February 2012
4 posts
I’m experimenting a bit with my yoga practice at the moment. I know Bikram is my real thang, but it is good to step out of your ‘comfort’ zone and try new things every now and then. (Like hot meditation, yin yoga or any type of flow.)
So I bought an introductionary pass at the local Moksha yoga studio this week, which I’ll be able to use for one month. I have taken two...
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Say hi to our newly-born!
(I’m going to ignore my lack of blogging - let’s just say I have been busy trying to get used to staying put - instead of having this constant flow ‘where am I and what place is next’ in my head. This is it. Now go and build a life. Yikes! Designing your own life can be pretty frightening, luckily it is pretty damn cool as well. Especially with the right people around you....
Short notes from up North
1. I am blessed. In love with being in love. Meeting my boy’s friends and having a blast while doing so. Feeling the sun warm my face, no snowstorm to blow me over as of yet. A heart that jumps up and down out of happiness. My life is good.
2. Only 9 more days until Petra and I will launch www.Sprklng.com! Oh my, excitement much? Follow us on Facebook or Twitter and stay posted!
January 2012
8 posts
Life, as it is
Two weeks in The Netherlands. I knew it was going to be short. But that it would fly by like it has?
I think I have been too busy to miss Thailand, too busy to even hear myself think at times. I am enjoying all the things that I am doing and have been doing, but it’s also like I’m living in a bit of a bubble.
It’s called: ‘Everything before life in Canada begins’.
...
It’s just me, my mum, the beach and a chilly wind (and, okay, fair enough, a very nice wintery sun) these days.
I miss my yoga. My body misses my yoga even more. (‘Why do you go from two classes a day to zero? What are you doing to me!’)
I’m trying not to think about where I was, just one week ago. What I had over there. I focus on the here and now, and make the best...
Sudden realisation
In one week, I will be walking around somewhere in North-Holland.
Which means as much as: if I meet people, I will actually have to shake their hands!
Omgiddypants, no more nodding heads or a charming wai? (I’m curious how often I’ll be tempted to greet people with ‘Sawasdee Ka’, I struggled with that every time I left Thailand..)
This is going to be confusing!
December 2011
15 posts
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2011 was..
- Being shocked by the cold in Taiwan (after two months in Thailand) - and feeling instantly at home at my hostel in Taipei, thanks to a group of lovely people.
- A reversed culture shock in Australia - and the decision to follow my heart and fly back to Asia. This was the first time in my life I truly felt homesick. (For a continent, mind you)
- The worst (yet cheapest) dorm in Kuala Lumpur,...
'Unstuck' yourself in 2012 →
For those of you who need it :)
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You are my cinema, I can watch you forever
These lyrics always remind me of you, dear Dave (and I miss watching you getting your moves on in our dorm while they’re blurring out of your speakers). But that is not what I wanted to post about now. (But…I do miss you buddy…Must.Visit. Miami.)
I wanted to write about going to the cinema in Bangkok, how dirt-cheap it is, and how I will be missing being able to watch movies...
#Bikram, flu & a note to myself
Note to self: to go and practice Bikram yoga while fighting the flu is ONE - I know you are stubborn and won’t stop you from having your daily dose.
To continue to stand front row is your own choice (TWO), but if you do - and plan on having a laid-back class… Don’t start complaining inside of your own head when Teacher, after the first set of Pranayama, tells somebody to stand...
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Updates & "I'm coming home"
Every time I heard Skylar Grey sing “I’m coming home, coming home, tell the world I’m coming home”, all I could think was: I’m not ready yet. I don’t want to leave this continent, the spots that have become so familiar, that are so welcoming. Places that fit me like a glove (too hot) playsuit (;) )
(Could not help sharing some Tupac loving)
Am I ready to say...
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Bik-hatssjoeee-ram
Do you know that feeling like you are snorkeling, and water is coming in to your mouth/nose? But you are not even under or near water!? Or the feeling like you are choking, but there is nothing in your mouth/throat? Or the awareness you are being totally schizophrenic about being warm or cold - at the same time and being completely over the top confused and annoyed by it?
Enter a state of...
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Listed: Christmas dreams & wishes
Another Christmas ‘at home’, in Bangkok. Without any snow, no Christmas tree in the living room (what living room? ;) ) - the 3 Christmas tree’s at the reception downstairs make up for this, I guess -, no fireplace to keep me warm (the sun will do), no pressies and seasonal specialties to be shared with friends and family.
I’m not complaining though, I love being in...
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Harvard Sailing Team: Girls will be boys/Boys will...
Mondays often come with headaches (erhm..yep), but these vids will bring a smile to your face a bittle:
“You guys wanna split an ice cube or something? Maybe just like a small ice cube? Just drink the run-off?”
Less funny, but a nice addition:
“Four dozen pepperoni Doughnuts.”
Muhahaha:
“Go is a hate word.”
“Alright, take a breather, we...
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Hoi lief Nederlands theater. Mag ik even zeggen dat ik je mis? Met je veelheid en diversheid en alle fijne bekende gezichten en je mooie schouwburgen en locaties in het groen, zand, gras en overal.
Ik wou dat ik je op kon vouwen, mee kon nemen, in een vakje van mijn tas. Je weer op kon blazen waar ik aankom, zoals je een circustent op kunt zetten en dan genieten van mime, van Pierre Bokma en...
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Psst..
I am not sorry for being a Bitch
Because it feels awesome to be able to make my own decisions
Like going to New York this January*
setting my priorities
and make sure I’m with my love in time for his birthday.
Life is good people, life is good if you dare to dive. Letting go of control is exactly what I/you/we need to be in control. Go think about that paradox, while I dream...
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7 in ... : whoa! & Update
Holy M., am I the only one that has been watching days fly by? It seems to get worse nowadays, does it have anything to do with global warming and the earth changing and stuff? (Haha, just kidding). 2012 is nearing FAZZT! (And damn, dare I say it scares me a bit how much I want to do and how I have to accept I can’t do all of it and how having priorities is great - but also hard. Dare I?...
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Reversed Thinking
November 2011
17 posts
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The stranger
After a tough Bikram class (in came the monkeys and boy, did they have fun up there in my head!), I was crossing the street when a guy started talking to me. ‘How are you?’
Normally I don’t really respond to questions like that, but he instantly started talking and asked me if I thought the traffic was a bit crazy over here, while he got nearly hit by a scooter, and told me he...
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7 in 7: vibes and fun
Girls deserve their fair share of fun, ammiright? So in order to spoil myself, I decided to rush to Siam Paragon after yoga last Saturday - where I bought a ticket for the *exclusive* evening screening of The Phantom of The Opera.
Because the musical has been running for 25 years (“Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of The Opera is a worldwide entertainment phenomenon. It has been...
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#Bikram options
You only have two options: you do the pose, or you don’t show up here. Now, what do you choose?
- Thank you, teacher.
(When did stuff like this start to make me smile while my hart is racing and I try to catch my breath? I’m learning to find peace, but might be losing my brain a little..just kidding, it must be the inner proudness I feel when I realize I am pushing through -...
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Inspiration: expat-bloggers
Lately I’ve been reading a lot of ‘expat-blogs’. Of people that have moved to Canada, of people that have come to the Netherlands, of fellow Bangkokians…
It is great to read about what other people advice and (have) struggle(d) with when they went to Canada. Presuming it is ‘Western’, you would not expect people would come across a lot of cultural differences....
If you can’t choose where you are born, you should be able to choose where you live. Right ?
“The outer teacher is merely a milestone. It is only your inner teacher that will walk with you to the goal, for he is the goal.” ~Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
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101
(Where I’m at right now.)
“Yoga lets you work through the layers of tension in your body, and in your mind. It’s like shoveling snow. The first few layers are easy, soft and light to shift. As you start getting deeper, the tension (like snow) is more dense, solid, harder to shift. You have to work harder. Use more strength. More determination to break that tension and shift it.”
- Emmy...
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7 in 7: the kick-off
Today was a good day. It was a start of things. Feel-good-things. I went to a secondhand bookstore this afternoon and browsed around the three floors of goodness. I could have spend so much more time there, were it not for the alarm on my phone telling me to get my ass to yoga. (Note to self: get job at bookshop).
I ended up bringing 6 books home.
First, the ‘usual suspects’:
...
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7 in 7: leave the stress in '11.
Seven more weeks left until the beginning of a new year; that calls for a project, right? I want need to step up my game and re-channel. What do I want and need, how can I make every day a good one (by stopping to judge myself!), to become the best version of me? I want my spark back, pretty please!
I have been stressing way too much over the floods lately. Is the water coming? When is the...
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Inspiration [needed] Sunday
Well, hello there! May I brighten up your day? Thank you so much, the pleasure is all mine (I needed some of that as well!). Start by playing some brilliant songs of Miss Brun, the perfect company for an Inspiration-bomb that is about to exp-lo-oode! (Take your time, the next hour or so *KUCH* is yours)
...
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How to: scare new #bikram students and bring the...
OK, it must be the Saarcastic B*tch inside of me.
I think my favourite line - sometimes - used in the Hot Room (forget ‘listen to my crap clap’) has to be:
(right after getting out of Camel Pose, preferably to a newbie)
“Are you dizzy?”
*Person drops to floor, eyes rolling, trying to get some air inside of his/her lungs*
“GOOD!”
(To, kindly, add:...
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Psst..
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October 2011
33 posts
6 tags
Canada: Toronto, are you kidding me?
“Google is your friend”, right? Well, when I starting searching for ‘festivals in Toronto’, we surely became close buddies. I knew Canada knows how to organize a festival, but only in Toronto alone there is enough to be seen and done to have any of us sleeping in the streets. (Seriously, when do people in Toronto sleep - do they even get to their offices?)
Let me show you...
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Bikram: Double effect
Teacher, after I talk to him when finishing a double class (and tell him how I just had to go, because I felt my body needed to): “So, from now on you will only be able to take double classes…?”
Teacher, behind the counter: “Class two today?”
Me, pulling a strange face (thinking: HOW.DOES.SHE.KNOW?!)
Teacher: “Yes, I saw you leaving this morning when I just...
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#Bikram yoga (Asian style) cracks me up sometimes. I try not to show.
Some examples (more to come):
Teacher: “Listen to my crap” - meaning: “Listen to my clap” (When you hear my crap, you step forward.)
Teacher: “Grab your heels, if you can not grab your heels, grab the outside of the foot…. Grab something” (Grab something? Muahaha. Try to keep on...