Party !!

Morten's birtday.

Yesterday we were talking about what he was hoping to get today.
Probably some Lego he said, because i already saw a big packet in your closet.

Allrighty.

And then I swear he said this: Doesn't time fly by ?
I still remember my birthday last year.

Duh!!!!

Here some scenes of this morning and ofcourse supper.

8 years.
He is so funny, so lovely and such a good looking kid!

Morten, wishing you lots and lots of many more happy birthdays and hoping pappa and I will be there for the coming 75 yrs!

North Sea Jazz

After visiting both Timo's and Morten's exam this weekend, Robbert and I went to the NSJ festival this Saturday.

It was great.
Robbert had had surgery this week twice (no kidding, he has a hole in his left leg about the size of 2 euro coin and about 5 cm deep) because the steenpuist that started right after he came back from Italy had developed into something horrid.
Meaning, he sort of limped thru the crowd and had to sit down regularly.
The doctor offered to put a plaster on his leg so he could have an excuse and go to the front at every concert, but that was a bit too far even for us.

Anyway, we first visited Steely Dan with Donald Fagan. Great show full 60-something old guys and all sorts of grey haired 45 yr olds swinging on the beats of back then.

Then we went to see Trijntje Oosterhuis who just recorded a CD full of Burt Bacharach oldies.

After we saw the last part of Boris we had something to eat.
The festival lasted 3 days and was visited by some 70,000 visitors so getting something to eat is one thing, finding a place to sit down and eat it, another.

Anyway, on to Reunion, a band formed around guitar player Chuck Loeb and trumpet player Till Brönner and by then we were around midnight and as Robbert was off the whole Sunday to celebrate one of our friends turning 40, we called it a day.

Funny thing is 2 of my colleagues were there, with their partners, whom i know too and did i see them?
Course not.
I did see the mayor though.

Every one who is here around mid July next year: go!!

The tag

There once was this au pair.
Who had her tongue pierced.
Her hair dyed.
Her butt bitten.

And then tagged me !

Don't know whether to be honoured or annoyed.

These are 'the rules'

"Each person posts the rules before their list, then they list 8 things about themselves. At the end of the post, that person tags and links to 8 other people and then visits those peoples' sites and comments letting them know that they have been tagged, and to come read the post, so they know what they have to do."

First of all; it's going to be a hell of a job finding 8 other people.
Yes.
I am a lost soul.

Still. here goes.

1. If i get bitten by a mosquito, 9 out of 10 its on my eyes or my lip.
I have pictures to prove i can have the mouth of a big momma AND look like a chinese at the same time. Sounds way more funny than it is.

Last wednesday i was bitten on my right eye. Could hardly open the bugger.

Children were sitting downstairs, watching telly.
Hey guys, do you notice anything on me?
You look like pappa one of them said.

No, no, look at my eye.

UGGH !!

Morten almost threw up and asked me to wear my sunglasses at breakfast coz it made him nauseous.

That day it was games day at school and I had volunteered to help. I was administered to Timo's group. Who said I made HIM look like a fruitcake because of my eye.
Nice.

2. To all the girls out there; take it from someone who knows; once over 40 you are nowhere without a pincet.

3. I am pale. White. Whatever.
And i would like to be tanned. Brown. Healthy looking. Can-you-tell-i-have-just-been-on-vacation-looking. So every once in a while i pluck up up the courage to go to a tanning salon. See i really have a problem laying still for 10 minutes or more. I start to shift uncomfortably, try to see thru my lashes how much longer this will take me. But i need at least 4 visits before any one sees results.
Self-tanning lotions. I know.
But i don't want to end up as a carrot and i am afraid i won't have the patience to do that too.

4. I can mirror write.
Like reverse.
Don't know why, learned it myself back in the day and i am a total master now

5. i can touch the ground with flat hands, any time of the day. Or night. Try me.

6. i am seriously weird with eyes.
Like if i see someone poking in his eyes, or someone gives me a horror story about a contact lens getting lost and slipping behind eyeballs and stuff.
Really i do not want to hear stories like that.
Then again when i was doing my drivers licence thing and had to admit reading the signs and exits in time was rather important i had to face putting contacts in - and OUT!- myself.
The first time i had to have my eyes tested and the contacts put in - by the optician- it took about an hr. No kidding.
The very thought of having my eyes lasered like one of my co-workers has done, is freaking me out.

7. I cannot swallow pills.
I choke and gag.

8. I cry at too many movies. Honest, i am such a wimp.

Phew.
Alright then, as Abigail is seriously lacking, i'll tag Joel

124 euros down the drain

When i picked Caroline out of bed, is asked her if she hadnot noticed my new hair.
Sure. she said.
I just don't like it.

She got her orange slip and Timo his certificate.

Never a dull moment

The last couple of months i have had a-symmetric, 3 colour hair.
Red, black and highlights.

I thought it was time for something new.
Blond.

The only thing is Timo is swimming for his A certificate this afternoon. And parents are allowed (read obliged) to swim the dressed lane with them.
Timo asked me.

I told the hairdresser.
Who strongly advised me to wear a badmuts.
No way i said.
Fine, if you want to look like Shrek, go ahead, he said.
I am warning you that hair is turning green as grass.

err.
right.

Not to worry though.
Put on tomato ketchup, tinfoil over it and keep it like that for about an hr. The red will pull out the green.
Are you taking the piss out of me or what i said.
He swore he wasn't.

Having come home Caroline was still in bed.
See, she's got a judo exam this afternoon (that's why Robbert and i have to split) and a light concussion.
The day before she fell from the swing. On her head yeah.
Sofar nothing new, only she kept complaining of a head ache and came out of bed twice that night.
So i took her to the doctor's.
Where she vomited.

Which i was glad of in a way
Coz you know how doctors can be.
Always with the attitude of ; come on now mrs. so she fell. Children do.

Anyway.
She's not been eating for 36 hrs.
Vomited 4 times and has to do headrolls in a few hours.

Not an easy pick is it?
Show up as Shrek IV or sit at an exam with a vomiting child on my lap.

Why don't i ever read about these choices in other blogs?

Dilemma

My precious husband left this family a week ago to go bike some cyclo sportive tour in the alps of Italy.
Has been training for about a year, meaning i have been alone (with 3 children yes) on (too) many weekends and occasions.

Like I said, he spent this week with his 2 mates in a nice hotel in Italy and was all pampered (they had the audacity to go to a spa AND tell me) .
Now northern europe is literally drowing in the rain and the south (noorse saus for those who remember) is dying because of the heat.
The alps are in between.
Meaning, he has had a LOT of rain, hail and even snow and started warning me a couple of days ago that if it were to rain today (the day of the race) they would not bike.

Too cold, frozen toes and then 7 more hours to go, dangerous because slippery, can come home earlier to relieve me.
He tried it all.

I am not having it.

I have been stressed out this whole week and many, Many days before, these past months, only to let him get out and bike.
I haven't read a book, seen a movie, done something completely for me AND on my own, since can't remember when.

He'd better show me a medal or any proof of actually having done it or I am of to the Bahama's for 2 weeks on my own.

Hmmm.
Why not do that anyway?