Christmas Market

Went to a christmas market with Herman, Tristan and divers other family members last night. Marinda was at the ballet with a friend. But that's not the point...

The market was in Kampen, pretty close to here. It's an old town with old gables and eaves, next to a river. A nice place to organize a market, Dickens style. Much to my enjoyment there was hardly a Santa to be found. Just one at the end of the evening, riding a sleigh. But sadly, there were also hardly any stables or Joseph or Mary or any mention of Jesus birth to be found either. Just one silly scene; a big wooden board painted with the traditional manger scene with the added attraction of sticking your head through so that you became the face of Mary or Joseph. I couldn't really appreciate the humor in that.

Anyway, here are some pictures of what we saw!

Second question

What would you still like to do?

One thing I'd like to do is to take a vacation by myself. The longest I've ever been by myself was a weekend at home without Herman and the kids, with nobody else around. For the rest I've always been in the company of others.

The thought of going alone terrifies and thrills me at the same time. I have gotten so used to sharing decisions that it gives me a thrill to think of going on vacation by myself and deciding what to do all by my lonesome! No other people to take into consideration, no other peoples opinions, needs or wants influencing my decision. And at the same time that kind of terrifies me. Because it can also be kind of easy letting part of what I do depend on what somebody else does. If I went on vacation by myself every decision would be my own. Where to go, what to eat, when to go to sleep, when to wake up... My goodness, that would really take some adjusting to!

That one weekend I was by myself I was quite happy and kind of surprised that I coped so well. I took great pleasure in leaving a room and coming back and finding it looking exactly the same. No kids messes, or somebody who had crawled into my corner of the sofa. I even cooked for myself, something I am kind of convinced I wouldn't do regularly if I had to do it all the time! But imagine the pleasure of making something that I particularly like and my family doesn't! Or eating at odd times, not taking into consideration whether or not my family is hungry.

The closest I have gotten to going on vacation alone was my road trip in Ethiopia. I was not alone, I was actually with my father, brother and sister, but it was just me. I wasn't also having to be a mom or a wife at the same time. And we had all the luxury of eating "out" and travelling and enjoying each others company. I loved it! But part of the enjoyment was also knowing that my family was well taken care of and that they were enjoying themselves. Nothing gives peace of mind like knowing that the home front is doing all right!

But one day, I would like to take a longer vacation by myself. Say a week or so. Long enough to enjoy the freedom, and also long enough to realize and look forward to what's waiting for me back home.

London

I'm sitting at home after my "london experience". Marinda is at dance class, Herman is off to the soccer field with Tristan, so the house is quiet. I just finished looking at the pictures we made in London (which are not great, so you won't see many of them here!) and I've been thinking about how I feel about my time in London.

I had hoped I would be stunned and amazed. I wasn't. Was it due to the fact that we were rushed and harried before we good and well got there? Perhaps. Perhaps it was also due to the fact that we hadn't gone into great detail in the planning. Maybe it had to do with the weather, which was not aweful (no rain, thank goodness!) but not great either. I'm not sure. But whatever way I look at it, I was not terribly impressed.


So what did we see? We saw the Houses of Parliament and the Big Ben. We saw Westminister Abbey, inside and out. We saw Buckingham Palace. And we walked for miles and miles, crisscrossed through Soho, and stopped by in a couple of bookshops. Sat by the Thames munching english baked goods, had dinner in an italian restaurant in the middle of the Chinese Quarter. Rode in the metro, admired the cabs, enjoyed the buses and peeked into shop windows. Felt our feet ache from pounding the pavement, were surprised at how polite people were, were given a Krispy Kreme doughnut for free at the airport, and were utterly exhausted by the time we finally got back home.

Westminister Abbey was impressive, actually. But somehow I didn't quite get the feel for all the history that is encompassed in that one building. Because really, talk about history!! It's all in there. Factually I got a lot of information, but it didn't grab me by the guts as historical places will sometimes do to me. Maybe that was because it was utterly jampacked with tourists. I could almost walk over peoples heads (as the dutch say).
Maybe we should have gone for the prepackaged tourist deal and had all kinds of history dished out to us in ready made portions. There's a certain ease to that! You don't have to spend time thinking about which metro to take, or which bus goes where..... maybe next time?


The flight was an experience in itself. My friend hadn't flown in 30 years, so I had to explain some of the rituals of travel to her. I was a bundle of nerves myself, until we got into the air. I can get airsick sometimes, and I have a strong dislike of turbulence. But the trips were good. We sat in different seats, got a good look at the dutch countryside and seaside. Went through clouds, saw the sunset, had some turbulence and saw Holland by night. About as complete a journey as we could wish for!



So, how would I sum up this trip? As a pretty unique experience. And one that has actually made me pretty happy about where I live now. Lots of history to be seen here! Maybe next time I would be happier going to someplace smaller like Stratford-upon-Avon. Someplace that is not quite as huge. Maybe I need to go see London with someone who comes from London, to get a much better feel for the place. Maybe, just maybe, I'm not as adventerous as I like to think I am, and I should just stay at home and enjoy what I have!!

Nerves

I must admit nerves are beginning to get to me. It's not like I fly on a regular basis! I'm talking about the trip to London of course.

So how did I come by a trip to London? It was a gift from one of my special friends. She's flying to France by herself later on this year but wanted her "virgin" flight to be with a friend. She therefore came up with the brilliantly original plan of having me fly with her...
Oh the dismay and the sorrow when I realized that SHE WANTED ME TO GO TO LONDON WITH HER!!

This precious person even gave me a choice, in the most original of ways. She sent me ten e-mails which each had two pictures in them. I had to choose which one of the pictures had my preference. Somewhere halfway the pictures I started to an inkling of an idea where this picture session was going. The last set of pictures was the big giveaway. I had to choose between the Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower.
Now, part of me was feeling that I really should choose Paris, as I havn't been there, and it is said to be a wonderful city. And I have been to London, even though it was a long, long, long, long time ago. But when I heard our trip was to last for one day I decided on London. The key was language. I don't speak french at all, and the thought of one day spent with people I don't understand just didn't make me happy. The thought of spending a day hearing english though, made me very happy!

So Tuesday is THE DAY. We leave the house at an ungodly hour and will also return at an ungodly hour. I'll stay over at her's the night before and the night of our trip, so all in all it's almost like a weekend away.

But somehow, the reality of it is still not hitting me. Maybe it will take until I'm actually sitting in the airplane for me to realize that I'M ACTUALLY GOING TO LONDON!!

Another sunny day

Vacation

Today, or maybe tomorrow, is the first official day of our vacation. Not that we're going anywhere...a move and a trip to Ethiopia have depleted our wallets for now. But we are free from work for three glorious weeks! To celebrate Herman is now slouched lopsided on the sofa, snoring away.
I took a long bike ride with my Dad today which included farm lanes, a bicycle ferry, views of the lake, an old village, a museum, and more farm lanes, all within 30 kilometers (which was about the length of our round trip). No need to get bored in this area of Holland!

We will spend the coming weeks fixing up the garden, clearing out the attic, celebrating birthdays, having great friends over, going swimming, catching up on our photograph albums (so very very optimistic of us) and sleeping, sleeping and sleeping. Marinda will work at the ice cream place and I will manfully try to keep Tristan from spending too much time behind the computer and the tv. A battle I feel I have already lost.
I'm not sure how much I will be posting. Lately I've noticed it takes more effort than usual, and I feel I might be ranting and raving a bit too much. So I'm giving myself the leeway to blog if I feel like it, and not blog because I "must" (I mean, it's not like anyones life depends on me writing about whatever happens to hit my fancy!)

Now before I forget, I would like to praise my husband to the skies for being the very very handy man that he is. He took leftover laminate flooring from the bedrooms and transformed it into a huge desk/storage space in the attic (with lighting underneath!!). He bought a secondhand bookcase and rebuilt it to fit underneath the eaves of the attic. He hangs up stuff, fixes stuff and pretty much caters to our every handyman whim. I love him. (Ik hou van jou Herman!)

Have a good summer everyone!

Movie day

Today is movie day in our residence. It's the first day of the Spring holidays and Marinda has her boyfriend over and Tristan a friend who will stay the night. I watched The Green Mile with Marinda and company and banished the boys upstairs during the watching of it. I didn't think it would be too appropriate and I'm not sure how strict Tristans friend is raised. Didn't want to risk any parental conflicts! So now the boys are hanging on the sofa watching Transformers. From the sounds that are emanating from our surround system, I seriously wonder if this is much better than The Green Mile! But this movie was okayed by Tristans friends mom, so I will let boys be boys. Loud noises of fighting, explosions, sparks shooting, dramatic music and panicked voices... what more can any boy want? I think I will run upstairs though if this volume is kept up!
Herman is stacking dishes, I will go wash them soon, and then maybe catch up on some correspondence I have been neglecting lately.

YEEAAHHHHH!!

Two posts in one day!?!? What is the world coming to?
But this is to celebrate that I am sitting at home, with a fixed computer (fixed so well that we will soon be able move the computer to an actual desk instead of having to lean over the couch to type anything). So I thought that would be worth mentioning.
And I want to write at least a little bit about our weekend...

We went and saw The Kite Runner with free tickets that I had got through my work. On Sunday we took the train to Kampen and walked an art route. Basically people open up their houses and artists show off their work. Saw some fun stuff and some stuff that was just garbage. Had lunch in the sunshine (with our jackets on, but the SUN was there!).


Went shopping on saturday, trying desperately to find Herman some nice clothes for his sisters wedding. I DON'T LIKE SHOPPING! We had a long dinner on friday evening and did some major talking and got down to the depths of one of our differences without killing eachother in the process (tears were shed though). And we got some close personal time ;-) So methinks it was a succes!


I hope you can make some sense of the pictures. It took me forever to upload them, and I can't seem to get them to align properly!

Vacations

Our trip to Ethiopia will be the first out of Europe experience for us as a family. We go on a short holiday almost every year but the farthest we've been as a family has been to Germany! When Marinda was two we went to Greece with her, and when she was 8 she and I went to Nepal to visit my parents. So for Tristan this coming vacation will be the first time for him to fly.
We've had some great vacations here though. The idea has been to visit a new province of Holland every year. That's one way of getting to know my native country! And Holland can be quite varied in all its smallness.
My absolute favorite vacations have been to Texel, one of the islands here. I love the sense of space you have on the island, and the fact that you are just a bike ride away from the beach. Just wonderful! Add some great friends and then you have an ideal mix.

For some reason, I can't put words underneath the pictures, so here's the explanations:
1. view of Texel from a boat
2. this years vacation in Belgium with my parents in law
3. Tristan really LOVING his icecream!
4. A day on the beach
5. The best friends ever to go on vacation with