Photo Shoot: Parkpop!

The Parkpop festival is a free music festival held annually on the last Sunday of June in the city of The Hague, Netherlands.

I am lucky to live about a 15 to 20 minutes walk away from it. 🙂

It was first held in 1981 and attended by 35,000 visitors. Today up to 350,000 people visit the festival every year. They hold the title for largest free pop festival in Europe for a long time.

We go almost every year because it’s a very relaxed festival and the weather is usually good.

This time, Parkpop was extra special because for the first time in history the music stopped so the people could watch the soccer game Holland versus Mexico in the World Cup tournament.

Usually, you see people dressed up in all kinds of weird clothes and stuff. But this year, most of us were dressed in Orange!

Relax and enjoy this photo shoot!

The Parkpop festival has also a market.

It’s held on a big field in the middle of the ‘Zuiderpark’ and has 3 stages where different bands play.

It’s very normal to sit down or lay down with a couple of friends to enjoy the music and the weather.

Some bands make a really nice show. You can also follow on the big screens on the sides of the stages.

What shoes to wear… Most people walk barefoot or on flip-flops.

The music has stopped. All gathering for the big match!

It stayed 0-1 for Mexico for a long time. We were so nervous about that! Until Sneijder scored the 1-1! We were so relieved!

It started to rain but nobody cared! We were singing and chanting for our country.

And there it was! Holland got a penalty! The winning goal from Huntelaar!

Screaming on the top of our lungs. We won!!!!

After the game, a new band started to play and we all danced. With beer of course! Lol! 😉

Time to party big time!

Sure was a great day! Music, dancing and a winning game for Holland!

Lots of love

Patty

Lovely nominations!

Kev–> http://kevs-domain.net/ nominated me for The Very Inspiring Blogger Award, The Love and Kindness Award and a brand new award he created himself: The Community Heart Award!

Wow! Thank you so much Kev! I am very honored and I hope that I can be worthy. 🙂

Kev has a great blog where he shares his writings and music. Check it out!

My nominees for The Community Heart Award:

Cheryl–> http://pluckingofmyheartstrings.com/

Johnny–> http://johnnyojanpera.wordpress.com/

Rajiv–> http://rajivchopra.me/

Morgan–> http://booknvolume.com/

Brian–> http://fozzyfitness.wordpress.com/

Horty (Doc)–> http://hrexach.wordpress.com/

Phil–> http://excuseusforliving.com/

Matt–> http://carolinamountainblue.wordpress.com/

Deb–> http://myriad234.wordpress.com/

Laura–> http://arkofidentity.wordpress.com/

Cheryl–> http://pluckingofmyheartstrings.com/ nominated me for the Liebster Award!

Thank you Cheryl, I am honored and grateful!

Cheryl has an awesome blog where she shares her beautiful thoughts. Check it out sometime!

The Official Rules Of The Liebster Award

If you have been nominated for The Liebster Award AND YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT, write a blog post about the Liebster award in which you:

1. Thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog.

2. Display the award on your blog — by including it in your post and/or displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”. (Note that the best way to do this is to save the image to your own computer and then upload it to your blog post.)

3. Answer 11 questions about yourself, which will be provided to you by the person who nominated you.

4. Provide 11 random facts about yourself.

5. Nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have a less than 1000 followers. (Note that you can always ask the blog owner this since not all blogs display a widget that lets the readers know this information!)

6. create a new list of questions for the blogger to answer.

7. list these rules in your post (You can copy and paste from here.) Once you have written and published it, you then have to:

8. Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster award and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!)

Sharing 11 random facts about me:

1. I am brutally honest.

2. I do before I think.

3. My biggest fear is losing someone I love.

4. I have more hobbies than is good for me.

5. My family is everything.

6. I love animals.

7. In my opinion, respect and trust have to be earned.

8. Love on the other hand, can be given freely.

9. Although I am Dutch, I suck at cooking Dutch food.

10. I have a Master in Special Educational Needs.

11. One of my bad habits is that I smoke.

Questions from Cheryl

1. My biggest pet peeve is… People who aren’t loyal.

2. What punctuation mark best describes your personality? Stubborn. Why? I don’t give up.

3. Is the glass half empty or half full? Half full.

4. If you were blind for the rest of your life what would you miss seeing the most? The eyes of my loved ones.

5. If you could have one super power what would it be? Flying. Why? So I could cross oceans easily.

6. When did you last write a handwritten letter? A couple of weeks ago.

7. If you could mix 3 animals together, which ones would you choose to make the ultimate animal? A wolf, a jaguar and an eagle.

8. If you were given 3 wishes what would you wish for? That my family and friends have everything they need to be happy. I don’t have other wishes.

9. If you could have picked your first name what would it have been? I am satisfied with Patty.

10. What are your goals in life? To give my family and friends as much love as possible, to help people who need my help and, if it’s possible, to become a great writer.

11. How has the Internet affected your life? It provided me with knowledge and great friends.

My nominees for The Liebster Award:

Kev–> http://kevs-domain.net/

Andy–> http://dragoneystory.wordpress.com/

Phen–> http://quarksire.wordpress.com/

Lor–> http://lumar1298.wordpress.com/

Q–> http://quarksire.wordpress.com/

Sherayx–> http://sherayx.wordpress.com/

Lewis–> http://lewisdbmitchell.wordpress.com/

Cathy–> http://catshields.wordpress.com/

Zara–> http://zar4h.wordpress.com/

Of course you don’t have to accept an award, just know that you are appreciated!

Lots of love

Patty

Happy Birthday Danny!

Today is the birthday of the love of my life.

Danny has been my knight for 16 and a half years now and I love him more each day.

I consider myself blessed and so very lucky to have found a man like him who loves me despite of the craziness and darkness I have inside me. He loves me for all that I am and never tries to change me.

Happy birthday my love! I wish you all the happiness and blessing I can think of!

I love you so much.

Patty

Quote of the week!

True Love

What is true love?

A question most of us have asked at least one time in our lives. What is love? What is true love? How do you know if you love someone truly?

I thought I should write a post about it! 🙂

Love

Love is a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes that ranges from interpersonal affection (“I love my mother”) to pleasure (“I loved that meal”). It can refer to an emotion of a strong attraction and personal attachment. It can also be a virtue representing human kindness, compassion, and affection—”the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another”. It may also describe compassionate and affectionate actions towards other humans, one’s self or animals.

There are a lot of different kinds of love. The love you have for your partner, your child, parents, siblings, family, friends, pets. Love is beautiful. It makes you feel good if you know that you are loved.

Some people say that love hurts. I disagree.

 

But either way it’s a risk to love, you might get hurt pretty badly. I know. But I also know that locking your feelings away and pretend not to care isn’t a solution. Tried that, didn’t work. You will get hurt. One way or another, everyone gets hurt one day. But it’s a risk worth taking. Because true love does exist and we all need love in our lives.

But what is true love?

In my eyes, true love is loving someone at their darkest. True love is loving someone no matter what. True love is not about you, it’s about the person you love. True love has no limits and knows no boundaries. Loving someone this way will ask for a lot of courage and strength, but it’s worth it.

It’s easy to say ‘I love you’ and promise that it will last forever. It’s a whole other story to prove that it’s true. Forever is quite a while you know.

Only when you have seen a person’s darkest side, only if you have been tested or hurt, only if you haven’t given up on someone but continued fighting even when things seemed hopeless, only then you can speak of ‘true love’.

You may fight. You may not see each other or even speak to each other for a while. You may get hurt by the person you love. But true love will conquer it all. Simply because it’s a feeling you can’t control.

Think I’m naïve? Maybe I am, I don’t really care. I have lost so many people in my life that I am capable of loving the ones I have left very deeply. I believe in true love because I can give it. Of course I have been hurt a lot of times, it’s not something you can avoid. I closed myself off for years to stop people from getting close to me. It didn’t work. And that’s not how I want to live my life and I will care anyway.

It’s actually quite simple, I need love. And I rather have people I love walking away from me than dying on me. I can handle them being happy without me.

People often say: ‘I would die for that person’. This means they will do almost anything for the person they love. But when you suffer from severe depression to the point where you even become suicidal, staying alive for someone is a much bigger sacrifice. And in my eyes, it means so much more.

In my opinion, true love isn’t just something between lovers. True love can  be the love a parent has for a child, a feeling you can have for a sibling or even a friend. It has so many different shapes.

True love requires sacrifices sometimes. It is patient and kind. It’s what makes this world a better place.

And it’s beautiful…

Lots of Love

Patty

Poetry for today: Splinters

Splinters

 –

Forever, you told me

And I believed it wholeheartedly

An undying love shared

Two souls who found each other and cared

 –

Always, you told me

Would you care for me so deeply

I would never lose you, not you

No matter what I would say or do

 –

By my side, you told me

Is where you would be

Never losing faith in one another

We would only grow closer

– 

Together, you told me

Our lives entwined for eternity

To never be alone, two hearts beat as one

But, as I discovered, forever isn’t quite that long

– 

Goodbye, you said to me

Undying love lost so easily

And now I am looking down from above

On the splinters of our lost love

–

Just Patty

 

 

Throwback Thursday: Poetry ‘Path of Life’

Something new…

On ‘Throwback Thursdays’ I want to share some older Poems and post of me.

I hope you will enjoy!

Lots of Love

Patty

Writing Process Blog Tour!

Thank you very much for inviting me to this great blog tour Johnny!

Johnny is a wonderful writer and I am grateful that he found my blog, otherwise I would be missing out on all of his great posts! You can find his writing process post right Here.

The questions:

What are you currently working on?

I just finished rewriting my second Dutch fantasy novel. Very soon I will start writing the third since this will become a trilogy.

I am also working on a kindle version for my poetry book ‘My Wings’ and making preparations for writing a second poetry book as well. Busy, busy little bee!

How does your work differ from others of its genre?

As for my fantasy books, they are written in the young adult fantasy genre. It’s very popular in Holland, but we don’t have a lot of writers who write in this genre. It’s also written in a style that you won’t encounter very often.

As for my poetry, it all comes straight from the heart, is rather dark and written without too much decoration or fancy words. I combine my poetry with the photos I take most of the pictures, model for them and edit them myself.

Why do you write what you do?

To stay sane. 🙂 Lol, no really! I have to write or I will certainly lose my mind.

I write young adult fantasy to show young people who, no matter how rough live gets, there is always hope for a better tomorrow if you are prepared to fight for it.

I write dark poetry to keep my mind from going completely crazy. It’s kind of therapy for PTSD I suffer from and a way to clear my mind since I am high sensitive.

How does your writing process work?

My novels are written from my dreams and daydreams. I write my books from front to back, I don’t use character development or schedules. My poetry is written from wandering sentences and images in my mind. I relay on the feelings my poetry bears, rather than style.

I have chosen a couple of bloggers whose work I love and who are great people as well. Take a look!

Horty (Doc)–>http://hrexach.wordpress.com/

Kev –> http://kevs-domain.net/

Brian –>http://fozzyfitness.wordpress.com/

Ihsan –> http://iithinks.wordpress.com/

Eddie –> http://bishoptatro.wordpress.com/

Back your bags guys, we are going on tour! 🙂

Lots of love

Patty

I Just Want To Say…Thank You

Love this little poem my dear friend and brother of heart has written for me. Speechless. ❤

The Story of a Guy

Thank you for being my friend
Thank you for all the time that you spend
Thank you for staying by me the times when I was blind
Thank you for staying by me the time when I had a lot on my mind
Thank you for opening up yourself to me
Thank you for not leaving even when we disagree
Thank you for showing me I have someone to trust
Thank you for helping me say goodbye to things unjust
Thank you for being there
Thank you for not letting me fall into despair
Thank you for being the friend that you are
Thank you for showing me it doesn’t matter if we’re near or far
Thank you for showing me love
Thank you for making me laugh..well kind of
Thank you for understanding my silly mind
Thank you for showing me you’re one of a kind
Thank you

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Amazing Blogger: Kimberly!

Every week I want to share an amazing blogger with you all, so you can check out their blogs and maybe make some new friends!

All of these bloggers have amazed me with their art, kind heart, friendship and skills.

You ready? Here we go!

Meet Kimberly

–> http://words4jp.wordpress.com/ <–

 

A little about Kimberly

The essentials:  My name is Kimberly and I currently live in the Northwest Burbs of Illinois.  I am divorced with two boys – one 19, the other 16 and we have a three-legged dog.

There is quite a bit more but then what would be left to read if I spilled it all in my About Me?  So,…..

The rest:  Stay Tuned!

Kim writes some amazing little poetry. This one is one of my favorites by her:

These Nights

nights like these tear open scars

leave a burning, seething pain

and

drown my thoughts in memories

of a person

 i wish

 would fade away.

˜

each time i close my eyes to sleep

he is standing over me –

with a blade so sharp

 it cuts to the bone;

i can do nothing to resist

 but

 bleed.

˜

i DO keep waiting for the night to come

when he no longer shows his face –

when he can no longer stab me

 through the heart

and

hold my soul at bay.

˜

however

˜

until the time arrives

 in which

he is nowhere to be seen,

i will prepare for battle

 every night

in hopes

 that i can

 sleep.

To me, Kim is an amazing blogger because she is kind, writes beautiful little poems and has been my friend for quite some time now.

My dear friend, this is for you.

 

Lots of Love

Patty