Those were the days, my friend....

Finally, vacation time….the last few months have been crazy, but so worth it! We just celebrated our 4 year anniversary in Holland on the 17^th of July, and as per usual we revisit our goals and dreams, and you know what? As my very wise mom told me before, you really do look back on hard times and laugh about your stress and worries. We have come a looong way and we are still moving forward.

The biggest achievement this last year, must be that I stuck with school and finished the year with results way beyond my wildest expectations. It really is an input and output issue. And with the final year looming in September, my commitment is at the highest level. I even dared dream about a possible Master degree. But let us not get ahead of ourselves here…..

There are many half-blogs floating around in my head. It’s always like gardening in my head, can’t rush it, they’ll be ready in their own time. But I sat down in the middle of doing other stuff today, because there is this one thing I really want to get off my chest.

I miss my family and my friends. Often. Where ever they are in the world. Some friendships stand the test of time, easily and effortlessly. When the opportunity arises and we find ourselves on the same continent, we meet and share good food and laughs. The years fly by in minutes.
Others run their natural course and end in polite conversations when you bounce into each other at the supermarket. I am all good with that. As an island kid, with a coming and going of people, it is what it is and you learn to enjoy it while it lasts. When lucky, it will last until you are in polka dots bathing suits with bathing caps in the warm ocean.

The rise of social media seemed like such a nice opportunity to find the friends that got away! I resisted Facebook for so long, but when I opened my own business, I had to open a personal account, to be able to manage the business page. Now after two years, I am giving up trying to like it.

Somehow, I will never get used to hearing important news in non-chronological, chopped-up bits. Or by seeing it being commented on by a mutual friend. I hate being tagged in stuff, either as myself or by mistake. I remember people’s birthdays by myself. I am not interested in knowing which Disney Princess/color/animal I am. I deeply don’t care about candy crush, or farm heroes or whatever else there is. My news does not come from sensational sites. I really don’t care about what everybody is eating or where they are checking in. I will not post any personal pictures for the whole world and their mother to see, copy and do whatever they want with them. A ‘like’ from someone I haven’t spoken to in years, does not mean that the friendship is still alive. And I will never, never spend time looking things up on people’s Facebook, in order to stay informed about important stuff in their life. 

I am of the generation and, lucky enough, the part of the world, where you can drop by and catch up unannounced. When you haven’t heard from someone in a while, you pick up the phone and call and actually talk to the person. And I want to go back to that. So, I will be deleting my Facebook page at the end of this week. The time spent with my laptop will be in search of higher education, updating my website, blogging and looking up recipes and fun stuff to do. Outside, with warm blooded humans.

I would love to hear from you, in real time! My email is still cmneman at Hotmail. For reaching me and my husband ront.mundu at gmail or order food at cindy at kikicupcake.com. Mail me your email-address or phone number and we will meet in real time to have coffee, lunch, a run, a boat trip, dinner, bbq and other fabulous stuff. And all of that without looking at my phone every few seconds, I promise. Tell me when you are getting married, pregnant, divorced, send me your address and I will send you a proper paper birthday and Christmas card. We even do cookie cards for Christmas. I am reclaiming my outside playing, tree climbing, pick-up baseball, spontaneous lunches that turn into dinner life. Hope to see you all at the other side of digital!