Public Gooz

For those of you not acquainted with the Farsi language, 'gooz' means 'fart'. Yes, classy title I have, I know.

It is my new metaphor for describing the field of public health. It's there, you can smell it, but you can't see it, you don't know where it's coming from and you can't grab onto it. Like a public gooz.

This has come to me in a moment of realisation, that I am part of an intangible profession. It does have varying levels of intensity depending on where you are located. Also just like a public gooz.

Anyone else suffering the side effects of a public gooz?

Random moments in time. And poo.

Refueling after gym (thanks mum for 2kg of cadbury's!)

Nick in a euphoric state

Marijuana leaf motorbike (you probably can't see the pattern covering the whole bike)

Waiting for the tram.. in the sun... (don't be fooled by the t shirt... Nick is from Ballarat)

Pooville.

Lots and lots of bird poo (all of the white). I think they aim for anybody waiting at the tram stop!

You know what they say about a man who has big feet...

... He can never find shoes!

Yesterday Nick took the day off work to accompany me in cruisin for a bruisin around Den Haag.

We decided, since he has worn out the sole on his only pair of shoes for work, that it may be time to get another set of footwear. Full of hope we set out into town confident that we would not only find shoes, but that we would find the PERFECT shoes that he would love and cherish and wear to work.

Oh. My. God.

How wrong we were.

Nick, for those of you who haven't seen for yourselves, may actually be the incarnation of big foot himself. We had trouble enough back in Australia finding shoes that would fit him, but we thought we had left that behind and that it would be a breeze here considering Dutch people are actually the tallest in the world. It seems, however, that the Dutch are tall in height, but short in foot. The biggest shoes we could find were still about 2 sizes too small.

Anyway, the shoe saga continues.

We decided to head to the beach instead.

Yes, you heard me... the beach!! The sun has been shining with force!! Still too cold to get into togs and go for a swim/tan, but you can at least relax by the beach. And relaxing it was indeed.

The popular beach area, Scheveningen, puts up cafe's (as if it didn't already have a milllllllion) all along the beach during the warmer months, so you can actually eat your cake while basically sitting on the sand. Highly commercialised and fun!

Okay, this is really the final instalment of Brussels pics

I took this picture for the prices.. which I don't think you can actually see. These handmade chocolate eggs were marked from 60 euros and above (about $100). Crikey!!

Finger lickin' good! A friend of ours, enjoying the free sample from the choc fountain (see below)

Massive chocolate egg. Massive.

Mmmm choco fountain... there was dark, milk and orange chocolate!

Freezing our butts off in front of The Grand Place

The final instalment of Brussels pics

Nature! Greenery! Oh it has been so long!

Going for a walk in European wilderness... !

This chateau was gorgeous... and it was on this amazing stretch of land that just went forever.

Brussels... once again.

Yes, that is a statue of a small boy peeing. The Belgian's love this little guy... he's called the 'Mannekin Pis' !!!! What a hilarious name.

Note his army costume. Apparently he's got between 400 and 700 other costumes.

Nick in his greatest moment of weakness as he contemplated a choc covered waffle

Me.

Brussels Take 2: The Grand Place

The Grand Place is pretty much the most famous landmark of Brussels. Absolutely gorgeous, some of its buildings date back to the 1400's!!!

Brussels Take #1

Nick being Borat... "Is nice, I like"

'The English House' ...Nick feeling at home

One of the trillian chocolate shops. Check out Nick's expression!

I really like the 'high quality pleasure' on their sign. Indeed it was!

This was the conversation that went through my mind:

"Free cake?"

"What?! Who are you the devil?!!"

"It's free... just take a bite... just one..."

HAPPY NAW-RUZ!!

Sorry a day late.

The Baha'i new year is upon us!!

Baha'i new year corresponds with the vernal equinox:

the equinox happens when the sun is at one of two opposite points on the celestial sphere where the celestial equator and ecliptic intersect. In a wider sense, the equinoxes are the two days each year when the centre of the sun spends an equal amount of time above and below the horizon at every location on Earth.

How great is that? Spreading equal sun love across the world.

There are two equinoxes... this is the spring one. So a time of birth and rejuvenation!!

A beach in Tahiti

Today, as I waited at the bus stop in snow, and then walked home, in snow, rain, hail, wind and cold, I decided to get some Jack Johnson going on the ipod to help maintain a relaxed vibe. I even sung out loud (which was highly embarrassing when I realised I wasn't alone and some guy walked past me).

Sing along now (tune of Taylor):

Well she just wanders around

unaffected by the winter winds, yeah

and she'll pretend that

well she's somewhere else

so far and clear

about 2,000 miles from here.

Chocolate and waffle dreams

Welcome to me being in Brussels (Belgium)!

I write this lazing comfortably on a gorgeous couch in a beautiful 7 bedroom, massively backyarded house that belongs to friends of ours living here in Belgium.

Nick is upstairs (on our floor) having an afternoon snooze. This is revolutionary as in all the time I have known him he has never once wanted, or needed, an afternoon siesta.

Downstairs the home owner is grating and juicing onion (is this some form of torture?) to include in a lamb kabab recipe that he is going to be cooking for us on his BBQ this evening.

In the room next to me, the other [pregnant] home owner is also having an afternoon snooze (and please note the grating onion home owner just woke up from an afternoon sleep).

Talk about a lazy Saturday.

This morning we woke up at 6.30am to eat brekkie (fasting)... and I think this is where everything went wrong. Coming to Belgium while fasting was our fatal mistake, causing everyone to go sleepy in the arvo in an attempt to wear off the pain of hungrily walking past a gazillion chocolate shops, waffle stalls and bakeries around town.

Brussels really is very beautiful in some areas and it was great to discover the city. There is the beautiful 'Grand Place', a square with buildings dating back to the 1400's, and small cobbled streets with stores and cafe's galore. Unfortunately for us, every second store was a chocolate shop serving FREE chocolate to customers, and every third store was a waffle stand selling warm delicious waffles on this cold day. Please note, there were even scout kids serving free cake in the streets. Needless to say we have stocked up on some goodies to eat later.

Anyway, I don't mean to talk about food so much! But it was so nice to be in a place where food actually looks GREAT (not like the deep fried sausages and fries with mayonnaise in the netherlands!!).

We had a great time wandering the streets and hopping on trains not sure of what direction we were headed in! We stumbled across the famous 'Manneken Pis' ...a small statue of a boy peeing which has become like the mascot of this city. Mmm, interesting...

Okay, enough for now. Time to wake up Nick!

I am fond of sand dunes and salty air

Why doesn't the entire population of the world live in warm coastal areas?

This I ponder today.

What drives us to want to do something "different" and/or be someplace "else" other than a beautiful warm beach on the sunshine coast (or equally great place), with a great beachside hut and easy access to the sun and surf.

I say this after living in 5 degree days for only 3 months (granted we came from winter in oz).

Hence, I find it incredible that people live in places like 'Barrow' - a city in the US state of Alaska. The northern location of this city ensures a very cold climate. Temperatures remain below freezing point for most of the year. Sunrise and sunset are also very interesting in this city... In November you see about 1 hr of daylight, which gradually increases throughout the year until you see 24 hrs of daylight in May until August. Apparently there is also a month of darkness. Yes, I saw a documentary.

It amazes me that about 5000 people choose to live in this city (about half native Alaskan).

I mustn't complain about today's 12 degrees and sunny sunnyness in den haag. But know this, today, I dream of the sunshine coast.

Rotterdam versus The Hague

Rotterdam

The Hague (with the only big buildings we have in the background)

It's interesting to see the contrast between these two cities (only a half hour apart). Rotterdam was flattened during the war and had to be completely rebuilt, so it has a very modern city feel (with hideous structures around the place). The Hague is still pretty old school.

Your 2 cents

In response to all the fan mail requests I have re-jigged my blog's comments section so that anyone can leave a comment. Well, I think that's what I re-jigged it to do. Try it and see.

Now don't all of you, my millions of readers, do it at once as it might crash the entire world wide web.

Rotterdam's hideous statues

Redefining art as we know it.

Nick hangin out with hungry hippo

Puff the Magic Dragon (I think the designer of this statue knows this song all too well). Oh and the facial expressions of the people in the background perfectly capture the general response to this statue.

All hail hello kitty!

Rotterdam has a lot of strange art around. Actually, no, if it were just strange that would be cool.. but they are actually mostly really hideous. The one below is a perfect example. A large obelisk type statue with gold plastic looking thunderbolts poking out and a hello kitty sitting on the top. And that's not even where it finishes! Around the bottom there are 4 or 5 animals/made-up superhero's made of stone sitting on thrones. There was a hippo, a dragon, a strange spectacled superhero... and... that's all I remember. Anyway, it made for great entertainment value!!

Rotterdam's cubic houses

The "forest" of cubic houses (see description below)

A close up of the cubic houses

Nick contemplating how many times he would hit his head on the angled walls if he were to live in a cubic house

Made it down the stairs!

Yesterday we went and trotted around Rotterdam. We visited the famous cubic houses which are close to the city and forked out the 2 euro to see what they are like inside (we just couldn't understand how people live there!!). Once inside we realised they are much better from the outside. Ha! It looks normal inside except that the walls are all at wacky angles! They are three floors but it is very small and unless you are my size you are pretty much guaranteed to get a headache from the constant head banging on the strangely angled walls.

Anyway, to give you some background on these cubic houses:

Piet Blom 1984

The original idea of these cubic houses came about in the 1970s. Piet Blom has developed a couple of these cubic houses that were built in Helmond.

The city of Rotterdam asked him to design housing on top of a pedestrian bridge and he decided to use the cubic houses idea. The concept behind these houses is that he tries to create a forest by each cube representing an abstract tree; therefore the whole village becomes a forest.

Hmm interesting.. an abstract forest. What's wrong with real trees I ask (eww nature!)? Or at least... make the houses green not yellow! I guess it's all part of the abstract idea...

The lucky country

Many of you have probably seen this poem already, but I decided to blog it on here for those who haven't. It is a beautiful poem written by a farmer in Australia.

Rain from Nowhere

by Murray Hartin

His cattle didn't get a bid; they were fairly bloody poor,
What was he going to do? He couldn't feed them anymore,
The dams were all but dry; hay was thirteen bucks a bale,
Last month's talk of rain was just a fairytale.

His credit had run out, no chance to pay what's owed,
Bad thoughts ran through his head as he drove down Gully Road.
"Geez, great grandad bought the place back in 1898,
"Now I'm such a useless bastard, I'll have to shut the gate.

"Can't support my wife and kids, not like dad and those before,
"Crikey, Grandma kept it going while Pop fought in the war."
With depression now his master, he abandoned what was right,
There's no place in life for failures, he'd end it all tonight.

There were still some things to do, he'd have to shoot the cattle first,
Of all the jobs he'd ever done, that would be the worst.
He'd have a shower, watch the news, then they'd all sit down for tea
Read his kids a bedtime story, watch some more TV,

Kiss his wife goodnight, say he was off to shoot some roos
Then in a paddock far away he'd blow away the blues.
But he drove in the gate and stopped – as he always had
To check the roadside mailbox – and found a letter from his Dad.

Now his dad was not a writer, Mum did all the cards and mail
But he knew the writing from the notebooks that he used at cattle sales.
He sensed the nature of its contents, felt moisture in his eyes,
Just the fact his dad had written was enough to make him cry.

"Son, I know it's bloody tough; it's a cruel and twisted game,
"This life upon the land when you're screaming out for rain,
"There's no candle in the darkness, not a single speck of light.
"But don't let the demon get you, you have to do what's right;

"I don't know what's in your head but push the bad thoughts well away.
"See, you'll always have your family at the back end of the day;
"You have to talk to someone, and yes I know I rarely did.
"But you have to think about Fiona and think about the kids.

"I'm worried about you, son, you haven't rung for quite a while,
"I know the road you're on 'cause I've walked every bloody mile.
"The date? December 7 back in 1983,
"Behind the shed I had the shotgun rested in the brigalow tree.

"See, I'd borrowed way too much to buy the Johnson place;
"Then it didn't rain for years and we got bombed by interest rates.
"The bank was at the door; I didn't think I had a choice,
"I began to squeeze the trigger – that's when I heard your voice.

"You said 'Where are you Daddy? It's time to play our game'
“I’ve got Squatter all set up, we might get General Rain.'"
It really was that close, you're the one that stopped me son,
"And you're the one that taught me there's no answer in a gun.

"Just remember people love you, good friends won't let you down.
"Look, you might have to swallow pride and take that job in town,
"Just 'til things come good, son, you've always got a choice.
"And when you get this letter ring me, 'cause I'd love to hear your voice."

Well he cried and laughed and shook his head, then put the truck in gear,
Shut his eyes and hugged his dad in a vision that was clear.
Dropped the cattle at the yards, put the truck away,
Filled the troughs the best he could and fed his last ten bales of hay.

Then he strode towards the homestead, shoulders back and head held high,
He still knew the road was tough but there was purpose in his eye.
He called his wife and children, who'd lived through all his pain,
Hugs said more than words – he'd come back to them again.

They talked of silver linings, how good times always follow bad,
Then he walked towards the phone, picked it up and rang his Dad.
And while the kids set up the Squatter, he hugged his wife again,
Then they heard the roll of thunder and they smelt the smell of rain.

Fasting Dreams

So, it has almost been a week since the fast started, and it's not going too bad if I do say so myself. Our mornings have involved an efficient process of waking and going to the kitchen where each of us takes one side of the stove. Here, Nick makes himself porridge with sultanas, and I cook up some eggs with dates (don't knock it till you try it, thanks for that one mum) - enough for mostly me and a little bit him. While doing this I try to down some glasses of water. I really dislike drinking while eating or closely afterwards. We might also munch on nuts and/or fruit. We then say some prayers and return to the sack for some final moments of warm sleeping bliss before the day begins.

It is at this time that the fasting dreams begin. What I mean by fasting dreams, is the fun dreams one has when sleeping on a full stomach. Many of you have featured in these dreams. But the best was this morning. It was very simple, but gave me the warmest, fuzziest feelings of elation I have been yet to experience in my fasting dreams.

Okay relax. It was not some life-changing dream with some amazing person sharing wisdom.

It was about the weather. Oh yes. And it was good. I dreamt that I looked at The Hague's forecast for the next few days and to my shock and joy it was 19 - 24 degrees for the next five days, with only sunshine. In my dream, I even thought about how I could wear my jandals (thongs).

Couldn't have asked for a better dream.

Then Nick woke me up with a "Lev! It's sunny outside!" ...which was possibly the best way to wake as well.

Now, since then, I have discovered the weather will do no such thing as in my dream. But, there is some sun. I'm satisfied with that. Better than the last 2 days where it has been raining so hard that I have had to walk with soaking wet shoes, socks and feet, both to and from my volunteer job.

Anyway, how did this turn from fasting to the weather?

This fast I have not so much been feeling really physically hungry, but more noticing the joy that comes with having something to eat/drink during the day. A warm cup of tea on a cold day. This has made me acutely aware of those people in this world who don't have such luxuries. Perhaps there is something we can do? Organise a food box for a food bank or something.



PS. Nick will write a blog soon so keep your eyes peeled (he has mentioned it a couple of times this last week.. oh my gosh, could we be so lucky?!!)

PPS. For anyone wondering about the slow or fast burning energy debate on dates. A few of us here in Den Haag have looked at this in depth. FYI depending on what variety of date you buy (there are about 6000) they can either be digested very quickly, or very slowly. One slowly burning variety is Khalas.

Nude Dutch

Did you think that I was exaggerating or over-reacting when I talked about all the naked people at the gym? If so, check this article out on The Age website:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/nude-workouts-no-sweat/2007/03/05/1172943358237.html

'Nudist Sunday'... ah the Dutch. So free.

Extreme makeover

As you can obviously see, I have given the blog a makeover. It was time for a change. And there was nothing on TV.

Are you testing my anger management?

That is the question I pose to the forces pushing and pulling this world.

Last night as Nick and I reflected on our time here we came to the conclusion that it has, in actual fact, been one of the toughest times in our life together thus far. We could think of no other reason for this other than it just being a pure 'test'.

When we thought about it, we realised that very little smooth sailing has occurred for us since arriving in this sun-forsaken country. My visa... difficult and an ongoing saga that is hindering work possibilities. Our apartment... hard to find (oh but is now like the apple of our eyes) and more expensive than we had planned. Work... don't even ask. Money... almost gone... and extra painful as we don't receive the more-than-adequate stipend that all other interns appear to be receiving (for some unknown reason). Friends and family... far away. etc etc...

Nevertheless, there is a force within us that is resisting the easier path of going back home! Nick is loving his work, which if he didn't I think we would cracked and left by now; and I am enjoying life also. Don't ask me why, it must be some kind of twisted and malfunctioning neuro-chemical in my brain that sees beyond the mostly terrible weather, tasteless and/or pricey food, lack of financial resources and poor job prospects.

We also know that together we'll be alright, and that the tide will inevitably turn... We are trusting and open to whatever path opens to us. Whether it be to return to Australia, or stay here.

In conclusion, I do have urges to hurt people... often... but I will not crack.

I will, however, release my frustration on this blog. For EXAMPLE, today I woke up early (after not sleeping very well because of calf pain from the gym - no pain, no gain people), got ready and walked 40 minutes to the NGO I'm volunteering at only to find nobody in the office (and the door shut and locked). I waited around for a while, and then texted the director, who proceeded to tell me nobody was coming in today and asked "didn't you get my message last night?" (uh.. no, obviously not). Upon further enquiry, I realised that this "message" was in fact an email... sent at... wait for it... this one's a doozy... 12.53... AM.

Um... am I the only person who doesn't regularly check my emails at 1 in the morning? Perhaps this is another cultural learning.

Anyway, the amazing sun on my forty minute walk home and my picture taking calmed the rage... mostly. The pictures are below.

Therapy aka local scenery

I really like this house. It overlooks a canal.

Cute car!

bookstall in the city every Thursday (unfortunately all the books are in Dutch!).

Inside old parliament area.

More inside the parliament area

More therapy

The 'Grote Markt', a funky little square close to our place

The 'Mauritshuis' museum, aka, where the 'girl with a pearl earring' by Vermeer is held

Side entrance to the old parliament area (the museum in the pic above is to the right here)

How GORGEOUS. Flowers have come up everywhere in the classy area where some embassies are located.

A mangled umbrella. NOT an uncommon sight in this town (from the wind, not angry people)