creative birthday celebrations

i wanted to do something different to celebrate my birthday so with brenda and minni's help we found a company called het mooie work who offer painting workshops and helped to make my friends' creativity shine! together we made four paintings which will be combined...and on any other day apart from my birthday it would seem egotistical to say, but it was really cool because the central theme was ME! :) it was seriously fun and theraputic to think of the ideas and put them on canvas and then see them come to life with the colours of the paint....and it was so great to see my friends' creativity...and the different ways they see me and connect with me....karaoke, music, cocktails, my crazy stairs, my flying bicycle, the market on Saturdays, Gilmore Girls on Tuesdays, chatting over coffee, travelling, exploring, Asia, Amsterdam.... thanks Brenda, Minni, Maria, Sarika, Nancy, Marcelo, Regiane, Helen, Noor, Lara and Jaap for giving me such a great gift - your creativity and imagination! and thanks of course to mum and dad for the gift of life

girlpower and ikea!

as i turned 27, literally, i entered what could be a new phase of my life - not only was i putting together furniture with brenda and maria that i had bought, but the furniture was a set of drawers...now for many people this might not seem very significant but for me this was symbolic of three things:

1) choosing to BE where i am - this is the longest i have lived in the same apartment in the same city in the last 5 years...and even though i am only planning to stay here till end of october, i bought something big, heavy (42kgs) and permanent for the apartment - a big sign of apartment and location commitment - choosing to be fully wherever i am for however long i'm there

2) belief that you can change habits of a lifestyle - ever since i can remember the number one cause of arguments i had with my parents was the "state of my room" IE the fact that usually you can't see the colour of the carpet because it was covered by clothes and other stray objects...i never could work out what they were going on about...but now it's finally starting to bother me as well :) so hopefully my new drawers can help encourage me to break my bad clothes dropping habits and prove you can teach old dogs new tricks

3) in good times and ikea times - your friends will be at your side! i know that ikea caused brett from kath & kim a lot of frustration, but i actually really enjoyed my whole ikea experience, because brenda and maria were there with me...otherwise i'd still probably be up to step 3 of 24! and we had a lot of laughs in the meantime...i wonder if you work for ikea if they use building their own furniture as team building exercises?

braSil - part III

and the final part of my short but sweet visit to sao paulo was spent with my team mate Luiz and his family, and site seeing with Luiz and Lucy & Gaby from the Brazilian MC...Luiz's family was soooooo amazingly generous and hospitable...they really made me feel so welcome and at home....muito obrigada! on saturday, luiz, lucy, gaby and i went to liberdade, the japanese/chinese part of sao paulo for lunch and souvenir shopping...brazil has the largest japanese population outside of japan, and it was quite strange to see a McDonald's restaurant sign written in Japanese katakana in Brazil....we also had a quick look at the main cathedral and square in this megaopolis....which has approx 18 million people! my brief stay here really warmed my heart as well as my skin...mainly because of the great generosity and positive energy that i got from the people of sao paulo! obrigada :)

braSil - part II

so the main reason i was in brasil was not the caipirinhas or forro, but for the global diversity and inclusion platform of abn amro....and it was a great experience, professionally and personally....our brazilian colleagues made a great effort to get us out of the office and hotel and INTO sao paulo...my highlights included a visit to customers of a micro credit project in a sao paulo community; speakers who reinforced the role of the business in driving diversity and inclusion; visit to Zumbi dos Palmares University for Afro-descendants (around 50% of the Brazilian population); great performances by a blind singer and ballet group; the warmth and sincerity of our brazilian colleagues and appreciation for some of the global tools that our team is developing and delivering....and also the time that Fabio Barbosa, the CEO of the bank in brazil, spent with us, where the role of the bank in creating a better society in brazil was really reinforced again....here are some photographic highlights...

braSil - part I

so got back from brasil on sunday afternoon and went straight to a business consulting skills course in amsterdam...so here's an update of different things there....

unfortunately the travel agent forgot to book my gluten free meals and the airline advised me the day before to bring my own food...so there i was, classy as i can be...bringing a supermarket bag and my text books with me into business class....and then in the end there were gluten free meals for me anyways, but got a few looks on the way ;)

once i touched down in brazil we went to the hotel and had a caipirinha for a night cap

the next day i was locked in my room studying for my exam...with lyrical portugese tv on in the background - although i did sneak down to the pool for an energising swim break

then i went for my exam, which was supervised by an institute that was about 8 blocks from the hotel....it was a bit surreal as there i was sitting in sao paulo doing my exam on change in contemporary china and there was a huge yellow australian road sign, telling kangaroos for next hundred metres!

i think exam went ok - let's see what the professor thinks when the results come back next friday - but this was the first part of my brazilian experience....