From Summer into Autumn
October is only a few days away. The summer in the Netherlands was terrible, weather-wise. For weeks on end, we had days with a five minute shower, 15 minutes no shower, 10 minutes shower, 20 minutes nothing, hour after hour. Very unpredictable, except that you would be rained on one way or another. Since a week, the weather has remarkably improved. I am no longer checking the Dutch weather.com for the next shower. I just go out without umbrella or poncho. So nice! And the predictions are, we have another nice week ahead of us. Yeah for autumn!
Blogging
If you wonder why I did not write ... I realized this past week that writing really takes time and I simply did not make time to write (it is not that I did not get inspired. I got inspired many times over!). I was training for the Amsterdam marathon like crazy which resulted in a light knee-injury and a down-grading of my training and marathon aspirations. I made more working hours for my part-time job (as there was more work over summer). I increased the working hours on my other projects and then ... I ran out of time to blog.
Marathon
After the great new marathon world record in Berlin this weekend, I, for sure, want to run in Berlin next year! Also, because I have never been to Berlin before and this would be a perfect opportunity. But first, the marathon of Amsterdam ... Here is how one can fail. Train too much, too fast ... Remember how I wrote early this year that my goal this year would be to run a marathon below 4 hours? That changed this summer to "let's just finish it". Now I switched to the half marathon (still, not bad) with the hope to "just finish it". I might, however, have to decide to not run at all. That would be a disappointment. Question though is: Did I learn something from this (probably soon to be) failure?
- I LOVE running long distances. I could not care less about a 5k because, honestly, I continue to see the same stretch of road every time (ok, admittedly, if I would LOOK around better and OPEN UP my mind, I might maybe see more, even on those short distances).
- I started to ENJOY it more instead of seeing it as training (as a must-do).
- If I don't run for four months, I should not think that I can prepare for a marathon in only 9 weeks. I am glad I tried though and I did get to 18.5 miles/29k in 5 weeks.
Vegetable Garden
Besides the pots with tomatoes, strawberries and basil, I actually had a one square meter box on my balcony this summer. It contained zucchini, sweet pepper, cucumber, egg plant, peppers and tomatoes. The harvest was meager. No ripe tomatoes, 4 delicious!! little zucchinis, no egg plant, no cucumber, I had one head of lettuce (almost forgot about that one), the sweet pepper is still flowering but honestly, I don't think anything will come from that one. And there are 3 tiny green peppers still trying to become a little bit bigger. Wow, I think this was not a big success either. Again, I learned some lessons:
- One square meter is just enough for one zucchini plant. Don't plant anything else because it won't get a chance to grow.
- Put the vegetables as much as possible out of the wind (which might be a bit hard in windy Holland and on a second floor balcony of an apartment building). As I did not do that, I had a lot of plant lice which just ate everything, except for the (sweet) peppers.
- Start planting earlier ... mid July might be a little bit late.
So I will try again next year. As I will on the marathon front but ... forget the 4 hours, I just want to run a marathon to enjoy the scenery and get inspired by the other runners!
Work
I registered yesterday with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce (KvK) as a sole proprietorship (eenmanszaak). Doing business in the Netherlands is simple. Registration took about 15 minutes ... There is a small chance that the tax authorities will not consider my registration valid but I guess I will be OK. So, what will this entity, where I will be working all by myself, do? For the moment project support, coordination and advice. My first paid assignment came in this week, out of nowhere. Of course, I have been networking but I certainly was not expecting this one. I will be assisting with a cooking class for children (for one afternoon). Seems like a lot of fun to me for a first paid assignment!! The second assignment will hopefully follow next week and be for a longer period: assisting with the organization of a conference on social entrepreneurship.
Although one would think you have to figure out your niche before you start a business, I am still developing one. I have a direction in my head and have to start writing a business plan. More news on this front in the near future. It is going to be fun though!
Family and Friends
Where would I be without all of you, in the Netherlands and outside. I have been able to see my friends and family a lot over summer and I keep abreast of how most of you outside my country are doing via blogs, emails, skype, telephone calls, and Facebook.
Politics - Euro
?? Am almost giving up ...
Politics - 194
I missed both Abbas' and Netanyahu's speech, unfortunately. I only think that recognition of Palestine as a state before the UN will at least put the two from a judicial point of view on (more) equal footing (although the question is what the status of Gaza is in this regard). I read an op-ed from the Israeli Ambassador to the Netherlands yesterday who basically says that because there is so much cooperation already between the Palestinian authority and Israel in the area of security, social policy, economics etc. there was no reason for the Palestinians to demand statehood. Then I saw this map in the Economist and was reminded again.
Just take a look at the "Israeli-controlled territory restricted or closed to Palestinians" inside the West Bank. Notice the River Jordan ... the entire river is controlled by the Israelis (and the Jordanians on the other side of course - and as far as I have understood, that river is slowly drying up). In the Geneva Accords there were two issues not resolved: Jerusalem and ... water. My guess is, the water issue is extremely important but hardly ever mentioned in the issues to be solved (unless you consider it as part of the settlement/territorial issue). Let me just say, these coming negotiations are going to be extremely hard (ok, we knew that already).
Traveling
And how could I forget!! I spent a long weekend in Copenhagen, visiting two friends I know from my time in Jordan. I had a fabulous time catching up, hanging out, and the weather was splendid! I had been to Copenhagen one time before for 24 hours visiting one of those same friends and gotten extremely sick (food poisoning) while at the same time it was very cold for the time of year. So with this long weekend I was giving Copenhagen a second chance. I was definitely not going to eat any raw fish this time and with the rainy summer we were in, I was sure it would be warmer than expected (HA!).
It turned into a very cultural weekend. We saw Macbeth in the open air in the garden of a castle (unfortunately, the castle was not part of the stage). We went to see "Bobby Fisher against the World", visited the museum of Modern Art. And we listened to an interview with two writers (Junot Diaz; The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; Half of a Yellow Sun) during the Louisiana (the Modern Art Museum) Literature Festival. I had read the first book, my friend was reading the second. The Dialogue between the two and with the interviewer was so vivid and informative. It was about how they write, where they get their inspiration from, why they write etc. At the end, I really felt like I wanted to write a book too (don't worry, I know literature will never be my forte and that is ok, as I love to read too :-) but you could feel the joy they had in doing what they do and THAT was certainly inspiring.
The past six weeks were good. I hope yours were too. For me, a new chapter has been opened with the registration at the Chamber of Commerce yesterday (while others are not necessarily closed!). I am looking forward to sharing stories with you again on a regular basis. Other than that ... Have a wonderful week!
Rose
So good to have you back and how I've missed your inspirational words week after week! Like you, I have found that keeping a blog takes so much time and was about to stop, but once more you have inspired me and I will keep writing.
ReplyDeleteYour work related news sound exciting. I read something last night that made me think of you, from A Bend in the River: "I still had to get a job and the only thing I knew now was what I didn't want to do. I didn't want to exchange one prison for another. People like me have to make their own jobs. It isn't something that's going to come to you in a brown envelope. The job is there, waiting. But it doesn't exist for you or anyone else until you discover it, and you discover it because it's for you and you alone".