Life Begins at 30

For over five years working in operations, I have completely forgotten the concept of a weekend.  It has always been long hours on weekdays and on call duties on weekends.  To a certain degree, I built my life around work out of habit.  Weekend, to people in the operations and service management profession, meant change requests, on call support work, project cutovers and server maintenance windows.  Yes, for quite sometime, this has been my life… Not that I didn’t like it. This was a choice I made for the love of my craft.

If there is one good thing about moving to the Netherlands, it is that I rediscovered the phenomenon called “Weekend”. In my interaction with Dutch people in general, I found only two topics of interest and one of them is about the weekend. To a lot of Dutch people (maybe not only Dutch, but Europeans in general), weekend is the highlight of their week. It is like a culmination of a week of hardwork and stress.  It is a time to be away from the pressures of the world, and simply enjoy a laid back time with the family.

For expats living in Holland, it doesn’t matter how one spends the weekend.  There is always something going on during the weekends, that it is impossible to let one go by without having done anything. Personally, my social calendar is never empty on weekends. I’m either whipping up something in the kitchen, doing some sporting activities, partying the night away without getting too wasted, raiding the racks at the fashion outlets, travelling some 800 kilometers and back for a breathe of fresh air, or simply chillin’ at the beach with a good book on a sunny day (which is very rare in this country!).

Even on a lazy weekend, I would start mine with a trip to the market on Saturday morning. This is one of the things I fondly enjoy but don’t get to do quite often, as I am almost always in another country during weekends.  But whenever I’m in Holland, I make it a point to visit the open market, which is 2 blocks away from my place. It is not only refreshing to have a set of new tulips by my window, but I find the whole experience of visiting the slagerij and bakkerij for fresh supplies, a therapy for homesickness.  Yes, it makes me feel at home here.

Being able to immerse in the Dutch culture in the little ways that I know, helps to ease the loneliness of living alone in this cold country.  It makes me feel like I am really part of this world now.  Don’t get me wrong, I do not wish to lose my identity as a Filipino/Chinese. I still hold true to the values my parents taught me growing up, but in order to grow and find my happiness here, I am also enthusiastic about really living the Dutch life – and that includes having a gezellig weekend every chance I get!

Saturday seemed like a long night of phone calls,  Sex in the City marathon with the girls, over a bottle of Italian red wine, chips  and cheese.  The wine that our dear sister Xing brought on Saturday night was a Primitivo, the kind that could knock you off completely. I know, because I couldn’t drive her home after finishing the bottle.  While it has this effect on most people, it usually has a very different effect on me – it keeps me unusually wide awake but not sober! So while everyone decided to crawl into their pyjamas, I was up and about. I spent the rest of the evening(morning) browsing, blogging and bugging my friend on YM, who was also working the evening shift for a big launch.

Finally, at 5am I dozed off to dreamland. I slept like a baby and woke up half past 1PM on Sunday to find the house empty and my iPhone dead. I hurriedly charged it up and unlocked the SIM to find several SMS’s, a couple of  missed calls and 3 voicemails.  Yes, I was dead to the world for the entire morning.

After returning a few calls, I dragged myself out of bed to start my day with some warm lunch.  I whipped up Nido Oriental soup (which was supposedly Chinese though my Chinese friend doesn’t know what it is), warmed up some rice left over from the Kimchi dinner the previous night,  and pan-grilled Spam slices for a late lunch with Xing.  Sunday  did not actually go by in a blur for me.  Though I never managed to step outside the house,  a lot of things happened to me today that really kept my spirit at an all time high.

Sunday is my Italian Day. Starting off with a long overdue surprise from Giuliana – I learned how to prepare proper Italian Espresso with a proper espresso machine and really really good coffee beans from Bari! Here, here, look! My verdict – mmmm lekker!!!

My Bialetti and Saicaf

After coffee, I had a hair dyeing session with my Italian colorist…and by 5pm, I felt like a new person wearing slightly red locks!

In the evening, we decided to do some knowledge exchange in the kitchen!  Giuliana schooled us on the right way of preparing Lasagna – the Italian Way! I was happy to be her assistant! I love Italian food!!!

Homemade Italian Lasagna by Giuliana

And finally, I showed Xing and Giuliana how to bake my popular Chewy Moist brownies. Buon appetito!

Chewy Moist Brownies met Slagroom