Home & Decor (2): Kitchen & Dining Decor

     The picture above is a very good approximate of the kitchen in my (future) house. My kitchen is bigger, with a built in oven, stove and space for the fridge. But the configuration is similar, except the island counter is covered with glass instead of being open spaced. 

      I really like the idea of painting the kitchen in one bold block colour, as if it was a lego cube. We have already decided to keep the kitchen simple and clean as it is, with dashes of colour and interest in all the kitchen accessories. I can't wait! 

   We are still very undecided though on how the dining area would be - should it be romantic and cosy, airy and big (ideal for dinner parties), grand and elegant, quirky and colourful? ZM only wants it to be clean and filled with good food. For me, I'm inclining towards a big dining table with lot of natural light. I've realised in Holland that I enjoy flowers and arranging them, and I think I would need a clean, simple dining room to give that space for accessorising. That may mean a more subdued wallpaper or colour or wall decoration (if any) - and yet a part of me also thinks that we are only going to be two young crazy adults once (without kids) and perhaps we should just be as bold as we can be for this one time. 

     Style 1 would be what I consider to be the typical/classical modern table template. It's a very effective style - pick a sturdy frame (usually a wooden rectangular dining table) and different chairs with different textures and designs. It's versatile because you could easily change and add chairs and it's very clean. It leaves you open to adding design highlights in the other areas. 

                                                             

     Style 2, which I also enjoy, leans towards the other side of the scale - this style is heavier, with an older victorian elegance. I think this style has more character, because it demands that eye for colour and texture. But, it always has the problem I think of never really feeling like home, and more like a boutique hotel (which may be the desired aim), or in the wrong hands, a musuem. This style also requires more balance or it can feel stuffy and too rigid, or even too serious with the gothic influences. I really enjoy restaurants designed in this style, but I don't think I'm perfectionist enough to live it. 

                          

                         

                                                                 

       Style 3 is like a cosy nook and booster seating area, kind of like those retro sixties dining booths. We love dining booths! I can imagine myself snuggling on one to read, using my computer there, and how cosy a dining booth feels in a restaurant. Because of the kitchen and dining area configuration, it won't be circular (alas) and would be more rectangular in structure. Also the island counter and glass display is quite low, so the booths will have to be similarly low. Another thing to consider would be the material of the booth - I love cotton or linen, but that's just a recipe for disaster when you are eating food. Leather would be a better choice, but that also limits the colour options and this would also depend on finding a good person to install this! 

    P.S. I clearly am partial to the white and victorian style. 

                                            

                                       

                                        

                                       

    The last four are my favourites. The key here (except maybe the first one) is that they are assymetrical in height for the chairs. I love the pairing of a sofa-like chair/bench with proper chairs, and I think this would be the most likely choices for the dining area. I would term this as beautiful kismetic chaos and would depend on what beautiful chair and dining pieces we meet! 

   

     And so, the world of chairs and dining tables await. 

Maastricht - Day 4 (Pilgrimage!)

    

      When I left Holland five years ago, I had one main regret. I did not visit the most beautiful bookstore I have ever heard of. It was only one hour away by train in Maastricht - but perhaps one always believe the places nearest to us will always be there. And then time flies, and you can't even take that one hour train to see it. 

     Maastricht is one of the larger towns in Holland, at the southern most part. It's the capital city of the province of Limburg in Holland. It's at the border near Germany, and I think that makes it feel a little different from the other more traditional dutch towns. It does feel more cosmopolitan and richer, like a dutch twist on Switzerland. 

    Apparently, Maastricht is derived from the latin Trajectum ad Mosam or Mosae Trajectum meaning "crossing at the Meuse". What I really liked about Maastricht is that it has a lot of its old historical city walls still intact. My recommendation is to buy a historical road itinerary/road map (about 1.60 euros) from the tourist office and enjoy the tour. It comes with a lot of information and tidbits about the history of the place, and increases the pleasure of a city walk immensely. I can only imagine how wondrous it would be in the Spring (I went in Spring but it was the coldest winter in 50 years, so I won't treat it as the norm) and Summer with all the markets out in full force. 

        

     

     At the end of the day trip, when we were back in our apartment in Utrecht, I had this immense warmth in my heart. I had finally resolved a regret from five years ago, I was here in Utrecht to fulfill my dream of taking wedding pictures in the place I fell in love. There, outside, lying like Homer Simpson on the sofa, was my husband, who have always sought to make my dreams come true. 

    I went over to hug him and said, "I don't think I will be able to live without you." 

    Homer ZM was still watching the tv and smiled. 

   "Will you let me go first?" I asked.

    ZM paused. 

    "Ok, but don't go too early." 

the heart of books

       I just realised that Facebook had this really cute function of searching for your favourite books and liking them. In a way, it's all very silly, but I enjoyed looking at the various book covers and thinking about which books still spoke to me. I've read many many many excellent books, but I don't think excellence is the criteria when we think about books that have impacted our lives, whose words capture the very moments we live and become part of our lives.

      Presently, the ten (english) books that mean the most to me would be (in no order of merit):

      1) The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
      2)  I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
      3)  Master Harold and The Boys (play) by Athol Fugard
      4)  His Dark Materials (trilogy) by Philip Pullman
      5) The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
      6) The Devotion of Suspect X by Keiko Higashi
      7) The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
      8) Long Day's Journey into Night (play) by Eugene O'Neil
      9) South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami
     10) Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

   I had to leave three other heart books out: (i) The Plague by Albert Camus, (ii) Eating Fire by Margaret Atwood and (iii) The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein.

   No. 1 is the book I'll read for life and the one I'll carry if I can only have one book on a deserted island. No. 2 is the book I read when I was seventeen, which is the perfect age to read it, on the cusp of adulthood and brimming with the potential loss of innocence. No. 3 is the play that gives me this beautiful image to hold onto in my darkest moments. No. 4 is the book that taught me about heartbreak when I was a child. No. 5 is my idea of the perfect novel. No. 6 is how I want to write. No. 7 is how I used to want to write and the one book where my closest friends have told me that I was like the main character (who I think is crazy, romantic, creative, narcissistic and dreamy). No. 8 is my idea of the perfect play. No. 9 is the first book I read from Murakami and sometimes, how I see the world. No. 10 is still my greatest reading pleasure.

    [(i) is the book that captured me in the moment where I missed ZM the most, (ii) is my poetic aspirations and (iii) is the book that made me believed that magic lies in the goodness of people].

    Oh, the lives lived in books! The happy endings, the sad endings, so much of life is in the lives we will never live.

to have an ordinary life

                                                     By Kelvin Koh (Lightedpixels) 

   I really miss writing. I have so much to write (about the Europe trip, finishing the Z&C series and wanting to write a series about my parents) but there is really very little time in my life. I come home around midnight every day from the hospital and some days are worser than the rest. Today was bad for instance. But, perhaps, it was the badness in the end, that finally pushed me to write. To try to make the day that much better, to be my own comfort food. 

   People have been asking me, "How was your trip?" And, deep inside, I find it very hard to answer. I give a genuine smile and say it was great. It was great... but perhaps the closest I can come to describe it is to call it complicated bliss. As terribly girly as this sounds, ever since ZM and I left Holland 5 years ago, I started dreaming of returning to revisit our past and to take wedding photos. My dream wedding would be the two of us in the dom church, saying our own personal vows and lighting a candle. Voila - married! So we actually planned to take wedding photographs in Holland two years ago from this date. 

   Mum fell sick, and I got engaged a month later. ZM and I married two months later. The bigger part of my dream was to bring my whole family with me to Holland to be part of my wedding photographs. I saved, planned and booked. It did not happen. It could not happen. This is the heartbreaking part. The part that hurts. The part where try as hard as I can, wanting is not enough. 

   The truth is all I want to be is normal. To have an ordinary life.  Love, I'm afraid, is not ordinary. I can only dream of the day that my family sits around a table and eat dinner together again. Something so simple, so out of reach. 

   But, all I have are my dreams. I am the girl that dreams, as good, as large, as it hurts.  

    

    

and maybe if we drive fast enough

"I thought, there is nowhere else in the universe I would rather be at this moment. I could count the places I would not rather be. I've always wanted to see New Zealand, but I'd rather be here. The majestic ruins of Machu Picchu? I'd rather be here. A hillside in Cuenca, Spain, sipping coffee and watching leaves fall? Not even close. There is nowhere else I could imagine wanting to be besides here in this car, with this girl, on this road, listening to this song. If she breaks my heart, no matter what the hell she puts me through, I can say it was worth it, just because of right now. Out the window is a blur and all I can really hear is the girl's hair flapping in the wind, and maybe if we drive fast enough the universe will lose track of us and forget to stick us somewhere else."

                                                                  - Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield 

Utrecht - Day 1 (Sunday Market)

     I'm writing this while ZM is preparing dinner. A husband that cooks for you is a lifetime pleasure indeed. We arrived full of zest - walking the Sunday market and the city centre of Utrecht until we kind of petered out around 3 plus pm, lazed in the living room and slept till it's 10 plus pm. Jet lag, my long lost friend, thank you for visiting gently.

 

        Utrecht has not changed at all. Besides the monstrosity of new constructions nearer the train station where modernity rears its ever bland head, the history city centre remains as before. The proud Dom tower, the resilient church. All the small shops and quaint eccentricities have survived unscathed. As if economic "progress" and inflation were never in doubt.

      When I call the streets, they return my name. 

           

      Time flew, but a small town stood still. Are small towns all we have as a buffer against time? It feels like home, but this is not home. It feels like we are students, with not a care in the world, with the only concerns being food and where our next journey shall be. But, we are no longer students.

    We walk and walk, and walk. It is all here. Still living. What is it like to remain unchanged as the world changes?

   I can smell the dinner ZM is preparing from all the ingredients we bought from the Sunday market. Despite it all, I feel almost happy. Perhaps, one doesn't realise one was running on empty, until one is full again. 

  

Back to Holland

“Anyone whose goal is 'something higher' must expect someday to suffer vertigo. What is vertigo? Fear of falling? No, Vertigo is something other than fear of falling. It is the voice of the emptiness below us which tempts and lures us, it is the desire to fall, against which, terrified, we defend ourselves.” 

                                        - Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being 

      I've been really busy the past two days, spending time with my parents, carrying out all my errands (all 30 of them - including writing a letter to my mum each day I'm away), and now I'm finally leaving. I'm both excited and terrified. As Bob Marley says so well, "My fear is my only courage". It's back to Holland for ZM and I, after five years. As promised. 

P.S. I'll be bringing my laptop and will be updating. See you guys, on the other side. 



     

Love Whisperings (For M)

    Love Whisperings

    They say pain is an untold language,
    only to be borne,
    like a chip on your shoulder
    embedded in the blood.
    Born out of our bond,
    it does not dissolve
    in well-meaning questions or concerned glances.
    It smells benignly,
    and sits comfortably in its own forcefield
    -- it is all gravity here.
    It keeps me awake
    as I try to make sense of the stars.
    You are my clarity,  the beginning
    of my soul.
    You hold all our worlds together,
    your laughter is the sound of all that is right
    in this world.