een prijnige dag (a pleasanice day)

I started writing this last night, but for reasons that will soon be obvious when you start reading, I had to give up on it.


Well, this going to be an interesting post as I'm writing it on my iPod Touch with two hands...not easy. But I'm in Amsterdam and decided to leave mum's heavy Toshiba home as I'm probably taking the train home. And Stella is using her MacBook Air herself for work stuff, so this is it. Until perhaps, one day I might have a MacBook of my very own...

I've had a super busy weekend! It all started on Saturday morning when I was woken up at about 5 am by a noise on our gravel driveway. I immediately thought it was burglars as Mum and I got burgled two years ago while we were asleep upstairs and it totally shook us. But when I looked out my window I saw my sister's car in the driveway - she decided to drive straight over after her night out in Den Bosch. So I went downstairs to let her in and as I hadn't expect her until the afternoon I hadn't organised a bed for her yet. So we shared my bed, which I guess we haven't done since we were kids, and we were never very good at it. So tonight at her place she's offered to sleep on the couch. I would sleep on the couch but I can't here as it's too  noisy and bright for lightsleeper me. Stella can sleep anywhere, it's quite amazing.

After I let Stella in I struggled to go back to sleep, but I really wanted to as I planned to go to the new gym and do the double whammy (Body Jam & Zumba). I finally fell back asleep after 6, but had to be up by 7.30. But I was very glad go have gone to the gym. Very glad.

When I rocked up for Body Jam, we had Wednesday's instructor as the Saturday instructor is away - and the Wednesday instructor happens to be of the quite well-formed male variety!
Now, you must know I go to a women-only gym in Australia so I have never been taught gym classes by a man. Body Jam is my all-time favourite gym class, and this time we were taught the new release and this boy could dance! Damn, it was awesome! I was dancing my butt off, having the time of my life with a lovely-to-look-at man in front of me also dancing his butt of. It was a 9 am party! He really had a lot of energy and spirit, it was obvious he enjoyed teaching and dancing. It was probably the most fun I could possibly ever have at a gym. My legs are still sore.

It didn't end there. After that lovely surprise, I found out that the Zumba instructor was also quite a good-looking young man! I couldn't believe my luck! He has the habit of spending most of the class with his back to you to show you the steps, which I found a bit annoying, but it wasn't too bad when he did the hip rolls...

I wouldn't normally look at another man's body so closely, as my husband is really very nice to look at, but when he's right in front of you and you have to look at him shake his booty, it's really not unpleasant! This guy didn't have the energy and the spunk from the Body Jam Boy, but he was fun too. I look forward to Wednesday when I'm going to do Sh'bam followed by Body Jam. It's going to be a total dance workout!


Now it's Monday afternoon, i's a beautiful spring day and I'm sitting on Phiroze's balcony in the sun, having just enjoyed a patatje Joppie (chips with Joppie sauce) from his local snackbar. Unfortunately, Phiroze is not here, he is in Vegas, but I thought I do some sneaky organizing while he's away. No, he knows I'm here and I have collected his mail so his letterbox doesn't clog up. I know someone who had a problem with that. It's also very pleasant to have a sunny balcony with wifi to my disposal, plus my sister's beautiful MacBook. All I need is some tunes...hang on, I can arrange that. Lykke Li, there we go.


I have had an awesome day so far. Breakfast with my lovely sister, whom I really enjoy spending lots of time with this trip. Then she braved the Amsterdam traffic on her bike with me on the back so that I could take the bike and use it today for my errands while she's at work. Then I rode to Screaming Beans for an awesome cappuccino in the morning sun (no sugar, it was that good) with a delicious chocolate croissant. As I left I meant to say either 'have a nice day'  or 'have a pleasant day'  to the nice barrista, but ended up saying 'have a pleasanice day'. D'oh. Oh well, today is both pleasant and nice! Then I went to my sister's place and tackled sorting out Stella's mail. She has a small issue with opening scary envelopes (i.e. very overdue bills) so she just doesn't open her letterbox. As we all know, mail can be very scary, but it does not go away if you ignore it. So I have offered to help her sort out any offending pieces of paper. I am very good at that sort of stuff. I really like organizing. It makes me feel really good. I also managed to find out that the broken light in the stairway of Stella's building is simply a matter of a blown fuse, while she though she had to call an electrician to fix it. Plus I oiled the lock of her bike and letterbox, which both open easily now. Such little jobs that give great satisfaction. I have intentions of cleaning her windows one of these days as well.


But back to my weekend...uhm, so the gym was fantastic on Saturday morning, then I got home and had a coffee with my sister and we thought up our plan of action to tackle the chores that still had to be done around my mum's place. I also offered to help Stella sort out her mail issues and we decided I'd come to Amsterdam. We did so much on the weekend, we sanded and painted till we were dusty and covered in paint, and we enjoyed some lovely meals with the three of us. It's really nice to spend so much family time together, despite the big task at hand. Sunday was a bit of a Murphy's law day for me, and I got very, very frustrated and also a little injured. I wanted to sand and paint the kitchen door and it just wasn't happening for me. I scaled my right hand quite badly trying to remove some old roller blind holders, and then I couldn't find the right bandages and then I failed to remove the flyscreen and then and then and then it all went to shit. Haha, I was so angry, I screamed quite a lot. I even cried a little. Freakin' emotional baby! I tried to cheer myself up by translating Dutch proverbs literally, and I finally got over my little hissyfit when I got to the painting part of the job. Dutch: Ik had het net even te kwaad, maar nu heb ik me erop gestort. English literal translation: I had it a little too evil before, but now I've crashed myself onto it. Or: It all got to me before, but now I'm right into it. Translating Dutch proverbs literally is one of my favourite pastimes. 


Sunday ended just fine, with a beautiful bbq in the sun, as the weather was sublime yesterday too. And then I painted one more door and had a shower and packed. Stella drove me to Amsterdam and I exchanged text messages with Phioroze who was being driven through Death Valley on his way to Vegas. It was really nice to know we were doing such similar things on opposite sides of the world, only I'm sure his drive was just slightly more scenic, not to mention longer. 


Well, now you're up to date with the latest. I have to say I'm loving being here as much as I get desperate to leave. Just riding a bike here in Amsterdam really brings me tremendous joy. I feel free, home, empowered. On a day like today, just riding a bike like I used to on a daily basis until I was 19, it really brings me back to my roots. Silly, I know. But I really miss it over in Australia. And though I miss my husband's company and love, I am so very happy to be here.