emergencies call for emergency measures

i slept like total crap last night. my mind whirling with the "to do" list for today to prepare for the arrival of my sister and her new boyfriend.  partly worries about a couple of my invoices that went missing in the customer's new accounting system, which has meant that i paid a whole lot of travel expenses with my own money and am rather desperate to be paid that money back! partly my VAT report (why is one of those eternally hanging over me--i need an accountant). and partly husband's snoring. he goes in streaks where he snores something awful and this is one of them. then, sabin came into our bed after a bad dream and she's gettting big, so it was crowded, plus then i froze because she's in the middle and kicks the covers off. it all added up to crap sleep.

but, then, i unexpectedly got this in the mail:

it came from a good friend who i used to work with. it was like he was totally psychic and knew exactly that i would need the smile this gave me this morning. thank you, michael!

how do i love thee, manila?

...let me count the ways:

1. the smiling, friendly people


2. people who hold doors for you


3. watermelon shakes


4. delicious vinegary sauces


5. crunchy, savory fried garlic


6. attentive waiters


7. sweet, smiling sales girls


8. that there are at least 3 girls at every checkout counter in landmark--one to key in the items, one to check her work with flourishes of red circles on the receipt and one to put it in the bag. sometimes there's even a fourth girl who is separating and opening bags. they are all beautiful, petite and perfectly made up. lovely.


9. sweet sales girls in landmark who remember me even when it's been 5-6 months.


10. musicians playing spanish guitars in the tapas restaurant in greenbelt.


11. the tapas restaurant in greenbelt


12. salty watermelon seeds


13. when it rains, it doesn't mess around, it REALLY RAINS!


14. the fact that chivalry is not dead and you never have to carry anything yourself for very far.


15. stores that sell only havianas--and which are jam-packed with people


16. fresh mango


17. security guards flashing sweet smiles at every entrance


18. that little ceramic dish of bath salts in the bathroom at the Pen.


19. jeepneys packed with people


20. manicure and pedicure at dashing divas.

jetlagging and another list

it's late. again. and because i'm on a shopper's high (which you can read about here), i'm WIDE AWAKE. and that is once again SO STUPID because i have to get up for a morning flight. at least it's at 9, which means i have to head for the airport around 7 if i want to get in a little retail time at the airport. i know that sounds strange, but lemme tell ya, singapore's changi airport is shopping heaven. and i'm gonna get me some henry kloss tivoli audio action for my writing house.

around noon today, i thought i was going to drop dead, right there in the conference room, of sheer tiredness. i could actually hear that my heartbeat was sluggish. it was perhaps a reaction to an especially boring speaker or staring at the master of ceremonies of the conference who appeared to have last had his mullet cut in august 2007 and who may have actually slept in his suit on a regular basis. or maybe it was because i didn't go to sleep last night until well after 4 a.m. (i stopped looking at the actual time because of how disturbing it was counting how many minutes of sleep i'd have if i went to sleep NOW.) but anyway, two excedrin (thanks sis, for leaving those!) and a good lunch later, i was feeling quite ok again. and now, thanks to the retail adrenalin, i'm once again awake.

i have a lot of impressions and have filled 9 pages of notes in my little waves of inspiration notebook. i'll leave you with a few teasers, since i'm into lists this week:

1. totally disturbing bar called "the clinic" at clark quay. chairs are hospital beds and wheelchairs and it appears you can order blue drinks that come in an IV bag. it was actually rather creepy or perhaps just deeply cynical, and i would definitely have to be in a very special mood to go there.
2. i ordered a fried tofu dish that had some very thinly shaved japanese daikon on top which was moving in a very disturbing way which made you think it was alive or at best that they hadn't totally killed it back in the kitchen before they brought it out. it turned out to just be the breeze from the ceiling fan. and the german couple at the next table was also very transfixed by it. i thought they were a little creeped out, but they proceeded to order one too.
3. power point should never have been made available to the masses. you should, at the very least, have to have a license in order to use it. and it should be VERY difficult to get one.
4. there is a very odd food server culture. they are EXTREMELY attentive when you first arrive--eager to bring you drinks and take your order, but once your food comes, you are totally on your own. heaven forbid you would want to order an additional glass of white wine. often, the original waiter or waitress you had at the beginning just completely disappears and another one takes that person's place. the new person, however, does not do the attentive at the beginning thing, even tho' it's the beginning for them.
5. i have started a collection of martini glass stamps. it is in order to, at long last, have the martini party that i've been talking about for years. it will be the kind of party where you send hand-written or, in this case, hand-stamped, invitations in the snail mail. you will be requested to bring your own martini glass to the party, with the idea that you then leave it behind as your hostess gift and in order for me to acquire enough martini glasses for future parties. pretty cool idea, eh?

with that, i will leave you and try to get some sleep. dreaming of cameras (sorry, jaime, i went for the nikon--it just felt right in my hand) and iYiYis.

night owl

maybe i'm obsessed with all things owl-y of late because i am a night owl. i love staying up late. and i am currently staying up late. it's now past 1 a.m. of course to my brain, it's only 7, so i'm not sure it counts...but anyway, back to my point. i LIKE staying up late. but it naturally follows that i don't like waking up early. and i do have to wake up early tomorrow, so it's actually pretty dumb to be up late like this...

being up late can make you start to think about strange things, like:

• why are there two belts on this hotel bathrobe?
• why did they put that stupid (invisible) plastic cover over the glass so that i just poured water all over the hotel bathrobe with the two belts?
• aren't i lucky there's an emergency backup (dry) robe in the closet?
• why do i feel compelled to share this with the world?
• why am i so silly when i haven't even been drinking?
• perhaps i should have been drinking.
• i must have the coolest sister in the world because she just sent me an iPod Touch (right when i was about to go back and buy one tomorrow after i looked up the exchange rate).
• why did i bawl my eyes out on the plane while watching the bucket list when i am actually quite opposed to sentimentality?
• why can't i ever remember morgan freeman's name? i always think it's graham-something.
• why am i not sleeping?
• should i get a nikon or a canon?
• it's not environmentally correct to drink bottled water, but what if the tap water makes me sick?
• that was a delicous lobster and mango salad i had for dinner.
• i wonder if those fish in the tanks at the restaurant were decor or dinner?
• i wonder how i'll get along without a kitchen sink when i get home, since husband has torn it out in my absence.
• ditto the stove.
• maybe now is the right time to start a raw diet.
• can you appear to be normal in public and still eat a raw diet?
• why do they make erasers shaped like sushi?

perhaps i should go to sleep now and spare us all this jetlagged chatter...

disneyland

i swear singapore is one big disneyland. with embassies around the world. it's very clean, very pretty, very maintained and coiffed. just like disneyland. but, for some reason, i like it better this time than on previous visits. maybe that's because my hotel is right next to clark quay, which is a pretty happening spot.

observed in singapore:

1. people walking around in stores eating really weird looking stuff (something that looked like it was covered in red bean paste on the outside and had some rice mixture on the inside).
2. tips on the radio for being more organized and thereby living a happier life.
3. young, prosperous-looking indians.
4. young, prosperous-looking filipinos.
5. erasers in the shape of sushi.
6. a strange store called daiso where all of the craptacular things cost only $2 (sing dollars).
7. models of pretty candy-colored sony cameras (built-in 4GB memory) which i feel a strange desire to own (now, now, now) mostly because i've never seen them anywhere else.
8. shops which sell only bling--hair bling, phone bling, bindi bling, all bling, all the time.

that's all for now. will check in again later...

serenity now

i'm only on the first leg of my long journey to singapore. and so far, it's been a chain of frustrations:

1. typical righteous danish woman woman from the much longer Economy class/Non-Gold /Platinum line in CPH tries to butt into the Business/Gold/Platinum line because her line was taking too long. consider going postal for brief moment. luckily, the guy behind the counter turns her away.
2. pick security line inhabited by elderly people who are clearly traveling for the first time and have all of their gallon bottles of shampoo with and are bewildered as to why they're being taken away. again with the thoughts of going postal.
3. CPH airport, to my great sorrow, no longer has Hendrick's (best gin ever, loved by a small handful of people, all over the world).
4. queue at starbucks in kastrup airport far too long to obtain much needed grande chai latte before flight to amsterdam.
5. nose and sinuses totally and completely stuffed up during entire flight, severely restricting ability to breathe! brain clearly in need of all the oxygen it can get.
6. singularly unhelpful woman at the counter in KLM lounge near F gates causes me to want to scream, but instead i lower voice an octave and go into patronizing mode [strangely this does not help]- understand for a brief moment why people totally go postal.
7. old woman offloaded from wheelchair and deposited in seat next to me is wearing what can only be an entire bottle of truly offensive perfume. stuffed up nose chooses THIS moment to clear.

on the bright side, things can only get better from here, right?

living consciously

in my quest for living in a more conscious way (i'll stop trying to say it's simple or frugal, because it's simply not that, at least not the moment), i've done the following (have i mentioned that i love lists?):

1. started a food journal--where i write about what i eat--recording recipes, experiments, fabulous meals in restaurants, just the everyday food on the table.
2. ordered an organic box of fruit and veggies to be delivered every friday. i make a concerted effort to USE UP what's in the box (i'll admit i don't always succeed, but i'm getting better).
3. buy økologisk/organic--whenever i possibly can, even if it means spending more (and unfortunately, it often does, tho' it's getting better).
4. thinking about the "food miles" it took for the food i put on my table to get to me and making choices not to buy things if i think the way it came to me is not environmentally sustainable.
5. never, ever buy the eggs from the chickens that were kept in those nasty cages.
6. take my bike and/or public transport as much as possible.
7. buying handmade on etsy when i need gifts for people.
8. wines made from organic grapes. (now if they' just come out with organic gin, i'd be in heaven.)
9. not shopping in wal-mart or other places where the employees aren't treated properly.
10. being observant about what's making me happy and what's making my family happy and acting in ways that promote that.
11. working in a place that makes me happy and in which i am both fulfilled and appreciated for my talents.
12. being kinder, more thoughtful and simply more observant towards my friends.
13. watching little or no t.v.
14. listening to public radio.
15. less chemicals/perfumes/hormones in my home (no overly-perfumed fabric softeners, environmentally-friendly cleaning products, natural-based soaps and detergents, less plastics).

of course there is much more i can do. and perhaps i'll learn a whole bunch of new things from my new books. because frankly, despite the angst of the earlier post, i ADORE them. new books totally rock. they actually SMELL good and they feel good. they're wonderful. they LOOK beautiful and i haven't even read the words yet. but i'm going to start now...

the pros and cons of working (mostly) at home

my wonderful new job is in norway. i live in denmark. so, i've made an arrangement whereby i work most of the time from home and only "commute" to oslo to spend a few days every other week (tho' that's fast becoming every week). thanks to the miracles of modern technology (secureID, smart phones, VPN connections and the ubiquity of broadband), this works pretty well.

the pros of working at home:

1. no one interrupts me
2. i have time to make sabin's lunch "pakse" in the morning
3. i get to drop off sabin at school every morning, right before school starts, instead of an hour before like we used to
4. i can wear pajamas most of the day
5. i don't have that panicked feeling on sunday evening if the laundry isn't done
6. i'm home when the mailman comes to deliver packages
7. i can play the same 4 songs 600 times in a row if i want to and no one complains
8. time and peace to think and to concentrate
9. i can pick up sabin mid-afternoon so she doesn't have too long a day
10. i get to make dinner on a daily basis
11. i enjoy being by myself
12. i have created a lovely, pleasant, inspiring space upstairs in which to work
13. i'm never far from my juicer
14. since i am a night owl, i can work into the wee hours and not have to worry about getting up and getting ready for work in the morning
15. i can drink 2 giant pots of fragrant, hot chai all by myself and not have to share
16. small time-outs during which i (perhaps a tad obsessively) carve erasers into stamps

cons to working at home:

1. no one interrupts me
2. wearing pajamas all day is a bit embarrassing when the mailman comes to the door at 1 p.m.
3. i actually sit and work for too long without a break because there are no interruptions
4. if there's IT trouble, there's no IT guy to call (thus i have to just tell myself to restart the computer and see if that helps)
5. if i have something i need to discuss, i either have to wait til i go to norway or call someone (and i hate calling people, except for a very few "phone friends" that i can while away hours talking to on the phone)
6. no one to bounce ideas off of
7. i pounce on husband when he comes home, telling him all of the things i've been thinking of all day (this can be a bit annoying for him)
8. distractions (like those erasers just sitting there, waiting to be carved into stamps)
9. the smart phone is ugly, ugly, ugly
10. not enough interaction with other adult people

but, largely, it feels luxurious and very nearly decadent to have a great job and be able to work most of the time at home, thereby getting much more time with my family. and that the job involves traveling is great too, so when i'm not home, i'm going somewhere fun--like oslo or singapore or manila or marseille. so, i can't really complain. and looking at the list above, there are more pros than cons.

random thoughts in an airport

sitting in the airport, waiting to fly home and these are the things crossing my mind:

1. my flight is in 30 minutes and there's still no gate
2. why is SAS not obsessively texting me about this?
3. hearing danish spoken near me and feeling the comforting feeling of home(!) (?)
4. laughing to myself as i remember husband's struggle to think of the name of this airport (gardermoen)...something like "kæmpe lufthavn lavet ude af træ" or something to that effect
5. how strikingly different company cultures can be
6. what a pleasure it is to work with people who want to share what they're working on and talk about it and discuss it, because they assume that those around them have something to offer that's of value to their work
7. how many flights to stockholm does one need per hour?
8. what a pleasure it is to work for someone who is truly a visionary person as well as a good leader
9. how happy it makes me to see my travel calendar filling up
10. how much i adore bookbinder's design's beautiful binders and journals
11. it's time for a new blog header
12. i'm looking forward to being home

well, it seems there's suddenly a gate and i should proceed to it.

this makes me happy...

thinking about what makes me happy (for the next time when i'm feeling down and want to remember). these are not necessarily in order.

1. lots and lots of art supplies
2. watching sabin dig into the art supplies with her whole being
3. husband's drive to get household projects done
4. having something to look forward to...can be anything from a new job (this week!) to dinner guests to my writing house in the garden to our building project being finished, the mailman's arrival
5. having airline tickets in my possession (i currently have 2 sets, so i'm doubly happy)
6. ruins
7. shades of blue and green
8. my beautiful, colorful yarn
9. good chick music (sheryl crow, alanis morissette, regina spektor, feist...)
10. my iPod(s)
11. cooking some really fabulous food
12. my new juicer
13. a fragrant, hot, steaming, bubble bath, surrounded by candles and in which i sip a glass of wine and read a good book
14. clean sheets
15. the laundry being done on sunday night
16. the red retro smeg refrigerator i'm getting soon
17. henry kloss radios (even better if they dock an iPod)
18. bouquets of flowers from my own garden
19. sitting out in the circle in the garden on a sunny day with the sunday paper and a big pot of tea and breakfast on a colorful tray
20. laughing over a good story

this feels like a good exercise. to think about the positive. it's so easy sometimes to think about the negatives in life. to get bogged down in some petty little things. but really, there are plenty of great things on which i can better spend my energy. so, i think i will.

happy monday!

reasons why this is a great monday!

1. i filed the paperwork to start my own business today! it feels so exciting. so liberating. so liminal! on the threshhold of something new and exciting.
2. i just got a new cut and fabulous color!
3. i have all kinds of gorge-i-o-us scrapping papers and supplies on their way (think tinkering ink and love, elsie...ooh, ooh, i can't wait!!!)
4. monica's coming back today (with prezzies!) from spain.
5. i'm making a delicious pot of The Soup.
6. i've got yael naim's new soul playing on repeat on the iPod through the henry kloss. i will only stop once i reach 600 times!
7. the sun is shining. at least i think that's what the big bright fireball in the sky is...it has been awhile since we've seen it.
8. it's almost time to go pick up sabin from school/sfo.