For a long time, the place I was born meant I had to be something: I had to belong. With that came the pressure of adjusting. But the active act of adjusting and the passive sense of belonging are contradictory. It leads to conflict, both internally and externally. For a long time, this conflict fuelled […]
moreThe captain of the sailing yacht wasn’t your typical sailor kind of person. He adhered to a more pragmatic approach in life. He and his wife had been some family’s butler and nanny and it had been time for something new. They saw this yacht online and bought it without giving the whole thing too […]
moreYesterday, the guy at the front desk offered me his crackers. He is a nice guy. I know he’s from Ecuador and he’s 35 and that’s about it. I’d like to know more about him, but somehow he manages to squeeze the questions in first. This evening, I ran into him on leaving the work-space […]
moreThis is to prove that we have finally entered full throttle holiday mode. My man and I spent the entire evening analyzing the security strategy of this resort. It led to only one conclusion: something must have happened here quite recently.Every evening, only moments before sunset, a team of approximately 6 security people (it’s not […]
moreOnce upon a time, a long long time ago. Way before I was a writer. When I was still young and naive. Oh bless that gloriously ignorant frame of mind. I sailed from Curaçao to Bonaire. I didn’t do so alone, of course. I wasn’t that courageous. But truth be said: I was a different […]
more“This. Is a spoon,” declared a friend. He was holding the spoon straight up in front of his nose and then added, “and so what?” He threw the spoon on the table, discarded of it. “The thing is,” he continued, “you do not feel what I feel when looking at that spoon. You don’t have […]
moreI came across a photo of the man who has died: he and a friend of mine are intently bent over her laptop, discussing dreams and plans for the future. It was taken during the launch of my first novel. She had flown in from the Caribbean, was all energy and powerful charisma. He had […]
moreI have made a fresh tomato soup and a salad with crushed walnuts. I have done my utmost to present it well but truth be said: salad looks bland in a standard white bowl. And my sup bowls are chipped. My main character comes late. The salad has gone soggy. He enters in a flurry […]
moreTwo women from The Philippines tumble into a chique hotel. They are a storm of attention deficit perfume, glittered mini-dresses, strass earrings, synthetic hair pieces and stiletto heels. They chatter loudly, take photos of each other in various poses and seats. Their nailpolish is a deep burgundy, almost black. As is their lipstick. The waitress […]
moreAt funerals, it’s the songs they play that bring out the tears. You listen to how friends of the deceased describe memorable moments. They choke up and you feel awful, but somehow words have this way of creating distance. Personal memories are not necessarily shared memories. Then come the songs. And with them the universal […]
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