My Blog
My musings about the world, self publishing, living abroad, and my author career.
Sinterklaas
We are in the middle of Sinterklaas season here at the moment. He arrives the first Saturday after the 11th November and is here til the 5th Dec - this year as the 11th November was a Friday he's here for the longest possible. So every shop window has some sort of...
Activity tracking
I have treated myself to an activity tracker to help motivate me to be more active. I got a garmin one as my husband's had a garmin running watch for some time, which he's very happy with. I've had it for nearly two months now and it's good. Though it is a bit bulky...
Staying in touch
There used to be a sign up at my secondary school - Friendship is like an egg: hold it too tight and it cracks; hold it too loose and it drops. I am guilty of the second of those two - I find it difficult to stay in touch with people I don't see frequently. I think I...
Milestones
It's a funny old life really. There's so many moments in it. Today starry girl is the same age as rocket boy was when we moved here to the Netherlands. And I can't decide if that's a big deal or not! And then there's the usual upcoming round of birthdays and events to...
Moestuin sucess
Albert Heijn (the local supermarket - a bit like Sainsburys back in the UK) gave out moestuintjes earlier in the year. For each fifteen euros you spent you got a little pot with seeds in - a random one from twenty-four different types of plant in a selection of...
Making progress
Well I'm getting on with Dutch. I've even writted a blog post in Dutch. I feel I should admit that I did have help from my Dutch teacher with it as you can see below. I'm finding it easier to have conversations, though more than one person is still difficult. As it...
Zomervakantie
We hadden een heel lange zomervakantie dit jaar - twee weken in Noord Frankrijk (Normandië) en twaalf dagen in Engeland. Bijna een maand weg! Dit was de eerste keer dat de kinderen gekampeerd hadden en...
Brexit – thoughts from abroad
Wow, I don't think anyone actually thought the leave campaign would win. But the referendum result was a narrow margin of victory for them and the only person who seems to be celebrating this is Nigel Farage. It is sad that the whole campaign on both sides was...
Cycling in the Netherlands
After my earlier post about bikes I planned to follow it with one on cycling. And now nearly 6 months later I've finally got it together to publish. In the Netherlands everyone cycles, in fact I have been told there are more bikes than people. In our house this...
Bikes
I've recently got my second bike, as starry girl was getting too tall for the front seat on my other bike. I was having difficulties lifting her in and she was impeding my vision. After looking at all the options for bike seats for the two of them we've got a second...
6 months in…
So rocket boy has now been at school for more than six months. We're learning how the school system here works and he seems to be thriving, though having difficulty sitting still for any length of time! Though as a four year old boy that's not surprising really. ...
Liberated
Last week was the 71st anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands at the end of the Second World War. To celebrate this there was a parade of vehicles round the area, which we were lucky enough to catch some of. Sitting at the side of the road watching all these...