Nimavenl - Nicole's Random Ramblings

 The Netherlands is experiencing a heatwave that ensures it feels like we're actually in a Mediterranean country instead of a north-western European one. With tourists speaking many different languages whichever way you turn and this amazing warm weather, being home in Amsterdam truly feels like I'm on holiday instead of living my normal day to day life. Loving the mellow summer feeling for sure! People seem to just be more relaxed, more willing to smile and make time for each other, more interested in slowing down and enjoying life. Dutch people often seem to run around a lot, stressing about this or that, rushing from place to place and from appointment to appointment, not taking or making the time to relax, to breathe, to take in the beauty of nature and of the world. Rushing about in this heat is simply too tiring and exhausting, so for a change - a very happy one! - people are actually slowing down, relaxing and truly enjoying life. If only summer lasted a little longer, w...

 I used to have an active blog. Started it in 2008, deleted a number of posts, posted more in 2009 and kept going. Posted photos and book reviews, wrote about the stories I was writing at the time, gave my opinion on what was going on in the world... Earlier this year I took the blog offline. Somehow I felt like I needed a change. Needed something different. Needed all parts of my life to be different. A lot has changed in my life in the past two-ish years. I was forced to grow up, if I can use those words even though I've been an adult for quite a few years already. I was forced to change, despite not being ready for change at all. When you don't choose change but are forced to deal with it because that's just the way life works, it can be really hard to accept the changes and the 'new normal'. Sometimes though, when life gives you an opportunity for change, you don't realise how important that opportunity is, how vital it was that you change, until you've ...