Reunion season

Last Saturday, it was 7 years ago since I landed in Melbourne for the first time. About a month before that, it had been 3 years since I had left Adelaide behind. Both moments seem like not that many years ago at all. It's funny how time goes sometimes. Why am I telling you this? Because it seems to be reunion season for me this Summer. Although it can hardly be called Summer with the amount of rain and allround crappy weather we've had here for the past few weeks. But that's beside the point.

So, reunion season... A day after I wrote my last blog update, I got a message from my Canadian friend Victor that he was in Amsterdam for a few days and if I would like to catch up with him and two other friends I knew from my time in Adelaide in The Hague the next day. Having no other plans yet, it was perfect :) So one sunny Friday I set out for The Hague in the afternoon, where I was met by Victor and Maddie at central station. We did the whole long time no see running hug movie-scene type thing, marvelled at how we were all in the same place once again coming from all corners of the world, and then decided to go to the beach and enjoy the surprisingly sunny day while catching up. Once at the beach, we were also joined by Michael, for whom we repeated the entire running hug thing, haha. It was so so lovely to spend the day with the three of them again :) After 3 years of not seeing each other, it's funny how easily you slip back into the old habits of friendship. Even if it's only for that one day :) We had late lunch on the beach under the watchful eye of a psycho seagull; jumped on trampolines, bringing up the average age at the trampoline place drastically; Victor, Maddie and Michael went for a swim before they too discovered the water was way too cold for that; and we just relaxed the afternoon and evening away at a bar called Crazy Pianos, where Michaels' girlfriend Lisa joined our little group. Good times were had :) Especially once they started playing piano live at the bar and we put in many an Aussie song request to take us back to our time in Adelaide together. The pianists simply laughed at our semi-drunk singalongs, haha. It must have been funny to observe our little international crowd of five, singing terribly off-key but having the best time :) Eventually the day ended and goodbyes had to be said once again, but I left The Hague with a big smile on my face for the beautiful random day I had just had :)

So how's that for a start of reunion season: three reunions in one! But the reunions don't end there... The next few reunions are still coming up though, and I'm very much looking forward to them all. First one very likely to be with my friend and ex-housemate Maaike, who has recently returned from many many months in Peru this weekend. She'll be in Utrecht again this Thursday, so I'm excited to see her again after all that time and catch up on everything :) Then Friday I'm meeting up with my friend Henni, as she'll be in Amsterdam for a day all the way from Berlin. I haven't seen her in real life in over six years, even though we've been talking about meeting up again for quite a while now. See plans mentioned in previous blog to go to Berlin for a few days some time this Summer... This Friday it looks like us meeting up in real life again is finally going to happen, and I'm heaps looking forward to that :) And then there is my friend Coen, who has very very recently (today) returned from many many months in southern Africa, who I will no doubt be catching up with soon as well. Seeing as Coen and I still have a bet to settle which we set before he left, I'm looking forward to the sweet victory of winning my Magnum after almost a year too :)

Apart from past and upcoming reunions, there is actually not a lot going on in my life right now. I'm being kind of boring, and I'm perfectly okay with that too. I need boring from time to time, haha. I just spent a quiet week 'housesitting' at my parents' place while they were on holidays. I loved having the whole house to myself for a few days, and so much more space compared to my 10 m2 room, haha. I spent a lot of my time playing guitar and reading and just doing random bits and pieces. Lovely :) It was lovely when my parents were back again too though :) And now I'm back in Utrecht, still job hunting and still writing search-engine optimised texts in the meantime, although both are a bit slow at the moment. I guess we'll see what happens next! For now, I am just looking forward to the week ahead, and what comes after is still wide open :)

Anyway, enough with my ramblings. I hope this finds you all well, and I always love to hear from you too, so leave a note! And to those in faraway places, if you find yourself in the neighbourhood, make sure to let me know and we'll have our own reunion :) Already looking forward to it! Much love to all corners of the world.
xC.