Disaster Area

Amidst this rubble lies a kitchen in hiding.



Part 2 of renovations = kitchen installation. I am living through this and can't wait for it to be over. Ugh.






Everything in this truck is basically sitting in my living room now. It's not that big of a kitchen; it's all packaging. And I'm dorkily thinking of the massive carbon footprint this one little kitchen has already left behind.






It was pretty cool how they used the vertical lift to get it all upstairs through the window though. And that crane in the middle of the road was lifting the stone counter top. Fun muscle man action. :D







Soon soon... This mess too, shall pass.

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Commitment Takes Surrender And Being Present

There are milestones in life that one hits. I believe I just hit one today. I bought an apartment. Or rather, I signed a purchase contract, with the sale subject to the bank approving the mortgage. If all goes well, the transfer of the deed happens in a couple months.

PHEWWWWWWWW!!!! How very adult. *Gulp*

Here's my housing agent and notary. HAHAHA! Yes, we took photos.


Needless to say the past month has been filled with house viewings (33 in total), agonizing over what compromises have to be made (Location? Square area? Condition of the house? Price?) and it's been a whirlwind of endless questions I've been asking myself, my closest friends and family. Many apologies to the ones closest to me who've had to hear me agonize over the issues. I am seriously a nut case.

HAHAHA!

Of course, I already knew this. But I guess it was when my housing agent looked at one of the conditions in my initial offer and said "Well, that's refreshing! I've never come across this kind of request before!" ...That I realized that... OK, I might be more of a basket case than I thought. I had requested to spend ONE NIGHT in said apartment because I was fretting over the potential noise at night. The flat is on a busy street corner and even though it's got double-glazed windows, sound insulated floors AND I couldn't really hear much traffic noise during the day, I was getting anxiety attacks that what might seem OK in the day may turn out to be annoyingly LOUD at night.

Since the apartment had just been renovated with no one living in it, I figured that seemed like a fair request. I thought I could do a sleepover there with a friend who was up for it too. "Just like going camping!" she said. HAHAHA! (Oh, the naivety)

In Amsterdam there are rules that allow squatters to live in your house if they've somehow managed to get into it (don't ask me about the details coz I have no idea) - since this was a case with "squatter potential", the seller was having none of it, of course. So we settled on a night viewing instead where the seller's agent patiently waited 45 minutes for me at 9pm on a Friday night where I sat in silence in the master bedroom and meditated.

Uh huh. Like, seriously. That's what I did. I am laughing at my own anal retardedness and that someone was patient enough and willing to put up with my nonsense in the next room! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Apart from the occasional scooter VROOMING past loudly, the rest of the traffic is a dull hum of city noise. I reckon I love everything else about the house to let this one go. So... Ask me again a couple weeks after I've moved in, I might be kicking myself then. Hehe.

In considering all the future possibilities of this place (as one does when making this sort of "big commitment"), I got kinda carried away with worry and anxiety especially with the rent-control regulations here. Y'know... If I decided to leave and didn't want to sell it yet and had to rent it out then what happens if this, and what happens if that, and blah blah blah. I was running around in circles. My very kind housing agent answered all my neurotic questions patiently, giving advice that was one-part life coach and one-part motherly advice.

She reminded me to bring my yoga off the mat and live in the present. She's no yogi (or at least I have no idea if she is), but she pretty much told me something along the lines of "Look, you've been pretty smart about this place - checking this and checking that and thinking of things in the long term, more than what most of my other clients would've thought of. It's good that you're aware of all of these things. But at some point, no one can guarantee what's coming in the future or what your situation will be like then. Why are you buying a place? To live in now. Don't forget that you're living in the present. It's good that you've got your eye on the future possibilities and issues with the house, but down the road your situation might change, the regulations might change and you'll have to deal with it then when it happens anyway. So remember about being in the present too."

Ha! Well said, lady. I was gobsmacked. She was right. I had done enough worrying and contingency-planning. Occupational hazard of being a Producer, I suppose... I just wanted to ensure my arse was definitely covered. Two times over. But at some point when the numbers check out OK and all the other things on my things-to-worry-about checklist check out OK, let alone the fact that I'd actually found a house I'd fallen in love with... Then at some point I'd have to let go and surrender to the process and trust in the decision I've made.

So... I guess I'm buying a house then! :)

Even though it's been renovated on the inside, they left out the floor, kitchen and bathroom sink/ cabinets. I'm quite pleased with this since this means I'll get to customize what I want done with the place anyway. And you know this means a gazilion remodelling photos coming your way. (I've already started hunting. If you've been following my tweets, you'll know Ikea does my head in.)

Oh yeah, in the midst of all this, I'm also in pre-production on my next work project and we're in Prague at the end of the week for a shoot. Umm... With all this going on, I have no idea how I got here today. No wonder my face is breaking out, my sinuses are inflamed and my yoga practice in the past couple weeks has been non-existent except for some Pranayama (which hasn't helped the sinusitis either. I haven't been able to breathe through my nostrils in 5 days now). I still haven't gotten the hang of finding the balance between work, life and asana practice... Sigh.

BUT.

I am still ever so grateful for the little reminders to stay in the present. Like that reminder from my angel of a housing agent.

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Call Me "Urban Herbologist"!

It was an AWESOME Spring weekend in Amsterdam this weekend. The sun was shining in full force and everyone came out to play. It was still chilly, of course, but WHO CARES?!? Without a grey sky, everything is manageable. And everyone is in a good mood. :)

I went to a meetup.com group of Urban Herbologists, who were meeting in the Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam's Botanical Gardens. Let me just clarify that I don't have green thumbs, dunno jack about herbs and plants, but I am extremely curious in finding out more. Especially since I've got a keen interest in food, health, healing (natural ways of healing), and also dabbling a bit in Ayurveda (it's more like armchair-Ayurveda, based on a hodge-podge of bits and pieces I've read up here and there.)

My friends all laughed at me when I told them I was keen to check this group out. They were like "OH MY GAWWWWWWD! That's SOOOOOO dorky!!"

HAHAHA!!! Of course it is! But... Who the hell cares?!?

As expected, I was probably the youngest in the group there (heehee), but I had the most AMAZING time. The group is led by an English lady, and there was another American dude there and two other local Dutch people. Including me, it was quite a motley crew of random people joined together by the same interest: Plants!! (Wow. I never thought the day would come when I'd ever have said that.)

Anyways, Lynn, our group leader, is the most warm and friendly lady, and was explaining how by tapping into the natural healing properties of plants, we could be witches. And then she went and explained the whole etymology of the word "Witch" and how it's NOTHING to do with wicken/ wicca or broomsticks and cauldrons. It's simply someone with vast knowledge and wisdom. (The only two men in the group looked at us three ladies in the group with a raised eyebrow. Haha).

I liked her immediately!


We walked around the herb garden for a bit where I learned to stroke the leaves of the plants and sniff their scent off my fingers. We also saw some patches of herbs with bell jars turned over on them, creating a mini-greenhouse effect. These bell jars have been here since the start of the Gardens, so they're of historic value!


The wormwood plant. Great for killing parasites in the body. I remember my Kinesiologist putting me on a detox that had wormwood to flush out parasites. And er... It's also the main ingredient in Absinthe (it's genus-species name even has "absinth" in it.) Someone explained how you can mix crushed wormwood with vodka, ferment it for 40 days, and you get a crude sort of Absinthe. Um... OK.


Then we moved onto another section where we saw SUPER OLD plants. This one had a sign on it that said "critically endangered" and is even "put in jail" for its protection coz it's worth a lot of money and is extremely rare. It's the Wollimi Pine. Once thought to be extinct and only seen fossilized in rocks... Until some explorer chanced upon it in the bottom of a cave. And now there's a whole industry set up to cultivate and sell the (very expensive) Wollimi Pine.


A redwood tree! Not quite the super ginormous ones you get in California, this one looked just like a regular tree until someone pointed it out and got us to touch it. Its bark is super soft, like flannel or felt. I've never felt anything like this on a TREE!



Then someone else pointed out these little green leaves growing on the ground. They looked like... um... regular green weed type of leaves, really. I forget the name now, but it's something-something garlic. It's NOTHING to do with the garlic plant, but picking up the leaves and sniffing it, it totally has the pungent smell of garlic. (!!!) Someone else mentioned it's currently the season for these leaves to grow and she goes to her neighbourhood park to "harvest" them. It only takes about 6 leaves per person to cook a pasta dish, and is a great garlic substitute. Imagine that!


Then came my favourite part of the day: We walked into the GIANT greenhouse in the Botanic Gardens, they have different sections for different climates: hot and dry for all the cactii, and hot and humid for all the lush tropical plants.

Here's a ginger plant.


There are a number of pools of water in this tropical section, and a lady who volunteers here at the Gardens told us a funny story about how the Hortus didn't put fish in the water at all. The water is there to be decorative and also aid the humidity levels. But over time, fish started appearing, and then terrapins started appearing... People had been dumping their old pets in the ponds! HAHAHA!

In fact, apparently that morning she had witnessed a family releasing their pet goldfish, Roy, into the pond. When she asked why, the parents said "Roy's grown too big for his goldfish bowl at home". (Super lame excuse!) But then, the huge drama of the day was when after the two little boys released Roy into the water, another HUGE white fish darted out of the corner and started chasing Roy around the pond!! As you can imagine, the two little boys were hysterical and in tears as they were witnessing Mother Nature's fight-for-survival in action. "MAKE HIM STOP!! MAKE HIM STOP CHASING ROY!! Is he gonna EAT ROY?!?" And the parents had to pick up the boys and take them outside.

BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I wished I'd been there to witness the scene. (Evil, I know. But it's so cute!) Fortunately, when we got to the pond, we saw an orange goldfish swimming around. The lady who volunteers there was pretty sure that was Roy, so drama averted. :)


A staircase leads to a little gangplank where you can walk amongst the tree canopies. Super awesome.




And then we saw this cactus plant, which apparently only flowers in its 100th year, and after that ONE time it flowers, it dies. We caught this flowering in action. There was gooey sap dripping from the ends of the flowers. It's latin name had "Agave" in it. Is this the same plant that produces Agave nectar?



The next meet up they're organizing might be... BIRCH TAPPING!!! Someone had suggested that the time to do it is NOW, when all the trees' energies are moving upwards and waking up at the start of Spring. I was like... Um... Birch tapping? What the hell is THAT?! ...You basically tap the tree for its sap. It's kinda sweet, like maple syrup. You need to cure it first or put it through some process first before you can eat it, but HOLY HELL!! How cool would THAT be?! I'm signed up and raring to go.

I must've spent about 1.5 hours waltzing around the gardens with my new-found super knowledgeable Herbologist friends, and when I left the place I almost felt kinda high! My confession of the day: I skipped today's led class to attend this meet up, but I'm so glad I did. Communing with Nature is just a whole other experience altogether.

After this trip, I had brunch with 4 ladies and a Daschund and told them all about my experience. They weren't laughing at my dorkiness anymore and all of them now wanna come tapping Birch trees with me when it happens. HAHAHA!

Speak My Truth

I've been going through a period where I haven't felt like saying much. Hence the silence on the blog. Initially, a large part of that was just processing being back from Mysore... It really hit home when they say "there are more distractions in the West".

It's not just the TV and Internet either (Ashtangis in Mysore are invariably glued to Facebook post-practice. Haha.) But it's all the other "life stuff"... Social events, dinner parties, birthday drinks, boy problems, oh and then there's that thing called work too... I suppose when your day only revolves around doing your practice in the morning and then foraging for food later (pretty much THE biggest decision of the day in Mysore is "Where shall we eat"), getting back to regular life again suddenly seems so complicated and so full of other STUFF you need to do. (It didn't help that I'd been away for practically all of December for work too, which meant I also had 2 months worth of other personal admin backlog to get through. Ugh.)

My life last year was mostly about work, work, work. With a little yoga squeezed in between. I am trying to balance that out now by trying to be a tad more social, but then also not at the expense of my yoga practice the next morning. Damn, it's hard.

I pretty much whizzed into 2011 without giving it too much thought since I crash-landed straight into Mysore in the new year. I had no time to sit back and reflect what this year's intention will be. Since I turned a year older yesterday, which is kinda sorta almost like a new year for me, with new beginnings and possibilities... I had another chance to think about what this intention will be.

Last year, I had a very apt intention of Joyful Surrender, which served me well through the mayhem of last year (you can do a search for "Joyful Surrender" on this site and see all the events that pop up).

Yesterday, at the (ripe old) age of 34, I've decided it's the year to Speak My Truth.

Y'know... Honesty. To work through that throat chakra and speak up. And speak up honestly about my intentions and my feelings. Sometimes, it's easier just not to say or admit the truth (not just to others but to myself too). So speaking up can be a difficult thing... But that's the only way to live an authentic life, innit.

I hope I won't bore you in the process, as I just have telling you about it. HAHAHA!

In other news, my workmates are AWESOME. Yesterday, they Happy Birthday'd my desk. It was so lovely coming back from the boring-est client meeting first thing in the morning to be greeted by this sight:


And, I had 3 slices of different cakes yesterday, chocolate tart for elevenses, peach, rhubarb and prune tart for dessert, and vegan apple tart for tea. And another chocolate cake for breakfast this morning. I think I'm gonna have another apple tart for tea now. Happy Birthday to me. *BURP*

AMS-HKG-JHB-CPT-AMS-BRU-HEL-IVL-AMS

Over the next 20 days, that is what my travel route will look like.

In a couple of hours, I leave from Amsterdam to Hong Kong for 5 days, then off to Cape Town via Johannesburg for another 5 days, then back to Amsterdam where we take the train to Brussels for another 5 days, then we fly to Ivalo in Lapland, Finland for another 5 days. It's a Rock & Roll travel schedule, minus the sex, drugs and er... Rock & Roll!

I'm excited. And scared. HAHAHA! It'll be a fun but intense shoot.

Because I've had to pack for both African summer and Lapland winter, there is no more room in my bag for a yoga mat. Uh-oh. This doesn't bode well for my practice. I am hoping to report on what practice on bare hotel carpet feels like (ICK!) ...or if I have time, I might make it to a studio and rent a mat from there.

Will try to post pictures when I can!

In the meantime, here's a picture of my new (third) bike. I've got a white milk crate in the front instead of a basket. More functional and less heavy. That spotted thing on the seat is basically like a shower cap for your bike seat - so when it rains or snows, you just take it off and your bum will still be dry. :)

PS. I have now insured this bicycle from BOTH theft and damage. Yes, I have learnt from experience now, you thieving swines! (and recently found out about a government tax rebate on brand new bikes - so I'm able to get some of my money back from the Dutch government from the purchase of this bike. YAY!)

Post-Burglary & Amsterdam Autumn

I'm back!

That was probably one of the longest blog breaks I've taken... Was also off Twitter for a while. I think I was just a little bit freaked by the burglary and was beating a hasty retreat into my little cave (y'know, in "FUCK OFF, WORLD!" mode).

Thank you all for your well wishes and comments on the last post, you are all very sweet. Apologies if I didn't reply. I was just in a different head space and er... forgot my manners.

This is what I have learnt:

1. ALWAYS DOUBLE-LOCK YOUR FRONT DOOR.
Doh. I've got a self-locking door, so usually when I leave the house I double-lock it by turning the key round and round in the lock. But... when I'm home, I don't. Or rather, I didn't. I figured... Hello? I'm home, right? What could possibly happen?!

The cops suspect the burglar came through the front door coz there was no sign of forced entry. I had no idea that with a self-locking door, it's extremely easy for someone to stick a credit card through the lock and click it open if it's not also double-locked with the key.

Knowing that this could have been prevented (ie, MY fault), it's much easier to handle... Coz I can actually do something about it. And no, it means I wasn't a walking target. I was just stupidly careless.

That front door is ALWAYS double-locked now.

2. GET HOME INSURANCE EVEN IF YOU'RE RENTING.
Doh. I wasn't insured. Even if I had been insured, they probably wouldn't have reimbursed me because I hadn't done point number 1, above. (I calculated that all in, I'd have to fork out about another EUR2,200 replacing all my stuff. And then there's Christmas coming up; the trip back to Singapore and a month in Mysore. Grrr.)

FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARK.

It's just stuff. And it's just money. But it's just such a bloody pain in the ass.

3. GETTING ON THE MAT SHOULD HELP IN GETTING OVER THIS SITUATION BUT IT'S BEEN BLOODY DIFFICULT.
Like, Bloody difficult. Because my bike was stolen (again!) in the burglary (I can't get over the irony of how leaving the bike in the house rather than out in the street coz it's "safer" in the house turned out to be less safe!), I haven't been able to get to the MWF shala in the mornings. I've managed ONE home practice this week, which helped me focus and get through the work day.

Otherwise, what's helped me to feel safe again at home has been short meditation sessions... short sessions that help me "own the space" at home again, with intentions such as:

Inhale Positivity
Exhale Negativity

Inhale Courage
Exhale Fear

Inhale Peace
Exhale Nervousness (I kinda trip up over this one coz it's too many syllables when you're trying to concentrate. HAHAHA!)

If nothing else, at least all that deep breathing helps to reset the sympathetic nervous system, letting go of that post-burglary-stress.

Funny enough, I've had better sleep in the past couple of weeks since the burglary. I think I've only had one insomniac night since. Go figure.

Oh... the other thing I've been doing too is burning Sage Oil. That helps to clear the energy in a space, right? So even if it's bordering on the Woo-Woo, if nothing else at least it gives me some peace of mind (short of hiring a fengshui consultant to assess the energy in this place).

So now... Life is slowly moving back to normal. I couldn't find another bike that I liked as much as the Snow White 2nd bike I had (for barely a month?) So er... I found it online and ordered another one. It arrives on Monday. Whoop! Whoop!

On the work front, I'll be taking off again in a week's time - will be shooting my next spot in 5 cities over a 19-day period... Heading to Hong Kong, Cape Town, Brussels, Paris and Helsinki. So there'll be some great photos to share.

BOLLOCKS!!!

My camera got taken in the burglary too. HAHAHAHA! You'll have to live with iPhone4 photos instead.

Speaking of which, I've been meaning to share some stunning pictures of Amsterdam in Autumn. And since the past few posts have been all wordswordswords and not enough pictures, I hope you enjoy these (Aarrghhhh! That bike basket shot makes me weep.)









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Burglary Bummer

So bummed right now. I've been burgled. My laptop's gone. My bike's gone (the one I've been anally keeping indoors out of paranoia that it's going to get stolen if parked on the street). My handbag with wallet (credit cards/ IDs, money) is gone. My iPod Mini and computer speakers are gone too (thank goodness the iPhone was charging upstairs next to me in bed and was untouched).

FUCKERS.

What freaks me out even more is I was asleep in bed upstairs when this all happened. The cops and landlord have just been round. Apparently the next-door neighbour left his house at 6am and saw my front door wide open. He shut it and called my landlord this morning to let him know. This puts the time of theft at somewhere between 2am (when I went to bed) and 6am.

I'm going to curl up in a ball right now. Right after I get over the shock (which I think I'm still in).

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Arty Farty

This past weekend, I went to the Affordable Art Fair. It's basically modelled after the same one in New York and London.

Simple premise: every single art piece there is between €100 - €5,000. Not cheap, but still... it's "affordable" (or more within the reach of mere mortals).

The day before I got there, I wandered into a spectacular art gallery (Amsterdam is littered with sooooooo many different galleries). This place was basically a jewellery art gallery and had so many beautiful pieces (and seriously, this stuff's not for daily wear!) The gallery owner informed me of a scheme the government here has where they want to make art available to EVERYBODY. Essentially - all you need to do is pay for 10% of the artpiece, and the remainder can be paid in monthly installments over 3 years, INTEREST-FREE.

Wow! The more I learn about this country, the more impressed by how progressive it is. :)

I had ZERO intention of buying anything at the art fair however, I was just interested to see what's out there and what people are creating. Also, I really appreciate anything that's hand-made and crafted well.

The exhibition space itself was an artpiece in itself. I think it used to be a gas station or some kind of industrial something-or-the-other. It was pretty awe-inducing (great space for a rave party. HAHA!)


I realized this weekend that I'm completely drawn to anything that has an urban feel to it, a little bit subversive or whimsical. I'm interested in the thinking behind the piece too - the story, philosophy or concept that's behind it is almost important as the piece itself.

I liked the gritty, graphical nature of Maayke Schuitema.


What made me laugh was this piece by Mr. Brainwash. If you watched Banksy's documentary, Exit Through the Gift Shop - this is the crazy documentarian-artist-wannabe himself, Terry, aka Mr. Brainwash. Is this a Banksy RIP-OFF or what? (€1,800, if I remembered correctly. The green dot next to the label means someone is thinking about buying this piece.)


A bizarre wall of faces.


I ended up thinking about 2 pieces. I'm still thinking about them. I like this piece titled "Trophybear" by a Dutch artist. It's so cute! And kinda small too, as you can see it in reference to the rest of the other pieces by the same artist.


(I sent a picture of it to my best friend for her opinion, but she wasn't really feeling it. She said "It's one of those conversation pieces for the bathroom." HAHAHAHAHA! Gotta love her.) (I don't agree with her point of view though. I love how ridiculous it is.)

I googled his work and he makes beautiful sculptures - like an edgy fairytale. Brer-Rabbit goes wrong kinda vibe.



And then of course I came across MY FAVOURITE!!! Laser 3.14. See previous posts here and here. I think it's a sign. It's time I take the next step and have a Laser in my home.



I can't decide which piece to get (the one I kinda sorta really liked was already sold at the fair). So... I'm gonna meet the gallery owner again to discuss where to begin. This sounds so very adult... BUT... I'm kind of excited that I'll get to support a street-artist I love. Plus the fact that he's Dutch will also be a nice reminder of the time I've spent here in the years to come.

Practice Update: I still haven't had follow-up visits to the MWF Shala. Long hours at work have started up again, and my insomniac bouts are back. I seem to wake up after 3 - 4 hours sleep and can't get back to bed again. 2.30am seems to be the magic "I'M AWAKE!" hour. This led to a 5.30am home practice one morning. I'll take what I can get.

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