mmph..

Weird.
Been thinking about Europe lately.
Maybe because I've been sitting at home for too long.
Also maybe because my sense of smell was working pretty odd last week. I was with my dad in A&W one night, and as we were just talking about the annoying songs that are somehow just stuck in your head for an entire day.. I smelled something that brought my mind to Netherlands. It was as if I was back in Dida's place again. The house we lived in had a distinct smell. It wasn't like a perfume or anything.. it smelled like.. cleaning products (haha!) but it wasn't unpleasant.

The smell kind of wafted twice. Twice I frowned 'cause I didn't know where it came from. I was eating a coney dog and that was definitely not the source of the smell. The place itself had a different kind of smell. When I tried to find that familiar smell again, it was nowhere. As if it was only there to tease my memory. sigh.

So I'd spent my afternoon looking at our old travel pictures. One made me chuckle. It was a pic of Dida sleeping in the train on our way back to Rotterdam Centraal after the boat ride from UK. (I think!) I remembered the lady who was sitting next to her scooted away when I picked up the camera. She grinned after I snapped the picture. hehe.

I miss those. Those quick connections you make with a stranger. I also miss trains.. and trams.. Beurs, H&M, Albert Heijn, Johma's crab salade, Blue Ribbon white breads.. the chilling wind that made my bones shiver once I stepped out of the Metro station.. Belgian waffles.. the annoying beeps that the traffic lights made when it's okay for pedestrians to cross the road..
mmph. I should go out more. I don't reckon it's healthy to miss something in the past.. especially since my present isn't so bad and there are things to look forward to in the future.

For reference: Dida's album of her place in Rotterdam on Facebook.