England!!

OK, so its been a while!! Since i have been back from England life has been a little hectic!! Arrived home wednesday evening, had the kids all day thursday and friday and have been at Jacks for the weekend. On top of that i am trying to find a college to register for in September, along with accomadation and money!!

Anyway, the point of this post is to show you some pictures from my trip to england. So here goes.

We arrived into Bristol on Wednesday morning, was picked up from the airport by Sophie and drove down to Devon. Of course, the first meal we had had to be typically English, Jack having an English fry up and me Bangers and Mash. Good ol' Weatherspoons.

Wednesday evening we went to eat with Jacks Dad and Stepmum (Have you noticed our holiday has been mainly focused around food so far?)

Jack with his younger brother, Gabriel

Thursday lunchtime I met up with Joanna, a good friend of mine in England for a girly lunch and gossip (this was before i bought my camera so have no piccis im afraid) I had a lovely peking duck wrap and smoothie (still.. food..). Thursday afternoon Jack visited his Dad whilst i spent some time with my Mum.

In the evening Mum and Val made me and Jack the most delicious BBQ along with pasta salad, marinaded onion and home made BBQ sauce.. hmm..

Friday AKA my Birthday. Friday morning we went to Carlinos, a newly opened cafe/restauraunt in town for a coffee. After this i went to buy my rather lushus camera. I would show youa picture, but kinda hard to take a picture of a camera, have you ever tried? ANYWAY. Friday evening me and Jack went for a meal at the Hare and Hounds, where we used to work and met some friends for a drink afterwards.

Me and Jack before we went out

Us in The Hare and Hounds

Jess and Gemma, friends of ours

Jack with his Dad and Uncle

A friend of mine, Wendy and myself

On the Saturday afternoon me and Jack were taken to the train station by my Mum and Val, to catch out train to Reading.

Jack, Me and Mum

Mum, Me and Val

The day after we arrived in Reading my Auntie Lesley came to visit with my cousin Emma. As i havent seen her for over a year this was a lovely surprise!!!

Jack and Emma

We then continued our holiday in bedford with my Dad, Jodi and Brothers and Sisters. Heres a couple of pics of our last few days.

My Father

Me and My Sister, Connie


My Brother, Patrick


The End of our Holiday

Monday Monday..

OK, so although i am still not 100% sure why Mondays where invented, mine seem to be getting better. I woke up around 7.30, was a huge struggle but the thought of being able to make it back to my bed within the hour was satisfying enough to get me up in the first place. Went downstairs, sorted lunches and breakfast and off i went back up to bed. Infact, i slept until 12.30. A very welcomed sleep.

After getting up, making myself look at least half presentable, doing a wash load and conquering a few shirts that needed to be ironed i left the house to get the kids from school.

Now, as i have told you before, Mondays are Judo days. So after the usual routine of getting home from the school, going through the whole 'mag ik televisie kijken' 'nee! het weer is heel leuk! buiten spele!!' (ok so my Dutch isnt all that good, i am pretty sure i am going to be corrected on that one..) eventually giving in and letting them watch tele for a few minutes whilst i get the bikes out of the shed.. only to find Timo's is missing.. bugger its still at the school from Friday.. OK, its only 3.20, we have five minutes before we have to leave..

'schoenen en jas aan alsjeblieft!!' so we ran over to the school, Caroline trapsing behind, grab the bike, run back, load the buggy to the back of my bike and off we go to Judo.

So that was that, how fantastic.

Anyway, Monday evening i went over to the office to do some cleaning, to break up the evening i had a visitor, 5 infact. 5 14 year old boys. One of which had dropped a top off the balcony upstairs and wanted it back from the office garden (the cat has just done a really smelly poo in the litter behind me.. blimey it stinks!) anyway, once these kids find out i am English, they obviously want to stay and chat,

'can we come and watch you work'

'No'

'do you fancy my friend? he wants you to be his girlfriend'

'sorry, i think you may be a little young'

'i may be young but my **** is mature for my age..'

'at which point i say my goodbyes and close the door'

Bought a little amusement to my evening anyway!!

Once the office was all spangly clean i went to Coconuts, yes, at about half past 8, jack didnt finish until 11.30, leaving me in the company of jerome, nermin and the security guy. Was a very funny evening, and they laughed at my blimin hilarious joke that nobody else found funny. i would enlighten you on it but its in Dutch and doesnt make sence if translated to English, sorry guys.

So, that was my monday, fantabulostic.

I Miss..

Having friends.

I was just looking at some Myspace pictures from my friends and it made me sad.

Don't get me wrong, I am lucky in so many ways, the opportunities I have had in the last few months don't happen to everyone. However, friends are important.

I miss going on big nights out with my friends and returning in the early hours of the morning. I miss having girly chats about stupid little things. I miss being able to pick up the phone and make last minute plans.

All I have here now is Jack. I mean, if I could pick only one person to have with me it would be him (apart from you Mum, your cool too.) so I am lucky in that aspect. However, it is tough. Jack has his own life too, his own friends, his own family. It can just be lonely sometimes.

I am not complaining. Please do not think that. I have a fantastic life, friends and family who love me and an amazing Jack who is there to pick me up when I fall. I have a fantastic job and live with a wonderful family. My life really isn't bad. Sometimes it is just a little lonely.

I guess I just haven't had a great number of opportunities to make friends.

There are a couple of aupairs at the school, Austin, but he leaves the end of the month and another girl who also leaves soon.

However, I am joining a gym on Friday, so hopefully could meet a few people there.

Most of this is down to the language barrier. It is just hard to get talking to people who don't speak your language. I mean, I speak a little (very little) Dutch and most people speak a little English, I just need to get over the fear factor of speaking what I know.

Also I am starting a Dutch language course in May so will hopefully meet a few nice people there..

Please keep your fingers crossed for me!

Pick up a Puzzle!

Last night Ineke and Robbert went out for a Valentines meal so I had the children. Well, they were as good as gold, I fed and watered them, plonked them in the tub, read them a story and off they went to bed leaving the rest of the evening for me to relax. Grabbing the remainders of the Kinder Bueno from the fridge (yes, diet is cancelled..) i ran back up the stairs to the computer. Spent an hour or so there until Jamie got home at about 9ish.

Now, you see, I was so tired but wasn't in the mood to go to sleep, so, Jamie, being Jamie, came up with the fantastic idea that we do a puzzle! So that's what we did. for 2 whole hours. And no, we still haven't completed it so I am off to finish it now.

I will try and post a picci later!! Its a whopper!! 500 pieces!

My encounter with Kim!!

Well, as you may know Kim is my best Dutch friend.. here's the catch. I'd never met her until Saturday. We met on the Internet (yes, think what you like..) She lives near Eindhoven and traveled the one hour and fifty minutes to Rotterdam to see me. So we started off the day travelling from Centraal Station to Stadhuis by Metro (yes this is very significant as she has never been on one before (25 years she has been Dutch!!)) Well we went to Dudok for lunch (and yes I did have the overly-lushus Brie, Apple and Honey Ciabbata), had great fun analysing peoples' outrages dress sense, i know it is good to be unique but some people are just ridiculous and I struggle to understand how they can look in the mirror and think 'Wow! I look fantastic in this overly-hideous skirt, bright pink tights, green strippy top, elbow gloves and trainers!! Not to mention this fantastic belt i have on with spikes all around it!!'

We then went for a mooch around the shops, Kim continually amazed that they have Bodyguards, and that actually, Rotterdam is not as bad as it is said to be. We both did considerably well to control our spendings (to be fair, this wasn't so hard for me as i had a serious lack of money to start with and do not own a credit card.)

Once the shops began to close we made our way to Coconuts for a few drinks, subjecting Kim to Marcel the womanizer (there are better words i could use for him but my Mother may be reading) lets just say he has had more than his fair share.. anyway he took quite a liking to Kim, rather her than me!!

Anyway this bought an end to our day, so we walked to back to Centraal Station, coming across a large number of incredibly perculiar people along the way, and waved goodbye to Kim.

All in all i had a really lovely day and i think she did too?! However i think the best part of this was talking to Kim this morning and finding out that when she returned to Eindhoven the window had fallen out of her car so she had to drive the 40 minutes home with no window!! Amused me greatly.

Let's Bake!

Katy came over today. We thought it would be fun to bake a cake.. Here's what happened. I think the pictures say it all!!

Katy - the little housewife during our first attempt at making a cake.. (look below to see the results!!)

As you can see it didn't go quite as planned!! this is only egg yoke, milk and melted butter.. only we forgot to let the butter cool down before adding it to the mixture.. therefore it cooked the egg.

OK. So the second attempt was a little more successful!!

Believe me.. you wouldn't have wanted to clean up this kitchen once we were done!!

So we popped it in the oven and here's how we did!!

OK.. So i got a little peckish!!

Well.. you see.. we didn't have a cake shaped baker thingy so we decided to make a brick instead!!

Don't be silly!! This was the picture on the box!!

This was ours!! Isn't it beautiful!! I tell ya.. tasted blimin' good!!

Girl's night in..

Sophie - all excited about winning.. if only she knew..

Trivial Pursuit!! It's the way forward!!

Me.. a not-so-Sexy Sadie!! Trying to guess the Actor during the Scene It game!!

The game that bought us many laughs!!

Sophie - realising, she is in fact a loser.

Now.. I haven't been to a sleep-over in i don't know how long!!

It was so much fun!! Although it was just the two of us it was so good to have a proper catch up and gossip (now that's something i have been unable to do for a long time!!)

We played games, we ate popcorn, we sang, we danced, we watched films, we did everything!!

I don't think i have laughed so much in a very long time!! Although It took me a while to realise there are in fact only six sides to a dice, therefore when i threw a six, it was in fact a six and not a nine; That Catherin Zita Jones is married to Micheal Douglas and not Paul McCartney and the Beatles song Jude Law has tattooed on his arm is 'Sexy Sadie'. Not, 'Always look on the bright side of life' (is that even a Beatles song?!).

Apart from that. All was good!!

After our board game marathon and eating spree we took ourselves to bed and chatted until ridiculous-o-clock and went to sleep..

Sorry? Superheros? Pah!

Word of advice to all you physically or verbally violent people out there.. head to Newton Abbot.

Let me explain..

Me and Giverney were walking along the long road connecting Newton Abbot town centre and Rafters, minding our own business, a young woman passes us really quite distraught, crying. Followed by an outraged bloke shouting his mouth off (who quite happily yelled abuse at me and Giverney as we passed) Anyway, us being the good citizens that we are felt it would be wrong to leave this poor woman alone with this lunatic. So we walked back towards them in an attempt to rescue the Damsel in Distress. So obviously as we turned around to talk to her we got an earful from this delightful man (who very wrongly stated to me.. my manners are better than yours ever will be.. bit of a peculiar comment to make don't you think when you are in the middle of verbally abusing your girlfriend?) Anyway as this was going on, this woman getting more and more distressed a bloke who passed a while before called the police. So. This is where the so called 'superheros' are supposed to come in and save the day. Well. Lets rewind a bit. The police have driven passed!! Oh yes.. with there special blue lights flashing.. but of course.. no physical violence taken place as yet so why should they stop? Lets not be ridiculous and prevent something that could happen happening, lets just wait until there is something physical to stop. So the police turn around at the round about. Me and Giverney go and talk to them, but oh no, don't be silly!! they don't want statements!! they want our phone numbers and then drive off without another word. So I'm expecting to get a call from the police today. By which time it will be too late to help this poor woman as nobody knows either of there names or phone numbers (not particularly something i tend to ask someone likely to beat me to the ground.)

So yes. That was my story of my eventful evening last night. And just to prove how terribly the police handle situations of violence. You know the saying.. sticks and stones may brake my bones but names will never hurt me. Has to be the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard as verbal abuse is often far more hurtful than any physical abuse you can suffer. Maybe the police should consider this next time they are called out to handle a situation like this one.

p.s. sorry about the lack of photo.. also something i tend not to ask raving lunatics.