Become someone else

To say it has been a full-on week would be an understatement.

The good news is my second Primary Theatre Show was a HUGE success.

The kids were amazing and they had so much fun up on stage being spooky skeletons, wicked witches and zany zombies. They remembered all their lines and actions and spoke loudly, clearly and slowly.

Then the Thriller music started up and my heart was honestly pounding away like mad, I was so nervous.

I needn't have been. They ROCKED it! It went off like a frog in a sock.
Was it perfect? Hell no. But when they all popped their heads up in sync and began the choreography completely in time and all together there was an audible reaction in the theatre and the audience was clapping away and cheering like mad.

When they finished it they all had gigantic grins on their faces and all the hard work - writing the script, teaching them the words, directing, choreographing, organising, meeting with parents, rehearsing, costuming, face painting ..... well it was all worth it.

One of the parents has promised to send me some photos so I will hopefully be able to put them up soon.

As a consequence, the rest of this week has been a bit of a slog and I am looking forward to soaking up some sun tomorrow on the beach and getting an early night after a 5.00 start today to finish a bunch of marking. Hideous.

We plan to hire a kayak and go for a bit of a paddle and find a nice spot for a picnic lunch, which should be fantabulous. And then tomorrow night it's a BBQ at one of my friend's new house.

I also plan to do some reading, which I have been neglecting of late. A combination of the last two books I read being rather disappointing (Water for Elephants - didn't rate it and Tiger Hills - not bad per se, just predictable) and a serious lack of time.

So me + balcony + sunshine + book = recipe for a good Sunday afternoon.

To cap it off, I'm also going to make one of Aidan's yummy spring recipes to make use of the amazing seasonal produce that's available at the mo.
Asparagus & Chevre Mille-Feuille with salad. Oh yeah.


In the spirit of reading - aren't these fantastic?

I spied them over at Black*Eiffel.

In their own words "When one reads books, he/she starts living it and identifies (or not) with main hero. These print ads for the Mint Vinetu bookstore, which sells lots of classics, focuses on the idea of becoming someone else. And provokes people to try on different personas."

That's an idea I can get behind.

Happy weekend all

Gros Bisous
B x

Crushes on Clog makers

Honesty time: I'm sorry but it's true - I’ve turned into a weekend only blogger, which sucks but alas, that’s the way the cookie crumbles for the moment. Life is a wee bit hectic.
Case in point: on Friday night I thought I'd have a wee nap around 6pm.
I woke up this morning at 8.30.
14.5 hours of sleep later and I still feel like a nap!

I wanted to quickly finish uploading the photos from my trip with TD so I can get on to current issues.
Ergo, today’s effort = Amsterdam.

After leaving Keukenhof’s magnificent gardens behind us, we slowly manoeuvred our way to our apartment in Amsterdam – not an easy feat given that the traffic and roads were a wee bit insane and we encountered the death trap for all car-bound tourists: a maze of fricken one-way streets!

Once there, we split up to do some exploring and then spent the next day and half visiting museums (the Van Gough museum in particular was outstanding) taking canal rides, enjoying the architecture and scenery, nearly getting run over every 5 minutes by people on bikes and avoiding the Red-Light district. Not because of any prudishness or squeamishness on my behalf – but simply because staring at gyrating naked women when with your mother and step-father = bad news bears.

I think after Delft, Amsterdam felt quite hectic and busy – but we all enjoyed it very much. We also went on a day trip which TD was keen for that took us out into the countryside north of Amsterdam and we got to see Windmills, authentic ye olde Cheese makers, Clog makers and lots of gorgeous, incredibly flat and green landscapes.

The water situation in the Netherlands blew my mind – in fairness I come from the driest state in the driest inhabited continent on the planet - but even still, the efforts they have to make and the costs involved in keeping the land free from water. Send some of it to South Australia, please!

Anyway - here be photos

Very near where we were staying - so pretty

On the day tour we went on:

Windmills? Check!

Clogs? Check!

I ended up having quite the debate with myself over whether or not to buy clogs.

I was very swayed by their prettiness but practical matters, plus M's voice in my head meant I left clog-less.

Cute, old skool Dutch architecture and lakeside villages?

Check!

This photo isn't particularly interesting but would you please check out the shutter speed action with that duck in flight?!

Damn! You go Canon SLR!

TD and I (ok, mostly me) spent a lot of time in Holland speaking pretend Dutch, which pretty much sounds like a combination of the Swedish Chef from the Muppets and adding faux Dutch sounding endings to English words. 

For example: Toilet became "pisssenhousen", Cat became "pussenkaten", and so on.We/I found this hilarious.

But, to be fair, sometimes you don't even need to make something up. "Klompenmakerij"?

And the final few photos are from the visit it said Klompenmakerij where there was a particularly cute and entertaining Klompenmaker. 

I wanted to bring him home instead of a pair of clogs. 

Rwoar.

Hello handsome young Dutch man who I am inappropriately oggling

But c'mon! How cute is that smile!?

errr .... the demonstration had finished by now. 

I was just taking photos of the machinery ....

And after that - it was back to France to meet up with M and Herge who had made it back from their Moroccan adventure in one piece and with many amusing camel-related tales to tell.

B xxx

Flowers for Mother's Day

Firstly - Happy Mother's day to TD.
Sorry I sounded so awful on the phone but I have a hangover of epic proportions.

Love you so much and can't believe how quickly our trip went.
It was too much fun traveling with you: mocking Adi's snoring/driving, eating chocolates, speaking fake Dutch, buying cool artwork, admiring all the beautiful places we saw.

I'm glad you liked the flowers - Tulips in honour of our trip to Keukenhof. 


What can I say about Keukenhof?

Well .... it's amazeballs. If you are a gardener, this place is your mecca. Even for me, a self-acknowldged plant murderer - it was spectacular. People who are into flowers and gardening must cream their jeans when they visit. It's that awesome.

Yes, the average visitor age was about 55, but still, it was wonderful. And I had an insanely good ice cream there too so - double score.

I don't know if the photos do it justice at all - but nonetheless, voila:

Happy Mother's Day to all the mummies out there.

xxx B

Why yes I do. My favourite's gouda.

 ** Chookie - Do you recognise the title? Name that film and character!


Ok. Prepare yourself for a whole lot of canals and flowers.

Yes that’s right – we’re in Holland baby!
(well .... we WERE in Holland a few weeks ago but you get the idea.)

Our first stop was Gouda.
Where we had a lovely lunch.
And ate some Gouda.

If I actually HAD a Bucket List (which I don’t) I would put on it: “Visit all the places that have cheeses named after them and eat cheese there.”
That’s a rock solid life aim I feel.
And – bonus, I can already check off Gouda and Gruyere.

Then we arrived in Delft.
And I fell in love.

Scenic canals and open squares. Cute cafes, bikes everywhere and young people giving a relaxed friendly vibe and Blue and White Delftware everywhere you looked.

I have a serious hard-on for blue-and-white Porcelain, from the original Chinese stuff, to Italian Spode, to Turkish tiles to Delftware, so I was in homewares heaven.

What a pity that M was thousands of miles away in Morocco with no way to influence my spending habits...........

Having said that, when we visited the Royal Delft factory – one of only three that date from the 16th century still operating in Delft, I found myself looking at the various items on sale and thinking to myself “hmm, €380 for a teapot ... that seems reasonable ...” and then experiencing a dawning realisation that M would most likely find spending €180 on a plate justifiable grounds for divorce. Lucky for me and the state of my marriage, the boutique had some items on sale, so I managed to find some pieces that I love without breaking the bank.

I can’t say enough nice things about Delft – it was probably the highlight of the trip for me.

If you’re planning a trip to Les Pays-Bas at any point, put Delft on your itinerary, it’s awesome.

Gouda

Delft

Next up - it's a veritable Tulip-palooza when we spend the day at the Keukenhof Gardens, then it's on to Amsterdam where mum and I dropped some magic mushrooms and got tattoos.


xx B

We have a situation

We have friends (Hels and Tom) arriving this afternoon for a weekend of FUN FUN FUN TM Rebecca Black

This, naturally, necessitated a trip to the supermarche to stock up on alcoholic beverages plus edible goodies.

Trying to put everything away in the fridge was a challenge - and then something slowly dawned on me.

I started to count.

We have 13 different types of cheese in our fridge.

Yep. 13. One Three.

Even for my standards of cheese-loving - this seems high, no?

No room for five food groups in our house, go dairy or go home.

PS - I know I should have done my Holland trip blog AND I've been given a Stylish Blogger award which is awesome, but when you go gallivanting for the entire vacation it means the first week of school is a biotch.

They'r e a-coming, I promise.

B xxx