Memories of Paris 2013. The city of love that stole my heart!
Day 24: What attracts me?
I don’t think anyone should be choosy or resigned to a specific type when it comes to love. Its all about how it feel rather than what we may think we want.
Here is where Little Miss Shallow steps in.
I like dark haired men. I am a stickler for politeness and intelligence. I’m not a fan of muscular men, that six pack and big shoulders things may look good on a CK advert but I prefer men to look like men, normal, well fed and gentlemanly. My friends always joke that I only like ‘boring and normal looking men’ but its true in a way. I want someone that doesn’t spend hours in the mirror, that can eat a proper Sunday lunch or a traditional breakfast and knows his way around the odd romantic gesture and I say odd because too much would creep me out slightly. Not much to ask for really is it.
My dad has a check list of what he will and won’t allow which me and my mom tease him about. The list, if left to him, would be never ending!!
I’ve got the rest of my life to find someone and do all that loveydovey stuff and they don’t have to conform to any criteria, if it feels right it normally is right. Hey I’m not perfect, nobody really is why should we put society constructed expectations on each other before we give ourselves chance to say ‘Hello’.
Real Life Example: My mom preferred blonde men. My dad has loads of black curly hair and they’ve been happily married 27 years. In fact back in 1987 when they married he had an afro and a mustash. Now if she had stuck to her guns about blonde men, there would not be a ME! Aren’t you all lucky!
A few Dutch songs to get you pumped up on a boring Tuesday afternoon
Does anyone else find Tuesday’s boring? Its not the start of the week, its not hump day and we are miles away from the weekend. Its a bit of a non-day in my opinion. So to brighten up your none day here is a little insight into my current Dutch iTunes favourites and other songs that I am loving at the moment. I try to overlook the English ones because lets face it, I already speak English rather well (at least I’m supposed to!)
Continue reading A few Dutch songs to get you pumped up on a boring Tuesday afternoon
News Just in…Dutch Valentine Cards sent with a kiss!
After kicking back this afternoon with a good cuppa and an hour scrawling through the internet (youtube videos of cats on skateboards: 3, Internet Window Shopping: Check, Medical symptoms looked up and accepted the diagnosis that I am indeed not a human being: Check) I came across a story that put a right big old smile on my face. A story on www.dutchnews.nl made my heart of stone quiver.
I’m not really a romantic type and choose the stiff upper lip of British tradition to brush off any form of unnecessary soppiness but the Dutch have done it once again!
Yep the Dutch have ‘kissed 500 cards with lipstick to run the tests,’ to ensure that their postal system will accept it as a valid stamp. Imaging having that as your job! (Where do I send my CV?!) If you post your valentines card before 5pm on February 13 it will arrive in time for the big day! Now come on thats cute! Even for the most heartless person to admit that is cute! According to the article some 500,000+ cards are shared on February 14th!
Disclaimer on behalf of PostNL – This is ONLY for cards sent within The Netherlands! No doubt some numpty will try it elsewhere!
Na de eerste maand…
One month in…I’ve been studying Dutch rather intensively for 31 days. So far so good I would say. It not been easy I’ll be honest. The first week or so I powered through some topic stuff e.g. talking about myself, shopping, ordering meals, and asking directions. This was great fun and a brilliant way to build up my vocabulary bank. I have surprised myself with how much I know as well as how hard certain things have been.
Learning a language, I think, is a bit like learning to drive. I’ve spent the last 2 weeks or so doing theory work, learning about different tenses and word orders and at times it has got me down and frustrated because I have focused so much on theory I haven’t been speaking as much as I would have wanted to and this is something I am going to change in the next 30 days leading up to my first official class lesson.
It has been great fun up to yet and I do celebrate the small (sometimes very small) achievements. I’ve got reference cards coming out of my ears but it will all come together.
Maria Victoria Smith 