Cloggies Blog!: November 2008

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Hi!

Everything normal again, everything settled... cold weather as usual and work as busy as usual, lol! My friend Petrina is now in Holland and even though I don't get to see her every day like on Aruba, we will see eachother again on Wednesday, I am looking forward to that!

Two weeks ago St. Nicholas arrived in Holland so our days are filled with st. Nicholas candies, arrivals, shoes near the chimney waiting to be filled with gifts etc. With 2 little boys in the house (who still believe in St. Nicholas and his helpers).... it's a fun time! Today we went to the town of Veenendaal to run some errands and of course we met some Zwarte Pieten in the streets with their bags full of candy. Even the youngest now knows exactly how to put his hands up so that Piet can fill it up! I have to make a picture of his little hands tomorrow! Yes, tomorrow St. Nicholas will come to Andy's company. Oh no, not in his office this time because this year it turned out too small for the amount of children all the people that work there have. This year they moved 'out' and St. Nicholas is now coming to a different location in Amsterdam. Every child gets a gift (paid for by the company) and we have the music (accordeon players) and coffee, lemonade, cookies and candy... Usually it's one of the highlights of the year for our kids (even when the now 17 year old was a lot younger!).

Last Saturday St. Nicholas arrived at the village where the grandparents live... here are some pictures....

The red balloon Mauro is holding was given to him by a Piet. The whole story this year at the Sinterklaasjournaal is about the red balloons and he was so proud to get one!! Unfortunately it got loose from the thread when we were watching the Sinterklaas show at the community center... he was SO sad!!

Ok and then it was also time to do a few layouts... I couldn't find all of my mojo yet but I started again and that's something! And I hope I will get inspired by all these great sales this Thanksgiving weekend!!

Images are clickable, this is also where the credits can be found!

So tomorrow will be a Sinterklaas Sunday here (instead of most of you celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend). We will have the traditional gift night next weekend...will post more about that next week!

Take care!

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Bye bye Aruba… Disney photos online

Finally, I have all our photos from Disneyland Resort Paris online… we stayed there for 3 days and 3 nights and I had 800+ photos!! I know …just a little too many! I tried to make a selection but still there are quite many, You can have a look at them here

www.flickr.com

This is a Flickr badge showing items in a set called Disneyland Paris (algemeen). Make your own badge here.

I didn’t really have time to cool down from Disneyland, when I got back I heard that I would leave for Aruba and Curacao on Oct. 30th so only 2 weeks later! It was even faster than that, my ticket was booked only a week in advance!

From Thursday night until Sunday I stayed with Eric and Petrina on Sero Biento, you have already read about that in my previous post. Petrina used to be my friend and co-worker when I lived in The Hague in the early ‘90s. Last year, in October 2007 she moved to Aruba… and now I got the chance to see where she lives now!! I was really excited that I had the opportunity to combine the business trip with the fact that I could see her place!! Well, if you look for something affordable to stay at, Sero Biento is definitely worth looking at!

On Friday we had a drive around the island, to see the most important spots. We drove past the low rise and high rise (where most hotels are), the Aruban trademark California Lighthouse, coffee at the Paddock and lunch at Moomba’s. In the afternoon we headed back home and relaxed a little and I did some work on the computer… I was so thrilled to have the wireless internet on my EEE-pc, it worked fab!

On Saturday Petrina and I went into ‘town’, the town of Oranjestad and had a look at the stores there. We had lunch and headed back home again for some e-mail checking (it was a work trip after all), a little rest and getting ready for dinner!

Sunday afternoon we did a tour of the national park of Aruba. The road is bumpy but the scenery is fantastic! We toured a bit more of the island, had a stop at Baby Beach for a cheeseburger and a swim… I found this photo of Baby Beach on the internet:

Later that Sunday I moved to the ‘business hotel’. It was the Renaissance Resort and Casino where I had this great suite with seaview! The location was the most important, in the center of Oranjestad, where most of my business meetings were. Work started from the following morning, on Thursday I took and early flight with Insel Air. I booked the 7.15 flight but it wasn’t there so the flight was moved to 8.00 am. It only takes half an hour and there I was on Curacao!

I was very well taken care of by our partner college/company that day, we had a short drive to the office but in the mean time I got to see some of the highlights. When I get back there I will definitely try to see more! I spent the day at the University of the Dutch Carribbean. I flew back to Aruba around 5.00 pm and was back at the hotel around 6.00 pm.

My last night! Petrina and I went out for a meal at Casa Tua, it was quiet but the pasta was really good! After that we had a drink (yes the first cocktail of the week!) at the poolbar of the hotel. We chatted with a lady from Chicago (I was surprised she didn’t even once mention Obama).

Friday again, my day to travel home. Luckily I still had the whole day and Petrina had the day off work too. We had planned to do some last shopping (my favorite shop is Del Sol in the pink building) and go to the hotel’s private island. Ok, it's all fake but it’s beautiful :), here are some of my pics.

We stayed there for lunch and a swim, and then it was time for me to take my luggage to the airport. Easier to take it beforehand so I didn’t have to worry about it later. We dropped my luggage off, went back to Sero Biento to pick up Eric and tried to get a bite at Havana but the kitchen was already closed. We ended up at the Dutch Pancake House (yes, they tasted as good as in Holland!) at the Seaport Market. And then it was really time to say goodbye!

I had a good trip with KLM back to Amsterdam and was very happy to see all my (3) men at the airport. I tried to deny my jetlag and it worked quite ok.

The next day we all went to the Ouwehand Zoo where we were supposed to meet Petra and some other friends. We met all the other friends but apparently our route didn’t match with Petra’s because we ended up without meeting eachother… oh well, a next time!

A busy working week was ahead of my (again) but today is Saturday and one of the main events of the year in Holland was today… the arrival of St. Nicholas. We watched it on TV. Next week we will see the arrival of the good man in Cothen.

That was all for today, I hope you enjoyed the long story…. without any word about scrapbooking or layouts… I have plenty of pics but just no time! Hopefully time will change that soon too!

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Dag 2 op the happy island

Een rustige zaterdag! Heerlijk ontbijtje gekregen van Eric (roereitje met tomaat) en Petrina! Daarna hebben we even rustig rondgehangen om tegen de middag naar Oranjestad te gaan. Ik was gewaarschuwd dat het op zaterdag wel erg druk is in de stad dus ik zag wel wat voor me (Hoog Catharijne op zaterdagmiddag...) maar niets was minder waar. Het was juist rustig!!

We hebben wat rondgewandeld, een leuke foto gemaakt voor collega Dick,

en daarna geluncht bij
Iguana Joe.

Weer terug naar ons eigen complex Sero Biento waar ik nog even mijn werkmail check, en skype met Milan en Andy... Milan vind het maar raar volgens mij!
Hier onze huisdiertjes:

's Avonds gaan we eten bij Gasparito waar we lekker buiten zitten (muggen weer!) en van de local menu eten (Aruba combo)... heerlijk met chocoladetaart toe! Daana vallen echt m'n ogen snel dicht (sorry Raymann, de uitzending op BVN heb ik niet helemaal gehaald ...jetlag).

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Bon bini, ik ben er...

Ja hoor, ik ben op Aruba!! De KL733 was zelfs 50 minuten voor op schema. Onderweg zat ik naast Hongaren wat ik een beetje vreemd vond, wat doen die nou op Aruba. Later bleek dat ze gingen trainen op de Freewinds, een schip dat (nu nog) voor de kust van Oranjestad ligt. Petrina vertelde weer later dat het met scientology te maken heeft, haha ik vond het a zo'n vaag verhaal!

Maar goed, Petrina en Eric stonden me dus al op te wachten. Op m´n immigratiepapiertje had ik keurig 'for business' aangekruist maar toch wenste de beambte mij een fijne vakantie.... haha!! Nou nu voelt het ook nog zo hoor!

Ik had geen beter startplekje kunnen uitkiezen dan www.4rentaruba.com!! Ik heb m'n eigen studiootje met natuurlijk een tv met BVN maar vooral.... draadloos internet. En daar maakt mijn eee-peeeceetje dankbaar gebruik van!!

Hier zit ik dus nu binnen!

Gisteren was Petrina vrij dus zijn we even het eiland rondgetourd. Koffie bij Paddocks (Joan dat was toch jouw tip) en lunch op het strand bij Boomba. Verder mail gecheckt, afspraken bevestigd en bij Petrina blijkt Charlotte te wonen die bij het ministerie van Onderwijs werkt... Haar baan klinkt echt reuze interessant en toch weer een link naar mijn eigen werk!

vandaag nog even de stad in, maar nu eerst ontbijten.... gewoon bruine boterhammetjes met pitjeskaas haha!! Morgen verhuis ik naar het hotel om mijn werk van maandag en verder te gaan voorbereiden.

Groetjes!!