tales of the {small} city

now it seems weird to me, but when i didn't live in Breda yet, it felt quite intimidating to even go here for a day... the people who lived here seemed so self-assured, so full of city confidence, and i was really just a small village girl, plonked into a couple of fairly small towns, twice over. one town was in England {also quite intimidating, at first}, the other about 20 kms away from my ancestral home. 

Breda was like a Holy Grail of Cities when i was growing up. some family members lived there, my dad's mum was born there {and spent the rest of her married life yearning to be back} and i went to college there {i had wanted to go to the art school, but settled for something my mum didn't get nightmares from - being an activities companion for elderly and/or sick and/or disabled people, which was only suited to me in the brilliant artistic and creative subjects we were taught at the school. i was very ill equipped to actually do the accompanying of the activities back then...}. this used to lead me daily through one of the most pretty parts of Breda - het Ginneken - and i vowed to move there as soon as i had the wherewithal, and guts...

that last bit didn't happen until i started working at the organic supermarket that is now my place of employment, and only once i gotten over the shock of how assertive most of the customers were. jeez!! the shop in the small town where i worked before seemed like a sweet, doddery old lady compared to the brash, cocky bloke that the average customer here appeared to be. and this included my colleagues... it took me a while to get the hang of this, and find in me what was required, was i to hang on to my job there. but something must have shifted in my perception of this place, cos very soon i set my sights on finding somewhere to live here. 

to my amazement, i feel so much more at home here than i ever have done in the previous place i lived in. sure, there are parts i'm not completely at ease in, and i tend to avoid them, but on the whole, i love discovering new areas, new streets, new parks, new side streets, so often showing the rich history, the lovely buildings, the mad architectural feats... in a weird way it reminds me of the town in England i lived in... 

just now i dropped some shopping off for a customer who lived in a newer constructed part of a very old area here, streets designed in the 80's, narrow roads, which my car was navigated though by my google maps {thank the lord for that!!!}, and i found the house - somewhere i'd never have known was there, if it weren't for this delivery... a stone's throw from the {usually} bustling centre, with it's ancient as well as newly reconstructed canal, many restaurants... a disgruntled resident grumbled at my car being parked so annoyingly, and i didn't even flinch. i had my hazard lights on, i was gone in a bit, keep your hair on!! 

seems that Breda's city confidence has rubbed off on me already...