Stadspark Strolls & Dutch Springtime Blues

No not the pottery. Things have been a little crazy in the Potter household over the last couple of months and are likely not to calm down for a couple of more. Unfortunately a lot of that stuff has little to do with being expats. Its just life stuff. Just a taste of what we’ve been up to:

• Printed & Started selling Walking the Lethe Issue One.
• Starting my business keeps dragging on as I struggle with BTW and what sort of receipts I need to be able to reclaim VAT.
• Convention. Which was fun and worthwhile, but took time away from work.
• Fallen Kitten web design business & blog
• Stressing out over taxes. US & Dutch. Too confusing and still not done. Hopefully the tax issue will be cleared up soon since we’ve got a short extension from the ol’ U.S. of A but it won’t last. And we’ve hired assistance for the Dutch side.
• Dutch class. Which is simply driving me nuts.
• Paid work. Which I’m always happy to do of course. Still I wonder how I’m going to pack more in around everything else to make this business actually work.

Of course all this leaves less time for writing Maastricht Minutiae and, sadly, no time for podcasting.

All this ‘life’ stuff just has me running in circles and frustrated with myself and my circumstances. Things are good, but the ‘not easy’ part of living has reared its ugly head. As everyone else is celebrating a renewal, I’m feeling buried with obligations. Frustrating. My choice and I’m doing what I enjoy but frustrating none the less.

Part of all this may simply be that one year is long enough to get comfortable with the physical place I’m living in. We’ve done so much exploring around Maastricht, and its been so cold all winter, that there hasn’t been as much incentive to get out and do things that are worth writing about. At the same time, we’re still in an in-between stage socially and culturally (and busy with work). We’ve met lots of great of people but no one we could invite over at the drop of a hat to play Settlers (if we even had time). That’s pretty normal for us, neither of us are social butterflies, but it never makes this stage of living in a new city easy.

On the upside, Dan & I went for a lovely Stadspark stroll Easter Day to clear our heads and get out of the house. Despite the gray skies and little sprinkles it was a fairly nice day. And we found a face in a tree, which was strange… (Today it’s actually sunny out but I don’t think I’ll be out to enjoy it.) It was good to just walk for a bit and then have a beer and tosti for lunch just like we did when we first moved here. I’m hoping to force us out for more adventures around Limburg as the spring warms and summer comes along. With that to do, I’m sure my mood will look up.

Springtime: Don’t Forget your Umbrella

No matter where you live, someone there has used the old saw “If you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes.” I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere that wasn’t applied (maybe California, but they probably have a weather control ray). After seeing the extremes of weather we’ve had in Maastricht within a single day (nay, an hour), I’m pretty sure that overused cliche originated here.

Except most of the time you won’t like the change.

Cue morning. Sun is shining, clouds are white and fluffy. Its still a bit cold, but you climb on your bike in hopes of a leisurely ride to work.

5 minutes later: Gale force winds are pushing your off the road.

10 minutes after that: Hide! Torrential spring rain is upon you!

2 minutes later: Not a cloud in the sky.

Repeat until you’re soaked to the bone, but your office mates haven’t noticed the strange weather because it can rain on one half of Maastricht will its perfectly sunny on the other.

Repeat throughout the day.

Yesterday we had a solid 10 minutes of hail the size of marbles. Enough came down that until it melted away it looked like it had snowed. Fortunately I don’t think anyone was brained. I’m lucky. I work a home so I don’t have to go out without good reason during this crazy weather time. And when it is sunny, it is really beautiful. The rain is beautiful too, but in a force of nature sort of way. I’ve only seen hail a few times in my life, so I love watching it (but it scares the heck out of my cats).

Enjoy the wild spring weather.

But for your own safety.

Don’t forget your umbrella.

Image is (c) emdot via Flickr. Used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.

No Kidding: Good Times in London

I apologize for leaving you all hanging for an update this week, and now this one will mostly be about travel, but hopefully I’ll get everything back under control soon. I left for London with a cold and came back with a new one. But at least the time in-between was fun.

Trains vs. Airplanes

While planning our trip Dan & I went back and forth on the best way to get from Maastricht to London without spending a fortune. Airplanes seemed out, since the airport here only goes to places in Spain, but the EuroStar train tickets weren’t coming up much cheaper until we committed to staying more than three days. Then the prices dropped to an acceptable range and didn’t, we thought, involve going through crazy security to board a train. Trains from Maastricht are about equivalent to a cheap Ryanair ticket from Eindhoven, but the train doesn’t require as much travel to get to and from airports.

Getting to Brussels to pick up our EuroStar train (included in the ticket price) was uneventful, but when we arrived we discovered that train security can be just as much a pain in the butt as airport security. We went through two checkpoints before being stopped at a third by a surly guard who wanted to know what we were doing in London and how long we’d be there.

We said “5 days for a comics convention and to see the city”. He said, “What are you going to see?” This is the point where we stumbled. Dan & I hadn’t done much planning for the trip (its only 5 hours away after all) and we usually just start walking and see where our feet take us. Who knew we needed an itinerary just to enter the country. “Er…Westminster Abbey…” I say, confused. He gives a nasty look, “You’re going to see Westminster Abbey for 5 days? What else do you think is in London?” We finally stumbled out enough places to satisfy the guard and he finally let us through with snide remarks about the “proper” way to do things. Welcome to London indeed! Next time I’ll bring a guidebook. Maybe we were suppose to tip or something.

Fortunately the rest of the trip was uneventful, even though the EuroStar’s headrests are designed for people much taller than myself. For Americans, it is a lot like riding Amtrak. Maybe faster but not much more comfortable.

Sites!

Around the Thing!, Dan and I found time to do a little site seeing. Maybe I should send the next overzealous crossing guard to my blog if he needs the full scoop. We were lucky enough to receive an excellent walking audio tour from a good friend and it lead us all over Central London. We were impressed by how monumental (and large) the city is.

Some of the things we saw are:

• Westminster Abbey: Which sadly does not permit photography inside by it worth every pence that it costs to go inside and see the stunning and eclectic statues and tombs. I find the merging of church and state in the UK to be very curious and the Abbey is a monument in and of itself to that merger.
• Big Ben: Which is much bigger and attached to a Parliment (which I hadn’t realized).
• Jewel Tower: I’m always happy to see very old construction preserved within a modern city.
• National Gallery: A large and FREE art gallery where we played “guess which painting is Dutch”. I got a wonderful picture of myself with a large lion statue outside on the square to go with my high school photo.
• Fortnum & Mason: The same grocery store where the royal family has their shopping done. Elegant grocery stores with crystal chandeliers are way beyond my experience.
• Covent Garden: Which isn’t a garden at all but a shopping area.
• Buckingham Palace: Which is huge and had great wrought iron/gold gates. Dan thought the facade was too plain. We didn’t catch the changing of the guard because we went to the London Zoo instead.
• Tower of London: Much much more than a tower and well worth a visit if you like 1) Murder or 2) Jewelry.
• Jack the Ripper Tour: A two-hour, historical tour about Jack the Ripper. The tour guide was great, but so much of the area has been rebuilt that there were not many good visuals for the tour. Victorian London was not a happy place.

Comix Thing!

Of course the main reason we were in London was to attend the UK Mini & Web Comix Thing! on Saturday. On a personal and business level it was great fun and an excellent networking opportunity. I’m always impressed by the way comics can overcome pretty much any silence between two strangers who like looking at sequential art. Read my Complete Con Report at Fallen Kitten Productions for more details.

And you might be starting to see comics inspired things here as well. You’ve been warned.

Lions & Tigers & Scones

We wrapped up our holiday in a very typical manner for us. A trip to the zoo followed by Afternoon Tea at a place more upscale that you might typically find us.

The London Zoo was a good time, with mostly nice and large enclosures for their animals and lots of walking. Its not quite high season (and a Monday), so many eating areas were closed. On the other hand we didn’t have to deal with a large crowd and only a few school groups so I felt it was a good trade off. My favorite animals were the otters. We happened by their enclosure just in time for a feeding and a dozen of the little critters were tumbling over each other, chirping like birds, and crying like kittens in the hopes that they would be fed.  Adorable.

On the way back to the Center, Dan & I happened upon an entire street and open air market (Camden Lock) dedicated to alternative clothing and culture (goth, punk, hippies, etc). We didn’t have time to really explore, but it was pretty awesome looking and we’ll be making time on the next trip.

Afternoon Tea (which we had around 5 pm instead of dinner) was lovely with several sandwiches, warm scones, clotted cream, jam, small desserts, and two large pots of tea.  As always happens with Tea, there was too much food but it was all very tasty and well worth going to London to have it served in white china.

All in all it was a great trip, but I was happy to come home. My feet were killing me and I like the small space of Maastricht much more than any large city.

Next Entries »