Yesterday was my Dad’s last day at work. The Ministry he worked for had arranged for drinks. Somehow, I had always imagined a grand finale of some sort for my Dad. Fireworks and champagne and music and personal memorabilia engraved on silver platters to hang up against the wall. But this was a friendly and […]
moreI watched my flamenco teacher perform yesterday and was filled with a strange kind of melancholy. I'm trying to figure out why. Perhaps it's the realization that whatever artistic profession you choose, who you yourself are always shines through the performance. There's no hiding, not even behind perfection. In fact, a perfect perfromance in itself […]
more“Mummy?”“Yes?”“Can I play?”“Yes.” My son rushes off to get a long blue ribbon. He gives me the one end and holds on to the other while hopping onto his bike. He turns to give me very serious instructions:“Face down, legs funny.”Oh, I see. He means that silly thing I did one day. I got down on the […]
moreSunday evening – this was an intense weekend. I am resisting the urge to list everything I did. Because why on earth do I even have this urge to describe how I went from a pancake boat in the east of Holland to a university reunion, visited not only my parents but my inlaws, played […]
moreAt present, while in the train, my staring at a young man who has long hair and goatee, is wearing a Palentinian scarf for a shawl and flaunting multicoloured sneakers, chewing gum, listening to music on an ipod so loud that even I can hear the lyrics (Chris de Burgh, lady in red), led me […]
moreI was never taught not to stare. I suppose staring was not on the list of educational priorities my parents had for me. There are quite some things my parents never really emphasized. Like brushing my teeth. Or closing the door when going to the bathroom. I suppose it doesn’t matter because I learned other […]
moreEvery once in a while, someone tells me about my best friend. Well, she isn’t actually, objectively speaking my best friend. Best friendships are a relationship like any other relationship. One can only justifiably call someone a best friend if the other person feels the same way. So anyway, once upon a time, I had […]
moreThings are shifting. I used to hate rewriting. But these days, I can hardly wait to start rewriting. It now means the hard part is actually over. I suppose it's logical. Getting 85,000 new words down once is a personal challenge (I counted, it was more than 60,000). But getting the same amount of new words […]
moreThe more I make my way to the end of my novel, the more worried I'm becoming. Not only is there the debilitating worry I've had all along – what is of so much importance to me that I feel I should be telling it to the world? (The answer being: who cares, even about […]
moreAt the local drugstore, I ran into a well known writer. Her most recent novel had won a few prizes. It had taken her seven years to write. One of the things she said in an interview somehow always stuck to my mind: she mentioned she had very few female friends and preferred to hang […]
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