Weekend without plans, loads of free time! Yeah, right.

So, after having worked really hard to prepare for our party last weekend, we thought to have a well-deserved duty and DIY-free weekend. Not. Since our house still needed some cleening-up from the party, Saturday morning was over before we knew it. Then Eise went over to Percy's to help him prepare for his birthday/cd presentation party later that day and I went to buy a grappa for Karlo (which is quite a challenge if you don't know a thing about grappa). Made a quick stop at Karlo's birthday party to congratulate him (on his 38th and his personally designed & crafted roof terrace lounge couch) to be picked up by Menw to rush to Percy's party as well. Quite a fun party, lots of music (two bands, two more singers, Percy and his partner presenting their new cd) and an exited horse.



Today we decided to go hiking, which finally enabled me to test my new backpack (which I bought quite a while ago already but never tried). We drove to Mechelen and made a 14 km. hike along the river Geul and through the woods of Epen. Nice area, lots of people walking along the Geul though. And great ice cream with fresh strawberries and raspberries!


And then a sad message when we got home. The little kitten Menw was supposed to take home in a few weeks (the sister of our kitten) died this afternoon. Apparently, she was hit by a car and her injuries were too bad to survive... We will pick up Haroen next Tuesday already, which means we will have to take some precautions to carefully guide the first encouter between Haroen and Babet...

Party post

Pfiew, we've survived our houswarming / birthdays party! Last Sunday, we had about 55 people (plus a load of kids) in our house. Fortunately, we had great weather, so we could sit in the garden all day. I'm not sure how we would have fitted all those people in our house, to be honest. Usually, we never really celebrate our birthdays so I think all of our friends and family took advantage of this opportunity to come down south. It might have helped that lots of them hadn't actually seen our house as well.

Nothing to tell really, except for the fact that we had a great time and as I understood our guests did so too. We were loaded with gifts (some highlights include a Solar Buddha, an olive tree and a feng shui home decorating guide :-s), thanks for that! And last but not least some experience-based tips for throwing a party with slightly too many people at your home: 1) invite batches of guests at different starting times, 2) buy at least 6 vlaaien for 50 guests and 3) if you want to keep your cake wax-free, don't blow 70 candles at once.

Long warm sunny days with campfires

And yet another weekend with absolutely lovely weather, sooo nice! Saturday we had a birthday party of Eise's sister Mel and her boyfriend Mark, who live with Eise's parents in the old farmhouse they grew up in. It's a really charming, big, old house (with a "bedstee"!) with lots of space around it. This time we set a campfire in the meadow behind the house, which was much appreciated by the pony living there (and apparently feeling lonely). The couple of geese were not as much amused though... Lotte, as always, was very nervous all day because 3 out of 4 times we leave her behind when we visit Eise's parents (she always stays with them when we're on holiday), but not this time.

Today, on Sunday we enjoyed the sun in our garden with books, magazines, Saturday newspapers, cappuccino, chocolate cake and lots of sun screen. We've just returned from dinner & rose at Cafe Zuid, not bad altogether.

Go see this movie!!

I saw a really lovely movie yesterday: Lars and the Real Girl (IMDB). Really, go and see it! It's about a guy, Lars, who is, let's call it socially challenged, and has difficulty finding a girlfriend. One day, he finally brings home a girl, to the great relief of his family and friends. Shockingly to them, the girl appears to be a life size doll Lars bought on the Internet! Still he is having a serious relationship with her and Bianca is getting a very popular character in the village. Hilariously funny, very sweet movie. The website is also worth visiting! Script is written by the one of the writers of Six Feet Under. Here's the trailer:

Cool advertising

Wow, not too much to add to this one. Great bus ad! Btw, it's for a Dutch insurance company quite famous for their controversial commercials and ads ("Even Apeldoorn bellen").

Plates plates plates

Wow, I never got so many plates in one week! Everyone seems to know that I'm assembling an eclectic set of tableware consisting of mismatching plates, bowls, etc. (I simply see too many nice sets while I need only one... by buying one piece of each set I can collect them anyway). The plated week started on Wednesday when I got a beautiful Iitala plate for my birthday (a Taika one) of Anita and Ellen, which I had been drooling about fo ages). On Thursday I had my farewell drink, and all of my colleagues bought me a plate as well! Loveley, my collection is almost complete at once! To top it off, I got four nice chocolaty plates from Martine yesterday, also for my birthday. So nice when people know you well! Thanks you all!

Another picture, especially for my colleagues: it does help to put your tea mug in the dish washer every once in a while...

Sleepless by coffee

Yesterday evening we had a coffee workshop at Kaldi, a little coffee store in Maastricht. The idea was to learn a little bit about coffee, to taste coffee and to learn making a good cuppa and (most importantly!) a good cappuccino foam.The workshop itself was really nice, very good value for money and really fun. Had a bit too much coffee though, not being used to drinking five espressos after dinner... But anyway.The best part of the evening was the fact that they had exactly the same espresso machine as we have at home (see picture), so we could practice making coffee and foam as we should do it at home too. Pictures below showing Anita (with a very fancy and even more expensive coffee machine) and Pascal learning to make the perfect cappuccino. And now we have to
practice to keep our barista skills up! So I actually have an excuse for making cappuccino every morning, it's all a matter of personal competencies! For the true fans, I've added a movie of how to make latte art (Dutch Championships coming up soon!), which is less easy than they make it seem, I'm affraid...

Adolf the camera cat

Couldn't resist posting this picture I found on the intriguing website CatsThatLook LikeHitler.com. Another fun site for cat people is Mr. Lee's catcam, showing pictures of a cat-mounted camera, which automatically takes a picture every few minutes. For everyone else who is wondering what their cat is doing all day...