured. You appreciate acquired tastes. You are very powerful. You have the ability to change a room's energy. While some may find you disagreeable, your points of view are intelligent and interesting.

What Taste Are You?

Türkiye

The visit-Maarten-trip to Side, Antalya, Turkey came to an end last sunday. Here's what I'll try to remember for future trips:

• Do not wait until the last day to spend your money.
• I can still dive pretty well, however it is a good idea to wear a proper bikini as to avoid further wardrobe malfunctioning.
• Turkisch men are idiots!
• I don't live well in heath
• I get really grumpy when I go to long without food
• Turkisch bread is the best!
• Do not annoy your travel companions with stories of your love life when there isn't much love in it and/or you are unwilling to spill details.
• Check for better transit flights.
• Smile more at custom officers.
• Starbucks at the airport is your only option for relatively cheap and drinkable tea.

Ice Cream

Generally I don't put up with people that I haven't known for long, giving me advice on any subject let alone one I like to complain and whine about.*

Neither do I like to be treated on food or drinks let alone by a member of the opposite gender. **


But scraping my tongue again and again against two scoops of delicious sorbet on a crispy cone, listening to age-old advice that I might figured out for myself by now, I really had a great time, so...

Thank You!

* i.e. that non-existing love life of mine
** that in my opinion might have been a different species all together

Carmen

*

Apart from the setting, which was I grant you gradn. There was not so very much to enjoy about the Opera I went to. The story was very familiar, the singing, the dancing, the music; very nice and all but to be honest, not what you'd expect from a state opera assembly.

All I wanted to remark is that you never know when you can learn a lesson. Hearing it sung once too many I think the following line, may stick for a while:

Si tu ne m'aime pas je t'aime. Et si je t'aime prends garde à toi!

* May or may not be replaced by a self-made picture of the event.

Descending trend.

I could almost not imagine a better start of a day and in the mood of optimism that hexes me of late I even thought it would be a good day. But of course it wasn't.

The carefully planned day at the office turned into a complete disaster.

The dinner I cooked was rubbish, I don't care everybody said they liked it, of course they would say that; it's free food. Everybody likes free food.

The laundry I did came out purple or shrunk or torn. In other words: goodbye bikini! And where am I going to find anything my size with little over 24h to before I leave, time that has to include two restfull nights and full day at work?

I ate way too much brownie and now I might possibly be sick tomorrow.

I forgot to check whether or not I need a seperate passport to fly to Turkey, for all I know I might not even get on the plane and then my dearest Shirahime will hate me forever.

I didn't have the courage to deny help in doing the dishes, goodbye washing-up therapy.

Strange Things

In the first 12 hours of today, I:

• accidently swallowed half a tube of toothpaste


• saw a boy in bathrobes studying an exam under the streetlights


• nearly crashed into a boat


• made a confession


• fell in and out of love


• had alcohol with my breakfast


• sent two people on errands


• killed a mosquito with my bare hands


• saw a cricket on the office door


• found half a box of chewing gums left on my desk as a present

Very few of these items are I think related. And none of the above counts as the weirdest event of the current week, because last night I was introduced to the to be housemate of a friend of two of my housemates who claims to have spent the first four years of high school in my class. It took the consumption of an amount of alcohol equivalent to a half a bottle of wine before it dawned on me, who he was exactly.

CCP*

By popular request;

Cauliflower Curry Perfect

• 2 large cauliflowers
• half a cup of curcumma powder
• about 1/2l of water
• 4 cloves of chopped garlic
• 1 large onion
• 1/4kg of chopped tofu
• 1 large tablespoon of your favourite curry mix
• 250ml of soy cream
• 1 large tablespoon of powdered coconut milk
• dash of salt
• dash of strong/hot paprika powder

Heat some oil in a large pot. Stirfry the garlic, the coarsely chopped onions and the cauliflower. When the onions start to glaze, add tofu, water and seasoning.

Mix in soy cream and coconut powder just before serving. Goes well with bread or plain cooked rice.

Side note: if soy cream and powdered coconut sounds too fancy, too healthy, too vegan for you, or you just can't get your hands at them in your local supermarket. Regular cream, coconut milk, yoghurt and fattened milk will work, but the combo soy and coco powder has won every flavour test it has been submitted to so...

* Alas not, the Chinese Communist Party

Vote!

In the course of three or four days, every adult in Europe has a chance to chose a future*. Being Belgian I don't have the right to vote but the duty to vote and also for a regional parliament. A duty that I love.

My political views are not always so clear, least of all to myself but I hoped that my vote for a strong and unified left in the political spectrum and a solidary unified Europe would be one of many. Alas.

In the prelimenary results I find little reason for joy safe that the extremest right party loses badly. Every other party in that part of the spectrum gains at the cost of aforementioned but gains nonetheless.

* I don't care if this is an oversimplified rendition of what I suppose elections for the EU Parliament are.

The Jungle Test

You Are Dramatic

You are colorful and charismatic. You get and hold people's attention. Right now, you are seeking peace and tranquility in your life. You are drawn to people who are passionate and deep. You feel like there are many major things in your life that need to be changed. You make a lot of course corrections in your life. Your first reaction is usually not your final verdict.

The Jungle Test

And it's pretty much all true.

Saying without saying

It leaves little to guess at, when or if, I after nearly a week of silence pour three consecutive posts into the digital connection ocean. Staged anger will not hide the fact that his/her opinion matters to me. Where this leaves me, I shall ponder upon in silence.

And no, I honestly don't care this is the return of very very very vague posts. You can always just ask what I mean, I only ever lie to protect myself from heartbreak.

Today's Discovery

... or what I should have known two months ago already.


Fair enough, I'll need two more months of hard work and learning before I'm even anywhere near efficient enough to start putting one or two points into practice, I might even be working for too small a company to ever get away with it, the idea seems appealing nonetheless.

The Perfect Lover II

Or the other way around of course.*


*Click here.

Rant VII

WARNING!: This is one of many before and many to follow posts that is but an inflamed answer to a remark made in the real world. I might want to learn to communicate, but in the meantime either you put up with this or you stop reading.

Silence.

You call this silence?! Not even a full postless week and already you accuse me of falling behind. Not so active you say, hell you told me to quit the whining in the first place. Update your own little vanity project, you you you [...]!