garden with pond minus well

i add this view of our pond to my well. when i come to think of it, i realize that our house in amersfoort in fact used to have a well in the past! the well still exists, but now it belongs to our neighbours... quite remarkable how the well and garden and the little house changed owners over the years! let me try to sketch the layout briefly by way of introduction to some more photos i posted at www.flickr.com/people/alena. there's two main houses, behind them two little backyards, one little house and a garden with a pond. the two houses, ours and the neighbours', used to belong to one person, as it were sharing one large backyard, the little house and the garden that goes with it. since the two houses split, we have one bit of the backyard, the little house and the garden with the pond, while the neighbours are left with the second bit of the backyard and the well. anyway, those old houses and gardens are like a maze; they are fitted into each other and entangled like siamese twins. i'm glad i can share the pictures. i already got one comment on flickr from someone who wanted to visit :-) for the time being, anyone can in cyberspace...

tuin vijver 1 Originally uploaded by Alena.

meeting daniel

some events are better written down before they are forgotten. like meeting daniel. daniel is hungarian, about my age. we studied together at the university college utrecht and after his graduation daniel took off to stanford to follow a phd program. maybe he got bored of stanford, he arranged a transfer to harvard. still within the ivy league range, i suppose it gives you a kick to have this all on your cv. anyway, every now and then daniel and his polish wife ania fly over to europe and make a short stop in the netherlands. compared to the united states, distances are so small daniel and ania fit several countries in their visits of differing lengths. sometimes i should ask why they always include the netherlands: for the nostalgic thought of having lived here, for the purpose of seeing old friends, or maybe the reason is less poetic and they simply use the cheapest airfare. leaving all this aside, it's always a pleasure to see them. one of those friendships that have a high lasting coefficient.

one week ago i got an email from daniel. the subject line read: what are you doing on thursday? i thought, what am i doing on thursday? since i decided to quit my current job, free time has taken on an air of indulgent luxury. it's not necessarily that i work less, it's more that i'm better able to enjoy every bit of it. i am also more efficient with using my time now that the burden of the job has been lifted off my shoulders. for some time i gave it some serious thought to continue the job while keeping the thought of quitting in the back of my mind, but finally i figured this was not a very healthy approach to life. so i'm quitting and for the time being i have all the time in the world to do things like meeting daniel on a thursday afternoon.

on thursday i took the train to utrecht. the weather wasn't too good, neither warm nor cold, a prototypical day in dutch spring. disregarding the fact that the train takes only 15 minutes to get from amersfoort to utrecht, i decided to enjoy the journey and treated myself on a bottle of coca cola. i also brought a book, another murakami's classic the norwegian wood. i wore my favourite dark green top and thought the setting was perfect.

as i walked from utrecht central station to the cafe we were supposed to meet, one of the nicest cafes in utrecht carrying one of the funniest but also most stylish names 'winkel van sinkel,' i got stopped by a guy with a cheerful looking face. he said: 'hi! my name is daniel! how are you?' i didn't really know what to say. 'do we know each other?' (hesitation on my side) 'yes, of course,' he replied. 'i used to work here and always told you about jesus!' thoughts were rushing through my head: jesus? here meaning on the street? is his name really daniel? but this guy never waited for me to say anything. he went on and on talking, and the more he said, the less it made sense. 'i got some money from my mother and bought this suit! a suit of a hundred euros, a real bargain, don't you think? now i work in a hotel, making up beds and so. you know, the one on the malielaan!' i thought: what the heck the suit and the maliehotel! i know the maliehotel, it has this posh atmosphere around it, and louk always says it's one of the best hotels in town. so i always look a little suspicious: why should i automatically like everything that louk likes? but he has a point, the maliehotel really is pretty. and this guy was in any case very proud to make their beds.

i didn't have a lot of time to spend on this unexpected encounter. after all, i was meeting daniel, the real daniel, in about five minutes at this winkel van sinkel. so i tell this guy: 'the suit looks really good on you. good for you to work in the maliehotel. nice to have seen you again, but i really have to go now.' he stopped talking and after a short pause went on: 'yes, i am very busy. i must go now, it was nice to see you. i am really so busy with the new job and all!' i added one last question: 'are you sure your name is daniel?' 'yes, my name is daniel!' he maintained. 'okay, bye!' when you don't know what to say, an okay always comes in handy.

i walked to the cafe and met my real friend daniel, his wife ania and a couple of other friends. i tried to sketch this story but nobody paid much attention to it, just a weird coincidence, stuff like this can happen. but it did leave some impression on me. maybe i read too much fiction these days.

my newly found well

i call this 'blog spot' the well. the well is a regular feature of murakami's novels and i figured the line blog-spot-well read quite funky, like the song of some old 1980s rock music band. so what is a well? good question, in each of murakami's novels it has a different role, and i choose to use it following the wind-up bird template. a well is a place you go to to sort out your problems. what is more, entering the well implies you accept to enter a different reality, a reality of dreams perhaps, but still very real and promising of a solution. murakami's novels are like david lynch's movies, exploiting the same kind of mysterious playfulness. anyway, i like to think of this blog as such a well. the virtual reality of it forms a charming parallel.

the only trouble is, going to the well presupposes that you're in search of a solution to a specific problem. you know what you're looking for and it's really just a matter of time before you find it. i don't have anything close to a specific problem or question. or better, i just might have too many. and i hate keeping diaries.

so what am i looking for in this blog spot? at the moment i can think of at least one reason, to invest in friendships which are otherwise difficult to maintain. and it gives me the opportunity to write down my conversations with myself.

for more than two years i did an awful lot of commuting to my university, some three hours a day, at least three days a week. everytime i walked home from the train station i let my thoughts lose and talk to myself about different events of the day. i can go on and on complaining about a mismatched skirt and t-shirt to an imaginary stylist, continue conversations with my colleagues, and very often scheme imaginary fights with almost anybody to let go of silent aggressions. the fights and the fashion concerns i like the best.

starting with today. i walked from the train station and thought over and over about my first contribution to the blogger, a very well-intended theme for a change. i was very pleased to come up with the name (the well) and immersed myself in a monologue of wells, problems and virtual friendships. i guess none of what i'd written is as well formulated as when i imagined it while walking. i suppose it usually goes like that with finding the right words. it certainly goes like that with my imaginary fights. angry alone is far more creative than angry face-to-face.

nevermind, so far so good. best regards to my sister and thanks for introducing me to the blog phenomenon! :-)