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Clay's Personal

Goodbye 2018

Posted on March 14, 2019

By Clayton

It’s already March and I haven’t taken the time to write about how 2018 was… I guess I was procrastinating, because saying goodbye to 2018, meant I needed to say goodbye to YOU!

Who are “YOU”? Follow me down the rabbit hole to find out…

30th Birthday
I stumbled into 2018 fully focused on my 30th birthday which was on February 1st, but I had the party on February 2nd. I have already fully written about that, so you can read that and see the pictures if you haven’t seen them already. That was certainly a lot of fun, but also very stressful at the same time to prepare the event. When that was over, I was ready to see what the rest of 2018 had to offer me. Little did I know that this was only the beginning of the ride.

Love
About a month after my birthday…. On St. Patrick’s Day I was invited to a party of a friend and his family… on that very pleasant – and mostly drunk – night…. I contacted this Brazilian hottie for a hookup, but that hookup, swiftly turned into something more, because what was supposed to be a one-night stand, quickly ended in the person I madly fell in love with in 2018.

Well, well, well… 2018… that definitely took me by surprise.

Let’s just say, for the first time in my 30 years of existence I knew what it’s like to share part of your life with another person. My days finally felt meaningful. I didn’t mind waking up in the morning, because that meant I could see YOU gain.

I am only going to give the short version of the story here. The full version of this long story I will do in a separate post, or maybe in one of my yet-to-be-written-books. Hey, I need to profit out of this one way or another.

So yeah, 2018 was interesting, because I felt like my life had a purpose again and I knew what I had been missing. Dating a Brazilian meant, I entered an entire new world that was literally hiding right under my nose. I started learning Portuguese by myself – and now one year later I have advanced a lot. Yes, in the mean time I had courses to help me out.

But back to the story… so yeah… I had the beginning of 2018 with my new Brazilian lover, that made me feel like a human again and I finally knew what I wanted and I had it. Sadly, it didn’t last that long. Meu querido had to go to Amsterdam for work, but in the end never came back. I did travel to Amsterdam in an attempt to salvage a sinking ship, but failed. Which brings me to the new topic few topics of 2018.

Travel
Curaçao
In 2018 I probably traveled the most I have in a short period of time.
At our 2017 office Christmas dinner the boss told us that we were going to travel to Curaçao for a company vacation trip. We didn’t really think that would happen, but it did. I have also written in details about that trip. It was quite short, but it was a lot of fun.

The Netherlands
Exactly one month later, I had another trip planned; this time to Amsterdam to go see the one that had stolen my heart. There is when things were clear to me that the love I seeked was not there anymore. It was an entire new person; someone I didn’t recognize. This wasn’t the same person that promised to wait for me. I was heartbroken… and when I asked if there was someone else, the answer was no… afterwards I found out the hard way that the real answer was yes….

But besides that, I had a great time in Amsterdam. As soon as I realized that there was no love for me anymore I just enjoyed myself. It was Amsterdam Pride and there was more than enough reason not to stay home and sulk. I met many new people and basically partied every single day. In the end I have no regrets. Also, one of my best friends happened to also be visiting so that was more reason to just enjoy myself. I still need to write down the stories from Amsterdam, but you will see those appear eventually.

Curaçao – again
Shortly after Amsterdam I was invited back to Curaçao for the Pride over there. That was also something unforgettable. The stories are also online for you to read. Finally, something good that actually came out of this blogging that I do. If you are reading this and want to invite me over to write about your event or anything, you know where to find me. 🙂

Work
So, work was not going that great near the end of 2018. It was more than clear that I was not going to grow any time soon and that the work relationship with my boss was not what we both wanted anymore, which is why I needed to resign. It all ended up well, but it was just not working anymore for us I was about to go into a new direction and had to say goodbye after 4.5 years of working there.

Depression
With all the struggles I had in 2018, I soon started feeling a fast-ascending depression and for the first time in my life I decided to seek therapy. I have always wanted to, having battled with depression before, but now that I am old enough to do my own things I finally seeked a therapist and we had very successful sessions. I could finally think clear again and knew exactly what I needed. That was also that helped me to make the decision to quit my job as it was not healthy for me anymore. Also, my therapist helped me to deal with my heartbreak and also to help analyze things in life from another perspective. It was more than clear that I know exactly all the things that bother me and everything that is “wrong” with me, I just needed help to know what to do next. We have had our last session in December, but I will ASAP see her again, as almost 3 months have gone by in 2019 and already so much has changed.

So yeah, that was 2018 in a nutshell.
The first half of it was amazing, but the second half of it was quite dark. Luckily 2019 has opened up with a fresh new start and I am positive that all will be good… they say when one door closes another opens. That has definitely been the case here for me. But I guess you will have to wait till the end of 2019 to read all about that. Haha.

Thanks for reading!
– C

 

Travel & Adventure

Felipe y Felipe

Posted on October 1, 2018

By Clayton

Let me take a moment to highlight the amazing three new friends I made on the island.
I will first start with the boys: Felipe and Felipe.

Yes, they both have the same name, which is why I thought it would be a funny title for this blog. 🙂

Felipe – Brazil
Felipe BR describes himself as “a bit of a hippie”. I would describe him as uber-cool and hawt AF!! 😀

Felipe has a very huge Instagram following and is very adventurous. At each location we went to in Curaçao he was always the first one to wander off and explore the area. Whenever we couldn’t find him he was usually always on top of some mountain with his GoPro; vlogging. He clearly loves to travel the world and live life to the fullest, which is amazing.

Felipe did trigger some memories to my former Brazilian lover and I did notice similarities in behavior, but it must be a cultural thing. Have a look at his social media platform; I am sure you will not regret this.

Felipe has his own LGBT Travel Blog based in Sao Paulo: GoAbilio

 

View this post on Instagram

 

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Felipe – Colombia
Felipe CO definitely reminded me of myself. He was always the last one to arrive at our meeting points, but that is because he likes to plan ahead what to wear and take his time to freshen up. It was nice to see myself from the point of view from of someone else. I loved it!

I would describe Felipe CO as a twunk!! And be sure to check out his IG-account.

Felipe CO is also a writer for an LGBT-magazine in Colombia. The topics he writes about make my blog sound like a child’s bedtime story. He definitely has a set of brains and is very helpful, which is something I can appreciate very much. I have never had the intention to travel to Colombia before, but this is now definitely on my bucket list.

I also found out that Felipe CO knows Epica and has once been to their show in Colombia.
This was definitely added bonus points for him.

Both the boys were genuinely fun people to be around with and we definitely bonded. I hope we all get to meet again and have many more travel adventures. The world is ours and we can do this.

See the online magazine that Felipe write for: EgoCity

 

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Tirzah
Our tour guide during this trip was Tirzah. Tirzah is what we described as the “Madonna of Curaçao”.
Everyone knows her and everyone loves her. Everywhere we went there was always someone that was very excited to see her. Even when in traffic she was greeted from the other cars. This was awesome as we felt we were amongst Caribbean royalty. She is very beautiful and has a joyful spirit. You can’t help but feel good in her presence.

She definitely knows the island well and I got to know a lot more about the history of it, despite having been there before. She is definitely as “crazy” as us and we were all on the same level, which made it easier to get along, but also harder to say goodbye in the end.

I will definitely be hitting up Tirzah again when I travel to Curaçao again and you should definitely follow her and contact her in you want to get to know the island some more.

 

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Travel & Adventure

The journey home

Posted on September 30, 2018

By Clayton

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end they say…
Eventually we all needed to head back home.

My flight was the earliest, so I was also the earliest awake and could not sleep off the exhaustion from the night before. I had an early breakfast and packed my bags. When Tirzah called that she was there to pick me up, I said goodbye to the boys and the girls in the breakfast room. I was already feeling quite emotional because I am so bad at saying goodbye.

Once Tirzah dropped me off and I checked my bags in I made sure to say a quick goodbye because I could feel my eyes watering and I noticed the same at her.

This only got worse when the boys, whom were still enjoying their last day at the hotel pool, sent me a very sweet video. I couldn’t hold it in and just let the tears flow. Damn, I hate saying goodbye.

When it was boarding time, I entered the plane, found my seat and just took a moment to mentally process the last few days. It was definitely an unforgettable experience and those 3 amazing new friends I made I will not forget and hope to meet in the near future again. I bought this wooden ring at the airport, which has a fish on it (to remind me of the island), with 3 colored dots which remind me of my new 3 friends.

Until we meet again Tirzah, Filipe BR and Filipe CO <3 <3 <3
Travel & Adventure

Beach Day and All White Party

Posted on September 29, 2018

By Clayton

The next… and final day… we were invited again to the Floris Hotel for a tour around the hotel.
We got access to one room for viewing and I must say: wow!
Our hotel (Papagayo) was better, but this would not have been a bad place to stay at either… This would also have been the case if the hotel wasn’t fully booked already.

The room we got to view was a very spacious, modern and clean room, that has a single-person-apartment feel to it. This room actually inspired me to get my own future house designed just in this way… once I can afford it obviously.

Beach Day
After the tour we went to Moomba Beach for the beach party. We found a place to us to chill and we went back and forth into the sea to have a swim. I must say if you want to avoid someone on this planet, Curaçao is NOT the place for that as we kept coming across the same people we have been seeing at all the PRIDE-related events. Very small island.

The beach party itself was quite fun and is exactly what you would imagine: a very hot sun, lots of sand, loud music, cocktails and people just having fun… which is what we did. Since this was also our final full day together it was also time to just enjoy each other’s company.

Flavors
In the evening we went to FLAVORS of Curaçao, which is the event that the 2 Dominican girls were there for. FLAVORS is an annual food and beverages event that was hosted in the parking lot of the Hilton Hotel. Basically, all kind of food that you can find on the island can be found there… but mind you, this is mostly for tasting purposes, so don’t go there hungry. Unless you buy food at each stand of course, but they serve small portions, that are just enough for you to have a taste of the flavor…. Aha, makes sense now.

But if I am going to be totally honest… in the entire event the best part which I liked where the shots that Starbucks served…. Seriously, I am at a food event and I was excited about the coffee… in my defense, I was quite tired, and had another party to go to, so needed energy. The mixture of alcohol and coffee was PERFECT and I think Starbucks should add this to their regular menu. Lol

All White Party
Last event for us on the island was the ALL WHITE party…
This party was in Club Spoonz. We were in the VIP area, which didn’t feel all that extra, besides being behind a railing, but the party itself was good. The advertisement said that it wouldn’t be just a party with a DJ, but would have a real local feel to it and that was not a lie, as I clearly felt that I was at a Caribbean party. The vibe was definitely there and the music was good. At the end we didn’t want to leave, but the Dominican girls were too exhausted, so we all went back to our hotel. This was a perfect ending a nice short vacation.
Travel & Adventure

Jeep Safari and Lounge Party

Posted on September 28, 2018

By Clayton

The following morning, after our breakfast, we headed over to the Floris Hotel where we do a Jeep Safari hosted by Pink Curaçao. A few months ago, when I was already in Curaçao with work, we also did a Jeep Tour Experience. I didn’t like that one much, as we were in open roof jeeps, the sun was blazing hot, we all got covered in dirt and the tracks we took weren’t mellow…. Oh yeah and the white shirt I wore, never got white again…. So when I read that I was about to do the same again, I was not that thrilled and I wore the same not-white-anymore shirt just for the above reasons.

However, I must say that the second time was a loooooot better. For one, the jeep was not an open roof, the people aboard were hilarious (not that my colleagues aren’t), and there was a hot shirtless Brazilian sitting across of me… what more could I ask for?

The roads we took were not that extreme as before and beside one road we took different ones, so it was not that repetitive. Also, we stopped at some cool caves, which have some eerie history.
In a nutshell, the cave is called The Witches Caves and this is where the slaves would come to perform their rituals and whatnot. Inside the caves there where many tiny bats, that if you remain still were harmless. Actually they were quite peaceful to watch, as long as you stayed still!

After the caves, we went to some cliffs and more scenic places and finally had a stop at the beach for swimming and spotting some sea turtles. Again, this was a place I had visited before during my office vacation so nothing new for me. But with this crowd of people, this beach day quickly turned into an Andrew Christian and AussieBum free commercial!

After the beach we were brought back to the Floris Hotel where we were picked up by Tirzah.
This time she was not alone, as there were 2 other girls from the Dominican Republic whom were also on the island for another event and they were also staying in our hotel (Papagayo), so they were added to our group.

We all went to have lunch at The Green House, located at Mambo Boulevard, which was this amazing restaurant where the hostess was dressed in traditional clothing and she basically spoke all languages, as our group did. Again, like many other times during this vacation, I had sea food for lunch. Started off with the calamari and had salmon (or Tuna) as a main course. It was yummy. It was very yummy!!

After lunch we were brought back to the hotel and I finally had 2 hours off. I really wanted to write these blogs posts in that moment, but my body was tired and I just needed to rest, so instead I tried to take a nap.

In the evening we had the rainbow lounge party, which luckily was by the hotel’s beach, so we didn’t have to be far. We all got dressed up and had a good time. The music was good, and the party was crowded. The bar’s service sucked though. Clearly, they were not able to handle the crowd and ordering drinks took forever. Nonetheless, I drank enough and was feeling the music. This was the first moment that I would miss these guys the moment we would have to say goodbye… must have been the alcohol.

As the party died out, our tummies started seeking attention. Seeing how it was late and the actual reservation that was had was canceled, we went over to one of the famous Curaçao food truck (Truck di pan) – BBQ EXPRESS – to have some things to eat. I had the grilled chicken with sate sauce to eat. The sauce was so good and my mouth is watering as I am thinking back about this. After this late post-party dinner, we all went back to our hotel and I quickly fell asleep as my head was on the pillow.


I wasn’t posing or anything… Just enjoying the view.
I actually didn’t even knew someone was taking a picture of me

You can see many more pictures from the Jeep Safari on the Facebook page of Pink Curaçao.

Travel & Adventure

Curaçao – Making New Friends

Posted on September 27, 2018

By Clayton

The following morning, I work up quite early, had breakfast and met up with the boys downstairs by the supermarket where Tirzah would pick us up to go sightseeing. This is when the four of us really bonded. Sometimes you need to get used to new people and sometimes it just CLICKS! I think that with us four it just CLICKED, and we instantly befriended each other. This was also a good moment for me to practice all the languages that I knew, cause although we were mostly communicating in English, there was also Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch.

Our first stop was at the Curaçao Tourist Board Headquarters, where Tirzah works. We were there to pick up sim cards which were borrowed to us, so we could be reachable and online all the time.

From the CTB HQ we walked into town. We went to the Queen Juliana Square that holds the famous DUSHI sign, where we took pictures. The featured image of this post was taken by Filepe BR with his GoPro. Note to self: save up to buy one of these yourself.

Next we walk towards the Punda Bridge, which we didn’t cross, because later that day we would be there again with the parade. Tirzah is an amazing tour guide and we learned so much about the history of Curaçao. We did some more sightseeing and walking around until it was lunch time.

We had lunch at POP’s Place, which is this restaurant located on a hill, with an amazing view of the sea. The food was very good too. I first started of with calamari and had fish as the main course. I had a lot of fish to eat during this trip. I mean, there was a gigantic sea right there and I figured it must be fresh, right?

After dinner we went back to the hotel where we had an hour or so to quickly change and get ready for the PRIDE Walk. I put on my pink cap and some denim shorts…. It was time to pAArty.
We were quite late for the start of the walk, so we drove to the other side of the bridge, where the walk would end, and walked towards the crowd. It wasn’t that big of a crowd, around 500 people, but they all seemed to have loads of fun and the rainbow colors where more than clear. I ran around the crowd to make some pictures and do some live broadcasting.

The walk ended at the Wilhelmina Square where we were earlier that day and that was the time for speeches and the start of a great party. During the ceremonial part of the evening the Pride Committee presented the bill for marriage equality, which is a major step for the LGBT community in Curacao. This obviously still needs to pass, but this is the first bill that has been written and presented the government. Once it has been passed same-sex marriage will be legal in Curaçao. Congratulations.

After all the official stuff it was time to dance. It was a nice party and I was feeling quite “happy” thanks to the drinks I had.

After the party we went to have a late dinner with the CTB members at this very artsy restaurant, called Déjà vu! OMG, the paintings were amazing, and I would like to have a few of these in my house. Yes, the food was good too, but I was enthralled by the artwork that I almost forgot to focus on the food.

After our tummy’s were filled it was time to head back to the hotel and get some sleep.
Travel & Adventure

On my way to Curaçao PRIDE

Posted on September 26, 2018

By Clayton

When I received the call from Jill-Joy (from CCM N.V.) asking if I was interested in going to Curaçao PRIDE 2018, I immediately said yes! All I needed was to pack my bags and grab my passport… oh, and obviously ask my boss for a few extra days off, especially since I had returned from Amsterdam less than a month ago, but that was nothing that couldn’t be arranged.

The above was all set and done and I was finally ready to leave for the trip on Tuesday when I received a call from the airline company that the flight had been delayed with 16 hours. This meant that I would lose an entire day of this mini-vacation. Bummer. But this would have been way worse if I had already driven to the airport and received the news there.

At this point, there was nothing to do but wait. Doki and Tino brought me to the airport the following evening. My flight was scheduled to leave at midnight. I personally hate the PBM – CUR flight, because it has a pitstop in Trinidad after 90 minutes of departure and the distance is too short to get some sleep. Just when your body is getting used to being in the air, you need to land and leave again. Also after not having slept the night before I was exhausted AF when I landed in Curaçao.

I arrived around 3am at the Curaçao International Airport. Luckily, I found my luggage quickly and I made my way outside. I would be picked up by a taxi, which was arranged for me. The taxi driver stood there with a sign, which had my name on it. My entire life I have waited for the moment to be picked up at the airport by someone holding up my name. zOMG!

Since I had no clue how far my host hotel, Papagayo Beach Resort, was from the airport I looked it up on Google Maps, which said the drive would be 30 minutes. I did my utmost best not to fall asleep in the back of the taxi.

We arrived at the hotel, I checked in and I was guided to my room. I had room 517 located in building number 5. It was quite late, and I was exhausted, but took a moment to enjoy the amazing room. On the bed laid a welcome letter and a bottle of champagne for me; compliments of the hotel manager. After making some pictures of the room, I took a shower and jumped into the gigantic bed, which I had all to myself… finally: some rest.

I got woken up at 11am by the phone in the room. It was the front desk calling to tell me that the maintenance guy was in front of my door to replace the door’s battery. I had put up the DO NOT DISTURB sign, so he didn’t want to knock on the door… I opened the door, the guy did his thing and I closed the door again. Since I was already up I finally decided to open the curtains to see what the room view was like….

OMFG!! This was the most spectacular view I had ever seen.
Since I arrived in the middle of the night, I didn’t notice that there was an entire ocean right by my room. Seriously, I was in paradise.

I decided to go look for the breakfast area, which I had no idea where it was, so I stopped at the front desk for information… there I had another OMFG moment when I saw the gorgeous front desk agent, whom I was more than happy to talk to. I was directed to the breakfast area and I walked towards it.

The sun was already quite warm, but it was a short walk. I walked past the resort’s private beach, near the infinity pool and found the breakfast area. I enjoyed the breakfast, which was an open buffet and had more to choose from than I could possibly eat. Once my tummy was full I decided to walk back to my room and to go nap again. I was still very exhausted from the little amount of sleep I have had the past few weeks.

Around the afternoon I decided to slip into my swim short and head over to the pool.
Obviously, I picked a place under a gigantic parasol – I don’t do sunlight – and just enjoyed the view.
I jumped into the pool, did a few rounds and went back to the side of the pool, ordered myself a Piña Colada and for a moment I enjoyed doing absolutely nothing.

My cousins were also on the island on vacation and I invited them over for a visit whenever they were free. When they called me, I was still by the pool, so I met them and we went to my room. There we just hung by the balcony.

At 20.00hr I had a meeting with the LGBT working members of PRIDE Curacao, so after a shower I made my way to the hotel lobby where I would meet up with Tirzah, my tour guide during this trip. Me and Tirzah had spoken earlier today on the phone, but this is the moment when we met. Tirzah is a very pretty and friendly girl with curls for days. We briefly got to know each other and waited for the 2 other social media influencers she picked up shortly before arriving at the hotel.

The 2 other boys arrived. They are both named Filepe, but one is from Brazil and the other from Colombia. Our dinner with the LGBT working members was on the hotel beach. There I had a nice chat with all the people and it was so good to relate to people that do the same work that I do for PRIDE Month Suriname.

The food we had was very good also. I had carpaccio as an appetizer and had steak as a main course. For dessert I had a delicious cheesecake. The cheesecake came with a scoop of ice cream, which my lactose indolent tummy did not appreciate. I had to excuse myself to my hotel room for a moment.

Once that “episode” was over I made my way to the lobby where Tirzah and both Filepe’s were waiting on me. We had plans to go to a bar-dancing called Chin Chin. Chin Chin reminded me very much of our local bar dancing Night Fever. It wasn’t very crowded, because we arrived very late, but we still had a nice time. The PRIDE organizers where also there with us and we had a fun time. I didn’t go all out yet, because I still wasn’t feeling 100% great, but also was still a tad but tired.

Around 2am-ish we went back to the hotel, I took a long good shower and went to bed.
The next day was another promising day.
Clay's Personal Travel & Adventure

McSharQ Podcast

Posted on September 7, 2018

By Clayton

When my friend Sharik heard I would be traveling to The Netherlands, he immediately asked me if I wanted to do a Podcast interview with him. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but said “sure, why not?”. Before my arrival, I watched a few other episodes and got excited to do so.

We arrange a date and location and did the interview on the said date. Click on the link below to watch the interview.

Link: http://mcsharq.nl/sharq-talk-18-clayton-derby/

Clay's Personal

This Sunshine Blogger Award

Posted on July 19, 2018

By Clayton

Back in May of this year I was nominated for The Sunshine Blogger Award. I saw the post and was about to immediately write a post, however… I postponed it and *poof* 2 months flew by and we are now near the end of July.

So The Sunshine Blogger Award… Let me copy & paste the description.

The Sunshine Blogger award is given by bloggers to bloggers who inspire positivity and creativity in the blogging community.

I had never heard of this award before, but I am super stoked to have been nominated by Jill-Joy Landburg. Jill is the owner of the blog VICTUALS.me
The blog is basically all about food and I am a foodie, so that got my attention 🙂

I know Jill via friends and social events. She had noticed my blog and asked me to join her blog group on Facebook, which was good for me, because now I can attract more local readers.

So I am nominated and below are the questions that I have to answer.

Jill’s questions for me:

1. What’s your zodiac sign?
I am an Aquarius. And from the books and webpages I have read I am a true Aquarian.
I have all the typical characteristics. We are very caring and loving people, also very patient, but once our patience runs out or when we notice that you are taking advantage of our kindness we are DONE!

2. What is the difference in dining and fine dining?
Fine dining is where I need to figure out what all those extra spoons and forks on the table are for and which one I start with. You work your way from the outside to the inside in case you didn’t know 😉

And dining is when it’s just about the food, and no rules or regulations.

3. What activity takes the most of your time?
Work, work and more work.
Both my regular day job and my freelance work. And in between I try to balance sporting, social events and relaxations, but yeah, mostly I am working.

4. Did your friends and family give you their support when you started your blog?
I have always written just for myself, so their opinion didn’t nor doesn’t matter. Whoever likes to read is welcome of course.

5. If you are making money with your blog, what do you plan to spend the money you’re making from your blog on?
I don’t, but when I do: TRAVEL!! I want to see the world.

6. If you go back in time, would you still start a blog knowing all the positive and negative aspects of blogging?
I have no regrets… the only regret I have is that I don’t have more free time to work on new blog posts. The best part is that I have an outlet for my thoughts.

7. Would you rather eat Carpaccio or Shrimp cocktail?
Shrimp Cocktail 🙂

8. What’s the most recent foreign country you’ve visited?
The last place I traveled to was Curaçao about a month ago.

9. Have you ever been nominated for and/or won other blogging awards?
This is my first time *blushing*

10. What’s your favorite thing about your blog?
That I can write about anything… and that I don’t have to limit myself to one topic.

11. Are you, so far, proud and satisfied with your blog’s progress?
Uhm… I would like to earn money and live of It one day, soooo the answer is: not yet.

The rules:
The Sunshine Blogger award is given by bloggers to bloggers who inspire positivity and creativity in the blogging community.

  1. Thank blogger(s) who nominated you for a blog post and link back to their blog.
  2. Answer the 11 questions the blogger asked you.
  3. Nominate up to 11 new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new questions.
  4. List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post and/or on your blog.

My nominees:

  1. Smoonstyle – Simone Simons – Singer of Epica
  2. The Modern Man – Daniel – @Magic_Fox on Instagram
  3. Flight Attendant Joe – Joe Thomas

My questions for the nominees:

  1. Are you blogging as often as you’d like?
  2. Who or what inspired you to start your blog?
  3. What does the name/title of your blog mean?
  4. Do you listen to music when blogging (and what kind)?
  5. Where do you see your blog in 10 years from now?
  6. Please share a description of your perfect life in no more than 5 sentences?
  7. What attracts you most in people? (this can be for love, friendship or anything)
  8. Where is the place you would like to grow old in?
  9. What’s your opinion on tattoos?
  10. What’s your favorite thing about traveling?
  11. How many languages do you speak and which ones are they?

To be honest, I highly doubt the above bloggers will respond, but hey, anything can happen 🙂

If you are reading this and you still want to answer these questions, you can do so in the comments section below. And if you want to answer them on your own blog, please link back to me.

Travel & Adventure Workaholic

Baboem’s Trip to Curaçao

Posted on June 25, 2018

By Clayton

At the office Christmas party of 2017 our bosses announced a work trip to Curaçao.
To be honest, at first it sounded too good to be true and we thought that this would probably never happen, but when we received the E-tickets a few months later we knew it was official… we were going to Curaçao.

The last time I was in Curaçao was 9 years ago and it didn’t leave a lasting impression on me. But I was a lot younger, I was with my parents and it was just a whole different kind of trip.

This time it was a trip full of partying and just having fun.

First off our trip got short from 6 to 4 due to a change in the flight schedule of our local airline. This sucked, because that meant we had to a lot in a very limited amount of time. Which afterwards was very exhausting. Nonetheless, we had fun.

The fun started very early when we all went to the airport by bus we had rented. It was very early, but my colleagues as a crazy bunch of people, so we were having fun from the start. At the airport, we went around and starting mixing with random people. By the time that we needed to board the sun was already high in the sky.

My colleague sitting next to me has a fear of flying so we had to comfort her during takeoff and landing. The flight to Curaçao is a flight that lands in Trinidad first to let out people and have others board. So we had to take off and land, twice. And boy, the pilot was not in a good mood. His takes offs and landings were horrible. It was like he was in a hurry for some reason and didn’t make that a very pleasant trip for us. We were happy when that was over.

 

At the Airport in Haito we were greeted by our other boss that lives there in whose house we were staying. Very fancy house, located far from the city center, but with an amazing view of the sea. We quickly freshened up and went to go hunting for food. We had 3 cars to our availability so we could form groups and do our own thing. I was in the car with the local boss. We found some Dutch snacks, went grocery shopping and finally had a full meal in a restaurant.

That evening we went to a karaoke (lesbian?) bar. I as always was the one doing most of the singing, cause not everyone was into that. After the night was over, a few went to the house to sleep and the other went to go sight-seeing by car with the boss. I went sight-seeing. Well, I didn’t see much, because I was exhausted and started falling asleep in the car.

The following morning we went to the beach. This was the first time I could enjoy the sea water and go snorkeling. With my contacts in and the snorkeling glasses I could for once actually see the fishes in the sea. It was amazing. We even drove to another beach, which was full of sea turtles, which was also an amazing experience.

That evening we went to the movies…. Jurassic Park 2… again I didn’t see much, because I always fall asleep in the movie theatre despite having had a Starbucks beforehand and the movie being okay-ish.

The following morning we went off road jeep riding, which was an experience to say the least. First of all I literally got roasted in the sun, it was extremely hot and not to mention dusty. There were many times when I thought we would just tumble off a mountain. We also went swimming again at the turtle beach, but I had no interest in swimming, I was not liking the head again.

On the way back I asked the very, sexy tour guide if I could ride along. There was a spare seat and that jeep had a roof, so that was good for me. From there I had an easier time during the rest of the tour. Great sights. But again, I feared tumbling over and dying constantly. At the end of the tour my white shirt was yellow.

The following day we had to leave again. In the morning we went to a shopping mall, where I really had fun!! I bought 2 great shirts very cheap and a new pair of sunglasses. Soon afterward we went back to the house, packed our bags and headed to the airport.

We said goodbye to the boss living in Curaçao and boarded our plane.

Again we had to comfort of colleagues with flight anxiety, but this time the flight was a lot easier than when we left from Suriname.

The next day we were allowed to stay home if we wanted, which most obviously did… including myself… and after that it was back to normal.

But for me it was also time to prepare for my next trip 😉
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