Sinterklaas 2008

First: Preparations!
Here are the surprise-packages I build:

A globe for Benthe (who will be traveling with Hans across land from Italy to Inda, through the Middle East)


A traditional surprise-gaggift: hide the present underneath cottonballs covered in caramel syrup - for Beverly (Sorry)


Jaap is surrounded by Australians, so he gets a box from Down Under.


From his wishlist: a set of headphones for Hans


A frying pan for Gayleen


Typical Dutch (for tourists anyway;) - a wooden shoe with grey knitted sock for Arthur


A new pair of hands for Ina (mom:)


This party-bottle will be hidden and Janelle gets a treasure map to find it

On my way to mom's, sunshine in the middle of winter, perfect for cycling:

(and this is the last you'll see of me;)

Finally: time to hand out (and receive) presents! Let the fun begin:


After waiting for everybody to arrive (and people to finish their last minute poetry;) we reveal the pile of presents, yay!


Jaap is confused, but eventually finds his tiny present:)


Gayleen works in cardiology, so Sint made her a big heart.


Benthe notices two flags: one at home and one in the most dangerous part of the world. Ehm, that's exactly where she is going with Hans. Oops.


Arthur learns fast and goes straight for the present. But it turns out to be hidden better than he thought. :-p


Hans LOVES his headphones. But he's also quite pleased with all the plectra picks that where inside.


Beverly got a very fancy bag. With some lovely blue christmasdecorations inside.


Janelle is not a girly girl, so she was pleasantly surprised to find a cool beautycase with a wicked skull inside the doll:)


Mom can always use an extra hand (lol-so funny)


Jaap has done some rebuilding in the apartment, this is for future plans:)


Arthur's orange "go Holland go"-surprise cap hid an even cooler cap (great for playing golf, I hear)


Beverly gets ready to get dirty for her present (Sint is very considerate:) The classic syrup-suprise covered a classic gift: a Dutch art calender.


After he gets back from the trip around the world, Hans wants to live in Amsterdam. Here's a house.


Janelle tries to decipher one of the three treasure maps...


... and eventually found her reward: party bubbles! (actually a fake bottle with earrings inside:)


Hands come in pairs of course, here's another one for Mom.


Gayleen and her big frying pan


A view on her future student-room in a diorama-box for Benthe.

Afterwards: dinnertime!

It took us about three and a half hours to unwrap everything, can you tell we're hungry? :-D Foooood!


Mom made some very colourful desserts: dragon-icecreamcake, coffee-chocolate icecream and gingercookies.

Last but not least, my loot:


Thank you, Sinterklaas!

It was supposed to be done in a week: the window in the attic was going to be replaced and asbestos would be removed. Since I didn't find my key in the mailbox as promised, I decided to take a look upstairs. It seems they removed part of the window frame and stuffed it with a bit of crumbled up paper. Which isn't waterproof, so there was water dripping on my carpet. Good job, guys. They also apparently used my attic as storage space. I hope to talk to the contractor on Monday. It's a good thing I emptied out the area and covered all my precious equipment...





On a happier note: only two more weeks until Sinterklaas-festivities! This morning the neighbourhood version of our St. Nick did his rounds together with his musical Petes:) More info on the origins of this Holiday

Pictures from my front and back balcony:

I broke my fishbowl today doing dishes. And I could only find a blurry picture to remember it. Of course I don't keep fish in it, but what am I gonna do with my multi-eyed monster now? :(

More information / Achtergrond informatie

(Click for big pic;)

The past few weeks my apartmentbuilding has been covered in scaffolding; half of the roof has been renewed, I now have double-glazing and the outside of the building has been repainted. Last week was the first time I went up to my attic in a long time. I was so glad I had been careful enough to cover up my stuff, because the roofers sure left a mess. I spent this afternoon vacuuming. Here are some before and after pictures. At the bottom of the page I added pictures of my old balcony-door; the window has been replaced with a clear one. :(

BEFORE:






AFTER:






BALCONY (Back)

Beach, The Hague, September 6, 2008
My brother's 37th birthday! All pictures were taken by my mom. (Well, except for the one she's in obviously;)

I know this is a weird cut out, but I really like how both my brothers are standing here.


Jaap, Hans, Benthe and me. (I may have fiddled with my pants, because they were crawling up in the original and I know for a fact my ass looks great in them, so there. :-p Of course it pales in comparison to Benthe's awesome jeans. Dayum.)


Mom.


Me.

YAY! I finally found alternative underwear for my usual boxerbriefs. They are even a bit girly. And -in case you were wondering- yes, this is big enough news to post pictures about. I was happily surprised these panties (briefs?) offer as much support for my butt while they seem so much smaller. :-)

I'll still be wearing boxerbriefs (in a variety of colours;)


But I will be buying more of these:


\0/

I dyed my hair again yesterday. I used the same colour-number as in January, so for reference you can watch the pictures I made then
Here is a new one from when I removed the towel yesterday:



:-)

I cleaned out my closet and I got all nostalgic going through my clothes. I made pictures to reminisce; especially the shirts I bought on my travels brought back a lot of memories. So I also dusted off my collection of travelcaps (on which I used to pin my souvenirs while traveling) and checked my worldmap with flagpins to put years with the shirts:)

My travels, 1988 - present:


Souvenir-pins (random)


Komodo, Indonesia 1996


Alaska, USA, 1999


Melbourne, Australia 2000


West Highland Way, Scotland 2002


(Part 2 with cool shirts and the 'what was I thinking'-collection, can be mocked here;)

More funky clothes that I removed from my closet.
(Part 1 'travelmemories' can be admired here

Cool shirts I really can't wear anymore:

Judith For President


Queen Beatrix by Andy Warhol


Bottom!


The I can't believe I ever walked around in these clothes-section
No comment. Well, you can leave a message if you want. But I have no comments. *g*

From my Hawaii fase: Fire!


Colourful tribaldesign


Dragons!