Another uneventful weekend, another search for satisfaction.

Having exhausted my ration of American TV shows to binge on and being absolutely unproductive for most of the weekend in the process, I asked my partner, almost desperately, if we could go for a cup of coffee somewhere. Gray weather be damned, he found two options — in Abcoude, 22 kms away. While I was thinking somewhere a bit closer to home, a short drive wasn’t such a bad idea. I was in that ‘anywhere but here’ state of mind and the thought of spending a couple of hours in a quiet, unknown town was as welcome as any. Turned out that Abcoude was a quaint, typically idyllic Dutch town that I’m now regretting never ever giving a second thought to. Notwithstanding the small-town habit of people staring at me when I’m simply walking past – which I’m maybe neurotically noticing a lot – the town was nice enough for me to imagine myself settling into. Must’ve been something in the cappuccino.    

Just a handful of years ago the thought of getting in a car to drive to a small town outside of the city just for fun seemed at the very least daunting. I can remember when just going to the grocery store would be a challenge during moments when only one of us – and at one point even both of us! – were caught unemployed and had to stretch every cent. So even during these times when it feels like we’d hurdled the highest obstacles and survived (so far),  I still take our excursions, big or small, very seriously and with a deep feeling of gratitude each time. Fingers crossed I have countless more cappuccino and apple pie in my future.