My new favourite sport is snowboarding!!! It's unfortunate however, that I've only discovered this right at the end of winter :(

For the last couple of weekends I've gone with some friends from work (Jurgen and Jereon - Limburgers rock!) to some indoor ski slopes. I had a fantastic time and I'm keen to keep going! Fortunately the guys were good teachers and there wasn't too much carnage to begin with... only when I started to get a bit too confident did I really hurt myself (wrist and 'tailbone' for those who are interested!)

Last weekend I caught up with an old friend from Tassie, Andrew, who now lives with his wife Cali in Amsterdam. I had a great time catching up - sharing way too much information, watching Wales lose the rugby (that actually was't that fun!) going to their church and eating apple cake and cream (it was "Lekker" = delicious)

Tomorrow I'm off to Ireland to see the sights of Galway and catch up with Bridge. I'm not expecting great weather, but I am looking forward to a fun weekend and 'real Irish guiness' I've heard a lot about it!

And then in 1 week I'll back in Australia! Can't wait to see my mum (Mevrouw van Driel as people from work call her!) Dave, Lisa, Emma, Evan, and my new niece Chloe (!!!), my sister Julia and her pregnant tummy! Will, Tania and Caleb! And for some reason tonight, I started to look forward to eating off the random African/Dutch crockery which my mum owns.

From http://www.xkcd.com/

And this is my life at the moment... I'm eating terribly! In my previous flats, I've always lived with at least one really good cook (And i'm not talking about you - Kelvin!). But now I'm living by myself... I'm getting lazy :( My mum has tried to help my by sending me the Jamie Oliver's "Ministry of Food". And I've cooked a few of these recipes... but not enough!

So I am going to make a vow! I will not eat any sweets, crisps, fizzy drink or chocolate for the next month.

On other matters - my camera broke :( So I'm going to have to buy one in the next couple of weeks - but what should I get??? I'm thinking one from the Canon IS series... anyone know anything about buying digital cameras?

Ok, better go cook some couscous and moroccan lamb!

Congratulations David and Lisa!

My sister-in-law gave birth to her third beautiful child on Tuesday 24th of Feburary! Her name is Chloe Elise Haynes and I can't wait to see her!

Good Night Sweet Heart

I went to England 2 weekends ago, for a huge swing dancing workshop camp... It was great! Some of the best swing dancers in the world were at the camp - and we got taught by them during the day and then danced the night away in the evenings.

I caught up with Bridget who's living in Ireland at the moment - and I met two of her swing dancing friends, Alan and Gabrielle.

It turned out that Alan is half West Indian - like me! As you can tell... we are so black!

Check out Bridget's blog for more video's and pictures of the weekend.

Dad

I set this up as a travel blog and I was going to tell you all about my weekend, but today is my Dad's birthday... so instead, here's an old photo I found.

:)

I'm sure Dad would have been proud of me, and happy that I'm over here travelling the world, a bit like he did when he was my age. He was a very good man and he loved God with all his heart. He is my role model and I hope I can live like he did.

Greek myths and Turkish delights

I got to go for a long weekend down to Lesbos, a Greek island near the coast of Turkey! I was really looking forward to seeing some Sun, eating some nice Greek food and catching up with my friend from Tassie, Katie. I was not dissapointed!

I know Katie from school back in Tassie, and Katie has been on a month long all expenses paid "Greek culture school" trip along with about 100 people from around the world. I think the Greek government want to encourage Greek people who live in other countries to hold on to their heritage - and as a way to encourage them to do this, they fly to Greece and show them how great it is. Not bad eh!? Anyway - Katie had just finished up her time there and was visiting her family in Lesbos - so I came and stayed with her and her extended family!

* These kids are not Katies extended family - but they were cute and funny!

We spent our first day in Turkey in a small town called Avalyik. I loved this place straight away - it was warm, friendly, completely different to Greece (and the rest of Europe), and very beautiful. We met a turkish boy who wanted to "improve his english" by showing us around the city (and certain shops!) and offering us tea - reminds me of india! He was lovely guy though, so we spent some time with him and learnt a few turkish phrases - all I can say is that I'm glad I'm learning Dutch!

The next day we hired a nice little red car and drove around Lesbos!! fun fun...and we spent our final day relaxing in Mytilene and walking to tourist attractions that were closed because it was winter ... doh
A lesson learned - if I had my time again, I would have done everything the same - except the travel itinery. I don't know what I was thinking but I'm sure there must have been a better way to get to Lesbos than 12 hours of travelling! Oh well - you live and learn - and I managed to get stuck into a really good book during my journey. Thanks for the recommendation Glenn.

Kick the Castle

Last weekend I drove to Belgium for a weekend of swing dancing in a castle. It was excellent!! I'm taking lessons here in Eindhoven, and my teachers were kind enough to invite me to this weekend.

We had about 45 people come from around the netherlands and belgium and we spent a lot of time working on different routines and styles... I met some great people so I'm looking forward to the next time we catch up! I'll probably be going to some more workshop weekends in the coming months.

I didn't take too many photos, but I did manage to take a movie of our teachers doing one of the routines we learnt.