About Me

Hello. Thanks for popping in.

My name is Mieke. This is my blog.
And if you were here, I’d hug you. But since you’re not, I’ll have to settle for letting you know that without readers like you, my blog wouldn’t exist. So thank you.

This is me. Well, some of it, anyway …

My name is Mieke. Just me, Mieke. No nicknames, no funny stories here. People call me Mieke or Mika. Or dushi. But that is only my peeps on Bonaire. And my sister calls me Kaka(k). Which is Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language) for ‘older sister’. Which I am. She is Addi (Adik). As you would expect, that means ‘younger sister’. This is a leftover from a magical trip we’ve made to Indonesia.

So, okay. I guess I do have a few nicknames.

Although for many many years I called the family farm in the south of Holland my home, I made the world my playground. Started working in Spain, gone walkabout in Australia for a year and a half, built myself a life in the Caribbean and then changed it all again.
After 15 years of hopping around the globe, hubby and I settled ‘up’ [thanx fellow blogger for this expression] in Amsterdam. Our home. For now.

I’m married. And that is one of the coolest things in my life! With him I got a new home. Not just coz wherever he is, I’m home but also because he’s from a country far away. So we travel there and slowly that foreign place is starting to feel like home. Another one.
I love my husband. Obviously. But not just love him. I adore him. Think he is the most beautiful and funniest creature on earth. We laugh, cry, talk. Travel together and think alike. We clash, we discuss, we agree. I can’t wish for anything more in a man. Think he is the best thing since sliced bread. The best thing since Gouda cheese. And that says it all.

I traveled. A lot. It used to be an occupational hazard as I lived and worked on yachts. Hubby still does. Nowadays I travel as much as I can and as much as I feel like. It takes me to wonderful, magical places around the world. Meet amazing people, call them all my friends. For a day. A lifetime. Traveling opens up the soul.

Early 2013 I’ve firmly planted my feet in Amsterdam soil. Within weeks I found a shore based job, we rented a house in Zeeburg (Seaburg) and I started working for a company called ‘On Deck’. I guess I wasn’t ready to stray too far from what I knew …
Since then we moved to the ‘Rivierenbuurt’. The ‘river neighborhood’, where the main streets are named after rivers in Holland. Still water related. I like to call it Amsterdam’s Riviera. Très chic.

I love reading. I can travel anywhere I like but books take me back into time. Books give me a look into the rich and the shameless’ lives. They bring me into the lives of families and people I’d otherwise never experience.

I embrace yoga. It is simply the only thing that makes my thoughts stop from running wild in my head. I experience true silence in yoga. Namasté.

I am a diver. Dive Master even. Addicted for life. Love the fish. Scuba diving is like yoga, but underwater. And without trying to tie your body in a knot. But equally relaxing. Mind blowing. Pure. Where yoga stops my thoughts, diving slows them down.
When does the next plane to the sun leave … ?

Apart from that, yoga and diving, my mind runs. Fast. In circles. Or just wildly, randomly, criss-cross, flailing its arms in the air. It’s tiring sometimes. So I try to tame them. Here, on this blog. And you’re part of it now. Enjoy it!