Five nights before X-mas!

I have a lot to share, but not much time to actually write it down :(

Last Saturday I've been to Paris, and it was great! S. and I visited several X-mas markets. It was really a romantic day out :)

For now I just want to say:

The great white world

Snow came down from the sky yesterday, it changed the world into a really big fluffy blanket. I like winter and snow, but the sharp wind makes is nasty. It feels like minus 10 degrees celsiusm, while it is 'just' minus 3.

At the moment I am in the train, watching the big blanket passing by. Here and there interrupted by a river of a couple of black trees. I am on my way to Utrecht, for my goodbye-party at the North Sea Foundation. I'm looking forward to seeing everybody again. It's been a while...

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Polaroid rocks!

First I would like to apologize to the people who spend time reading my writings. I was a bit under the weather and there were lots of things going on. By now, most of the stuff is fixed, I can honestly say I am a happier person then I was 2 months ago. Especially with the holidays coming up :) *big fan of X-mas* I am already looking forward to sending and receiving Christmas cards to and from all over the world.

Last weekend was great! I bought a Polaroid-camera, a Supercolour 635. It is so cool and also quite expensive. And the pictures arent't that beautiful either, but the feeling, the

sound, the looks and the retro-ness of the concept are making up for those deficiencies.

Saturday evening I went to the new Harry Potter-movie with S. I read the book a while ago and I really enjoyed the film, but it was a little sad though. On Sunday my little sister and I went to this old and closed-years-ago open air swimming pool. It is given back to nature and looks a little spooky nowadays. I took my analog camera and the photos will be ready next week. After the pool we went to the 'Witte Wieven', some sort of playground with a folklore background. The Dutch 'Witte Wieven' are ghostish white ladies who are sometimes good and sometimes evil. I really like this Dutch folklore and Dutch (Germanic) traditions.

I might not have been blogging, my mail kept coming and going. Down below are a few outgoing cards and two letters.

Soon I will upload some photos from things I have received.

Since I love lists, here is one with things that were nice the past few weeks:

- Went to my other sister in Amstelveen, to see the CoBrA-museum which happend to be closed. So instead we went to the tropics museum. There was an exhibition a the colour red in all kinds of cultures.

- S. and I made plans to visit Paris on the 18th of December *dance*

- Together with my best friend Laura I enjoyed the concert the Baseballs gave.

- I have had a great Halloween party with my friends

- I received an invitation for the Christmas-reception at the North Sea Foundation on the 13th of December.

- My mother arranged tickets for the musical Mary Poppins *woohoo*

Beyond sleep

I do not read as much as I use to. For my former job I travelled two hours at one day by train, so I devoured books. Now I only have to travel 20 minutes. At the moment I carry the book 'Nooit meer slapen' (Beyond sleep) by the Dutch writer Willem Frederik Hermans around. This man is one of 'The Big Three', the three most important Dutch writers after WWII (along with Harry Mulisch and Gerard Reve). Maybe you know the book 'The discovery of heaven' by mr. Mulisch. I would like to write a book...wake up in the morning, walk the dog, drink some coffee and then retreat to the study. A room with lots of books and sun light coming in trough the high windows, while the wind is playing with the curtains.

These are a few other Dutch writers which I like a lot: Rascha Peper, Ronald Giphart, Arnon Grunberg and Joost Zwagerman. I believe some of their books also appeared in the English language.

Yesterday evening I went to the city, looking for some vintage tins to put in stuff like pasta, flower, sugar etc. But it was hard to find. The recycle store placed some nice cans in the window, but that stuff was not for sale. Very frustrating! They did have two Chinese tea cups and two oriental looking dishes though :)

And after that I discoverd a very very very nice store: tiger.dk. It is a Danish concept, with all kinds of interesting, funny and original stuff. The have office supplies, kitchenware, music and goodies. Very pleased with my new wallet.

My mailbox was quite empty this week. But I did receive a nice black and white card from Danik the Explorer, from London.

And I have been a good penpal, with two outgoing letters and a few postcards.

To Natalja, Estonia

To Lidia, Poland

To Irma, Lithuania

To Tamara, Ukraine

To the lovely lady Sally, with an envelop with a linoleum print.

To Shona, with two nice cards of Paris and an envelop made from an Escher artwork.

Escher was a Dutch graphic artist. He made some really cool artworks, with optical illusions. He used real graphic techniques like lithography and woodcutting. There actually is an Escher museum in The Hague if you want to see the artworks for real.

This weekend I will:

* Write some cards and letters

* Assist at a childrens fest around the new movie: Dispicable Me

* Cheese fondue with S.

* Clean up the house.

Sweet dreams!

woohoo!

This is like really great! With my new phone I can easily post everything :)

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Let the autumn breeze in

I know, I know..It has been a while..again..

But the good news is..here is another post :)

In here autumn is making it's 2010 appearence. I always love the colourful trees, the fog that floats on the meadows in the morning and this year the season matches my mood pretty good...

The past few weeks weren't really *wow*.

Unfortunately I can't say so much about it now, but I hope I will be able to soon.

But luckely there were some highlights :)

* My dad celebrated his birthday at my place and I cooked dinner. The main was a Russian stew / soup, called borscht. (my dad has this thing for everything Russian) So the dessert also had Russian roots: blini smetana (pancakes with delicious cream). Very cosy evening.

* Had another dinner party with my cooking friends. The theme was 'Halloween', which might seem a bit early, but the pumpkin soup and mushroom sauce were great!

* While looking for Monopoly at my parents' house, I ran into my old stamp set *happy*

* The other day I had half a day off, so I went to the Hortus Botanicus in Amsterdam. I hadn't been there before, but it was so pretty and relaxing. Walking around in the sun, watching all those special and extraordinairy plants, cacti, herbs and flowers.

* A few weeks ago I wrote something about the orchid my grandma gave me. I went to the flowershop with the flowerpot and this is the result :) Very pleased with it. Feels like grannie is around again.

* My friend Sally wrote something about the book 'Good Mail Day'. I've found it online and it is really great! It inspired me a to carve my own stamp out of an eraser.

I've send a lot of cards lately, and I received some as well. But I forgot to make scans/pictures of them. This is what goes out tomorrow:

To my close Dutch friend Laura

To Emilie in Great Britain

And today I would like to finish with an image I found in the paper the other day:

Sleep well!

Mail and photos and photos and mail

Woohoo! Finally I have time to make a decent post. With some outgoing and especially incoming mail. I received two beautiful pieces of mail from two lovely English ladies. But more about that later.

Last weekend I had a holiday picture evening at my parents' house. First we ate a French-Czech dinner, with onion soup, goulash and icecream *nom-nom*. Then my sister showed us her pictures from France and after that S. and I showed ours from the Cezch Republic. As promised, here is a small selection:

I hope you like them :) The photos are taken all over the country. We went from Hrensko in the north, to Prague, to Cesky Krumlov in the south and we spent the last two days around Brno in the east. We also wanted to visit the north eastern past, around Harrachov. But there were floods all over the place so we went home early.

I have received a few nice pieces of mail lately, which I am happy to show you. The first two images are from the letter I got from Sally. And one of the postcards within the envelop was designed by Bianca. It is such a small and nice world :) Sally also included a set of buttons, which made me extra happy!

This letter was send by Shona. She included two pretty photos which you can see in the second photo. I fell in love with the teddy bear.

Via Postcrossing received a few nice postcards:

From Jennifer, Germany

From Blossom, China

The Postcrossing motto is: I send and therefore I receive. So I also did my part to keep the postman busy.

This one is on its way to the Czech Republic.

This one is hopefully doing its best to get to Italy.

And just before I go the bed, a little list with nice things:

- The movie Gigantic

- Go out to sail with S. and his family

- Writing some letters

- Hot shrimp noodle soup

- Looking forward to buying an actual tiny green bird (even though S. is nog really convinced yet)

- Cooking dinner for my fathers birthday on Wednesday

- Planning a city trip too London, Copenhagen, Berlin, Paris...ehm...

- Autumn!