Try baking!

We have friends and family living all around the world. In Hong Kong, the United States, Britain, South Africa, Brazil, Norway, Spain, Qatar and Canada to name just a few locations. The great thing is that it gives us a good excuse to visit them whenever we have the chance and get to know some exciting places. It also means we don't get to see our loved ones as much as we would like.

My cousin Miriam for example lives in Toronto, Canada. She is such a great person and I would love to see her more. Last year she came over here to attend the Yad Vashem ceremony for our grandmother. She stayed with us for a couple of days. And although we have not seen each other that much over the years, it felt very familiar. Literally! We talked for hours, both keen to catch up on both sides of the family gossip. And just catching up in general.

She told me she likes baking when she needs cheering up a bit. The whole process of measuring, mixing and baking helps take her mind of things. And if that alone is not enough to make one feel better already, there is the sweet result at the end. A garantueed recipe to cheer any person up. And friends and family will love it too. I wholeheartedly agreed with her!

Fortunately the baking occasion today was a happy one! I decided to bake Jonny something to take to work for his birthday tomorrow. Muffins as per his request (it was between muffins and cake). On the above picture you can see the result. They look a bit lobsided, but if past experiences are anything to go by, that won't make a difference to the taste!

I also got Jonny some 'Happy Birthday' napkins to go with it, so now I am just hoping it will entice his colleagues to sing for him. As it happens I am slightly tone deaf, so I'll give it a miss this year....

The colourfull paper cups are from the Danish brand Rice by the way.

Griddup!

I don't really do carnaval. I am not keen on the big crowds, I don't like the dancing and I'll prefer a glass of nice wine to copious amounts of beer anytime, thanks. As a result I miss out on the fancy costumes that go with it.

My sister recently moved to 'south of the rivers', or the catholic part of the Netherlands. It is also known as the more exuberant part of the Netherlands. They talk softer, the food is nicer and they like a good party. There is no real escaping from carnaval there. Especially when you are three years old and all your class mates celebrate it.

My niece Julia will attend the festivities in her new frog costume. She does not look too happy in the picture, but that might have to do with the timing of the Kodak moment: she was sat on the potty (original picture cropped!). However, she does look really cute as a frog! One would almost be tempted, but I think we will just stick to celebrating Pancake Day this year...

Bathroom almost complete

Yesterday, Flo and I actually managed to spend some time on the house! We did have a lot of incentive though, since, after about a four month wait, our medicine cabinet finally arrived! If that wasn't enough, the pair of wall lights we ordered before Christmas also arrived last week, so we were very enthusiastic to have some spare time to get them all installed in the bathroom.

And here they are!


The lights are designed to look like coffee cups, with little hanging tea spoons that can be used to switch the lights off and on... they make waking up in the morning that little bit more bearable, subliminally instilling thoughts of café latte to wake the weary mind.

I find the large cross medicine cabinet quite amusing and it adds a nice streak of colour to the bathroom.

We're just waiting for one more item in the bathroom and then there's only the painting left! That will likely wait 'til the summer though...

Back by popular demand

We never meant to leave you for this long, dear readers, our only excuse is that we have been very busy. Busy living the adventures that this blog is named after and so little time to write about them. But of course, a blog requires commitment and requests for updates have been steadily pooring in. This one is especially for Kata and Pobb!

Enough to write about: a wedding, another wedding, a trip to London, meeting old friends, making new friends, writing my thesis, trying to finish the house, but mostly working and working some more. Both Jonny and I have been making long hours at work. I work for a publishing company and we are about to launch the Netherlands' first free special interest newspaper. Next month. And there is still a lot of work to do.

It is a new thing for the company and a new thing for me. And apart from actually launching the product, our department is also to set the example for the future way projects are managed. Last week we were kindly invited to have lunch with the CEO and discuss progress. To put that in context, I have around 3500 colleagues. With expectations cranked up as high as the volume knob will go, I have to say I did feel a little intimidated.

I do think that we managed to convince him that all preparations are going according to plan and that next month there will actually be a product that we can be proud of. So there you go. We just need to do it now.