Photos!

I've been enlisted to take photos at my mum's upcoming wedding in September. This means I have to practice. A lot! I don't know a lot of the technical details involved in taking good photos but I want to learn and I'm having fun so far! I was going to do a small description of all the photos but somewhere around the fifth photo down or so, that stopped working, so here, without any further ado, here are some photos!

 

The Case of the Reappearing Slug

This has been happening for the last four evenings. Before going to sleep I go into the kitchen to turn off the lights and lying inbetween my dishwasher and my bin is a rather large slug. My girlfriend is terrified of them so it falls to me to deal with it. I have this thing where I can't kill stuff unless they irritate me a lot (mosquitos with their high pitched squeal in my ear or when house flies converge around me and try to mate on my knee). So instead of terminating this slug, I pick it up in some wet kitchen paper and put it out of the window. Then go to sleep and forget all about it.

Until the next evening when I go into the kitchen and there is a rather large slug in the same place between dishwasher and bin. As far as I can tell, it is the same slug. Rather long and not too fat and when i look close, it is even a bit cute. My girlfriend is shrieking from the sofa that I have to kill it but if she wants it dead then it falls to her to do the deed I'm afraid! So i put the slug out of the window again and go to sleep.

The next two nights, the slug reappeared looking very happy with itself if I do say so myself, and again it goes out the window in wet kitchen paper. The only way I can think of it coming back in is to gloop up the outside of our house, then up the kitchen window and enter the small window at the top that we leave open so our cats can get out during the day, then proceed to gloop down the window, trail over the kitchen counter top and then down the wall to it's place between dishwasher and bin.

I am pretty certain it's the same slug each time, but I had never heard of such slug behaviour before! Sounds like a lot of effort just to be thrown out again. Surely in the garden there is much more things for the slug to munch on than to be found in the house. I think it's chuckling to itself really.

Now the only thing to do is to see if it makes another visit tonight!

Holiday in England!

This is a very quick blog of some photos Myr and me took when we were in England. The first one is when we were at the natural history museum and is, I think, one of the only photos taken when all four of us are in the same photo with our dad. 

 Grandma, Anna and Richard in a restaurant

 Nicola with Dad and Grandma

 Bowling at Anna's birthday

 Nicola and Myr :D

 A Jetlagged Dad

 Me, Anna and Richard

 Just Dance 2!

 Annabanana

And lastly a video of Anna and Nicola dancing :D

It was a great holiday. We spent most of it with either my mum and Cathy or with my Dad, brother, sisters and Grandma. We also managed to squeeze in a saturday afternoon with some Badger friends in London. The only bad thing is that we still wanted moar holiday when we got home! I'll do another blog again soon when I have more time :)

A bit of backstory on growing up with ADD.

I used to spend my french classes furiously scribbling in the back of my books entire scripts of whatever Buffy episode I was currently hooked on. I ran riot through the halls, and when teachers gave me into trouble (which happened at least a couple of times a day), I had no clue how to behave so I settled for looking at them unblinking in the eye...that just led them to thinking I was insolent as well as a trouble-maker. I daydreamed my classes away. Maths, sciences, french, geography and history held little to grab my attention and I would spend the hours gazing out of the window or doodling or fidgeting.

I grew to like P.E because I realised I was not so bad at it and it allowed me some escape from the monotony of my other classes. I had (and still have) a very low tolerance for boredom. I enjoyed English although when I was in primary seven whilst I was taking my English exam to determine which class I would be put in in secondary school, I failed to notice that I had to turn over the paper...as a result I got 61% which meant I was put in the lower class where I was soon bored. I was not allowed to retake that paper. I also enjoyed music (although I was terrible at most things except singing) and drama. I loved being someone else for a short while.

At home I ran riot as well. I was always outside (before my mopey teenage years) climbing trees and getting dirty and getting into fights with the boys in my neighbourhood. It was always the boys against me, my best friend Vicki and my brother Richard. I got into trouble a lot growing up for not doing this or forgetting to do that. I grew up believing I was lazy and not too bright. I couldn't understand how people could sit down and spend even an hour doing homework. I would try but something would catch my eye or a thought would interrupt and I'd go off on another tangent.

One place where I could really focus and be myself and relax, was with reading. I would devour books. Nowadays I read less because I have agreed to read no English books during the week but if I didn't have that stipulation, I would still be the same when it comes to books.

I was thirteen when my first school very politely kicked me out and asked me to never come back. They had had it with me who was quiet, but got into trouble every day, got into fights with other girls, hardly remembered to do homework, daydreamed her time away but when she put effort in, could get high grades.

I think they were at a loss. And the head-teacher at the time called my mum who was working and too upset to leave her car to come get me, asked her colleague to do that for her. And then next term, it was off to the local public school.

I had always difficulty hearing people (so much so that mum began to think i was hearing impaired) that I went to a specialist to see what could be done. He told my mum that there was nothing wrong with my hearing but perhaps it is a psychological problem.

I did things impulsively without giving it much thought. I decided it would be a fine idea at the age of 12 or 13 to give myself a fringe...that ended with me cutting around the entire front of my head and my mum freaking out and dragging me to the hairdresser where the stylist did the best she could but I still came out looking like a boy.

The years from 13 to 18 were the most difficult I think. I was still coming to terms with my mum being gay (who came out when I was 10), realising that I was gay, struggling with bullies who knew my mum is gay (I can still hear the shrieks of 'Yer ma's a dyke!', and a depression that turned me into someone who hardly left her room. I became even quieter at my new school and hardly spoke to people and tried to keep my head down. I still had difficulty focusing and concentrating but it went under the radar I think because the classrooms were a lot bigger and because I was so quiet, and most of the quiet kids were the concentrating academic types.

Things got better in my last two years, I made some nice friends, enjoyed my English and Drama classes a lot and saw more friends outside school. I was very focused on people though. Usually one a time. I would be totally focused on one friend and be jealous if they had other close friends. I'm not sure if that's a gay thing, an ADD thing or just a Kat thing. Luckily I don't get so hyperfocused on people anymore!

After school finished, I started a course in HNC social sciences which was psychology, sociology, history, modern studies and close reading. I enjoyed it a lot at first but as always my concentration slipped and I stopped going. When I was 19, we moved to England. I went to university in Portsmouth but I didn't like it much. I was doing English and creative writing but I didn't finish my degree, and indeed had to repeat the first year. I liked some things about it like the sci-fi society and the people I lived with in my second year there. But I wouldn't do it again and I don't want to go back.

After university didn't work out, I moved back to be with my mum and Cathy where I almost burned their house down by forgetting i was cooking something on the stove and reading in the living room. The fire brigade had to come out, it was a big mess. As i've mentioned before I got a job in a bookshop which I loved. I got bored at times but mostly I loved organising the books and talking about the books and I was in my element! Then I met Myrna and very impulsively decided to move out to the Netherlands to live with her! Did i have any idea about how to speak Dutch? No. Did I have a job waiting for me? No. Did I know how much you needed to know Dutch to get a job in Groningen? No! But I went. And it was a struggle for the first year until I got my first job and now I have twice as much hours as the first year and things are better. It was really living with Myrna and her picking up behavioural things from me that led us both to thinking that something was up.

Now i've been taking methylfenidaat for almost 2 weeks and I think it is helping although there was a bit of a slacking off in the last few days of last week. I feel calmer, and I can order my thoughts a bit better. I notice things more and I'm noticing more when things need to be cleaned. I've also started my new job at the university cleaning, and I'm enjoying it! Nice people. Tonight we're BBQing and I'm looking forward to that.

Diagnosis: ADD

So yesterday I got my diagnosis. As I thought, it's ADD. The psychiatrist who diagnosed me recommended doing a group thing (it will be in Dutch) where people talk about their ADD/ADHD experiences as well as taking medication. Myr was so awesome and took some time off work so she could be with me, and then afterwards we cycled to the pharmacy to pick up my prescription. The drug is called Methylfenidaat in Dutch (no clue of it's English name) and I started taking it today. I have to take it three times a day at 8am, 12pm and 4pm. Some side effects may include headaches, feeling like a zombie, difficulty falling asleep. Probably more but those are the only ones I remember and anyway they will only be a problem for a week or so. The effect of the medication is that I will be able to think more clearly because it does something in your brain where it acts like a blanket between your nerve endings so that the information goes from one nerve to the other smoothly, unlike in the brain of an unmedicated person with ADD, the information can't go smoothly from one to the other because there is no blanket. Something like that. 

I thought I could blog more about ADD and how it affects me and how I will be feeling with the medication. I have been thinking about how it affected me in the past and I know from an early age I had so much difficulty concentrating and I was constantly daydreaming. But because I was very quiet, I think that's why it went undetected for so long. If I was hyperactive, it would have been a lot more noticeable! Also when someone with ADD is really enjoying something or very focused on something, then ADD isn't as big a problem. I think that when I worked in the bookstore, I really enjoyed it because books have always been my favourite thing, I loved talking about books and recommending books. And when people came back to thank me for my recommendation, that was awesome! So I think ADD wasn't so noticeable then. And it was awesome to hear that my ex-manager would want to work with me again! Whereas in all my other non-bookstore jobs, I was very unfocused, I missed a lot of things, forgot things, meant to do things and then got distracted by something else. Well. I hope that doesn't happen in my next job that starts on Monday but the good thing is is that with the new medication, an effect of it is that I will want to organise and clean a lot! So that can only be good. Another side effect i learned from my psychiatrist is that it will help me lose weight because it inhibits your feeling for hunger. So I will eat less. That can only be good too!

I'm very irritated by all the house flies buzzing around me at the moment. I'm going to go tidy up some more before Mariska gets here. 

Anyway day one of taking Methylfenidaat: I feel just the same!

I was so happy to get the diagnosis because it took eight months from my first appointment with my GP to get to this point. 

I have also been thinking about world of warcraft (Yes, i play almost every day!) and how if I didn't have Myrna sitting next to me and poking me when people talk about things in the guild chat, I would totally miss it either because I'm so focused on something I can't see the guild chat, or because I'm just in another world, that I would be so annoying to raid with. But the good news is, I at least pay attention to the sounds yelling at me that i'm standing in crap and could I please get out now? :D

Keltfest

The night before Keltfest, Myr and me enjoyed Myr's dad's birthday BBQ. I drank probably a little too much wine. This was apparent when cycling home and I cycled for a long stretch with no hands (something I haven't dared do since I was about twelve) and greeting passers by and then later the almost falling asleep whilst cycling!

The next morning we woke up not so fresh and rested at around 6am. I had a shower and got my stuff together. I wore a long black skirt and a purple strappy top. I would regret this later! We were on the bus at around 7am to get to the train station and we were sat on the train with Judith and Sipke, clutching at cups of hot coffee.

After about three changes and meeting up with an Anneke, we were finally at Dordrecht where Keltfest was held. The day was bright and it was hot! We had only factor twelve sunblock with us but Myr smeared it into my shoulders and I hoped for the best!

It was really a beautiful day but all the shady places were taken and you had to wait about 30 minutes just to buy an overpriced drink. I was very happy that we had the foresight to take our own water with us! We sat on the grass for a while with some friends we met there and listened to the music and I tried my best not to think about how much I was baking. After a short while, Myr decided she too was too hot in the glaring sun so we went to buy a nice skirt for her. She first tried on what she thought was a skirt but instead were sort of clown pants. I'm not sure of the correct name for them! They weren't really for her so she tried on another skirt which was very pretty! It was sort of mostly red but lots of other colours mixed in too.

The group soon split up with Sipke, Judith and Anneke going off to look at stalls and whatnot and Myr and me trying to find some shady places. We sat near the birds of prey for a while but I found it a bit zielig and also there was suddenly a family with young kids beside us so we went to find somewhere else. You had to pay to use the toilet unlike Castlefest and the queue was a bit irritating. But then we found a bale of hay to sit on which was the most comfortable thing we had found! We spent the rest of Keltfest listening a bit to the music and watching the Highland Games. We looked half-heartedly at the stalls too but it was much too hot and by the end I was so tired and drained that it was a relief when Sipke said he would like to go home! The only bad thing was I didn't get to try the highlander BBQ but Myr tells me it will be much cheaper at Noorderzon so i'm looking forward to that!

The way home was more annoying than the way to because I think we had four changes and we had to stand up on one train but finally we made it to Myr's parents who very kindly gave me some much-needed after sun and a lift home! My back was very much burned but luckily I had a green hood thing that Maaike had given to me for my birthday last year that covered my shoulders and upper back so there was no nasty peeling. But the pain lasted a good three days and next time it's factor 50 please!

Sorry Myr, I know it's vervelend how much you want a brown girlfriend and instead you have me ;) Pale and mysterious is the way to be!

Keltfest was fun but I enjoyed Castlefest more because it was less hot I think, and more places to sit in the shade too. Also I have the feeling there were more drinks stalls, but I'm not sure anymore.

This year we will be unable to make it to Castlefest or Elf Fantasy because our loved ones keep deciding to get married on those days! So we will have to make do with Midsummer fest in July :D

Piano Playing, dresses and moar!

On Tuesday Myr agreed to try to teach me how to play the piano! I'm very excited about it. I have always wanted to be able to play a musical instrument. Once my friend Vicki tried to teach me guitar but I had no patience for it and it hurt my fingers.

When I was ten or eleven, we were told at school that if we wanted to, we could sign up for viola lessons. I really wanted to so I signed up and went to see the music teacher who gave me a little musical test and if I passed then I could learn to play the viola. I passed the test but I wasn't allowed to take the lessons, it turned out, because my primary seven teacher had instructed her not to let me pass. I wasn't good at remembering my homework and I was very much a nuisance in general. And my teacher knew how much I wanted it and also knew how much I didn't behave that she thought playing viola would too much of a reward. I still don't understand why the music teacher let me take the test and get my hopes up only to shatter them afterwards!

But hey. Now Myr is teaching me the piano! I find it a lot of fun so far. When I was six or so, I had some piano lessons but my mum didn't like my piano teacher so that was the end of that.

So far I can only play two very short songs on the piano and even then I can't go all the way through without making some mistakes somewhere! But I thought I could record my progress if I make any by posting a few videos from time to time!

In other news I have dresses! I think the last time I wore a dress was for my prom. But I like the idea of them! I have now a black strapless dress that is quite short to above the knee and a longer purple one. Maybe I will ask Myr to take some photos later! Okay i'm going to try them on now!

A totally not boring blog.

I no longer have a job at the Mercedes dealer. I found out yesterday and it sucks because I really liked having more to do but I'm just going to keep searching for a better job. Preferably not a cleaning job. I'm not the tidiest person!

Today I am sitting at Myrna's parents house because I didn't really want to go home and have nobody to talk to until Myr gets home. So i'm trying to read my Dutch book on the tablet pc and I tried to do a blog yesterday but I was so miserable and down in the dumps it just wasn't going to happen! Today I have worked in the restaurant and also at Monique's.

I'm looking forward to the summer a lot, going to England and seeing mum and Cathy but also dad, brother and sisters! If all goes to plan I'll get to be with Anna on her eighth birthday.

An old friend recently got in touch so it was fun to hear from him again.

Tomorrow my friend Judith might be coming over so we'll probably play some WoW. Myrna has a BBQ with some colleagues. I was also invited but i think the conversation will be totally about work...*cue Kat drifting off*


I'm not on my own pc so no random but fun photo to throw in here and make my blog seem more interesting than it is! Boooo. Ooh I can put  up a video however! This is a video of my sister Anna dancing! She's so cute!

And here is a video of Nicola dancing ;D I wish I could dance...

ADD drama

This weekend has been a bit of a rollercoaster! Now it's 2.40am and I am staring at the computer screen unable to sleep.

On friday we had an inspection at work so they could see how well we have been cleaning the Mercedes place. Apparently we didn't do very well. The stupid thing is on thursday Mariska who I work with asked a couple of times if I could clean the stand that has toy smart cars in them because her boss noticed that the stand was pretty dusty. Of course I said, and continued cleaning other things. Later on she reminded me about the stand of smart cars. Yes! I am just on my way there now. Then she asked, Oh and could you also clean the main doors, they have some fingerprints. So Whooooosh, all the thoughts about the stand of smart cars promptly leaves my head because I start cleaning the main doors and don't reenter my head until the next day when Mariska notices the stand of smart cars is still not cleaned and worse, the inspection lady would have noticed that.

So I felt pretty lousy and stupid and blah. Sure, these types of things happen to everybody but they happen to me every single day and I'm getting very tired with it and I know Myr is also getting tired of it. And my whole big idea of being focused on my schedule that is on the blackboard sort of backfired because now I do my schedule but my Dutch is suffering and I'm not noticing the little things I used to notice. So I think i'm going to go back to how it was before with a less strict schedule but more noticing of other things. So even though I'm doing my schedule (which I thought would mean less arguments with Myr) is actually provoking a lot more arguments with Myr.

So the whole of today I wasn't really there but I didn't know I wasn't really there until Myr pointed it out to me. I cooked dinner and thought I thought of all the things like tidying up after myself but I missed things that I had no clue about despite having checked the kitchen twice.

It's very tiring to be in a relationship with me I think. And I haven't been back to the doctor yet (going back on the 14th of June) but I am pretty sure that it's ADD and that he'll come back and say that.

So! I have a few ideas to fix this.

1. Double and triple check everything to make sure I haven't missed anything.
2. Stop being insecure.
3. Stop with a strict schedule that leads to not noticing the small things.
4. Take the initiative/responsibility for things.
5. Think about things before blurting out stupid questions/comments.

I'm sure there are many more things but it's almost 3am at the moment and I am glasses-less which means my left eye is twitching. I'm sure tomorrow will be a better day! I shall leave you all with a picture of...

My Grandad and me! Grandad is going in for an operation on Monday so I'm thinking about him a lot but I am sure everything will be all right. :)

BBQing, Paul and Game of Thrones

It's Tuesday and that means Blogging! I had an interesting weekend. On saturday some friends came over to BBQ with Myr and me. Homemade burgers, asparagus with sesame oil and seeds, garlicky tomatoes, bread dough with knakworsten, aubergines, sausages and lots of other meat things i forget about now. There was plenty of beer and wine and it was a very fun night! We later had a fire where we toasted marshmallows.

Sunday was hot! Eddy had slept over the night before and he spent the day hanging out with us. Myrna felt like hapjes somewhere in the afternoon so me and Eddy loped off to the snack bar where we bought raspatat met pindasaus and bitterballen. I have no clue what raspatat is in English, nor do I know how to translate bitterballen except to say I don't think bitterballs quite sums it up!

Sunday evening was very weepy and meepy on my behalf. I near bit Myr's head off several times during the night when she would remind me of things I had missed or had not done or had forgotten about. That wasn't fun!

Monday was a much better day because in the evening, I met Myr, Sipke and Roland at a restaurant called Four Roses, a mexican restaurant and there I ate enchiladas with cheese. Way too much cheese! An overload of cheese. After there, we cycled to the nearby cinema where we met Olaf, Rinse and Michiel and watched 'Paul'. It was not my favourite Simon Pegg film but I enjoyed it. Some of the humour was a bit repetitive after a while but I very much enjoyed all the geeky injokes. I also like that you can buy big bottles of Grolsch and take them into the screen with you! I made some vague plans with Sipke to go see Insidious when it comes out and somewhere this week he'll come over to watch the fourth episode of Game of Thrones.

For those of you reading this who don't know, A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin is my favourite fantasy book series of all time. It's great. Great characters, great story, and he is very cruel to his characters! So I was beyond excited about the new series. I have now seen three episodes and I had assumed it would sort of be my new addiction and I'd be totally hooked from the pilot onwards! However I thought the acting in the pilot was a bit wooden and of course there wasn't the same depth to the characters that I had come to love and hate in the books. But okay, it was the pilot, things are just warming up. The second episode was in my opinion a lot better. Even the acting was better. (Anyone else think that Kit Harington as Jon Snow is just another Legolas type?) But it hadn't hooked me yet. Sipke pointed out that it was because we know the books so well and the series is so faithful to those books that it feels like we've seen it all before. I'm interested to know what people who have never read the books think. Does it still make sense without all the backstory? The third episode was great and the scene between Arya and her dancing teacher was even better than in the books. I think it's beginning to reel me in now but it's taking its time to do so.

Today I have been to work at the restaurant and done the things on my schedule (this blog being the last thing to do) and then at 15.30 I cycle to my other job at the mercedes place. This evening Myr and me are going to her colleague's place for dinner and boardgames so that'll be fun.

The above clip is of Blizzard and Gizmoo play-fighting. Well it was sort of play-fighting, but Blizzard was also having a 'I'm The Boss' day. Ooh my Dad was very cool in that he sent me some videos of my little sisters dancing to Lady Gaga's Born This Way. It was very fun to see!

Now I have a Myr's shoulders to massage. Until Friday, folks...

Some snapshots of Limburg!

Here are some photos of our holiday in Limburg! Part of my schedule says I have to update my blog twice a week! I couldn't think of what to talk about today so I cheated a bit and uploaded some photos for you guys to see :D Er in other news, my Grandad is going in for a surgery soon but I think everything will be okay and tonight Sipke is coming over to watch two episodes of Game of Thrones with me and tomorrow it will be 26 degrees here so that means BBQ!

 This is one of the Roman catacombs, it was quite spooky! Both Myr and me had a feeling of being watched so we didn't stay here long.

 Here is the castle! We didn't go up to see it though because when we thought about going, it was already closed for the day >.<

 These two photos are of an extremely creepy statue! It was standing near a sort of shrine to Mary. I forget who the statue is meant to be now.

 Walking in the forest! I lived in that hat during the whole holiday :D

 This is the place where Myr and me ate some very strange potato and leek soup. I thought it would be hearty and good! Instead they tried to make it too posh and ended up ruining it.

 Willem and Lucia enjoying the sun!

 I love this photo of Myr!

Limburg and ADD

So it's been a while since I've updated this blog! Things here have been pretty good lately! I went to Limburg on holiday with Myrna and her family. I read a lot, walked a bit, went to the sauna, sat on terraces and enjoyed the sun! The only not so good part was that I had a bit of food poisoning on the last evening and after I got home on the tuesday, I had a very irritating migraine.

I had another migraine on saturday but it wasn't a normal migraine, i couldn't focus on anythign and could only see in a strip directly infront of me, to both sides were whirlpools and swirls in the air. So I slept a lot and luckily I have had no moar migraines since!

On friday I went to a place called PsQ or something like that where I spoke to a psychiatrist about seeing if I have ADD. We talked a lot about what's going on now (forgetting things, not noticing things, not being able to concentrate, not paying attention or paying too much attention, not seeing the details, zoning out etc etc) and what my childhood was like (constantly daydreaming, not listening or paying attention, very disorganised, forgetting things a lot, difficulty concentrating). I had only a few school reports with me that mum had been able to find and send to me so that was a bit annoying. But at the end of talking with him, and after he had also listened to what Myrna had to say about everything, he said that he thinks I have ADD but first he has to consult with his  colleagues and next time I come, we'll talk about treatment and discuss medication.

I feel very relieved! The things Myr and me fight most about is related to me forgetting things or not noticing things etc. And not being able to really concentrate for long periods on Dutch is very frustrating. Also a while ago I made a big text to my Dutch friends about speaking in Dutch with them. But sometimes I regret making that text because it requires a much higher level of concentration that I don't always have and it's not fun having to struggle to talk with your friends. I'm going to keep trying but it's just...difficult. Also at the moment, I have no clue how I can start and finish a study with my concentration being the way it is. I went to college when I was 18 after I finished school...I couldn't finish the study, the same thing happened with university. So for there to be an answer for why I am like this, it takes a bit of weight off my shoulders. I have a schedule that is on the blackboard in our living room and I'm trying to stick with it without Myrna having to start a fight about it. I think this has been on the blackboard for some months now, maybe 6 months. And in that time, I don't think I have ever completed every single task on the schedule for 7 days in a row. So my goal for this week is to do every task. Right now I think that keeping to a strict schedule and making lists and maybe with medication, then things will be a lot easier.

Well, now I'm feeling a lot more positive about everything and looking forward to the summer and warmer weather! And bbqs, don't forget the bbqs.

Some news!

Hai! This is just a fast blog because I have to get up tomorrow morning at 5am to go to work! I have been doing this since Tuesday morning and I really like it! Not necessarily getting up at 5 every morning but having people to talk to whilst I'm at work is something I've really missed! And the people are very nice too. Ooh the job is for cleaning at the university. I also had a job this week cleaning for an office building in the city. It means cycling all over Groningen so today what with my university cleaning job, restaurant cleaning job and office cleaning job, it meant that I cycled for about 2 and a half hours and then we had some friends over for dinner so I really liked it! It was fun to be social with moar people and to cycle so much, it gives so much energy :D Tomorrow I have moar at the university, restaurant, Monique's flat and then I'll be cleaning from 5pm-7pm at Alfa College so it means 9 hours of cleaning :D

Well I hope that this can continue but right now it's just temp work but the guy from the agency who I spoke to today said that he is trying to find some more regular work for me which would be awesome!

This weekend will be quite busy too because we're going to Myr's sister Anisa's birthday and then on Sunday to Mariska's for dinner! I just get so bored and lonely when I clean the restaurant because there is nobody to talk to. And cleaning the other places I also clean alone and can do my own thing but it's nice inbetween to be able to greet people and have coffee with them afterwards.

Now I am going to sleep!

What not to do when you get people's attention...

I was fourteen and terribly awkward, shy and convinced everyone was against me. I went shopping for new shoes and jeans with my mum. I changed in the car because I was going to meet some friends at the cinema and I wanted to look cool.

We pulled up at the cinema, I said my goodbyes to mum and I got out of the car. As I was walking away, I became very self-conscious that I still had a sticker attached to my jeans and everyone could see it! But it's okay, mum is still there, if she doesn't beep that horn then that means I am stickerless. A few steps later, that's when I heard it.  BEEP BEEP BEEEEEEEEP! (okay it was probably one very short beep but this is how i remember it)

I froze like a deer caught in the headlights. I have a sticker on the butt of my jeans! Oh no. There are a lot of people here, they will all notice me and laugh. There is only one thing I can do to not draw attention to myself!

There! A wall! It was a few feet away from me to the left. I could make it. I leaped towards the wall, and then shimmied along it with my back to the wall. Finally I reached the car where mum was sitting looking at me with a mystified expression on her face.

I grabbed the door, forced it open and in my haste, the edge of the door caught my eyebrow which started bleeding, and shouted "WHAT?!" She looked at me. I looked back at her. She then informed me that I still had a small sticker on the foot of my shoe and maybe it's a good idea if I take it off. When asking me what on earth I was doing, with the shimmying and the general drawing the attention of everyone within a 20 yard radius, I sheepishly replied that I thought there was a sticker on my jeans and I didn't want anyone to notice me.

I then walked into the cinema, eyebrow still bleeding and reconsidering what to do next time I'm the focus of attention.

Photo post!

Last night Myr was too sleepy to roleplay so Sipke, Roland and me went to see Rango at the cinema. I thought it was a really fun movie. After the movie we were walking towards the exit and I was lost in thoughts, and not looking at where i was headed...this leaded me walking straight into a not-very-small, how-could-I-miss-that football table with those little men on sticks. Yet another Kat moment...

Today will be more of a photo post! My friend Ann-Marie asked me yesterday for moar photos please! So I will do just that. 

 This is Myr's dwarf army and some other random dudes, I have no clue what they are.

 This is Fitz! He lost an eye when he was a kitten. He is very sweet and he loves to talk.

 And Gizmoo! He is the cat who follows you around like a puppy.

 And the following photos are for Ann-Marie who wanted to see some photos of our bookshelves. Here you are!

Today I'm doing things around the house like laundry and hoovering and other such things. I'm also reading a Dutch book by Carry Slee and looking for jobs online. I really would like a job with more hours soon please! At the moment I'm cleaning for a restaurant in the city but it isn't for much hours and I hate not being able to talk to people! I never realised I was a social person until being in a place where I can talk to noone.

Tonight a colleague of Myr's is coming for dinner so that should be fun. And tomorrow Myr's brother Eddy is coming over to watch movies and play guitar hero so that will also be fun! Ooh and then on saturday a guild meet for the people who live around here. And on sunday there will be roleplaying.

I am downloading a series called Dead Set...big brother with zombies! Cool!

Maybe somewhere sometime I'll do a post or two in Dutch :D But my written Dutch is still quite bad, so we shall see.

Anyway, enough blogging for today! I should go do things.

Just another geek...

I'm not even sure what to write about here. I used to write a lot. And I miss it so I thought I would try again and in a blog, no less. I should probably make this post an introductory one! Well, my name is Kat. I'm 25, I live in Groningen, The Netherlands and I am a geek. I live with 4 cats and my awesomely awesome girlfriend, Myr.

Today I am busy trying to lay out Myr's old warhammer armies and then take photos. But as I was doing that, i thought it would be fun to try painting them again. I haven't painted those little figures since the incident that involved yellow paint all over my jeans in the crotch-region. Yeah.

The fridge is also emitting an unfavourable odour so I must not forget about that!

I have lived in Groningen for over two years now. I really like it here. I grew up in Scotland though, and after that and before here, I lived in England where I failed at university and after that I worked in a book shop :D

For christmas my dad bought me a really great digital slr camera so now i have an excuse to take moar photos with it so i can add them to this blog!

So what do I like to do? Well, i love reading, watching tv shows, movies, listening to music, roleplaying with friends, going to fantasy festivals and cooking! I also love camping and walking but right now my legs are being very irritating so I may have to go to the doctor about them. Yay for health insurance.

We had builders last week working on painting the outside of the house and putting some double glazing in. But they haven't been here this week but the scaffolding is still outside. I wish they would come back and take it away.

Anyway, I have the feeling this blog spot is stilted and it doesn't flow very well but that's because my thoughts are bouncing all over the place and I don't write as much as I should. I'm hoping this will improve! Also above is a photo of one of my cats, Blizzard. The reason? He is awesome. He loves licking your face when you are sleeping and is partial to biting your hair.

Tonight I have roleplaying with Myr, and two friends Sipke and Roland. We're playing Pendragon. It's a fun campaign but I can't wait to play moaaaar Call of Cthulu (we play that every sunday with Judith and Sipke) because it's more horror-oriented and I'm really in the story.

Well anyway, if anyone is reading this I commend you for having got this far through what I think is a very boring first post ;)