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It turned out that Saturday was a rather dreary day with constant rain. One of our neighbors kindly offered to have us over in their garden. Half of the street is lined with regular houses, the other half has free standing bungalows on a fair bit of land. We were happy with this solution and got together in their front garden. It included the impromptu hustle and bustle of getting barbecus going, setting up party tents and trying to not get wet by the rain. Eliza was a bit taken aback by this and decided to stay as close to me or E as possible (read: cling to us for dear life). A good time was had by all, and we eneded up being within budget and with some food left over, but not much.
We had 22 adults and 15 kids so a varied party. I talked with Amy, an Ameican expat who is a travel writer. They have a family with three daughters. She is hilarious, very fun to hang out with. I was knackered at the end of the evening and I had to leve around 20.00 to get Eliza to bed. When I returned around 21.00 part of the guests had left already. We stayed untill eleven, having drinks and talking. It was great.
I am gathering exprience points with regards to organizing stuff and I think this was a job well done. Go us!
Sidenote: my fellow neighbor and organizer's name is Davina. For real.
We had 22 adults and 15 kids so a varied party. I talked with Amy, an Ameican expat who is a travel writer. They have a family with three daughters. She is hilarious, very fun to hang out with. I was knackered at the end of the evening and I had to leve around 20.00 to get Eliza to bed. When I returned around 21.00 part of the guests had left already. We stayed untill eleven, having drinks and talking. It was great.
I am gathering exprience points with regards to organizing stuff and I think this was a job well done. Go us!
Sidenote: my fellow neighbor and organizer's name is Davina. For real.
After getting clearance from my midwife to carry on as usual for another week, I was looking forward to doing a couple of fun things.
I asked if E could drop me off at Parnassos on Friday because I wanted to record a bit of me dancing while pregnant plus take a couple of pictures. I was planning on doing this durng the seventh month but somehow I filled the past seven weeks with sleeping, reading, prepping the house and sewing baby stuff. And don't forgetthe long walks with Noushka and E, I love the twelve o clock walk in the park. We walk for about an hour and a half with Noushka off the leash so we get to talk, afterwards I am totally knackered and need to sleep for two hours.
I took some costumes wih me and managed to video tape three improvised songs, and take a couple of pictures with the infrared remote. I am glad I got the chance to do this while I am still pregnant: that might change any day now. Ofcourse spending two hours on this totally wore me out, followed by a couple of hours of sleep.
My student/friend Sara was throwing an afternoon party on Saturday at Parnassos (the cultural center where I teach my weekly classes). I baked a cheesecake and took the bus to the city, as E had an invitation for an afternoon of hare hunting. It was nice to talk to people and watch the performance, mostly singer songwriter stuff with guitar and piano. Sara is extremely talented and joined in with several performances. Her bellydance friends did the Layla-queen of Sheba improf and I joined in as best as I could. My movements are limited but I can still hipdrop and shimmy, so that's a plus.
On Sunday E dropped me off at the Regentess theater in The Hague, for the 'tribute to oum kolthoum' concert. Six excellent Arabic mucisians, two different singers and a handful of bellydancers gave a beautiful concert. I was supposed to be one of the dancers but due to circumstances my dance friends performed our Alf Leyla performance with two other dancers instead. The second singer had a very powerful and mature voice and her renditions of Alf Leyla and Enta Omri got a lot of approval from the audience. About half of the audience as Arab, the other half was bellydancers. I got to catch up with my friends and chat, before E pickd me up around six. He went for coffee with his mother, as dogs are not allowed at the theater and as he stated, a concert without brass instruments is not his thing.
I got to talk to my friends and enjoy good music and dance performances, this was a very good weekend. It was odd when people asked me when I was due, that I could answer with 'Friday'. I enjoy my maternity leave but I would not be good at being a stay at home mom, simply because I hate it when the only adult I speak to during the day is the cashier and E, or when all I do during the day is housekeeping.
Yes, I am nesting and doing more housekeeping than usual but I still hate ironing. I try new recipies and stuff hwhich is fun, but cooking is also very time consuming with a shortlived result. I prefer costuming, more bling and a longer lasting end result.
I asked if E could drop me off at Parnassos on Friday because I wanted to record a bit of me dancing while pregnant plus take a couple of pictures. I was planning on doing this durng the seventh month but somehow I filled the past seven weeks with sleeping, reading, prepping the house and sewing baby stuff. And don't forgetthe long walks with Noushka and E, I love the twelve o clock walk in the park. We walk for about an hour and a half with Noushka off the leash so we get to talk, afterwards I am totally knackered and need to sleep for two hours.
I took some costumes wih me and managed to video tape three improvised songs, and take a couple of pictures with the infrared remote. I am glad I got the chance to do this while I am still pregnant: that might change any day now. Ofcourse spending two hours on this totally wore me out, followed by a couple of hours of sleep.
My student/friend Sara was throwing an afternoon party on Saturday at Parnassos (the cultural center where I teach my weekly classes). I baked a cheesecake and took the bus to the city, as E had an invitation for an afternoon of hare hunting. It was nice to talk to people and watch the performance, mostly singer songwriter stuff with guitar and piano. Sara is extremely talented and joined in with several performances. Her bellydance friends did the Layla-queen of Sheba improf and I joined in as best as I could. My movements are limited but I can still hipdrop and shimmy, so that's a plus.
On Sunday E dropped me off at the Regentess theater in The Hague, for the 'tribute to oum kolthoum' concert. Six excellent Arabic mucisians, two different singers and a handful of bellydancers gave a beautiful concert. I was supposed to be one of the dancers but due to circumstances my dance friends performed our Alf Leyla performance with two other dancers instead. The second singer had a very powerful and mature voice and her renditions of Alf Leyla and Enta Omri got a lot of approval from the audience. About half of the audience as Arab, the other half was bellydancers. I got to catch up with my friends and chat, before E pickd me up around six. He went for coffee with his mother, as dogs are not allowed at the theater and as he stated, a concert without brass instruments is not his thing.
I got to talk to my friends and enjoy good music and dance performances, this was a very good weekend. It was odd when people asked me when I was due, that I could answer with 'Friday'. I enjoy my maternity leave but I would not be good at being a stay at home mom, simply because I hate it when the only adult I speak to during the day is the cashier and E, or when all I do during the day is housekeeping.
Yes, I am nesting and doing more housekeeping than usual but I still hate ironing. I try new recipies and stuff hwhich is fun, but cooking is also very time consuming with a shortlived result. I prefer costuming, more bling and a longer lasting end result.
I am not IT support
Nov. 5th, 2015 11:20 amThe friend who I did a favor for by installing Wordpress just send me a panicky email. The host changed the name of the inlog script to prevent an ongoing brute force attack from succeeding.
I wrote about it about five months ago: this is the website for the professional 2 year 'become a bellydancer' training. The one that had far to few people signing up in the past two yearshas had a succesful run on the next six months since we updated the website. I wrote an email explaining in normal people's words what was happening with a brute force attack, and that it was important to first check whether the email was genuine (it came from a company name that I wouldn't associate with the host).
Second to NOT CLICK on the links in that email or enter a password.
Third, that she needed to work the security plugin I installed in the back-end five months ago or find someone who would work it for her. I concluded with saying that since the new website, they had more students which means that the website is valuable enough to pay people to maintain it.
I knew this would happen the moment she asked. I knew my self taught Wordpres skills are limited and I would be insufficient at some point in the future. For them to sink or swim, that's the big question! And for me to stand by and let it happen, it's one of the hardest things to do.
In other sink-and-swim news, I am amazed at how little initiative people are showing. I explained to a friend four years ago how to alter dimensions of an image for online use, and she has so far never even tried it. The Fakyma dancers know I am not going to edit the video material we have. I already provide the 500€ camera, uploads to youtube, send them the files through wetransfer and cut clips into smaller pieces I was very clear about not spending hours on editing OR building a website. They have been talking about taking a course in video editing for about two years without ever editing one single clip.
I wrote about it about five months ago: this is the website for the professional 2 year 'become a bellydancer' training. The one that had far to few people signing up in the past two yearshas had a succesful run on the next six months since we updated the website. I wrote an email explaining in normal people's words what was happening with a brute force attack, and that it was important to first check whether the email was genuine (it came from a company name that I wouldn't associate with the host).
Second to NOT CLICK on the links in that email or enter a password.
Third, that she needed to work the security plugin I installed in the back-end five months ago or find someone who would work it for her. I concluded with saying that since the new website, they had more students which means that the website is valuable enough to pay people to maintain it.
I knew this would happen the moment she asked. I knew my self taught Wordpres skills are limited and I would be insufficient at some point in the future. For them to sink or swim, that's the big question! And for me to stand by and let it happen, it's one of the hardest things to do.
In other sink-and-swim news, I am amazed at how little initiative people are showing. I explained to a friend four years ago how to alter dimensions of an image for online use, and she has so far never even tried it. The Fakyma dancers know I am not going to edit the video material we have. I already provide the 500€ camera, uploads to youtube, send them the files through wetransfer and cut clips into smaller pieces I was very clear about not spending hours on editing OR building a website. They have been talking about taking a course in video editing for about two years without ever editing one single clip.
We had no plans for Sunday, as we had quite a busy couple of days last week. On Friday my dance friend Gerie visited so we talked bellydance. She's teaching my classs at the cultural center and she's enjoying it. It's a bit of a tough studentpopulation on account of the students being twenty and physical fit, meaning the classes have to be far more challenging and information dense compared to middle age students.
At 13.00 E.'s private student arrived (trumpet/horn) and I went for a much needed nap. Woke up just in time for our midwife appointment around 17.00 (all is well, we're in week 37 now) and picked up a nursing pillow on our way back. The pillow is making sleeping a lot more comfortable! We left the dog alone and out of the bench for fortyfive minutes and she didn't break down the house. She greeted us standing on the dinner table, looking smug.
Saturday we had a long early walk with Noushka in the off the leash park where we trained a bit on dummy retrieving.E. Left around 16.00 for a repair appointment for his iphone in The Hague and a gig playing dixieland for disabled people. I put out lanter s in front and gave candy to the trick-n-treaters at the door, only one family this year. Maybe more people might show up on November eleventh, during the celebration of St. Maarten. Children go door to door carrying a lantarn and singing songs, receiving candy in return. It's a Catholic holiday and we had some people last year at the door.
Today I received an email in my inbox about gardening, with a tip of using fallen leaves as mulch and compost. It was a convincing story (google: ted talk compost leaves) so E got sll excited about gettig a leave blower and a grass cutter and went to get them at the hardware store. In the meantime I started clearing out the weeds on the square foot garden and moving the remaining plants to one patch. The rhubarb, wild strawberries, strawberries and a potatoplant is all that is left now. Temperature is dropping and we're in the middle of autumn so the timing is perfect for gathering leaves and creating mulch. E. Gathered ten kubic meters and reduced it to about two kubic meters of shredded leaves while I removed dead stuff. The garden looks slightly more tamed now and is ready for the winter.
Time to huddle on the couch, eat mashed onion/potato/carrot and watchs a movie. I nave a feeling that our little girl will be born within the next three weeks so we better get stuff done while we still can.
At 13.00 E.'s private student arrived (trumpet/horn) and I went for a much needed nap. Woke up just in time for our midwife appointment around 17.00 (all is well, we're in week 37 now) and picked up a nursing pillow on our way back. The pillow is making sleeping a lot more comfortable! We left the dog alone and out of the bench for fortyfive minutes and she didn't break down the house. She greeted us standing on the dinner table, looking smug.
Saturday we had a long early walk with Noushka in the off the leash park where we trained a bit on dummy retrieving.E. Left around 16.00 for a repair appointment for his iphone in The Hague and a gig playing dixieland for disabled people. I put out lanter s in front and gave candy to the trick-n-treaters at the door, only one family this year. Maybe more people might show up on November eleventh, during the celebration of St. Maarten. Children go door to door carrying a lantarn and singing songs, receiving candy in return. It's a Catholic holiday and we had some people last year at the door.
Today I received an email in my inbox about gardening, with a tip of using fallen leaves as mulch and compost. It was a convincing story (google: ted talk compost leaves) so E got sll excited about gettig a leave blower and a grass cutter and went to get them at the hardware store. In the meantime I started clearing out the weeds on the square foot garden and moving the remaining plants to one patch. The rhubarb, wild strawberries, strawberries and a potatoplant is all that is left now. Temperature is dropping and we're in the middle of autumn so the timing is perfect for gathering leaves and creating mulch. E. Gathered ten kubic meters and reduced it to about two kubic meters of shredded leaves while I removed dead stuff. The garden looks slightly more tamed now and is ready for the winter.
Time to huddle on the couch, eat mashed onion/potato/carrot and watchs a movie. I nave a feeling that our little girl will be born within the next three weeks so we better get stuff done while we still can.
Weekend update: dog, barbecue
Sep. 7th, 2015 01:23 pmIt's been rainy and cold all week and though I made lots of plans for Friday, I just hang out on the couch and read 'Bevallen en opstaa' (Rough translation: delivery and getting back up). It was interesting and most of what I read will be forgotten within three months because of pregnancy dementia. It is quite soothing to read about other people's birth experience as it's a mixed bag.
Today E got invited for a damage control hunt, meaning he got up at 5 am and came back home at 11 am. Noushka and I had a relaxed morning, I woke her up around 9, fed her and went for a walk and then we both chilled on the couch. Having a dog is so much easier nowadays as I am more at ease and she is more mature. She loves to hug and huddle up on the couch, so I can feel her jerky movements when she's dreaming of chasing birds and running over open grassland. I love her and can't imagine my life without her. I wonder if something similar will happen with our baby.
Once E returned, I drove my bike to the local annexe of the public library. I am a huge fan of the public library and even though I've been living here for 18 months, up until now I always drove to the city center for a visit. The local annexe is about 500 meters/ 546 yards from my house by the way. It's small but they have a little bit of everything, plus a subscription to Knip, a Dutch monthly magazine with sewing patterns (They include about 50 patterns in each issue). I borrowed one issue that looked promising with the idea of making some maternity clothes from the knitted fabric I have lying around. I left my bike at the bike repair shop as it is in need of a new mudguard on the front wheel and found out that they register bikes per address, and this bike wasn't registered yet. E bought his electric bike at the shop, I had my folding bike in for repairs but this bike managed to drive around unregistered. No longer! I walked home, I thought that we really did a great job at choosing where to live. In a radius of 500 meter, we have a small shopping center (like, six shops), a grocery store, a couple of restaurants and a bus stop. The ice cream shop on the corner sells delicious home made ice cream and our street is quiet, green and has a children's playground next to it.
On Sunday we had a barbecue at the place where E teaches hunting horn. He started teahing there seventeen ear go and cently deided that he wants to stop teaching there, due to life changes,the long commute and the low pay (he receives 25 euro for one hour of class. For his other class he receives 55 euro for one hour). Since it's a hunting lodge type of thing in someone's backyard, Jaap made a tiny shooting range for airguns. I shot an airgunb for the first time and I wasn't half bad at it. Since guns are uncommon in The Netherlands, I didn't take pictures. It's hard enough to navigate through the nunting debate because E is a damage control hunter.
They thanked E for all the years of trying to teach them how to play the horn, candidly joking about their lack of talent and love of hanging out and having a drink. It's more about meeting other guys to hang out with as their musical skills are shaky at best.The barbecue was nice and I drove back home, very, very tired. It was a good weekend.
Today E got invited for a damage control hunt, meaning he got up at 5 am and came back home at 11 am. Noushka and I had a relaxed morning, I woke her up around 9, fed her and went for a walk and then we both chilled on the couch. Having a dog is so much easier nowadays as I am more at ease and she is more mature. She loves to hug and huddle up on the couch, so I can feel her jerky movements when she's dreaming of chasing birds and running over open grassland. I love her and can't imagine my life without her. I wonder if something similar will happen with our baby.
Once E returned, I drove my bike to the local annexe of the public library. I am a huge fan of the public library and even though I've been living here for 18 months, up until now I always drove to the city center for a visit. The local annexe is about 500 meters/ 546 yards from my house by the way. It's small but they have a little bit of everything, plus a subscription to Knip, a Dutch monthly magazine with sewing patterns (They include about 50 patterns in each issue). I borrowed one issue that looked promising with the idea of making some maternity clothes from the knitted fabric I have lying around. I left my bike at the bike repair shop as it is in need of a new mudguard on the front wheel and found out that they register bikes per address, and this bike wasn't registered yet. E bought his electric bike at the shop, I had my folding bike in for repairs but this bike managed to drive around unregistered. No longer! I walked home, I thought that we really did a great job at choosing where to live. In a radius of 500 meter, we have a small shopping center (like, six shops), a grocery store, a couple of restaurants and a bus stop. The ice cream shop on the corner sells delicious home made ice cream and our street is quiet, green and has a children's playground next to it.
On Sunday we had a barbecue at the place where E teaches hunting horn. He started teahing there seventeen ear go and cently deided that he wants to stop teaching there, due to life changes,the long commute and the low pay (he receives 25 euro for one hour of class. For his other class he receives 55 euro for one hour). Since it's a hunting lodge type of thing in someone's backyard, Jaap made a tiny shooting range for airguns. I shot an airgunb for the first time and I wasn't half bad at it. Since guns are uncommon in The Netherlands, I didn't take pictures. It's hard enough to navigate through the nunting debate because E is a damage control hunter.
They thanked E for all the years of trying to teach them how to play the horn, candidly joking about their lack of talent and love of hanging out and having a drink. It's more about meeting other guys to hang out with as their musical skills are shaky at best.The barbecue was nice and I drove back home, very, very tired. It was a good weekend.
Bellydance on the beach
Aug. 24th, 2015 10:11 pmLast weekend was our annual 'bellydance on the beach' event. Each year we organize this event, and each year there's a reason why it doesn't work out as intended. The first year we only had five participants (while seven lf us prepared). The second year we were kindly asked to leave the premessis, turned out they closed the lake beach for the night.
The third year it rained. Last year we cancelled because the weather prediction was cold, wind and rain. So... What happened this year?
This year it was perfect. Granted, the location was a bit far off from Utrecht (about an hour by car) but it was a real beach at the seaside. We rented a small cottage for us to stay, having a sort of sleepover with all the sense of bellydance ladies. Weehee! The weather was perfect, sunny with some wind but not too much. E. Drove me and Nansi to the beach and went off to do other stuff, coming back on Sunday to pick us up. We explored the cottage which was nice, with two bedrooms upstairs and a large living room, small kitchen and a terrace in the back. One of the participants was kind enough to drive me,Ellen (who has chronic fatigue from surviving cancer) and most of the heavy stuff to the beach.
We set up camp on a beach filled with other people. Roos and Gerie felt a bit self concious about making noise and being among so many people but we really didn't want to drag all our stuff through the sand for another 300-500 m. We were an amusing sight as we weren't that good at raising windshields or anchoring parasols.
Sixteen people signed up and they arrived around 15.00, after we practiced our group dance. Eveybody brought food and drinks. After a welcome, Gerie started with a mermaid workshop which meant lying on your belly on the beach and doing arm work and flipping an imaginary tail. I didn't join because lying on my belly is not adviced for pregnant women, and also it was far more amusing to take pictures and video.
The second workshop was zills with Roos, which went over well except at a certain point the combination got a bit too complocated and people lost the rhythm. Might be because the music wasn't loud enough or our because our drummers were not very experienced drummers (playing a slow basic maqsoum, but unsteady and rather soft). The third workshop was a bit of overkill as people rather would have sat and chatted and watched performances. Marjan did a burlesque type workshop eith parasols and people were getting giddy, waving their parasol around.
In retrospect, a smaller program would have worked better. Ah well, it was still great to be there! After a short break Linda performed a song, essentially asking everyone to join her (she's such a lovely dancer, she doesn't need to be shy). SoB did out zills and drums only dancer, SoB without me did the habibi dance they did at our wedding last year which was super cute, while Ellen and I blew soap bubbles on the side for special effects.
By that time we finished and spend another hour or so on the beach, dancing and taking pictures and having fun. It was prefect, exactly how we hoped it would be. We dragged all the stuff back to the cottage and sat in the backyard, drinking wine (not me), eating chocolate and talking. I was very, very tired at that point but managed to stretch it until 22.00 before calling it a night. Some others walked back to the sea for a midnight skinny dip but it was still quite busy at the seaside. I shared a room wit Roos, who is a loud but constent snorer. I on the other hand make squirrel sounds in my sleep and sometimes talk. I had the weirdest dream, about going to university and dating a fellow student who was blond. Not someone I know so it was extra weird. I didn't sleep well in a strange bed and a strange house.
On Sunday morning we had breakfast with all seven of us before heading out to the beach again. It was lovely weather and we did some more walking, talking and some of us swimming. Not me, I parked myself in a beach chair and didn't move much. I was having a blast but man I was tired. We had a kate brunch at the cottage and E arrived around 15.00 to pick Nansi and me up. It was long enough for me, some of the others were staying for an extra night. It was great to get the holiday feeling with such great weather, so close to home. I still had the sand and salt of the beach on my skin and our dog was very pleased to see me again and lick my legs because they tasted like the sea.
I have a lot of video and photo material to remember this weekend. I look more pregnant than I feel but at six and a half months I am rapidly expanding. This weekend was perfectly timed, as I am getting more tired by the day. I have no stretch marks (yet) but it is getting harder to see my feet, to get up, roll over, to ride my bike. E is very sweet and accomodating, while I was on the beach he cleared out the nursery and put the dressing table up. I need to go on a shopping trip soon to get the remaining items we need.
The third year it rained. Last year we cancelled because the weather prediction was cold, wind and rain. So... What happened this year?
This year it was perfect. Granted, the location was a bit far off from Utrecht (about an hour by car) but it was a real beach at the seaside. We rented a small cottage for us to stay, having a sort of sleepover with all the sense of bellydance ladies. Weehee! The weather was perfect, sunny with some wind but not too much. E. Drove me and Nansi to the beach and went off to do other stuff, coming back on Sunday to pick us up. We explored the cottage which was nice, with two bedrooms upstairs and a large living room, small kitchen and a terrace in the back. One of the participants was kind enough to drive me,Ellen (who has chronic fatigue from surviving cancer) and most of the heavy stuff to the beach.
We set up camp on a beach filled with other people. Roos and Gerie felt a bit self concious about making noise and being among so many people but we really didn't want to drag all our stuff through the sand for another 300-500 m. We were an amusing sight as we weren't that good at raising windshields or anchoring parasols.
Sixteen people signed up and they arrived around 15.00, after we practiced our group dance. Eveybody brought food and drinks. After a welcome, Gerie started with a mermaid workshop which meant lying on your belly on the beach and doing arm work and flipping an imaginary tail. I didn't join because lying on my belly is not adviced for pregnant women, and also it was far more amusing to take pictures and video.
The second workshop was zills with Roos, which went over well except at a certain point the combination got a bit too complocated and people lost the rhythm. Might be because the music wasn't loud enough or our because our drummers were not very experienced drummers (playing a slow basic maqsoum, but unsteady and rather soft). The third workshop was a bit of overkill as people rather would have sat and chatted and watched performances. Marjan did a burlesque type workshop eith parasols and people were getting giddy, waving their parasol around.
In retrospect, a smaller program would have worked better. Ah well, it was still great to be there! After a short break Linda performed a song, essentially asking everyone to join her (she's such a lovely dancer, she doesn't need to be shy). SoB did out zills and drums only dancer, SoB without me did the habibi dance they did at our wedding last year which was super cute, while Ellen and I blew soap bubbles on the side for special effects.
By that time we finished and spend another hour or so on the beach, dancing and taking pictures and having fun. It was prefect, exactly how we hoped it would be. We dragged all the stuff back to the cottage and sat in the backyard, drinking wine (not me), eating chocolate and talking. I was very, very tired at that point but managed to stretch it until 22.00 before calling it a night. Some others walked back to the sea for a midnight skinny dip but it was still quite busy at the seaside. I shared a room wit Roos, who is a loud but constent snorer. I on the other hand make squirrel sounds in my sleep and sometimes talk. I had the weirdest dream, about going to university and dating a fellow student who was blond. Not someone I know so it was extra weird. I didn't sleep well in a strange bed and a strange house.
On Sunday morning we had breakfast with all seven of us before heading out to the beach again. It was lovely weather and we did some more walking, talking and some of us swimming. Not me, I parked myself in a beach chair and didn't move much. I was having a blast but man I was tired. We had a kate brunch at the cottage and E arrived around 15.00 to pick Nansi and me up. It was long enough for me, some of the others were staying for an extra night. It was great to get the holiday feeling with such great weather, so close to home. I still had the sand and salt of the beach on my skin and our dog was very pleased to see me again and lick my legs because they tasted like the sea.
I have a lot of video and photo material to remember this weekend. I look more pregnant than I feel but at six and a half months I am rapidly expanding. This weekend was perfectly timed, as I am getting more tired by the day. I have no stretch marks (yet) but it is getting harder to see my feet, to get up, roll over, to ride my bike. E is very sweet and accomodating, while I was on the beach he cleared out the nursery and put the dressing table up. I need to go on a shopping trip soon to get the remaining items we need.
BBQ was fun!
Jul. 17th, 2015 02:37 pmWe started early with people arriving around 16.00. Two of our friends brought their kids, both of them have two blond haired daughters who quickly tried to take advantage of the open cookiejar on the table, and who demanded more apple juice. I had a silent pact with their mothers and gave them a small plastic cup and diluted their juice with water. Muwahahahaha.
That was kind of busy, also because the dog plus the kids was also demanding our attention. She'll have to get used to it, though a 24/7 kid in the house is probably different compared to four visiting girls in various ages. The vegan quiches and salads were a hit, despite the mango not being ripe, so I made an avocado/melon salad instead. I have to admit that by eight ó clock I was knackered and I didn't have much energy for chatting during the rest of the evening. At that point, some of the parents left to get the kids to bed.
The brass players did an hour of playing together which sounded okay most of the time. Confusion about what song they were playing was causing some dissonants here and there. It was fun and it made me happy to see E. enjoy himself. It really was a dream he harbored for many years, to have a garden and people over and play together outside. He drank a bit too much, as he was unsteady on his feet after the last guests left. But he is a happy, laid back person when drunk. He does want to talk all the time, but I fell asleep so it didn't bother me.I take it as a good sign that my husband wants to talk to me because he enjoys or conversation.
I did most of the cleaning up during the party so our house is relatively clean and orderly. One of E.'s friends brought us baby stuff they will no longer need and we added it to the mountain. It is taking on epic proportions in my dance room, I hope E. can finish the attic soon so we can start with the nursery. I am planning all kinds of tea visits with friends right now, thinking that at this stage I am still mobile and I can drive a car (the bicycle is giving me pelvic pain unfortunately) and I am still relatively in a happy mood. Pregnancy symptoms are making me kind of grumpy and I can imagine it gettign worse in the last trimester.
That was kind of busy, also because the dog plus the kids was also demanding our attention. She'll have to get used to it, though a 24/7 kid in the house is probably different compared to four visiting girls in various ages. The vegan quiches and salads were a hit, despite the mango not being ripe, so I made an avocado/melon salad instead. I have to admit that by eight ó clock I was knackered and I didn't have much energy for chatting during the rest of the evening. At that point, some of the parents left to get the kids to bed.
The brass players did an hour of playing together which sounded okay most of the time. Confusion about what song they were playing was causing some dissonants here and there. It was fun and it made me happy to see E. enjoy himself. It really was a dream he harbored for many years, to have a garden and people over and play together outside. He drank a bit too much, as he was unsteady on his feet after the last guests left. But he is a happy, laid back person when drunk. He does want to talk all the time, but I fell asleep so it didn't bother me.I take it as a good sign that my husband wants to talk to me because he enjoys or conversation.
I did most of the cleaning up during the party so our house is relatively clean and orderly. One of E.'s friends brought us baby stuff they will no longer need and we added it to the mountain. It is taking on epic proportions in my dance room, I hope E. can finish the attic soon so we can start with the nursery. I am planning all kinds of tea visits with friends right now, thinking that at this stage I am still mobile and I can drive a car (the bicycle is giving me pelvic pain unfortunately) and I am still relatively in a happy mood. Pregnancy symptoms are making me kind of grumpy and I can imagine it gettign worse in the last trimester.
First barbecue of the summer!
Jul. 16th, 2015 10:57 amI am very excited because tonight we've invited friends over and we're going to have a barbecue in our backyard!
Due to pregnancy, the remodelling, suhaila intensive and other things we haven't had a barbecue yet. It's already half July and the summers over here are mostly cold and wet, so every chance of catching a bit of sunshine is a good one. Last night I was up all evening trying out new vegetarian recipies because several people are vegetarian. Eduard is in charge of the meat. He's doing something with hare, roe and goose. Him being a huntsman means we're eating less meat, but what we eat is organic and a bit off the trodden path.
I am the person in charge of the vegetables, salads and cheeses. I made a Provencale quiche (roasted vegetables, cheese free due to allergies of E), a quiche with spinach, feta and blue cheese (I have high hopes for this one), a couscous salad with spring onion, tomatoe, olives and mint and an avocado and mango salad. see, I can actually cook if I make an effort, it just seems pointless to spend extra energy on cooking most of the time. Cooking and homemaking does make me feel all warm and cozy on the inside nowadays.
Despite me being a bit social anxious I really look forward to having guests. I know them (They played brass quintet at our wedding) and I expect that a lot of the conversation will probably be about work, family and kids and such. No awkward fumbling for conversation topics, yay! When I'm tired I can go upstairs and take a nap or just read for a while and nobody will think I'm weird.
Another reason why I am so excited is because E worked really hard on finishing the attic in time for the bbq, this event is also symbol of finishing the attic and getting started on the nursery. Right on time as my hormones are all over the place and doing babystuff seems to easy my anxiety and sense of impending doom.
Due to pregnancy, the remodelling, suhaila intensive and other things we haven't had a barbecue yet. It's already half July and the summers over here are mostly cold and wet, so every chance of catching a bit of sunshine is a good one. Last night I was up all evening trying out new vegetarian recipies because several people are vegetarian. Eduard is in charge of the meat. He's doing something with hare, roe and goose. Him being a huntsman means we're eating less meat, but what we eat is organic and a bit off the trodden path.
I am the person in charge of the vegetables, salads and cheeses. I made a Provencale quiche (roasted vegetables, cheese free due to allergies of E), a quiche with spinach, feta and blue cheese (I have high hopes for this one), a couscous salad with spring onion, tomatoe, olives and mint and an avocado and mango salad. see, I can actually cook if I make an effort, it just seems pointless to spend extra energy on cooking most of the time. Cooking and homemaking does make me feel all warm and cozy on the inside nowadays.
Despite me being a bit social anxious I really look forward to having guests. I know them (They played brass quintet at our wedding) and I expect that a lot of the conversation will probably be about work, family and kids and such. No awkward fumbling for conversation topics, yay! When I'm tired I can go upstairs and take a nap or just read for a while and nobody will think I'm weird.
Another reason why I am so excited is because E worked really hard on finishing the attic in time for the bbq, this event is also symbol of finishing the attic and getting started on the nursery. Right on time as my hormones are all over the place and doing babystuff seems to easy my anxiety and sense of impending doom.
I am pregnant
Dec. 14th, 2014 02:20 pmI had to keep it under the lid because it is adviced to wait with making it public until the tenth week. However, I am closing in on the tenth week with an echo next Tuesday. We are both very excited, happy and a bit stunned that we can actually make a new human being.
I was very tired between the first day of the pregnancy up till now. It is residing though, which is great. Some nausea but not so bad as to lock myself into the bathroom and hug the toilet. Any idea how hard it is to keep your mouth shut about being pregnant? We did ofcourse tell my and his mother first. I send a picture of the positive test to my mother through wathsapp, she then had to figure out what it meant as she was pregnant in the era that home pregnancy tests were expensive and not widely used.
I told the Dalla Dream Dancers two weeks ago because we were planning for 2015. I told the sense of bellydance group two weeks ago when they came over to my house for food and fun. I asked the cultural center if it was okay for me to hire a replacement in april-may and ofcourse everyone then started congratulating me during the dress rehearsal... In front of my students.
The past four days were so much fun, despite some setbacks and several performances that included people leaving because other parts of the program were starting. My students gave me a handcrocheted baby blanket in greens and off white. They also gave me a panda plushie with fake lashes, glitter eyeliner, blue nail polish and a bellydance costume from the same fabric as our troupe costume. It was such a pleasure to see our work reflected i. Audience appreciation. We are all a bit in shock that the shows are behind us. I have a ton of video material (5 hours) and pictures to go through in the next month or so. And plans for stuff I want to do when I am not able to dance/ teach.
I am hoping that being a bellydancer will help me stay healthy and happy during my pregnancy and birth but there is no way of telling if it will make a difference. Right now I am devouring a couple of bellydance/yoga dvds because it makes sense to start in the early stages. Our consultation bureau is nice though a bit puzzled about my questions about dancing during pregnancy. Usually they have woman who move too little instead of too much.
I don't have a due date yet, but it will be somewhere in July 2015.
I was very tired between the first day of the pregnancy up till now. It is residing though, which is great. Some nausea but not so bad as to lock myself into the bathroom and hug the toilet. Any idea how hard it is to keep your mouth shut about being pregnant? We did ofcourse tell my and his mother first. I send a picture of the positive test to my mother through wathsapp, she then had to figure out what it meant as she was pregnant in the era that home pregnancy tests were expensive and not widely used.
I told the Dalla Dream Dancers two weeks ago because we were planning for 2015. I told the sense of bellydance group two weeks ago when they came over to my house for food and fun. I asked the cultural center if it was okay for me to hire a replacement in april-may and ofcourse everyone then started congratulating me during the dress rehearsal... In front of my students.
The past four days were so much fun, despite some setbacks and several performances that included people leaving because other parts of the program were starting. My students gave me a handcrocheted baby blanket in greens and off white. They also gave me a panda plushie with fake lashes, glitter eyeliner, blue nail polish and a bellydance costume from the same fabric as our troupe costume. It was such a pleasure to see our work reflected i. Audience appreciation. We are all a bit in shock that the shows are behind us. I have a ton of video material (5 hours) and pictures to go through in the next month or so. And plans for stuff I want to do when I am not able to dance/ teach.
I am hoping that being a bellydancer will help me stay healthy and happy during my pregnancy and birth but there is no way of telling if it will make a difference. Right now I am devouring a couple of bellydance/yoga dvds because it makes sense to start in the early stages. Our consultation bureau is nice though a bit puzzled about my questions about dancing during pregnancy. Usually they have woman who move too little instead of too much.
I don't have a due date yet, but it will be somewhere in July 2015.
Bachelorette party
Jul. 14th, 2014 12:31 pmAfter doing henparties for over seven years now, it was finally time for my own bachelorette party! With lots of effort from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ikaiya on organizing the whole thing and getting everyone together, I drove my bike to her house around 13.00.
I knew nothing about the activities and was pleasantly surprised when we arrived at the place, with a lot of jewelry supplies set out. We made bracelets and talked, I made a wedding bracelet (pearl, green and purple) and one to match my outfit (red and black with key and heart charms). Afterwards we went to a nearby park where everyone brought out their homemade goodness and we had a picknick. It was enjoyable and a lot of fun and most importantly, within budget of all attending. The homemade hummus and homemade guacamole were absolutely divine, I have to start making those myself!
It was an alround good day, as I started with running 6,47km and for the first time since I started running in 2009, I did a couple of sprints. Sprinting feels really good, like trying to take off and fly away. I have no idea how fast my sprint is in reality but it felt wonderful.
ikaiya on organizing the whole thing and getting everyone together, I drove my bike to her house around 13.00.I knew nothing about the activities and was pleasantly surprised when we arrived at the place, with a lot of jewelry supplies set out. We made bracelets and talked, I made a wedding bracelet (pearl, green and purple) and one to match my outfit (red and black with key and heart charms). Afterwards we went to a nearby park where everyone brought out their homemade goodness and we had a picknick. It was enjoyable and a lot of fun and most importantly, within budget of all attending. The homemade hummus and homemade guacamole were absolutely divine, I have to start making those myself!
It was an alround good day, as I started with running 6,47km and for the first time since I started running in 2009, I did a couple of sprints. Sprinting feels really good, like trying to take off and fly away. I have no idea how fast my sprint is in reality but it felt wonderful.
Many things make a post
May. 19th, 2014 11:02 amI did many, many things in the past couple of days so I am going to make it as short as possible.
1. Thursday: Open stage finale
Fakyma performed at the open stage finale and we didn't win because all the other acts were awesome too. A stretchy dancer with a hoop dance act took away the audience's vote. However, it was good practice for us to be on such a big stage and we had fun doing this.
2. Friday: beer festival
I usually don't drink beer but my coworker send an open invitation to our department for anyone who was willing to join. Out of sixty people, him and me went. It was fun and way more tasty than I expected. He is sort of my mentor/coach at work and we were later joined by his wife and adult son who were good fun to hang out with. We scored some awesome Mexican for at Popocatepetl which is bad if you want to lose weight. It tasted SO GOOD.
3. Saturday: Fakyma photoshoot
I had the pleasure of meeting my lovely dance friends for the third time that week for a photoshoot at the theatre. It was TFP and we brought way too many costume changes. The photographer (Tessa) is the graphic designer of the theater and she wanted to experiment with some other concepts. And I don't mean the usual 'picture with your top off' that a lot of male photographers like to suggest but rather the more artistic things like working with shadows and strange poses to create an estranging effect. We were willing to oblige and I will share the results when they are available. We have a couple of good shots for promo pictures, solo pictures and us having fun.
4. Sunday: Working in the garden and a visit to a retired goldsmith
Remember the jungle that was our garden and our selfimposed goal of finishing the pavement in the backyard before May 24th? The weather was warm and dry, we got up early on sunday (ugh) to first carry a lot of sand into the backyard to heighten and even it out. We started paving together but E. had to play a Schubert concert so I did a bit of paving on my own and totally took credit for it on facebook. When E. returned we had some fun about it as he did most of the work with carrying sand and evening things out. Also, he can pave three times as fast as I because he is much stronger. Curse my frail spaghetti arms!
In the evening we visited Albert and Vera, who are retired goldsmiths. Albert happens to be a hunter too and was a student of E. We sat in their backyard, talked, admired his garage-turned-into-goldsmith-workplace and in the end settled on plain golden wedding bands with a little diamond in mine. E.s wedding band is broader, and Albert is going to make them and stamp it with his masterstamp. Pretty cool all in all.
Bonus! Wedding invitations nightmare
The graphic designer that Eduard knows send us a proof and I hate it. Except that I didn't know how much I hated it until I had vivid nightmares about it on Saturday. See, it's a traditional card with a couple kissing underneath a willow and swans to the side. It is nothing like the examples that I send in. I was way too kind in my first reaction becase I want to send this thing our at the end of May and need to schedule a meeting so we can sit together and discuss/draw. I seem to be turning into a sort of bridezilla despite my best efforts not to.
1. Thursday: Open stage finale
Fakyma performed at the open stage finale and we didn't win because all the other acts were awesome too. A stretchy dancer with a hoop dance act took away the audience's vote. However, it was good practice for us to be on such a big stage and we had fun doing this.
2. Friday: beer festival
I usually don't drink beer but my coworker send an open invitation to our department for anyone who was willing to join. Out of sixty people, him and me went. It was fun and way more tasty than I expected. He is sort of my mentor/coach at work and we were later joined by his wife and adult son who were good fun to hang out with. We scored some awesome Mexican for at Popocatepetl which is bad if you want to lose weight. It tasted SO GOOD.
3. Saturday: Fakyma photoshoot
I had the pleasure of meeting my lovely dance friends for the third time that week for a photoshoot at the theatre. It was TFP and we brought way too many costume changes. The photographer (Tessa) is the graphic designer of the theater and she wanted to experiment with some other concepts. And I don't mean the usual 'picture with your top off' that a lot of male photographers like to suggest but rather the more artistic things like working with shadows and strange poses to create an estranging effect. We were willing to oblige and I will share the results when they are available. We have a couple of good shots for promo pictures, solo pictures and us having fun.
4. Sunday: Working in the garden and a visit to a retired goldsmith
Remember the jungle that was our garden and our selfimposed goal of finishing the pavement in the backyard before May 24th? The weather was warm and dry, we got up early on sunday (ugh) to first carry a lot of sand into the backyard to heighten and even it out. We started paving together but E. had to play a Schubert concert so I did a bit of paving on my own and totally took credit for it on facebook. When E. returned we had some fun about it as he did most of the work with carrying sand and evening things out. Also, he can pave three times as fast as I because he is much stronger. Curse my frail spaghetti arms!
In the evening we visited Albert and Vera, who are retired goldsmiths. Albert happens to be a hunter too and was a student of E. We sat in their backyard, talked, admired his garage-turned-into-goldsmith-workplace and in the end settled on plain golden wedding bands with a little diamond in mine. E.s wedding band is broader, and Albert is going to make them and stamp it with his masterstamp. Pretty cool all in all.
Bonus! Wedding invitations nightmare
The graphic designer that Eduard knows send us a proof and I hate it. Except that I didn't know how much I hated it until I had vivid nightmares about it on Saturday. See, it's a traditional card with a couple kissing underneath a willow and swans to the side. It is nothing like the examples that I send in. I was way too kind in my first reaction becase I want to send this thing our at the end of May and need to schedule a meeting so we can sit together and discuss/draw. I seem to be turning into a sort of bridezilla despite my best efforts not to.
Updatery: lots of dance
Mar. 31st, 2014 10:13 am1. My left foot had an unfortunatel meeting with the side of the door. My ringtoe looks like a huge purple blueberry and I am sort of hopping instead of walking/dancing. I made it through yesterday's dance rehearsal and will adjust my lesson plan tonight to upper body movement.
2. We had a meeting for the laundry project (the belly dance theater project) on Saturday which we spent telling eachother personal stories. Tears were shed, bonds were made. We'll see where we go from here, next rehearsal is next saurday. Also, we decided to not share any full length clips on youtube because laudie is afraid someone might steal our choreography and Y. and J. are still afraid of having a video out there. Nobody else offered to do the video taping or editing and I am not planning on doing any more editing for FaKyMa for the next year or so. Screw them. Maybe I won't do any video taping either, what's the use of gathering material if everyone else doesn't want to use it?
3. We went to a 60th birthday with a 'Dutch' theme. It was okay, according to my standards of hiding out with the people I like until we left. Big parties are so not my thing. I feel like a mature, smart woman with a good sense of humor when I am in a small company, and an awkward teenager with no stories to tell when I am in a bigger company.
4. Dance rehearsal on Sunday was good, our group number for the hafla on the 12th of april is coming together nicely, within the boundaries of our group. By that I mean that we ain't no BDSS but it's a good hafla performance. Our costuming is consistent and looks good on stage, which also adds up. I just realized that I have not golden era costume for my golden era performance. Cue frantic costuming frenzy in the next ten days.
5. We got our dance agenda's out and June is going to be full.
June 1th: fakyma performs in hellevoetsluis (hafla)
June 2th-14th: E. and I are on holiday!
June 15th: student recital at parnassos
June 22th: Asli Sharqi dans dag, Fakyma performes the first try outs of the laundry project
June 29th: student recital of Roos, I am invited to perform a solo
I discussed it with E. and since I am taking days off in april to work on the garden, he is okay with me running off every weekend in June. We will have July and August as two months without extra rehearsals, or as E. pointedly remarked:'getting married in august is a very good reason to no plan any rehearsals'.
6. I am very excited that swas, her husband and their adorable son are coming over to our place on Thursday night. She is a dear friend and I miss her. She lives in Germany and we talk through gmail, Telegram and such, but it is not the same as real life catching up.
2. We had a meeting for the laundry project (the belly dance theater project) on Saturday which we spent telling eachother personal stories. Tears were shed, bonds were made. We'll see where we go from here, next rehearsal is next saurday. Also, we decided to not share any full length clips on youtube because laudie is afraid someone might steal our choreography and Y. and J. are still afraid of having a video out there. Nobody else offered to do the video taping or editing and I am not planning on doing any more editing for FaKyMa for the next year or so. Screw them. Maybe I won't do any video taping either, what's the use of gathering material if everyone else doesn't want to use it?
3. We went to a 60th birthday with a 'Dutch' theme. It was okay, according to my standards of hiding out with the people I like until we left. Big parties are so not my thing. I feel like a mature, smart woman with a good sense of humor when I am in a small company, and an awkward teenager with no stories to tell when I am in a bigger company.
4. Dance rehearsal on Sunday was good, our group number for the hafla on the 12th of april is coming together nicely, within the boundaries of our group. By that I mean that we ain't no BDSS but it's a good hafla performance. Our costuming is consistent and looks good on stage, which also adds up. I just realized that I have not golden era costume for my golden era performance. Cue frantic costuming frenzy in the next ten days.
5. We got our dance agenda's out and June is going to be full.
June 1th: fakyma performs in hellevoetsluis (hafla)
June 2th-14th: E. and I are on holiday!
June 15th: student recital at parnassos
June 22th: Asli Sharqi dans dag, Fakyma performes the first try outs of the laundry project
June 29th: student recital of Roos, I am invited to perform a solo
I discussed it with E. and since I am taking days off in april to work on the garden, he is okay with me running off every weekend in June. We will have July and August as two months without extra rehearsals, or as E. pointedly remarked:'getting married in august is a very good reason to no plan any rehearsals'.
6. I am very excited that swas, her husband and their adorable son are coming over to our place on Thursday night. She is a dear friend and I miss her. She lives in Germany and we talk through gmail, Telegram and such, but it is not the same as real life catching up.
Sewing project: red satin dress
Dec. 2nd, 2013 12:28 pm
My dance friend is turning 55 on December 11th and we are doing a semi-sexy boa dance. You can guess that the whole concept of semi sexy walking around while holding a boa is so not belly dance, though I admit to doing such a thing at a gothic fashion show a couple of years ago while wearing a leather skirt and a james brown type of top with feathered edges.But I digress! It has all been great fun and I hope that nobody will ever tape this performance because I will be forced to break in and destroy the evidence. To make things even more interesting, the costume choice is a long red satin dress with half circle skirt. The upper edge could have red feathers along the edge and there will be a black insert in the slit. The hip area will get a ruched red satin part for a small hip accent.
I got the main outline for the dress from Marjan and yesterday I made the bodice (Halterstraps are my addition) and put it on my mannequin so the fabric can hang and I can hem the skirt in a week or so.
It looks rather long in the torso but that is because the weight of the skirt is dragging the bodice down, I have more boobs then my mannequin and also more neck. First time for cutting satin on the bias, and I tell you IT IS HELL. It does drape very nicely though, bodice has no zipper or buttons but can be pulled on over the head. It has a slinky effect that makes it sort of cling to the body without being tight fitting and it is very unflattering due to being all red and shiny and not form fitting but we will look great together on stage.
That awkward moment when...
Nov. 28th, 2013 10:24 am...a local dance veteran posts an announcement on her facebook page and you recognize the image as one that your ljfriend made for her website. Maybe I should have posted a private PM, but instead I gave a shout out to the ljfriend.
Veteran dancer quickly realized her mistake, removed the image and send an apology to ljfriend. I am glad that she caught on to it quickly, I will remove the post from my facebook and erase the evidence.
How did we do these things in the days before the internet?
Veteran dancer quickly realized her mistake, removed the image and send an apology to ljfriend. I am glad that she caught on to it quickly, I will remove the post from my facebook and erase the evidence.
How did we do these things in the days before the internet?
Wedding pictures!
Nov. 11th, 2013 03:02 pmThe official pictures from Ikaiya and Poohbear's wedding are released! It's a good photographer and made a pick and did a bit of photoshopping. The pictures are gorgeous, with Ikaiya and Poohbear looking happy and healthy. But! since this is my blog, I feel free to post pictures of me and Mr.R because now I can finally show him off :-)
This is what I look like in the morning without make-up:
( tons of pictures! )
This is what I look like in the morning without make-up:
( tons of pictures! )
Friends and dance
Nov. 11th, 2013 01:15 pmI seem to be in a flow where I work all week, then do many a thing during the weekend. It has been pretty typical for me for like forever, but I noticed that I have less energy as the years pass. Ikaiya let me try her daylight lamp, I am taking my extra vitamine D tablets and I try to go to bed on time. Hopefully, this will work.
Saturday I taught my second bellyfit class and I videotaped myself during class. I look ridiculously happy when I teach, despite sometimes crappy posture. It was a good class, I got better with the timing and spacing the different content. Ikaiya wants to try it too so I am doing a class with her on Tuesday. I am so happy that I got my dining area cleaned out for the classes so I can teach at home.
I drove my bike to Nieuwegein for the birthday of a friend, miscalculating 1. the distance (45 minutes), 2. the weather (slightly rainy) and 3. when it gets dark. But I loved, loved, loved being outside and feeling the rain on my face, ifg that makes sense. It would have been nice if there was slightly less rain though, and less creepy dark lonely roads.
Then onward to The Hague where Mr.R. was packing up. The moving company is picking up his stuff on Tuesday and he will be officially homeless on Friday, 9.30. I gave him my keys and said goodbye to his appartment, and we went downstairs for drinks with the neighbors. He's been living there for quite some time and it is nice to see them all getting along and having drinks. I was a bit scared but had a great night.
On Sunday I got back into the train to Utrecht for Ikaiya's birthday. She made delicious pie and walnut-carrot cake and I totally ate too much. I've been over eating a lot lately, need to get back into sensible eating habits. If it wasn't for bellyfit and belly dance, I would probably not be moving much. It was nice talking with everyone and then I got home, cleaned the house top to bottom, did the dishes and the laundry, downloaded the pictures from my last photoshoot and send out links to FaKyMa performances for the show we're doing on December 14th.
I will report back on the daylight lamp, you have to sit in the light for 30 minutes per day during the darker time of the year. I think some of my flisties have one too, with good results. It is suprisingly light and tiny for what it does.
Saturday I taught my second bellyfit class and I videotaped myself during class. I look ridiculously happy when I teach, despite sometimes crappy posture. It was a good class, I got better with the timing and spacing the different content. Ikaiya wants to try it too so I am doing a class with her on Tuesday. I am so happy that I got my dining area cleaned out for the classes so I can teach at home.
I drove my bike to Nieuwegein for the birthday of a friend, miscalculating 1. the distance (45 minutes), 2. the weather (slightly rainy) and 3. when it gets dark. But I loved, loved, loved being outside and feeling the rain on my face, ifg that makes sense. It would have been nice if there was slightly less rain though, and less creepy dark lonely roads.
Then onward to The Hague where Mr.R. was packing up. The moving company is picking up his stuff on Tuesday and he will be officially homeless on Friday, 9.30. I gave him my keys and said goodbye to his appartment, and we went downstairs for drinks with the neighbors. He's been living there for quite some time and it is nice to see them all getting along and having drinks. I was a bit scared but had a great night.
On Sunday I got back into the train to Utrecht for Ikaiya's birthday. She made delicious pie and walnut-carrot cake and I totally ate too much. I've been over eating a lot lately, need to get back into sensible eating habits. If it wasn't for bellyfit and belly dance, I would probably not be moving much. It was nice talking with everyone and then I got home, cleaned the house top to bottom, did the dishes and the laundry, downloaded the pictures from my last photoshoot and send out links to FaKyMa performances for the show we're doing on December 14th.
I will report back on the daylight lamp, you have to sit in the light for 30 minutes per day during the darker time of the year. I think some of my flisties have one too, with good results. It is suprisingly light and tiny for what it does.
Wedding Woes
Sep. 11th, 2013 11:57 amikaiya is getting married this friday!!!
The reason why I use many, many exclamationmarks in this post is because she is my best friend and I am one of her mistresses of ceremony. I am in the throes of wedding stress and have been running around doing all the stuff. One of my biggest concerns was getting some of her friends together for an informal get together as one cannot have a wedding without some sort of bachelorette party. In my eyes (and her friends agreed with this), the bride deserves a party where she is the center of attention without feeling awkward, a way to unwind inbetween the wedding stress and to talk with her friends because we all know that that will probably not happen during the wedding.
( Pictures of things I made out of fabric... )
*yes, they having the wedding at a manor. How awesome is that? check out this page with previous wedding pictures. The last one is of a same sex couple getting married in 2006. I love living in a progressive country.
Warm fuzzy weekend
Jun. 24th, 2013 10:59 amLife has been good in these past couple of days. Warm fuzzy feelings shared with Mr.R, for example when we huddled up on the couch and I read some highlights from the book ‘Geese, eating the whole thing’ while running my fingers through his hair. I am now capable of discerning different types of geese and judge based on their feathers and bone structure if they are young or old. I mentioned that Mr.R. wants to start hunting, right? I have no interest in hunting but no objection to it either, the people I met that are hunters are all very concerned with nature, keeping the balance and killing animals with a minimum of pain. Eating chickens bred in the bio industry causes more harm to animals than hunting does. Walking around in The Hague on Saturday, the classic music festival was a bit of a downer because it was raining and cold. The sax quartet was pretty good and braved the weather, they played three extensive pieces that were very well played..
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
What to wear to a wedding (or three)
Mar. 7th, 2013 02:39 pmThis post is prompted by Misspotsit's post about appropriate wedding atire for guests. In 2013, three of my friends are getting married. Each occassion is different and requires a different dress style so I thought it would be nice to ponder a bit on my clothing options.
1st wedding: Marleen, may 2013
A spring wedding from a highschool friend. This will be an easy one: no dress code, so I go with this dress:
and a vest or jacket on top, paired with nice heels and jewelry
2d wedding: Annelies, august 2013
One of my intermediate students/friends, who is having her wedding in the backyard of her fathe rin law and is doing everything low key. no heels for me, probably a nice cotton dress + flats
3th wedding: Ikaiya, September 2013
I am her best men and one of the mistresses of ceremony, meaning that I need something practical to run around in inbetwen things, and a victorian gown in red and purple for the ceremony and party. Chances are that I have to drive a car and lots of practical things, a nice dress and comfy shoes for that occassion. For the victorian dress I need to sketch a design and plan the making off, have to finish it in june/july because august is probably stuffed to the brim.
Bonus!! Pictures of pretty dresses!
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