Trip

Well, here I am. Italy! Mum has gone to meet with her people from Sand in Taufers, which is why we're in Italy to begin with, so I have a whole day to squander to myself.
Sunny terrace, pretty square with pretty church and pretty fountain, espesso, San Pellegrino and some slow and unreliable wifi. It is as close to the best first day of a holiday I could imagine. The internet could be a bit faster, but what the hell. I have time to watch pages load slowly, I don't need to do anything else or go anywhere in particular.

Our trip here was slightly less perfect, though we got here in the end. We had plans to leave at 7 am, but due to our super slow sunday ending with us staying up late to make the house tidy in case people would come to view our house while we're away, we had given ourselves permission to sleep in a bit. We didn't end up leaving until 9.30, because we had a few hiccups. One of them was that when we wanted to put our destination into our TomTom (or DomDom as he has once again proven to be), he had decided that Italy no longer exists. He has been here before. He has given us, my Mum last september, and my hubby and myself two years ago on our honeymoon, directions to and in Italy. But for some bizarre reason, a recent update must have erased his memory. My iPhone, though it could find our hotel on Google Maps, could not give us directions to it. It was in cahoots with the DomDom, obviously. So I wanted to try Mum's phone, but it was not in her bag. It was not in the car. We went back inside, it was not where it most likely would be. It was nowhere. Only after a few frantic dashes through the house Mum found it on her nightstand, where she never, ever normally puts it, but did that morning. But it was back to good old paper road maps, anyways. Goin' old skool. All fine.

For most of the drive, it rained. It was wet, cold, wet and quite wet. And though we had DomDom guide us to the Brenner Pass, which is on the border of Austria and Italy, it showed nothing at all when we got to that border. Italy really does not exist, according to DomDom.  All roads and information stopped on the border, it was just a green background. Great. But, in Austria and through some Alps, the weather did improve a lot. Getting to Bolzano was not so much of a problem, though finding a way to our hotel and the parking garage took us a few laps dodging locals on bikes. Damn you, DomDom - it would have been so much easier being told where to go! But we got here around 20.30 last night, found out room to have a lovely view of Piazza Walther, and the temperature was a balmy 22 degrees.

After settling in and not managing to get the 'free wifi' to work, we went down and we enjoyed a lovely glass of wine (moscato!) on the lovely terrace (same one I'm sitting on now) which was served with a little plate with some banana and strawberry. This made us laugh. I hate bananas, and despite my total denial, I am allergic to strawberries. I ate the strawberries anyway. They were delicious. I have itchy bumps on my face today, but I am ignoring that fact. It was a very good end to quite a tiresome day.

Going to sleep was slightly tricky, despite my exhaustion, because the bed is very hard and the pillow very flat. It was kind of soothing to hear people having fun out on the square, the water flowing in the fountain and the church bell chime every 15 minutes. So eventually I did manage to go to sleep.

I did wake up extremely sore, my back and shoulders are very tight and I am definitely asking for another pillow. They have a wellness centre in the hotel with massages and steam rooms and a jacuzzi, which closed yesterday for their holidays and will reopen on the 5th of September. Go figure. Great idea to close a wellness centre during peak holiday time, so they can go on holidays. Oh well.
But I did managed to get the internet to work this morning, however, it has stopped working since I started writing this. They give you a little print-out with a password and username that is valid for an hour. It's been more an hour since I first logged in. I will have to ask for another password and username. Oh the Italians and their internet. Brings back memories of my honeymoon. Oh, wish my hubby was here.

Going to go ask for another wifi password, post this message and then go for a wander. Might have some lunch later.

Slow Sunday

Hi. It's almost six pm, I'm in my PJ bottoms and feeling seriously sleepy, despite the fact that I slept for over an hour this afternoon. I had a big day yesterday, though not the biggest ever, it does feel that way. It was great, though.  Unfortunately there was no dancing, but we sang. Loudly, in public, and out of tune. It was glorious. We sang Pizza Calzone by Enge Buren. A spoof Dutch version of Eros Ramzotti's Se Bastasse Una Canzone. Seriously hilarious lyrics.

I traveled to Amsterdam Friday night, and stayed at my sister's place, though she wasn't there herself. I had made a date with Emily since we both felt the need to see each other just one more time before I'm going to Italy and France tomorrow, and as she had other plans for Friday night, Saturday it was. It was pouring with rain all night and morning and the weather was just grey and miserable altogether. What summer? I was pleased to have worn my winter jacket when I walked to the tram stop. We both encountered the usual Amsterdamned Tram Trouble, so we met about a quarter past 11 am and Stella joined us too, we had coffee at Two for Joy, which was very good. As we left the sun had come out, totally agains all weather forecast predictions, and it stayed out all afternoon. Needless to say, suddenly my winter jacket was too hot and I ended up carrying it most of the afternoon. However Em and I still enjoyed a nice leisurely day of strolling through tourist-stricken Amsterdam, buying a few things, eating some things and sharing the general banter and laughter that comes with our being together. We were still hunting a cocktail bar that could make my now infamous Vanilla Pie cocktail, and I had found a potential candidate so we made our way there after a quick break at Phiroze's apartment to drop off my stuff, where I would be sleeping that night with the hopes to have a few hours with the man himself later as he would be in the country for 12 hours to repack his bags.

We hadn't really taken the fact that it was dinner time into account when we started drinking cocktails. Emily introduced me to a satekroket 'out of the wall' from the Febo that afternoon, which I enjoyed very much. I am sad to say this delightful snack was not part of my diet when I lived here, but it is now. Below are pictures of how one buys snacks 'out of the wall' (which can be done 24 hours a day), by the way, something quintessentially Dutch.

Choose your snack

Satekroket, yum

Insert coins and take out snack

We had also just unabashedly shared a bag of potato chips (Joppie Saus flavour) later that day, the way we always have since we were little children. Potato chips are part of our history. And one does not eat some chips and then put the bag away. One finishes a bag by the handful. So we didn't feel the need for dinner, but we did feel the need for cocktails.

We headed to the Vesper bar, which was nicely tucked away from tourists, in the Jordaan district. The bartender was quite cute and very friendly and helpful, however he was unable to help me introduce Emily to the Vanilla Pie. So he made me a Pornstar instead. Yah, I know, which would you rather consume? What a bad name for such a nice cocktail! I told him I wanted something girly and very sweet and he delivered on that. Emily had the Red Lipss (or was it Hot Lipss? Memory went a bit fuzzy around that time) and that was also very delicious. We were enjoying ourselves quite marvellously there and the drinks went down very well. We decided on a second round. The night was very young, and the cocktail menu very appealing. However our lovely bartender told me he'd make me something especially sweet and girly, and he had assumed correctly that I am fond of vanilla and cinnamon. He concocted something quite spectacular, which I got to name myself. I lovingly called it the Sinterklaas-in-a-Glass or the Taai Taai Pop. Sinterklaas, which you should by now know if you've been reading my blog loyally and regularly as you should, is a Dutch family holiday celebrating said Saint, who was the inspiration for the man known to many as Santa Claus. Anyhow, it tasted so much like that Christmassy, Sinterklaasy sweet & spicy flavour, that it put me straight in the mood for presents. However, it turned out I would be enjoying presence rather than presents that night, namely that of my good old friend Emily and my good new friend Phizz. Something much more valuable.

Florence holding a Pornstar

That second cocktail, however, did contain quite, quite a lot of alcohol. I couldn't taste that which was what made it such a good cocktail, but I could tell and Emily could tell, too. For the first time in my life, I could feel the effects of alcohol quite clearly and it was funny. I wouldn't say it's really worth making it a regular state of mind, I found it rather unsettling, but it was entertaining nonetheless. People seem to make a big fuss about it, and seem to enjoy being drunk very much, but I'm not in any hurry to get back to that state. I wouldn't count myself as having been drunk as such, I could still speak very coherently and walk in a straight line and all that, it was only two cocktails after all, but I have to say I was hyper aware that I felt a bit woozy and slightly out of touch with my brain. I had six cocktails on my birthday without feeling very much effect, so I found last night's occurrence quite surprising. But with cocktails being pricey drinks, and the realisation that we should probably eat something to soak up the wooziness, we strolled out into the evening and headed for food. The bartender could not tell us where we could find 'a healthy salad' (he seemed very amused that we wanted to eat that), so it was up to us. In my slightly befuddled state, I forgot to tip our nice bartender. I feel bad and will have to go back there next time and give him an extra big tip.

Emily, whom as I have mentioned in previous post, has quite a voice when it comes to funny accents, beatboxing and also just singing in general. Not specifically beautiful or angelic singing (sorry Em, you know it's true) but very impressive, and highly entertaining, all the same. We were singing and laughing along the Amsterdam canals, when some eastern European male tourist walking in front of us had noted out elated state. Silly womenses as we were, should have kept our voices down, however, we were giggling and having fun. They slowed to speak to us and one said this to Emily (if you ever see her, ask her to do his accent, she's ace at those): 'You are very beautiful. Your friend.' I think he meant me. We weren't equally enchanted with their appearance, so we continued on our path after ignoring them the most polite way we could, but laughing quite hysterically at the remark. Then a few hundred meters along, the same man stopped and asked me quite unashamedly if I could give him a kiss. Granted, he pointed at his cheek while saying this, but I still told him very clearly I was married and held up my wedding band-adorned hand for emphasis. He responded cheerfully that this was not a problem, he was too, and proceeded to show me a picture of his baby on his phone.  I told him that he really should not be asking women for kisses if he was married and had a child, but to please enjoy his time in Amsterdam. We quickly walked the opposite direction. In hysterics, of course.

Then we found a cosy little place where we ordered a salad, and I received a text from Phizz a bit earlier saying he had finished in Paris early and would be back earlier than he had anticipated, so he joined us after our salad for a drink. We wanted to go lounge at Werck for another drink and maybe some food for Phizz, and maybe even a dance after, so we stepped out into the night once again. The night decided it wanted to shower us, so the heavens suddenly opened up, thunder cracked over our heads and rain came lashing down. This didn't dampen our spirits as much as our heads, so we continued on. Emily was telling us she didn't want to dance on her own and translated it thus: 'I don't want to dance in my ducky' (the Dutch word for 'being on your own' and 'ducky' sound exactly the same). It is now one of my favourite literal translations ever. We also came to the conclusion earlier that day that the French have not eaten cheese of how to make coffee. This is also a literal translation that we found very amusing. In Dutch when someone's ignorant in regards to something we have a saying 'he/she has not eaten cheese of it' and as it's a sad fact that making good coffee is not something the French are particularly famous for, we came to the above conclusion. Language is one of my favourite toys!

We didn't end up lounging at Werck due to the lounge area being closed, but rather eating chinese vegetable soup in a completely uncharming but favourite food joint with a tv blearing. That's when we all really realised we were actually exhausted and dancing was most definitely not going to happen. So we said our goodbyes, and all went to our beds. It was a wonderful day. Really good to be with my good friends before heading off for a week or two. Phizz and I really wanted to talk for hours and catch up properly, but we were just too tired for it. Our brains synced just by proximity. He's a MacBook Pro, I am a MacBook Airhead, we sync quite well and soon all we'll need is a cloud. Sorry, that was a bad Macjoke. Don't order it at the MacDonald's.

This morning, Phizz's 5 (yes, 5) alarms went of with about 10 minute intervals starting at 5.55 am and I was awake from the first one. He, however, managed to turn each one off and go straight back to sleep. Now it was him, not me, that needed to catch a plane and I reminded him of that eventually, so he begrudgingly rolled into action around 7 am. And me, well, I felt quite aware of my poor food and drink choices of the night before. Tummy was not happy, but made me feel that I might possibly be hungry, or something. After Phizz hopped is his taxi after our usual 'See you in a month' I was very hungry (bakery was closed), but missed my tram and had to wait 10 minutes in the rain for a bus, it was still too early to drink coffee and eat fresh croissants at Screaming Beans (half an hour too early) so then I got on my bus to find that wasn't going to go all the way to Central Station because of roadworks, and I had to walk 10 minutes in the rain. Imagine my mood. Things felt slightly better after some croissants from the station and having gotten on my train home, but to be honest, not much.

I was almost asleep when I got to Eindhoven, and nearly missed my connecting train, but when I got home, I was rewarded with cuddle from Mum, and my soft, sweet bed. I slept for a lovely while. Then I woke feeling groggy. I decided I need to pack for our trip, and I did so using some of Phizz's amazing Tom Bihn packing cubes, which brought me much joy. I am beginning to think Tom Bihn has designed his products especially for us. Maybe Tom Bihn and Steve Jobs should design products together.

Now, the washing is about done, the asparagus are about ready, and I am done telling you about my last few days. So. Tell me about yours!

Not much

I am not writing so much, because I am not doing so much. At all. I mean, I do stuff, but nothing worth writing about. To be honest, I've done such uninteresting stuff that I cannot even remember what I've done since I got back from Amsterdam. I've been to the gym, I've done washing, I've tidied the house, tidied my room, even inside my drawers and cupboards, I've cleaned the kitchen, I've made a few dinners, done some supermarket shopping, swept the garden patio, cleaned the toilets. You know, normal house-stuff. Nothing to write about.

It also means I have very little to say when I speak to my lovely husband, or when my sister visits, or when I manage to catch a friend on Skype. It's weird having nothing to say! As you know, I am usually such a talker. And sitting here at the dinner table with my mother and my sister last night I felt completely awkward because I had not anything to say that my mother or sister had not been witness to or heard about already! My sister had lots of interesting things to say, and I hung on every word she uttered about Amsterdam and her friends and men and people and even dogs in the office. My mother and I have sat, cosily by the wood heater because the weather's turned cool at night, but with nothing to say to each other. We just sit there and maybe chuckle over the cat's crazy antics, but that's it. It totally weirds me out! Wah! I need some action!

Luckily, it is my mother's birthday today and that means we did stuff. My sister came yesterday afternoon, we had a cup of tea on the terrace and then she crashed out in the hammock because she's been so busy at work this week. She's been working up to 10 pm some days! Sounds a lot like my poor hubby. So during her snooze I did the ironing (I know, so exciting, right?) and then we had a lovely dinner together with mum. It's always nice to have dinner with my mum and sister. Always. And it's always nice to have my sister here because I can talk to her, or rather, she has stuff to talk about that I can talk back about. Someone to talk to! Exciting!

However, something reasonable exciting happened right after dinner. As I had just lined up the first episode of Beached Az on my Mac just to remember how it goes, we get a visitor. And not just any visitor. It's Hendrik. And Hendrik, well, he is unlike any other. He is affectionately known here as the village crazy. He loves a joke. But he's also suffering from dementia and speaks with a seriously strong accent. He does not always makes sense, but he does make everyone laugh, and he also loves the ladies. So he rocks up last night, as he does, just walks through the back door (always gives me a heart attack) and starts talking and joking. And as he hadn't seen much of Stella, she gets the full spiel (which includes the demand that you feel his wonky knee as he makes it crack - people who crack their joints make me cringe, the sound gives me the heebee jeebies!). Stella, good sport as she is, completely engaged Hendrik in conversation and jokes and she even walked him home. We will be hearing about how Hendrik got a beautiful blonde to come home with him for years to come. Good on Stella for understanding what he was saying, as I just cannot always get the friggin' Brabants accent they have around here. She did live and work in Brabant for a few years of her life.

So anyway, that was our exciting evening. This morning Mum, Stella and I had our traditional cup of tea together and we gave Mum her present, something totally appropriate that I found in amsterdam. It's called a Baggy Wine Coat and it looks like this:

It is a stylish bag in which you can put the bags from a Bag-in-Box wine container, or as the Aussies call it, a cask or goon bag. My mother buys boxes of wine from France all the time, and as they get emptier, my mum often takes out the bag so that it fits in the fridge easier. However, a lot of the bags are clear and the ones in the fridge will have white wine in it, which in turn looks more like what we dutchies call a stoma (artificial bladder worn on the outside of one's body) and is not necessarily the most appealing thing to have lying around your fridge. Plus it is a bag with liquid in it with absolutely no shape or form and therefore still takes up lots of space. So, I think this is a perfect solution! Mum totally loved it. Stella said: 'Some girls buy their mother a handbag for their birthday, but us, we know our mother, so we buy her a wine bag!' Indeed! 

After tea we had breakfast, and after breakfast we had coffee. That's really kind of how life is here these days for me. Tea, breakfast, coffee, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner. Followed by after dinner drinks. It's all about food and drink! 

After breakfast this morning I dressed up and put on my boots (any reason to wear something exciting!) and then made this morning's coffee, after which I drove to our local asparagus supplier for an extra lot because we had guests coming for lunch. Lunch was lovely and we were pleased to have Mum's dear friends join us, as the husband has been in hospital recently and had a bit of a health scare. However, he was all chat today and ate well, which made everyone happy. For dessert we ate raspberries with ice cream and chocolate cake and raspberry coulis. Does anyone need raspberries? We are drowning in them! They're growing faster than we can harvest them! And they're so big an delicious. Yum. Might have some more right now, actually.

Oh, talking of berries. I did another strawberry experiment, which once again came out inconclusive. I ate two at lunch time yesterday, with no noticeable effect, and then one after dinner. I woke up with a few bumps, though. I had lots with breakfast, and by lunchtime the bumps I had woken up with were really quite itchy. But I just cannot be sure it was the strawberries. I do not want it to be the strawberries. I have decided that I shall just keep eating them until I am no longer allergic. Maybe I can just make myself immune to them by eating them often? 

Then this afternoon Mum did some tiling (I know, on her birthday!) and I did some research into my trip back to Australia. I did an unpleasant discovery. I found that if I return after the 31st of July, I will love my silver frequent flyer membership and go back to being blue. Quite literally! It took me forever to obtain my silver status and now I will have to give it up if I want to fly back at the end of August, and all because I achieved my silver status last year on the 28th of May. If I had achieved it on the 1st of June I would have maintained it until the 31st of August. Three days means I will have to fly back a month earlier than I'd like. Am seriously upset about that, stupid frequent flyer programme pretends to reward you for being a customer, but in the meantime you really don't get that much for it. Emirates changed their frequent flyer programme last year and it's not done me any favours. 

Last year they changed my return flight from a direct flight to a flight with a stop in Singapore, not only making my flight 3 hours longer, but also giving me barely any time in Dubai to shower and freshen up, so I wanted  to upgrade myself with my miles to make the flight a bit more bearable. But no matter how many times I called them, and how often I checked online, I kept being told there were currently no upgrade seats available. However, when I asked at the desk once I got to Dubai I was told that it was no problem! 

Not to mention that this year I only get 18.000 miles for the same flight that I got 21.000 miles for last year, despite being a silver member now! Argh. However, Emirates still seem to be the best deal for us, as we also have an Emirates credit card. So no point complaining, really.

Anyway. It's time to finish those raspberries. With some sour cream and meringues. Yum.

Protecting the Patch

One of the things I am going to miss very much about this lovely house and its garden, is the berry patch. We have very large raspberry bushes, and also loganberries and strawberries growing next to our garage, right near our little deck.

When I arrived home yesterday, to my great delight, one of the first things I saw was the colour red where there was only green last week. Our berries have become ripe and delicious. I showed Phizz our patch, and with some pride we offered him raspberries as we picked them off the bush. He said he didn't think he'd ever had them that fresh before. Nor had he ever eaten a loganberry, which looks a lot like raspberry, but is slightly longer, shinier and tastes very different.

However, my mother and I are not the only ones who like to eat those berries, there are quite a few birds that like to feast on them as well! So today I spent some time putting up my yearly berry protection netting. I have to say, this year's attempt was much more successful that last year, and I hope that the berries might convince the future buyer of this house that they must have this berry patch for themselves.

We have had our first viewing enquiry for the house today, which is very exciting. I will tell the real estate agent that he must let the viewers pick some berries!

It's also nice to be back at the gym. I was very tired yesterday and couldn't keep my eyes open reading a book before Body Jam, but I was adement that I go since it's been more than a week that I last exercised (properly) and I indulged quite a bit while in Scheveningen and Amsterdam. I had an espresso before I went last night, knowing that would give me a little boost and I also knew that once I got there, I would really enjoy being there. I was right and I am so glad I went. We did Tectonic from Body Jam 52, which is one of my favourite blocks and I went really crazy. I got such a buzz and felt so energised afterwards. I came home on a real high!

Let me explain a little more about Body Jam, for those of you who are not familiar with the awesome dance work out, I've written about it several times on this blog. It's a workout by Les Mills, a New Zealander who came up with a whole lot of different exercise classes. Every three months or so, the classes get a new 'release', which means new steps/moves to new music. Body Jam, masterminded by the fabulous G (Gandalf Archer is his real name! And also a kiwi), is taught in blocks, each with different dance styles, which last for a few songs in which you build up a little dance routine. What I love about Body Jam that it uses all styles of dance, and all sorts of music, from heavy metal to hip hop to pop to rock to ballads and all sorts of crazy, funky, bizarre types of music in between. Lots of dance styles I had never even heard about, and music I would never listen to generally.

And I did Zumba with the lovely Bas this morning, who was in a particularly chirpy mood and he got the energy really pumping today. Usually Bas is quite laid back, and often I wish he added a little more oomph to his classes, but he was quite spirited this morning. Nice.

As you all now, I just love to dance!

Home from the big smoke

Well, that was quite a week there. Way too short. So much fun! Hadn't laughed so much for quite some time.

Especially last night was quite hilarious. I introduced Emily and Phizz and we went for dinner and some cocktails, we transformed into russians, saw some goat ghosts and ended up in a secret cocktail bar which you can only enter if you've called a mysterious number and then ring the doorbell. Quite exciting. I have to say, we spent a lot of time doubled over laughing, as Emily is very skilled at russian accents and also beat boxing. Multi-talented!

It was the perfect end to a lovely week away from Elsendorp. I spent most of the time hanging out with my good buddy Phizz, we saw some movies, we had some great conversations, laughed a lot, played angry birds, did an expense report and discovered several good places to eat in Amsterdam. To name but a few things.

I spent Friday in Utrecht with my good friend Renée, which was also wonderful. The weather last week was totally awesome and Renée and I spent a lot of time sitting on terraces drinking and eating and talking and laughing. She made me two wonderful milky coffees on her home espresso machine and lent me some great books. I also met her boyfriend and we had a nice dinner together, I finished my time in Utrecht with a delicious ice-cream in their lovely company.

Yesterday was an interesting day, as I had arranged to meet my sister for morning coffee at Screaming Beans (best coffee in Amsterdam) and since I was late last time we met there because the tram was detoured due to road works, I had looked up the tram times to be sure to be there on time. Except that when I got to the tram stop nice and early, I saw that there was a public transport strike through all of Amsterdam and so there would be no trams all day. Grrr! Thankfully the ever-generous Phizz gave me some money for a taxi and I still got there on time.

Stella and I had a lovely coffee and I told her I would finish hanging the shelves in her apartment that I started last time. I decided the only way to get around was to hire a bike (it really is the best way to get around Amsterdam) and it was wonderful to ride along the canals in such a quick, fun way. I asked for a bike with no rental advertisement on it, as I didn't want to look like a clueless tourist, I wanted to blend with the cool and bike-savvy Amsterdammers. Easy done, got a cool 'omafiets' (granny bike, the tall type with the bent handlebars on which you can sit up very straight) much like my own bike here, and off I went. Except that when I crossed the Dam Square (only the biggest and most famous and busy square in Amsterdam) my front wheel got caught in a tram track and I fell very ungraciously to the pretty cobbled
street. People rushed over and asked if I was ok, which I was, and thankfully so was my bike. I have some lovely bruises now, but that's all. Oh, and one extremely large embarrassment-related injury.

I rode all over town, got a present for my mother as it's her birthday next week, then to Stella's apartment to hang two shelves in her kitchen, and I decided it was also high time somebody fixed the drain of the sink in her bathroom, so I decided that person was me. I had never really done it before, but thanks to the very kind man in the local hardware store I was well instructed and bought the right pipes. I managed to fix it just fine and I felt quite pleased.

I was quite sweaty and sticky from all the handy woman's work I did, so I showered at my sister's apartment and borrowed some of her clothes so I was presentable for meeting Emily later. It is so very wonderful to have a sister who is very hospitable, gave me the keys to her house, and keeps telling me that her place is my place and to make myself at home. We were not very close as teens, we're just very different people and couldn't quite deal with that back then, we used to fight over clothes all the time! But now, I love my big sister so very much and am so happy to get to spend so much time with her here, and to be able to borrow her clothes and make myself at home at her place. I never really experienced that sort of relationship with her before now and it means so much to me. It is another reason why I really want to stay in Holland just a little bit longer.

Phizz and I went to see the World Press Photo exhibition in the Oude Kerk, which was very impressive and then we meandered back towards my sister's as we still had an hour to kill before Emily had said she was free, so we bought some stroopwafel (traditional thin dutch wafers with a caramel center) flavoured ice cream (yum!). I decided to send Em a text message to see how she was faring, but before I even finished it, I heard my name and there she was! She just happened to be out the front of the Bijenkorf where Phizz and I were walking. Nice coincidence!

All in all, a wonderful time. Mum and I were meant to drive to France on Friday, but plans have changed. We are now leaving on the 19th and first going to Italy where Mum has to do some business for her village's council (Elsendorp and a similarly tiny village in Italy are in a European Regional Partnership on Education) and then we will cross France to our usual holiday spot and to see our friends there. I'm really looking forward to that. But now, it's dinner and then to the gym for Body Jam. Also fun.

Town

Just got to Amsterdam a few hours ago, after a nice interlude in The Hague, or actually Scheveningen. You might recall, if you're a long time loyal reader, that I went to The Hague and Scheveningen when I first got to Holland a few months ago. This time, lucky for me, I had the excellent company of my very good pal Phizz. He picked me up from Elsendorp on Tuesday night and since then my life has gotten more fun by the minute. We went to The Hague to organise Phizz's visa for China, where he is going in just over a week. It was going to take a day to get processed so we decided to stay in the Hague the first night to get to the embassy early as morning traffic in Holland can be a real nightmare.

We booked the Ibis hotel in Scheveningen, just because the seaside is nicer than down town The Hague. But when we got there, it turned out the internet was really terrible there, and unfortunately Phizz had been with bad or no internet for over a week and it was becoming a problem, since the internet is essential for him to do his work. The room was quite nice for an Ibis, very big, and quite comfortable. Phizz had been up since 4 am driving from Geneva via Paris and Elsendorp to Scheveningen, so we didn't stay up and chat for long when we got there around 11 pm.

The next morning I ate breakfast while Phizz got a few extra minutes sleep, and then we went off to the embassy to organise the visa. When we got to the embassy, however, we were told they no longer did visas there and that there now is a new visa application centre in the middle of the city next to the station. So we made our way there (lucky we took the car instead of the two red Vespas that were for rent at the hotel and I was keen to ride) and hoped the process would not be too painful and/or long. Thankfully it was not and we were told we could pick it up the next day after eleven. That was lucky because today is a public holiday in Holland and very few things are actually open, but the embassy amazingly was. When we got back to the hotel Phizz said he really needed to do some work, but the internet was so slow, and I needed some food, so we decided to go back to Amsterdam after lunch and come back the next day because Phizz just really needed to work with fast internet. I had to show Phizz the lovely Kurhaus hotel which has graced Scheveningen since 1885, with it magnificent dining hall and lovely fresco paintings all over the domed ceiling. And since it has a lovely terrace on the boulevard with sea views, we decided lunch was to be had right there. The weather was glorious and it was a lovely lunch, in a lovely setting and the Kurhaus worked its charm on us and the Ibis with its terrible internet (and horrible car park that was impossible to enter or exit with a very heavy full car) or driving back to Amsterdam and then back again the next day just seemed like bad options. So Phizz booked a room at the Kurhaus, which happened to have superfast internet. And lovely, lovely rooms with lovely, lovely views and a balcony overlooking the sea.

So we went and got our stuff from the Ibis, and moved to the fabulous Kurhaus. Phizz needed some serious work time (on the balcony, so he was still outside) so I changed into a skirt and went out to buy some sunglasses, sunscreen and a magazine and sat on that lovely terrace all afternoon. It was glorious. When it got to six, Phizz came down and joined me for a drink, after which we decided we might as well dine in that beautiful dining room. I have to say it was one of the nicest meals I have had in ages, not only because besides the delicious food, but I was also dining with one of the funniest men I know and I had to keep my giggles down most of the meal as we were in such a fancy place. Phiroze had not only me seriously amused, but also the waitstaff. I don't think I have ever blushed so much in a nice restaurant  because after Phizz asked the waiter if it was okay to tuck his napkin into his shirt, which is it was, he then asked if he could take his pants off too. The waiter laughed and said that was fine, but I told him he could not. He also tried to convinced the waitress to let him try to pull the table cloth from under a fully set table without disturbing the things on top of it, like they do in the movies. She told him he could try it the next day, as it was her day off. They were lovely people there, and I think they much appreciated this funny dude with his napkin tucked into his shirt asking inappropriate questions. I did. Times spent with Phizz are fun times and I feel so lucky to get this much time with him.

After dinner we went for a nice long walk along the boulevard and the pier, and I ate a kaneelstok (cinnamen stick) which is a traditional Dutch lollie, but was too cinnamonny for Phizz. We found and rolled a marble along the pier, saw a seriously grumpy giraffe bouncy castle and enjoyed the usual Phizz-Florence banter. It was an altogether wonderful night. When we got back we watched a movie from his iPad on the room's tv and then spent another few hours talking. It was early this morning when we went to sleep and it was a wonderful comfortable sleep in a fabulously luxuriously large bed.

When I woke up I had an hour before breakfast would stop being served and if last night's dinner was anything to go by, the breakfast would be worth getting up for. So I did. And it seriously was worth getting up for, it was so extensive that even after three rounds I had only sampled maybe a third of the foods on offer.  Phizz had stayed in the room citing he was still full from dinner, but once I got down there I texted him that he shouldn't miss it so he joined me around my second round of breakfast. The atmosphere was lovely and the dining hall so pleasant. Check-out unfortunately was very slow as it was busy due to the public holiday. But then the speed with which we achieved our goal at the chinese visa application centre was incredible. And before we knew it, we were back in Amsterdam, where we had lunch with Phiroze's lovely friend and landlady Kirsty who normally lives in the US where she flies helicopters, but who happened to be in town.

After Kirsty had whizzed off on her motorbike we returned the rental car, then Phizz took me to see my first movie in 3D, Pirates of the Caribbean 4, which was really entertaining. Now we're home at Phizz's safe and sound, tired and happy from a few exciting days.  Tomorrow I'm taking the train to my good friend Renée in Utrecht for a good catch-up and to give her a celebratory hug for her graduating from university. Should be fun!

G'nite.