Mermaid reverie

I wish the sea would swallow me

Body and soul entirely

free and unchained eternally

One with my final destiny

No pain or sorrow burden me

No love or friendship tie me down

My salty tears

The sea has drowned

 

Meanwhile

I know, I haven't even been on here for 5 months ! Meanwhile we were in Aruba in May and had a wonderful time.  I did manage eventually to lose some weight before we went there, unfortunately I put some kilos back on during our holiday.  It wasn't too bad though and not as if I hadn't expected it with all the good food and drinks I enjoyed having, but since then I put on some more.  I am still 1 kilo under the weight I was before the diet.  Small consolation I know.  IWe're going to London in 4 weeks time and I am would like to do some serious shopping there, so as you may have guessed : I am on a diet, again ! We're going with our youngest son and his girl friend so the shopping will be nice.  I haven't been in London for more than 10 years and I'm really looking forward to it.  Our son's girlfriend has never been to London and it will be nice to show her round.  We're going on the eurostar and have 3 full days.  I am taking care of the planning.  We want to see Tate Modern and the British Museum and go see a musical one evening.  It will be the beginning of December so all the Christmas decorations will be up.  I was there so many times when I used to work for the ferry company although I never had a lot of spare time to walk around or do some shopping. Feels like a previous life now. The summer has been very nice. The weather agreable most of the summer and September and October were better than average. Sunny and warm.  Today was a wonderfully warm and sunny 1st November .

Meanwhile, during the past months, we finally got some work done in the garden.  All the hedges, the rose bushes and the apple and pear tree nicely pruned. Some repair work was done on our garden shed.  I planted a lot of flower bulbs together with our granddaughter.  She will be so thrilled to see all those lovely flowers coming out next year in spring.  I still plan to redecorate the 2 rooms upstairs during the winter.  Since the beginning of September the rehearsals with my amateur theatre group have started for the play in January and the Italian lessons also, keeping me busy 3 evenings a week.  I should however start swimming again. I don't move nearly enough.  But with the theatre and the Italian and my Saturdays busy with the grandchildren, it is kind of difficult to find the spare time.  November will be a busy month : 2 of our grandchildren have their birthdays, we're going to take part in a school quiz and there is a grandparent afternoon at one of our grandchlidren's school.  Apart from that I still hold a full time job and I'm not quite ready to retire just yet, and if our government gets their way, I still have 7 years to go. That doesn't really bother me except I'ld like to have some more time to travel.  December will come and go at the speed of light with the trip to London and the holiday festivities and my own birthday, so I guess it may be some time before I will be writing here again. 

How time flies when you're having fun !

Lots of fun with the grandchildren and doing all kinds of stuff.  I am again amazed at how long it has been since I last wrote anything about my daily life.   My weekly routine still includes going to work every day and taking care of some of our lovely but very lively and energetic grandchildren during the weekend.  The weather is getting better so we sometimes go to the playground where they can run around.  One of them is incredibly fearless for a 4y old; she climbs and jumps and runs like a real tomboy. I have also thaught them to blow away the seeds of dandelions and the 4 year old can't walk past one without picking it and doing just that. The sheep are back so we go see them, but the youngest granddaughter is afraid of them.  The last time we went, there were no lambs yet but today I noticed a couple while I was busy in the garden. It is a sign that the new season is well on the way. Driving to work I enjoy seeing the horses and cows quietly grazing. One of these days I must remember to take my camera to take photographs of the beautiful foal I've seen. It's an early spring and temperatures are agreable.  Today is Labor Day so I was off work and I did some gardening.  Mowing the lawn and trimming hedges.  No grandchildren here today so I got a lot done. That's the fun I had today. Just as I finished the last hedge it started to rain. Weather permitting,  I intend to pot some plants this Saturday and the grandchildren can help me.  I'm sure they'll love it.  The weather forecast is for a rather chilly but dry sunny day, so I guess it will work out fine.  Meanwhile our holiday is getting closer.  I would like to look a bit slimmer on the beach so I have been on a 'alternate day' diet for almost 6 weeks now.  I have managed to lose almost 4 kg. It is very hard to get rid of the extra weight.  Much harder than it used to be when I was younger, but I am very determined so I am sticking to it and with a couple of weeks to go, I hope I will fit in some of my old outfits again. I'm in no doubt I will have to get rid of some re-gained kilo's after the holiday, but that won't keep me from enjoying the lovely food and drinks in Aruba.  We also bought an e-reader to replace the heavy books in our luggage, actually we bought 2 of them. Last year we had to rearrange our cases at the automatic baggage check-in at Schiphol, the Amsterdam airport, to divide the weight over both suitcases evenly.  To avoid the same predicament this year, me and my husband will both take our e-reader replacing the 10 odd books we usually take on a 2 week holiday.  That will also result in lighter suitcases, an added benefit.  E-readers are not that popular here yet.  A lot of people have asked me if it was a small computer.  At the hairdresser's one girl had never heard of an e-reader before.  At the library they only just started up a project with e-books.   I must admit it is very handy, but I do think I will still by books.  For now anyway.  Well that's it for now.  I guess the next time I'll be writing about the holiday although there won't be a lot to tell.  All we do is relax, swim read, eat and drink; oh and sleep obviously and maybe meet some nice people. Looking forward to all of that for sure.

A year to remember

Another year has gone by and a lot has happened.  My parent's house was finally sold and we managed to clear it out on time for the new owners to move in.  Since my last writings my children and grandchildren have prevented me from getting bored.  I have been decorating at our youngest son's new home.  Stripping wall paper, removing old paint, painting the ceiling and doors, putting up new wall paper ....that were the main activities on my Sunday programme for about 6 weekends in a row. The whole house had to be redecorated except for the bathroom.  That kept me from mischief.  The Saturdays were spent looking after 2 or 3 grandchildren that are in motion all the time except when they are asleep and I would have loved to take a nap too but I couldn't. You can imagine that, between the redecorating and the grandchildren I am a very fit granny now, I even developed some arm muscles. Not that I mind.  Meanwhile, I have made a start clearing out the two rooms in our house we want to redecorate.  One of the rooms is even a presentable guestroom now.  The fact that my brother considered staying the night on New Year's eve meant that I had to get the room ready, clear out all the clutter and have it thoroughly cleaned.  A bit of time pressure is always welcome in my case and extra motivating  Still a lot needs to be done before I can say the rooms are ready, but I seem to have more energy and hopefully I will feel like this for some time to come.  It was fortunate that I was energetic these past few weeks.  We had a small party on my birthday with the family and a couple of our youngest son's friends as he and his girlfriend were going on holiday the next day and so they could not be with us on Christmas eve. With all 6 of our grandchildren here and 11 adults it did get a bit crowded and it was a very full house indeed.  On Christmas Eve, the family again came tot our house for dinner.  And on New Year's eve, my brother and  sister and her 3 children had dinner at our house.  My weekday evenings are still partly spent with the amateur theatre group, rehearsing 2 nights a week.  The performances are on 24 and 25 January and the week of the performance we rehearse every evening.  And 1 night a week I am still learning Italian.  So in case you have been wondering why I hadn't written on my little blog for a while, you now know what I've been up to.  We also almost booked a holiday tot Uganda, with friends that I have known since school.  The trip included going tot watch  gorillas.  But we decided not to go, for various reasons, so we have no holidayplans as yet.  There will be though and I would love to take a trip to London again, or Paris and maybe some friends can come over and stay with us now that we have a guest room.  Things to look forward to in this New Year.  I do hope you all have good times coming your way in 2014 and wish all of you a healthy and happy year.

No rest for the wicked

Why am I writing this on a Sunday evening you might wonder.  I have been rather busy these last weekends and during the week I am working.  It has been the most wonderful summer.  Sunny and warm.  Almost every evening, I could still sit in the garden when I got home from work.  Some weekends, we took care of some of our grandchildren, while their parents were working in their future home.  We had a plastic inflatable pool in the garden and they loved that.  Those of you who read my previous scriblings know that houses play a big role in my life at the moment.  My parental home is now officially another family's property and concern. The deed was signed last Thursday.  We spent some Saturdays clearing out the house.  It took 3 of us 2 full days to clear out the garage alone (that has a cellar).  Not as bad as the attic but almost.  Saying goodbye to the house was not that emotional for me.  My childhood home is actually the house we lived in with my grandmother and was actually her house, untill we moved to the house my parents had build when I was ten.  My childhood to me, are the years we lived in the small dead end street.  There were less cars back then but because it was a cul-de-sac, almost none came into our street.  Many children of about my age were living there so we played outside on the street most of the time.  It was even safe enough for roller skating; The old ladies would sit outside on chairs on the pavement in front of their houses when the weather was good.  They would be watching us, chatting and knitting.  We would sometimes go visit them and play card games.  I spent a lot of time with my grandmother and I have fond memories of her.  She was in her late sixties when I was born, so I had an old grandmother.  I guess I spent so much time with her because I am the eldest and it was normal for me to be with her when my younger brother was born and later my sister. But I remember I really liked being with her. She sometimes cooked for the 2 of us and I would have dinner with her and not with the rest of the family.  My grandmother died when I was 12 at the age of 80.  I remember the funeral and clearly remember it made me sad to realise I would never see her again.  I can only hope to be in my grandchildren's hearts as she still is in mine. I do have good memories of te house we just sold, but somehow I don't consider those childhood memories.  The next step now is our youngest son moving house tomorow.  I have taken off some time from work to help out a bit with the decorating;  All this physical activity does have an added value.  I am getting fitter and I am actually losing weight without strict diet.  On the days that I was not working in one of the houses, I spent some time with the grandchildren. Yesterday we spent the afternoon with 2 of them.  I enjoy that immensely and they are so energetic that I don't have problems to sleep well at night.  A busy time is coming on at work too and the rehearsals with the theatre group for the play in January have started 2 weeks ago, aswell as my Italian course.  No rest for the wicked as the saying goes.

Sunset in Paradise

A pure white sandy beach, the blue ocean, the sun, a sea breeze, it's nice and warm and tranquil, I am reading and somebody (our neibours on the beach !) just brought me a strawbury daiquiri with crushed ice, just like that.  What else could I want ?  There are a number of things I could think of, but it's near perfection to me, for a while anyway.  And those glorious sunsets ! Every evening any number of hotel guests would be on the beach trying to catch it on camera.  We did have a great holiday in Aruba.  The 10 hour flight was well worth it.  I actually could have stayed there for another fortnight, soaking up the sun, reading, eating drinking (!), swimming and enjoying the relaxing atmosphere.  Now that summer seems to be seriously delayed on our otherwise very nice seaside, I realise even more how lucky I am to have been able to be in the sun for 2 weeks on a wonderful holiday.  The hotel was super and everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves, even the Arubans who were working.  Most of the other guests were from the U.S., some were South-American and so we kept forgetting that a large number of the staff also spoke dutch.  Aruba, although it has its own government,  is still a part of the Dutch kingdom and dutch is still taught at school.  So very often when we were talking amongst ourselves they would immediately say "maar jullie spreken nederlands !' (you speak dutch) and I guess they liked speaking dutch for a change. They even knew some programs from our flemish TV channels.
So I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I read 5 and 1/2 books, and apparently, people do notice what others do on the beach, unlike myself because when I'm reading I am like immersed in another world except for the times I'ld be asleep or swimming or watching one of the pelicans diving for food, a remerkable sight.  The friends we were travelling with, met a couple from Philadelphia (well actually 'near' to as they lived at about a 2 hour drive from Philadelphia) and when they joined us for dinner one evening, they said : 'Oh, you're the ones that are reading the whole time.'.  It is funny how relative distance is : they said they lived near Philadelphia (2hrs away) and they asked us if we lived near to each other.  Our friends said no, but I said : 'We don't call it near but to you it would be, it's 'only' 1 1/2 hrs drive .'
So summer is on hold here.  It rained all night last night and now it's grey and cold for the time of year.  I am writing this now on my lunch break because it's too cold to be out.  I would much rather be outside right now, with my book, I am on my own at work all day, kind of boring but it has its advantages.  But still, a bit of a chat now and again is a welcome intermezzo most of the time.
Meanwhile a lot has happened even in the month since we got back from our holiday.  Our parental home is as good as sold, so we will have to empty it out now in the next 2 or 3 months.  A bit of pressure is always good.  Our sons are both moving house after the summer.  Not into the same house obviously ! The eldest and his wife have bought a house but a lot of construction needs to be done before they can move in.  I have been looking after their 3 children 2 Saturdays in a row, while they were clearing it out.  The previous owner and the tennant had left so much junk in the house and garden that it has taken them 3 weekends already of moving the stuff out to be thrown away and still the house isn't empty yet.  Last weekend I didn't have to babysit the children, so I went over to help them.   I am even more determined now to start clearing our attic of any stuff I don't have a use for anymore.  Not that it looks anything like my son's house but still, I will do it.  Our youngest son and his girlfriend are also going to move to another house after the summer, probably October, meaning that for the next 4 to 5 months I will not have a lot of time to read, but that's not too bad.  It will keep me busy as always.  This saturday it's Ophelia's 3rd birthday and according to the weather forecasts, dare we believe it, the weather will improve from then on.  Keeping my finges crossed as our joint birthday present, a trampoline, does require a day without rain and we would like to have a small family BBQ, can you believe for the 1st time this year. 

Springtime

Springtime, should be sunny and fresh and green and hopeful.  That is how I expect spring to be anyway.  This year really is no spring at all. On monday morning, there was ice on my car again and it's almost May.  As I am writing, I am trying not to pay too much attention to the weather forcast on TV.   We had a couple of nice,  sunny and invigorating spring days so far.  last Thursday was really wonderful, sunny and around 20 ° C, but Friday morning it was foggy, chilly (8 °C) and raining. This weekend was sunny, but still too cold for the time of year. I am really looking forward to our holiday in less than a month.  We are going to Aruba.  That will be the most exotic holiday we ever took, but hopefully the first one of a series I am intending to take.  Meanwhile I am still trying desperately to get rid of some kilos.  I refuse to buy bigger size clothes.  That is an advantage financially.  Every down side, has an up side ! But I am very determined I will succeed, so I am sure somehow I will lose weight.  Well somehow means obviously I have to cut down on sugar and fat and eat more vegetables an fruit.  But hey, it is spring or is it ?  My parental house is still not empty and we haven't been able to sell it yet.  You probably think not much has happened apart from the holiday bur that is not entirely true.  Untill the end of March I had 2 rehearsals every week with our theatre company, and I am still following an italian course. I have been doing that for 5 years now, and this year we went on a weekend trip to Milan together.  We were a bit unfortunate in that the weather was more wintery than spring like - it actually snowed  while we were there!  The 'primavera' as the cycling race Milan San Remo is called, that was cycled on the Sunday we went to visit Bergamo, had to be interupted due to the snow and cold.  But otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed the sights, the atmosphere, the food (yes, it is no wonder that I have trouble losing weight), the people there and the company, and the art.  I am defenitely going back someday.  Yesterday I got some work done in the garden.  I bought lots of plants and filled many a terracotta pot so even though spring  is a bit late, I am hopeful and ready for it.  The previous weekend I managed some spring time cleaning around the house.  That should be the start of another project that has taken form in my mind.  I keep adding projects to my to-do list, I know, but I do have more energy than I have had at the beginning of the year, although with my hobbies, the family and work, I should not complain about a lack of energy.  The project I have added is renovating the rooms that have been standing emty for a while now(we have become 'empty-nesters').  The rooms are really in need of redecorating and when that is done, we can finally offer nice lodgings to friends or family visiting with us. So, that is what I have been up to, next time, I will have been on holiday.  I am still hoping to get some sun before, otherwise I will need some heavy sunscreen, at least, that is the ecpectation.