Months later

It's been months since I've last felt the urge AND had the time to update. It will be a very staccato kind off update, cause if I tell you about everything that happened in those months I will be still be typing by tomorrow. Where did I leave off?

AAA the big chocolate spree. Well yes, that did happen. Very much so actually since the TimTams were on sale at Woolworths, such a shame, now I had to take 6 packs... The Cadbury factory experience was a bit dissapointing: due to new food laws you're not allowed to actually go into the factory (last time in Dunedin, NZ, we could almost touch all the liquid chocolate), so just a boring movie and some candy to make us happy. No worries though, cause I've seen it all before and the main reason for coming was to buy loads of cheap chocolate anyways. So I did. About 2 kilo's of it :) A quick shopping spree in downtown Hobart also delivered 2 pairs of Adidas sneakers and a bunch of clothes (I needed to spend those dollars anyway). The flight back was LONG. very very LONG. Especially since, ofcourse, we got delayed in London (where they left my luggage as well, so I found out later). Pfff. 36 hours later I was finally home with just my handluggage, the rest was brought to my doorstep the next day (I like that service, maybe they should forget it more often). 2 days off and then back to work again. There I got offered a place on the management team of the Graduate School (besides my current job at the College), which I accepted and now I'm working twice as hard. A nice challenge and a step forward. Between the beginning of August and now the following things happended:

The evening after my first workday was spend at Moniques places where we had a lovely dinner. I went to the sportsclub 5 min from here and got myself and my collegue Aira into a bodyshape lesson for at least 6 months. Lots of cardio and all sorts of sore muscles... I went to see Gillian and Mario (my former housemates) in their new place in Almere (nice view), had another collegue come over for dinner, went to see my parents and deliver some of the gifts I bought them. Marieke came over for a weekend of fun in Haarlem: we cycled around the beautiful landscape here just out of the city and had a great time on one of the tourboats cruising the canals in Haarlem (where the captain did not speak proper English, which was hilarious: have you ever heard of a weeshouse? nope, in English it would be an orphanage). The weekend after Gwendy came over for the weekend and she was very lucky since it was 1)monument weekend when all the monuments in town are open to visit them for free, 2)opening weekend of the theatre season, so lots of music etc going on, 3) jopenfestival, where people dress up in clothes of the middle ages, practice long forgotten crafts, play knight etc. So we had an extremely busy, but also extremely fun weekend with guided walks around town, lots of guided walks through buildings etc etc. I started with my Spanish classes, went home to my parents to celibrate my dad's 59th birthday and Japke's birthday and went over to Gerrit to catch up. And were still in September... I had my certificate for my management programme handed to me during a ceremony, Monique came over for dinner and a sleepover (very handy for her now that she has an internship in Haarlem) and the last weekend of September we went with 6 of my former highschool friends to the Veluwe, a very nice area in the Netherlands. We cycled about 50 k on Saturday, went out for dinner, chatted way too much, got up early Sunday morning to check out all the deer (which we didn't see because of all the fog, but we could hear them anyway), and finished with a visit to Paleis 't Loo. Great fun!

So October started and Ronald came for our famous Toetjesavond (dessert night) where we make all our own desserts and eat nothing but desserts! It was really great doing that again, getting a sugar overload and seeing Ronald again. He made a fantastic trip to SE Asia and had loads of pictures with him. On the sixth Monique got her Research Master degree cum laude (I was soooo proud)! Ofcourse a little party had to follow :)

The weekend was spent in Groningen with Marieke, we shopped a bit, went to see UP! (brilliant movie, go see) and went to Stephan and Chris to celibrate Chris her birthday (23, such a puppy). Last weekend my collegue Marieke (different Marieke) and I as committee catering organised the food for our next PMD seminar, which is tomorrow and Tuesday. Today we have to do some preparation for the desserts were serving and then off to learn loads in the next few days.

That was all for now folks. I will try and update more often, Oooh and one thing: there is another holiday planned: Karlijn and I are going to Malta the last week of November. Woohoo! I'll go diving again :)