A new business. With bonus material and bloopers and all. And you're right, I changed the title. Bit too presumptious. But if you want to find out more, got to learn Dutch first. Coz I tried in English, i really did, and it's just too much struggle. And hey i am lot smarter and wittier in my own language. So what i'll do; i'll just give it a go and juice it up with some Dutch whenever i am stuck. K?

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Tiramisu

The weekend was mainly spend doing groceries, going to the hospital a couple of times a day, saying goodbye to Abigail (Caroline started crying at the airport walking back to the car and about stopped when we were home. O i'm going to miss Abigail so much, who do i have to play with now? And it is such a shame, she will never see the cats again :! O mommy, I really miss Abigail) and ofcourse welcoming Rachel who came later that day. Which also meant explaining about the bike-trolley thing, practicing!! (we promised not to laugh, but she did very well) and drinks at Wester Paviljoen.

What you see above are empty little bowls and the second big bowl Thea and I made yesterday of tiramisu (recipe underneath). I swear, i gained a pound simply from the desert.
Officially her birthday is tomorrow, but as she flew back to Rumania this morning (at the ridiculous time of 7.15 am) we celebrated a bit earlier.

Here you see her shouting for herself.
You can see Sam think; Mom, get a hold of yourself!

Then presents (lots of training gear) and later that day lunch at Dudok's with Rachel and Brenda. It was a busy but well spent day with everyone going to the Judo, Rachel being registered at the city hall and in between visiting granddad and showing my aunt the office.
For some reason our laptops crashed last Friday and yesterday at the office, so I guess it's one of those Murphy weeks at work.
Glad to be free till Thursday!

Just a random picture of Timo telling a joke.

And this is an add for toothbrushes. Sam (the boy, not the cat) has made all the children fall even more in love with him.Yesterday at the judo, Morten was showing of his cousing to the other boys. Then again, when a ball came his way (he was keeper) he literally threw Sam away to catch the ball! Life is all about priorities I guess.

Anyway, the recipe:
2 packages of Mascarpone of 250 grams each
about 3 big eggs or 4/5 little ones.
About 4 tablespoons of sugar.
Strong coffee.
Any kind of liquor.
Lange vingers (biscuits/cookies)
Cacao

Separate the egg white from the dooiers and wisk the dooiers with the sugar. Add the mascarpone and taste if there's enough sugar.
Whip the egg white with a bit of sugar too.
Mix it with the mascarpone stuff.

Pour the coffee and liquor together and let the lange vingers be soaked (some)
Put them in a thing/bowl and throw/zeef the cacao over it.
Pour the mascarpone stuff over it.
Put another layer of lange vingers over it.
Repeat the cacao.
And end with a layer of mascarpone and top it of with cacao.

(if your bowl is not deep enough for a second layer, simply take a second bowl and put it into that).

Eet smakelijk!

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Tuesday, January 23, 2007

The ultimate au pair club

Would you believe Jamie turned up in front of the office yesterday?

Unbelievable but very exciting!
So, Austin, Abigail, Rachel and Jamie all can meet, one of these days.
And what do they have in common; they were or are my au pairs.
Really.
Amazing.

My granddad is not doing too well.
Been there yesterday and this morning and i am rather pessimistic about the whole outcome.
Still.
We'll see.
Hope he recovers and at least doesn't have much pain.
I am afraid that is all we can ask for for a 92-yr old.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Storm

If you read this and live in Europe, you've probably experienced the same storm we had today.

The windows blew out of the shop next to my office.
Really.
There's a national phone number that you can call if you lost someone or are stranded somewhere.
And tomorrow of all days, Robbert has an appointment in Delfzijl (about as north as you can go from here, a 3 hrs drive) and I have to be in Den Bosch at 10.15.

At 12 i hope to be done, hurry home, pick up the van (which is not ready as we speak), pack the car and of to Paris.

My client however, that i am supposed to meet tomorrow is now in Hungary and his plane is not flying.
So he will give me a call at 8 AM tomorrow (Nice :( ) and let me know if he wants to reschedule.

Apart from the above; my mother called me today telling me my 92 yr old granddad is in hospital.
He'd been coughing for some weeks, seemed to be recovering, but now his legs are all swollen and he's admitted to find out more.
And we'll be away the whole weekend.

Flying through Disneyland with this wind.

I must say, there have been less stressful days.

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Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Hot news!

Tada, it's Abigails birthday today and this morning before going to school the kids handed over the presents.
Now lightning 21 candles takes a minute!




Blowing them out though was a lot quicker.
Except for that one tricky one :)























Tonight we are going out for dinner to Rosso, that fancy Herman den Blijker restaurant and both Robbert and I (who are on a diet) are looking very much forward to that.

Furthermore, my sister and her family are coming back to the Netherlands this summer. I know it wasn't how it was planned, but i must say i am very glad i get to see all my family on a more regular basis!

Next.
Morten is starting tennislessons this afternoon.
Well, bal practice more.
The lessons are meant as a sort of preparation for those who are thinking of playing tennis but want to make sure first this is something they like and are able to.
For us it's a sort of filling up between footbal/soccer (after the summerholiday) and the swimming which has ended when he got his C certificate.

Last but not least.
Robbert and I are thinking of getting our PADI diving certificate for open water. Preferably to be acquired somewhere nice and sunny (think Egypt) but we may also do the required swimmingpool lessons here in Holland.

The thing is, as i learned yesterday, we may also be somewhere totally different on a certain date in May.
First we thought of going to France, accepting my nieces offer to stay in the house she inherited.
Then we thought of the 2 of us going to Egypt.
And now, we may go to Shererville.
Lost it?
Haha.
I'll tell you later.

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Thursday, January 11, 2007

whatsop?

The kids have all been to the hairdresser yesterday.
Morten has a kuif.
Timo a page kopje
Caroline just had the puntjes cut off.

Jaaaa. Learning Dutch !

You hardly recognize the boys.
It's a pity Hello is having a mind of its own, saying things like 'the UI failed to initialize, you have to re install'
Err...
Anyway, will try to upload pictures tonight, to let you have a look.

We have a new closet installed in the hallway.
It's weird but the last 2 weeks or so we have almost permanently had a tidied house.
To our standards.
Of course.

The cats are becoming a pain in the A.
Food wise.
Yesterday they ate from the aluminium foil and the lasagna underneath it.
This morning, R. left his sandwiches in a plastic bag on the stairs while he was walking about and they ate that too. RIGHT after they had their breakfast.
Then Sam stole a piece of bread that was dropped by Caroline.
Ideas?

Ok, my visitor is here.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

She's back!


Breakfast at Bazar's

Her plane landed 45 minutes earlier than planned, now have you ever heard that?
And with no traffic on a Sunday morning we were arriving at Hotel Bazar for breakfast at the very moment they opened.
Everyone has been spoilt with presents (the Sunday highlight for the boys is swimming with dad, but this time they wanted to stay home and play with the new Papo indians and knights) and Caroline is clinging to her like a bee to honey.

Monday, January 01, 2007


My French family over

I don't know how you usually spend these days, but we eat most of the time.
Above you see my French niece with her ex and son and below whom we had over for lunch (and had a wonderful time with, it was really good to see everyone again. When you live in different countries, even though it's only 1 day driving apart, most meetings are hard to plan).

Later that afternoon, some friends came over with their 2 children (and a 3rd on the way) and they stayed till today.
It was really nice, the fireworks were splendid and we all rolled into bed slightly after 2 this morning. Pity the first kid (unfortunately one of ours) was wide awake at 7.14.


Sushi


Annabella