identify 100 things that make me happy (besides money)

Wow… I’ve really abandoned this list. Bad bad. I’m reviving this for Thing-A-Day

The context has changed a lot; it’s been 2 years since I started this list. We’ve moved from the Netherlands to Italy, I finished graduate school, traveled a bit around Italy with the husband, started freelancing, my father had a life-saving operation (he’s fine now), took a big 7-week trip to India-Singapore-Indonesia with the husband. Although sometimes I wish some things were easier, I love our life!

71. being greeted by name in the local cafes/bakeries/fruit sellers/pizzeria in our Milan neighbourhood
72. touching a very soft hank of woolly yarn
73. swimming in Italian lakes in the summer
74. sunbathing in the park with the husband
75. staying over at a friend’s house and they prepare your bed for you while you brush your teeth: all crisp fresh sheets for you to sink into
76. looking at handsome Italian men on the metro/train :)
77. window-shopping in Milan
78. aperitivo with friends
79. receiving emails from people who have stumbled upon my blog/portfolio and want to get to know me for work/fun
80. receiving emails from online and offline publications who want to use my photography

60. baking traditional norwegian gingerbread cookies for christmas, with cathrine

61. ally’s christmas party

62. ally’s parties—> a must on the social calendar

63. being given a hot glass of mulled wine after walking through the freezing amsterdam streets

64. christmas lights around town

65. when my students do their homework, hahaha

66. when my students ask me intelligent questions that make me think

67. when my students walk away from the classroom with new knowledge :)

68. spontaneous hugs from people at parties

69. receiving my foodswap parcel

70. Queen Anne Cordial Cherries from Adam in New York :)

53. tickling my 15-month-old nephew, xavier. he has the cutest little giggle and the best toothy smile ever!

54. meeting old friends who you haven’t seen in years and years and finding out they’re as cool and interesting now as they were back then.

55. finding out that you and the friend mentioned above still get along really well.

56. being told you’re loved.

57. receiving MMS/SMS from my dad at weekends.

58. receiving funny forwarded email from my cousins/dad/friends. sure, some of the jokes are old, but it’s nice to be thought of.

59. finding new food photographs on flickr.com and working up an appetite.

46. getting new music suggestions from the cashier guy at bullitt records down on kleine berg… he knows just what i like, which makes me wonder how much attention he pays to the music i buy at his shop…

47. getting asked to join a team with a common goal on 43things

48. monday mornings when my husband has left for work and the apartment is mine all mine and i have some time for myself

49. finding websites like mate-tee.de that ships to the netherlands, a site where i can buy food i’ve been craving (in this case, havanna alfajores)... yippee!

50. doing housework with my husband: painting, making furniture, cleaning house… might sound weird, but hey…

51. summer weather when the guys are wearing less clothes! :D

52. getting a broad friendly smile from a cute guy whilst walking in the street

hey everybody, just writing to wish you all a really good weekend! it’s a long 4-day weekend here in the netherlands, so my husband and i are running away to berlin to visit a friend! have a good one!

- yasmina

32. visiting friends in their hometown and having them show me the place they grew up in.

33. eating bratwurst in germany.

34. oktoberfest in munich.

35. having my german/bavarian friends bring me bavarian white sausages to eat with sweet mustard and pretzens (pretzels to you americans)... yummy…

36. someone sending me hanuta and duplo chocolates in the mail

37. seeing a multi-language “welcome/bienvenue/benvenuto/willkomen” sign when you arrive at the airport of your destination.

38. finding a random town on the map and cycling there on my bike on a nice sunny weekend day.

39. getting free flights from my flight-award/airmiles card.

40. driving somewhere but using the local/country roads instead of the express highway.

41. finding a fab place to stay/eat/drink/spa in one of the places i travel to.

42. having a passport full of stamps and visa stickers. i love the design of some visas, i always get sad when my passport run out of sheets and i have to get a fresh clean one :(

43. going for a drive at the weekend. i live close to the german and belgian borders, with luxembourg and france only 2.5 hrs away, so we always end up in another country and sometimes we end up staying at whatever little town instead of driving back home.

44. taking my husband to a city/country where he’d never been before. i love travel and i’m pretty well travelled due to my upbringing but my husband is the complete opposite of me. holidays for him as a kid meant southern france, northern italy. whereas my parents put me on a plane and called their friend/relative in whatever city or country to meet me at the other side. he doesn’t like to travel on his own, but he’d follow me anywhere :)

45. getting free class upgrades on flights.

22. when people go on business trips and bring back something nice for me from their trip: chopsticks, cool foreign packaging, foreign club flyers

23. picking a new soap at the grocery store… i love smelling the different soaps

24. giving my friends a lift somewhere on the back of my bike…

25. getting a lift on the back of a guy friend’s bike, especially if he smells nice

26. walking to work with michael and talking about how we would like to spend our day if we didn’t have to work that day

27. finding an old song i really like (but had forgotten about) in my music collection

28. having my sister do girly facials/manicure/pedicure on me, and vice versa…

29. big hugs from robert when i come home from somewhere and hadn’t seen him all day

30. finding a really cool handbag and adding it to my wishlist and never giving up hope that someone might get it for me one day

31. making my own beauty facial scrub from natural ingredients

13. having robert cook me dinner

14. eating in the balcony on a sunny day

15. reading calvin & hobbes

16. eating corn on the cob

17. really early morning walks in the summer, when the neighborhood is all quiet and still

18. going to de hoogste tijd in town, where my friend radek DJs at weekends, and dancing with my eyes closed and knowing the next tune radek plays will be something by james brown and he’ll wave at me while it’s playing…

19. monday mornings when robert has left for work and i’m left all alone in thw flat and i can do whatever i want that day…

20. mountainbiking with michael on winter sundays

21. trying new fusion dishes, like thai chicken quesadillas with spicy peanut sauce and mango salsa

-weekends in the mountain house

my mom and her brother and sisters own some land in the mountains of west java. it’s our personal haven; we’d go up friday night, come back down sunday night, monday morning.

within the estate, there’s a fresh-water stream that we could swim in, big rocks for us to sunbathe on, fishponds and gazebo for fishing, villas, gardens to walk in…

all the food we eat come from the land: rice, lamb, fish, tropical fruits, even the coffee!

-cooking together with friends and then inviting more friends round to dine together

-going sailing and lying in the nets all afternoon, hanging between the bow sprite and the water surface and getting occasionally splashed by the waves. best place on the boat really.

-flying a kite and getting it up so high that you run out of string

-having my dad fix me a plate of papayas for breakfast

he always has papaya trees in his garden, and he’d cut them into slices, sprinkle them with lime/lemon juice and a bit of sugar… so so good

-receiving flowers (from anyone)

-eating a scrumptious belgian waffle topped with vanilla ice cream, fresh berries and chocolate shavings

-waking up before anyone else in the house and wander around in the silence of dawn, with a cup of herbal tea

-cold cold north european winter days when it’s freezing, but the sun is really shining brightly

-finding long-lost articles of clothing/books/CDs/photos/toys at my parents’ house

-coming back to my desk to find post-it notes from friends who have missed me we’re all designers so the notes are never straightforward text, they always some sort of drawings or cartoons that i have to decipher.

-having a meal with my dad’s side of the family

my dad’s side of the family are so so family-oriented. we all love food, so we are always looking for a reason to get together and eat. at least once a month, my dad’s brothers and sister would gather at one of their houses, or at my granddad’s and have a meal together.

for me, it’s a special treat, since i’m based in europe and i hardly see them. and because i’d come from far away, everyone would ring me and ask whether there’s any special food that i would like to eat, and they’d cook or buy this for me to eat. so this dining get-together is a real feast for me.