Nieuw-Vennep From The Window

Nieuw-Vennep is a town in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Haarlemmermeer, and lies about 10 km southwest of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.

I feel like I've found a new home :)

Bonding over Strawberry Yogurt and Things I have never seen Before

The dialog went like this:

- Hi, what you doing?
- Nothing much, just trying to eat some yogurt. What about you?
- Oh cool, I am also eating yogurt. What is yours?
- Strawberry :)
- Yours?
- Strawberry :D
- Should we blog about it? :P

So here I am blogging about it. She blogging about it. you can read here.

Rads Snack

Lovely

My snack

only 40 calories per 100 grams ;)

And the things I have never seen until Nederlands....This is Mango and Melon Tea

And Nivea Cream in a flip cap tube, it was the first time I actually contemplated buying the Nivea moisturizer, as the approach 'cream from a tin' never enticed me much.

As I keep on finding the things I have never seen before...I will keep on posting.

Bidding Farewell

On my last day at office I started thinking about what should I write in my farewell email, also how difficult it is saying goodbye to people that you have worked and interacted daily for over 3 years but are not your family or friends.

As you can imagine a lot of thought went into it for days, and I took many things into consideration, like:

• How much have they bugged me for this many years
• How many leaves was I denied
• How much harassing did I face from customers and peers alike.

Being on a nasty mood that day I came up with the following:

--
Dear Team(a$$wholes,mfs,slimeys)
As some of you know, today is my last day with (company name) (yay :D) and last week in India.

But before I leave, I wanted to remind you what a pleasure it was working with you for past 3 years NOT. I appreciate your support and feel I learned a great deal here, to what I am very thankful. NOT

I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere love and appreciation to my friends and colleagues.(well not all of them but if i mention names here it wont be cool) 


I have learned a great deal from you and will dearly miss your company.(not at alllllllllllllllllll) It has been a great pleasure working with you all. (not u alllllllllllllllllllllllllll)

I hope we can stay in touch. (only the good ones, rest die)

Best wishes to everyone.(well this is actually true)
Sincerely,(not so much)
---

So jokes apart, one of the determining thing was:  Why to be politically correct/polite to people from a place that made me feel miserable for the most of my tenure there? and the answer was, there were some exceptions.

In my last office I met my newest best friend, also known as Flovi, meanwhile I learnt a lot and achieved the goals i had set. Yet I knew I did not owe that to anyone apart of myself.
So why to write a huge letter of thanks if I knew there was nothing to thank?
Ungrateful? Maybe yes, and I didn't care.

For the content I decided:

1. To actually send a Last day @ office email
2. To keep it short (say 3 lines)
3. Not to thank anyone (unless completely true, which wasn't the case) or cite names
4. Not to make it personal or philosophical
5. Not mention my email

Kind of mean, some co-workers might think, but that is exactly what they are co-workers, not long lost family, you don't have to apologize for keeping it real.

How could one call it appropriate and appreciate fake words? I for one would actually think of reading many of the farewell emails I got all this years if there were at least short forget about truth.

I really think its disrespectful to think that people would take time off their work to put 30 mins into reading someone blabbing away about people we dont know or can relate in a email sized like a Bible.
Kindly email you feelings and your sorrows and thanks and what nots for the concerned people for chrissake.

Strong feelings? I know, so below you can find my actual farewell email:

---
Hello (Team name),

As you know today is my last day at work and still it can become quite busy :)

Wishing the best to all and hoping to stay in touch.

Kind Regards,
Deborah 
--

Yes I gave them my Linkedin contact, cause they are my professional network after all and nothing else, my friends...well they already had my emails anyways.

In this last day letter writing thing, I realized that those who matter for you won't need it, those whose need, don't matter.

Embarrassed by My Fellow Countrymen - Today India

I am Indo-Brazilian and I consider India and Brazil the same in my heart, I love both countries for distinct reasons, but also dislike both for very similar ones.

I don't want to go on ranting about any of them because after 20 years of living in Brasil and 4 of India, I learnt how to manage my anger towards certain issues and keep my head high and my temper down in spite of the circumstances.

This week, two disturbing things were presented to me by my dear friend Flovi, also a Indo-Brazilian. Please check her blog here.

First one is the Dowry Calculator, amusing for some, and source of curiosity from my part.  Let us be clear that I am not bringing India per se, into consideration as the issue is subjective and is practiced by many cultures, however the website is written in a mostly Indian context.


The website is kind of boring, you can go check for yourself, as it says  *Dedicated to all the match making aunties of India.

The calculator is a joke for MEN and for their benefit only, as history has it,a woman's worth is measured by the amount of dowry she can pay. What else would you expect?


Below are some of the 'results' I got...

By the way this changes only according to your salary rate and how many divorces you had (both highly regarded). Doesn't matter from where you graduated, or your skin color, be it as the website states:
Wheatish (would need some Fair n Lovely) or Pitch Black(Wouldn't be seen in a moonless night) as long as you make more than 1.0 Lakh monthly.

Your current dowry rate is  35 Lakh. It is a decent amount, but who wants to settle for decent when there is an entire range of awesomeness available? You could achieve an awesome dowry amount too. Remember the guy who right now deserves the highest dowry, even he at once upon a time started with a market price of zero. Your dream dowry amount awaits you. Be a man, and slog hard for it.


Congratulations! Your current dowry rate is  65 Lakh. Although it is a very competitive amount, self improvement never did anyone any harm. Always remember that "It is an extra that separates ordinary from extraordinary". You have done most of the things in your life right, you just need to give that extra in order to achieve your dream dowry!


Congratulations! Your current dowry rate is  1 Crore. Besides the cash amount, you are assured a lavish wedding, a land property (given you negotiate your price well), hefty and expensive jewelry, and even a foreign tour with your wife -- all with your in-laws' hard earned money. Hasn't someone correctly said, "The best things in life are free"? Now, you can bask in the glory of your achievements. The day has arrived. All these years of hard work, and investment in education has finally paid off. You have made your parents proud. Bravo!


If you are brilliant and thought its a neat idea, just check these websites below:


Dowry Law in India


Anti Dowry - Dahej



But this is all just for fun!!!!! some might say... as if would cancel a rightful disgust.

Just for fun? I don't agree...the content on the internet, be it satirical or not, is out there forming opinion and I believe the Indian youth by treating this subject with such disregard and mockery, banalizes the suffering that some people do face in real life. Moreover if you read the comments on that webpage you see that many do take it seriously, and that is what makes me ashamed here...How gullible can we be?

...
Tomorrow Brazil

Hard Disk Clean up

I was cleaning up my hard drive and found some funny, weird things I kept for some reason in the folder 'Unnamed Desktop Crap' which pretty much summarized the content of it...so thought of sharing :)

Royal Wedding Fever

I am guilty of crying at weddings, even on my own I couldn't stop the tears...and of wishing every single couple the best in their lives as it means so much to know that are people out there supporting you. I know because I was a bride once and I needed it.

So all that is to justify my current love with this Royal couple and to acknowledge that Catherine made my dream wedding dress come true....oh so beautiful....

Best of luck for the newly married couple...We all need it :)