Hey, where did it go?

Brain: You’re hurting me.
Me: * sigh *
Brain: STOP IT!
Me: * yawn *
Brain: I don’t want to know this.
Me: * sigh *
Brain: I mean it. STOP IT!
Me: Shut up, grey matter is not suposed to talk.
Brain: I’m warning you!
Brain: 1
Brain: 2
Brain: Don’t let me say 3.
Brain: That’s it, I’m outta here.

From this day on I have great respect for people studying law. Because for me? It’s all abracadabra. This semester I get copyright & media law. Yesterday we got a first introduction. Some basic law terms and basic information about Dutch law. Basic my *ss. My head is still spinning. This is SO not my niche.

BTW: Anyone who finds my brain will be greatly rewarded.

Somewhere between morning and afternoon napping

I’ve taken out two comfortable chairs. Placed them on our tiny balcony luxurious terrace. I got my feet on one of them. Some extra pillows. In the sun. I’m enjoying a very yummy cinnamon cappuccino. Listening to a very relaxing internet radio channel on iTunes. The Da Vinci Code lost the battle between him and my Mac. But it’s still sitting next to me. I’m SO happy I ditched my desktop computer for a notebook. Realizing I have no homework. I’m in doubt, should I use sunscreen? Or is the sun still to weak. I can close my eyes for a bit.. maybe drift of to sleep.

Hmmmm weekend. Nothing to do but have fun.

I think I deserve it.

Yesterday I was still sore from Power Yoga. And guess what I did? First, I removed the dust from my bike. Put some air in the tires. Rode it in about 20 minutes to the sports facility, and did a Pilates class with my friend Laura again.

We were both still recuperating from the Power Yoga class on Wednesday. But after a while it went quit all right. In fact, in a way it was very relaxing.

Riding my bike home again was the hardest. Peddled 3 times, let it ride out, peddled 3 times, let it ride out. I actually had a hard time catching my breath. A mashed potato is in better shape than me. And I realized, having not done any sport for over 1.5 years (or more, I forgot) isn’t good for you. I HAVE to keep up this sporting.

But for now…. I .. * yawn * .. wish you all a very good & * yawn * relaxing weekend * yawn * …

* drifts off in an early Saturday afternoon nap *

Update: I have just finished The Da VInci Code. Awesome book. What to read next.. hmm..

So ouch what did I ouch do ouch tonight ouch

“Spread your wings”

“Move your shoulders away from your ears”

“Grab your big toe”

“Lengthen your legs”

“Place your shoulders as if you were to crack a nut between them”

And my favorite (while standing)

“Place your hands under your feet” and then “Try to get them under your feet completely”

WHAT did I do tonight?

POWER yoga (I have to disappoint some of you who tried to guess, it was NOT a Brazilian Wax, NOT a tanning and NOT a massage.. oooh massage, that does sound great).

And AFTER that?

I walked over 30 minutes to get home because the stupid tram decided not to work tonight.

It’s a conspiracy, I swear.

Now excuse while I go sit my lovely behind (with muscles I can feel them) on the couch and do absolutely nothing more than stare at the TV screen. Be ca use eve n m y fin ge rs rs are tir ed and I have a ha rd ti mme typ i ng. B ut I thin k I’l l go aga in ne xt wee k.

The huge Jello box, the virgin Mary Sweety and the chimney

Monday …

…. * closes eyes *

Is it gone yet? Let’s try to ignore it and pray Tuesday hurries up.

Fun things first: You can help Tricia (crusty french fries) walk the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. How can you not help someone holding a HUGE Jello box like that? Come on, just look at her. She’s only 540$ away from her goal (1800$) to walk the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. Little bits help too.

OK. Let’s do a quiz again.

This Wednesday I’m going to do something.

You can guess what. Here are your clues:

1. I’m a virgin at this.
2. I haven’t even seen it before.
3. It lasts approximately one hour.
4. I may do it more often.
5. I won’t do it alone.
6. I don’t know what to wear - or not wear - doing this.
7. I hope to keep my feet on the ground. In more than one way.

Oh – not to make fun of any Catholics out here – but please hurry up with the chimney pope picking ceremony. In 3 weeks we would really like to visit the Sistine Chapel. Thanks.
UPDATE May 19th: Wow. That was quick. Thanks! I appreciate it.

Hello world I’m famous... sort of

It has been a CRAZY week. I had 3 exams (and 3 exams last week). I’m not sure how I did on the Consumer Behavior exam. My memory just turned into one big marshmallow right after I got the exam & paper. I think I need you to cross all fingers and other body parts to pull it through.

On brighter note: I am world famous. Or at least, with little help, tourist visiting NYC happen to miss me. WHAT am I talking about? Last Girl on Earths’ project. Go and watch. It is HILARIOUS. She got people in NYC to say something commenters on her blog requested. My suggestion, a very modest one of course, was also in the video. Listen very careful to the Swedish tourists! After watching that hilarious video, you really should spend some time on Last Girls’ blog, It’s hilarious and a great daily read.

… I’ll hang on and let you watch the video….

… are you back yet? …

Ah there you are! GLAD you came back. Wasn’t that video the funniest thing?

Okay ‘ nough of that. Remember the Dutch word game? Joe WON!!

Woohoo!

Okay, he was the only contestant. But he did a great job!

First, this is what Joe said after recording…

“Yes, I'm damned determined to sound as close to native as possible... but that's a hard word! It really hurt my throat! How do you people speak without needing a bag of throat drops??”

My answer? This is why Dutch people like liquorish so much. It softens the throat. I think..

How did he say “ezelsbruggetje?” … you can here him here (wav file). You did excellent Joe!!

Now hear me pronounce it…

Are you still here? You heard me. I hope my voice met your expectations :)

Anyways, I can’t hear a difference. Joe can blend in here and we wouldn’t notice he isn’t a native Dutch. Of course he would still have to learn how to grow tulips and wooden shoes. Go Joe!

So ya'all learned a Dutch word. How usefull is that?.. not very. But you could say it to your collegueas at work. They would think you've gone mad.

Happy weekend everyone!

A dirty little monkey bridge

Or the english exam conundrum (LOOK! Sweety learned a new word!)

Yesterday I had my English exam. We had to study a list of 125 words. Leah was curious to know what the words were, so for you girl: words list.The exam was a piece of cake, it would truly surprise me if I fail. Although there were a few words I kept forgetting.

For those annoying words I had to make up an ezelsbruggetje: a donkey bridge. I haven’t got the slightest idea what that would translate into English. An ezelsbruggetje is a little help to remember something.

So for “succinct” I remember Chris’ weblog “Putting the suck in the succulent”. Although I’m not quit sure we’re talking about the same suck here. Are we? Anyways, I remembered it.

For “meticulous” I remembered Balki from Perfect Strangers. Don’t be ridiculous! It is now: Don’t be meticulous! Can’t you just here him say that? I miss Balki. Did they stop rerun that show?

And there was to “permeate” as in “to spread, to flow thorough”. I kept forgetting that word. Untill.. well, ehm, I hope I did not actually write an ‘s’ in front of the word. Would that cost me points?

Update: On request of M@, how would you pronounce ezelsbruggetje?

"a-souls-bru (as in brunge) - gg (as if you're trying to spit from the back of your throught, I know: GROSS) - uh - che (as in chess).

asoulsbrugguhche

Now, let's play a GAME! Or a lesson in Dutch, whatever you prefer. YOU pronounce ezelsbruggetje, record it on a audio file. Email it to me (sweetyAThelloworlditsmeDOTcom. And in the weekend, I'll post everyones audiofile, including a file from me, pronouncing it the right way. Isn't that fun. Now, record!

Happy birthday Mr. Sweety!

Mr. Sweety hit 29 today! :) And he's feelin A LOT better than yesterday.

He did spend half the night in the toilet.. and ended up sleeping the other half on the couch because he didn't want me not sleeping because he had to rub noses with the toilet.

How on earth will I explain to him, that on the one night we didn't sleep together.. I spend the night with Mac. Will he ever forgive me?

Evil eggs

Change clothes. Wash hair. Clean floor. Clean kitchen. Clean cat. 11 eggs.

What happened?

Me. Trying to make birthday tiramisu. Because? Me.. dividing eggs? Impossible. Is there a shop that sells egg whites and egg yellows separately? I needed 11 eggs to get 3 whites and 6 yellows. Can you say clumsy?

It’s a good thing tiramisu has to be in the fridge 48 hours, to get its best taste. Mr. Sweety was supposed to celebrate his birthday tonight. But a migraine interfered with his plans. So instead of shaking hands and eating pie, he’s hugging our friend Toilet Potty. In fact he’s SO close with the toilet, I’m wondering if I should be jealous.

I called all the party guests to say we’re moving the party to tomorrow. And luckily everybody didn’t have a busy social life, and are coming tomorrow.

No go away migraine. That’s an order.

The book meme

From Victor: the book meme.

You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?
What is Fahrenheit 451? Did I miss a Michael Moore … book?
Or Victors interpretation: “You mean, if I were this book would I throw myself on the fire?” In that case I would have to say a The Life of Pi. I’m still stuck in the beginning of the book. Hate it but I am curious to read it. I’ll probably try again in a few months. But for now? Burn.

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Would I go to jail when I say Harry Potter? Seriously though, I don’t think I’ve ever had a crush on a fictional character.

The last book you bought is:
I bought 3 at once, and haven’t started reading in any of them yet.

Nicci French, catch me if I fall (not yet available on Amazon.com?)
The Tipping point
A blessing of bread A cook book, I know, but it has cute little stories too.

The last book you read:
The curious incident of the dog in the night time Excellent book. Very cute.

What are you currently reading?
The Da Vinci Code. LOVE it. I’m reading it in Dutch (unlike all the other books I mentioned in this post). I read it every day in the tram on my way to and from work. And every day I almost forget to get out of the tram.

Five books you would take to a deserted island.
Ehm. The 3 books I haven’t read yet .. The bell jar because I read it once, about ten years ago. I remember that I thought it was a great book. But since I have the amazing gift of forgetting all about movies & books, I can’t remember a thing. So I have to read it again.
The 5th book? I don’t know, you tell me! What would you recommend me to read and why?

Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why?
Volunteers?

Louigi? Mario?

I emailed with a good friend about our trip to Rome and joked about bringing a cute Italian with me as a present for her. She emailed me back, and said:

“Arrrgggghhh...the last thing I need complicating my life right now is a MAN.
Although a nice, hot, Italian one would be nice to LOOK at. :)”

I can relate. It’s like a basic female instinct.

Men equal trouble.

(sorry guys)

I sat down and looked outside and thought about what she said for a while.

Thought about the past men (okay, boys, Mr. Sweety turning 29 this Sunday makes him probably the first MAN I dated :)) in my life. And then I realized. Mr. Sweety doesn’t complicate anything. He makes things simple. He makes my life simple.

The first man in my life who make life simple.

Funny how an email conversation can make you realize you have something beautiful. Thanks for that, you know who you are ;)

6.

Six. Ses. Zes. Sechs. Sexa. Kuusi. Enam. Sei. Seis. Sita.

Has the devil taken over Sweety’s blog?

No. Six is the amount of school exams I’ll have to do in the next TWO weeks.

My head hurts.

What will I be learning?

1. Consumer behavior
This is totally interfering with my ability to just shop without thinking. Very annoying.
2. Dutch spelling & grammar
This is not easy. The Dutch language has like a gazillion grammar rules. VERY confusing.
We even have rules for the use of English words. The past tense of delete would be deletete in Dutch. And hash? Hasj. Haha. Leave it up to me to confirm biases. Yes I learned how to spell hasj. At school.
3. English words
A 125 word list. I have confidence I can do this. But still have to learn those words.
4. Microsoft Powerpoint
I know, that’s kinda easy
5. Microsoft Excel
I’m SO not a number person, this is not for me.
6. Integrated communication
A take-home exam! Wow! I feel so grown up right now. But believe me, we don't even got time to compare answers.

Whenna tha moon hits your eye lika big pizza pie

The correct answer is: Rome!

And the greeting cards go to…..:
Swissfondue, Joe (eventhough he guessed THREE times), Kim and Anne!

Let me explain some of the clues..

3. When I was there I saw someone I probably won't see again this time.
The pope! I have to dig through all my photos but I took a photo ten years ago and wayyyyyyy in the back you see a little old man the seize of a pixel.

4. The 'bestseller' book I'm currently reading, but have been too lazy to blog about, has a connection to this country.
The Da Vinci code! I know everything (well up to the point I'm in this book anyway) takes place in Paris. But Leonardo da Vinci was from Italy.. right?

5. This people in this country have a weird way of eating a dish that we know to be a main course as a starter.
I actually ate spaghetti as a starter there. For me? That's enough.

6. There is a small possibility it will be getting very crowded during the time we're there.
If point 3 dies… it will probably be very busy in Rome. Hopefully everybody will be at the Vatican so all the attractions will be tourist-free. Ha! But the way it's going, there will probably already be a new pope by the time we get there.

7. It will probably be a bit warmer there than here in The Netherlands.
I hope so! It's definitely more south.

8. We don't speak the language (Gawd help us!)
Ciao, pizza, spaghetti, lasagna… bella… dolce gabana?
… ehm.. what else is Italian?