As you can see, I skipped a week of blogging. I was not feeling all to great mentally after a trying day and spent most of my Sunday a week ago recovering. And when you are in a negative mood it is better to just relax, put on some Korean and Chinese series and shut yourself of mentally from the world so you can cope during your working hours. Which has been good strategy for the past week.
On Wednesday my friend and I had planned to go to Beekse Bergen Safari Park but on arrival we found out the park didn’t open yet as there was a Cheeta missing from her enclosure. Instead of endangering the animal, the park decided to remain closed until further notice. So we diverted ourselves to a different zoo in a neighbouring town, Eindhoven Zoo.
The weather was absolutely dreadful with bouts of rain in between which meant the zoo was occupied by hardly anyone expect the employees. You could throw a rock and wouldn’t hit a person in a 100 feet that’s how quiet it was. The animals who didn’t hate the rain were outside, the rhino taking a bath. We did get a private feeding show for the rhinos and piggie that lived in the enclosure and had a nice chat with the zoo keeper about sustaining the species, there are only 5 different types of rhinos on this earth and they are all heavily endangered. So the educational update was very much appreciated.
Even with this dreary weather, the day was spent in a very good way. Animals and talking to my friend calms the anxiety bout I was having for a while. No photos were taken as I didn’t want my phone soaked.
On Thursday most of the Netherlands had a day off, and we spent it just relaxing at home as we had to go to the office the next day.
On Saturday I was in the mood to connect with my roots again and visit the pasar malam (Bahasa Indonesia: evening market) and eat some good food. Some Indonesian dishes are too time consuming or have ingredients that are not widely available to consumers and it gives us a chance to eat it here. Saté Kambing (goat meat) is always a staple for me and me and my husband enjoyed a bowl of soto ayam (chicken soup) together. I finished the day with a snack platter with pisang goreng (fried battered banana), lemper (sticky rice roll with chicken), loempia and a chicken pastie. My husband had nasi rames special, which can be seen as a platter with rice, two different vegetable dishes and three meat dished.
We only bought new jars of sambal and I was interested in the stand with the man demonstrating batik. He had a more steady hand than I did while drawing with beeswax. Much more learning for me to do. I love batik, the technique and the history about it. Should start with it again when I am feeling a bit better.
Below: Gamelan instruments.
I am starting up a new segment next to my weekly blogs on my effort to support small businesses in the trying times of conflict and AI domination. Friends and artists alike have been sturggling lately to compete with the slop pushed out by major corporations.
We all know the news articles of teenagers being sued for millions because they downloaded 12 songs and now corporations are stealing creativity through their nature killing machine and trying to kill humans cognitivity. I won’t be part of this farce.
So each month I try to make a purchase from an artist/creator and will feature them in a monthly post with my April purchases being the start of the series.
I’m taking the rest of the Sunday to chill, do some colouring and make some sweet treats for myself. It makes this feeling under the weather a bit more bearable. Some selfcare is always a priority for yourself.
Until next time :).