Is it August already?!

What happens to the days, I ask you? Well. Let's see.

Jane and Edwin tied the knot, and looked beautiful while they tied it.

I finished working for the nuns and took up curriculum developing and sanity editing.

I decided to do only one course again this semester for my MA.

It seems that I live in the Netherlands, work in Japan and the UK and study in Australia. Less exoctically, I spend a lot of time in front of my trusty laptop.

We went for a cycle and happened upon the biggest windmill for something to do with wheat. Come on...I'm stretching my tired mind all the way back to last month. Here are a couple of pretty pictures from the day!

We had a smashing high tea in Dussen with Sheelah, Ed, Jane and Edwin. I think I put on about 10 kilos in one afternoon. It was just like Christmas and a birthday and a lovely Sunday afternoon all rolled into one. Check out Jane's blog for some fab-o pictures!

And we found a flat in Nijmegen! Yay. We'll be moving some time between September 16th and October 1st.

This weekend it's off to the Lowlands festival. R.O.C.K. O.N.

And then for a road trip to Croatia on September 1st.

And then I promise I'll have more pictures and stories on the blog.

If anybody's still reading?!

As an end note...it seems that I've lost the ability to edit a post properly and going against all my anal retentiveness, I'm going to leave this layout because I. simply. can't. be. bothered.

Revenge of the Nerd

Or, Three Pictures Paint Three Thousand Words.

Stuff and Things

How do you top a blog entry slideshow about your own wedding?

The answer is that you can't. Well, actually, I can't.

Life post-wedding is pretty much the same as pre-wedding, except now we have rings on our left hands.

But spurred on by Brenda's comment on my last post, I feel compelled to write more, write more.

So news of late is this:

I quit work. My last day is August 10. So from August 11 I am officially a full time student again. We're hoping to go on a short trip to Croatia around then, and we're also hoping that Tomas and Jessica can make it down here for a holiday before they become real, live parents.

I had the pleasure of meeting Jasper. Who is he, you ask? Well, apart from being a beautiful baby, he is the new (3 week-ish) son of Debbie (from work) and hubby, Arthur. Debbie looks fantastic...a very relaxed, natural mum. If I ever pop any kiddies out, I hope that I will look as good as and be as relaxed as Debbie is! Meeting Jasper almost made me want to have a baby.

Get up off the floor now. I said almost.

Nico and I are looking (well, kind of) for a place to live in Nijmegen. Hopefully we'll be able to move in August. Busy month that will probably turn out to be.

Even though all these post-wedding events and plans are great, the highlight, by far, has been Festival Mundial in Tilburg. €10 for a full day of world music is just too great to put into words! But even greater than that absolute bargain was that The Cat Empire (http://www.thecatempire.com/) played! I hadn't seen them for about 2 years and they didn't disappoint. They were amazing. But would anything less be expected of them?! They pulled quite a crowd despite the rain. Just wonderful.

Sigh.

Snapping back to reality, I must get back to writing my mini-essays for my final assessment for my first MA course.

Joy.

Already 6 Days as the Missus?!

The 18th of May, aka the Wedding Day, was a great day all round...happy, exciting, fun, laid back, meaningful and silly all rolled into one.

I'll let the slideshow tell the story. All photos are thanks to mum, Roxanne, Catherine, Johan and Jennifer.

Enjoy...we certainly did!

When the cat's away...

Why not organise a last minute Eurovision party?

Berenice, Sam, Jane, Geert and Jessica (as seen in the photo below) broke out the beer and wine and scorecards for Eurovision 2007.















I was quite disappointed that Sweden or France didn't win, as I gave them the full 12 points on my scorecard, or even the Ukraine who scored (on my scorecard) 3 x 12 and 1 x 11.

We judged (through wine/beer/port goggles) the competitors on song, performance, dance routine and outfit but the official judging from the voting public around Europe phoned in for neighbouring countries and/or largest number of expats in country. No surprises there. Serbia, and in Terry Wogan's words, not the glamour girl of the competition, won. I didn't like the entry, but then again, I didn't pick up my phone and officially vote.

Thanks Eurovisioners for postponing dinner and a film in Antwerpen, the yummy bread, the cake, the wine and the company! And here's counting down to Eurovision 2008.

Procrastination part 2

Sunday. Sunny. Stuck inside studying. So what better chance for procrastination?

And here's what I have come up with:



Female celebrity matches to my picture included Rita Hayworth, Carol Vorderman and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. But to procrastinate a little more I ran a 'face recognition' for 'all genders'! And what a pleasant surprise! Me and Kim Jong II. A facial match of 68%. And it is clearly true. The similarities are startlingly obvious.

But imagine my delight when I ran an 'all gender face recognition' on a picture of Nico trying to be a bogan. His matches included Jack from Will and Grace and Victoria Beckham.

But the number 1 match...




Is it really any surprise that I love being a student?

Surprise!

Some people are great procrastinators. I consider it to be one of my most steadfast traits. But let me digress before I even get started.

Graduations are important events in many corners of the world and the day you finally finish with years of strenuous study (and taking advantage of university bar prices) is often marked with a celebration. Some kind of party. It could be an outdoor BBQ or a fancy soiree. It doesn't matter. All that matters is the celebration before the realisation hits you: You have finished studying, your university ID is about to run out and you won't be entitled to those university bar prices any more. In fact, you won't be able to even get a foot in the door at the place you spent most Thursday nights over the past few years.

So you send it all off with a party.

But let me go back to my original theme of procrastinating, because, let's face it, most of us learned how to cook and clean simply thanks to the art of procrastination. And for many of us, this art was refined during our high school and/or university days. I have been known to make my bathroom sparkle while a deadline loomed. We all know the feeling, right?

But what is the longest time you have put off your assignments, your work, your graduation party? A few hours? A couple of days? Weeks?

How about 7 years?

Well, out of all the procrastinators I know, that is the record. And this is the man who achieved it:

But here's the thing. If it weren't for a few Saturday evening gatecrashing mad-hatters, this King of Graduation Party Procrastination could have made it to 8, 9...perhaps even 10 years.

Hope you enjoyed your surprise (if not a little late) "graduation" party, Mr P.

**Photos of the cross between Pete Doherty and Home Improvement's Wilson, AKA BOE, seem to be missing. If anyone can rectify this, please contact me ASAP.**

Getting hitched

2007 is the year. May is the month. 18th is the date. Friday is the day. 5pm is the time.

Unless we forget to pay the bill from the city hall. Then we'll have to start all over again.

It's winter...Again!

Winter this year seems to consist of a few days of being cold and a few more days of being not so cold. Today seems to fall into the being cold category and it looks delicious.

26th January

There are lots of different names for this day in Australia...Aboriginal Sovereignty Day, Australia Day, Invasion Day.

26th January means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

People hailing from 111 different countries officially become citizens of Australia today.

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra holds a Sacred Fire Ceremonial Gathering and a Corroboree for Sovereignty.

1000s gather in locales around the country to Look Up and Smile.

Sydney enjoys the Big Day Out.

I sit inside on the other side of the world and wonder what I'm missing again.

So I plug my headphones into my laptop and listen to one of my favourite songs, From Little Things Big Things Grow, by two of my favourite artists, Kev Carmody and Paul Kelly.

http://www.aboriginaltentembassy.net/music/Paul_Kelly_and_Kev_Carmody_-_From_Little_Things_Big_Things_Grow.mp3

This beautiful song was written for Vincent Lingiari. To read more about him check out:

http://www.vibe.com.au/vibe/corporate/celebrity_vibe/showceleb.asp?id=372

All things festive!

The time between my last post and this post has been festive indeed! Shopping, Christmas breakfast, Christmas presents, Christmas dinner, more Christmas presents, a road trip to Copenhagen via Hamburg and finally NYE in Breda.

Christmas day was chilly and my new year's resolution is to have the next one at home where the sun shines and lures my glow in the dark white body down to the beach. It was still a great day with lots of presents and a champagne brekky while talking to my family who were no doubt working on their tans at the same time. Nico and I braved the winds and went out for a Christmas stroll and coffee. In the evening it was down to Panningen for perhaps the best meal I've had since arriving here!

On boxing day we hauled our over eaten selves into the car without any winter tires and headed to Hamburg. In the city centre we saw a replica of our Christmas tree.

Hamburg is a shopper's paradise. Unfortunately we arrived in the evening and left the next morning so we missed the shopping hours. I think that was well planned by Nico.

We made it to Copenhagen late in the afternoon of the 27th although it felt like it was about 8 in the evening because it was so dark. We got a parking ticket on our first day there which was a lovely post-Christmas present that hasn't been paid for. I expected Copenhagen to be very proper and really clean but it's not all that! It reminded me of a cross between Amsterdam and London. Different parts of the city had some peculiar odours floating around which were peculiar in a not very pleasant way. Again, it's a city with some great shopping but I didn't buy a thing! We wandered around and saw the sights, including this at about 3 or 4 in the afternoon:

Yes. That is our picture of the Little Mermaid!

We visited Copenhagen's version of Nimbin:

And we got stuck taking photos for about 400000 people at the 'New Harbour' after they saw what a good picture we took:

We went to the coast and looked for Sweden:

And pretended to be windmills:

And after all that we drove home, went to the gym, then got ready to welcome in 2007 in Breda at Jurgey's NYE party:

And although this photo looks civilised, it is almost 1 pm on 02.01.07 and I have just about recovered from NYE.

Christmas is coming!

I love Christmas. I love presents. I can admit it! But I don't like the cold northern hemisphere weather and anyone who is anyone knows that Christmas = sun and beach and days of eating, drinking and being merry.

But when in Rome and all that.

So Nico and I took a trip to Aachen for the Christmas market. This was my 3rd Christmas market in as many years. The first was Prague and the second was Budapest and the third was Aachen. Different countries but very similar Christmas markets. Lots of people, mulled wine and sausages. And very, very chilly.

Mmm, mulled wine...and maybe too many sausages judging from the chins hanging over my scarf.

The city hall marked one end of the market.

And the cathedral the other.

When we were driving home we decided to go the the 'drielandenpunt' where the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany meet.

Unfortunately I couldn't get my legs around the pole to be in all three countries at once.

This place is also the highest in the Netherlands. All peaks around the world are indicated and it's no different here. Silly tourists taking photos are also noticeable.

It was a tough climb.

Yep, all 322.5 METRES of it!

Happy week leading up to Christmas to everyone! And here's to the next one being in warmer climes!

Spammed!

Could my wonderful gmail account actually let spam into my inbox?

That was my thought this morning when I logged on to my email and saw the sender 'Colleen' and the subject 'Offer Letter' and an attachment.

Against my usual 'delete it' instincts, I opened it.

It was indeed an offer.

USQ has let me into their MA in Applied Linguistics starting in March 2007 and with a 'Commonwealth Supported' place, which means the good old Aussie Government will pay 2/3 of the fees for me. This doesn't mean, however, that they will get my vote in the next election!

So gmail has pleased me once again for not letting in any spam. (Unless of course I fail all my courses then this post will be changed to an 'I hate spam' post and I'll have everyone imagining that I never even contemplated doing an MA.)

Naughty or Nice?

5th December marks 'Sinterklaas'.

If you've been good all year, you get some presents, like the first letter of your first name made out of chocolate and a poem written about you to make fun of your idiosyncrasies.

If you've been bad, you get a bundle of sticks or a bag of salt.

But if you've been really, really bad, you get thrown in Zwarte Piet's gunny sack and taken back to Spain where Sinterklaas lives.

Hmm?

I might have to give Sinterklaas the head's up and tell him all the really, really bad things I've done this year!

Sinterklaas and his un-PC helpers arrive in the Netherlands by steam boat in late November.

A couple of the hundreds of Zwarte Piets.

Sinterklaas also has a horse, Amerigo (and a police escort here in Eindhoven). I forgot to leave a carrot out for Amerigo last night. That trip to Spain is looking more promising!

Presenting Leiden!

Most impressive city in the Netherlands? Most beautifully preserved architecture in the Netherlands? Most breath taking views in the Netherlands? Windiest city in the Netherlands? Best tour guides in the Netherlands?

After spending a late afternoon / early evening sojourn in Leiden, in my humble opinion, yes is the answer to most of the above! I'll let you decide on your own yes's and no's.

I did it!

Phew. With a day to spare I am officially a winner of the 'write a 50 000 word novel in 30 days' NaNoWriMo challenge. Final wordcount: 50 067. Words worth reading: *shudders*.

Achel

That's the name of a quaint little town in Belgium that we rode to today.

Yes, we rode our bikes to Belgium today!

We left at about 11.30 this morning and got back about 6 this evening. The ride was about 70kms round trip. It was mostly through beautiful forests with the occasional 'fiets cafes' for all the cyclists and walkers.

Of course, as I hail from a big and borderless island, it's still exciting for me to cross into another country by car or on foot or by bike!

Ahhh...the novelty will never wear off, I'm sure!

That's me and my trusty steed just in Belgium.

And here's the border police...

In Achel there was a castle that had been built in the 12th century. Unfortunately they had renovated it a number of times since then which included painting and plastering over the original brickwork.

Close up you could see underneath some peeling paint and the original brickwork was beautiful.

I won't even tell you what we ate for lunch but think of about a metre of bread with a sausage, some onion and sauerkraut. Mmm!? Of course we started lunch with a yummy dark Belgian beer. Now that was gooooood!

On the way out of town we spotted a shop so we had to go in. What a great thing that this is what they sold...

You can't go to Belgium and not buy a few chocolates! So now I'm off to enjoy them with my tea.

A bit slow...

And the 30th of November is how many days away?!

I'm going to be adding my word count to this little widget every day (or more than once a day if I'm really procrastinating). The date above won't change (editing a post doesn't change the date) but those numbers will!

Not so simple equations

1. What's 50 000 minus 2037?

2. What's 30 minus 10?

The answers are:

1. The number of words I have to write.

2. The number of days I have to do it.

At least I know I'm good at procrastinating.

NaNoWriMo. I love you.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, a few days ago it was happy birthday to me!

And even though I turned 31 I am still quite spoilt.

These were all my birthday presents along with all of the emails and well wishes and a JT CD which isn't in the photo because it was pumping through the stereo! I'm such a pop princess sometimes.

Nico took Friday off and after chatting on the phone to my parents for about an hour, we went to Nijmegen for lunch. Nijmegen is the oldest city in the Netherlands but then depending on who you ask, Maastricht is the oldest! I love both of these cities and it's true that both are really old! Nijmegen is on the Rhine and it is still a busy waterway for transporting goods. We saw a bunch of cars on a bunch of boats coming from Germany and quite a lot of traffic as we dined at the water's edge in a 'gezellig' restaurant.

After lunch we drove to the largest National Park in the Netherlands: the Hoge Veluwe. In the middle of the park there is the Kröller-Müller museum which holds the best collection of van Gogh paintings. It was donated to the state by an old, rich shipping magnate family who acquired a huge collection of art.

You can drive to the museum or you can use, for free, one of these:

Of course we took the bikes. It was a 10km ride each way and I have never seen so much wide open space in such a small country before.

The first kilometre or so was on a cycle path in the middle of a forest. We were surrounded by huge trees in all their autumn glory! This led into low lying scrub and shrubs which then turned into sand dunes and what looked like a mini desert?! After a while we hit forest again and in a clearing in this forest was the museum.

We wandered through the museum at a snail's pace. There was so much to see and so few people! There were sculptures and paintings from all over the world. There were also letters and diary entries from the family. And of course there was a cafe where we got a nice warm cuppa and an appelgebak!

In the evening we met Jane and Edwin at the Effenaar in Eindhoven for a couple of drinks.

It was a very happy birthday for me.