HAPPY BIRTHDAY VIVI!

Vivi & me, originally uploaded by Mazzy.

Babe, Happy Birthday!

Missing the Milos and the Vivi energy... BUDDHA style :-)

WHEN are you coming to AMMY?

A Public Challenge

You are going for your dream job.

You submit your resume.

Next Task: You need to leave a message on a answering service telling the recruiter team in 60 seconds or less why you are right the right person for the organisation.

You want to stand out from the crowd; to tease them as such...

What do you do??

Any ideas?

Alfy is coming...he REALLY is!

277867201105_0_ALB[1].jpg, originally uploaded by Jennifer Harwood.

Just got off the phone with the man himself...

The rumours are true, Alfy Lay is in Amsterdam this weekend!!

SO AMAZINGLY EXCITED ABOUT IT!!!

It will be a reunion of the mega inspiring kind I am sure....

LOVING IT!

p.s Thanks Jen for the photo :-)

Spontaneity

Today has been the MOST spontaneous day I have had in ages, and I realise how much I am conditioned to spontanaeity and randomness. Often in the Netherlands, like Denmark, you need to plan and book people WAY ahead of schedule. It's always, let me look at my agenda, and I have a night free in a month, is that good for you?

Tonight I had a series of random, at the last minute invitations to things, and my god, it was soooo refreshing.

Not knowing what I will do, changing my plans to suit my mood...

Ah LOVING living in the moment a bit more again!

Noise, originally uploaded by Mazzy.

Develop

Check out the amazing work of a former LCP in Denmark 2 years ago...Lone Sondergard

She and a friend are starting an organisation called Develop.

It is AWESOME STUFF!

New York v London - THE RESULTS!

Over the past day or so I have been running this msn poll.

If you had your dream job, and could live in either:

NEW YORK

or

LONDON

Which city would you prefer?

In a significant winning, NEW YORK was the favourite.

Final Count .....

NEW YORK: 35

LONDON: 19

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIMBO!

October 2005 080, originally uploaded by Mazzy.

To the craziest, wackiest, smart, sassy, most 'I know where I am going in life' woman I know..

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIMBO!!!!

I found it!

I found my dream job.

I found my dream organisation.

It is so alligned with my own organisational dream.

There is a vacancy.

I have applied.

Please wish hard so that it may happen for me.... I REALLY want this one like I have not wanted anything since I left travelling from Australia 2 years ago.

WISH WISH WISH for me guys, I need the collective energy on this one :-)

My FAVE Cafe

More October 05 070, originally uploaded by Mazzy2.

This place totdally rocks...

Cafe De Jaron

SO GOOD!

I always come here...

To read
To write
To catchup with friends.

Basically, It KICKS ARSE!!

Monday Drinks... again!

More October 05 073, originally uploaded by Mazzy2.

Hetal and Luiz at Monday Drinks

What a MAN!

More October 05 017, originally uploaded by Mazzy2.

Maria, Emmanuel, and Sandy

Loser alert!!

More October 05 076, originally uploaded by Mazzy2.

Those crazy Portgese guys... here is Duarte giving me his best Loser sign unaware of Tui (Dutch) in the background... CLASSIC!

At the Heffer...

More October 05 075, originally uploaded by Mazzy2.

Sandy and Philipp at Monday night Heffer drinks.

Alex & Bergio

More October 05 003, originally uploaded by Mazzy2.

Marcios Party

More October 05 031, originally uploaded by Mazzy2.

Painting my room pink...

Pink, originally uploaded by Mazzy.

Metaphorically.

This will make no sense to anyone but me and Maria...

Babe THANK YOU for the chat the other day, I am definately de-greying my world and making it pink again.

Let this photo be a reminder of that!

We are Family!!!

family, originally uploaded by Mazzy.

Too Cool for School

eoin & reuben, originally uploaded by Mazzy.

The Gals

gals, originally uploaded by Mazzy.

Maria and Hetal

Add 2 Brailians & a Frenchman ...

crazy, originally uploaded by Mazzy.

I said.. SMILE!

gang, originally uploaded by Mazzy.

The Boys

boys, originally uploaded by Mazzy.

Mischa, Bergio, Diego and Jeff

Marcios Farewell Party

S4, originally uploaded by Mazzy.

One Compromise...

Watching the most random movie last night, Mr Deeds, and actually took something from it.

At the end of the movie, Deeds asks the room of shareholders of the company what they wanted to be when they were younger... and they shared the motivations they had in life. Money being one of the last things that motivates your decisions when you are younger.

Then Deeds talks about how they got to be where they are today.

'One day you made a compromise, then another compromise, then another, then another...'

I find for myself the same is holding true.

Will I be in 10 years saying...

I wanted to work for a bank because, ... then I went to this role becuase... then I got more money and benefits, so I did this... yada yada yada.

Have I started to compromise on what I really want to do already?
Why am I thinking within a boxthat I would never have chosen for myself in the past?
Why am I staying day after day in an environment that does not inspire me?
Why am I actually thinking of taking different roles in ABN AMRO when I fundamentally am not engaged in the purpose of the organisation? When I am not engaged by the bigger picture?

Am I compromising?
What am I compromising?
Am I telling myself that doing this is a good step ... to what? the future? What about the here and now?
When is it 'time' to do what I love, in an environment I love?
Am I settling on second best?
Why am I not chasing my dreams more actively?

WHY AM I ALWAYS ASKING THIS QUESTION..

Maybe therein lies my answer.

If ever anyone needed some drastic change, I think that person is me....

Need to take some personal responsibility... not to be content with the work situation I am in...

Ahhhh.....steps to a positive future, first one: acknowleding the need for change... DONE.

Time to actually MAKE some changes...

Watch this space :-)

Why have I waited so long...

.. to get an iPod?

The best thing that has happened to me lately is my new iPod, curtesy of a good colleague in my team who sold me a new one he does not use for a heaps reduced price.

It is awesome.

I love how music can elevate you to another place, it can make routine things like transporting to work and shopping, so pleasurable.

And it is MAZ MUSIC!

That means it is all the stuff that gets me going.

Its all my musicals
Its all my rock
Its all my instrumentals

It is all the ingredients I need for whatever mood I am in.

Also working in an open office, it allows me to have some noise which I need to be productive and not fall asleep from lack of human interaction.

SO GOOD PEOPLE!!

SO damn good.

What spoke to me today...

When browsing a random internet site...

"Every successful innovation is the result of a dreamer with a mission"

Love it.

Book of Dreams

October 2005 062, originally uploaded by Mazzy.

I have been restless ever since chairing the French National conference. When you have an experiences where you can be as big as the room, where you have autonomy over what you do and think... to come back to polar environment is difficult to say the least.

Hence, my red book of dreams.

In this book, I have spent the last 3 weeks writing down my company dream, the target audience, people involved, first steps, session outlines, conference outlines, learning programs, personal discovery platforms... ahh, it is so important to me.

But I am still restless, I need a change. or would it rather be a challenge?

Actually lets narrow it down, what I miss is autonomy of thought and action... how to get that back? How to not notice after years of having it?

The ghost of previous empowerment rears its head...

Brazilian Delight!

October 2005 090, originally uploaded by Mazzy.

CHEESY BALLS...

YUMMY!!!

Aussie Diva

October 2005 080, originally uploaded by Mazzy.

On the way home...

October 2005 072, originally uploaded by Mazzy.

from work one day. Here with some Amsterdam trainees.

Super Saturday

October 2005 077, originally uploaded by Mazzy.

With Kim in Brussels.

Sunday Brunch in Belgium

October 2005 086, originally uploaded by Mazzy.

Morning brazilian brunch in Belgium with Kim, her brazilian roomie and friends... SO YUMMY!

It's all about the people...

Kimbo and Diego this weekend.
Alfy here for a week at the end of October
Vivi and Alana dropping by.

Thats the cool part about Amsterdam... always someone passing through town.

It's all about the people!

Homesick

sydney, originally uploaded by Mazzy.

Sometimes in the weirdest moments I get really really homesick. One of these moments happened last night after I returned from Belgium.

I was watching BBC of all things... a show about a UK family relocating to Australia.

It started and I was transfixed.

This is literally the closest I have gotten to 'home' in almost two and a half years.

It was showing Sydney, and the Northern Beaches, the sounds of Sydney, the sites, even an LJ hooker 'You're the best' realtor!

There was sun, there was surf, there was outside locations, there was a HUGE city again...

I was almost crying.

It was a wake up call... I need to visit home soon, and make some decisions because I must admit life on the Northern Beaches after so much rain does look idealic.

Ahhh homesickness...!

Belgium & Craziness

By all accounts I had a pretty insane weekend.

Friday night was mega drinking and dancing with the trainee community... and I loved it!

Saturday headed to Brussels to visit Kimbo and the Belgian gang... however arriving around 9, meant we hit Kims house and 3 bottles of wine!!! I was like, 3? but we drank them all, and still remember it! It was an awesome night of catchup :-)

Then Rob on Sunday... but no Diego or Astrid... I am not very good at planning things as you all know.

However although exhausted I had a great weekend!!

LOVING EUROPEAN CLOSE CITY CONTACT!

Happy Birthday LIL!

FINALLY

After months of trying to set up catch up calls WE DID IT!

To one of my fave most amazing friends in the world...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABE!

Like always, a conversation with you is always fun and very fruitful.

Lil...

Amazing friend
Inspiring worker
Random Joker

and at the end of the day, one CRAZY crackball!

LOVE YOU!

Wishing you an amazing birthday, celebrate it in style!

Chilled.

Right now I am listening to Nat King Cole ' Embraceable You' ...

I have lit soft candles around the room...

I have my book ready to go...

I have my writing book also handy, I am chatting with frriends on msn and blogging...

I am CHILLED with a capital C.

It's Time

It is time to say goodbye to a good friend of mine.

They have been with me in Canada, and Netherlands.

They have travelled with me to New York, to Boston, to Copenhagen, to France, to London,to Switzerland.

My fave jeans.

After getting a red spot on my bootleg from markers, and today loosing my button at the top... they are no longer wearable.

So time for a new pair of jeans....

Damn.

Time Out

Sometimes what you need is time out.

For the past week I have been pretty sick - struck by a virus. I have been at home in bed nearly all days - or on the couch watching movies.

But I am happy for this time.

Sometimes I find myself so busy, so caught up in meeting to meeting, social event to social event - that in a way it has been wonderful to be sick, to have this time out. To spend time alone. To reflect on life, what I want to do, who I want to be... all those continual questions that haunt us all.

It has been, in a weird way, just what the doctor ordered and as I head into the next week. As I again take life by the head and shake things up a little, I once again have this inner calmness, this contentment, this understanding of where I am going in this chaos.

So I am happy for this time out. It was much needed.

The Germans

September 2005 210, originally uploaded by Mazzy2.

Dani and Laura after the PD track at the French National Conferencen ... LOVE THESE GIRLS!!

More than just a book...

Sometimes I think I should be a writer.
Sometimes I just want to ponder, I just want to put into words what I am feeling, thinking, doing, seeing.

But the thing about writing is that it is an activity I do by myself, and one thing I know about myself is that I predominantly derive my energy from people, interactions with others. That writing definately has to be a part of what I do, but more so when I am in certain moods.

All this being said, the other day I was out buying a book when I found this glorious A4 red book. It is thick, with pages that feel as though they are straight from a library. Blank pages waiting for words to be written on them.

Imagine the oldest section of your library. Imagine those red encyclopedia books - the ones that have the really hard covers, and the thick pages. That is what I brought for 4 euros at the local bookstore - and since purchasing it I have not stopped writing.

I have written my company plan
I have written the conference I want to run
I have started to write the detailed sessions
I have written my 6 month action plan
I have written personal mottos

It seems, that I cannot stop writing in this book. It is out of control.

So again, I am inspired to be a writer.

Maybe I will buy another book of the same kind, and begin my world famous novel.....