I'm so proud!

Have a look at this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVxkGIRrN7U

Kevin is crazy about LARPing.. which means Live Action Role Playing, as he explains it, it is like Dungeons and Dragons but then real life.
Well.. since I have no idea what Dungeons and Dragons is I was struggling to understand it but I just assume you all are more in tune with all these things...

So, last week was the Elf Fantasy Fair 2007 where Kevin had a leading role. Literally!

He had only 2 hours to practice on this with his group and people were pretty impressed with him:

These were the best few minutes of the fair, it was great to find out we really could do all those things. Kevin most certainly was the best Centurion we could ever have.

and

Kevin was heading up an excellent Roman legion (nr. 1) that had a lot of discipline and charisma. Off all Roman legions, I think I enjoyed them the most, as they acted the most realistic, and were absolutely loving it.

Bursting with pride, me, of course :)

Oh.. and Kevin is the one that shouts hardest.

So glad he finally found a use for that voice :-)

Wahey!

My mortgage advisor person called me this afternoon to say that all was OK and that there are no issues with getting the mortgage organised.

Absolutely fan-bl**dy-tastic!

What a relief..

And.. finally on the website it shows this:


Which means under offer depending on getting the mortgage sorted :-)

Yay!!

Also.. thinking of the future I wanted to get myself a nice new camera which would allow me to share with John all the exciting things I am going to experience (yeah right, think in the direction of showing a nice salad I made, a new kettle I bought, that sort of things :-))

So.. I bought a little cutie of a camera, the Fuji Finepix V10 Zoom

And what a cutie it is.. it does something that I have always wanted. As you might know I have made masses of pictures of things we then sold on eBay, it is always really hard to decide whether to use flash or not, some things just react really badly to flash where others do a lot better. This camera has a setting 'Natural Light & Flash' which means when you take a picture it takes another one immediately after it, one with and one without flash so you can later decide which version of your picture is best. Absolutely brilliant.

It also has a good quality (640x480) video recorder thingy on it and the ability to show video and pictures on the telly.. very cool I think :)

Oh and as you might have guessed I survived another flight!

4 blissfull days of peace and quiet (erhm.. working my ass off but at least in the same environment for more than 2 days) and then I am off to Sherwood Forest!

Pfff.. May is going to seem so boring!

There

I've arrived....

Phew... it is all go at the moment! Yesterday John dropped me off in Prestwick for yet another flight, this time to Frankfurt Hahn.. Got picked up by a colleague and only managed to go to bed at 01:30 - oh well.. didn't matter.. since I was the last person arriving in the hotel and wanted a non smoking room I got a 1st class room instead of a business class room. Very very nice indeed, 2 chairs, little table and 2 single beds to choose from ;) - No coffee making facility though, very unfair , I have discovered though that that means half hour longer sleep which was nice :)

Nice breakfast, orange juice, white crispy roll with brie with chili (!) and emmenthaler and a muffin, very unexpected in Germany but lovely :) Also.. to my surprise again GOOD coffee!

Interesting that things are slightly different here.. for instance.. in the drink machines there are glass bottles instead of cans and plastic bottles, and special holes in the wall to put your empties, very cool :)

Canteen cheap as chips as well.. apparently that is subsidised (I approve) and tonight we are going to a nice place for dinner...

With 13 men and 2 women (including me :-)) and it is summer here, so much better than the 13/14 degrees and rain in Wemyss Bay!

Home

or is it?

:-)

Things do feel a bit weird at the moment, I must admit.

I am home in Wemyss Bay for one day which is lovely, there is nothing like your own bed is there, pity I can't take it with me! Or at least the mattress.. We were advised a Sealy Posturepedic 5 years ago and I must say it is absolutely brilliant! It was expensive, can't remember how much exactly but something like £250 at least. So I thought I would go and check in Holland what it would cost me there to get the same one... so... calling the only shop who advertised them in Holland I asked for a quote ...... he called me back and said 'Are you sitting down?' :) €2355

WHAT!

Dear me.. well.. that is as much money as my lovely little Peugeot so no way am I going to spend that amount of money!

Anyway, for now I am letting it all go for a little while, I am concentrating now on my workshop in Germany, creating presentations that will hopefully dazzle the audience. Then, when coming back on Thursday evening I have a whopping 4 whole days of stability before I drive off into the sunset again...

May will be such a boring month comparing ;)

The deed is done

Well... all documents signed, sealed and delivered, there is nothing more I can do now but wait if the bank agrees with all the documents presented and put their money where their quote was!

If *all* goes well I will be able to move in from the 15th of June but I must admit I am terrified that we run into big obstructions, don't know why but these things seem to go like building a new kitchen or bathroom, you just KNOW it never goes as planned and that it will always be more expensive than planned. So.. I am prepared to get a mail or phone call saying that something is missing, it is ALL very exciting.

We only have until 1st of May to get the OK from the bank, from that moment we are bound to go through with it or else we have to pay 14750 euro penalty. Brrrr!

Upside of course is that after that date I should know for sure if the bank accepted me as a customer, well, they should do considering how much money they are going to make by taking me in.

So... today was all about re-acquainting myself with city infrastructure.. man... did I enjoy that or what?? I was in the city (where all shops are hehe) at 9 in the morning and the weather was gorgeous, I nicely browsed, bought nothing but logged loads of things and then decided to walk home (erhm.. this means about 10 miles - 3 hour walk, hope you're proud).

My body now hurts in places I didn't know were there but it was fantastic to put down footsteps again in MY bit of the world...

Coming to a close

So..back in Holland again... for the last time before the move I hope!

This time is about signing the mortgage quote for the bank, the purchase contract and some other very official documents. The file with the guy who takes care of all of this for me is absolutely HUGE, like, it could be used as a stool to sit on by now!

Today I need to go to the notary, I am a bit scared of people like him, he told me off severely for the way John and I dealt with our finances (now WHY did he think that had anything at all to do with him?) but in the end he was willing to help me with what I needed but I must admit because he reacted in that irritating way I am a bit apprehensive on what he will throw at me today.

Oh well.. as long as I get out of the visit what I want it will be OK, if that is 'ticked' as well I so think a bottle of red wine is in order tonight because...

That is it.. it is out of my hands.. all I can do now is WAIT (oh boy, I am so not good at that) until the bank decides if they dare take me on as a customer and give me that mortgage I need. If I see the pile of STUFF they need to dig through to decide yes or no I don't think it will be quick!

Having said that, in my purchase contract it says that it has to be done before 1st of May so I hope that my agent can push it forward a bit so we don't have to go for extensions and things.

It is very nice that 'Eric' (remember him) made sure that the rest of April is absolutely manic for me. Sunday I arrive back in Wemyss Bay then the day after I fly to Frankfurt to attend this workshop and come back Thursday. Only 5 days later I need to leave again to this Centre Parcs thing. Haven't heard yet if the SPA day is going to happen (oh I so hope, I could do with one!)

During Easter we went on a boat trip on the broads in Norfolk.. that was so brilliant, the weather was great, the company magnificent (John and his dodo, her partner and dog :-)) and the picnic lovely!



This is Guinness (guess who chose that name for the dog) driving the boat.

So.. quiz... what do you do with a boat with a motor? Drive? Ride? Sail? Pilot?

:-)

Goodness

It is Good Friday and I don't have to work!

So WHY do I wake up at 06:35?

Yes, because the bloody mortgage quote still didn't arrive and I am stressed out of my skull! Today is it's last chance but to be honest I am not holding out a lot of hope, my fear is that the Dutch people sending this didn't address it properly so the Scottish (if it came that far!) postal people are still scratching their heads trying to work out where it is supposed to go.

Anyway... tomorrow morning we leave at sparrowfart to go to Norwich and then I can't do anything about it anymore, it is out of my hands then. If it doesn't arrive this afternoon I will call my estate agent type contact for advice, see what options we still have open.

In any case from Norwich I will fly to Holland on Tuesday morning and have an appointment to sign a few papers at the notary office and at the estate agent.

I only realised today that I fly back on the Sunday and then have to leave again on the Monday for a workshop in Germany until the 19th.

That serves me right for thinking my life wasn't exciting enough, all excitement in one month now.. ridiculous!

Because did I tell you that I got rewarded by the BAC for my hard work last year? Well.. rightfully so but it is nice that they agreed with that sentiment ;)

So... when I am back from Germany I have exactly 4 days at home before I drive off to Sherwood Forest (an English Centre Parcs venue) where apart from a business update we will do all sorts of 'fun' things.

Now... 'fun' of course is relative... and different for everybody... so.. they done this really nice actually.. part of the gettogether is of course official presentation type stuff but 1 big part of it is 'team activities' as could be expected of any self respecting BAC of course!

So I could choose from...

1. High Ropes (EEKS, me, HEIGHTS?)
2. Jacobs Ladder (something high as well so that is out)
3. Gladiator Challenge (test skills and aptitude? No way, inapt, me)
4. Abseiling (Sounds pretty high to me again, so NO)
5. Rock Climbing (Yep, why all so high?)
6. Tree Trek and Zip Wire (Tree, danger of being high so better not)
7. Laser Combat (My, how agressive!)
8. Back to school (Well.. I went through that nightmare first time so why revisit!)
9. Low Ropes (Not so high, still high danger of severly hurting myself so NO)
   
10. Waterworld (If it was in a pool, OK, but this is the rafts things and stuff, NO)
    
11. Venture hunt (Hmm.. now this COULD be fun-ish)
    
12. Ten pin bowling (No eye-hand coordination)
    
13. Golf Driving Range (Same problem, different sport)
    
14. Quiz (Hmm.. generally very geared to cultural questions, no chance)
    
15. Spa (now... THAT is better BUT do I really want to parade in a bathing suit looking bluish white with my cellulite bubbling out everywhere?)

See.... 'fun' is relative.

I am sure that masses of people would start to get really excited from a list like that whereas I think 'Oh MY GOD' what is the least worst one out of this list?

It *has* to be the Spa day because even though I don't like all this exposing myself to my colleagues (in Holland I very regularly run naked amongst perfect strangers in the sauna but that is so much easier since they wouldn't even recognise me all dressed ;-)) I *do* like sauna's and steambaths and generally being in nice warm water all day long, so I said BRING IT ON.

I thought it would be a good way of really getting to terms with the body I have created. So okay.. I don't think it is a work of art but it is mine and it is about time that I am standing proud and say 'this is it, deal with it'.

I might be the only one brave enough though which might mean the activity doesn't happen so for seconds I put down the Venture Hunt and I think the quiz... fingers crossed!

So confused...

Well.. no mail again today.. feeling a bit anxious BUT I have booked my flights so this quote better arrive before we leave for Norwich!

Yesterday I was talking to another person who moves back to Holland after spending YEARS here in Scotland.. she said that in her new job she got only a tiny small remark in her review about her grammar in Dutch and the way she builds sentences. Couldn't believe that... but it was true..according to her she now feels that she isn't very good in 2 languages.

Scary!

Because I have noticed.. that my melody has changed..you know how in English the melody changes dramatically when you ask a question? Somehow the melody is so different from the Dutch way of asking a question that I heard myself how strange I sound when talking Dutch. Only the first few days thank goodness but I see people look at me a bit like 'oh look how she tries to be interesting'. Since in Holland you are never allowed to be or do anything that is not normal in a 'be normal that is crazy enough' sort of fashion.

Mind you.. I always felt that the Dutch 'normal' was considered to be totally over the top compared to the British normal :-)

Anyway, today again I noticed how screwed up I am....

Made a list of days of the week since I wanted to plan what sort of clothes I need to take since I am going first to Norwich where I have to be sort of sporty since we are going to do 'green' things (like exploring islands in a boat and things) and then I am going to Holland where I have to visit the notary and want to look sort of presentable.

So... there I had my list of days. In Dutch.

Then behind the first day I noticed I filled in the activity of the days in English :-)

Quite funny actually.. I have become more English than I realised.

I remember so well when I first started to live here that I got so frustrated with reading magazines and books (after I ran out of Dutch ones) because there were so many words that I didn't know and it stopped my flow. Also English television was hard to follow, always had to ramp the sound right up before I could understand what they were saying.

And now.. last time I was in Holland I found the subtitling REALLY weird and quite irritating since they don't always translate properly :-)

When in Holland I keep on throwing English words into the equation because I am not patient enough to find them in Dutch in my mind.

And suddenly I realised.. hang about.. soon I will be living in Holland which should help with talking and writing proper Dutch again because I will read Dutch papers, books, magazines, listen to TV but at the same time I will still work for an English department and converse with my colleagues and of course my English lover.

Poor poor brain....now.. 2 things can happen.. I will either become totally fluent again in both languages or totally screwed up in both.

Answers on a postcard :-D

Tummy Aches

OK.. I must admit.. Eric or not... I so wish the mortgage quote would arrive!

They sent it to me last week but Holland to Scotland apparently is quite a long way away since the Dutch equivalent of the Royal Mail says it can take 5 days to arrive.

Everything is dependant on the quote arriving soon because when it does John needs to sign, then I need to take the proof of employment forms and all sorts of other stuff and go to Holland.

Since it is almost Easter and we are going to visit Johns daughter in Norfolk (8 hour drive) I thought it would be great to fly from there to Amsterdam so I only have to do this huge drive once.

Then in Holland I need to sign some papers to get the mortgage going, the purchase contract signed so it can all be finished by the time I want to go into the house.

So ... I am so willing this to arrive now... 3 more days to go and Friday is a holiday in some parts of the UK so I have all my bits crossed but djeez.. it makes me feel SO uncomfortable!

Then of course I go back to basics, this is MY house.. anything that is difficult has just been sent to test me and then I go back to the pictures I took and start planning what sort of furniture I will buy.

Like.. do you like my bedroom? :) Note the blue glass blocks (which I love so much!) and it is so sexy, they have lights inside!



It will all be OK