Vakantie! (Holidays!)

This week I'm backpacking solo around the Balkans (Bulgaria, Serbia and Bosnia)

Next week I'll spend a week sailing through the Croatian islands on a tour.

I'm really excited!

Some dutchness...

A couple weeks back, we had Queen's Day (Koninginnedag!) here in Holland. It's the 'biggest' day of the Dutch year. Heaps of people converge on Amsterdam to celebrate, and everyone sets up stalls in the street and sell whatever they want! I caught up with some very funky people (Andrew and Calli) and we spent the day selling some handmade teddy bears and other assorted items. It was great weather and our stall overlooked the canals so we had lots of boats and loud pumping music all day long.
And I've just come back from a day in Rotterdam, where I caught up with a friend I met travelling (Anouk). She was a great tour guide as she pre-empted all the things the real tour guide was saying when we went for cruise on the harbour.

I'm glad I bought a GPS - some of the highways are crazy!

Spring in Europe!

Well I'm back in Eindhoven after a big month! I had a great time catching up with my family and friends in Tassie again. I love Hobart's open space, the mountain and the river. It's pretty special! I was actually very sad when I arrived in Amsterdam, to think that I wouldn't be back for a long time. One redeeming fact of coming in to Eindhoven was to see all the trees, plants and flowers have suddenly come to life! It was 25 degrees when I got back, and I was warmer here than I was in Sydney!

Before I left for Australia, I managed hop over to Ireland for a weekend and I caught up with Bridget in Galway. It was fun to get a taste of the Irish life and hear that crazy but very likable Irish accent!

Since then I competed in my first canoe polo tournement hosted by my club. It was big with over 300 paddlers from lots of countries all converging on our home turf. It was a great experience, and I felt quite inadequate with my paddling skills.

And I've just come back from a great weekend in Amsterdam getting back into some linyhop dancing. Here's a pretty cool video I found of some awesome teachers improvising and mucking around. (I got taught by them in England earlier in the year!!!)

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.