Total excitement today. I've been desperately lacking with The Dailies [SO SORRY!] and have lined up some major players for a few weeks of scheduling goodness. Yes, my little gift to you.
Today's daily comes from Pia Bijkerk, who has been ALL over the blogosphere lately. Expect big things from this girly-- not only is she a very dedicated humanitarian, but she is the former owner of both an Australian tea house AND boutique. Or what I like to call them--- boutEEK! She is now an acclaimed stylist--- talk about TALENT.
Welcome, Pia--- and thanks for sharing your life with Design for Mankind!
--
7:45am. French boy’s alarm alarms us, like it does every week day morning. He turns it off and we both doze for another 15 minutes or so, like we do every week day morning.
8:00am. While he gets ready for his work, I keep dozing. While he makes coffee, I keep dozing.
8:30am. I get woken up gently with soft kisses.
8:45am. Finally I pull myself out of bed. I notice my assault on the chocolate stash from the night before as I pass the evidence on the coffee table. Oops.
Meanwhile French Boy has made me a cup of tea just the way I like it, and we chat for 15 minutes before he heads off to work.
9:00am. I consider starting my day’s work. But instead I call my Mum (pictured with me above in the little picture frame) on skype while I sip my tea. We chat often, these days as I am missing her a lot.
9:30am. I make another tea, and glance over my diary. It’s pretty empty for today, except for one word I’ve scrolled across the pages: WRITE. Today is not a styling day, or a propping day, or a shoot day - it’s a writing day as I am currently working on a book. My publisher is wonderful and because of her I have been enjoying the long and intense process immensely. My deadline is very close, and I have been attempting to lock myself inside, but the sunshine keeps calling my name to come and play. I resist but just catch some sun by the window, and consider starting my day’s work. But instead I read emails, approve comments if I have some on my blog, and think about what I might like to post about for the day. This morning my mind is a very blank canvas.
10:00am. My belly growls at me. I make it some toast. And yes, I spread vegemite all over it.
10:05am. This might be the time to let you in on a little secret about where I live. Or what I live in. Some of my blog readers may have already guessed it … it is made of steel and wood, it has many little funny windows like the one above, and these are my neighbours…
Yes, I live in a houseboat. It is small but fits us just perfectly. I watch the ducklings and coot(lings?) play and fight, and sometimes I give them a little bit of toast while I enjoy mine and we eat together.
11:00am My third cup of tea in two hours and now I am buzzing and ready to get cracking on my work. I work intensely for the next three hours.
2:00pm My belly is growling at me again. “Okay, okay!!” I say, and go and raid the fridge for last night’s left overs. French Boy made a yummo chicken masala last night so I heat that up on the stove. I look at the dishes still needing to be washed from last night. Blaaaaaaa, I wash them up and leave them to dry, and realise, as each time I do, that I actually enjoy doing the dishes and don’t miss having a dish washer at all.
2:30pm I scoff my food down as I keep on working, I am on a roll and don’t want to upset the rhythm by having a break. Oh but let me just check if I have some comments. Yes! Oh yippee, I will just have a quick look at their blogs, see what my blog neighbours are up to today…
3:00pm. Oops, I lingered longer than I intended. Oh, I haven’t written a post for the day. I’ll do that now and THEN I will get back to work. I decide to write about my friend Joe and I playing name games with the boats on the bay back home in Sydney. Sigh.
4:00pm I make another tea and indulge in some bikkies (that’s what us Aussies call cookies). It’s daytime now in America and my publisher emails me to say she is loving what I have been sending. Another internal yippee, and it spurs me on to get cracking again.
4:15pm. Joanne from my agency here in Holland calls to let me know she has put my new images up on their site and I say thanks and tell her I will pop in soon for a cuppa and will bring my latest tear sheets to put in my portfolio. I doodle while we chat. “dag!” we say, and I smile, because my agency rocks.
6:00pm I’m hungry again. And I’ve realised I haven’t showered all day so I jump in quickly, get dressed, and make myself a pre-dinner snack of hummus on toast. I glance at the piano and feel a song coming on, so I sit and bang out a couple of tunes.
8:00pm French Boy has arrived home to find me in semi-darkness, head and hands fused into the keyboard and the screen. I look up at him as he enters the door and he’s all pixelated. I am busting to go to the toilet realising I’ve been putting it off for a while now. Pipelette mode kicks in and I start chatting away about my day, my telephone call with my Mum, what I ate for lunch, my latest epiphanies and the whole while I wonder when I’m going to shut up and ask him how his day was. He listens and smirks, and gives me a kiss. That silences me. And then I ask him how his day went.
We discuss dinner. He is going to make his béchamel sauced endives and I jump in the air announcing ‘miam!!!’. It is after all, one of my favourite French boy dishes.
I get back to work and he cooks for the next hour.
9:00pm. we eat. I talk. He talks. I try to encourage us to speak French but we always end up back to English and I can’t focus. I get back to work and he plays a bit of guitar. I finally pull myself away from my work at 11pm.
Since we live on a houseboat I can play the piano at any time of day or night and this is a serious luxury considering my whole life I’ve spent being restricted to small time slots. So I play French Boy a tune and he claps. We sit together and watch some TV and nibble on chocolate. We laugh at the Dutch ads in between an old re-run of Law & Order. We hope that Dr Wong will appear in this episode and sure enough he does and we both squeal with delight. We don’t know why we like Wong so much, be we do. Him and Ice T all the way.
Midnight. We are half asleep on the couch and pull each other up to drag ourselves to bed. We clean our teeth, hop into bed and while French Boy reads, I am out like a light as I hear little water bubble sounds under the boat and start dreaming about water-coloured roses and flying sea creatures.
The End.
26 comments:
i love her daily - it reads like a diary entry, so personal. the houseboat must be very cool, especially when she plays the piano.
i must be living under a rock as pia's blog has eluded me - until now!
thanks pia + erin!
pia is wonderful... i've been in the dark but found her this morning via d*s, and i am hooked. i want her amazing life! thanks for the daily, erin!
Totally didn't know she had a blog either...
Great daily! The lighting in the photos is gorgeous and I really want to live on a boat :) The pictures on Design Sponge today are amazing and I'm so jealous!
Yes, she is a GOODIE! :) You'll love her blog-- it's a daily read. :)
This is so much fun, Pia is full of life & passion, what a great read - oh, and my favorite is that she refers to her man as "french boy", that's just brilliant.
i'm in love. utterly the nicest day through which i've walked in forever...
Hi Erin!
I really like to read the dailies here and Pia has been my favourite so far - maybe because it sounds so personal, like quaint handmade said above.
I´m looking forward to reading the next dailies´ episode!
So, so lovely...the houseboat - amazing.
I just love these dailies! It's so interesting to see how people who work for themselves organize their time and manage to get so much done! They always inspire me...and the fact that Pia actually lives on a houseboat is just soooo cool.
what a lovely day! I need me a french boy :)
Hahahhaha--- don't we all?! ;)
There's something about the way that she speaks about her "French boy" that I find so romantic - but not in that sugary way. Mind you, I find most things romantic these days. Well, I don't have a French boy, but I have a wonderful man who dances French ballet very well! (yes, he's a ballet dancer, and no he isn't gay, ha).
Oh, Hila--- you are TOO MUCH! :)
thank you erin, and erin's readers for such incredible comments, it was a wonderful treat to wake up to! now, i suppose you all know what i'm about to do next ;-) xx
What a wonderful post! Thank you for introducing Pia into my life, Erin -- now I'm going to drop everything and slowly go through her pages with a cup of coffee.
Hugs!
x
Amy
Erin & Pia
Thanks for this great episode of the dailies. I loved it - now I'm sitting here being totally nostalgic. I am transported back to days of being an Aussie abroad in this big world (& thinking about a slice of vegemite hot toast even tho I've eaten dinner).
I just love the way technology has brought human beings closer & allowed us to share each other's lives. It's such a contradiction - weren't computers going to dehumanize us!!!
Thanks again for the insight & the inspiration (I really must blog more).
Cheers
Sharyne
oooh i love Pia Jane's daily. lovely, lovely, lovely! yes her blog is ridiculously good.
Lovely daily. Hadn't seen Pia before, many thanks for the intro. I'm thinking - love my Englishman, but French boy does the cooking. Hmmm...
Anytime, Pia--- you're welcome back always! We all love you! :)
What a great feature! And to see how others approach - or avoid ;) - writing and creativity is really fun to read as someone who's contemplating taking the plunge into working from home and becoming a full time writer...
Thanks!
Love it! And that's so funny, because my hubby and I also love Dr. Wong and Ice T... baha.
1- good story
2- french boy is a interesting name
3- house boats are fun
4- i have never been able to recall what i am 'starting' to dream about... TALENT!
thanks for sharing! and erin.. thanks for hosting!
pia is one of my favourites. it's hard not to be envy her life. so dreamy!
Nice blog. Thats all.
That is such a lovely daily! I have stayed on a houseboat in Amsterdam, to live there must be magical.
oh, i don't know how i missed this! what a wonderful story of her day -- after working from home for eight months, i know EXACTLY what it's like to realize you haven't showered at 6pm, be in semi-darkness at your computer at 8pm, look up and see everything pixelated, not pee for hours because you're on a roll!
pia, i get you! :)
ps. love that she was woken up with soft kisses. so lovely.
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