It’s time for our monthly cup of tea again. A lot has happened, mainly good, but also something terribly sad that I never expected to happen so close to home. Well, let’s not keep you in suspense longer than neccesary. Make yourself a nice cup of tea and let’s have a chat.
The best decision I made this month was to take a break from writing new blogposts. It’s not that I have a lack in ideas, on the contrary, I have so many, I could spend all my time working on them. However, that’s not one of my goals in this life. It’s just that I couldn’t find the words to write anything. A few weeks later, I’m in a whole other headspace where there is room for words forming sentences again.
What helped finding this headspace is that I’ve been reading about AD(h)D. Now that all my physical ailments are gone, I can no longer deny that I have AD(h)D, something I’m a champion at. In many ways I love all that it brings me, but there are some flaws that come with it that I’d rather not have to deal with, something I will write about somewhere this year. Unfortunately, AD(h)D is not a pick and mix disorder, so the bad comes with the good. Therefore I thought it might be smart to start learning how to deal with the downsides. One of the biggest finds from this month has been that I need to make time to be creative. Usually that is one of first things to get cancelled when I have a lot to do, but it turns out that this attitude is the main contributer to my off-weeks. To put this lesson into practice right away, I spend the past weekend cooking and taking photos for new recipes. So expect a flood of new things appearing on here over the next couple of weeks.
I have also spend quite some time taking care of my plants and trees on my balcony. Over the winter months I more or less neglected them, but I’m happy to report that most of them survived, and are growing new leaves and my plum tree even has one blossom already. Another plant that is growing very enthousiastically is my rhubarb. All this new life is definitely lifting up my spirit. And walking around my neighbourhood I discovered countless magnolia trees. Because of social media this idea formed in my head that you could only find these trees in Nothing Hill, but that’s really not true. So next time you want to take some instagram worthy pictures of magnolia trees come have some tea over at my place and we’ll take a stroll through my neighbourhood.
You may have heard there was an attack in Utrecht on the 18th where a person started shooting in a tram. Well, that happened right in front of my flat. The whole country was panicking about terrorism, and my phone didn’t stop buzzing for five hours straight because of worried friends and family checking in. I wasn’t harmed in the shooting, nor anyone I know. But I wouldn’t say that it didn’t affect me either. Mainly because I don’t know what to make of all this. I simply cannot understand why violence seems to be an answer to whatever brainwave you might have. Killing random people who are going about there day isn’t going to win anyone for whatever twisted ideology you adhere to. It’s only creating more disunity in an already divided world.
The past month I have been watching quite a few new and interesting series on Netflix. First, I finished watching Cable Girls, and then I went on to Workin’ Moms, Cuckoo (but could someone please explain British humour to me, because I seriously don’t get it), and I watched the entire first season of Sisters in one sleepless night. In addition to that I watched a couple of movies which I all loved: Isn’t It Romantic, Nothing Hill, and Black Butterflies. A parody on a romantic comedy, a romantic comedy, and a more dark biography. It’s good to switch things up a bit, right?
I have finished reading The Handmaids Tale. Although I hope a society as described in this book will never become a reality, I find it a fascinating story. Matthijs has convinced me to watch the series with him, but that confused me even more than the book. Almost all the important scenes from the book are crammed in the first two episodes, so I don’t know where the rest of the series is going. But I’ll guess I’m going to find that out over the next couple of weeks.
Inspired by the movie Black Butterflies, I started to read Ik Herhaal Je (I Repeat You), the collected poems by Ingrid Jonker, a South African poet. As always with poetry, not every poem speaks to me in an equal matter, but there are quite a few that are deeply moving.
And, of course, the food. As I told you before, I have been creating a couple of new recipes, and there are many more in the making. Sure, not all meals we eat are worthy of sharing, but most of them are quite pleasant to eat. I’m happy to be out of that continuous spiral of anxiety especially related to vegetables. My most fun projects have been making a new sourdough starter, experimenting with different flavours for homemade sauerkraut, and making my own pasta that actually didn’t crumble when I cut it into fettuccine.
That’s it from me for now. I’d love to hear what you’ve been up to, so don’t be shy and share your stories as well. Until our next catch up.
