Dear Mother Nature,
What’s with the snow? I woke up this morning and this is what I saw out my dining room window. I must say, I was somewhat confused. It would appear that there has been some sort of miscommunication here. I SAID winter was over for the year, remember? Spring is coming, winter is [...]
Spencer’s not the only one to enjoy the sun that comes into our living room in the morning these days. The dogs have taken to lazing around in it as well.
As promised, Rotterdam didn’t see any snow this weekend! It’s still sunny and beautiful just like I planned. Only 13 days now until the official [...]
It appears that I am not the only one looking forward to spring! The sun has finally started showing itself in the Netherlands again and Spencer took full advantage by finding this warm sweet spot on a shelf in our living room.
Everything seems to be starting to come to life again. I see flowers starting [...]
On February 14, 2010 (Valentine’s Day) the Lock of Love art piece was placed in Rotterdam’s popular district of Delfshaven. The Lock of Love ritual has been taking place all over the world, and is now here in Rotterdam as well. Not just a rail on a bridge or a chain around a lamppost, this [...]
Over the years I’ve had a lot of issues with seasonal depression. Not something I’ve ever suffered from in Canada, but it hit me quick and hard here in the Netherlands. I wasn’t expecting it but it happened, and it continued to happen for the past 10 years. Granted, for the first half of that [...]
Money is tight in our household this year, after a big bad surprise from the belastingdienst (tax office) that I never got into here on my blog. I don’t plan to, but basically they screwed up and now we owe them over 2000 euro.
So we agreed that Valentine’s Day wasn’t going to be an [...]
There are a few cultural differences that become glaringly obvious when you move to a new country. For me, one of of them has been the issue of taking off shoes when you enter someone’s home. I would make a sweeping statement about how in Canada everyone takes off their shoes when they enter [...]
This lady definitely made the best of the recent snow here in Rotterdam. When we saw her coming we initially thought she had a kid in the sled, but when she got up close we realized it was her groceries. We told her how clever we thought it was and she said she figured [...]
Pixel loves the snow. When we take her out in it she sniffs around, pushes it with her nose, digs in it and runs around like someone put a firecracker up her arse. It’s a very exciting time for her!
When we first got her she hated being outside if it was anything other than warm [...]
I know, I’m STILL going on about mosquitoes in February, but they are still causing me pain!
See, here’s what happened. It was early September and I was laying in bed in the wee hours of the morning when I felt a mosquito bite on my back. It was about 3am – 4am and I was [...]
Last night on our way to the Film Festival I had to stop and just look at this for a moment. It’s the square at Schouwburgplein in Rotterdam. The photo doesn’t do it justice, but there were so many twinkling lights and on a cold winter night it looked really beautiful.
The red things that look [...]
This morning we woke up to a bit of snow in the Netherlands. At 10am my husband and I hopped in the car and set off to Kinderdijk! I’ve been there a number of times, the first time back in 2007 with the girls, then in 2008 with my parents and also once or twice [...]
A few weeks ago my friend Penny and I went to see The Full Monty Musical in Roosendaal. I had bought her a ticket as a Christmas present and we’d both really been looking forward to it. A girl’s night out, naked men, honestly… what more could we ask for?
Ok, maybe some homemade hot fudge… [...]
I got these eight books for only €27! Not a bad deal at all!
This past weekend I visited Het Boekenfestijn in Ahoy, which is a huge book festival that is held once a year to sell off books that were left over from the year’s stock. I had never been and was curious about what [...]
My husband came home last night after a weekend away with his Lego / Robot buddies. They were working on… god I’m not even going to try to explain it, it’s this, and they did get it working.
I love that my husband has a hobby that he’s so interested in and gets so much enjoyment [...]
I know I’m late to the party with the whole New Year ‘resolution’ thing, but I needed some time to think about it. I don’t actually do resolutions, it’s really not my thing. Mostly because I’m a big quitter and I never keep them. There are some things I would really like to see happen [...]
Our other expat friends gathered together at our house for dinner on Christmas Day
The hardest part about life as an expat is missing your family and friends, I don’t think there is an expat out there who can argue that… and in the age of Twitter, Facebook, and instant messengers, it’s [...]
The view from my balcony last night as my neighbours brought in the New Year with a bang!
Every year on New Years Eve I am on my balcony in hopes of getting some good firework photos. Back in 2007 I was bummed because it was raining on NYE so not as many people were [...]
That’s a lot of meat for only four people but in our defense, we did have veggies too!
Last night Xander and I went down to Roosendaal to visit with our friends Penny & Yuri. A few weeks ago when I went to visit Penny for the day we walked by a restaurant that sparked my [...]
We all know I’m terrible for taking long, agonizing walks down Memory Lane, right? Well… I’m at it again!
Out of the blue a few days ago I started humming the theme song to The Littlest Hobo. When I told my husband about it he had never heard of the show so I started singing the [...]
Tunnels of Blood (The Saga of Darren Shan)
by Darren Shan
