Tag: blog

Was doing a little bit of summer cleaning because I never do it in the spring when the weather is okayish, always wait for a heathwave (ᵕ—ᴗ—) and found my old Swatch. I could have easily brought this to charity but it had a bit of sentimental value. I had left the Netherlands to start a new life in the North of Ireland but Brexit cut that life short. Rampant racism, unjustified fees for being allowed to stay while I had been paying my taxes from day 1. In 2016 on the way back at Dublin airport I bought this cool watch.

Years later I pulled it from the box, bought some batteries and was happy it still worked. Just the wristband had a sticky feel. I scoured the interwebs for a solution, luke warm water and dish soap but the material that keeps plastic flexible had given out. So I turned towards the Swatch website to get an alternative.

There were many different types of bands and I had no clue if they would fit this old model. It had been discontinued for years. What else to do, then to ask customer service what type I needed to order. And I get an AI-response back just giving me the link to the wristband section of the website completely ignoring my question what type I needed.
┻┻ ︵㇏(òДó㇏)
Lucky for me the people in the Swatch forum were helpful, but jeeze companies if you want to replace your customer service reps, do it with a well trained AI… “( – ⌓ – )

The shipment was a nightmare too because it came from Switzerland. Next time I just go to a Swatch store in my country to avoid the hassle.

The available colours were off so I went for a clear type band and while it works I am not quite happy with the result. The plastic is so stiff, wearing the watch is a bit annoying. Let’s hope it will wear in with use.

You might think that why on earth do people wear watches these days because we have phone to check for the time. Well, I do not want to grab my phone each time. There is no clock in my home office so I rather have this option. And mister posh doggo is cool.

Will keep using it until I get my smart watch, that is more connected to my health and will help me with pacing to make sure I do not crash again with PEM.

As always, stay whimsical, Fuck GenAI and flip a table! (╯˙ᵕ˙ )╯︵ ┻━┻

Hello, it has been a while. To be honest I haven’t been feeling all to great the last few weeks, months maybe. And it been dawning on me that I might have autism but the step to get an official diagnoses is just to far for me, I just don’t want to be medicated and I have found some mechanisms to help me through the day. Although they sometimes not work when different anxiety inducing situations decide to come towards you at the same time. Which has happened the last couple of weeks.

The past few weeks I had been telling my husband that I suspect that I have autism because the older I get, its getting harder to cope with the world. These days there are more stressors: war, inequality, femicide, hate, you name it.
And yesterday after work we always rewind and talk before doing our own thing for the rest of the Friday evening and I mentioned a book that might be interesting for him to read by Kevin Dutton, the Wisdom of Psychopaths. And we found out that we have the defenition of psychopaths and sociapaths mixed up because according to Kevin the ten professions that have the highest proportion of psychopaths are:

CEOs
Lawyers
Media people (TV and radio)
Sales people
Surgeons
Journalists
Police officers
Clergy
Chefs
Civil servants

And looking at the traits of a psychopath we both concluded that the surgeon who fixed my husbands shattered ankle is indeed a psychopath. Because he was incredibly charming but also had grandiose self-worth because he kept going on and on how fantastic his work was and that my husband was able to walk normally again.
It is interesting to know that there are non-violence psychopaths and I understand that in order to make the best out of capitalism you need to be a bit of a psycho. The problem is that some psycho’s become presidents or parlement members and then you can get a shit show if they only cable of serving their own interests instead of the public.

From there we deviated towards high-functioning autism in women and soon the things started to click for me. Lately I always felt off, like I couldn’t connect with the world anymore. I get really angry when people lie to me, especially people who are blood related to me. I don’t understand why people at work can keep beefing and backstabbing eachother for years, don’t understand when I make a complaint about it, nothing is done about the toxic behaviour by management. I don’t understand why management disputes are fought over the backs of our clients because they aren’t happy with the funding cut they received. I don’t understand why people have an utter disregard for road traffic laws and can’t keep to the maximum speed. I don’t understand why governments turn a blind eye to bombing and killing children and women because it is done by our ‘allies’. Some people that I cannot avoid because I work with them, give off such a strong negative energy that makes me physically sick.
I get anxious when people trying to involve me in their beef with another colleague trying me to pick their side. I get anxious listening to other peoples’ unresolved trauma being regurgitated over and over and just shut down mentally. Social gatherings with certain people drain me completely and I need to recover for days while isolating myself from everyone and everything.
I haven’t been able to pick up a book for months, graphic novels are even exhausting to finish in one go. I haven’t been able to book an appointment with the dentist for weeks. I haven’t been able to pick up my markers and colour, this usually relaxes me.

All I want is just sleep and let time pass by. I do not want to be part of the cycle anymore, just sleep. There are little moments that give me just a bout of energy. Walking the dog, feeding the cats, taking walks with my husband, having dinner with my husband but the dread of life is always looming over me. I wished noone would notice me, that I could just move through the hours like a ghost.

And it is not just a specific thing, if it was just work I could quit and find something else. I just can’t escape peoples’ energy anymore, blocking out people’s energy, the negative energy I mean. It is impolite to say that you don’t want to be part of this conversation anymore, but my boundaries keep being disregarded. So maybe I should do the socially frowned upon thing and just tell people blunty that I do not want to be part of this conversation anymore. I can’t help you with your unresolved issues, I have enough to deal with myself, juggling perimenopause, my chronic illnesses and my autistic traits. Maybe I will just do that.

Having these struggles the past few weeks meant I didn’t find joy in the things I had planned. I had charged up my camera for a colour challenge and I did go out to Utrecht to start it but I just couldn’t find the energy to pull out the camera from my bag. I wasn’t even able to get my target steps that day, I just felt empty.

But yesterday I had a decent day, I woke up early to get some groceries done. The store during later is packed and I didn’t feel like chasing for a parking spot so by going at 8am it was way more relaxed. I missed out on some of the bargain but meh they are usually not options either. After that I picked up my husband and his dog and we had a nice lunch. Freshly baked rolls is the way to go. And we talked alot, we talked about what was wearing me out and he just said do whatever feels good for you. If you do not vibe with the person at that moment, just think of yourself as the more important one and put up that boundary. It felt good that he acknowledges me, he is one of the few people I can show my unfiltered self to. I played some cozy games on my Switch but felt really sleep and took a timed nap. We had agreed to go into town because I needed to buy new slippers as mine have worn completely. After the nap I felt a bit refreshed and we set out. The slippers they had in the store weren’t what I was looking for. I need a specific type that doesn’t feel gross when I am barefooted. During the hot weather I more enjoy walking barefoot in the house but my mom always complains about it. I should ignore her more because she keps smashing my cups.
My husband was able to get some slippers while he wasn’t looking for them so it wasn’t completely pointless to go. I checked out the local bookstore but found nothing of interest. And we left for home to prepare dinner, the ribs had to be in the oven for two hours so we needed to start in time.
One hour in, I started to make the potato salad my husband loves, the Japanese version and after dinner I was looking up some spots that I want to visit when in Japan, making some sort of an itinerary before it was movie time. I had suggested we watch True Lies and my hubby had not seen that yet. And while I enjoyed the movie in the past, now it just felt majorly cringe. My hubby mentioned even James Cameron was able to make a shit movie in the 90s and we discussed what horriblely written movies we have seen from the past. Can’t all be winners.

Now that I have woken up it was not a bad day yesterday. I had less to worry about myself. Hope that I am now in the bit of a way up, slow paced. No rush.

I want to end this weekly on a lighter note. I made some stickers out of a few of my photos and while some have turned out a bit too small for my taste I do love these two die cut stickers of Bridget and I already stuck on on my new planner. The other one will be stuck on my laptop. But I am already overthinking where to put her haha.

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.

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 :).

What a week it has been, we were blessed with a three day weekend this time round as it was Kings Day on Monday. So lots of time to relax, bake and have fun. And baking I did, I made muffins because I had too many blueberries. And several taste-testers said they were yummy.

On Monday we did what any good subject would do, we left for another country to escape the Orange craze of the Netherlands. For weeks we had been bombarded with cheap merchandise that people will only use for one day. I hate it, I hate the colour orange and I dislike that we have a King. So we spent our time and money in a much nicer place which was Düsseldorf. It was less than a two hour drive. Didn’t have that much issue finding a parking space and the weather was fantastic. We had loads of good and yummy food and we walked 17.984 steps.

We also go for lunch at the same Kurdisch-Turkish spot called Bona’me. I don’t know what this particular dish was called but its tomato rice with grilled veggies, kofte and a steak skewer. It’s always great and this dish I will order again. They do a bangin’ mezze by the way.

To rest our feet a little we went for a Eisshokolade, my husband got a white wine. You could order any cake for their shop but I was a coward to ask. Next time I will do this.

Can’t visit Germany without ordering curry wurst or flammkuchen. And this time we had the classic style flammkuchen at Wilma Wunder. It is a wafer thin dough shortly fired up in the oven, with creme fraiche, red onions and bacon bits. I make them at home very often but my dough is just too thick. This was spot on as a quick snack with drinks.

For dinner I had a Wiener Snitzel. I just can’t image a snitzel without the mushroom cream sauce. Place was very local, and fantastic. I think my husband still dreams about his Hunters’ plate hahaha.

The reason why we like to go to Düsseldorf is that every part of the city has a different vibe. Konigsallee is just posh as hell, Ferraris and other outragious cars with people spending a lot of money on luxurious goods like there wasn’t an economic crisis going on. It’s amusing looking at this perverse display of wealth. The people don’t even look happy and I know they look down on us normies.

My favourite part of the city will be Little Tokyo where you can get a good bowl of ramen, dorayaki or tempure bowl. The down part is that the anime/manga fans from the Netherlands have discovered this place too. I stock up at the Japanese supermarket, they are a wee bit cheaper than at home, and browse at Takagi bookshop for new magazines or stationary. I spotted a group from very far, while you loud Americans there are also very loud Dutch anime nerds and they were blocking the entrance of Takagi. How inconvenient, I heard the lady scream while I was in the back of the store that maybe they were blocking the entrance. No shit, Sherlock. And with increased popularity, theft also increases. It broke my heart to see all Pokemon notepads and stationary locked away. We just can’t have nice things, I guess.

The other stationary shop I had planned to visit was closed for lunch and we never went back to that side of the city later in the afternoon. But good on you, that you take your time and close the shop for an hour. It is my dream to run a stationary or a book shop but with the real estate prices and taxes it will never come true unless I win the lottery. The Netherlands is too expensive to have a brick-and-mortar shop.

The day left me unsatisfied with the loot for my stationary hunt. Just two notepads and a kitty penholder I was gifted by my husband. Where will I go next for my hunt? Antwerp is in the cards, which I will be visiting on my day off in the future. Weekends is just not feasable to go to a popular destination when the weather is great. Everyone will go there haha.

The next just one day of work, was a bit nervous with the hypercare call for the new tool. Some issue had risen that did not have the biggest of impacts on our side of the shop but it was annoying to experience that in name we are an international company but its actually America first, fuck the rest of the customers. I Guess it fits seeing who their president is. I took an instant dislike to some people, didn’t change much of the other days we had the meeting and while they are good in ending the meetings on time, they do know how to spread same issue over three days, sheesh. The only fun time I had with the new tool was trying to replicate the issues my team was having. And it mostly boiled down to a user issue instead of a system issue. People have a hard time to let old habits die. Lucky for me it was just one week to deal with this, next week my supervisor can take over again.

A while I decided to start sending small mail packages to my friends and family for their birthdays/special days. I just love sending them a small gift, some sweets and a birthday card to be opened on their birthday. I love getting postcards myself but alas because of the digital age people often opt to send you virtual greetings. How dull. I tried postcrossing but most of the people I matched with were absolutely pedantic people. You can see them as collector instead of penpals and its not the vibe I enjoy. If you do want to become my penpal please send a e-mail with your address to mispeloe[@]gmail.com and we will exchange cards and stories. 🙂

My mother-in-law’s birthday is coming up so I went to the garden center for a small mail gift that will go well with her large gift that we will bring on our visit next week. I won’t say what we got her as she read this blog too. Got to keep the surprise, innit?
My curse is that I will never leave the garden center without a plant for myself. Usually a small potter plant as I live with a cat that never leaves them alone, the little rascal.

For stress-relief I have been either playing cozy games like Pokopia or InKombini (good game, go buy it) on Steam or colouring books. I noticed that I had absolute shit colour pencils but luckily I bought a pack on discount from an art-store a few weeks back. The cat was coloured with the old pencils, the rest with the new and you see the difference in softness of the lead. Hard leaded pencils are not fantastic to colour with. They are cheap but scratch the surface and do not spread the colour equally.

It has been a relaxing week, the weather has been toasty at times but I adjusted my pace to the humidity levels. And I can truly say I have been feeling okay mentally and physically. Managed to take a walk every day for atleast 5000 steps. Which is a win on its own.

To preserve fuel and to promote a healthier lifestime, I’ve been walking almost daily to the shop for my daily groceries. And to make it a bit more entertaining I found different routes to the supermarket. Off the beaten track to get more steps in. And it has been fun re-discovering the places that I roamed as a child. And also meeting the local pets, there are a lot of cats on my route. Some are a bit skittish but others were full on leg rubbing and rolling on the floor.

A new Korean BBQ place opened up near our workplace and I was excited to try it out. The food was great but it was self-serve buffet style and I just don’t like bumping into other customers and kids kept running around the place which made the atomsphere very chaotic. Had hoped to find a place closer to home to visit reguraly but Utrecht will be the best location for us. Besides my husband and I have decided we are getting to old for all-you-can-eat. It feels more rushed and stressed.

The rest of the week was dedicated to more spring cleaning. Organised my stationary and put all my stickers in a binder for easy access. I don’t feel like journalling daily but creating a travel memory journal is something I am looking into. I can start with our upcoming trip to Düsseldorf. It is our annual get-away-from-Kingsday trip. We rather spend our day off in either Germany or Belgium for some fun walks and basking in the sun.

In the past I collected various card games like Pokemon but I quit after I broke up. Now I have started collecting again but on different terms. Not trying to complete full sets as they come out but instead the awsome art cards that are there. I did make a price cap because I am not going to spend big bucks on cards haha.

There are two artists (for now) that I am creating collection binders for. Asako Ito crocheted the Pokemon and I have almost completed that set which will go in a 4 card binder. Still need to find a binder that fits my taste. Her cards were in the price range of 2 to 30 cents, only the Snorlax is going to be €10 (which is not that bad).

The other artist is Yuka Morii with her clayfigure Pokemon which will take me a longer time to collect as she has designed over 200 cards haha.

Music wise it has been a bit of a low this week. I was so busy on Thursday that I forgot to put on a record. So We had only listened to ELO on Tuesday. ELO always perks me up. It a great band and the songs just resonate well with me. Bonne chance next time :D.

What I did binge this week was the K-RomCom was Nice to Not Meet You with Lee Jung-jae and Lim Ji-yeon. I fucking love Lee Jung-jea, he had such an innocent boyish look in this series for a 52y old man. If I could just squeeze him. And everyone one saying I love him because of Squidgame, I never finished it. He is a great actor but I couldn’t stand the premise of the series. People were just cruel and you have some awful rich guys betting on the misery and death of people. I am an eat-the-rich-girl. I know Lee Jung-jae from many other movies like Oh! Brothers, Il Mare, Deliver Us from Evil, The Thieves and many more. This guy is multi-talented, and ofcourse handsome. Just let me have my fangirl moment.

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.