Away

I am away this week for work so no posts this week.

I'll be back when my nose lifts from the grindstone...

Souvenir Foto Friday

Because X is a dichotomy of a letter. It has many meanings and interpretations. It is a spy letter, sneaking round corners, hidden in disguises.

It is a soft slide of the tongue to the teeth, Xylophone
It is religion and symbolism, Xmas, Christ on a cross
It is treasure, marking the spot, X
It is a promise, X, drawn over the heart. I cross my heart…
It is a declaration; mark an X next to the candidate of your choice
It is a negation, X, you got it wrong.
It is direction, X, North, East, South and West
It is affection, X, I kiss you, X, I miss you
It is the tipping point of a decision, X, a crossroads, which road will you take?
It is a gasp and the catch at the back of the throat, seX

This is my submission for Assignment 4 of Souvenir Foto. Simply to shoot a letter. This X was taken from directly above as I stood on the tram tracks, hoping that a tram wouldn't suddenly zip round the corner and squash me flat. Mission accomplished.

ATTENTION: Delivery Companies in Amsterdam

Yes, I am talking to you. You, delivery companies in Amsterdam. You, who take my money, whisper promises of delivery and, well, quite frankly... fail to deliver in all senses.

We've already discussed one of you here, and now I have another one to add to the list. Oh, yes, you better believe there's a list, and chair delivery company, you are going right on it.

You see, I am a trusting type. So when you take my money and tell me you have two chairs in stock and will deliver one of them to me on Friday I believe you.

When you don't deliver on Friday (after I have spent the whole day waiting at home), you can understand why I might be a little miffed at having to chase you down through multiple phone calls.

I appreciate your view that the store shouldn't have promised delivery without checking with the delivery company but really, shouldn't someone have let me, the customer, know? Luckily for you I am a generous, patient, and I believe I already mentioned, trusting, soul so when you tell me you will call me on Monday to arrange delivery for Wednesday, I believe you.

When Monday comes and goes I start to lose faith a little, but joy of joys, you call me on Tuesday to arrange delivery between 10am and 12pm on Friday.

Ok, its not what we agreed the previous week, or indeed when I handed over my hard earned money to you, but the end is nigh. I can forgive you.

Right up until yesterday when you call me again to apologise, somewhat profusely, that you cannot deliver my chair as it is on a container ship about 3 weeks away from the Netherlands - probably. You can deliver me a spare chair in the meantime and swap it when mine gets here but... you can't quite guarantee when that will be. About 3 weeks... probably.

By this point I am losing the will to live. No really, how hard can it be? You had two in stock when I paid you in full for the chair. You promised to deliver in a week. Two weeks down the line I have no chair, no idea what happened to the ones you had in stock and my future potential chair is currently bobbing towards the Netherlands on a container ship.

You are on my list.

Warning: Coffee table company - I am planning to order from you in the next 48 hours. Your delivery service better be flawless. There's this list, you see, and believe me, you do not want to go on it...

Sjilpen*

Do you tweet?

I didn't really get the concept (and I'm sure I still don't) nevertheless, I entered the world of twitter some time ago and I am plodding on through.

I initially followed contacts from blogs I liked but increasingly I am branching (heh!) out and I have started to follow a couple of twitter feeds in Dutch. My Dutch is not good by anyone's standards but I am most confident reading so 140 characters is perfect for me. Often I will follow the links and start reading full articles in Dutch which is even better.

I'm not sure if helping people learn another language was one of the goals twitter set themselves when they set out to conquer the social media field but its certainly helping me.

If you want to follow me on twitter, there is a link in the right hand column which will take you to my feed.

If you are already on twitter, leave me a comment and let me know.

Do you tweet? If so what is the biggest advantage of twitter for you?

Note: As I was writing this Maryam of My Marrakesh tweeted a link to 20 Interesting Expats to Follow on Twitter. What do you think? Are there others you would add?

* to twitter, tweet or peep in Dutch.

Flowers

Last Friday's flowers are still going strong.

I survived.

Image from here.

Another trip to IKEA, successfully completed with only minimal wallet damage - damn, the as is section and their irresistable white enamel jugs. I am fine tuning the items for delivery and also the logistics of getting the stuff from the store to No. 75. Progress.

Need it, Use it, Love it.

It's a mess over here. We are up to our eyeballs in packing boxes and piles of stuff.

I am being absolute in my resolve not to take any rubbish or clutter with us to Number 75. Which just seems to make it all take twice as long.

To steel my resolve I am muttering "Do I need it, do I use it, do I love it?" at everything. Even the cat is looking worried.

What are your packing tips? How do you cut the clutter?