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Embracing my Domestic Goddess. And Cats.

Everyone who has ever set foot in my room will probably roll over the floor peeing their pants with laughter after reading the words ‘my Domestic Goddess” for I am a known filthy, gross person. Neat, but disgusting. I can live with moldy dinner plates as long as they’re stacked up in a neat pile. I would sweep dust under the rug if I’d have one. You could trace my steps following the trail of used Q-tips,…

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Bugs & Critters Uncategorized

Boob-bugs and the best office in the world

Sometimes I am really, really fed up with living in the tropics. One of those times was yesterday when I unwrapped my towel around me, ready to have a shower, and a squashed bug fell out from under my boob. I don’t know if this is a thing that regularly happens to people in let’s say, Europe? Or other temperate climates? I mean there’s bugs there too, so please share your boob-bug stories with me so…

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Bugs & Critters

So Much For Good Intentions And Trying Not To Stink Up The Whole Room

I should probably write weekly updates about the encounters with strange tropical critters, both above and below the surface. But I don’t. However, picture the following scene.   After weeks of being a lazy-ass I got hit by the sudden urge to go for a run. No idea where that came from, but anyway. My running shoes had been outside the room since the last time I went running, because, you know, I don’t want…

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To Just Get The Fuck Out There And Write

So, I had this moderately successful blog (by my own standards) until I moved to this remote tropical paradise and my life became incredibly boring. Awesome, don’t get me wrong, but boring, in an every-day-is-the-same-awesomeness kind of boring. Since no one wants to hear how awesome my life is for endless days on end, I didn’t have anything to write about. So the blog, this one, kind of died. The fact that I was working over 80 hours a week…

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Diving

The Illustrated Guide To Packing

Because photos are cliché and lists are boring. Imagine me, running around the house like a headless chicken. My room looks like my wardrobe just exploded with clothes scattered everywhere. There’s two cardboard boxes labeled ‘things to keep’ and a garbage bag filled with ‘junk to throw away’. My backpack is almost full but there is still so much stuff left. How on earth is it all gonna fit in my modest 55l backpack and…

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Selfishness vs. Chasing Your Dreams

(Note: I wrote this post in five minutes to get it off my chest and now I need to go to work. No pictures and probably a lot of spelling/grammar mistakes. Sorry.) I can´t be the only one feeling extremely selfish sometimes for chasing my dreams, and thereby, leaving people who are very dear to me behind. Right? Nina Yau wrote about this too. So did Niall Doherty. But here I am. At 6.45 in…

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Diving

A Peek Into The Future (or: what a divemaster does)

In between counting down, pre-packing and saying goodbye to people, routines and places I find myself thinking about the future. Not The Future, as in my blueprint for life (although perhaps I should do that more often) but the future, as in what I’ll be doing in two weeks. Most of you probably think I have a perpetual holiday and sit on the beach under a palm tree, sipping from a coconut, and taking dips…

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Ancient Wisdom For World Travellers (& history buffs)

Have you ever been accused of ‘running away’ when you tell people that you’re going to move out of the country or leave on a round the world trip? I have, by a friend, and he sent me an ancient text by Roman philosopher & statesman Seneca (4 BC – 65 AD) to prove his point that my running away was not going to solve anything. While I disagree with his assumption that I, in…

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Diving

Is It Really That Easy? (to leave on a one-way ticket)

This is the question that has been going through my head ever since I bought my one-way ticket to Kuala Lumpur. Is it really that easy to just…leave? In exactly three weeks I’ll be jumping on a train to Paris and from there I’m flying to Malaysia, not knowing when, or if, I’ll come back to Holland. I expected to be running around like crazy by this time doing errands, making arrangements, getting stressed to…

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