Almost Christmas

Although it's almost Christmas and my holiday started yesterday I'm not yet in the real Christmas spirit. Still busy with the last Christmas decorations. My house is a real mess and a lot of things still need to be done. At least the Christmas cards are already sent.
On my last day at work I've got my speaking recognition software installed with which I now posting my blog. It seems weird that if I use this in Dutch all-new sentences starts automatically with a capital letter. However in English new sentences all needs correction on the first letter to make it a capital letter. In a way it's good practice because I have to make a lot of corrections. The speaking part is really easy the correction part is still a big challenge.Furthermore, it's funny to see that there is a real difference in typing your message or speaking it. I don't understand a lot of the human brain but I'm sure that you use different parts for both of it.I realise this is a strange's blog post but this needs to be done to get a real expert in using this software.

Holidays

Every year again we have problems to decide where to go. To avoid all the discussions we made a choice for camping months ago. This kept us calm until a week ago. Last weekend we started to look for the ideal camping spot. We put all our wishes in a list and started to search the internet. After a whole weekend of discovering almost all camping’s located on the French coast we found one who seems to fit. After waiting for a day the disappointing answer came, no pitch available. Then we started again with fewer criterions, we even looked in Italy and we’ve discussed possible countries for an all-inclusive holiday by plane. Today we received an answer of two camping’s that they have a pitch available. One camping is very expensive and the other one too far away. We have still one request open and we keep our fingers crossed that their answer will be positive. When this will be a negative answer we definitely going to search for a flight to an nice warm and sunny country.

The worlcup footbal Brasil

And how a country gets mad....  

It’s amazing to see how a big part of the Dutch people change into weird strange creatures during a World Cup or a European Cup football. Everything is orange such as houses, cars, pets and even food. To be honest I’m one of those crazy ones. I’m not wearing orange all the time but when “we” have to play I’m in front of the television in my orange shirt and orange with red, white and blue striped nails. Together with my dog Basil who is wearing a nice orange polo shirt for the occasion, decorated with the text “effe scoren”. 

The match of yesterday was a real thriller to watch, it really looked like we were going to lose that one. Fortunately they managed to change to possible outcome and now we are already sure of playing the next round. This will be a knockout game so then it’s really important to play amazing direct from the start. Before this we have to play one more match in our pool against Chili. I’m looking forward to this game because this will definitely be a real exciting game. Chili is really playing very attractive football, so this has to be fun to watch. Luckely for us it doesn't matter much if we lose. About the strange dressed people I want to make one thing clear, we Dutch are not the only ones who are dressed like idiots. I've seen a lot of different ways of wearing the nations colours the last days.

Summer

Not yetL However, it is nice for the time being. I had a wonderful weekend which started early. Jan Cees went to his daughter’s house last Friday to do the renovation and therefore he was not able to go home during lunch time to walk Basil. I was a happy volunteer to take over his job and took the afternoon off. So I spent the whole afternoon in the garden with an audiobook. We spent the evening quietly in front of the television. The next day Jan Cees had to go back to the renovation job and I spent the morning at the gym. As soon as I was back, Basil and I had a nice walk and after we got home, I took a shower and then it was garden time again. The audiobook was not finished yet.

By the way, I’ve never tried it before, but it is a very relaxing way to have a sunbathe without holding anything!

To be honest my Sunday was not much different from the other two days, so I will spare you the details of me sitting in the sun with a book.
My week started with my health check at the Sparta Sport Center. I have to wait for two weeks to find out the final results, but for now I can tell you I’m not in really bad shape!

Unfortunately, the weather is changing as from today. That’s always the problem in our country. The temperature rises too quickly and then we have to cope with thunderstorms and rain again.
Let’s see what will come out of the code yellow we've been warned about today.

Longing for a few warm and sunny months

Once in a while there is a moment in life that makes me regrettmy mother didn’t fall in love with a gorgeous Italian guy instead of my father. I hear you thinking why is that. Now just look out of the window- (at this moment when I’m writing) it looks outside as if someone has pushed the wrong button and pushed us back to November. So in the ideal world: my father was Italian and I grew up in a nice sunny Italian village and of course; I still live there. Imagine, every morning waking up with the sound of the sea, and the rising sun in your face. Having breakfast and your first coffee on the terrace outside. I think when your day starts like this, all chance on stress related diseases will be reduced to zero.  Yep, dream on girl, I’m stuck here in the Netherlands with all the seasons in one day. For now my hopes are on the future, to live somewhere in Spain as soon as my working days are over. Or at least, to stay there from October to March. First of all, we must see that we get that age in good health and then we can see what is still possible for us.

Following

Hmm, I've just checked the only blog I follow, and again nothing there to read:-( Okay, I know she's busy and has a different drive in improving her Dutch writing skills than I have for improving my English so I won't blame her. As we all know we have a lot to keep up with, Facebook, Blogs, Twitter and what else there is nowadays to keep us busy informing everybody about our actions during the day.So therefore we need to have some understanding that we sometimes just have no time at all to do everything.

Orange feelings

Well, the unlikely has happened. The Netherlandshas made it to the final of the Eurovision Song contest. Even crazier, at the bookmakers we’re in second place. I’m not sure what is worse, not being placed at all or being second. We have to wait and see what it will be Saturday evening. As soon as this is over we can prepare ourselves for the WK football. Another occasion in which the Netherlands will be orange coloured all over. This is something I really looking forward to. I always enjoy watching the football matches and even watch the other countries playing. Our television will be decorated with the “beesies and wuppies”; I’ll wear my orange shirt and Basil his orange t-shirt.

Furthermore wewill  have the front of the house decorated with flags. The only one not interested in football is Jan Cees, unless our Dutch team wins and makes it to the semifinals. That’s the moment he starts watching. No true fan, always in disbeliefe about the qualities of our team.  

Just a few hours to go and we will know who has won the song contest and then we will see further.

Fourth of May.

May four, eight o’clock, as long as I can remember is a moment in which we sat in front of the television watching the Waalsdorpervlakte.  Nowadays there’s also a broadcast of the commemoration at the Dam in Amsterdam. 

Prior to the official ceremony there’s a ceremony in the “Nieuwe Kerk” which is attended by the royal family and members of the government. This is a more formal ceremony. In contrast to the Waalsdorpervlakte in which only the victims of the Second World War are being remembered, at the Dam they remember all who  died in wars all over the world.

I’m more impressed about the simplicity of the Waalsdorpervlakte ceremony  for the civilian and the relatives than the one at Amsterdam with all the dignitaries. Maybe it’s because I grew up with watching the Waaldorpervlakte on television.

In the Netherlands there’s always the two minutes of silence at 20.00 hours sharp. It’s a widely adopted custom in our country to be quiet at eight for a few minutes. This is noticeable when you’re traveling; at the airport, at the railway station and even along the roads; especially the older people park their car for a moment. The last years some people have been worried if the younger people will continue to remember this day and especially the reason why. I don’t think this is something to worry about. Of course we have to face some idiots, who can say or do terrible things and have no respect whatsoever. Besides that, we’re living in a country with a lot of different cultures, people who came here with their own war memories. So the accentuation of remembrance day will move to general remembering. However, when I see the long waiting queue to enter “het Anne Frank Huis” I think there’s no reason to be afraid the Second World War will ever be forgotten.

Motor GP Jerez, Spain

        

The MotoGP  races will take place at Jerez in Spain this weekend. It’s only two years ago we were there ourselves. Due to all the photos on Facebook of the riders, the memories of our visit are coming back. We  had a wonderful time and enjoyed it very much. 

There is a big difference between the South European motor fans and the Dutch ones. The Spanish people are much more emotional. Of course with a Spanish winner the crowd is yelling and celebrating. Its one big party. It was a joy to see. I guess a bit the same as foreign people do when they see us Dutch with all kinds of orange cloths, flags and make-up celebrating a King’s Day or a WK football match. So every country has their own habits. We were in Spain for a week and unfortunately we had bad luck with the weather. The temperature was around the 18 to 21 degrees. Now and then a drop of rain as well. We rented a car and we drove for approximately 1500 kilometres from Sevilla to Gibraltar and everything in between.

The only way to the Rock,

Gibraltar was nice, a small British spot in Southern Spain, with wonderful weather. The weather was the only thing in which it was different from the UK. We also visited the rock with all the apes. A huge tourist attraction, but barring de view and the apes it’s not really breath-taking. On the other hand, when you’re there, just go and see for yourself.  Furthermore we visited the beautiful Horses in Jerez, next to mystery “Sandeman”. 

You know, the guy from the sherry in the  television advertisement broadcast long time ago. Unfortunately we had to leave before the feria started in Jerez. I really regret that I didn’t know this when I booked the tickets. Now I ‘m hoping for another short visit to Andalusia in the future.

 

Sandeman Sherry

European Song contest 2014

I don’t know how this is experienced in England, but here in the Netherlands, there’s always a lot to do around it. Everyone has something to say about who should represent our country, or what the song needs to be like. As soon as the artist is known, all hell breaks loose. The song is not good enough; the outfit is not the way we expected, and so I can go on for half a page. After the big success of Anouk with her song Birds last year, which had the same criticism beforehand, we were expecting a lot when Ilse de Lange was named as the new candidate to represent the Netherlands. Then the first criticism came at the moment we heard she wasn’t going on her own, but with Waylon, as a temporary duo, the Common Linnets. 

When we were recovered from this shock, they presented the song  “Calm after the Storm”. Needless to say, no one was impressed about the song. Ilse de Lange has had several hits, with internationally appealing rhythms and then this is what they come up with. No one understands.

However it has to be said; this song needs time to get used to, almost the same as last year’s Birds of Anouk. After hearing it more than once it’s not that bad. Unfortunately, they only have one chance to impress, and I’m afraid this will not be enough. I’m not really into the European Song contest and won’t be disappointed if we don’t make it to the final, or over enthusiastic if we do make it to the final. I just like to watch it and like to see all the excitement beforehand in the media. If I’m home I will watch it, or a better description; I’ll hear it when I’m busy doing something else on my IPad.

King's Day

Our first King’s day, after having queen's days as long as I can remember. If my memory of history lessons is not leaving me totally I think we have them since Queen Wilhelmina became queen in 1898.

Although it’s not the really high day that it used to be. In my childhood all the shops were closed and everybody had a day off to celebrate. Complete families were competing in all sorts of games organised by the so called oranje committees . Most of the games were the old Dutch games. I guess this was to remember the good old days. Nowadays most shops are open and not everybody has a day off. I expect this day will become more and more commercial to persuade people to go out and to have fun, in the hope they are going to spend money on food and drinks.  In the big cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht, it always start on the night before: the king’s night. There is a variety of music and shows to go to and with nice weather it’s always very crowded mostly with people who have had too much to drink but always seems to have a lot of fun.
When I was young I lived in Apeldoorn and my grandparents were living in a nice part of the town called ‘the Parken’ just across “Het verzetstrijderspark and the historical building Marialust” .

 There was always a three-day fair where we always went with my family. The fact that my grandparents were living next to the fair was very useful. After  my parents had given us money my grandfather always asked us if we already had money for the fair. We never lied, but just said yes we have some: then my grandfather always said: something is not enough, and gave us a handful of money. This ritual also happened with my grandmother and so we always went off to the fair with more money than my parents would like us to spend. I have to explain that my grandparents were relatively wealthy and always spent a lot of money on us on every occasion.We of course did not complain about this at all. On the other hand, I know we were spoilt by this and it took us a long time to get used to the fact we couldn’t run to them when we wanted something right away when we were getting older. The time that grandparents spoil their grandchildren disappears as children get older unfortunately.

Secretary’s day getaway

As some sort of tradition all the secretaries of the RSM have a surprise getaway each year on secretary’s day. This time we were invited by the director of the Wereldmuseum for a lunch and of course, he had a hidden agenda and gave us a grand tour along all the conference rooms and their facilities. His main goal was to convince us to suggest to our bosses that the next time we have to organise a conference to go to the Wereldmuseum. And it has to be said, it’s a really wonderful old building with several nice rooms all with an amazing view on the Maas and the Erasmus Bridge. After this tour, which also included a part of the museum, we had a guide who was a bit weird. Or maybe this is normal for artistic people. I have to admit, I’m not really into art and for me all paintings are the same. I can see a whole museum in 30 minutes. When the guide finally decided we were finished with the tour we all went back to Cheryl’s wedding room to eat a really tasty lunch. First a salad with fresh tuna fish, which tasted wonderful and after this a truffle soup which I I didn’t taste. This was followed by small sandwiches with smoked salmon, chicken filet or “cheese “kloosterkaas”. 

This delicious food ended with a very nice dessert combination of coconut, chocolate mousse and something else. That something else was a jelly with a taste I cannot describe unfortunately. By then we were full. Our next step was to go to the Kookstudio 25 to prepare and eat (yes, you read it right food again) a High Tea. Luckily we had to drive for 20 minutes and because Ingrid was born and raised in Rotterdam she drove us there in her cute cabriolet.

Cheryl and I did the talking so Ingrid could keep her eyes on the road. After 30 minutes we were still driving but there was no sign of the Kookstudio. At that time my phone started beeping with incoming messages asking where we were. I will leave out the complete sightseeing part, and end it with; finally we arrived at the Kookstudio, 45 minutes late. We received a warm welcome with a Prosecco and a small bite to eat. In the meantime the master chef explained to us what was expected from us and how we could manage this. I have to say, it was funny and instructive and in the end we all managed to serve a really good home-made recipe from what we had to make. We all had different food to prepare; I made cupcakes together with Mariska. Cheryl and Myra were in charge of the sandwiches and so we had about ten different meals. After this cooking and baking we had to eat again.

Unfortunately, we were all not very hungry anymore so there were a lot of left overs. I forgot to ask what they do with all the good food afterwards. Lastly we had coffee or tea and then we received a bottle of Prosecco and so our annual secretary’s day out come to an end.

Results and Improvement

Okay, I did it. The CAE exam, and though it’s not the highest score ever, it was enough. I scored 65 out of 100, all together not so bad. I had a very low score on reading, and that’s a bit unsatisfying. That Use of English and speaking were not so good was expected. I‘m now thinking of doing it again, or just wait and see when I’m ready to try the last one in this row the CPE exam. In the worst case I fail that one and improve the CAE results in the same time. One thing is sure, if I really want to improve I have to write and read a lot more. Therefore I try to post more frequently. Let’s see if this will work out.

Murder...

This week we've heard in the news that former minister of healt care Borst was found dead in the garage of her home. Because the docter was not sure that her dead had a natural cause, due to several injuries and the blood where she was found the police did a lot of extra research. After a long investigation they still were not convinced that she died by accident. Today came the news that after section on the body it was sure she didn't died by accident or natural cause. In my opinion we have than just one option left, murder..........

Who on earth would kill a 81 year old ex politicus of healt care? That's the question..... 

Olympic games

Last weekend, the Olympic games began. With immediately the 5 km for men. With our best skater ever Sven Kramer and of course a few other very fast skaters. As always the expectations were very high.  However I cannot blame the Dutch, because the history has proved we are indeed not bad at skating. Also this time the results were more than good, gold, silver and bronze for the Netherlands! On Sunday there was the 3 km for women and Ireen Wust was capable to keep her head cool and won the 1 place, another gold medal for the Netherlands. Today during working hours the 500 meter was scheduled. luckily it was live on the NOS website so I could see another 1-2-3 for the Netherlands. This was the first time ever we have won this distance. Now we have already 7 medals, and we are very curious howmany there will come.

Preparing II

It's all English nowadays for me during the weekends. In my urge to prepare as good as possible I searched the web for all kind of different useful help. I've found a lot of teachers on youtube  who all wanted to share their knowledge from almost every subject non native speakers have to understand to speak and write English properly. In my search I've found a website I submitted to, http://englishworldwide.ning.com/
I don't know if you have ever heard of it? It's some sort of communety with al kind of people from all around the world. I can write, chat, and speak with them about almost all the topics you can come up with.
I have already 2 friends and just posted my first blogpost. Of course I'm curious about your comments and therefore I copy it here for you, my only reader:-)

Blogpost on LEWWWP:

With facing an upcoming exam and the knowledge I could really fail the exam I started to search on the internet for extra help. First I've found the Flo-Joe website with a lot of practice for the exam. Than I found this site. It made me curious and so I started to be a member.

The exam will be the CAE (Cambridge Advance Certificate) and my main problems are:
speaking, and grammar. I still manage to use the present and the past in on sentence, and some more maybe common mistakes. I still think Dutch and so I get mistakes in word order. All together I makes me insecure. However if I never do an exam I will never know what my level is. I hope to learn here to overcome my fear to write and speak. After all no one will kill me if I make msitakes. And when I write someting really stupid please note I didn't meant to hurt someone

Preparing

I've found it; the website you mentioned during our last meeting, Flo-Joe. They've a Facebook page as well, very handy to use, with a lot of exercises and information. You can find them on facebook using the following link:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Flo-Joe

I've stuff enough now to prepare. However the most important part, time is still missing. Last weekend I convinced myself to do a few exercises and a listening test. Before I knew it the weekend was already gone and I hadn't done anything at all. This has to change if I want to get a good outcome off the exam. Thank god I still have time.
One of the things which kept me from studying was our Basil. For the last two weeks I had in mind to brush and cut the hair above his eyes and off his feet and wash him after this. After this I have to dry him with the blower and when we finally are finished he is always so beautiful and cute. See the photos to prove I'm right.


This morning I went by bike to the university. It was cold with a beautiful sun. The road looks very slippery due to the freezing at night. So in the beginning I felt a bit scared, and when I saw all the other bikers go fast without any hesitation I thought don't be so scared and bike! So I did manage to arrive at work without falling or slipping.

Tomorrow it's my Basil day; therefore I have to go home during lunch time. I never go by bike then and I have a legitimate reason to use the car.
If the weather is nice around 13.00 hours it is possible I'll go back by bike.

The rest of the week the forecast predict a lot of rain so it is not likely that I'm going to cycle this week. If I'm right with this prediction I can tell you coming Friday.

What have I done

That's the question which keeping me busy the last weeks. Since I've spoken out loud I want to do my second exam for English this May I've started with getting nervous. I'm so bad in doing exams, and I'm still not recovered from the first one were I had a terrible black out and was not even able to speak more than three words in one sentence. To get used to writing I will try to do a regular blog about whatever will pop up in my mind. I was also thinking about writing a few exercises from the book in here, if I cannot come up with a decent subject to write about. In the end I'm not a writer and my fantasy is not big enough to write a story. However for now I'm already satisfied with this post and I'm hoping you too. Below a beautiful photo from Texel, nothing to do with the post but just a view I really miss.