Month: April 2026

Another week has drifted by and the weather has been picking up again. If I have to choose between seasons, I am an every season but winter girl. Yes, the snow is lovely to see but I hate the cold and frankly living in the Netherlands with snow is ass. You can’t drive, cycle, no busses or trains run and your boss still expects you to be in the office. But they won’t pay the damages when you try to get to work and you crash your car or bicycle. Luckily this is the only toxic relationship that I am in haha.

With the weather being all about the birds and the bees, I see more animals out and about on my daily walks. I’ve been walking for two weeks now and I feel stronger in my legs. Just pop my favourite playlist on, whether its city pop, EDM (Electronic Dance Music) or just pop songs. Music just gives me a spring in my step. Nothing beats walking along “Every 1’s a Winner” by Hot Chocolate.

Seen these cuties on the way makes me happy, it makes me believe that there is more good in the world than bad shit. And bad shit we have been seeing a lot lately. I hope people will finally realise that launching missiles to kill and assert power is not helping to protect our fragile and beautiful planet, because kids, nature does not needs humans to live, but humans do need nature to survive.

My day off this week revolved all around a little spring cleaning. Donated a bunch of stuff like old mangas and bits and bobs to a second hand shop. Better to make someone else happy instead filling a landfill. The progress between my current 3 Switch games that I alternately play is on a steady pace. I’ve finally settled in building homes in Pokopia while keep doing my dailies in Animal Crossing. My word, these cozy games are so fun and relaxing to play. Can’t get enough of them.

Playing Pokopia has lead to me wanting to draw Pokemon again. I’ve dug up my old sketchbooks and have been sketching a bit when I have the time. Maybe I will show them here one day, but for now it is my little private pastime. Big win in Pokopia of the week was the appearance of Mimikyu. I so love this Pokemon. *heart sign with hands*

On Wednesday another Doorzo order came in. I saw some things on the Pokemon Center like a cute little Venonat plush and a Pickachu handkerchief while I had an Momoko kimono on my wishlist for a few months now. I do not want to put in single orders because international shipping is such a waste of money, time and energy if I let one item come all the way from Japan to here. So I try to limit shopping to a few times a year or take the long way with surface shipment.

At the beginning of 2026 I have started to look after my gut health, because a happy gut means a happy Maankatje. By added more fiber I’ve noticed I sleep better, feel less sluggish and have less stomach cramps . It took a while to get there, cutting down my meat intake and upping my lentils, beans and other fibrous foods. I go more days on a vegetable diet than meat itself. And finding and trying out new recipes have been a joy for me. So many good and delicious treats out there that makes up a happy tummy.

This weeks music was a bit of an electronic sound but decades apart. Humanz – Gorillaz and Man-Machine Kraftwerk. I’ve had to pleasure to see Kraftwerk live at the HMH way back. It was fun seeing young and old get together and enjoy the same good vibes. So putting any Kraftwerk album on the turntable is a win for me. The Gorillaz album was a gift from my dearest hubby, and the only one I own. So I try to challenge myself each week to pick a less listened album to play. And frankly, it was a shame that I haven’t listened to this one more. It is really good.

While listening to Man-Machine I noticed that this vinyl is a different version than the one on the CD. On the vinyl version of “We are the Robots” the song does not start with the two sentences: Ja tvoi sluga (I’m your slave) Ja tvoi Rabotnik (I’m your worker). I think the CD version makes a heavier topic out of the song as this can be applied to humans instead of the unliving things we know that are called robots. Sadly, in our lives we can be stuck in dead-end jobs in order to be able to pay the bills. While this situation cannot always be changed by finding a dream job, you make due with the time spent and find enjoyment of life outside those 40 hours you spend on the grind. I’ve found that my free time has been wonderful and exciting even when just doing the mundane things than my work days will ever be.

I work to live not live to work.

This blog was written by me, Maankatje, a real person with feelings and ideas. I do not support AI. It is a creativity stealing, environment destroying machine, used in propaganda by henious governments. I do not give permission for this post to be scraped by AI to train.

We had an extra long weekend as it was Easter and Easter time is for us just fancy cooking. On Easter Sunday we decided to do the ol’ fashioned Dutch gourmet, which means you grill small pieces of meat on a large hot grill. The one we own is for eight people but we do it with the two of us. More space to grill haha. And on Easter Monday, when the weather was better, we fired up de BBQ. This year we opted to get our foodstuffs from our local farm. They had a handy order online system. The quality was fantastic and just a little more expensive than the supermarket. Very happy with the result on both days.

Work was uneventful, due to the holiday, I only had to work three days this week. Yay! Got acquited with a new tool that launces soon. The rest was like any other workweek.

I had decided to go to the Natuurmuseum, after seeing my friend post about her visit during Easter. It’s been years since I went, last time was a schooltrip. It is not large as other similar museums but it was very educational. The visit was on a Wednesday and they have several school in there doing their schooltrip but it wasn’t chaotic. I had to giggle when at the two lions mating, the kids were asking the staff why they were on top of each other. Oh sweet innocent child. The display cabinated were numbered and you could access info of each exhibition by filling in the number on the display. Sad to see some of the animals as extremely endangered.

The museum had a good little animation made, you can also watch it in English, about the impact man has on nature. And ended with: Nature will do fine without us, but we cannot live without nature. In times of politicians screaming that climate change is a hoax while parts of the world either drowns or is set on fire, this piece of making kids aware does give one hope. The future is in our children and not the smelly billionaires and corrupt heads of state who are tearing the world apart.

There are a lot of fun shops in Tilburg like Cool Bananas and Sounds but I skipped them as I didn’t want to spend a lot of money only for me to walk into the local arts and crafts store to spend €60 on art supplies. *sigh* And the pharmacy also had my favourite face masks. So ouch to my wallet. Lunch was nothing special, just a freshly baked cream cheese bagel which I devoured in minutes. And I treated myself to a iced mango matcha latte.

It could have been a good day but some fuckwits decided to invade my privacy which spiked my anxiety, had me furious for the rest of the day and caused me a lot of pain the next day because the adrenaline was gone. Just because some lowlifes thought it was fun to stalk me. And before the racists chime in, they were white. Little disclaimer this is not your rancid echo chamber, this is not a safe space for bigots. And to all the men that take enjoyment feeling up women, following them, filming them with your pathetic glasses, making sexual inclinded comments, tell us to smile, invade our private spaces – I hope your cock rots off and you die. 🙂

The next day I wasn’t able to use my legs much, the stress off the day before did a number on me and I just wanted to relax. I gave Blacksad – under the skin on more try. I don’t know why but on Switch 2, even with the patch the game crashes. I could move past the terrible voice acting but crashing every 30 mins is a no go for me. Data was not corrupted after I preformed the scan and I was able to play for a short period after reinstalling, but this game is now unplayable for me. Luckily I’ve only spend €3,99 and that is already too much for a broken game. As a huge Blacksad fan, this purchase really sucks and I deleted it from my Switch. Do not recommend at all. If you want to read about a new game that I did have fun with this week, check out my Tiny Bookshop post.

This week we listened to the album of Robyn and Akira soundtrack. Robyn is amazing. Her work has so many tones, I love them all. And the Akira soundtrack reminded me that Tetsuo is such an insecure asshole, that I can’t stand him. Will watch the movie soon to see him get destoyed by his own powers.

This blog was written by me, Maankatje, a real person with feelings and ideas. I do not support AI. It is a creativity stealing, environment destroying machine, used in propaganda by henious governments. I do not give permission for this post to be scraped by AI to train.

I have been struggling with the direction to take this blog. But one thing is for certain, writing helps with my anxiety. The past two years have not been fun. Massive work pressure, burn out, a heart condition and perimenopause have been smacking me around. I’m tired 24/7 and made the choice last year to not work fulltime anymore. I just can’t do it anymore, my body won’t let me. So we are quite a few weeks into 2026 and I have been feeling better. Mood improved and at times I am looking forward to doing stuff. Still on a long way to my old self, learning to cope with my chronic illness but in the end I will be okay.

Last week was very uneventful, the weather was shit and that was such a shame because the few blossoms that we get in my local area were blown off the trees. Climate change has been doing a number on nature and it sucks.

One of my hobbies is collecting Japanese craft and doll magazines and the new Dollybird was set to release at the end of March. It usually takes a week or so for it to arrive at my place and I was pleasantly surprised that I wasn’t hit with import fees this time round. I haven’t heard that Japan and the Netherlands have made a trade deal and most Japanese websites ship duty paid on delivery. Maybe the custom gods graced me this time as I have been a loyal servant for many years.

It’s the second time I was tempted by Dollybird to buy a collab they have set up. Mimi décor is one of my favourite doll clothes creators out there and I am blessed to have some of her work for my girls. So I couldn’t pass up this opportunity to buy this Ruruko styled by Mimi through Amiami. She will ship around December, so enough time on the waiting game haha.

My husband and I wanted to make Easter special this year. Not that we are religious, far from it, but because we want to create more special memories together and fun home dinner dates are the way to do this. Per Dutch tradition we are doing a gourmet on Easter Sunday and an BBQ on Easter Monday because the weather was going to be fabulous. This meant I placed an order at our local farm shop. They are known for sustainable livestock farming and everything is homemade and high quality. We have cut down on our meat consumption significantly and only want to support local businesses. Supermarkets have been taking the mickey out of the consumers for so long now. Picked up our order on Saturday, the shop was packed but everyone was in a good mood. I felt fantastic.

Another good thing I had been doing this week, is cutting down on my news consumption.
These days I’ve been feeling helpless. It feels that the whole world has gone to shit and I can’t do anything to stop it. Hate is triumphing around the worlds and bombs dropped on kids. I feel like I am screaming in the void and find myself crying, being frustrated that I cannot stop people fighting and hurting each other. I donate to humanitarian aid, to Save the Children, but it feels like it will never be enough. I am not deaf and blind to the hurt that is happening, I write to my representatives whom have chosen to turn the other cheek because of wrong allegiances. I was able to cut ties with toxic relatives, so why can’t my country cut ties with facist regimes?

So for self preservation I won’t follow the live blog on Iran, curated my Bluesky feed with less reposts about what Dumpf is saying. I speak out whenever someone asks my opinion, that war is wrong and it needs to stop. But I will not engage with people who are out there to be toxic, to hate and cheer about death. Love is love, trans people have the right to exist, I boycot products from companies that have sketchy leadership or made the choice to build factories and accomodations in occupied territories. This is my little battle I can hold and take.

And speaking of boycots, I have terminated my Spotify subscription because the company sucks so much and I don’t even miss it after a week. Little wins over corporate greed.

This blog was written by me, Maankatje, a real person with feelings and ideas. I do not support AI. It is a creativity stealing, environment destroying machine, used in propaganda by henious governments. I do not give permission for this post to be scraped by AI to train.