The Perfection Series: Cappuccino Sunday Mornings

Perfectly lazy cappuccino Sunday mornings with Diana. 6F (that's European 6th), 491 Olieslagerstraat, Roermond.

Know When To Quit

When for the first time in your entire career of playing the boy-meets-girl game you manage to totally misread the signs, make a fool of yourself and ruin a potentially good friendship, all in one evening, then you know it’s time to quit!

This year has been amazing. Lots of good things, a few not so great. But in the relationship department I’ve managed to create nothing but a great big mess.

It’s time for a break.

Staying Fresh, Staying Cool

"Doesn't matter what comes
... nanana can't remember this part nana...
With Mentos fresh and full of life
Nothing gets to you
Staying fresh, staying cool
... blah, blah..."


Who doesn't remember the oh-so-cheesy and annoying Mentos commercial with the oh-so-wonderful girlie who suddenly oh-no! breaks her heel in the middle of a busy Parisian street, but oh-wow! doesn't even slightly let that spoil her joie de vivre experience, because, of course, she's got Mentos! Duh!

Well, eat your hearts out, all you commercial-starring wannabies! I got me my Mentos Commercial Moment today! Yay!

Only, not exactly, because I don't actually carry a roll of Mentos on me at all times in my life. Oops!

And, not exactly, because mine didn't happen on a charming little street in Paris, lined with cafes and beautiful people. MY Mentos Commercial Moment was on the charmingly polluted Bao Chiao Rd., Taipei County, lined with greasy breakfast stores and beatlenut-chewing laobans. Cut!

As a woman, I know that the Heel Breaking On Busy Street scene is something we all must go through at least once in our lives. It's the women's equivalent of, what I suspect for men would be something like the Willy Gets Caught In Zipper scene (picture THAT Mentos commercial!). i.e., it's no more avoidable than nylon runs or overflowing tampons. We women know it's coming. We're ready for it. Bring it on! No biggie. I’m just super-extra glad that mine decided to come today, of all days. Yeah, today! As in, after the fantastic day I had yesterday. As in, I couldn't imagine my week getting any worse than it already was. As in, when it rains, it pours. End of whine.

Insert mandatory look-on-the-bright-side paragraph: Could have been worse. Be grateful for what you've got. Tomorrow is a new day. The only way is up. Behind every cloud… End of bs.

I'm writing it off to quantum physics. End of story.

PS to all you High Heel Haters out there: No, this will not turn me on to flats! Never! You hear?! :accompanied with that finger in the air motion:

JUST SAY NO TO FLATS

The Perfection Series: Dive

Diving deep into the cool Adriatic water on a hot summer day.

Mama čita moj dnevnik!

Bravo, mama!

Uspješno si posjetila ovu moju web-stranicu u internet cafeu. (Pozdrav Tončici!)

Sad ti mogu ostavljati poruke i slike. Evo ti jedna lijepa sličica od ovog ljeta:

Poljubi mi Iskru.

I još jedna:

pa mi cmokni i ove dvije dame koje tako lijepo poziraju u kućnim haljinama.

Ljubi te tvoja Taša

Going Dutch

An important pitch for the !WOWW gRLZ Saturday morning. That’s all I’m going to say for now, I don’t want to jinx it.
The rest of the day spent at home-away-from-home-slash-office. !WOWW gRLZ, Jul, Charles, Maurice and 2nd Balazs. + Kevin (aka Jim and/or David) joined us later.
The Dutch guys had the Going Dutch breakfast, aka De Uitsmijter. They also treated all of us to brunch and drinks. I don’t want anyone saying anything about Dutch being stingy, you hear me!

It was good to see Charles happy and relaxed. If you don't know Charles you might be wondering, but, yes, this is how he looks when relaxed.

At dusk, 101 turned on its lights. Indigo. My favorite.

The day was perfect.

Simpleheadedness.

Thanks, Apple Daily!

This has been happening to me all day today (well, not literally, but I need to make a point): A Taiwanese guy approaches interested, smiles and says:
“Hallo! Nice to meet you.”
Me: “Nice to meet you, too.”
Guy: “You are American?”
Me: “No. I’m from Croatia. K Lo Ai Xi Ya.”
Guy: “K Lo Ai Xi Ya?! Aaaaaah!” And runs of with a freaked out look on his face.

What? Why? How?

So, I ask my colleagues if they knew why this was happening. One of them pulls out her copy of Apple Daily (trashiest and most popular daily newspaper in Taiwan). "This is why!" she says:

I can’t read Chinese, but she tells me that this article is spreading vicious lies about alleged results of an alleged Durex survey that says Croatians allegedly want to have sex like every other day, or something! (my math sucks, I know) Allegedly second only to Greeks, in the World! And Taiwanese come in 34th with alleged measly 88 times per year.

No wonder poor guys are afraid of me! This will, of course, do wonders for my already fantastic record of dating Taiwanese men.

Thank you so very, very much, Apple Daily!

Well... actually... it's true. So, I can't really blame Apple Daily for it: Durex 2005 Global Sex Survey

The Perfection Series: Figs

Getting up in the morning, walking out of dvor, to cross the put and climb the gomila to pick the smokve off of aunt Mirjana's fig tree.

Mama, hvala ti

Danas sam dobila tvoju čestitku. Nema tko je bio sretniji od mene!
Cura koja radi na recepciji je znala da čekam, pa me je zazvala dok sam prolazila: "Nataša!... Mama, mama!" i vadi kuvertu iz hrpe pošte i smiješi se. Nema tko je bio sretniji od mene!

Nisam ti rekla, znaš da su me Ivica, Marija i Dinko iznenadili za rodjendan? Poslali su mi prekrasni email sa tvojim slikama. Toliko su me razveselili i razniježili, ne mogu to niti opisati. Daleko najljepši poklon.

Voli te tvoja Taša

Mama i teta Marija u masliniku

Wasn't that fun?!

(I first would like to apologize in advance to my partner, Meiling, for making this another long email. ML, you can skip down to the bottom where it says IMPORTANT SECTION)

Hey You Guys!

We had a great time Friday, didn't we? The photos don't lie:

From Stephanie:
(password: 1028)
http://photo.xuite.net/stephlee/399119

From Casey:
http://flickr.com/photos/miltownkid/

From Robyn:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robynkao/sets/1256103/

From Joyce:
http://flickr.com/photos/914/sets/1238245/

If anyone else has any photos, please send.

Sunday, the winning couple went down for their ROMANTIC BREAKFAST FOR TWO AT CARNEGIE'S. See attached photos. ... No, in case you were wondering, 4 is NOT a crowd at a romantic table for 2. And no, Casey and I were NOT mooching off them, we paid for our food... but maybe we did have some of the champagne... well, the whole bottle is too much for just two people at 12 am!

In case you were wondering, the Makeover of Your Choice eeeeeeeez *drumroll*... Yes, it's the PERMANENT DEFORESTATION OF THE BRAZILIAN RAINFOREST !!!!! HOORAH!
You will be kept up to date on the progress of this fascinating procedure. Of course, before and after pics, as promised will be provided. If you don't wish to see them... well.. i guess, you'll just have to close your eyes when you receive them.

I couldn't send this out without thanking the magnificent, amazing, spectacular !WOWW gRLZ. When I first heard about them I wasn't sure if they could deliver the goods, but now... I'm speechless. All I can say is that I'll definitely be using them for my son's barmitzwah party. !WOWW gRLZ are THE SHIT! (those of you not hip enough to know this, 'the shit' is not the same as 'shit')

And now, the only IMPORTANT SECTION of this email. I know I joke around a lot and you never know when to take me seriously, but if you ever will, do it now. Here goes:

Thank you all so much for being there, for making it happen, for making me feel great, for all the kind words, for the smiles, for the laughs, for getting drunk with me, for being fun, for the presents, for staying as long as you could, for spanking me, for giving me a wedgie, for frenchkissing me, for helping me organize it... Most of all, thank you for enjoying yourselves!

t

PS is anyone missing a sweaty black poloshirt and a red winter jacket?