I wanted to be a writer...

How often do you think about the past? Your memories? People who were your friends or inside your social circle? Your thoughts and life back then?

I think about it too often. Just pops in my mind again and again...

One of those memories is about me being a teenager and my biggest dream - wanting to be a writer. Publish my own books. Earn living with it. Be recognised. Feeling jealous reading about any high school girl whose book got published anywhere in the world and wishing to be in her place. Writing stories till the midnight one after another.

A few years later, I started to work. As a journalist - as you can guess.

In the beginning, I was thrilled - I was earning money with writing! It got published! Did not matter that I was writing about facts and real life, not fiction.

After the first months, I felt guilty. Whenever I was back home and tried to write a story or a poem, nothing came out. Emptiness. No ideas, no feelings, no wish to write. Tried a few times again. Zero. Damn it!

Then I started to tell everybody that I am not writing fiction anymore and developed my own theory - one can not be both a journalist and a writer. It's too much of writing. You need some rest. And once you write about the reality, the fiction world and your ideas disappear. Or maybe it was just me.

Nowadays I do not feel guilty anymore. I feel sad. Every few years I find my old stories and read them - and still find them fascinating, at least a few of them. Pity they never got published.

Neraža ar laikapstākļiem

Par Latviju viss ir vairāk vai mazāk skaidrs. Laikapstākļus tur varētu definēt kā "kad mēs augām, tā nebija" jeb "globālā sasilšana padara vasaras karstākas un ziemas - vēlākas". No rīta, izejot ārā no mājas, vairāk vai mazāk ir zināms, kāds būs laiks, vai lietussargu un jaku vajag ņemt līdzi vai labāk atstāt mājās.

Par Londonu arī vairāk vai mazāk viss ir skaidrs. Grozies kā gribi, vienmēr ir auksts un lietains, izņemot pāris laimīgos brīžos, kad ir vērts izvilkt ārā saulesbrilles.

Toties par Nīderlandi ir skaidrs tikai tas, ka nekas nav skaidrs un somā ir jābūt - lietussargam, jakai, saulesbrillēm un drēbēm gan siltam, gan aukstam laikam.

Pagājušās nedēļas beigas - ceturtdiena/piektdiena. Jaka un garie džinsi neizbēgami, vairāk par +20 grādiem diez vai ir ārā - nu labi, +22 kā maksimums. Katram gadījumam kabatās man ir cimdi - jā, es esmu uzaugusi siltumnīcā.

Svētdiena. Parādās saule. Precīzāk izsakoties, termometrs uzlec par nepilniem 10 grādiem augstāk un savas rudens drēbes es varu nomainīt uz bezroku kleitiņu.

Pirmdiena. +30/+31 grādi. Gribu emigrēt uz Skandināviju un atsvaidzinos, slēpjoties mājās, kur ir vēsāks nekā ārā.

Otrdiena. Daži pasākumi Hāgā tiek atcelti gaidāmās vētras un lietusgāzes dēļ, tāds pats laika sagaidot arī Amsterdamu. No rīta - apmācies, karsts, bet var just, ka drīz sāks līt. Ap pēcpusdienu lietus vietā parādās saule un +30 grādi.

Turpmākās dienas. Laika pareģi sola maksimums +20/22 grādi dienā un ap +10 grādiem naktī. Atā, tropiskā vasara!

BB 30-1

A few glimpses from Michael's birthday party in blue tones!

After a long discussion about endless amount of topics and themes for the party this was the one we came up in the end as blue is his favourite colour.

Another article, another website

My first article for a cultural online magazine Overdose.am.

"Although I am not a (very) religious person, there is one event this weekend I do not want to miss: Kerkennacht (or Church Night) Amsterdam. It is an event not only for religious ones, but also for those who simply adore architecture, darkness and unusual happenings."

Read all the article here.

Lie To Me

For the last few days I have been watching TV series "Lie To Me", bringing back memories from my time in Brussels.

It started while I was living in Brussels - every now and then me and a couple of my housemates would get down to the basement, where we had "film screening nights". Together with chocolate and a bottle of wine or bacardi we would be watching various films and TV series. In the first month it was a lot of "How I Met Your Mother", still remember that! Haven't seen the last seasons, so I still do not know how did Ted meet his wife :(

At some point in the end of the year we started to watch "Lie To Me" and I really felt for the series. I am not a huge fan of TV series or even watching films as I often feel like wasting time, but this was both entertaining and useful, you could learn - or you thought you could - about people and psychology.

We never finished "Lie To Me" as we had only the first season and half of the second season available. Now I have found the second and third season as well, so watching them whenever I have time. :)

For those who do not know - "Lie To Me" tells a story about a company who is specialised in figuring out if people are lying or no, as it depends on their body language (what a surprise) and microexpressions on their faces. The good thing is that every time there is a different story (sometimes two in one), so it is not a problem watching one if you have missed the previous one - although the relationship between the main characters in the company develop throughout the film as well.

Bank account

After getting a SOFI number, my next step was trying to get a Dutch bank account. As it is not possible to do it if you do not have a SOFI number, before I did not have it and was able to obtain it only now.

Bank No. 1 - As I have ING card from Belgium (where apparently you do not need anything apart from the passport), my first idea was to get ING bank account also here, but a colleague of mine told that ING here are not "expat friendly", so this option was left out.

Bank No. 2 - ABN/Amro. As I have heard that one needs an appointment to open a bank account and you can't just walk in the bank, I called to their customer service line to make an appointment. Unfortunately after trying a couple of times I gave up as it seemed that nobody in the customer service line wanted to speak with me...

Bank No. 3 - Rabobank, suggested by the same colleague. They picked up the phone immediately and were kind enough to make an appointment for me. In the end of the conversation the guy was explaining me all the documents I need to take with me for the appointment.

- ID / passport - no problem.

- SOFI number - no problem.

- Employment contract - wait, wait! I do not have it! (I thought that my internship contract will not be taken into account)

No contract - no bank account in Rabobank. Damn it!

After posting the situation in my Facebook status, I got several suggestions, so I decided to try my luck again and go to ABN/Amro myself. That seemed to solve the problem as they were kind enough to give me a bank account just with my passport and SOFI number. Thank you!

If I would be a dog...

... Then I would look like this.