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Celtic Midsummer Fest (KMF)

Wednesday, July 7, 2010 by Tse Moana 7 Comments

19 GroepSo, I went to re-enact the Iron age over the weekend at a festival. I’ve still got everything jumbling around in my head so not really a proper telling in story order, more this was awesome and this was awesome kinda bulletpoints.

The group of people was awesome. I’m not always very good with larger groups, let alone when there’s people in it I don’t know or don’t know very well, but I liked the (for me) new people and got along very well with those I did know but not very well.

I slept outside the first night. It was very cool to see the stars, plus, it’s something that was on my 101 list 😀

15 SlaapplekIt was insanely warm the two days and my hair was really getting in the way. Too long in the neck and hanging in my eyes near the sides. So I asked Eva if she would cut it, Iron age style 😀

On Saturday we cut the back side. First I got soapy water poured over my head (remnants from the wool felting) Then Eva massaged some of the camomile blossoms (actually there with other herbs and such to demonstrate plants that can be used to dye wool…) in my head, all the while bullshitting the spectators on how they first needed to calm the skin on my head 😀

Then the awesomely made (by our very own blacksmith Juut) Iron age knifes were grabbed and Eva and Wilma started cutting my hair. It was a hit with visitors, people stopped at the camp in droves, intrigued at what we were doing. Some must have declared me crazy for letting them do that to me 😀

48 Yngvar kusSunday we finished the job with the front end.

Eva and Signe brought their horses. This made the whole encampment come alive, and look much more real life than without it. It was too warm to do anything with them during the day, but we did some pulling with Yngvar on Sunday evening. It was hilarious dragging the event volunteers from one point to another.

All the various works that were done/demonstrated over the weekend were all very well thought out (the group’s been doing this for about a year now, this was my first time going with them) and it felt completely natural to be doing them or to see them done around. Wool felting, card weaving, scraping horns to prep them for being turned into drinking horns, chopping wood, carving wood, cooking over fire, blacksmithing (normally done, but this weekend it was too warm), the aforementioned hair cutting, sewing etc… The whole experience felt very natural, just like a regular kinda lifestyle (as opposed to really feeling like you’re playing or something) 🙂

22 Wol & Verfplanten

Wool and plants to make dyes

 

23 Etenswaren

Food stuff

 

24 Etenswaren

More food stuff

 

65 Gevilt Wol en Kaardweven

Felted wool and card weaving

 

25 Naaiwerk

Everyone has something they can do for when there are spectators. I brought a tunic so I could sew edges on it

 

32 Kamp

Cooking set up

 

11 Ingrid & Juut

Felting

 

14 Voet

I hit, and tore open, my small toes on a tent pike…

 

15 Vuur

Feeding the fire

 

48 Bodhran

Also music

 

 

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: 101 in 1001, Creativity, Eva & Jarig, Events, Friends, History, KMF, People, Photos, Re-enactment

Weekly Four: week 26

Wednesday, July 7, 2010 by Tse Moana 1 Comment

I’m thankful for swift first aid units that bandaged up my foot over the weekend 😀

I’m happy that the weekend was so bloody awesome!

I’m saddish (well… slightly annoyed would be the better description I think, althoug I did laugh at myself for the sheer stupidity of the type of wound) I managed to bang my toes against the tent peg halfway the last day, it doesn’t make for easier walking…

I learned friends and small, overenthusiastic dogs make everything better.

Posted in: General, The Week in Review Tagged: Dogs, Friends

Sound of People. And Music

Saturday, June 26, 2010 by Tse Moana 3 Comments

Had the day off work today so I was expecting to sleep in and lounge about the house today. Managed only one of those as around 8:30 the housing cooperation started drilling into the wall that separates my house from the neighbours’. And let that wall be my bedroom wall, where my head is… Suffice it say I was not pleased >:

I’m thinking I can expect more shenanigans like this in the next week or so. New neighbour is about to move in (that’s why the housing guys were here, I think, fixing up stuff so he can move in. It seemed like they were doing rather a lot though) so I expect more noise as his stuff gets placed.

I did the rest of my waking up on the sofa with the trusty laptop and some Facebook games, then went to play Warcraft. It’s Midsummer Festival in the game so lots of special, temporary, things to do. Then the housing cooperation called me to make an appointment for someone to come by and look at the garden door. I’ve mentioned it before, Neighbour Nienke and I closed off our backyard with a door to stop neighbourhood kids from using it as a short cut to a play field; and now another neighbour is complaining about it because he is convinced it actually is a path and not our yard. HC guy let through on the phone he doesn’t really buy that, but feels he should see it with his own eyes rather than from the pics behind his desk 😀 I don’t blame him, and it will finally settle this mess so Nienke and I, hopefully, won’t be forced to keep the door locked just to stop the kids from using it still. We set an appointment for coming Wednesday so we’ll see what he has to say.

Shortly after this Nienke came home from work and we decided to take a trip to the supermarket where I still forgot half I wanted to buy :S Eva mailed me this great recipe for a low-carb chocolate mousse thing and I wanted to get the stuff for it. The only thing I came home with from that list was the whipped cream… I did buy carrots and chicken and new eggs. I’ve been doing a no/low carb and high(er) protein diet thing since two weeks or so to help me loose weight. So far it’s going well, it’s a kind of thing that still let’s me eat a lot of stuff I like (chicken!) However I use a lot more eggs now (they’re full of protein and as such an excellent way to make you feel full) so need new ones regularly 😀
Cooked 8 eggs this morning, and there’s only one left. To be fair, Nienke and Eva had some too.

Eva, who’s doing the same diet thing, came by today. Of course we first had to discuss the finer points of our respective journeys along the dietary path. Then it was time for dinner. Eva had brought hers along, and with a few minutes at Nienke’s stove to prepare her meat, she was all set. I needed some more time since I still had to make my salad. It turned out great: lettuce, egg, french cheese, a bit of dressing and grilled chicken. Nom, nom, nom 😀 I stole the idea of an eat-book from Eva. Not just a book to list your daily food in (I tried that before and I never manage to keep that up for more than two or three days) but also for numbers, notes and ideas/comments about the food as well as inspirational things and stuff. Kinda like a cross between food diary and regular diary. I found an empty book and wrote the first page today. It does need decorating though, otherwise it’ll be boring and I’ll still forget it after a few days. I’m hoping I keep this up.

In the evening we ended up making music. Eva on guitar, me vocals and Nienke as the silent companion and occasional moviemaker 😀 At the end of the evening we did manage to FINALLY! get Nienke to actually sing!!! This after she figured out that when she has notes with the lyrics, she has a much easier time singing. With just the lyrics she can’t get the melody and with a melody she can’t remember the lyrics. It turns out she has a really pretty voice! After Eva was gone Nienke went on to say she would sing You Raise Me Up at Christmas 😀 I wrote it down into my book and am so keeping her to it 😀

And now I need to crash.

Posted in: General Tagged: Eva & Jarig, Food, Friends, Games, Music, Nienke, PC Games, Singing, World of Warcraft

Inner City, Beards, Soestdijk

Tuesday, June 22, 2010 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

Got off work early today. And so did Nienke. And while I had agreed with my mom to meet her at the train station halfway home, there was time left so Nien and I decided to hit the city. I still needed to go the party store and see if they had a beard, ideally blue, for Castlefest. So we made our way to the inner city and spent quite some time at the party store marveling at the many, many fun things they had. I’m so definitely going back there again. I saw a couple nice things to create scary looking Halloween decorations while also being usable for LARP and such (foam torn off limbs 😀 ).

They didn’t have any good looking beards I liked, let alone blue ones. Since it’s probably gonna be warm during Castlefest, I figured I don’t want a really big beard anyway. I ended up with a Jack Sparrow-like beard. It’s not blue, but we’ll figure something out for that. Nienke, who’s going as the rat catcher of Hamelin, bought a pretty Venetian type eye-mask in cream with gold edges and musical notes on it.

After that we headed out towards another party store to see if they had beards. Along the way I felt festive and sunny and bought the both of us awesome ice cream (pistachio and hazelnut/chocolate for Nienke, cookie/vanilla, lemon and hazelnut/chocolate for me). Before reaching the second party store we quickly hopped into this cute newish store I’d not seen before. I bought two very cute bibs for the new second cousins that are expected in July and September. The second party store, finally, kinda sucked since they had no proper beards, just mostly wigs and hats and other gag gifts.

We then decided to head back to the train station and wait for the train that would lead us to the meet-up with mom. We drank something at the Burger King before the train got there and then got off at Winsum to meet mom. She had some errands to run too so we hit a few more stores. I bought a new birthday calendar to replace the one I have. I’ve used it for four years or so now and want something else to look at 😀

We then dropped Nienke off at home, I grabbed my things and went with mom to their place. I’ll be sleeping here tonight because tomorrow we’re going to Soestdijk Palace and we need to be at the bus really, really early.

Posted in: General Tagged: Castlefest, Events, Food, Friends, Fun, Nienke, Shopping

We’ve Talked the Whole Night Through

Wednesday, March 17, 2010 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

Have been in a Classics mode for the last day or so. It started when I hooked up my regular monitor to my new laptop to experiment with a dual monitor setup. First I just had my music player/library on the screen. Then I figured I try playing movies as background. For some reason I ended up with the 1933 version of Little Women.

I’m a huge Little Women lover. Going way back to when I first read my mother’s copy when I was a kid. I’ve read my own copy multiple times and have seen  a number of versions of Little Women movies. The 1933 one, with Katherine Hepburn as Jo, was new for me though. Took a bit of getting used to the black and white-ness (I love to see the colours of the pretty dresses), but I think this version is my new favourite. I followed it, for good measure, with the 1994 version which has Winona Ryder as Jo and Susan Sarandon as Marmee. It was fun to see the differences in interpretation. And there were some things in the 1994 that weren’t in the 1933. And now I can’t remember exactly what was in the book in the first place, so I just pulled that from my shelves for yet another re-read 😀

After this foray into the 19th century, I figured I try some more classics. I’m not sure what it is that attracts me about it, but I  find I really love old American movies. Especially those really early ones where there’s a lot of singing and dancing. So I followed Little Women with Meet Me in St. Louis with Judy Garland. This one was completely new for me and it was much fun 😀 Some things are really weird when seen from the perspective of a 21st century person. Like the fixation on getting married and throwing away school and everything for it. At the end of the movie, both Judy Garland’s character, Esther, and her one year older sister are engaged and want to be married as soon as possible. At that time, Esther is 16ish (the mother mention at some point that she will be a senior in high school next year) and her sister 17ish (of which mother says she will graduate next year). A conversation between Esther and her fiance reveals that he is a high school graduate but much rather not go to college but work if that means they can get married sooner.

I didn’t like that ending very much because of this, but the rest of the story was very funny and the songs were nice. I ended today with Singin’ in the Rain which I hadn’t seen fully before. The story was fun, but sometimes confusing when I, most likely because I didn’t pay attention well enough, couldn’t quite figure out if a big number was taking place within the movie-movie (the movie they’re shooting in the movie) or outside the movie-movie.

So, now I’m in bed with my laptop (which is all Shiny! and New! and which I love 🙂 ) and my dear Monkey who’s obsessing about his own cleanliness. I suppose, taking the saying into account, he must really be divine 😀 That aside, I’ve been thinking about a lot of stuff lately. It’s all different things though and not always connected so kinda hard to really write down and get to the point with it. It’s part wishes and future dreams, part current things, both what I want to change and what I like, as well as past things, some regrets but mostly fond memories and some amusement at my own path of thought at times.

For the future, the thing that keeps coming back is how much I want that bookstore Nienke and I have been dreaming about for a few years now. It’s to be a sci-fi / fantasy related business with space for workshops and / or author talks and our private little heaven: a coffee corner WITH muffins 😀
Besides that, I keep thinking about my house. I live in a tiny house, and have lived here for about four years now. I also own rather a lot of stuff. And I keep thinking of wanting a house that’s a bit bigger, with just a tad more space. Unfortunately, both these things require more money than I currently have so it will have to wait. And financial tightness plus big dreams don’t always play nice together.

For the present, I’m starting to realise I kinda like my job. Which I hadn’t expected. And which I haven’t mentioned on here yet I think. I got hired by a major telecom/isp in early January as a customer service agent. So once again call centre work, but to my surprise I find I like it. The people are nice, the subject matter (the fibre glass department) is interesting enough, and I really like the location (right next to the train station). I’ve made it out the training floor and on to the proper work floor by now, got a supervisor and just this week had my first one-on-one with him to discuss my ambitions and what I will be focusing on this year and all such things. And I find I actually have ambitions for this job instead of just doing it. Which is not something I was expecting.

I’m also realising I really want a driver’s license, and a car. It’s getting more and more annoying that everything has to be done by public transport, especially taking my hip problem into account. Walking long distances just doesn’t work for me, and it really is a hindrance in going places. I’m well aware of the fact that loosing a good amount of weight would help a lot, and while I’m (slowly) working on that, it won’t magically improve right away. It’s mostly annoying in visiting friends. Visiting family works since I mostly do that together with my parents so we take their car. Visiting friends in the city goes better now too since I put my bicycle back in city-storage. Which leaves a particular friend out in the cold really. I haven’t been to see her at her place in over a year I think. And it is really bugging me, but she lives not too close to the train station. And while it may be a ten minute walk for most people, it’s a 20 minute one for me, and I can’t really do that.

But what I also can’t do very well is ask for help. Like coming out and saying I can’t walk that well enough, can you pick me up. I’m sure it’s some sort of pride issue since it’s a recurring thing. I don’t like to draw attention to the fact I can’t walk very well. I’m more the “not say anything and suffer in silence” kinda type, as evidenced by the Denmark school trip a few years ago. I got scolded by the tutors accompanying us for not having told them about the hip until we were half way through the trip and on the walk back to our hostel from a museum or landmark. And then they only found out because it was the end of a long day and I kept falling behind, attracting their attention which caused them to ask what was wrong. Same thing when I was studying in the UK and we went on a field trip up on a hill. And not a small one either. And I didn’t mention it until we were up on top… So yeah, I suck. And I’m aware of this but still I can’t seem to really change it. Although it’s a victory in itself that I’m writing this down now.

Finally, to close this off, as for the past, let’s just keep it at reminiscing is fun 😀 Even when thinking about moments that were hard, or harder than usual.

Night, night all )

Posted in: General Tagged: Books, Friends, Growing Up, Monkey, Movies, Self-Discovery, Tech, Wishful Thinking

Flowerboy

Friday, September 4, 2009 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

I went for coffee with my friend Gert in May, like we do fairly regularly, and he had brought his camera to play with.

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Friends, Gert, Photos

Random Occurence of My Mind – Whoosh!

Saturday, March 14, 2009 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

Here’s a little bit of everything post to kill some time and populate the journal some more with stuff beyond just books (even though that is clearly more than enough 😀 ). Also, I’m hanging out at the parents and need to kill some time until my laundry’s done (I don’t own a washer myself so I come over here for theirs).

So, let’s see… I’ve had fun this week helping my best friend Nienke move house. She went from a tiny house about 50 yards across from me to a somewhat less tiny house right next door 😀 It was much fun both to watch people move pieces of furniture across the field separating the old block from the new place and to be walking back and forth myself. Connected her computer, messed with furniture placement in the living room and repacked the bookcase. I LOVE organizing bookcases. Seriously, if you want to make me happy, give me access to your bookcase and let me re-organize it.

Right… So Nienke handed in the key to her old place yesterday and then went off to Ikea to get some additional furniture and shelves and such. I was going to spend the day doing some chores around the house so I emptied the trash cans, made food, went to the store and then wanted to vacuum. Only to realize my vacuum cleaner was still in Nienke’s house and I didn’t have a key yet… (And so began the quest to get the vc back!)

So, instead, I grabbed the dust buster to get rid of the biggest clumps of cat hair and then had a relaxing afternoon. The weather was absolutely lovely for the time of year: sunshine, decent temperature, hardly any wind, so I opened all the windows and the back door to let the fresh air in. The cat was ecstatic to be able to walk in and out as he pleased. He was also very happy to find that Nienke has her attic window (where her bedroom is) open enough for him to climb in to (he jumps from my large trashcan on to a little wall and then on to Nienke’s mud room roof and from there it’s easy-peasy into the attic window…). He apparently spent some time sleeping there ‘ cause Nien found a load of cat hair on her bed yesterday evening 😀

When Nienke came back she had brought me three little stuffed rats from Ikea as a present. They’re absolutely gorgeous and very cute. Then she went off again to go with her parents for dinner. I remembered the vacuum cleaner just a minute or two too late. I ran towards the road but they were gone already… *sigh*

She got home late and since it was too late to actually do anything with it, I forgot about the vacuum again. Instead we watched Stargate. We’ve been working our way through the entire series, we made it to Season 9 a day or three ago and we’re enjoying the Daniel-Vala dynamic immensely 😀

This morning I got out of bed and did remember the vacuum cleaner 😀 I pulled the sheets from my bed and put them in the laundry and then hung the duvet and coverlet out to air. Then I tried Nienke’s door to see if she was awake, but no such luck. So I grabbed a handful of cat kibble and started throwing them against her window until she appeared.
After that, I asked her to watch my bedding for me (they are expecting rain today) while I was away and got the vacuum cleaner back, yay!

Not that I really want to vacuum… it is the chore I hate most. However, with a cat that never seems to run out of hair to drop everywhere, it is a necessary evil. *sigh* The dreaded thing awaits me when I get home. If it’s still dry then I think I shall open the door again to at least keep some fresh air coming in while I work the monster 😀

Outside of the banalities of the household, I should start studying for my history exam in ten days. It’s a mid term about the first half of the class (of which my attendance was far from regular). It shouldn’t be too much of a problem though, it covers the middle ages and I’m reasonably familiar with that period already; both from my fascination with history from childhood on and my archaeology BA. That was also the reason I took the class in the first place, I figured it’d be an easy way to fill up five of the required 30 credits 😀

Ooh, methinks the laundry is all done. See ya!

Posted in: General Tagged: Fandom, Friends, Home, Monkey, Nienke, Parents, School, TV

Booksy Update

Saturday, February 21, 2009 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

Currently reading Neil Gaiman‘s Neverwhere and need to finish the last story in the Deep Space 9 anthology Prophecy and Change.
Just read Ender’s game again and  Robert Sawyer‘s Hominids, which is so seriously made of WIN!

Next book in the planning after finishing Neverwhere (which I think will happen tomorrow) is Michael White‘s Equinox. It’s one of those adventure books with murder and history and artifacts and stuff so I figured I pick that one to increase variation instead of returning to either sci-fi or fantasy immediately. Plus, I’ve had Equinox for two years or so and still need to read it…

I’m also planning to enter a contest where you make your own book. This is not just a writing contest, the point here is to create the entire book, whatever way you want, it can be text, pictures, photos, art, or a mix of any or more of this. The best one that is also publishable (or, printable rather) wins and gets published, second and third get money. Those two don’t even have to be publishable/printable. And while it would be awesome^10 to get published, my current financial state is such that I would rather win second prize. I know just what I could do with €1000…
Anyway, so far, my book seems to be some kind of Alice in Wonderland thing where the main character is sucked into this really weird world. But I’m not sure yet what’s happening exactly, the book just takes me along. I do know it’s a massive mix of graphics and text and playing with colours, shapes and textures. I’ve three pages finished so far. At least, in terms of graphics, text might get edited more as the story continues. Mostly since I have no idea where Furry (as I’ve named my main character for now) is going to go or end up and what the purpose of this whole journey of his (hers?) is.

Also, something awesome was confirmed earlier today which I can’t say anything about just yet ’cause it would spoil the surprise for my friend 😀

2009 (so far)
01. Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear – A Companion to Wolves
02. P. Nowee – Arendsoog. Vogelvrij {Eagle-Eye Outlaw} [Dutch]
03. Maggie Tallerman – Understanding Syntax (translated into Dutch and edited for Dutch students by Jan-Wouter Zwart) [Dutch] [school]
04. Hanneke Houtkoop & Tom Koole – Taal in Actie. Hoe Mensen Communiceren met Taal {Language in Action. How People Communicate with Language} [Dutch] [school]
05. Erica van Boven & Gillis Dorleijn – Literair Mechaniek. Inleiding tot de Analyse van Verhalen en Gedichten. {Literary Mechanics. Introduction to the Analysis of Stories and Poetry.} [Dutch] [school]

06. Star Trek: DS9 – Relaunch 1-5 – Twist of Faith (S.D. Perry, David Weddle & Jeffrey Lang, Keith R.A. DeCandido)
07. Esther Verhoef – Alles te Verliezen {Everything to Loose} [Dutch] [School]
08. Orson Scott Card – Ender’s Game [re-read, it’s been years 🙂]
09. Robert J. Sawyer – Hominids

Posted in: General Tagged: Art, Books, Friends, List

So, Thanksgiving eh?

Thursday, November 27, 2008 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

Hmm… I thought it might be time to put something up here again. Maybe one of those obligatory Thanksgiving posts? I’m not American so Thanksgiving isn’t really a holiday I celebrate, at least not specifically on this day or by that specific name. But, as I’m here anyway, I might as well jot down some things I’m thankful for.

I’m thankful for my parents and my other family and my friends, whom I all love and that love me too even if I don’t always deserve it.

I’m thankful for my cat who sleeps in my arms at night when I am hugely annoyed at the book I’m reading (FYI, that would be Twilight and its sequel New Moon).

I’m thankful for books, even if they are as bad as Twilight, for they stimulate my brain.

I’m thankful for science-fiction and fantasy in general for they provide me with the escape out of the mundane world I seek.

I’m thankful that I learned new things about myself this year that have helped me understand myself and the way I see the world and other people.

Posted in: General Tagged: Books, Family, Friends, Holidays, Monkey

NieNie

Thursday, July 31, 2008 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

My friend Nienke.

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Friends, Nienke, Photos
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