Fun & Famous
MY NEW HOBBY
Since I returned from traveling I have developed a new ritual that I follow quite faithfully. I used to do it sometimes, but now I intend to really keep it up, do it every week, and thus become a happier person.
Buying flowers. That's my new ritual. In the past years, I would sometimes bring home a bunch of limp tulips when they were on sale at Albert Heijn, but then I would forget to give them water, they would droop after three days, Poes Disco would start eating them, and I was too lazy to throw them away, so I always had a wilted bunch of nastiness in my house for three weeks. “I will never buy flowers again, I'm not cut out for it,” I would then declare firmly. In hindsight, it's a miracle that I have managed to keep Disco alive for almost 8 years, because otherwise, living objects that enter my house always die pretty quickly. By the way, you immediately know where all those ex-boyfriends have gone. Just kidding. Maybe. [insert evil laugh here].
Anyway, flowers. Look, when they are standing there, so beautifully upright in their vase, I am always incredibly happy with them. It looks so fresh, it smells nice, and above all, I feel incredibly grown-up because of it. Suddenly, I am someone who has life under control. Someone who never forgets anything, knows exactly how her finances are doing, puts a nice and healthy meal on the table every evening without too much effort, and thus, between working, grocery shopping, and maintaining friendships, also picks a nice bunch of flowers from the market.
That person is by no means me, we've discussed that before, but with those flowers in the house, I at least feel a bit like that. And it also has a good effect on me because, thanks to those flowers, I generally keep my house a lot tidier, because otherwise, it all makes no sense. And I have finally managed to convince Disco, thanks to a few corrective sprays from a plant sprayer, that flowers are NOT for eating, so that all works out
just fine.
The greatest pleasure I get is coming home with the flowers and putting them in the vase. You might think of me as someone who just tosses them in a bucket with the cellophane still on, but nothing could be further from the truth. I neatly cut each flower at an angle and place them one by one in the vase so that they are nicely distributed in the water. And don't be shocked, but I actually find that a wonderfully calming process. I have two vases; one is a regular vase and the other is a kind of classic tulip vase, but in a modern guise, this one to be precise. Beautiful, right? I've had that vase for over a year, but only now is it being used in all its glory.
And now that you probably think I've completely gone crazy with my adulthood and all, I'll quickly tell you that I certainly don't bike all the way to the market for a bunch of flowers. I still just buy them at Albert Heijn, preferably tulips, and pay for them at the same time as my pack of Malboro Light.
Which I often couldn't get without showing ID, but with those flowers, I come across as much more mature and no one asks about it anymore. So that's yet another advantage. Really, it doesn't stop. I'm already looking forward to my new bunch next week.
