So, there we are again. If you followed along our other visits to Curaçao, these picture will feel familiar. And they are. Everything here is so familiar now. We visited some of our favorite spots over the weekend and then just eased back into the rhythm we had last time. Work outside (we only go inside to sleep), relax and enjoy. It feels good.

It’s so good to be back! It’s starting to feel like home…

We did a little (ha! understatement) road trip, but I forgot to take pictures or was driving myself. So you have to imagine those border signs in Belgium and France.

We got to take a little break.

And after only 35 minutes, we were on the road again.

Whereto? To the north. Of the UK that is.

We arrived in Durham by the end of the day, packed up the care with our girl’s stuff, and eventually managed to fit everything in it (we borrowed a bigger car), including the plant that she really didn’t want to leave behind since she “managed to keep it alive for a year”. So this is why she couldn’t just take a plane home. To much stuff, most of it important too.
 And a bike too. Which is a funny story. She never once used it there.
In Holland we use our bikes as a means of transportation, to get from A to B. So when E. found out that her college (dorm) was about 1 km from the university itself, she sent a mail to ask if biking was possible around there. Cause here in Holland, that’s what we do with distances like that. Take our bikes.
The answer was: “Yes, lots of people cycle around here”. But we never realized that in the UK that doesn’t mean what we thought when we read it. People use mountain bikes to ride in the woods, yes. But the very busy streets are not really safe for riding a bike (no biking lanes? so silly 😉 ) and they also didn’t realize it would have been very informative to add that her college was on a steep hill, so biking down to the city centre would be quite adventurous, while she would have had to walk the way back up.
Oh well, the bike is salvable (just needs some greasing) and then it will take here everywhere again in our flat little country.

We spent the night in a hotel and had a little break from sleeping (yes, fun… not) because someone didn’t read the sign that was (clearly) on the bathroom door (forgot to take a picture of it), asking to keep that door closed when taking a shower, since the fire alarm was very sensitive and it might go off. Well, someone didn’t read (or understand) that sign and the alarm went off. So we jumped out of bed, got dressed, took our belongings and then found out nobody else thought it was necessary to react, except for one couple. The man went downstairs to ask what was going on and when we found out it was just a shower we all went back to bed.

The next morning E. said her goodbyes to her home-for-a-year and then we were on the road again.

Back to the South.

In the train and then driving again, through France and Belgium, back to The Netherlands. Six borders in two days. I’m sort of exhausted. And that explains the serious lack of pictures 😉

A beautiful, but somewhat hazy morning sky.

Lots of household chores.

Which means I need a lot of coffee to get them done.

And a lot of things to take care of this week.

And the last of the endives from the garden. Enough for two meals (I actually thought this were two heads of endives, but it was just one big one).

We had lots of plans for the weekend, but not much of them work out…

No pictures of the sky on Saturday (it’s just plain grey). This big guy almost landed in my neck because he built a web between the stairs and the containers. And that’s exactly where I had to go.

Since I had to load some garbage again. Not every thing fitted.

So I had to bring out the power tools. That made me both happy and scared.

We got some wood for the ceiling, but there’s other, computer related, work to do, so this will have to wait.

I cooked something with lots of potatoes. Yes, I was going to try low carb, but I found out adjusting to that is not that much fun (understatement) and I just don’t have time for that (understatement too). I will try again later.

Sunday was sunny.

I was going to switch cars with my parents for a few days next week, so I gave it a much needed cleaning, inside and out. It needed that. Look how shiny it is now.

And then I drove to the diy store to get some screws for that ceiling and something painful happened in one of my calfs (I had cramps all week, so I guess it was bound to happen). I spend the rest of the day on the couch, but I guess Sundays are meant for resting anyway…

The day starts with a neverending chore. You know the kind, it starts with one thing, but to finish hat you have to do another thing first. So I write a daily blog, want to add a link to a giveaway of my book, have to write that post first, want to link to the information on the book, but have to add the first chapter, which I still have to make a pdf off.

You know what? Here’s a pretty red leaf.

And the last of the flowers on the honeysuckle. I like that name in English so much that I tend to have a hard to remember what it is in Dutch (kamerfoelie).

The sky looks boring too.

Today we celebrate me climbing over a gate in my wedding dress. Um no, we celebrate that we got married 24 years ago. But this is my favorite picture of the day. We look so young (well, we were) and happy.

Okay, so this is what I look now. When I try to look good, that is. We were going out for diner.
Anyway, I’m not 19 anymore 😉

Another one from above, like lots of selfie takers do. I don’t know about this. I don’t think it will be a daily occurance…

The rest of the day I am a bad blogger, but a fun wife. So there are no pictures of:
– the nice restaurant we find after looking around (the restaurant we usually go to on aniversaries closed down)
– the traditional but great food
– the ice cream that is not on the menu, but they are willling to get us when we asked (dame blanche – vanilla icecream with hot chocolat sauce, yun!)
– the boy behind us that we overhear telling his mother “those people have normal ice cream!” Yep, sorry, little guy! ( the dessert menu was very grown up – cheese platter, creme brulee, things like that).

Such a nice morning! (that sky looks black, but it was blue)

Lunch on the roof terrace

It seems to be one of those non-blogable days so here’s a flower picture.

And another one.

What’s that in the mail? Is it… Really?

Yes! Weeks earlier then I expected, but what does it matter? I’m really happy to have this one (#8) in my hands.

Trying to take a picture of all the books (the bigger books are large prints), but it’s too sunny (no, that can’t be right, it’s never too sunny), so the ligthing is weird.

Preparing for a barbeque.
Again? On a normal Tuesday? Is there a special reason?

Possible answers:
1. Do we need a reason?
2. Yes, it was sunny
3. Yes, book #8
4. Yes, our E. finished writing her final paper today and is now officially done with her Master (she herself is celebrating with friends in Durham)

Right answer: all of the above

Of course he’s there too, keeping an eye on the meat.

And happily sucking on a chicken bone (yes, sucking, not chewing, he’s nearly toothless)

Well, that’s a nice early morning view!

Breakfast. 

Today’s big mission: turn this (accidental) storage room back into a bedroom. E. will be home next week.

I loaded the car to drop off some stuff.

Lunch. Second mission for today: start eating better. After a long period of denying it might be an option I’m trying low carb.

Look. It’s done! Ready for her to return home.

Okay, let’s take a picture of diner too. No potatoes. I’m not sure about this. I can’t stop thinking about this image… (just kidding, I’m actually doing quite well)

The sun is up a lot earlier than I was.

I happily take place behind the laptop to start writing. Yesterday I had a little brainstorm and made a schedule to write the next 13500 words (yes, my handwriting is horrible and yes, I can read it)

Things aren’t going too well though. Nothing works out.
We had lunch outside, but that picture didn’t work out either.

Flowers are always nice.

And beautiful skies too.

Luckily diner tasted a lot better then it looked.

I didn’t really get any writing done, just 300 words, so I don’t have a picture of that. Oh well, these days happen. There’s always tomorrow.

I’ve been posting these picture diary blogposts in Dutch for a few weeks now, but I thought it would be fun to translate them and post them here too.

That looks great! I like blue skies. Makes me happy. And quite active too.

I’m doing the math about my breakfast. Eggs and bacon or yoghurt and muesli, not really a difference in kcals. Although I forgot the butter and that does add quite a few.

The rest of my day is filled doing glamorous things like vacuuming.

Cleaning the kitchen.

Bookkkeeping.

And making the bed. I finished everything I needed to do today. Must be the sunny weather.

I even wrote 1000 words, to get to that milestone. Need to write 13500 more to finish this short novel.

I even made some soup.

I went up to the roof terrace to pick some lettuce and found a beautiful sky.

And something beautiful in the lettuce, but that does mean the end of two months of picking. Still, not bad!