metam's blog

Maryel zesde in de eindkeuring!

2011-11-21T08:34:00.000+01:00

Mijn kleine jongedame werd zesde in de eindkeuring van de puppyklasse op de NKC clubmatch. Knappe meid!
Maryel van 't Goln Hammerk, geb.2 mei 2011.

Echo

2011-06-20T23:29:00.001+02:00

Yvonne

Sponsoractie voor het Starfish Fosterhome in Xi'An!

2011-03-11T18:42:00.001+01:00

Oproep om mee te doen aan de sponsoractie voor het Starfish Fosterhome en Care4Tina!

Deze zomer gaan twee meiden vrijwilligerswerk doen in het Starfish Fosterhome in Xi’An (China). In dit weeshuis verblijven vrijwel uitsluitend kinderen die veel medische zorg nodig hebben. De Nederlandse stichting Care4Tina ondersteunt het Starfish Fosterhome en zij doen daar heel veel goed werk.

De meiden (Annabella & Elise) willen graag iets tastbaars doen voor het Fosterhome en Care4Tina, en ze hebben daarom allerlei sponsoracties bedacht. De bedoeling is om zoveel mogelijk geld in te zamelen om kinderen in Xi’An te kunnen verzorgen en indien mogelijk, opereren.

Er zijn verschillende actie’s:

http://chinarootsenreizen.blogspot.com/2011/02/sponsor-de-kinderen-van-xian.html

Verkoop van beschrijfbare polsbandjes

De verloting van een schattige knuffel, Aap Saar

Starfish Workshop ( in Ouderkerk aan den IJssel)

De verkoop van telefoonhangers

En wie weet wat de ondernemende dames nog meer bedenken.

Ik wens ze veel succes met de inzameling, en uiteraard ook met hun reis naar China!

Week 1 maart 2011

2011-03-11T18:31:00.001+01:00

Alweer een week voorbij. De eerste volledige week van maart. Dinsdag 1 maart was het precies 2 weken geleden dat ik geopereerd werd (alweer). Je zag er al bijna niets meer van, alleen had ik nogal last van de Dermatix lidtekengel. Na een paar dagen ben ik daarmee gestopt, had alleen maar rode, branderige ogen. Nu gebruik ik een andere oogcreme, en die werkt ook prima. 2 maart: Shen is helemaal verzot op Pikmin 2 op de Wii. Echt verzot… 3. Alle digitale scrapboeken die ik tot nu toe heb gemaakt, m.u.v. de 2010 boeken van de kinderen, die worden nu gedrukt. 4. Diya is naar Mieke Jansen gegaan om gedekt te worden. Ze had er zin in, want ze werd gedekt binnen een half uur na aankomst. We stonden erbij en keken er naar. 5. Joly is nu alleen in huis, en ze is een beetje zielig… 6. De tentoonstelling in Groningen, we zaten gezellig bij de Cairn Terrier ring en genoten van de gezelligheid en de keuringen. Op de foto Johannes Houkema met een logeer reutje, hij werd uiteindelijk beste van het ras, en zesde in de eindkeuring. 7. Ik werd vanochtend wakker met enorme buikpijn. Ook liep m’n temperatuur in de loop van de dag wat op, ik had wat verhoging. Op dinsdag ging het gelukkig weer wat beter, het was nog wel gevoelig, maar niet meer zo pijnlijk.

3 weken in één post

2011-02-28T21:26:00.002+01:00

Dit zijn de afgelopendrie weken in februari. In deze weken heb ik een ooglidcorrectie ondergaan op 15 februari. Op 19 februari ontdekte ik dat ik inmiddels 10 kilo was afgevallen. Op 24 februari sneeuwde het ’s nachts, en kon ik ’s ochtends vroeg deze foto maken. Op 26 februari waren Yvonne en Stefan op visite, en zijn we samen met oma naar Ni Hao in Groningen geweest. Op 27 februari gingen we naar de voorstelling van Seth Gaaikema, en op 28 februari plukte Karin onze twee Cairntjes weer heel mooi in model.

The day after...

2011-02-16T19:01:00.000+01:00

This is the result of a 30 min. operation on my upper eyelids. The operation was yesterday, and my eyes are very swollen right now. I have to be patient for the end result now!

Project 365 - february 1

2011-02-11T22:25:00.000+01:00

And this is the first layout of february. I change the design of the layouts (colour etc.) for every month. This way the book I will ultimately have will be flowing very nicely.
1 on tuesdays when Mean rides horse, I go to the grocery store nearby. My grocery store has built a new and bigger one, and I thought it would be nice to take a picture of it in the dark. Most of the time Shen goes with me (because Rudy is working as driving instructor on evenings). 2 Mean performed for me this evening. 3 my Montignac lunch: carrots, smoked chicken and smoked mackerel. 4 Rudy and I went to landgoed Avegoor (a very nice hotel) for the weekend. 5 we spent the whole day in a wellness center, this is not one of my photos (it's not allowed to take pictures in there) but we had a special Nepalese session in this salt block sauna. 6 our hotel room, Rudy sitting on the bed just before we left. 7 we played the game of roundomino the 4 of us.

Week 5 project 365

2011-02-11T22:17:00.001+01:00

I am a bit behind on my posts (but not on my layouts). This is the last 365 layout of january. The first photo was the sun coming up over Woldendorp as we see it from our livingroom. The second photo is my sweet daughter. She is doing a modelling contest and this is one of the photos we did on this day. The last photo is the card of the birth of the little girl of one of my colleagues.

Week 4 project 365

2011-01-29T12:04:00.001+01:00

Alweer een week voorbij. In ieder geval was ik weer beter deze week!

De foto’s:
22 Mean tijdens haar eerste F proef in manege de Veenhoeve
23 op zondagavond samen Triominos spelen
24 Mean’s vioolles
25 het nieuwe kastje onder de wastafel in de badkamer
26 Shen en z’n grote vriend de Nintendo DSi
27 Mean oefent op de drums vanwege het IVAK muziekproject op school
28 onze boerderij gezien vanaf de overkant tijdens het hardlopen

Week 3 januari

2011-01-27T22:12:00.000+01:00

Almost a week too late, but I was ill last week (bad cold) so that's my
excuse.
One of the pictures is of daytime TV, I hung on the couch most of the week.
The first picture is of Harry Potter movie tickets, Rudy and I went on
Saturday, the kids where sleeping at my mum's.

Mean's F1 proef op Max

2011-01-26T10:20:00.000+01:00

Mean heeft op 22 januari haar eerste F proef gedaan in manege de Veenhoeve in Appingedam. Ze reed op Max, een Haflinger. Ze heeft het erg goed gedaan, werd vierde met een mooie rozet, en mag de volgende keer meedoen met de F2 proef.

Project 365 - week 2

2011-01-15T08:58:00.001+01:00

This week’s photos:

8 A souvenir of a Hanggai concert (popband) which I visited in December with some colleagues

9 My running outfit, Mean took the picture of me after I ran this Sunday morning

10 Shen lost his first upper tooth! He already lost 4 of his lower tooth, but this was the first upper. He did it all by himself, after he went to bed tonight, and came back proudly with the result!

11 Today I visited a practice to inform about eye lid surgery

12 Mean had a birthday party / photo shoot where she also got make-up on and some glitter. She liked that a lot.

13 Mean’s room. The closet is placed in the middle, dividing the room in two areas.

14 The Wii balance board confirmed today that I lost 7.5 kilos in total since I started doing the Montignac diet on November 1^st! I’m on the right track, and will continue until I reach my goal!

Project 365 - the first week of 2011

2011-01-07T13:49:00.002+01:00

I started again with the project 365 this year. I did this a year ago, and I love the result, the album I made of it. The project comprises making a photo every day, and creating a layout of all the photos every week. With journaling of course, so you can read in about 20 years or so what the daily life was in 2011.

I use products of Weeds and Wildflowers design: http://weedsandwildflowersdesign.com to create the pages. I like the cleanliness of the pages created with their stuff!

My photos of this first week!
1 Mean and Shen with some fireworks at midnight New Year's eve
2 Mean and I visiting a theater show (Anubis)
3 My new kitchen herbs holder from IKEA
4 We had a solar eclips early morning (the photo is not made by me :) )
5 Mean and Shen having fun after dinner
6 Shen working with play-doh
7 I picked up my special soles for my running shoes this morning!

You can look forward to a weekly layout with my photos from now.

Mean's eerste paardrij wedstrijd op 30 december

2011-01-05T09:26:00.000+01:00

2e kerstdag - sleeën op de dijk bij Borgsweer!

2010-12-26T21:14:00.000+01:00

Vandaag naar de dijk bij Borgsweer geweest om te sleeën. Zelfs opa deed mee, het was erg leuk!

Onze kerstboom

2010-12-26T10:56:00.001+01:00

Opgetuigd door de kinderen, met een variatie aan spullen erin.

TF2 - screenshot :-)

2010-10-26T13:07:00.000+02:00

Tja, Meta is ook met het game virus besmet. En vandaag, tussen de middag, stond ik heeeeeeel eventjes bovenaan in de rankings. Oh ja, het spelletje heet “Team Fortress 2”.

Diya

2010-10-10T21:17:00.001+02:00

Today we had beautiful weather, and Mean, Shen and the Cairns and I went out for a walk. I took some pictures, and this one of Diya was really nice. So I had to make a layout of it!

Modellenwedstrijd - thema "dieren"

2010-09-28T20:38:00.000+02:00

Dit is de foto van Mean voor de modellenwedstrijd van Modellicious voor de ronde met als thema “dieren”. De foto is afgelopen zomer gemaakt, op de boerderij waar we vakantie vierden (in het Zwarte Woud). Het paard heet Romeo, Rudy heeft vaak op hem gereden. Toen ik de foto gemaakt had dacht ik al dat hij erg geschikt zou zijn voor deze wedstrijd. Ik heb hem gecropt en daarna met filters bewerkt om hem deze dromerige uitstraling te geven. Ik vind hem erg geslaagd!

Mijn zoon

2010-09-11T08:48:00.001+02:00

Deze foto van Shen is van afgelopen juni. Hij was op het terras aan het touwtjespringen met oma en zus Mean. Zijn glimlach op deze foto is typisch Shen. Als je hem vraagt te lachen voor een foto, dan gaat hij poseren. Deze foto is ongeposeerd, en ongegeneerd vrolijk.

Fotoshoot Mean

2010-08-29T15:41:00.001+02:00

Mean doet mee aan een modellenwedstrijd. Ze is de eerste ronde doorgekomen,
daarvan was het thema "make-up". Het tweede thema is nu "liefde". We hebben
vanochtend een fotoshoot in de tuin gedaan, net voordat het ging regenen. De
foto in photoshop wat opgepimpt en opgestuurd naar de organisatie. Ik vond
hem erg geslaagd. Ze wordt al zo'n grote meid :-)

3e dag in Barcelona

2010-04-04T19:58:00.001+02:00

Vannacht en vanochtend regende het in Barcelona, maar dat had ik op het weerbericht al gezien. Vanmiddag zou het zonnig zijn. Na een ontbijtje aan de Ramblas te hebben genoten stapten we in de metro om naar de Sagrada Familia te gaan. De rij was lang, maar het liep toch nog wel aardig door, dus al met al viel het wachten wel mee. Zo nu en dan druppelde het nog wat. De kerk was prachtig. We hebben er nog aardig wat tijd doorgebracht, met name in de gewelven waar een expositie was ingericht was veel te zien. Toen we uit de kelder kwamen was de zon flink doorgebroken en konden we aan de overkant nog even een drankje drinken met uitzicht op de kerk. Heerlijk! Daarna gingen we per metro naar de Plaza Catalunya, om vanmiddag de rode route te doen met de bus. Het was heerlijk, wel fris, maar de zon maakte het alleszins goed. Bij Poble Espanol zijn we uitgestapt en hebben we wat rondgeslenterd en tapas gegeten. Toen we daarna weer op de bus stapten zagen we een dreigende donkere lucht. Op een gegeven moment ging het flitsen, en toen zijn we maar onderin de bus gegaan. Door de files duurde het erg lang voordat we bij onze halte waren, maar eigenlijk kwam dat wel goed uit, want het druppelde alleen nog maar wat na, na de onweersbui. Nu even een poosje met de beentjes omhoog, en straks maar weer eens zien wat we gaan eten. Oh, gisteren is het Indiaas geworden (het restaurant wat ik gevonden had op tripadvisor was gesloten). Het was erg lekker, kip korma en kip birjani! Mmmm!

2e dag in Barcelona

2010-04-03T18:12:00.000+02:00

Vandaag na een ontbijtje in een cafeetje naar de Plaza de Catalunya gegaan om op de touristenbus te stappen. We hebben de blauwe route gereden, de huizen van Gaudi gezien, de Sagrada Familia, en uitgestapt bij het parc Güell. Ik vind dat het mooist van heel Barcelona. We hebben daar een tijdje gezeten. Het weer was lekker, in de loop van de dag werd het steeds zonniger en het was een lekkere temperatuur (hoewel het boven op de bus wel fris was bij tijd en wijle!), Morgen gaan we de rode route doen. Op de Ramblad tapas gegeten bij Egipte. Het was lekker, maar de baas die er rondliep was wel een vervelend mannetje. Daarna nog wat rondgelopen, het plaza Reial, de Kathedraal van binnen bekeken, en nog een keer bij de Boqueria geweest (de etenswarenmarkt). Dat is een geweldige plek. De kleuren en geuren, zo vers zie je het nergens! Ze hadden er vruchtensappen voor 1 euro! Lekker kokosnoot - papayasap en kokosnoot - aardbei gehad (Rudy aardbei -sinaasappel en kokosnoot - pitahaya). Heerlijk! Nu zitten we in het hotel, even bij te komen. We hebben ook nog geen trek in avondeten :-) Even lekker lezen of computeren.

1ste dag in Barcelona

2010-04-03T07:49:00.001+02:00

De reis naar Barcelona ging prima. Münster is een kleine maar fijne luchthaven, alles ging er erg relaxed. We hadden de mazzel dat we bij de nooduitgang zaten, dus extra beenruimte! Het was helder en we zagen de besneeuwde alpen prachtig. Het vliegtuig van Mallorca naar Barcelona vertrok iets te laat, reden was iets van een noodgeval met een passagier in de vlucht ervoor. In Barcelona zijn wij met de trein en metro naar het hotel gegaan. We zitten in hotel Inglés, een eenvoudig hotel midden in het oude centrum van Barcelona, vlakbij de Ramblas. Nadat we de spullen gedropt hadden en ik geconstateerd had dat de Wifi het prima deed :-) zijn we gaan slenteren door de smalle straatjes. Ik had op internet al een restaurantje uitgezocht (Taller de Tapas) en dat zat vlakbij. Maar eerst een wandeling gemaakt en bij de Cathedraal een buitendienst gezien met een groot beeld van een gekruisigde Jezus. Ook ging er een processie met een kruisbeeld heel langzaam door de oude wijk. Met allemaal trommelaars erbij. Het eten was heerlijk, maar wel een beetje teveel :-) We hebben de heerlijke droge ham mee naar het hotel genomen. Buiten speelt er een man op een gitaar nu, met zang, erg mooi. Onze kamer kijkt uit op de achterkant van het hotel, op een kerk. Niet verkeerd. Straks lekker slapen, en morgen verder Barcelona verkennen!

Diya is zwanger! - Diya is pregnant!

2010-03-20T12:02:00.001+01:00

Onze Diya is zwanger! Ik had er niet op gerekend, maar ze blijkt toch zwanger te zijn, we hebben in ieder geval 3 pupjes gezien op de echo. Ergens in april zal ze hopelijk bevallen van een mooi nestje Cairns!

Our Diya is pregnant! I hadn’t counted on it, but we did an echo yesterday, and she is pregnant. We saw at least 3 babies on the echo. The litter is due in april!

Weeds & Wildflowers challenge

2010-03-14T08:05:00.000+01:00

The Weeds and Wildflowers blog had a new challenge this morning, where you have to show the first, last and favorite layouts you have created with Weeds and Wildflowers stuff.

http://weedsandwildflowersdesign.com/blog/

The first layout I could find was of the cover of Mean’s 2005 photo album. I don’t know if I ever made a W&W layout before, but this one was the first one I found in our private gallery. The last one is the 22 february layout of the project 365 that I finished on February 28^th. And my favorite one, because it’s so funny, is the one of Mean cleaning the toilet. She asked me to teach it to her, and I couldn’t resist to take some photos of the event. Now I have something in hand to tease her with later!

Please vote for me!

2010-03-03T18:48:00.002+01:00

http://a380.lufthansa.com/TAKEPART/#/DE/DE/NAMING/gzut

Airplane name is Sky Festival

Lufthansa heeft een wedstrijd waarbij een vliegticket te winnen is, en natuurlijk wil ik dat ook wel graag! Nog een keer naar Shenzhen reizen zou fantastisch zijn! Bovenstaand de link, je mag iedere dag (tot 31 maart) op me stemmen zodat ik hopelijk op zoek kan gaan naar Shen’s geboorteouders!

The German airline company Lufthansa has a Competition where I could win a ticket. Would love to go back to Shenzhen to find out more about Shen’s birthparents! So please vote for me! Voting is possible every day until march 31^st.

Dank je wel! / Thanks very much!

22-29 february

2010-03-01T23:38:00.000+01:00

The last week of my 365 project. I've finished my book and sent it off to
Artscow to have it printed. Looking forward to the book itself!

On Monday I picked up my Cairn Terrier Diya from the breeder where she was
to be bred by one of his males. Let's hope she'll have a litter in about 9
weeks! The Tuesday photo is of Shen's room, he is keeping it rather clean
after we decluttered the toys and all other stuff several weeks ago. The
Wednesday photo is of Shen and neighbor Sanne. The kids have their spring
break, and they are playing on the Wii together. The Thursday photo is of
Bumba, or big black cat. On Friday a niece got married, and as we visited
the marriage we also visited our friends near Arnhem. The kids had lots of
fun together as we had a fabulous meal at a Chinese restaurant in Velp! On
Saturday Shen swam for his last swimming diploma, we are all done with
swimming lessons now. And the last photo of the year is of our little
family. I have a remote control for my camera, which is very useful when you
want to take photos of yourself!

I don't know when I will update this blog again, I found out a way to post
videos from my mobile on my blog, so I think I will post some movies here in
the coming months.

Qik - C-diploma by metam

2010-02-27T17:11:00.001+01:00

Qik - Mean aan het naaien by metam

2010-02-25T17:56:00.001+01:00

8 - 14 february 2010

2010-02-14T23:47:00.001+01:00

On Monday I had my last BHV course day. I’m a member of the BHV of my company for my building. When something happens, we are helping the people (in case of fire, exiting the building, in case of a person is hurt, doing first aid etc.). We have to do a course every year in fire extinguishing etc.. Tuesday’s photo is of Mean, Shen and Flip the bear. Flip is going home with all of the children of their classes, they have to take care of him and write a little about the day they had together in a logbook. On Wednesday the weather was really bad again. Already almost 2 months of real winter, not normal for us! The wind was blowing the snow across the road. I took the photo from the car while driving J
Thursday was a beautiful day. I took this photo of our home when I drove home. The days are already getting longer, and I even saw the sun when I arrived home at 5.30. The Friday photo is of Mean, making her bed. She had to take everything off first, and then make her bed again. Hard work for a little girl! On Saturday Mean, grandma and I went to the movie Alvin and the Chipmunks 2. Too many (and loud!) screatching voices. But she liked it. We had a quiet Valentines day on Sunday. The photo is of Shen reading to daddy. He has made good progress in his reading!

Lost but found!

2010-02-11T08:20:00.005+01:00

A miracle has happened. When we married almost 25 years ago, a little film was made. Only 3 minutes. We thought we lost this film forever, we couldn't find it anywhere. But it turned up recently at our sister in law's house, and she converted it into an AVI file. How sweet of her! It brings back so many memories, people that are not with us anymore, we were all 25 years younger. Have fun watching this video!

1 - 7 february

2010-02-08T23:06:00.001+01:00

On Monday I had my First Aid exam, and I passed! On Tuesday the weather was very bad again, I drove a while but turned around to get home safely. A colleague of mine faxed and e-mailed me some work. On Wednesday my EOL book arrived (Encyclopedia of an Ordinairy Life). It has turned out very nice. The Thursday photo is of our insects. On Friday I took this photo of Mean, it is for a photo competition of my employer. I can win a TV with it! The Saturday photo is of Mean and two friends on the couch, watching Mulan and eating chips. The Sunday photo is of Mean bringing me a breakfast on bed Sunday morning. She’s so sweet!

25 - 31 january

2010-01-31T22:58:00.001+01:00

Monday’s photo is of a work meeting, it shows two of my colleagues. On Tuesday my colleague Jantje visited us at work with her little son Sven. He was so cute, smiling at us and playing! Happy boy! The Wednesday photo is the birthday announcement of Yara, the daughter of another colleague. On Thursday we had to work on our sink again, the water is not flowing nicely. On Friday morning it snowed so bad, the children could make a few snowmen in the afternoon. Saturday was a beautiful day. It was freezing, but the sun was warm and bright. I could make beautiful pictures of the children and the dogs. On Sunday Rudy had to go under the sink again to try to fix it. It’s a bad problem!

18 - 24 january 2010

2010-01-27T20:22:00.001+01:00

On Monday I had my second first aid training. We had to practice all kinds of bandages, so I was a patient too! Monday’s photo is of our two cats on the couch, Ischa and Bumba. They are inside a lot now that it is soo cold. Wednesday’s photo is of my side of the bed. We bought this neckroll around Christmas at IKEA, and I’m very happy with it. Ischa was sitting really weird on the couch on Thursday. Friday’s photo is of Shen playing a game on the netbook. On Saturday we went to McDonalds with my mom. It was a celebration of Mean’s adoption day (which is in November, but we hadn’t had time to go before, mostly because of the bad weather, McDonalds is about 12 km away from us). On Sunday we went eating out and bowling with the trainers and the volunteers of the dog training school We had lots of really good food and fun, and Mean could play some bowling too!

11 - 17 january

2010-01-17T23:46:00.001+01:00

It wasn't easy to take a picture every day this week. It seems I have
covered all the normal subjects and it's hard to think of new ones. Monday
evening I asked the kids if I could take a photo of the two of them. They
are not always into it, but this time they were, so that was a bonus. The
Tuesday photo is of the new rack we have in our kitchen. It's from Ikea and
I love it. It fits perfectly in our kitchen. The Wednesday photo is of Beef
Chimichurri, a dish from Argentina. It is sold here so you can make it
yourself with only adding a few things (beef strips, clotted cream, paprika
and beans. I love it, it's not a favorite by the children though. The
Thursday photo is of Diya, my little Cairn bitch, on the couch. She lies
there almost every evening. On Friday I visited Mean's horse riding lessons
again, and it was the first time she galloped. This was not intentioned
though, so Mean wasn't very happy and she said she didn't want to ride this
horse again. The Saturday photo I took for my EOL project (Encyclopedia of
an Ordinary Life). These are some of my favorite books. And on Sunday we had
a new years party at our dog training school. The activity committee
organized it, and they showed us their new outfit.

4 - 10 january 2010

2010-01-10T21:18:00.000+01:00

It is still winter around us. Lots of snow this week. It looks beautiful, but is not nice to drive in. The Monday photo is of the TV corner in our living room. Last week we bought a few closets for the DVD’s and for other stuff (like from the Wii). It looks so much better now that there’s no clutter in that corner anymore! On Tuesday the kids started an ice-skating 3-days on the ice skating rank in Woldendorp. They had so much fun doing that, on the first evening Shen skated 20 rounds (of about 300 meters) and Mean 10, but the next three days they both did 20 rounds. It was great that the iceclub organized this event. The Wednesday photo is of my way back home from work. It started snowing in Groningen around 2 PM, and when I left it was very hard to drive. It took 2 hours to get home, which is normally about 40 minutes. I was really tired afterwards. On Thursday and Friday I had a Photoshop CS4 course, that was great! Inspirational and also great fun. The photo of Thursday has been taken at 7 in the morning at the train station of Appingedam. The Friday photo is of the medal and diploma Mean and Shen earned for the ice-skating 3-days. Saturday was a very cold day. The kids had a birthday party. The photo is of last Sunday, we drove in Rudy’s car to our fathers for a happy new year drink, and I took the photo in one of his many mirrors (he’s a driving instructor). The Sunday photo is of Mean playing her Cambodian Xylophone. She has lessons at the music school in Delfzijl, and learns to play the small xylophone, but the songs worked out on this big one also!

28 december - 3 january

2010-01-04T00:38:00.001+01:00

A week off from work. On Monday we picked out new wallpaper for the kitchen. Rudy had already prepared the walls, so he could start with the work really soon. Mean and I visited IKEA in the afternoon. On Tuesday Mean, a friend from school and her mother and I went to a movie, Anubis and the revenge of Argus. It’s a Dutch movie, and Mean and I love the TV series of Anubis also very much (it’s a children’s TV series, but heck). On Wednesday we used our new BBQ pan for the first time. Don’t these baked breads look yummie? On old-years-day we went to IKEA again, and bought several cupboards so we can stow away some more stuff in our home. My mom came to celebrate new years eve with us. The picture is taken at midnight, we live a few kilometers from a village, and this photo is of the fireworks in that village. We had a quiet new years day, we had the grilled meat again, we all love that. It started snowing again on Saturday, and I took lots of photos of the coletits eating from my buffet. On Sunday we could skate again in our village, so we went there with our kids. The weather was really sunny, so lots of nice sunny snow and skate photos!

21 - 27 december

2009-12-28T23:57:00.001+01:00

It was very cold this week, so we started with some icy days where the kids could skate in our village. They had great fun, Shen because he could finally skate on skates with only one blade, and Mean because she simply loves to skate. On Wednesday I had a Christmas “party” at work, we had a lovely Chinese dinner together, and afterwards played some board games. Lots of fun! On Thursday my mother came to us to celebrate Christmas eve. On First Christmas day we relaxed at home, watched a Christmas movie, played with our Nintendo’s and had a wonderful stonegrill dinner together. On Saturday Rudy started with the renovation of the kitchen, and we had a lovely dinner again. The kids helped Rudy by tearing off the wallpaper, they where a great help!

14 - 20 december

2009-12-20T13:54:00.001+01:00

Brrr, it is so cold outside! This week has turned into a real winter week.
The Monday photo is a souvenir of the play we went to with the kids on Sunday afternoon: Lisa’s big trip. It is a play with accompanying classical music, a live violinist, cellist, and two dancers with a big puppet (called Lisa). Lisa cannot sleep because her grandmother isn’t there anymore, and Lisa starts a trip to find a way to sleep again. It’s for kids from 6 years up.

On Tuesday a colleague of mine said goodbye from work. We had tapas dinner in a restaurant in Groningen. I had so much fun, the colleagues I work with are really very nice men and women! Tuesday afternoon our Christmas cards arrived, and on Wednesday Mean wrote cards for her schoolfriends and the teachers of her school. On Thursday it was snowing really badly, and the roads where not very safe to drive on. I stayed home from work. On Friday morning the kids had their annual Christmas play. It was originally planned for Thursday evening, but because of the bad weather it was delayed until Friday morning. Saturday was a nice day, blue skies but very cold (-10!) even during the day. The road to our house is still not very great to drive on. Sunday was even worse, a lot of wind and snow again, and very cold (-6) so we stayed inside all day (maybe we’ll go to the ice skating rank in the village later, but I’m not sure if I’m coming along J )

Christmas card

2009-12-13T12:37:00.001+01:00

We wish you happy holidays and a great new year!

We wensen iedereen heel fijne feestdagen en een gezond en gelukkig nieuwjaar!

7 - 13 december

2009-12-13T12:34:00.001+01:00

A simple layout for this week.

Monday: Mean loves to play on the “little computer”, my netbook. Probably because she has internet on it then J

Tuesday: Zorro is still with us, hopefully next week he will have a new owner.

Wednesday: When I look to the right, I see my collegue Zwaan

Thursday: daddy and the kids put up the Christmas tree, wonderful!

Friday: Mean her first riding lesson in the riding hall. She fell of the horse, but was a real trooper and climbed right up again!

Saturday: Mean and Joly, a real team!

Sunday: taking photos for the Christmas card. This is the chosen one.

30 november - 6 december

2009-12-06T21:34:00.001+01:00

Monday: Mean baking pancakes, she is becoming a real pro in it! Tuesday: the report books where handed out, and Mean had numbers in her book for the first time (instead of the G (Good) etc. she first had). Wednesday: I had a very bad night, a fever and very strange dreams when I slept (or between being awake and being asleep). I stayed at home and spent my time on the sofa (with this photo as my view). On Thursday the fever was lower, but I still felt not very good. The kids had their Sinterklaas celebration at school, and this is Mean singing a K3 song with her two classmates. I went to bed very early. Friday I felt better, but not totally good. I had to go to the swimming lessons with Shen, and instead of having one hour alone in the kantine with my Nintendo DS, I had to sit and watch alongside the pool, it was “viewing-class”. Shen is doing his very best, this is the last class he has, I hope he will have his C-diploma in january. On Saturday it was Sinterklaas, and the children where agitated all day. We opened the presents a little early, but that was very good, because they had lots of time to play afterwards. Shen received the Mario Galaxy Wii game he really really wanted, and they both jumped up and down in joy about that. On Sunday my dad turned 71 years old. We visited him in the afternoon, and I took this photo of him and the kids.

23 - 29 november

2009-11-29T23:11:00.001+01:00

Another week in my life. On Monday we ate lasagna, we all love it! On Tuesday Mean could change her earrings by herself for the first time. Thursday I said goodbye to my previous colleagues within my company, it was sad but some of them had already made plans for the future. On Friday I went to Amersfoort to a Drupal introduction course, this looks very interesting! On Friday I went shopping with the kids, and they were allowed to buy something from their own money. Shen chose this lightsword, it is spectacular! On Sunday Rudy and Mean built the Mario racetrack once again to play with it.

16 - 22 november

2009-11-22T16:35:00.001+01:00

The first picture is of my colleagues who are sitting behind me. They are part of my team, the design team of our department. The Tuesday photo is of the hallway in our office building. There are two photos of me hanging there now, one of Mean which is hanging right on the left. On Wednesday I had a meeting with a colleague who explained some difficult stuff on the whiteboard, I took some pictures of it to remember it all. The Thursday photo is of the parking lot behind our building, my car is parked on the left. It was a beautiful sunset before I left. Friday morning we had a beautiful sunrise. On Saturday Sinterklaas came to our village and we have a party for all the children in the village then. Sunday was a familyday. I had been so busy the last 10 weeks or so, and on Sunday we did all fun things with the kids. In the morning we went swimming, in the afternoon we played with the Wii all five of us, and afterwards we all did stuff we liked ourselves. A nice Sunday!

Two layouts of july 2009

2009-11-21T22:22:00.000+01:00

I made these photos at the end of july, when I still was celebrating my holiday. I love blending (as you can see) and I made both these layouts in a natural atmosphere.

9 - 15 november

2009-11-15T22:39:00.001+01:00

Another normal and busy week in November.

The first pictures are of parts of my life. In our living room are five water paintings from Cambodia on a Cambodian cloth. One fell down a long time ago, and Rudy placed it on the wall again this weekend. The second picture is of my car computer on the last part of the way home. On Wednesday we celebrated Saint Maarten. The children walked with their pawns (hope this Babelfish translation is correct?) along the houses and sang their Saint Maarten songs. They received lots of candy and presents! The weather was good, cold but the rain stopped when we started walking at 6 PM. Thursdays photo is of our beloved cat Bumba. On Friday just before bedtime Mean checked the photos on daddy’s phone. On Saturday the kids played a typical Dutch game, sjoelen. Mean has her own “sjoelbak”, it’s a little smaller than the standard “sjoelbak”. They had fun in our living room with it. On Sunday we had a Rally-O workshop and competition at our Dog Trainig school. The photo is of Rudy with his black German Shepherd Felyce. He was first with her, and I was second with my Cairn Diya!

2 - 8 november

2009-11-09T22:59:00.000+01:00

I found Mean on Monday evening like this: on top of her bed, under a fleece blanket, with Joly the little Cairn Terrier sleeping next to her. She should ly just the other way round. The photo of Tuesday is a lucky shot, it’s not that easy to picture two doggies at the same time. These are my two Cairns, mother and daughter, Diya and Joly. On Wednesday evening I played a little with my camera to shoot some self portraits. Thursday was not such a great day for Rudy, the plumbing was not working okay, so he worked on it the whole day. Friday had a beautiful sunrise. On Saturday evening Mean and Shen played a little play for us, and on Sunday I went to a meeting about Rally-O.

26 october - 1 november

2009-11-01T21:12:00.000+01:00

This week was a sad week. On Monday I decided that Bully shouldn’t suffer any longer, so I spent the evening with him on our couch. I spoiled him with nice meals, and made everything as comfortable as possible for him. The photo shows the new chairs we had received on our department, they are great. Tuesday the vet came and put Bully to sleep. The photo was of a few hours before. We brought him to the crematorium for animals, where he was cremated the same day. Wednesday Rudy picked up the urn from the crematorium. The photo shows the kids that evening (Mean wearing horrible blue eye shadow). On Thursday we went eating out and bowling as team mates. One of my colleagues took this action shot of me. Mean hugged her sweet little doggy friend Joly on the floor on Friday. The Saturday photo is of Mean and Shen with their Nintendo DS Lites. The Sunday photo is of Mean showing her little Cairn Joly at the local dog show. It was the first time she did it, the judge was really friendly and he and the ring steward helped her a lot. She got a great report, very well shown!

Everyone who was responded on Hyves or sent e-mails with their sympathy: thank you so very much. Many know how special this little dog was for me.

In memoriam Bully

2009-11-01T07:28:00.001+01:00

Last Tuesday Bully was put to sleep by our vet. He had so much trouble breathing, it wasn’t good to keep him alive just for me. Bully was my biggest doggy-friend. He was born in our home 14,5 years ago, and when he opened his eyes, I didn’t want to let him go. We have done so much together, he was truly my best friend for all those years. I am very sad that I have lost him. I made this in memoriam page for him, the photo was taken just a few hours before the vet came. Bully is cremated, and I have his ashes in an urn in my home. I hope to see him again after I pass away in hopefully many years.

Mean's video

2009-10-28T22:50:00.002+01:00

19 - 25 october 2009

2009-10-25T19:15:00.001+01:00

A very busy week for us. And some very nice photos to remember it. Monday’s photo is of Shen brushing his teeth in his Diego pajamas. On Tuesday Mean took some photos of Shen and me, and they turned out very nice. Wednesdays photo is of Bully, my oldest Cairn Terrier. He has trachea collaps, and is coughing really bad now. Don’t know how long he will be staying with me, I’m very sad about that. Thursday’s photo is of our cats eating some meat on our sink. On Friday we were all very busy for the agility competition the next day (we organized it, and that is a lot of work, almost 300 entries and an indoor venue). Mean wanted to come with daddy to work already in the horse riding hall, but she couldn’t. She pouted a while… On Saturday we had the big event, everything went very well, we had a lot of fun and at 6 PM the hall was empty. Sunday was a lazy day, but someone that learned driving from Rudy came by with a horse and carriage and the kids went for a little ride with them. Great fun!

12 - 18 october

2009-10-19T18:53:00.001+02:00

The Monday photo is of Mean playing her toy guitar. She got it from daddy for her birthday. The Tuesday photo is of the sunrise. I took it from the route I drive everyday. On Wednesday I have singing lessons, this is the front door of the teacher J. On Thursday Zorro came to us, he was one of the litter of Felyce of last year. We are trying to find a new home for him. He is in potential a very good working German Shepherd! Friday was a stormy day, this is Shen at my little netbook. He plays games on it. The Saturday photo was taken in Germany at a German Shepherd training center. We went there with Zorro to show him to someone who was interested in him. On Sunday I went to the clubmatch of the Dutch Cairn Terrier Club. I showed little Joly, she got her last qualification to breed with her. Mean showed Joly too in the Child-Dog show, and became first. Joly had wings on her back (fairy wings) and Mean wore her Ariel princess dress with gloves and a Chinese umbrella. All people cheered and laughed that the little doggy was very pleased to wear her wings!

5 - 11 october

2009-10-19T18:11:00.001+02:00

A very busy week! Mean turned 8 on Tuesday, so we celebrated the whole week. I had a very busy weekend too. On Wednesday I prepared everything for the Rally-O tournament on Sunday. Thursday I went out with my colleagues to a restaurant in Groningen. The food was great! On Friday we celebrated Mean’s birthday with her school friends. On Saturday I went to a meeting with dr. Changfu Chang about Chinese adoption. And on Sunday I had a Rally-O tournament about 2,5 hour’s drive from home. Busy, busy, busy!

28 september - 4 october

2009-10-05T22:20:00.001+02:00

Monday: one of our trainers leaves the dog training school. Tuesday: Mean can really bake pancakes all by herself! Wednesday: a rainbow spotted from my car on the highway (yeah, I know it’s not safe to open the camerabox, switch on the camera, point and shoot while driving at the same time). Thursday: playing outside after dinner. The weather was good enough, although chilly. Friday: fever blisters on my mouth, no fun! Saturday: I did the puppy play hour and prepared for the dog show on Sunday. Sunday: dog show in Zwolle, my Cairn Joly had an excellent judgment and only needs one judgment more (at least very good) to have permission from the Cairn Club to breed with her.

21-27 september

2009-09-28T00:16:00.001+02:00

The monday photo is of a little gypsy boy, he looks sad, and monday was a sad day for me too. The tuesday photo is of Mean taking a shower. Only showing a silhouette. Wednesday is a plant I have on the roof of a little shed on our property, I planted it myself years ago. Thursday is Mean drawing at the kitchen table. Friday is the big photo, I played with my big lens and this is one of the apples in our orchard. Saturday is Mean blowing bubbles with her niece. Sunday we took a walk in the forest, and Mean and Shen pointed at this mushroom, saying "look mom, a baby mushroom!". We had lots of fun walking with our dogs and others of the dog training school.

14-20 september

2009-09-22T21:21:00.001+02:00

On Tuesday daddy and Shen had a haircut, and Mean got some colour in her hair. She loved it. On Saturday I sprayed some gold in her hair, and that looked great too. On Wednesday my magnetic stickers for my car came, with info about our dog training school. They are really great on my red car. On Thursday grandma picked the apples of our two trees near the pond at the dog training field, the ones that were great are in our cellar now, the ones that where a bit less great are in the cupboard to eat asap, and the rest Is gone into apple-sauce. On Friday we had a BBQ at the school of the kids. It’s a small school (25 kids in total for 8 grades) and all parents know each other. The weather was really nice, and we had a very nice evening together. On Sunday we went to see the baby of friends, and Mean and Shen played in the playground where the party was.

7-13 september

2009-09-13T10:41:00.001+02:00

A normal week in my life. I took some photos of normal events, our little Joly on the bed of Mean (she sleeps there every night), the sun through the trees in our garden (loved the light and experimenting with my camera), and on wednesday the sky was so wonderfully colored, I had to take some pictures of it. Wednesday and Thursday I had a computer course in XML, I photographed the building on thursday. When I went to pick up the kids at school (no other children where having lunch, so I could go back to home immediately) I took a photo of the lifesize paper Mean on the window at her classroom. Unfortunately the paper Shen had already been gone… The photo of saturday is of our Felyce, eating an apple in the garden. The apples are falling, and the dogs eat them all the time. Sunday started with some rain, and while Mean and daddy had gone off with Kyona and Joly to train for searching, Shen and I stayed home. He read the toy store book (it had already arrived at my mothers’ house for Sinterklaas) and watched some TV. I took this funny shot of him.

31 august - 6 september

2009-09-06T18:54:00.000+02:00

Autumn is starting here, the weather is getting colder, and our life is going on like before the holidays.

On Monday Mean started practicing her flute all by herself. She can play from notes a little already. In a few weeks she will start a beginners course in music (for children), she is really looking forward to go. On Tuesday a digiscrap friend from a city nearby visited to learn more about it. She brought her daughter, and she had a real talent for it! We had lots of fun and made great progress (at least, I hope J ). On Wednesday Mean has her horse riding lessons, and when I picked her up I found her scooping the horse poop. Thursday I didn’t want to cook, so I bought Chinese food from the local Chinese restaurant. On Friday I was so tired, I went to bed early, and while preparing I took this picture of our waterbed. On Saturday Mean and I travelled for almost 3 hours to meet with other Cambodian adopted children and go to a Cambodian party. It was great fun! On Sunday I had a Rally-O tournament not so far away (45 minutes drive) and it was very nice with friendly people and nice weather.

24-30 august 2009

2009-08-30T15:51:00.000+02:00

The summer still isn’t over here. This week had lots of very nice warm days. The gas company is working in our backyard on a very big gas transport tube onder the ground. They are digging for weeks now, and are in the construction phase. The photo is taken where the tube is going under the main road near our house. I pass by at least twice a day here. On Tuesday my Cairns went to the groomer, Karin, and she made Bully into a nice old gentlemen (she even washed him, he smelled so fresh!) and Joly became the pretty lady she already was. On Wednesday I went to the pier with Mean to wave a few big tallships goodbye. I took a lot of photos of the ships, but the photo’s of Mean where much more beautiful J Isn’t she pretty? The Thursday photo is of Bully with his new hairdo. On Friday I took the sleepy boy photo of Shen. He wasn’t in my week overviews lately, so he deserved a bit more attention. On Saturday Mean made muffins, almost all by herself. They grow up so fast! Sunday was a very quiet day. We don’t have those days very often. Rudy and I had to work all day long, but we where with the kids, they played and we talked. Shen is here, sitting in his PJ’s at 1 PM (and it’s almost 4 PM now, and he is still in his PJ’s J) playing the Wii. I am cooking in between, we’ll have some nice homemade chicken soup and a whole chicken, slow cooked. Mmmm, looking forward to that!

17 - 23 august

2009-08-23T22:06:00.000+02:00

What a great week, the weather was super great, we had a great festival just around the corner, and the kids started school again J

On Monday the kids went to school again after the summer break. They had a good start, everything went fine. On Tuesday Mean baked pancakes all herself for the very first time. She wanted me to take a picture alike Spongebob. The Wednesday photo is of Mean jumping in the canal next to our house. She loves to swim. On Thursday grandma came again, and we played a game called Pinguin Panic in the evening together. On Friday I went to the Chinese doctor with my mother again. Saturday was the start of Delfsail, a great event in Delfzijl, our community. We watched all the big ships sailing in the harbor, and went to a big free pop concert with Mean. She loved it! On Sunday Rudy had an obedience exam with Kyona, our almost 1 year old “puppy”. Everything went very well, he passed it. In the afternoon we went to Delfsail again, and had a great afternoon with nice food, some attractions and of course the great views of the ships.

Delfsail 22 august

2009-08-23T07:58:00.000+02:00

I had to share these photos with you. This weekend for four days it is Delfsail (www.delfsail.nl) in our community. We live about 7 km’s from the town of Delfzijl, where the big harbor is. We went by bike to the pier which is the entrance to the harbor this morning (it’s only about 2 km’s from our home) and we sat there to watch the big tallships come in for the festival. The weather was great, and we were there for about 2 hours. I took food and drinks with me, and of course my camera, and took some great shots. The atmosphere there was great, all wonderful people loving the scenery!

In the evening we had a big free popconcert of Marco Borsato, the biggest male singer in the Netherlands, in the harbor of Delfzijl. He sings mainly in Dutch, and Mean loves a few of his songs. So she went with us. We had a super great time there, the concert was wonderful, the atmosphere was wonderful, and afterwards we saw the fireworks through the tallships. The weather was nice, no wind, fine temperature, it couldn’t have been better.

Today we’re having an obedience exam at our dog training school, and afterwards we’ll go to the festival again. Hope you like the photos!

10 - 16 august

2009-08-17T00:00:00.001+02:00

This was a real summer week. The weather was very nice, lots of sun and the children could play outside most of the time in their last week of vacation.

The trees are carrying lots of fruit. The walnuts are really nice this year. Our black German Shepherd Felyce is really fond of water, and loves to swim. Mean had a phone conversation, her first real conversation I mean, on Monday with a school friend. Very funny to overhear! My Cairn Terrier Bully has very long hair, he is going to the dog groomer next week. He didn’t see much through his hair, so I made him a pigtail on top of his head so he could see better. He didn’t like it at first, but got used to it very soon, and seemed to enjoy it! On Saturday Rudy had his birthday and we celebrated our 24^th wedding day. We had a great day, with an afternoon of family water fun and simply enjoying the nice weather and each other’s company. We had a BBQ and loved it. On Sunday the weather was great also, and we spent the afternoon with my sister, her boyfriend and their youngest daughter. We then went to the Chinese restaurant and had a great dinner. Loved this week!

3-9 august

2009-08-09T21:41:00.001+02:00

A week with wonderful summer weather. Only negative thing: I had to go to work again, so spent four days inside. But the kids still have vacation here. On Monday I took a lot of photos of the cats and the kids. They where having so much fun outside in the evening. Mean can swim in the pool all day, and evening. The photo of Wednesday is of Shen and his Nintendo DS. He is almost glued to it. Thursday I visited a newborn baby. He was born on Saturday, and he and his mother came home on Wednesday. He was so pretty! Wish you a long and happy life, Raphael Julien! On Friday was my day off. It was very hot, so I did the groceries very early. In the afternoon I spent some time in the pool, and for dinner Mean made the preparation for pancakes. On Saturday I had a meeting with the editorial people of the Cairn Terrier club (I’m a member too) and afterwards we took this photo of the group. Sunday was a very busy day, the afternoon was cleaning time for the dog training school canteen. Tomorrow the training season starts again, and everything is ready for the season!

27 july - 2 august

2009-08-02T22:41:00.000+02:00

I still have vacation from work this week. We spent it at home. On Tuesday I went to the Lifelines health check. In 8 weeks I’ll get the results. Wednesday my niece Yvonne and her boyfriend Stefan arrived. They stayed at my mother’s house (Yvonne is very asthmatic and we have 5 dogs and 2 cats) but we BBQ’d 2 times, went to the Chinese to dine with my mother and father, and we went to the playground with Mean and Shen. We had a great time!

21-26 july

2009-07-27T09:08:00.001+02:00

Our second week of vacation. We where near Paris (France). We visited a middle aged town (Provins) which was great, but not so great was that our navigation system was stolen from our car there (very strange: they left the children's DVD system in the car). There was no damage to our car, we can't understand how they did it (it's not possible to open the car door through the handle inside when it's locked, and they also left the thing that is attaching the system to the front window which makes no sense). Well, we didn't let this spoil our vacation. We went to Paris for a day, showed the kids the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, Sacre-Coeur, and sat on the treps of Montmartre. We also had dinner in a Cambodian restaurant, which was great for Mean. And the last three days of our holiday where spent in Disneyland Paris! We had a great time, allthough our feet where mess each evening. On sunday we went home at around half past two, and arrived at nine thirty in our home. We had a great time!

13-19 july

2009-07-27T08:44:00.001+02:00

Holiday week! Fun in the sun in southern France. We had a very nice time. We visited the mediterranean sea two times, had a blast in the pool on the campsite. On saturday we left for another week of holiday near Paris. The kids loved to play there with other Dutch kids.

disney in paris!

2009-07-24T21:38:00.001+02:00

Having dinner in hotel new york.

6 - 11 july

2009-07-13T16:46:00.001+02:00

Okay, here's last week!
6 july: my birthday! We had some bad weather on tuesday. On wednesday my office celebrated the launching of a service with ice-cream for all employees. Thursday: our little girl is very tired this week of the kids play week in Delfzijl. On friday we left for France. The photo is of the pool at the Novotel in Beaune, France. When we left saturday morning early at before 7, we didn't know we would be in trouble just an hour later. At 8 we got a flat tire at the autoroute, and we lost 2 hours. After that it was horrible. 160 km of traffic. We detoured, and detoured, and finally arrived at 9.30 PM at our destination, only 550 km away from Beaune. On sunday we rested and played in the pool at our holiday parc!

6 - 12 july

2009-07-13T00:37:00.001+02:00

No internet yet...

pool

2009-07-12T15:54:00.001+02:00

panne langs de autoroute

2009-07-11T08:03:00.001+02:00

mean s new hairdo

2009-07-10T16:09:00.001+02:00

She wanted to have "short" hair. Is n t she adorable? We re in Beaune now!

29 june - 5 july

2009-07-05T21:30:00.001+02:00

This week we had really great weather. No fun to go to work every day! The kids had a great last week at school. On Thursday they celebrated the farewell of two of the teachers, and on Friday, the last day, the parent council took all the kids at school (all 25) to a nice park with lots of fun to do for them. And did I tell you the weather was so great? I went along on Friday, and it was much fun. I took almost 500 photos!

The photo of Monday is of Mean working on the Wii FIT for the first time. She loved it! I have trained on it myself three times the past week, and I really enjoy the steps exercises. And the balance stuff is great to do too!

The photo of Tuesday is of one of our linden trees. They are blooming right now. On Wednesday I had a performance of my singing class. It was the last time in this building, as it will be torn down. There were 11 songs performed, I did “Unexpected Song” from Song and Dance, a musical.

Thursday was really warm. The kids enjoyed the pool in our garden after they returned from school.

The Friday photo is of Mean. It was really hot in the children’s park, and she loved to cool down in the water. I really love this photo! On Saturday we put up the tent the children received from my mother as a gift, and they slept in it during the night. We had our first BBQ of the season too! Sunday was the greatest day. The weather was really nice, sunny all day, almost no wind, wonderful. I already packed some stuff for our holiday (we leave on Friday) and we BBQ’d again. Super!

22-28 june

2009-06-28T22:19:00.001+02:00

A new template, a new look.

Monday: the Bluetooth thing in my car so I can call handsfree. I got it from Rudy when he had his new car with built in Bluetooth handsfree set. Tuesday: Mean brushing her teeth in our bathroom. Wednesday: we picked berries in our garden, and ate them really fast. This was all what’s was left. Thursday: the school musical was this evening. It was great! Friday: two friends from China visited us from today until Sunday. Shen really liked the lady very much. Saturday: Shen got his second swimming diploma today. He is now going on for his next diploma! Sunday: our Chinese friends left today. We hope to see them again some day, maybe here, maybe in China!

15-21 june

2009-06-28T22:15:00.000+02:00

Monday: a tired Mean lying on the couch just before dinner. Tuesday: daddy and daughter in our garden. Wednesday: because Mean is horse riding, Shen wanted to make the pancakes this time! Thursday: I had to visit the dentist to fill two caveties. Friday: the flowers in our garden. Saturday: we had a demo of flyball at the dog ambulance open day. Mean was in the demo team too with little Joly. Sunday: it was fathers day today, so Rudy had to unpack the presents the kids made at school

kado ruud

2009-06-25T13:52:00.001+02:00

8-14 june

2009-06-15T00:01:00.001+02:00

Monday’s photo is of Mean helping me cooking. She is making meat balls. Thursday’s photo is the dashboard of my car. I see it twice a day, for about 45 minutes. On Wednesday three of my colleagues and I had dinner at an Indian restaurant. It was really yummy and we had lots to talk about! The photo of Thursday is actually of Wednesday, when I drove home I saw a beautiful sunset. Friday’s photo is of my lunch children at Mean and Shen’s school, I always have lunch with them on Friday. On Saturday Shen has swimming lessons in this indoor pool. Sunday’s photo is of Mean and Baukje, her big friend.

1 - 7 june

2009-06-12T00:31:00.000+02:00

Home after our China trip. The first days the weather was beautiful, the kids played in the pool. I made some gorgeous pictures of my daughter. I so love that little lady! On Tuesday I had to work again. On Wednesday a few screens where placed on the workfloor to reduce the noise in our large room. Let’s see If it works. On Thursday we had to vote for the European Parliament. It was the first time I could vote in Woldendorp, instead of Termunten (which is further away). I received a beautiful bouquet of flowers for a gift I had arranged. In the weekend I was busy creating the photo album of our China trip, and on Sunday Rudy went fishing in the canal along our garden. Cairn Bully was watching him closely, you never know what kind of snack may fall off.

25 - 31 may

2009-06-03T21:53:00.000+02:00

Here is the 365 layout for this week. I had to pick one photo each day from a lot of photos that I took when we were in China. The last one is of Sunday, the weather in the Netherlands was great this weekend, and Rudy had set up the pool for the kids, so they had a lot of fun playing with the water.

Photos of last day in China

2009-06-03T21:28:00.001+02:00

Here are some of the photos of the last day in China. For everybody who
followed my blog during our trip to China, who commented or sent me an
e-mail, I want to thank you. This trip was short, but it meant a lot to us.

29 may - the last day in China and flight home

2009-06-03T10:56:00.001+02:00

It has been a few days! We are back in the Netherlands, arrived Saturday at 11 AM in Bremen/Germany, and then travelled back home by car, another 2 hours.

Our last day in China was fun. I had packed the suitcase on Thursday night already, so we didn't have much to do the next morning. Showering, finishing packing, having breakfast, and then we went down to the lobby of the hotel. I paid our bill, and the suitcase was stored with the hotel concierge. Then we went to the metro, bought a few croissants, and hopped on the metro for Window of the World, a theme park with a lot of buildings and landmarks from all over the world. It's not the typical tourist attraction for western tourists, but it was fun nevertheless. As it was a Chinese holiday, it was really busy at the park. We took the monorail first to have a look how big the park was and to see everything from above. What I didn't like about the park was that every activity within the park had to be paid for separately. The monorail for example was 20 RMB. We walked through the park, looked at the landmarks, saw a show of Thai dancing, ate our croissants, took a ride in a rollercoaster, saw the ice skating and skiing hall (really strange when the outdoor temperature is 30° Celcius). We ate a very nice kind of Burmese fried pancake, and spent our time until 3 PM at the park. Then we returned to the hotel, changed our clothes, had a drink in the lobby bar, and waited for the transfer van to arrive (at 5 PM). The van was exactly on time, it was the same kind of minivan again. We drove in the Shekou direction, to the car park where all minivans come together. There where not many people heading for the Hong Kong airport at that time, only three Chinese men extra. So we went with the minivan to the border, where we could stay in the car, everything regarding the border controls was handled by the driver! What a luxury. It took about 2 hours in total from the hotel to the Hong Kong Airport. We went in to the airport and had to wait until 8 PM (three hours before departure) before we could check in. I tried to change our tickets so that we could leave the plane in Amsterdam (we had to wait about 5 hours in Amsterdam before we could fly to Bremen, our final destination on our ticket), but that wasn't allowed, sadly.

In Hong Kong airport we had free internet, so Shen was playing at the plane simulators, and I was chatting with a colleague in the Netherlands and sending a mail home.

We then went with the metro to our gate, and boarded the airplane. We took off at around 11.10 PM, had a snack (Shen was already sleeping, of course, it was late), and then I tried to sleep. And it worked! I miraculously slept until 6.30 AM, felled refreshed, and read a book until we descended to Amsterdam airport. Everything went well, and we arrived at 4.30 AM (local time) in Amsterdam. We had to wait until 9.30 before we could board the next plane, but we managed to survive. The weather was great, so very nice views from the plane that took us in an hour to Bremen. Rudy, Mean and my father where standing on the roof of the airport, they saw us landing, and within 10 minutes we were in the airport hall and drove home. I'll send some photos to the blog separately.

hong kong airport

2009-05-29T13:17:00.001+02:00

Waiting for check in. Transfer went well. Mini van. Have to wait till 8 now. Flight leaves at 11 pm.

waiting for the taxi

2009-05-29T10:24:00.001+02:00

To hong kong airport.

shen in holland?

2009-05-29T05:47:00.001+02:00

No still in shenzhen!

Angkor wat in china

2009-05-29T04:56:00.001+02:00

Window of the world

28 may - Dapeng Fortress and Xichong beach

2009-05-28T14:27:00.000+02:00

Today we had a car with a driver to take us anywhere we wanted. I decided upforehand to travel to Dapeng Fortress (Dapeng Old Town), and I heard from someone living in Shenzhen that Xichong beach should be a very nice place to visit. So we headed for those destinations on this thursday.

We left at 9.30 after I booked our transfer to the Hong Kong airport for tomorrow. We are picked up at 5 PM from our hotel, so we can do whatever we want during the day tomorrow. Today was a holiday in China, and everyone is off from work so it was quite busy on the streets. Travel to Dapeng took about one hour. The old town dates from 1394, it was build as a fortress to defend China against enemies. There are still people living in this small town, and some houses are created as kind of museum. I liked it a lot. Walking around took about 1 hour, and then we drove to Xichong beach, another half hour. We took Shen's Nintendo for the car ride, so he had something to do. The weather was really nice, dry and a very nice temperature (not too hot, I guess around 27/28 degrees). The beach is very long, about 5 km's, and there were lot'sof people (because of the holiday), normally it is very peaceful, but not on this day. Shen started running around and playing in the sand. After a while we wanted to have lunch, and Xichong is famous for it's seafood, so that was an easy choice. We had shrimp and a fish, with some rice. It was very nice, especially the shrimps with the herbs, great!

After lunch Shen went into the South Chinese sea. I stayed with him because there was some wind and the sea was not so safe for children (I wasn't in the water, but on the beach). So I had to call him every now and then to come back to me. He had great fun playing in the water. It was warm and he loved it. At about half past four we left for Shenzhen again, the ride was 1 hour 15 minutes with not much traffic. When we came near Shenzhen it started raining. We have had so much luck today that it was dry and nice weather!

Tomorrow we're going to the Window of the World, rain or sunshine after I packed our suitcase. Then we will head for the Hong Kong airport and fly home. It's possible I will send a short update by email from my cellphone. The next real post will be from the Netherlands!

beach (xichong)

2009-05-28T07:27:00.001+02:00

27 may - Shenzhen Safaripark (Zoo)

2009-05-27T15:32:00.000+02:00

This morning I saw the sun when I looked out of my window on the 15^th floor! We had planned to go to the Shenzhen Safaripark (Zoo) so a little sunshine was very welcome!

I decided to travel to the last point of the metro line (Window of the world) and then take a taxi, as that would be much cheaper. So we did. We bought some croissants at a bakery at the Gloriaplaza shoppingcenter (where the metro station is) and hopped on the metro. The metro in Shenzhen is very easy and overall very nice. I saw no signs of pickpockets anywhere, most people where busy with their cellphones or looked a bit strange to Shen and me. It takes about 20-25 minutes to the last station, which costs 5RMB (only for me, Shen is considered free as he is 110 cm. exactly). That is about EUR 0,60, which is very cheap. We spotted a taxi immediately after we came above the ground (in the sunshine again!) and it took another 15 minutes to the Zoo. There were almost no visitors in the Zoo. The first part we walked almost allone. The animals have a lot of space with tropical trees and flowers around them. Very nice, some green and nature in combination with sunshine! We walked from animal to animal and talked a lot. It was very hot and sweaty weather, so we drank a lot of water. At a certain point Shen wanted some ice-cream and he picked one from the list. Unfortunately that one tasted very bad. Shen fed some monkeys with pieces of apple, he fed the big goldfish, and we saw a show with lions and tigers (also white tigers) and a bird show. We didn't pay for a show with a bear, we both thought that the bear on a leash is not leading a nice life so we didn't want to pay for that. Then we saw a show with dolphins and other water animals (and divers and a lady in a hoop performing art). As we walked to the tiger and lion part of the park, suddenly rain started falling down, and we waited a while. At first we thought it wouldn't get dry again, but after about 15 minutes the rain stopped, and we walked the footpath above the lion and tiger fields. Very nicely done, all animals have space for themselves. It took more than an hour by taxi back to the hotel, it was very busy in Shenzhen, but that only costed RMB76,50 (about EUR 8,50). Then we went for dinner, accross the street is an Indian (halal, muslim) restaurant, and it was very good. I had chicken Tikka Massala with naan bread, and Shen fried rice with shrimp. Tomorrow on our last night we're going to eat at the Greenery's again, I promised that to Shen. He loves the Hot Pot corn there.

Tomorrow our guide will have a car arranged for us, and we are going to travel outside the city. The plan is to head for Dapeng fortress, and Xichong beach.

sun!

2009-05-27T05:57:00.001+02:00

26 may - Splendid China and 2nd orphanage visit

2009-05-26T17:35:00.003+02:00

This morning we went to Splendid China (and Folk Cultural Village, it's all in one park and one admission) by metro right after breakfast. It was the first time we used the metro by ourselves, and it was easy-peasy! Select the station you want to go, and insert coins or a 5 yuan bill. The machine even returns money, so no need to have the exact amount of cash. It was only about 20-25 minutes to the park, which was only 50 metres from the metro entrance. Shen didn't have to pay for the park, because he is 110 cm exactly. They all think he is a baby here, Shen doesn't like that!

The park is beautiful. We had some rain, and some dry periods, and even, in the end, some sun. We bought several souvenirs (everything in this park is about traditions so they sell a lot of the more "traditional" souvenirs), had our photos taken in original costumes (they are hard-copy, I have to scan them at home) and had great fun in this park.

We went back to the hotel at 1.30, bought some croissants in the shopping centre where the metro has his entrance, and where right in time to freshen up a bit and go to the orphanage with our guide. We took a taxi, and arrived just before 3 'o clock. The orphanage visit was great again. They showed us the dossier of Shen, they had two photos of him as a very tiny baby (just 2 months old) as he came into the orphanage. I didn't expect those, so I was really touched at that moment. They promised to send the files to me per e-mail. I hope they do that, don't know what to expect I must say. I have photographed the two photos of baby Shen, so I have them already.

We then went to see the children, one boy we saw when we adopted Shen. It was one of his friends in the orphanage. I also saw a group of children, of which two will be adopted within a couple of months. I could take some photos of the children, so their mothers are very happy at this moment.

After the orphanage visit we went to the hospital Shen was brought just after he was born. I took some photos there too, and then we returned to the hotel. We had dinner at the same restaurant as yesterday (per Shen's request) and then he went into bath, and into bed.

Tomorrow we are planning a visit to the Shenzhen zoo. There are many tigers over there, and even a few panda's (one giant panda). Shen is looking forward to that!

25 may - orphanage visit

2009-05-25T16:41:00.001+02:00

(photos are not in correct chronological order, cannot fix that because I upload my blog by e-mail).

Today we went to the orphanage to deliver the gifts, and hopefully talk to the director. After a night with more sleep than before, I felt much better. I didn't know jetlag could be so bad! We had a roomservice breakfast (for the last time), continental type, with toast and marmelade, and went to our guide Jasmine. We prepared the visit, she had no knowledge about orphanages and how adoptions are handled, and I told her what I wanted to know if possible. But also that she had to handle this very carefully. Off we went. It was a 15 minute taxi ride to the orphanage. We then searched for the director, and finally found her on the 4^th floor. She sent us to the administrative officie nextdoor. We where greeted by the head of administration, who immediately recognized Shen and was very happy to see us. We had to sit on a couch, got tea, and Shen got candy (which he ate immediately of course) and within no time his 3 ayi's where there and they where so happy to see him. It was so touching to meet these ladies (whos photos are in Shen's lifebook) and to see how they remembered him. Shen showed them the pictures of our house, his room, his papa and sister Mean, we tried to sing Mama Hao but he didn't want to so I stopped. I gave the ayi's a photo of Shen (recent one, with his name in characters on the backside, I asked my guide to do that). I showed them the photobook of Dutch kids adopted from Shenzhen and they loved it. They only remembered the children adopted from my travel group, because they didn't take care of the others. But they loved to see the recent pictures of the boy and girls (they look so beautiful and happy, they said). I gave the photobook and the other presents to the head of administration. I also gave the letter with recent photos of a US girl which I took with me, and the ayi's where pleasantly surprised and also remembered her. I gave the letter and photos to the head of administration.

They asked me if I wanted to know anything, if I had any questions. I asked about the records of Shen, and they said that they couldn't show them immediately, because it was lunch break, but we could make another appointment for tomorrow at 3 PM. They would have the records of Shen available by then. They also offered to send the records to me by e-mail. So, tomorrow we'll go back.

After the orphanage visit we went shopping with our guide and had lunch at the Pizza Hut (something new for us, there is no Pizza Hut anywhere near us). It was my first real lunch/dinner with a normal portion in China. Shen and I shared a pizza. Then we went for more shopping, and at 3 PM we went back to our hotel. At that moment the rain stopped, and it looked even a bit sunny (through the clouds). Oh, how nice! We dropped off everything in our room, packed the backpack again and went to Lizhi park by taxi. I had never been to a Chinese park before, but wanted very badly, so this was such a nice trip! Shen thought so too, we had so much fun talking about what we saw, people playing games, dancing, fishing, we loved it!

We had trouble getting a taxi back (traffic hour I guess) but arrived at 7 at our room. Shen was hungry he said, so went to the restaurant (Greenery's) under the hotel. It was a buffet restaurant, and it was very good. Teppanyaki, Hot Pot, more than you could eat. Shen loved the Hot Pot corn on a stick, so he ate two of them. It was already 9 PM when we where back! He brushed his teeth and jumped into bed (and is sound asleep by now). What a great day!

Tomorrow (if the weather is not too bad) I want to go to Splendid China, a themepark on the metro line. Should be easy to go to. Hopefully the weather will be good!

More about our second orphanage visit tomorrow!

orphanage visit

2009-05-25T05:53:00.001+02:00

Went well. his ayi s remembered him and his "sisters" very well. they loved the photos. we go back tomorrow.

18 - 24 may

2009-05-24T09:53:00.000+02:00

For those who know, this is last week's 365 layout. All about China of course.

24 may It's raining cats and dogs...

2009-05-24T08:42:00.000+02:00

It's sunday today, but nobody notices that over here. In China everything goes on 24/7 (or almost). I had maybe 2 hours of sleep last night. Shen slept from 8.30 to 11 PM, and then woke until 2 AM.

I got out of bed at 7 or so, took some cereal as breakfast and took a bath. I woke Shen at 8 and at almost 9 we went down to the lobby. Our guide Jasmine arrived at 9 and we first talked a bit. She is a nice lady I guess, helpful, but very young. As everything in this city is :-)

The weather is really, really bad, it's raining constantly, the streets are flooded with water, it's almost impossible to walk across a street. Not what I imagined travelling here, I must admit. I checked the Wunderground website before, and this period of ime has been beautiful sunny weather for the last ten years. Too bad. This week it is raining. From the forecast at this moment this should be the worst day, let's hope so.

http://www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/currwx/fnd.htm

We went of to the metro, and went to the big bookstore near the city hall. I wanted to buy a photo book about Shenzhen, a map and maybe some other stuff. The ride was great, the metro very clean and everything went well. At the book store it was not so clear where to buy the desired goods.We eventually found a map with English signs on it too, a book I promised to buy for M (Shopping in Shenzhen) when I encountered it and a photo book about China. Then we ate some bread at a bakery, Shen loved that. He is so much into food here, he wants to eat all the time. We wanted to go and walk to the Childrens Palace, a scientific center with activities for kids, but it rained heavily at that moment. We eventually went, and got poured. On the pictures you can see how wet Shen's trousers are. At about 1 PM I didn't feel too well again (no wonder) and we went back to the metro through rivers of water and drove back to the hotel. The rain was still there when we arrived above the ground, and it got even worse, so we hopped in a mini McDonalds and gave Shen some Chicken Nuggets. He ate two portions :-) and then I decided we would go through the rain. The hotel was nearby, so dry clothes and a hot shower or bath also. So it's half past two and we're back in our room. In the last metres we walkes some thief tried to open my backpack (I was too tired and didn't feel a thing), luckily our guide stopped her. There was nothing of value in the backpack, only the books and some water we bought.

Addition to previous post

2009-05-23T11:55:00.001+02:00

Please look at the picture of the shop, the second displayed. When you click on it is displayed larger. Do you see wat they sell there? FATFOOD! I had to laugh when I saw that! It's across the street at our hotel. Sometimes things go wrong in the translation here :-). For people who don't get it, it should say "fastfood", but the fatfood suits too I guess.

23 may

2009-05-23T11:20:00.001+02:00

An update with some photos of today. It's 5 PM when I post this, so the day hasn't ended yet. About our trip. We started with a train trip from Leer to Bremen (Germany), then a flight with KLM Cityhopper from Bremen to Amsterdam, and then the flight from Amsterdam to Hong Kong. I didn't feel to well on that last trip, but Shen slept 8 out of 10 hours of it. My stomach is my weak point regarding to stress I think. I had all kinds of medication but nothing seemed to work. I was very worried for the health check that awaited us in Hong Kong and China. In Hong Kong everything went smooth. A very efficient airport. Health check (passed), passport control and customs, efficient. No waiting times. Then we went for the mainland coaches, we found them quickly. We booked one of them (150 HKD), Shen was free :-). It left 25 minutes later (again a temperature check of our foreheads), but I had to fill in new forms for the China border so that took up most of the time. The bus trip to the border took about 1 hour. We went across the new bridge from Hong Kong to Shekou. The China border here is super efficient as well. We left the coach, and walked through everything. Health check, temperature control, passport control, luggage scan, so easy. At the end the bus was standing there again and we where driven to a car park where we where split (according to the colour of the stickers on our shirts). We had the red sticker for the Century Plaza hotel and where put in a minivan with a couple. That ride took another hour or so, and we where dropped off at the hotel. Check in, go up to our room (oh yeah, we where upgraded, that seems to be standard at this hotel, we have a Japanese style room now) and check if the internet worked :-) We then ordered fried rice and a shrimp cocktail Mimosa from the room service, which came quickly. Shen loved the meal!
Shen went to bed at 8.30 and I went at 9.30. At 11 PM we both where awake again. At 1 AM we got up and played a bit. I wrote my diary for the first days, Shen played his Nintendo. At 3 AM we tried to sleep again,which worked. I woke at 10.50 AM and took a relaxing bath. My stomach wasn't set until then, so I had to try to relax a bit. I ate some crackers (so happy I took plenty of home food with me!) and drank some water. I woke Shen at noon (much too late,I know, but well...) and he ate some cereals which I also brought with me. We then prepared for a walk outside to the shopping centre (Luohu Shopping Centre). It's only 10 minutes walk, but it rained heavily. Shen had his raincoat and I an umbrella. It's about 28-30 Celcius so the temperature is fine. We walked through the metro station at LoWu station and arrived at the shopping centre. We didn't buy anything, except water which is expensive at the hotel, and some popcorn and sweets for Shen. Then we walked back and ate something at the Laurel restaurant. I had different dumplings (Dim Sum) and Shen rice with seefruit (he wanted to have some shrimp). My stomach is feeling better now, after the food. The only problem is that we ate at a strange time, but well. Hopefully we can get some earlier sleep this evening, because tomorrow we have booked a guide from 9 AM. We have to be ready by then. I think you can add the photos to the text, don't know how they appear, but I can only update the blog through email, which is fine. I tried to login on Blogger but it didn't work (even through a web proxy). Okay, this is it for today I think. Bye!

21 and 22 may trip to China

2009-05-22T14:51:00.001+02:00

Here are some photos of today. I'm too tired to write down the whole story of our trip, but it took a long time, and everything went well. Shen slept 8 out of 10 hours of the long flight from Amsterdam to Hong Kong.

in shenzhen!

2009-05-22T10:38:00.001+02:00

We made it. i'm happy!

shen is tired..

2009-05-22T09:23:00.001+02:00

And mommy too. waiting for the bus to shenzhen.