liesbeth's fresh irritations

In the past few days, I found myself getting really worked up about everything and anything and what then always works incredibly well is to write it off. It has an incredibly relativizing and relieving effect. So, are you ready for some first world problems? Here we go.

Other messages on Facebook

You probably haven't missed that you have an inbox function on Facebook, but you also have a folder with “other” messages, and that is right next to your ‘real’ inbox. If you are not friends with each other and also not friends of friends, then the messages you send end up in that other folder. AND NO ONE READS THAT. Recently, I made a list for Glamour of the 100 most fun single men in the Netherlands. This means I sent ten million messages to potential men and about 70% ended up in that other folder. The list has been in stores for two months now and still, I receive daily messages from clueless people saying “oh I just see this now.” HOW CAN THAT BE. The other messages are NEXT to your regular messages! You have eyes! How can you not see that?! Man man man.

That it is FALL

Last night I went to have a glass of wine with my father, but that one glass turned into two and then three, and before we knew it, we were drinking until half past eight. Thick clouds gathered and the sky was about to burst open, and at that moment, I got on my bike. “Ride hard!” my father shouted, but I could never have cycled hard enough to get home dry. Never in my life have I gotten so wet from the rain. Halfway through, I could only laugh really hard and was literally laughing and shouting “Omg it’s raining SO hard” and as soon as I surrendered to it, it even became fun. But well, now I was cycling to my warm dry house, cycling to appointments in the rain is terrible and anyway, I already feel the winter depression coming because I really hate the cold. I’m telling you, I’m going to complain about this a lot in the coming time.

That I can't close SeaWorld myself

Recently, I saw the documentary Blackfish and I have already seen it for the third time because it is so moving. The film tells how awful animal-unfriendly water parks like Dolfinarium and SeaWorld are and the suffering inflicted on orcas and other sea creatures is truly heartbreaking. There are a thousand scientific reasons to mention (and those are also mentioned in the film) but with common sense, you can also get quite far: in what world is it a good idea to kidnap an orca from the wild and teach it to do stupid tricks in a swimming pool? You MUST watch this docu (here you can watch the trailer, and the film is available on Netflix or in its entirety on YouTube here) and you MUST promise me that you will never ever go to such a park. Never.

That I really have no idea how taxes work

We have joked about this quite often, but actually, I’m fed up with it. The total panic attacks when a blue envelope lands on the doormat, the spots on my neck when someone starts talking about turnover tax and the pale face when a tax return needs to be filed – I don’t want it anymore. I just want to know and understand what I’m dealing with, so I can handle it smartly and not suddenly get a tax bill (is that what it’s called?) of 10K. Or something. SOMEONE help me.

That my phone is broken

Ha yes that is really super duper fun. I really don’t know how the screen could have become like this (okay okay maybe it fell a tiny bit from the couch) but now I have no phone. Or well, not my own phone, because I’m now borrowing May's old one, but I don’t have my own apps and photos. I find that very annoying. It has now been sent through a shabby phone shop to ‘someone“ who is going to fix it and we made the following brilliant agreement about it. ”If it’s a bit of work, it costs 30 euros and it will be ready on Friday, and if it’s a lot of work it costs 80 euros and it will be ready on Monday.‘ SERIOUSLY. I didn’t really have an alternative so I agreed but I did ask if I could get some sort of delivery receipt. The man behind the counter looked around a bit, grabbed an old receipt, and scribbled the above “agreement‘ in illegible handwriting. Guys, I tell you, this is a top deal.