My Blog
My musings about the world, self publishing, living abroad, and my author career.
Doing the NT2 2 exams
So in my aims for this year I included taking the NT2 Dutch exams, and last week I sat the exams for program 2. I'm still waiting for the results - they should be out over the summer. Fingers well and truly crossed here! The exam was an experience unlike my school...
What do you want to do every day? Creating daily habits
Towards the end of last summer I realised that I was drifting through my days and wanted to change that. I was waiting for other people to do things first, before I did what I wanted to do. Which meant I didn't get to do them. So I had a rethink of my daily routine...
Translating
I'm reading Harry Potter in Dutch at the moment. (I may have mentioned this before!) And I keep noticing places where the translation is not just the words, but also the cultural expectation. I've mainly noticed it with the food they eat. The story of Harry Potter is...
I’m featured!
I have a few times contributed to the 10 minute novelists drabble competitions. This is a challenge to write a 100 word story using three set words or phrases. And each story has to have a start, middle and end - so it is a whole story, which is surprisingly tricky....
How did I become a runner?
I have done running before - some at university and some before I got married. This culminated in a 10km run with my husband a few months after our wedding. After which I swore I'd never run so far again and I stopped completely. And now, partly thanks to my activity...
Paris… with children
I love Paris, it's a beautiful city with so many things to do and see. We went there for our honeymoon. During that trip we bought a painting of Paris, which hangs on the wall by our dining table. So everyday the children see the Eiffel Tower. And now we've just...
Vriendenboek
We have taken the plunge and got rocket boy a friend's book. And of course as he had one starry girl needed one too. These are books that you ask your friends to fill out with information about themselves, along with a photo or drawing. So you end up with a book about...
Wearing glasses
It's weird wearing glasses for the first time. I was actually first given glasses some years ago, but I never really wore them much. Only really for driving (I need them for distance) and, as we don't have a car, that's not very frequent. Recently I realized that I...
Paas stokjes
In the UK I was used to the idea of decorating your house for Christmas, but not really very much else. Whereas in the continent, or this part of the Netherlands at least, you also decorate for spring or Easter. You get some twigs and hang coloured eggs and ribbons on...
Getting older
My Dad was complaining the other day that he's now got to take eye drops every day. And it made him feel old. I must admit that I wasn't very sympathetic about it, as at the moment I've got three different medications to take every day. I've also started wearing my...
Dutch language skills
A little while ago we went to see Dirk Scheele at the theatre. He's a Dutch children's rock star. We quite like his songs and listen to them frequently. One night after the concert rocket boy was trying to go to sleep, and complained that when he tried to...
Playdates Dutch style
School pick-up is always a bit nerve-wracking. There's the general "will I get there in time worries, but also (in the Netherlands at least) there's the "how many children will be coming home with me" uncertainty. As here organizing to play with another child in the...