Bal-lorig anyone?

Last week the kids were on their school holidays, not that it affected me much as i was in England most of the week, but i did have them all to myself on Thursday and Friday.

Thursday we all went to the Ballorig, was sooo much fun.. as you can see from the pictures, a good round of Dungeons adn Dragons then took place!!

On Friday we went to the Cinema to watch Cinderella, well the Dutch one anyway.. and of course, our day couldn't end without a good helping hot Chocomel!!

These have to be my favourite pictures ever.......

..... do you see why!!

Easter

In Holland we have two easter days. Strange I know. As expected Jack had to work both of them. On the bright side this meant he had Saturday off, first time for everything.

Our weekend started with a trip into Ridderkerk on the back of a bike. Well, me on the back and Jack riding it. After a hunt for some super-stylish but also bug-like sunglasses we stopped for lunch. For those of you who know me, especially my mother and Jack know i have a tendancy to strop about things that aren't important. Such as the stoopid woman in the new Bread&Butter cafe in town who gave me crappy bread with my lunch.

Now, what annoyed me about this was as i was reading the menu i asked Jack if you can chose which bread you would like, he said he was not sure but he would ask, went up to the counter, ordered our food and came back. So, why may i ask did he order a fantastic crusty roll with his and i got some funny little fluffy thing???? Was not ammused. Got quite stroppy. We had a little lovers tiff. Then realised we were having quite an intence arguement about a bread roll. Laughed. And ate.

So that was that.

We then went to the new Ice Cream parlour next door, three scoops each please, white chocolate, tiramasu and cookie dough for me please and cherry, pineapple and some other flavour that i fail to recall for Jack. Super.

Straight after this (OK so maybe not the most magnificent idea) we went to the funfair. Couple of topsy turvy rides a complaint of slight sickness for Jack and a bike ride home.

Saturday night Jack went out for a poker evening with his friends leaving me engrosed with the film Twister and The Mummy Returns.

Bringing us to Sunday.

Waking up bright an early me and Jack left for Rotterdam, him to work and me to Ineke's.

Ineke's family came over, her sister with her husband and 4 children, her mother, two aunties and cousin, along with me, ineke, Robbert and the 3 children bringing it to a grand total of 16. Thankfully the weather was beautiful so we ate delicious pizza curtousy of Robbert, sat in the garden and tanned ourselves.

Sunday evening i went to Coconuts to meet Jack. Now, Jacks mother gave me a lovely dress, black and white, long sleeves, short skirt. I would say it is a classy dress, not slutty. Unless you wear it to ride a bike. Which, of course i did. I have to say, I am pleased Ineke wasnt about to snap a pic of this one!!!

Altogether i had a really lovely easter weekend.

Post in a Post in a Post

OK, so i have been slaking a little lately when i comes to my blog.. So heres the lengthy post to update you on the Wonderful World of Rachel.

Lets start with Thursday.

Hannibal Rising

Thursday Evening me and Jack went to see this very fantastic film. Now I love the thrill of watching a horror but am very easily scared. However, this was not so bad. The film in itself was incredibly good, the story behind why Hannibal Lectar became who he did, it is actually quite sad!

Anyway, What I found far more disturbing than the film itself was the fact that I got asked for I.D. Please could someone explain to me what that is all about!! I know I look young for my age but i am 19 next month!! The film is a 16!! Anyway, I am sure I will be more than happy about this when i reach 30 and am still getting I.D'd to enter a club. Wahoo for me.

St Patricks Day

This is a day I have never ever celebrated, haven't the foggiest who the ever-so-famous St Patrick is, however, seen as I am no longer a resident of one of the 4 places that make up the UK i felt it my duty to represent Ireland (OK, so i am not technically Irish, in fact i am no way Irish.. but work with me..) So me and Jack made ourselves look pretty and paid O'Sheas Irish bar a visit. It. Was. Packed. However it was well worth it just to hear some English voices. So that was saturday night. How fantastic.

Church

Now, i haven't been to church since leaving England. And really haven't been looking. However, Austin is leaving next Sunday and asked if i would go along with him to the Sunday morning English service he attends at the Beurs World Trade Centre. So i did. Along with 7 others. Yes, just seven. And 6 of those 7 were Dutch!! However, I enjoyed it. Everyone was really nice and welcoming. Infact, i went to lunch with Austin and 2 others. Very nice, had a spicy chicken wrap. Super.

I then spent the remainder of my Sunday sitting around Coconuts, eating, drinking and reading.

Lovely Jubely.

So i guess thats my update, not so exciting after all.

Burping, Fajitas and a bit on the side

Carolines sick. Well, was. Tuesday evening we were all minding our own business whilst tucking in to a rather scrumptious meal when Caroline lets out the most unbelievable belch! Seriously, you have never heard anything like it. She is four years old. Yet what came out of her mouth had surely been brewing for a fair few years longer than that. And that's not all. To follow the most unbelievable belch came a ridiculous amount a fluid. Poor thing. I really hate being sick, the taste it leaves in the back of your throat is really gross, I can't imagine what it must feel to be that young and feel so poorly. Not that I was never ill as a four year old. I just can't remember it.

Anyway. So that was that, Wednesday Caroline stayed off with me and Ineke. Oh, yes, I worked yesterday and have tomorrow off!! Which is actually quite nice!!

Last night Jack took me to the Pictures and followed it up with the most lovely meal in Dream.

We saw 'Blood Diamond' This was an amazing film, very heartfelt but very true. Make sure you have the tissues!!

Now, Dream. This is were me and Jack went for drinks last week. We sat upstairs this time and had such a wonderful evening. The food was so good, maybe even better than 'Zin', where we went on Valentines Day. I had Steak and Kip Fajitas. They were cooked in a sweet chilli sauce and served with rice, so yummy!! and Jack had the mixed grill, which was also very lovely.

So here I am. Sitting in front of the computer, waiting to head over to Jacks.. for a 3 day break - Lekker hoor!!!

The 1st of 3 Posts - Valentines Day

I have 3 different things to write about today but am going to do this in 3 different posts as they are completely irrelevant to each other!

So the first - Valentines Day.

Well, yesterday morning i woke at about 8.30, my body has got in to this ridiculous pattern of getting up at this time, of course, this highly annoying Jack. I didn't quite get my breakfast in bed as i was up and about before Jack had even opened his eyes, but he did make me a very lovely English breakfast along with croissents and Orange Juice. Just before breakfast we did presents, Jack got me this very lovely bracelet with 'always loving you' written on it and a silver necklace with a fairy pendant on the end (like Tinkerbell!!) and i got him a Valentines game (which sucked may i just add.. as if 'my partner and I are going to re-inact a scene from the Titanic..') and some candy from Jammin.

Then it was time for the pictures!! So we headed into town (showing Jack the 'oh my goodness these boots are the nicest i have ever seen' boots, him offering to pay half as he also agreed that they are 'the nicest boots of the planet') arrived at the bioscoop and bought our tickets. Now you will not believe this. You'll never guess who was behind us in the queue.. it was only de lamas!! OK so none of you really have a clue who they are. Basically there is a Dutch show called de Lamas and Jack absolutely loves it, and the guys who present it were all in the cinema!! Not only that.. but they went to see the same film as us, 'The Prestige' (this is a film you must watch Wendz.. very good.)

Went home, got change and met Jack back at Zin for a really fantastic meal.

Although it got off the a pretty rocky start, Valentines Day turned out to be amazing. And.. JACK BOUGHT ME A ROSE!!!!!!!

My Weekend

Day One of my Weekend (well, that's if you include Friday as part of the weekend, which in fact i do, therefore making the week almost the same length as the weekend.)

This morning Ineke had to leave for work at stoopid '0' clock so I had to take care of the kids breakfast and trip to school. Breakfast was actually surprisingly fun. We made our own little band. Timo on Guitar, Morten on Drums, Caroline on Vocals, and me, well I was band manager of course!! So that was breakfast (well, of course we ate some delicious (lets take advantage cos mum's not here) naughty foods) and then headed off to school.. well half way anyway before Morten and Timo very rightly point out to me that we have in fact forgotten Rucksacks. So after the mad rush back to the house we head back to the school for a quick story with Timo (yes in Dutch, so really we just flicked through the pictures) a made rush to get Caroline changed for Gym class and a short walk back to the house.

Jack then came over for lunch, a sausage roll to be precise, and went off to work whilst I did the washing etc.

After picking the kids up from school Morten, Caroline and I went off to the park (Timo stayed home as he didn't want to go out in the cold, Robbert was also home may I just add.. didn't just leave the poor kid by himself..) So Morten lead the way.. very successfully to a park that wasn't open, so we ran back towards the house and got the bus into town. Now, I have to tell you that we went to a really fantastic park!! They had swings and slides (like any other basic place) but on top of that they had rope swings and tires and footballs and sand pits and round abouts and loads of other stuff that I cant explain!! Was soo much fun!!

Jack then finished work extra early so I went off into town about 7.30ish, met Jack for a drink and came back to mine to watch a film and go to sleep.. We watched 'The Hours' A very intriguing film. But worth watching.

Day Two (this being Saturday)

Me and Jack had a lazy morning, just watching T.V and stuff, until Jamie (Ineke and Robberts previous aupair) turned up!! To cut a long story short, Jamie was working at an Art Gallery in Rotterdam but could no longer stay with the people she was staying with.. lets just say the 63 year old man took a slight liking to her.

Jack and I then went into town for a spot of shopping, he went to work, I went back to Inekes for food, watched a bit of Tele with Jamie and went back out to Coconuts. I tried to explain to Jack that the last bus back to Ridderkerk on a Saturday is at 11.10, but Jack, being a man, insisted I was wrong and it was as late as 12.15. So. We stayed at Coconuts for a few drinks once he had finished work (the reason for this being, Marcel is dating a girl off of Dutch Television, she was coming to Coconuts that night and Jack wanted to meet his first 'famous person' - which may I just add didn't happen as she was ridiculously late. To be honest, if this 'famous person' was Johnny Depp or something I could completely understand, but as it happens it was some Dutch girl who appears in a soap every now and again..) Anyway, as I knew we would, we missed the last bus home, having to catch a different bus and walking for half an hour, in the rain, at one '0' clock in the morning. As you can imagine. I was. not. happy.

Day Three (Yes, Sunday, thats right..)

This morning we just lazed around, got ready about midday and went off to Kim's house (Jacks sister) with his Ma and Auntie, ate tomato soup (with red peppers - random) went back to Jacks, played a few rounds of cards, watched 'Over the Hedge' and I got the bus back to Beukelsdijk.

Over all I had a very lovely weekend.

Who said Sundays aren't stressful?

OK, so my day started with a very unwelcomed alarm at 7.30. Bus. Metro. Bus. Picked up the kids and off to Blijdorp!! Now, i thought a trip to the Zoo would be an easy(ish) day. How wrong was I!! i think it was definatly 'lets see how far we can push our luck with Rachel' day.

Anyway so that was basically the day time, not really much to say about that!! To be honest it did turn out to be a pretty good afternoon, definatly got better as the day went on!!

Then at about 4pm we hurried home for my quick switch with Robbert to replace him at the Rotterdam Film Festival. Once I had met Ineke outside amongst the crowds of people we worked our way in to see my first film of the evening (Inekes 4th!!). Perculiar. The only word for it. Anyway, we then waited some rediculous amount of time to be seated in Pizza Hut, literally shovelled down a pizza and went to the next film! now this one was good, it was a documentary about an 80 year old gentleman who lived on the streets of New York, using his days to produce art and his nights to find shelter. The film showed the journey he made to find warmth and accomidation, ending with a reunion between him and his family. All in all i had a very lovely eveing.

Tot Morgen!

The Lake House

I have just watched, the most mind boggling but at the same time amazingly well thought out, fantastic film!!

I don't know if any of you have seen it, but if not you really must!! Just a word of warning to the easily confused.. get your intellectual cap on first!!

Basically the film is set in two different time zones, 2004 (the time zone of the male character, played by Keanu Reeves) and 2006 (the time zone of the female character, played by Sandra Bullock) So these two characters meet through a letter in a home mail box. They begin to discover that they are not living throughout the same time period. They fall in love and without saying too much encase you decide to watch the film.. they try to think up ways in which they can meet.

Brilliant! You really do have to see this film. It has so many twists and turns and leaves you puzzled the whole way through!!