New Year's Resolution Fulfilled - oh yeah!

Good afternoon to you!
I hope this day finds you feeling optimistic and full of anticipation of a good 2015.

I cleaned my oven today. Yay!
No,no,no,no, don't run away now...You have NO idea what an achievement this is!
You see, I am definitely NOT a natural born cleaner.
In fact, I hate it. I do it though, as I hate dirt as well. Not a good combination...very unpractical. But, truth be told, I would gladly pay someone (man or woman, I'm very into equality) to do it for me, except I cannot afford that.

So, with the sun shining and all the festive parafernalia cleared away, I took a deep breath and bought new gloves, oven cleaning poison, new sponges and stuck my head into that oven.

I use if often, being an oven cook (read: lazy cook), and this last couple of weeks it has been doing overtime with glazed potatoes, roasts, fish, more potatoes, cakes, even more potatoes and home-made crisps.
And thus it was filthy. It took me 1 1/2 hours...But now it is sparkling clean.

The thing is though, I had to use that Hagesan poison. Oh...it works alright. But I prefer natural cleaning materials. For instance, I clean my bathroom with clear vinegar and sometimes soft soap, and that works fine.
Question: does anyone have a natural solution for cleaning a filthy greasy oven???

Obviously, with music playing the enormous role in my life that it does, I looked up a good cleaning song. The link is right next to this line. Dixie Chicks

And it feels great. It is absolutely true that a clean oven makes you feel all righteous and good :P

Right. And that ends this prosaic blogpost.
See you soon!

Happy 2015 to You! May it be a Peaceful Year.

Hi there, all you dreamers, lovers, thinkers and other assorted well-wishers.
It is Dec. 30th over here, but as I am aware that 2015 will be starting sooner with lots of you  'over there' than me 'over here', I will post this one day 'too early'.

So...anyway :-)

Frankly I dislike fireworks, unless it's the show from the Erasmusbrug in Rotterdam, which is the best fireworks display in the entire Wetlands. But I, like my pets, abhor these loud bangs, usually when I least expect them.

New year's resolutions? Do you have them?

Let's make a list.
# world peace
# peace in Europe
# peace between Ukraine and Russia
# peace....

Okay. That was a tad unrealistic, I know. So let's make the list more personal.

# appreciate the people around me
# eat more (Hah! Got you!)
# eat more vegetables and fruit/nuts than protein
# re-start my long-distance walking routine
# play the guitar
# play the guitar
# play the guitar

Also, since I know that he has quite a few fans, I asked Viggo for a selfie. Here it is. He was a bit drowsy, due to his usual over-eating. So I asked him for another one.

Tssssssss. Not very interesting, is it?

So. Anyway.

I would like to wish you a marvelous 2015! May it bring you everything you desire; love, good health, wealth, fame, success, and...well, yes, let's...peace.

What makes YOU happy?

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens...

Maria van Trapp knew what made her happy.
One of the most played songs on the radio at the moment is one that has 'spread the happiness' as a chorus.

It's the end of the year, the festive season is upon us, and many people are evaluating their lives. So am I. It is a default mechanism when the last days of 2013 are speeding by.

What makes me happy?
Writing.
Eating.
Listening to music.
Singing, always.
Watching my children.
Cuddling my pets.
Laughing with people (not at them.)
Watching the birds in our garden.
Exchanging smiles with the teenagers at school.
Marrying folks.

Seeing the faces of dolphins. Dolphins always seem to smile, don't they?

hard times

I'll let you in on a little secret. After all, we've been on intimate terms for weeks now.
2013 Has been one of the shittiest years of my life.

When you've hit rock bottom, the only way is up, someone said (I forget who. Story of my life. My head is full of quotes which are doomed to be nameless). There wasn't just one cause, there were many. An endless chain of things going wrong, frictions, friends dying, friends leaving, people getting awful illnesses, losing the job I adored doing, and fuck me the economy crashing around our ears didn't help either. And to top it all an ancient trauma, long buried, suddenly surfaced and demanded attention. 

Now, we in the Wetlands are living a charmed life. We have plenty. Stuff. Things. Even if you lose your job over here, you get help finding another one and you get money (the fact that I've been paying into this benefit bank since I was 17, which means I have been paying for 38 years, is neither here nor there). At least for a while. Compared to, for instance, Rumania, we are filthy, decadently rich over here.

And yet almost everyone I speak to these days is complaining. Everyone is tired. A lot of people are worried. They tell me they are looking forward to the holidays but with the same breath fret about having to do all that shopping/cooking/partying and who will take the old folks this year?

(Photo by Wibe Koopman)

Plan B

'I have a plan, I'll never plan again', is the opening line of a popular Dutch song from 2013. 

As an obsessive planner, I will take this to heart. For 2014, I have a plan: I will heed the old lesson my long-departed beloved Grandma taught me when I was a little girl. She told me two things:

1. a human suffers most from the suffering he fears

and

2. always count your blessings.

In 2014 I am going to face my fears. And count my blessings.

And do the things that really make me happy.

Let me know what makes YOU happy??