Bob Marley

Sun is shinin', the weather is sweet;
Make you want to move your dancin' feet
To the rescue, here I am!
Want you to know, y'all, where I stand!
---
/Instrumental break/ ---
(Monday morning) Here I am!
Want you to know (Tuesday evening) just if you can
Where I stand.
(Wednesday morning) Tell myself a new day is risin';
(Thursday evening) get on the rise a new day is dawnin'.
(Friday morning) Here I am!
(Saturday evening) Want you to know just -
Want you to know just where I stand!

That's how i woke up.

Then this happened.

Saturday, Timo's birthday, 2 pm
Robbert was at the jeweler having his watch checked out.
Caroline had another birthday party and i brought her and Morten (who didn't want to stay at home with Timo) with the car.
2 minutes after i delivered her, i turned the car key. Not a sound.
Shit.
Let's try again.
Nothing. Nada. Noppes.
Shitterdeshit.
i called robberts cell phone.
about 300 times.

i tried the jeweler, but he had already left.

i tried home.
Timo was not very bothered and promised to let his dad call me as soon as he walked in.

Then Rachel texed me.
Was I interested to come over to her new apartment?
Not now honey.

Brainwave.
I called AAA.

The thing was i didn't have the card on me.
Nor an ID.

Woman on the other side giving me a lecture about the guy wanting my id or not helping me.
I decided to take my chances, run home, go the bathroom !!! get my id and run back to the car.
By the time i was at the house, Robbert arrived so Morten could stay there.

Back at the car.
Time passed by.
And by.
i got cold.
and time passed by.

The guy came.
fixed my battery in 1 minute and advised me to pass by a garage to have it checked.
Or i could drive for about 30 minutes to load it

but i was almost out of fuel.
and didn't have money on me.

so.
i drove home.
left the engine on and ran home .
yanked and yanked the doorbell.
robbert hadnot heard me coz he was on the rowing machine.
gave me some money and i ran back to the car.
we are talking 3.25 pm here.

sort of plenty of time.
caroline has to be picked up at the party at 4.45 because at 5.30 she has a judo exam.
at that very time timo has to be at his swimming trial exam.

i head on for the highway.
try to think how far i can go.
after exactly 30minutes show up at the pump.
turn of the engine hesitantly.
for a reason.

f*kkerthef*kf*kf*k.

The battery of my cell phone is getting alarmingly low.
i phone home.
tell robbert to take a walk to the swimming pool and leave the BMW for me coz i gathered by now the battery was a no go.

AAA again
we are talking 3.55.
They will do their utmost but cannot promise anything.
At 4,47 i start to panic.

another guy arrives at 5.
At 5.
and starts explaining.
about how he has talked to his collegue whom i met too.
How this colleague advised me to have my battery checked at a garage.
and how he was clearly right coz here i am standing again.

i kept it together.
but barely.
charge the battery please i grinded through my teeth.
and left in a blaze.
drove like mad, changed cars, got Carolines judobag, raced to the house where the party was, only to have the dad opening the door and say; hey, i thought you were picking her up early.

Put your shoes on honey, while i grab your coat i smiled.
back in the car robbert called.
Timo was halfway through his exam and doing fine.
You can still make it he said.
WHAT???
2 minutes ago she had to be in the exam room.

We are going to do something special honey i said.
Today you can change into your judo suit in the car and then we race upstairs when we are there.
I did.
upstairs put her hair in a ponytail and then realized she had a butterfly painted on her face.
One of the teachers came up.
Parents started giving me looks and i tried to keep my voice calm and relaxed.

Hi.
We've had some car trouble and she would reaaaaally appreciate doing her exam.
Could you give us our first break today?

If she would take the make up off, he would let her join the group.

Rushed over to the toilet. Got some paper and frantically removed the makeup.
So she still had a red face. Who cared? That became better during a couple of minutes so stop nagging.

She got her green slips.

Shoo be doop doop doop.

Her royal princess turned 5

She was counting the days since we practically came back from Denmark, but finally THE day had arrived. Presents in the morning, presents at her birthday party for her friends later in the afternoon and again presents in the evening when family came over. She has been spoilt rotten but so you should be when you turn 5.
Gefeliciteerd liefje!!

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!

Me, myself and I

I turned 41 last Sunday.

Thank you, thank you.

41.
Old isn't it.

Last year we celebrated, but really turning 41 is nothing to celebrate.

Still.
I got presents.
2 sets of lingerie. 1 pair of shoes, 1 book and a framed pictures set of the children from Rachel.
so i was looking at the pictures, lingering in my lingerie, wearing my gorgeous heels and reading my book.
For about half an hour.
Coz we also went to Hotel New York for breakfast.
Robbert took Timo for extra swimming lessons.
The kids wanted to watch Pietje Bell 2, my mother came over for dinner and it was father's day.
Meaning we had to admire several (a lot !) of formless paintings, something made of washpinchers (made that word up i suppose) and listen to a silly rhym.
All very sweet yes.
And they don't read (english) yet, so no fears.

But.
couple of days before electricity went down. First we figured it was the new boiler (again) but then -smoke coming out gave it away- we guessed the dishwasher was broke.
Now Toos happened to have one waiting for a good home in her cellar and Robbert picked that one up.
On the way home, took a bit of a steep turn, dishwasher fell over in the car and broke down.
I shit you not.

So, for the past week we've doing dishes by hand. Kids grumping and all but i bribed them with some extra pocket money.
Hope this one gets sorted out soon.

AND.
No internet at home anymore.
Hence the lack of posts recently.
Still.
The older, the wiser.
I fixed it tonight.
Filled in the appropriate mac address and all.
Told you, it's all about me, myself and I.

City safari

Apart from beautiful weather, it was such a lovely day yesterday.
Rachel and I did a city safari.
It's like a safari in the sense that you go visit places/discover stuff in your city you normally wouldn't know.

Rachel told most of it in her blog, so I won't do it all over again, but it was really interesting!
We started with a Maroccan lunch, which had me a bit worried coz i am not allowed to drink anything containing color (yes. that is basically everything. also the reason i lost almost 2 kilo's since i had my teeth done 4 days ago).

Then we biked up to a Tarotcards reader.
This was the most hilarious bit.
She started with some sort of indian ritual, burning a leaf of sage and cleansing our aura's with it.
i'd so loved to have taken a picture of Rachel when she had this done, but i was afraid i was disturbing the whole thing.
I must say, the things she explained about the cards we drew (or actually the cards that wanted to be drawn by us!) were pretty optimistic and thus true of course.
See i am becoming a master of juggling all sorts of tasks and MONEY.
And because i have so much fun in doing what i am doing, my business is going to grow in the near future, thus i am going to make even more MONEY.
And as i am at level 20 (1 more to go) in my judgemental development stage, i have come to know myself so well, i can juggle even better and thus make more MONEY.

No, I am not taking the piss on her.

That's what she said.

More or less.

Rachel is going to have an interesting future too.
Uhhmm.
What can i say here?
Let's just say she's loving all the animals and the people around her. Enjoying the richness of Morther Earth.
And loving some even more.
I'll keep it that.
If you want, just look up the meaning of her last drawn card.

The afternoon ended in a Turkish mosque with a drivers teacher explaining all sorts of stuff .
No really, it was interesting!

Time to move on home!

As she had not been yet to hotel New York, that's where all of us went for dinner and although it looks like he already had enough in this picture, this was Robberts first drink:



Gefeliciflapstaart Rachel and many more happy returns!

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!

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.