deliciously dismembered

cross stitchy ninja

Chatting to the boy, I mentioned I wanted to make something for a friend and cross stitching came into the conversation (I have been looking at cool patterns online). He just casually said there were probably enough programmes online to turn any pic or drawing into a pattern.

A couple of hours later... Voilà, he goes and sends me this.  Superb.

http://patternsforyou.com/ 

ninja nonsense

Via failblog.

Spotted on the shop window of loenatix in Amsterdam.

Fabulously silly video by Improv in Toronto found via wimp.

Big thanks to that boy for keeping us entertained by sending lots of fab ninja stuff this way.

golden brown

This sort of golden brown. Not the drug, not the song. This above.

We are enjoying a mad Indian summer (like many countries in the area*) and it feels fab. 

Someone told me the other day we seem to be going the "tropical" way with our seasons: very cold winters, very (and I mean very) wet summers and fabulously mild and beautiful springs and autumns.

I am basically cycling around in tank tops and summer skirts and it really feels like summer (I had ice cream yesterday (lo and behold!) However, if you look down, it feels most definitely autumnal. Love these colours. 

Bring it on, Indian summer in October. We are loving you here and shall miss you when you go. Many many thanks. We needed you before Grey (with capital G) enters.

(* I had originally written "most of Northern Europe" but Dorit's comment made me realise I am seriously far from living in Northern Europe (particularly compared to where Dorit lives). What I had originally written was not even inaccurate; it was bloody dim.)


CV note: I am not a heavy metal fan, nor do I listen to heavy metal at home.
However, I appreciate all kinds of good music (yes, I enjoy opera, blues, jazz, pop, rock...) This was good old school heavy metal, so I thought it funny for a cv post. I must say that, as I expected, some of your comments made me giggle (not that I am calling you predictable or anything, ha!)

of veggies and feet. just because.

Wildlife out on the balcony. 

Cukes not in a hurry, not particularly faster than the speed of neutrinos (can you actually believe that?) However, there they are; coming along nicely. While those little toms are nearly done for the season, cukes are just starting out...

Oh yeah, sadly the once very promising radishes didn't make it in the end (serious bordeaux tints on the stems but yet, no produce) and neither did the strawberries develop any further. Oh well, it was a long shot in a pot on the balcony. That's why I'm so impressed with my stubborn cucumbers up there.

Indian summer, bring it on!

On another note: feet. Other than now and again updating my "ninja for all seasons" slide show on the right, last week I realised I had not been posting many ninja feet pics lately. To remedy that, here you have some ninja feet shots taken in Barcelona (mon amour) in July. Just because.

is la ninja watercolour-ish or just plain murky?

According to this site, which I came across via this other one, the above are this blog's colours. Murky, I would say.

How are you all doing?

It looks like I may be able to make extra virgin olive oil, after all. Pics of incipient teeny tiny olives coming soon. The cucumber plant is also blooming. Hooray. Don't you just love it when you leave home for a few days and come back to flowers and stuff. Yes.

p.s. I also had to set a small colony of little flies free (don't ask, I don't know) but hey, no more mice. Setting up another cage in a minute, let's see how many are still scurrying around under the floor boards, the buggers. 
It feels like National Geographic here, what with all the fauna and flora.

breast feeting and quite a bit of rain

 

 

The following is a satellite impression of what was going around here yesterday evening. A fantastically stubborn cloud (über cloud), don't you find?

n is for ninja

 

So, basically, last post was b is for birthday (revisited for a second time in the name of laziness) and I seem to have missed last corner view (ahem, a few more), coincidentally themed m is for... 

To keep on this trend, I thought I would give you n is for ninja plus a few more random telepics taken lately both home and (not-so-far) away.
It is currently pretty manic in my head (the voices are back, yes) with course work and work-work. Therefore, n is also for not a lot of ninja activity around here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

N is one of my fab pressies. My b-day do came and went and it was great. 40? Bring it on.
Lots of people, lots of vodka tonic, lots of laughs, lots of lasses from Barcelona, lots of dancing, lots of goals from Barça... Lots of love and good stuff.
Now back to work (me, not you.)

b is for birthday. revisited ii.

As already announced last year, here it is.

This is a big 'un. The big Four O. Woo hoo.

feet

So, I thought I'd be good and post for cv this week.

Veni, vidi, vici. I wrote, I pasted, I posted... and I'm a week too early. Boo hoo.

Oh well, I'm here now, about to leave the house but I give you... FEET. As you do.

Long time no feet*, so there.

*Long time no feet in a post. They are all there, on your right. Being randomly updated on my "a ninja for all seasons" silly little slideshow.

we heart randomness

We also heart this video from the random ninjas. Yay.

That boy shared it with me. He found it through kickstarter, a site my invisible friend* doctor J recommended I, in turn, shared with that boy for his projects.

Randomness all round. Viva.

* People one hasn't actually met in real life, but has befriended online. Nicked (I mean, borrowed) from this ladee.

these ninja feet are made for walking

Last week, IFFR in Rotterdam.

Standing on a volcano in gale-force winds (that boy is tutting as he reads; I seriously did his head in moaning about the wind), hence the fluttering of my trousers and the blurred pic.

Standing next to a knitted handrail. Knitted handrails and lampposts, perfect for the winter, I find.

Admiring that boy's new pet. His fab shiny Roomba. You can spend countless minutes just looking at it, following it, playing obstacle with it... All very productive and mature, of course.

I'm warning you we are taking a turn to the superficial (this blog is, otherwise, always so very deep) and the consumerist this very second.

This next pic is my new obsession. I saw this very pair of trainers at a department store last month and totally digged them. Only they did not have my size (they are men's) so I decided to look for them elsewhere. However, lo and behold, they seem to have vanished from the face of the earth. Either that or they were just a figment of my imagination.

My good friend E (many of my friends are, somehow, called E), who works at that very swooshy corporation, was sent on a mission. To no avail. Meanwhile, combing the Interwebs, I have found myriads of wonderful variations of the same model. All apparently special editions and also impossible to get. Great. However, and funnily enough, I have not even managed the one hit in this colour combination. You see, I am very partial to the sole being the same shade of the leather (as opposed to white.)

So, my question to you helpful people of the Internet is... Have you seen this trainer?

back to school cv

Hey, cv is back and for once I have decided to join in.

I hesitated about it, to be honest, as I do not do personal stuff on this blog (not much, at least.) 
But... What the hell, let's throw caution to the wind and write something slightly private. Woo hoo, brave or what!

After a few months thinking about it, I have landed myself a job as English teacher at a vocational school in Amsterdam. It is going to be a challenge and a half, to say the least, but hey, so far so good. Kind of. Ahem. Lots to learn, but I will survive.

There. How is that for a back to school post, then?

Here is a pic of Miss Ninja (or should I say Juffrouw Ninja?) waiting for the metro last week.

Oh yeah, and that Jane is off again. A jet setter that one. Honestly... I do not know.

ukrainian feet. well, mine, actually.

Taken in Kiev, Yalta, Balaklava and Odessa respectively. This is the silliest kind of narcissism. Totally cheesy. Love it.

More from the mobile phone coming up soon (beware) showing more locations. Also introducing the switch from much-loved but seriously-manky plimsolls to new, more ergonomic and less stinky sandals (bloody fascinating my shoes, innit? I think so too.)