Birthday

Last week on November 8 it was my birthday. And like Dutch people do, we celebrate this event.
What does that mean, the birthday girl is working the whole day with preparing cake, and dinner and other food, and the family is sitting and laughing and talking together. It's so much fun being the birthday girl:-)
However, I did the expected thing and in the end everybody went home satisfied and full of food.
I've got nice birthday presents, two books, one of Valerie Poore, I don't know if you have heard from her, she a really good writer, with stories about South Africa. I was very pleased with this book and I'm going to read it soon. The other book was the 50 shades of grey, I had heard so much about this book (and the other 2) that I have to read them myself. The book is there, now I have to find time to read.
Further more a book gift voucher and gift vouchers for ICI Paris, I think they didn't like my smell:-), lot of flowers two envelopes with money I can spent for what ever I would like to have and Jan Cees have gave me a nice closed forever bracelet. So you see, I'm spoiled.

After a long time

More than ever I have to keep my promise. Once more I thought that there was much more time to write something during the week. However it is almost Wednesday again and the page is still empty:-( so now I have to write a boring useless post, just to keep my promise. Of course I can be disappointed by myself but I don't. I like to think that this is the first step in writing more. For now I'm done, it's Basil time. So much fun having a dog with this kind of weather!

Sorry

Again I have not managed to post anything at my blog. All my excuses are already used. So for now I have nothing more to tell and I will explain to you tomorrow how my week was.

Did I manage to suprise you......

I try to imagine your surprise as you find out later this evening that I have done more than one blogpost :-) It's much easier now as I'm using my mobile phone to write something. My last week was filled with football as you noticed. It is less interesting without our own team. Nevertheless I like to see what the other countries make of it. Still two weeks to go.

We're out

It's over for the Dutch people. Last Sunday we lost our third and last game against the Portugese team. For twenty minutes it looked as if there was a small chance to win the game. We even had the first goal. Unfortunately  the Portugese woke up in time and they managed without too much trouble to score two goals. That was enough to send the Dutch players home. So as you can understand we're not very happy with this outcome.

Mobile phone

Last week I downloaded an app to publish a post from my mobile phone. I immediately tried it but it did not work. So I am trying again to see if it will work now. I'm watching the game with one eye and typing this message with the other one. Basil is sleeping next to me. How bad can life be?

The day after....

The day after the Dutch people lost their faith in winning the European Championship, there are a few optimistic people who have figured out that if the Germans win from Denmark, and the Dutch team wins with more than 2 goals from Portugal we are in the next round. Sounds not impossible. However it seems that this means less than 12% chance. Not very likely this is going to happen. Nevertheless, I will keep my fingers crossed coming Sunday.

EK football and the orange fever

Tonight the Dutch team is playing their most important match of this EK. Until now it does not looks very promising, we are behind 2-1. We do have another 8 minutes to get equal. I have already given up the hope that we  will make it to the next round, so all the orange flags, Basil and my shirt can bestored again for the next two years, assuming we get qualified for the next world championship. I will post this blog now, otherwise the grammar is no longer the present time:-)

No subject...

I'm afraid I'm too late with this post. I expect you have already looked if I have done my blogpost as promised. I had to watch the two football games first and after this Basil wanted his walk outside. That's the reason I am doing this post, late and with no subject to write about. As you can see, I have remembered to show you my Smart cabrio (whats the word for this in English??) I'm still struggling with time issues. I want to do more than I can do in the time I have. I know I have to make choices, and I'm not very good at that. Let's talk about this tomorrow:-) I end this post with a photo of Basil ready for the first match from Holland- Denmark.

How to get things done

That's something I have been struggling about for the whole week. It start on Saturday when I had my fourth practice day from my C&C (Coaching and Counselling) course. If I really want to finish this in December I have to make more time available to study and practise. Further there is the Ladies run on June 10. I don't know how you are doing and I hope it's much better then what I have done until now because that's nothing at all. One thing is sure I have to change my time schedule. The question is how to do this. Maybe you have a solution for me tomorrow:-) In the short term I have a day of this week on Friday and Jan Cees is away from Friday until Sunday so these are my first 2 days to use for my study without any disturbance. On the other hand,  Jan Cees is away with his motorbike and 4 friends, and I'm always scared when he's driving that terrible fast machine. The last time they went away, 3 years ago, one of them had a very bad accident. I keep my fingers crossed as long as he's gone:-)

Back to business….

It has been four days ago since we came back from our holiday in Spain.It is not that easy to get back into a usual daily routine. Let me begin with telling you that we had a great time. Unfortunately with not that good weather. There were too many clouds, and too litle sunshine.  Further a temperature between 18 and 21 degrees and showers now and then. Not what we hoped for, especially as I tell you that it’s now almost 30 degrees there with a lot of sun and no clouds. That’s the only thing which could have been better. For the rest we had a marvelous time there. The landscape was very beautiful, with a lot of different green colors. The Spanish people were very nice but hard to understand. No one speaks a little English, except in the bigger cities like Sevilla. We saw a lot of white villages. 

We drove to Gibraltar, so I did speak a bit of English during the holiday.  I even finished my book in English, The girl who kicked the hornets’ nest, written by Stieg Larsson. Part three of the Millenium series.  With a bit of luck you will tell me on Wednesday that I have made some improvement. By the way, Cheryl did pass her English exam.

I have posted a few of the 1200 pictures online at facebook, if you're interested:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.384219618286002.86912.100000939004746&type=3&l=da574b5a6f

Insanity

Oh dear I have made  a stupid promise in a fit of insanity.  Last Monday I asked Cheryl how her Rotterdam run (5 km) went the Sunday before. That was not the stupid thing, later on when we were talking about the event she told me she’s also going to run the Ladies run in June, and before I knew it, I had agreed to go with her. Ok, it’s only 5 kilometers’ a simple thing for someone who has some sort of basic fitness. I’m already dead after 5 minutes so you will understand this is a big challenge for meJ

I have start again with using my cross trainer and will keep up with this until my holiday. I’m quite sure we will walk a lot in Spain and then I’m ready to start running after my return. I hope the remaining 5 weeks will be enough to get in shape for this event without having a heart attack!

Easter weekend

Due to Easter we are facing a nice long weekend. Not a lot of plans, just one birthday on Sunday. This morning we went to Hornbach to buy two thick bar which we need when we are replacing the skylight in our walk-in closet room. We need to prepare e few things before we could remove the old window and if the weather is good tomorrow we can do this if we want to. We can also just enjoy a day of doeing nothing at all. We will see, I have enough to read for pleasure and study. I will tell you later how this weekend ends up.

3 weeks left

As from now we still have tree weeks to go before we will leave for our ten days holiday in Spain. The weather forecast is not that good at the moment, rain and no more as 17 degrees. Better then we have here, that's true. I'm convinced it will change in the next couple of weeks and we will have a nice 24 until 27 degrees and a lot of sunshine. This week and the next one we only have to work for four days due to Eastern so it's time to leave before we know it. For now this is my post, I hope to do one more before Wednesday.

A new post as promised.....

Today I had a terribly chaotic day. It seems everyone wanted my help at the same time. Things I have normally done in a sec were now some sort of struggle and took me more time than normal.

Further the computer in the seminar room was having difficulties with starting Windows, so I had to call some help from the IT boys from the fourth floor. Martijn was willing to come over and fixed the problem in a few minutes. Due to his help the seminar was able to start on time.

Now it’s almost 5 o’clock and I have to go to our study group session. I would rather go outside to catch some sunshine. At least I had my walk with Basil during lunch time. That was very nice. We met a men with a seven year old Great Dane. It was a blue one. She was really nice and so cute with little Basil who was very impressed by this big dog.

A strange day

Today I had a strange day due to an conversation I had with one of my co-workers (easier to write than colleagues) his wife told him she wanted to divorce him. To be honest I thought they had survived so many difficulties with their health, the birth of their son and a few other things that I could never guess this is possible. Long after he left my office I am still thinking about them. It was my turn to walk Basil during lunch time so I made a long walk to clear my head. Now it's almost five o'clock and I have to go to my study group to practice the things we learned during the lessons last month. I'm aware of the fact that this blog is a bit mixed with different information. Let's talk about this further tomorrow:-)

English

Cheryl told me she has enjoyed her meeting with you. I can tell you I was not surprised:-) I have learned a lot from you in such a short time and every week I am looking forward to the new session. Jan Cees his birthday was nice with his mother and brother and family. I have cooked an dinner and after that we had a quiet evening. Now it's already Friday again, and another weekend is waiting for us. I really hope the whether will be a bit nice. Next week I will tell you about our new holiday we are going to have in April.

Would it realy happen???

That's still the question, the Dutch Elfstedentocht fever is growing. More and more we think that there will be a good chance there will be an "Ït Giet Oan" message this Friday. It's now 15 years ago the last one was skated and it is time we have another one.One think is sure, if it's going on I will be in front of the television for the whole day!

Cold and freezing

The good old winters, one day of freezing and the Dutch people are dreaming of another Elfstedentocht. It is more than ten years ago that it was possible to skate this famous event. 

Another week gone

I have corrected my previous blog and I shall also write a new one right now. In Dutch we saying "van uitstel komt afstel" I suppose in English it's something as: if tomorrow never comes? There is not much to tell you, work was a bit busy. I forgot to tell you that we went to the movie last weekend. JAn Cees wanted to see the new Dutch movie: Nova Zembla. This kind of movies are not my cup off tea. AT the end Jan Cees had to admit it could have been a lot better. I think it's a bit strange to tell a story about people surviving at Nova Zembla with a lot of below zero's and than see them sleep with one blanket in the snow. I think if we try this for one night we are dead! If you want to make this kind og movies than the have to be realistic.

Still work in progress

Once again it's Tuesday evening and I haven't written a thing on my blog. If this is the case for the coming weeks I had better delete this blog. So, because that's not what I want I have just come up with some useless text. I have not made any photos yet from our new walk-in closet so there is nothing to show. Last weekend we continued the work on the study. We changed a few plug pouls.  Not a clue what the word for this will be. I decided to start with a course and than I need the stud. That's why we have to finish this in the next weeks. I will tell you more about these tomorrow, I already know this will be a difficult one:-) I suppose this will also make it more difficult to keep on writing this blog:-) See you tomorrow!