What's special today?

A new skill on my CV

So on Wednesday, Nadia sent me this text .

School holidays started for me Thursday at 5 PM, so the thought of kicking off the break with an all expenses paid date night with my husband was too good of an opportunity to pass up. I, of course, said yes.

Now when you read the above text, what do you visualize? Because, when I read that text, I imagined some sort of restaurant space — maybe it’s new or about to open, unfinished, maybe it’s just shut down for the night for this tasting event. There are multiple groups of people, all being served the same three course meal. There’s a photographer, maybe just a 20 year old with an iPhone, walking around taking pictures of everyone having a fun night out in a crowded restaurant all together to build up a backlog of content for social media. That’s the image that popped into my head. Keep this expectation in your brain as I tell the rest of the story.

Last minute babysitter secured, my in house bartender whipped me up an old-fashioned during the Bug’s bath time to cheers the end of the 2025 school year. As we were walking out the door, I had the thought to slick my hair back after a day of teaching, but of course, did not think to put on any sort of make up. This visual is also very important for what comes next.

We biked from our house in Amsterdam East towards Museumplein, had a lovely chat along the way. It’s amazing how much you can chat about with no toddler yelling “Daddy, no no talk to mama!! Talk to Sloane!”

So we pulled up to the restaurant, which is not a new restaurant, nor is it shut down for any sort of special event. It is a completely normal restaurant with a completely normal amount of normal groups of people for a Thursday night at 7:30 PM in a major global capital.

We are very confused. We walk in and give our names, are told to wait. The co-owner walks up, shakes my hand proceeds to hand me a script. I learned in that moment that when it comes to fight, flight, or freeze, I do not have the flight nor the fight instinct.

An important detail to keep in mind is that she only hands the script to me. Dylan is being completely ignored. As I’m sitting there with the script in hand, trying to figure out what the fuck is going on, a group of 12 people walks in for some sort of company holiday dinner.

So now the restaurant that was already full enough for a Thursday night at 7:30 pm does not have an empty seat in the house. This is the setting in which I am apparently about to film a commercial.

We’re taking to the last empty table and finally left alone. We start freaking out about what the fuck Nadia has gotten us — me — into. I’d like to bring you back to the visuals here: I do not have a stitch of make up on, my hair is slicked back and not very well done in a low bun, and I did not have time to iron my shirt. You also cannot imagine how fluorescent the lights of this restaurant are, and I am seated directly underneath a bulb.

This is where I start panicking, because Nadia is one of my more glamorous friends. I started spiraling that Nadia had been approached on the street by this random restaurant owner to film this commercial and then when she could no longer go, she sent me, her raggedy friend, in her place. Luckily, a quick text to Nadia quickly reassures me that she had learned about this in a buy/sell whatsapp group and just volunteered to have a free three course dinner at this Indian restaurant.

No, I do want to clarify before I go any further — the second that we walked in both Dylan and I commented on how freaking good the restaurant smelled. The food truly looked glorious, and Dylan was chomping at the bit to try everything on the menu.

The owner comes over and asked what dishes we would like in addition to the large tasting platter that we’re going to be filmed eating — and by we, once again I mean just me, because everyone in this restaurant seems to be set on pretending Dylan is not there. The fact that Dylan is being ignored is so weird because 1. he’s very handsome 2. of the two of us, he is the one who showered before this dinner and 3. therefore is the one who is wearing an unwrinkled shirt. Objectively, it would make way more sense for him to be the star of this commercial.

We place the order and then I start spiralling, so I make Dylan practice the four line script with me again and again and again. We only stop when the owner brings over his full professional camera set up to start figuring out the lighting. Once again, please remember that everyone else in this restaurant is having a totally normal meal. Here’s me practicing!

The set up of all of this camera work takes so much longer than you could imagine — so long in fact that we don’t get our starter for the first hour that we are in the place. At this point Dylan has never been so hungry in his life. My giggles are almost delirious between my nerves, the ridiculousness of the situation, and the fact that my husband looks like he is about to jump out of his seat every time a waiter walks by.

The appetizer comes and is delicious. Dylan gets enough food in his system to help me practice again.

Finally, it is my time to shine. I’m micc’d up. The tasting platter arrives. I give it my all. My husband sits there trying not to laugh loudly enough to be caught on the mic.

If you noticed in the script, it’s implied that I’m supposed to first try the foods with a spoon before eating them all with my hands. So I am not only filmed delivering my lines, but also filmed spooning out, tasting and reacting to each of these tiny bowls of deliciousness. How many different ways can you say “mhhmmm” to a camera that is focused on your mouth, you might ask? Not that many.

And then - I was filmed trying all of them with my hands. What’s more, Dylan somehow missed the fact that this was implied in the script and thought I was just IMPROVISING this! He almost choked on his own food with how hard he was trying not to laugh.

After we finish all of the takes, I assume we are free to enjoy our meal at last. But then! The video camera is put away, and the film camera is brought over. As Dylan and I eat, roughly 30 pictures of me are taken.

Finally, it is finished. We eat so much I want to undo my belt. My mouth is on fire from way spicier Indian food than I’m ever brave enough to order, and the lovely owner brings us mango lassis to end the meal.

As we’re walking out, they ask me to film a final review of the experience. I am conscious that we’ve just been gifted a gorgeous, huge meal, and truly it was delicious. I lean into my most English teacher-y vibes and am effusive with my praise, speaking for a minute about how amazing everything was. The wife of the couple is appreciative, but the man behind the camera is fidgety. I offer to do another take, if he’d prefer. He asks me to just say one sentence, saying I asked what the special was, and that it was delicious. I comply.

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What I’m Reading

• I read Dominion and Wreck recently, and loved them both. Dominion explores the relationship between privilege, religion, sex and violence in Mississippi. Catherine Newman’s sequel to Sandwich continues to be the best writing on motherhood I’ve ever read.

• I was in a children’s bookshop in Edinburgh over my October holidays, and I realized the Phillip Pullman had released new books in the His Dark Materials world. Before reading the new ones, I wanted to revisit the original series to remind myself of this fantasy world I’d loved as a kid. I’ve been listening to the audiobooks, which is narrated by Pullman himself but with a full cast performing the speaking parts. It is exquisite - experiencing it again as an adult is reminding me of how in love with reading I was as a kid. If you know a 10-14 year old and need a Christmas present for them, let it be this.

What I’m Watching

• Sharing The Muppets Christmas Carol with the Bug has been the joy of the season. If you don’t know, no other adaptation of the novel is actually more true to the original text!

What I’m Loving

• Do you need Christmas presents? Here’s a fun hat. My mother in law loved this silk base layer we gave her for Sinterklaas. This is what the Bug is getting from Santa.

P.S. I’m going to write more, I promise! It’s my preemptive New Year’s Resolution. Thanks for sticking around :).