studiojune

Well, this weekend they officially arrived: our beloved Sinterklaas and his helpers. Saturday November 18 Curacao celebrated their arrival at Brionplein in Otrobanda. If you don’t live in the Netherlands or on a Dutch Caribbean Island, you might not be familiar with this tradition. My pleasure to explain what these guys are doing! Sinterklaas is a great man, really. We don’t know his exact age (rumors go he’s even more than hundred years old), but his energy and willpower are to be admired. Every year, from the second week of November until December 5, he is on the streets with his white horse and his helpers to bring presents and candy for the kids. Showing up unexpectedly at houses, supermarkets, fancy fairs and lots of other places. We could be jealous of the fact that he can be present in the Netherlands and on Curacao at the same time! Believe me, a lot of us here – with family and friends overseas – would love to have those magic super powers.

December 5
The magnus opus of all this takes place at December 5. Sinterklaas celebrates his birthday by handing out presents to all kids (whose parents acknowledge his existence ;-) ) The fun part is that a lot of all this happens secretly; Sinterklaas sends his helpers to deliver all gifts after sunset, they knock on doors, leave the gifts and run away. You can imagine the excitement in the house when this happens!

Resemblance
Yes, our Sinterklaas does have quite a resemblance with Santa Claus. In fact, they even have kind of matching outfits and the same characteristic white beard. Maybe that’s why the people who were taking care of the festivities this weekend, thought some advertising would be legitimate. After all, Santa Claus does a really great job promoting Coca-Cola in winter wonderland. This year, on Curacao there were not only helpers playing the trombone and dancing and waving, some of them were wearing advertisement for a restaurant. Hmm… to my humble opinion, they were playing quite a bit out of tune here!

Belief
Sinterklaas is here for kids from let’s say, age 2 until 8. They believe in this fairy tale and enjoy every minute of it. So, can we just leave it at that? Just celebrate childhood and its unconditional belief in something good? Presents and candy are all you need in Wonderland. No need for restaurants there.

So, here I am again. You may have noticed I haven’t posted that many yet on my new website. Busy with so many things, rushing through the days to get all things done. To be able to write, you need to have some peace of mind, relax a little and let it flow. Hmmm… pretty hard when you have only four hours a day for work and feel like you need to give everybody your best work and effort! On the one hand, it’s a great feeling when I have worked four hours straight, deeply concentrated and finished everything on my list. On the other hand, it can make me feel exhausted and leave me uninspired to do something new.

How surprised I was when I read this very interesting article in Hapinezz issue 6-2017 (Hapinezz is one of my favorite Dutch magazines). Dr. Sini Pillay explained that our brains need to unfocus on a very regular basis. During unfocused moments, your brains process memories and link them to what happens today. It is a necessary state of mind to let your creativity flow. So, when you decide to leave your laptop for a moment, don’t pick up that memo you still need to read or start sketching a new design. The most effective way to rest and make sure you can focus again later, is to do something that is not useful. You should wander around, dream a little and play. What, play? It’s that word we use for our kids, when we tell them to put down the tablet and go outside. It’s that thing we were incredibly good at in our days (at least we think so) and forgot all about…

A few weeks ago, I was in this little wood nearby, called ‘Den Dunki’. You should be able to find the entrance when you head to neighborhood Bottelier. I was walking there with my son, enjoying every minute of it on an early Sunday morning. He was running around, wondering about the colors of the leaves, listening to the shrieking sound of the trees. We had nice little 1-minute-conversations. At the end of the walk, we ran into a kind of play yard. Just a few swings and ropes, but it looked great and promising. And yes, my son enjoyed every minute of it. And I? I was taking pictures. This happens to be one of the things I’m passionate about, so I guess you could say I was having fun, and I took some really pretty pictures. But I do realize now, that it would have been the perfect moment to… yes, play. We will go to the woods again, maybe I will bring my camera (because it is a kind of addiction, to be honest), but I will make sure to put it away right on time!

If you live on Curacao, you definitely recognize this beauty. Otherwise you might have seen it before, but maybe not know the name that goes along. It’s one of my favourite flowers: the Bougainville. And… a favourite of many, I guess! With its flashing color and tropical looks, it creates ambience in many local gardens and at the side of the roads. The magenta ones are most common here, but I do love the red, orange and white ones just as much.

Did you know?
This good-looking flower has been discovered during one of the expeditions of Louis de Bougainville, a French explorer in the 18th century. A little exploration of my own unfortunately did not give any results on the question where the Bougainville was actually discovered. But at least it found its way to Curacao and is cheering up our days!

Why not put some flowers on the kitchen table today and color your Monday? Have a great week!