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.
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