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Friday 31 July 2009

Yo

Soooo. Not much happening.
I'm spending a lot of time reading.
Good books, too. Although I'm having to sneak around to read them.
Not everybody approves of me reading as much, but really, their problem, not mine.

I went to get a new haircut a couple of days ago.
I'm also getting lots of exceedingly positive remarks, which are making me feel temporarily good-looking. The only negative remarks I got are from the males in this household, who by default prefer long hair, no matter how awful it looks.
Personally, I'm glad I took it off. And that's more important then what anybody else says, isn't it?
(Yes, so, compliments allowed, negative remarks not allowed. Capisce?)

Yesterday we spent at my aunt's. We hadn't seen her for two years, and the last time she was pretty morose. Now, however, she was perfectly cheerful, and mum said she had her old sister back. So that's good.
Sadly, they got rid of their dog: Kwik. Kwik and I used to be awesome buddies, and I really missed him yesterday. But they just couldn't take care of him anymore, and he's with people who really want him now, so I s'pose it's all for the best.

I want to buy lots of things myself, and go out and whatnot, but no monies means no expenses unless they be presents~
My birthday isn't any time soon, so I'mma have to sit this out~

xxx
The Gypsy

Wednesday 29 July 2009

Three-week-guest.

I am having a guest over, he's called Tommie.
He's sharing my attic, food and drink, because the rest of the house aren't being very hospitable. They'd rather not have him lounge in the sitting room downstairs the whole time, and thus I just spend a lot of time upstairs in the attic.

Seeing as the attic's big enough for the two of us, the only explanation to him demanding we share my bed as well is that he's just plain cuddly.. and loves the attention.
And I'm a softie. Plus, admittedly, I fell for his charms from his pictures, before I even met him. He's adorable. *nod*
Right now he's begging I get off, so I'll just upload the first picture I saw of him and let you judge, savvy?
Later!





xxx
The Gypsy

Monday 27 July 2009

Birthday weekend.

That's right.
Bro's birthday was Saturday, Dad's Sunday.
Both weren't on speaking terms, and thus it was up to me, mum and sis to put in the effort to let things go semi-smoothly. Pretty tiring, that.
But they're all still breathing and such, so I guess we can't complain..
They're still deciding where we're going out for their birthdays, if we're going at all.
In three weeks time sis will also be having her birthday.
I'm just going to stay out of the arguments about where to go or not completely. *nods*

The sad thing is that I still don't have a job, so I can't even give proper presents.
And along with that, I'm still doing nothing more productive then reading books.
Which is quite alright and everything, but I don't specifically want to stay cooped up here for the rest of the summer just because my aunt and cousin left.
There's this pet store that I left my number at, but they're not calling up all that quickly. I really really really hope they don't forget about it though.

But... My uncle's coming in a bit, so I might as well get going,

Cheers,
xxx
The Gypsy.

Wednesday 22 July 2009

Hurray!!!

So, okay.. Cheerfulness. Lots of it.
Finally =D
For several reasons, too!

1. France was awesome. I mean, read my last entry.

2. Two days after we came back, and the muscle ache ebbed away, my cousin and aunt went back to Egypt, and I got my attic back. (Yay for anti-hospitality!)

3. I get more me-time now they are gone. Well, I suppose that comes with my own place. (Place being attic. Der.)

4. I chatted/phoned with good friends I've missed talking to. Be it those couple of days of France and such, or much earlier, say, when my aunt and cousin came here. (I know, sounds silly listing that here, but hey. It makes me happy right now.)

5. I actually finished two books in three days. Haven't had time for that in a long while. Good books, too.

6. (Sort of saving the best for last.) I got my fourth year results. I PASSED! Like, with high marks, not just.. passes!
Geez. That felt like a weight lifted off my chest. A heavy weight. A really heavy weight.

Right now, I don't want to be thinking of stuff that always worries me. I just want to enjoy the good things happening just now. I can always worry again later. This is a living-in-the-moment period for me. Rawr.

xxx
The Gypsy.

Sunday 19 July 2009

Vive La France!

Cause that's where we were. Just in case I was missed.
We went there on a day tour (or more like, a 30-hour tour), with a bus that picked us up from Den Haag Friday night, and dropped us off in Bercy (Paris) at 6:35 in the morning.

Spoiler: Lots of pictures ahead. xD

Sleep drunk, shivering in the cold wind, we were trying to orientate ourselves. Looking back, those first ten minutes were hilarious, we were just dazedly standing there. xD
We found a metro station quite near, and went there to ask about. The lady (Sonya) was really nice and helpful, and told us we better get a day card for the metro, instead of getting a ticket at every stop. Everyone under 25 (four of us seven) also got a special Saturday-price, so it wasn't half as pricey as dad had expected it to be. (He wanted to cruise Paris on foot. Right now, looking back at it, that is simply laughable. All our muscles are aching horribly and we didn't even walk all over the place.. Or well, we did, but not .. oh well, you get it. Or not xD)

At 07:00 we were at the Louvre, and the first thing I did was look for the glass pyramid, wondering whether Mary was really buried. (Stupid Dan Brown putting ideas in my head D; )




We walked all the way down the Tuilleries, pretty sight, lots of fountains, and with our back to the Louvre, we could look out and see Tour Eiffel, Arc de Triomphe and Cleopatra's "needle" (an Egyptian Obelisk)... Just from afar, that is.
Then we walked up close to the Obelisk, then looked for the nearest Metro station.



Took us a while to find the Metro, but really, I have to admit that that network is just as complete in France (Or Paris anyways) as the bicycle network is in Holland~


We got out in Montmartre (funnily enough the neighbourhood our french novel was about when I last took French -three terms ago-) and just walked there, through Place de Tertre, full of painters, sketchers and other artists... Someone stopped me, and then proceeded to cut out the profile of my face into black paper within one minute. Absolutely brilliant.

Then we asked for directions, and walked up to the Sacre Coeur... From up there, you could just give your back to that amazing building and look over all of Paris... Every tower, building, dome and museum could be pointed out. Plus, it was sunny, so the whole city looked like it was shimmering~
The Sacre Coeur on the inside was absolutely stunning. I usually like the way churches look on the inside, but this was just beyond good-looking. It's an absolute shame I wasn't allowed to take pictures there, the whole ceiling had lovely paintings on it, and it was all so.. warm.
Something that might have added a bit to it's magic was that when me and sis stepped inside, a second later the choir started singing. Right before we left it, they stopped. Coincidental timing, but spiffing all the same...


We went down, and took the Metro, heading for Tour Eiffel. I hadn't quite gotten the idea that we were actually going up there, and I was irked like crazy because dad kept urging us to hurry up everywhere. We had to switch Metros anyways, so I got them persuaded to go and see Arc de Triomphe as we got off one line to get on the next (it was a three minute walk from the station)...


And back down, to Tour Eiffel...


Only to find it so friggin' packed with tourists it wasn't even funny anymore..



The queue in front of the ticket booth must have been longer than 2kms (that's about 1,3 miles), and it wasn't going fast at all. I was actually quite content not going up, which would have meant wasting I don't know how many valuable hours to see Paris from up high, like how we saw it from the Sacre Coeur, only more... centric.



So we just took a crapload of pictures and wandered around a bit.
Whilst I was posing for a picture I hear a "mmmmwah" sound next to my ear, and before I know it this stranger kisses me on the cheek.
So what, you ask? It's Paris, after all, city of love.
Well, this stranger was wearing a clown's nose and pilot headgear D; So yeah.
xD Got a picture with him anyways.


Then we went to the most important place (to me, anyways. I'd been yearning to see it for years now) : The Notre Dame. Truth be told, I hadn't imagined it quite so impressive, beautiful and big as it turned out to be. I am thinking of getting a few of those statues, a pillar or two and some plated glass for my own future home. I'd build my own mini-Notre Dame 8D
In there, we /were/ allowed to take pictures. Or we did take pictures, at any rate. There weren't any "Forbidden to use camera" posters anywhere.









After that we took it slow, walked a long way, ate something, took the metro and went back to Bercy. We sat at a cute little cafe until it was almost time for us to leave, tired and numb, but entirely content.

Not a lot of sleep on the way back, I couldn't. Every part of my body had started aching (and still is, at that, two days later. Only far, far less.) and the view was interesting.
Came home, took a shower, and slept like a rock for the first time in... a year? (the sleep, not the shower D;)
Bloody awesome xD.

Oh. Yes.
An extraordinary amount of Harry Potter posters in France.
Practically every Metro-station-wall.
Couldn't resist taking a picture. (Or five)




xxx
The Gypsy

Friday 17 July 2009

So..

... Life continues throwing punches, sometimes missing, sometimes hard in the face... No matter where you are.
I knew that. Of course I did.
But that doesn't make me feel less shitty.

Granted, I've been avoiding punches altogether, being so busy.
Having a demanding aunt, cousin and father do work to keep you too busy to think, too busy to feel. When they are out by themselves, like now, and the whole house is quiet, I feel quite at loss, or catch a punch.

I'm a bit hesitant about what to do next. I want a lot, but all I want seems to require either money, experience, or both. I can't pluck either from the street, or from the trees in our garden, so I don't know. Also, if I showed the list of things I want to my parents, and let them tick off what they don't want, the list would be empty. My uncle asked me about how it would be in the opposite way. Their list of wants would also be discarded by me..

I'm wondering why that is. Why it is that their wants do not sound unreasonable, and that many children would agree with them, yet they feel not right for me. What I want is also not that unique, and many parents would agree just fine, only mine are being overprotective or controlling. (Mum being the former, Dad the latter)

Enough rambling.
Time to convert negative to positive energy.

I need a battery,a magnet and some wires.

xxx
The Gypsy

Tuesday 14 July 2009

Busy Please

My eyes burn xD
Lack of sleep, lots of wind and lenses tend to do that, eh?
Back to wearing glasses a few days till they get a fair share of rest.
Don't want to ruin them, I like being able to see xD

Been busy, mainly the last two days.
Yesterday, much fun: We went to Deventer, visiting my favourite relatives ♥♥♥
Had to take my Egyptian relatives with us though (bugger xD) but I meanly enough spent most of the time talking and joking in Dutch. Didn't care much to explain either, I'm tired of having em around 24/7 by now.
Anyways, my uncle wasn't there yet, he was visiting Tamara in hospital after work and before coming, else she wouldn't have had any visitors that day. Just his wife (Ineke), Suzanne and her boyfriend Jelco for a while. Totally cosy, at that. Unc came later on, then Tamara's boyfriend Rick joined us after dinner (end of the day) for a short while.
I can't tell you what we did, because basically it was very little other than talking. One thing is good to know, though: their offer still stands, I can run away from home and stay at their place at any given time xDD
Even though I wouldn't run away, that still is good to know.

Today sis went to her work for the first time ever. Might have felt a small jealousy twinge there, seeing as I've been looking for work harder and longer than she has, and I still can't find anything. Not that I think that she can't work if I'm not, or something.

We didn't stay at home, but went to Rotterdam, the Netherland's biggest Haven, and at some point the biggest haven of Europe (not anymore.. and if you have noticed, it's the last of the big cities one should visit in Holland I listed a few posts earlier. xD)
Basically went there to get tickets for Saturday :D But we just took a really long walk too.. First meditation peace and quiet in almost three weeks.. Lots to think about, after yesterday's talking.. Not that it's any less confusing now, but eh.
I'll upload the pictures asap.. Not feeling like it right now.
Eyes still burning :P

xxx
The Gypsy

Saturday 11 July 2009

Warhammer

*Squeel* I have my own goblin!
I picked it out and I could paint it and I got compliments about it too!!!
From professionals, mind, not just anyone 8)
What am I talking about? Warhammer. xD
(For those who do not know what I'm talking about still, it's a game. You collect an army you glue together yourself, you paint them, and then you fight with them. There's three games to choose from: Fantasy Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000 (which is a futuristic one), and a Lord of the Rings game (which had the most pretty creatures).

(I edited it from World of Warcraft because I was chatting about WoW minutes prior to writing this... And with my stupid head it just stuck)



























That's where I was today, with a friend of mine, Ralf.
He's been addicted to that game (Fantasy Warhammer) for nearly a year now, or maybe even longer, I can't recall.
He's always talking to me about it online, but somehow to see it in real life it's really different.
And reading about it on the site just isn't the same as when it gets told to you by someone's who is (maybe over-) passionate about it, and has been playing it for 15 years (David, guy in the games workshop) xD I'd go nuts if I played the same thing for fifteen years, even if it gets new stuff every half year. I thought I was a fanatic when Harry Potter or Pirates of the Caribbean are concerned, but those people in that workshop just beat me with their obsession. Foreals. But it was awesome, I couldn't rub the grin off my face.
Deamonettes, Dark and Wood Elves are my favourites. Not only do they look prettiest, they also seem to be pretty difficult to beat, and have a lot of magic :3

This is the first day I've actually been out by myself, without any family to chaperone or tag along, and it's been the only really peaceful day in two weeks now. Up till I came back home, that is.
Yay for today.

Cheers,
xxx
The Gypsy.

Tuesday 7 July 2009

Pictures.

Okay, So I had already mentioned we went to Den Haag, nay?
We also went to Utrecht whilst visiting my cousin in hospital,
which leaves Amsterdam and Rotterdam and we would've covered the most known/important cities of the Netherlands.
Now all that is left is Rotterdam.
Amsterdam was teh coolest. Even without spacecake.
Rawr
PICTORS:


*sings*
Oh oh Den Haag
dumdiedum achter de duinen
Lol.
Hah. We did not actually agree on this pose xD
Me and my cousin, that is.

Yes, that's right. It's all your fault.

-*-*-*-


Amsterdam, sweet Amsterdam.
Or something.
Very crowded and hot Amsterdam,
if you ask me.



Click to enlarge and actually note the OCEAN of bikes. ;D


They ate out of my hand!!! x3

It's a palace. Foreals.

Aaaaaand then!!!
*beats drums*
We went to Madame Tussaud, a Wax Museum thingy.
Awesome. Totally.







LOL Lets see.
Quick visit to the Vatican?
I don't think so.
Got a picture with the Pope anyways.
Hah!







This is a puzzle. Quiz.
Guess game. Thing.

Pick the waxen doll in the picture.
xDDD

Sorry. I'm just mean like that.





Ah. Yes.
Gotto love Ghandi.
No.
Foreals.
Good guy.











*Hums* I'm too sexy for this shirt, too sexy... on the catwalk... dum dum...Uhm.
Lets see. Oh yes! This Awfully Fantabulous Gay Guy gives me a hat and a boa, calls me darling, beautiful and fantabulous, and tells me to get the hell on the catwalk for some awesomely possum pictures.
Sure, honey xD














*Deep voice*
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
8D















Rawk on 8)















Yes, me in bed with Robbie Williams.
No. I did not pay him.
What do you take him for?!
xDDD

Wait.
Maybe you're right. xD
[/snarky]










Soooo.
tell me George.
What's on your mind?
;D








Sis with Brangelina ;D
They didn't look so real in Wax,
but the picture is surprisingly cool xD














Bro and Nicholas Cage.
Do I really have to name everyone?
Wax looks quite real, dunnit?
















Me and Cous painted with the famous Mona Lisa.
Da Vinci is a genius ^^










Spiderman saved meeee!
Well, not really.
But I'm just as good as a photographer as he is.
Taking that and looking like I'm not taking that ;)
You figure it out. :3












Aaaaand, last, and definitely most important (to me anyways), the one and only person I'm actually a fan of, from Hollywood. Johnny Awesome Depp.
Fell in love with him as Sparrow.
Wanted to take that wax body of his home.










These are only a few of the pictures we took (!) and we saw a lot more celebrities.

Amongst them, to name a few, were Lenin, Gorbachov, The Whole Dutch Royal Family (aka the Queen Beatrix, the crown prince Willem Alexander, his wive Maxima, the deceased old-queen Juliana and her mother, queen before that, Wilhelmina), Princess Di, Mandela, J.F.Kennedy, Bush, Barack Obama (took a group picture at the entry we had to pay for, v.i.p) of the politicians/royalty...

Then there was a department for Dutch Fame only, Annie M.G. Schmidt, Jamai, Jim, Gordon, K3, Marco Borsato, Jan Smit, Ali B, Herman Brood, Vincent van Gogh, Rembrandt van Rijn, Gerard Joling.... etc.. If you know any of these names (besides the painters =P ) you probably be dutch xD

There were singers, like Micheal Jackson (which was eerie enough, seeing as he just snuffed it. He did have lots of flowers at his feet, though. Last tribute thingy for fans, I guess) David Bowie, Prince, Bono, James Brown...
Then a section of sport, with David Beckham, Ronaldino and Lance Armstrong to name a few.

Then came Hollywood: Cage, Depp, Clooney, Pitt, Jolie are those you saw in the pics, but there was also Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hanks, Whatshisface of the new Bond movies, Pierce Handsome Brosnan, Sean Fantabulous Connery, Julia Roberts and I'm sure I'm leaving people out xD
Charlie Chaplin was there, as were Kylie Mynogue, Beyonce and Marilyn Monroe...

I took pictures of most of them, but I was out of energy to upload them all.
If anyone wants to see a specific someone I mentioned and didn't post a picture of, feel free to ask me to post it. If not... well, your loss =P

That's it, wanted to post pictures more than talk, really.

xxx
The Gypsy

Saturday 4 July 2009

This and That.

Today is the first day I've actually felt completely satisfied about my whereabouts and activities since I've been here.

My Egyptian cousin and aunt have been here a week now, and I've been acting through out. Literally. Acting cheerful, acting as a maid, acting as a tourist guide, acting as a translator, and acting as company. If I'm not acting, I'm sleeping.

Till today, all we did besides visiting the petting zoo once is "shopping". Shopping being the female sort, which means specifically scrutinizing every single blouse, shirt, skirt, jeans, shoes and bags in detail, sticking like sugar candy in every single shop, and having to be literally pulled out.
Personally? I dislike shopping. Very very much. Unless it's things that interest me. I know it's hypocritical that I can spend hours in a library or bookshop, or anything with loads of accessories, but otherwise shopping should just be done the "manly" way. You need something, you go to the specific shop, look for it, buy it, and get the heck out of there. :3

We also went sightseeing in Den Haag on Thursday, which meant we finally saw something other than the insides of shops. Unfortunately, my relatives were not too interested in the historical background of places, so we kind of rushed it. Oh well, we might do it again after they leave, in more detail.

What then, you ask me, was so good about today?
I finally got to see members of my family is what.
This morning we went to my younger uncle of the two, whom we had last seen roughly two years ago. His two children, Nina and Aya (aged 14 and 10) hadn't seen us since our visit to Holland before tha last one, which was about four years ago. Man, have they grown!
I've always heard people saying that about me xDDD But I've never gotten to actually say it about anyone. Pretty special, this is. Also, I feel old ;-;

We had lunch there, which was very.. interesting, to say the least. See, my uncle is not so much a talker. You literally have to pull words out of his mouth. Keep on asking, or he'll keep his mouth shut tight. Strong and silent type? His kids are much like him. It took us a while, but we influenced them enough to actually have them chasing my brother with lots of squeals and giggles for about five minutes. Boisterous much?

On the way back, we visited one of my personally favourite cousins in hospital. She has CF (Cystic Fibrosis), which is a chronic lung disease. Things haven't been going so well for her these past few years, but last Monday things got even worse.
She has been on the national Transplantation waiting list for about two years now? Or well, I'm not certain about the time, but she's been on there for a while. Her doctors have been trying to get her on the High Urgent list for transplantations several times already, but up till now she was always "too well" for it to be highly urgent, even when things went crappy.

Now, however, stuff has downspiralled since this last weekend quickly, she got a lung bleeding and caught a cold (which though not dangerous normally, is a torture for CFers) .
To cut a long story short, her doctors decided to skip the whole national High Urgency list, and her name is now officially down for the High Urgent International. Which means she'll be the first (together with others on the same -short- list) of the whole of West Europe to get new lungs when suitable ones come in.
Being on that list brings mixed feelings. Partially it means something's finally happening, she's been waiting for a long while. On the other hand there's the fact that she's now so bad she met up to the high standards of that International list at all, which sucks hard.

ANYWAYS. We went to see one of my favourite cousins today (Tamara). Which I'm glad about, I missed her, as I miss her twin [Judith] (whom I haven't seen yet, but probably will, soon enough).
When we went home, we ate, and then their younger sister[Susanne], the third of my favourite cousins (Gosh, they're all from the same family?! Ah, oui, haven't I told you? They're my favourite relatives, parents and children. So now you know~ ) came for a short while, with her very cool boyfriend[Jelco]. And this is me being critical, so hey. He's coo'.

When they were about to leave, my aunt and cousin came back (they were out with the son of my Egyptian uncle, who lives here) with that cousin. Am I still making sense, or are the number of cousins finally getting to you? xD
There's tons I never mention, so don't you dare complain ;D Rawr.
Anyways, this cousin [Hamada] had taken them out the whole day, because he missed his Egyptian family (he's been living here for.. 6 years now?). Which suited us just fine of course, they with their relatives (ours too but eh) and we with ours. Dad came home from work and it was a Full House.
So Susanne and Jelco left, and Hamada stayed and chatted for a while before leaving as well, and we were back to a total of seven.

And now I feel entirely exhausted, but totally content at seeing so many loved ones in one day. (Meanly as that sounds, I just mean my dutch relatives)

Oh, just one more thing I need to mention before finally stopping teh rambling:
Thursday, after we came back from playing tourists, my very first friend ever came by. Janine has known me since we moved here 18 years ago (since I was 3) and we've been played together all out childhood. Then we also ended up in the same class, and didn't split up till I left that school to attend a year of Internation Education to learn some English before going to Egypt with just Dutch on my resume. xD
Funny thing with her is that no matter how long we don't talk, whenever we meet up it's like we've never been apart. She hasn't changed a bit either, in the two years that I haven't seen her in. That's positive, in a way, because I know what to expect. xD

That's it for today.
I'll try to post more often so that the posts don't get this long anymore.
Pictures later, haven't even uploaded them to my laptop yet ;D

xxx
The Gypsy.