Monthly Archives: December 2021

Like meeting an old friend

One of my oldest friends – if not the oldest – has lived in Asia since 2014, and for the most of it, he’s been working as a teacher in China. We’ve been friends for close to 25 years. We went to high school together, and share many similarities in our personal life histories. It’sContinue reading “Like meeting an old friend”

Soulless

It turns out that writing a daily blog quickly becomes exceptionally boring if you have got nothing interesting to do all day. First, our baby got sick with fever. Great Christmas. Then, a couple of days later, our toddler joined the club. Luckily the baby recovered already, but Rafa is still feeling quite bad. LostContinue reading “Soulless”

Switching gears, but how?

Four days in. Another thirteen to go. The Christmas holidays always reveal exactly how destroyed you actually are, how much of your energy is still available for life in the holiday season. For pretty much the entire year I run on autopilot. Ironically, even though my work in academia involves intensive use of my brain,Continue reading “Switching gears, but how?”

Move along, there’s nothing to see here…

Nah. Today it’ll just be a filler post, without any actual content. Two sick kids, horrible weather, a horribly failed attempt at making a nice dinner, the day was tough enough. Well, at least we were together as a family :)… Tonight’s planned for a second attempt at finishing yesterday’s movie (I fell asleep halfway).

Well… It is supposed to be family time after all

Christmas 2021. We’ve chosen not to take the long-ass drive back to the locked-down Netherlands. Some people in the family circle choose not to get vaccinated, and several also refuse to get tested before meeting up. This, for me, is more than enough reason not to meet up for several days. There also has beenContinue reading “Well… It is supposed to be family time after all”

I didn’t really want her

It’s time for another post about cornsnakes! Nobody cares, but I do. You’ll appreciate them sooner rather than later, trust me. This morning, my son ‘helped’ me clean some snake enclosures. He doesn’t really help. It’s more of a hassle having him around, because he hands me over anything I could potentially need (but mostlyContinue reading “I didn’t really want her”

Punch the day away

I only had one real job* for today. How come I spent much of my time drinking non-alcoholic Christmas punch – without finishing the job at all. Or even starting it in the first place? I guess I was more in a holiday mood than in any other mood. The punch was good, and itContinue reading “Punch the day away”

They scare me. Every. Single. Time!

This morning it was my turn to present my research to our research group. What can I say? After about 15 years of presenting things on quite a regular basis, these departmental presentations still cause huge anxiety in me. Every. Single. Time! I don’t know what it is. It’s specifically these group meetings that scareContinue reading “They scare me. Every. Single. Time!”