You’ve Never Been by the Riverside

This week’s theme song is Agnes Obel’s Riverside. I’ve been completely obsessed with her cd for the past week, I love it. Get your hands on it if you can!

Tomorrow, Tim’s returning from South Korea I’m absolutely ecstatic, I expected him to return Thursday (he had an open ticket). He’s been gone for nearly three weeks but it feels like much longer. When you live together, the house really is too empty if one of you is gone. Hopefully next time he has to go abroad, we have our kitty to keep me company

Remember I bought my very own skates last week, for roller derby? Well, I had my first training on them last Wednesday and they suck X_X I’m so disappointed. The wheels are rigid so they don’t roll smoothly and the left skate goes to the right even if I tell it to go left. Bah. I got really bad blisters, because I had to force them so much. Ah well.

Tuesday I have to hand in the revised and (hopefully) final version of the introduction to the thesis, and my 5000 words paper on the Chinese black organ market. I hope to have it all finished by tomorrow so I don’t have to stress too much about it, but you know. It’s had me extremely busy, so much so that I forgot to write a proper blog earlier this week. Bad Manon, bad!

Tonight I’m going to carve pumpkins with my best friend at my mom’s, heh. We don’t really celebrate Halloween here in The Netherlands, but it’s fun to carve pumpkins nevertheless! Actually, instead of Halloween, there’s two other holidays we Dutch celebrate, although they’re mostly kids’ events. There’s Saint Martin’s Day, which actually resembles Halloween a lot – it’s celebrated on November 11th. The kids go out with paper lanterns and ring doorbells. When the doors open, they’ll burst out in typical St. Martin’s Day songs and when they’re done, they get candy. It’s very cute and I remember I loved doing it when I was little. And not just for the candy! :p Adults don’t participate in St. Martin’s Day at all, though, maybe only to listen to the songs and give the kids candy, but if you keep the light by your front door off, they won’t bother you (I’m not sure if that’s still the rule these days but that’s how we knew on whose doors we could knock).

The other holiday is Sinterklaas, celebrated on December 5th. It’s also mainly for kids, but grown ups usually play some games or what not and exchange gifts on “Sinterklaas eve” too. I’m personally not a fan. I was always really scared of Sinterklaas and after 22 years of celebrating the event (if not as elaborately as when my brother and I were little), it bores me to no end. Plus, the typical Sinterklaas treats and music (often horrible children’s choirs on cd) already take over the shopping centers in September or so, so when it’s finally Sinterklaas eve, I’m sick and tired of it. I wonder maybe this is the reason why I enjoy Christmas so much more, lol. What I also really hate about Sinterklaas is it’s extreme racial background. Sinterklaas has loads of helpers, called “Black Petes”, zwarte Pieten. Usually, these are white people with black face paint on. It’s just very outdated, but it’s tradition, so I guess it won’t go away any time soon.

Now, on to the blog mash up!

Blog Mash up!

Fun & Interesting stuff

Don’t Make me Over @ Books of Adam – this guy takes pictures of friends on FB and then draws them in a quite ridiculous but funny way!

More proof of the robot take-over! Future car Nissan Pivo with inbuilt robot (video) - Nissan wants to actually create a “relationship” between human and car… Interesting.

36 Jaw-dropping Nature Photos @ Buzzfeed – these are gorgeous and inspiring.

50 best movies of the 00′s @ AV club – I like lists like these. How many on this list have you seen? (counting…) I’ve seen 26! What I like about this list especially is that it has more than just Hollywood movies on it.

Why are most people right-handed? @ io9.com

Writing & Related things

12 Writing Fiction Checklists @ Fiction Notes

Seven Character  Types That Build Your Story @ Adventures in YA & Children’s Publishing

My Secret for Battling Procrastination @ Jane Friedman

Character Self-Description @ Kidlit

The Synonym Finder – a handy kind of thesaurus!

Well, that’s all for this week!