To have to wake up early..... not easy!!!

Goodmorning everybody!

Weather here is still not really bad, some days there is some rain, then a bit of sunshine, temps around 10-12, but that will change coming week, they will drop to around 5 and at night some frost. all because of the wind turning to north and North-East again.
May be that will only be for a few days, let's hope so!

Last Monday Jan had to go to hospital for a MRI and because I had to have a bloodcheck for an appointment with the doctor for the goitre  thought I as well can go with him.
But his appointment was at a very early hour, at 08.00, so we had to wake up at 6.30 in the morning And oh boy, is that hard when you aren;t used to that anymore!!!!!!
We managed though to be on time and home again, I though it might be wise to take both a little nap at the couches.
Jan dozed off very soon, but I just couldn;t get the sleep really, must have slept yet a bit, but woke up with a terrible dream, not pleasant at all
Well, I stayed awake then and oh how marvellous, that night I slept so well!

Rest of the week not really much happened over here, which is in fact bad for making a blogpost, LOL, but oh so good for my well-being ROFL.

Because of the often chaning weather now, Brodski sometimes stays out in the garden for a long time and then suddenly wants to spend time inside. One morning, when I woke up, he wasn't waiting for me in the kitchen. But he often sits then in the living room too, so  went there, looked around, opened the curtains, but couldn;t find him. Strange, but I opened the kitchen door and called for him, ........no Brodski appeared. More strange.
I went back into the room and suddenly I noticed something moving, on a side table, behind a lamp there. That was Brodski, who apparantly had found a new place to sleep. I wasn;t all too happy abut it, he has spots enough where he can lie down, so I yelled a bit at him and gave him a soft spank on his bottom, yeah! That helped, till now, I didn;t find him anymore on that side table, but now he managed to have a place on the windowsill. How did he get there????
He sat under it, looking very sad, tried to jump on it, but there were too many pots with plants there, so no place for him. Sad looking again, he achieved that Jan moved one or two pots, and now he has a place there.
Aren;t they smart, our pets???????

Oh, last weekend I did wrap all the Christmaspresents that I have to send in a box, I also arranged a box at the near toy shop, so I only have to seal it and put on adress labels and then I can send it away next week. It always seemed still so far away, Christmas, but now Jan and I will have to start decorating in less then two weeks!
Speaking of Christmas, next week Thursday it will be the 1st of December and the start of the World Wide Christmas scrapbooking blogtrain.
Don´t forget about it,  I am sure there will be lots of beautiful contributions waiting for you.
And also about Christmas things: Arlene has some wonderful full kits and kits with only elements or papers in it. Go take a look,at her shop
https://www.etsy.com/shop/BabyBearDigitalScrap?ref=search_shop_redirect

Here some previews:

She has more in the shop, but you have an impression. and admit, that she makes beautiful things!!

I think I rambled more than long enough now. Time for a freebie and the clusters from Arlene at the same time. Kit is named "Memories are Time machines". And if you think it through, there is some truth in that.
A memory places you back in time, just as a time machine would do(only difference is, that a time machine might place you also somewhere in the future........something like in the Dr. Who series.... and no, I don;t follow it, but every now and then see a chapter on tv ROFL. )
Now I only have to wish you all a happy and blessed Thanksgiving(we don;t celebrate that in Holland).
Have a wonderful day.

Download    HERE

Download    HERE

For EU suddenly notice about cookies on blog.

Goodmorning everybody!

Yes, when  opened my dashboard in Google, I got a notification about needing a cookie bar on my blog, that is, certainly for the EU. A lot of explaining, seems that one is placed already on my blog.
Well, perhaps one of my readers here in Europe can tell me if that cookie consent bar is showing up? Would like to know, please.I have no idea.
It is all about privacy and such, but what changes? We all know we are being watched on internet, if we like it or not and much more than we probably know. But that notification of cookies being used will not change a lot, is my feeling. You can agree or not, okay, nice touch, but still a lot of information is gathered around and there isn;t much we can do against it, I fear.
So far this subject.

Tuesday we had a quick visit of our plmuber, who installed the new central heating kettle. I had a few quiestions about it, about a bit of pressure that it lost and such I think it is more the almost trauma  that is left in me from the old stuff(that really was leaking so lost pressure and water quickly, had to refill every few weeks at that time)
Seems all is in order as he could see for know. To be comletely sure, we should keep an eye on it. Perhaps somewhere there might be still a small leak in a pipe(most of them are new, but we have a littl part still old and they are really OLD). Okay, we will keep an eye on it, but I am however a bit more reassured.
Something funny he told me though.
Next year in about February, my plumber will open a fish shop! He will manage it together with one of his sons and his father in law(who had for years a fish shop). He said, he was getting older too and that he didn;t want to climb on roofs and that kind of thing anymore. He will carry on with the central heating stuff, so he will start with the fish 3 days a week and the others he will use for central heating placement and cleaning.
He has still two other sons, one working at the moment for another firm and one still learning for it, to go on with the plumber business, so that family business will continue.

Yesterday we had a rather nice day, so I went to the market and came home with a bit of veggies and some cheese and such. I even had some sunshine every now and then. It was a nice walk, but at the end  was glad  was hme again, I did feel my legs a little bit!!
And what about Jan? Well, I think he is doing better, but he still feels very tired and still needs some more longer sleeps and rest I guess.
So he will stay home this weekend too, and will not go to the volunteer job. I know that he is sorry about it, but  also think it is a good thing to take some more rest and start again next weekend.
Also he has to go Mondaymorning very early(08.00 o'clock!) to the hospital for a MRI scan (it is more an extra chek-up for his belly and stomach, liver and that area),  will go with him this time. Not because I have to hold hands, LOL,  no I must have a bloodcheck done. The 30th of November I have an appointment at the hospital with a specialist for the goitre I have already for years. Sometimes it bothers me a little bit, but we'll see what the doctor has to tell.
This was a bit of a doctor's visit year, as it seems, much to much to my liking,so I really hope next year will be lots better concerning health.
If that goes rather well, lots of other things are better to cope with, it seems.

Oh boy, with all that cookie stuff reading and so on, time passed by so quckly, that it is really time I take a cup of coffee and something to eat, and then later I will take another sandwich, then with fresh smoked mackerel on it. I bought the fish at the market yesterday. Yummie!
And time now for the freebie. It is named "Charming Old Days",
And also the clusters Arlene made!
Have a wonderful day, great weekend and till next week!

Download    HERE

Download    HERE

I love Strictly come dancing on BBC

Goodmorning everybody!

Weather here still not really bad, although much less than it was We have days with rain, every now and then some sunshine, temperatures real crisp around 5-6 C( at times a little bit frost at night)
Next week temperatures ahould rise again to around 10 C, already much better LOL.

Yes, on Saturdays I watch a program on the BBC, "Strictly come dancing" and I love it. It's about celebrities of sport, or hosts on tv, or actors or whatever you can think of, who are paired to a professional ball room dancer and have to perform every week another dance. And not every pair has to do the same dance the same week, so there is a lot of variety. And some of the celebrities are very taleneted in it, some others have difficulties, but that is just the fun of it. I admire their enthousiasme and labour, because it is hard work!
And then you have the stage settings and costumes and all to admire too, plus a good dose of humour to it, just great for a Saturday evening tv.
May be you like to get an idea of it I have a link for you:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006m8dq/episodes/guide
I hope you still can watch the episode of the Halloween. May be not for all the dances, but just look at the costumes and make-up, fantastic!

Last week Saturday evening Jan cam home feeling kind of ill. He had a bit of diarrhea and abdominal cramps and just didn't felt real good.
So I phoned Sunday to the volunteerwork-place to tell them Jan couldn;t come that afternoon. It seems there was a virus spooking around there, giving the complaints Jan had. Probably he catched it, poor thing.
It took some days to get rid of it, I am not sure it is completely gone yet(but Jan almost never gives any information, not by himself and very little when I ask something, real difficult hubby!), so we both thought it would be better if Jan stayed home this weekend too and first completely get rid of that virus No use in going there again and catching it for perhaps a second time, makes no sense.
I phoned them yesterday, so that they still have time to perhaps find somebody else to help with making dinner(that is sandwiches and soup and sometimes and extra for the people staying there).

I told you about the green parakeet Japie, the one with not too many feathers? He still is around, but there is no chance in catching him and bringing him in the house. The parakeets still are"wild"and should stay so. May be  can figure out a kind of little house or so attached on the little shed, where a bird could stay rather protected, although I doubt it if Japie really would sit there. 
But there are more and more prakeets visiting our garden again(of course, here they get food LOL) but also lots of titmouses of different kinds, I even saw once or twice a robin!

Yesterday  was kind of busy here, I did change the bedsheets, did some vacuumcleaning, did some ironing, made dinner in advance( and I have enough for today also), feeded the birds, did still some other things I cannot remember anymore, so i think today I will take it easier.
And that leaves me with some designing time at the computer too.
Today I have an Autumn kind of kit, named Harvest Time and I give you Arlene's clusters at the same time.
Time to leave you now, have a wonderful day and weekend and make the most of it and stay safe!

Download    HERE

Download   HERE

Getting really chilly here!

Goodmorning everybody!

Yes, definately getting colder now, and somewhere next week they expect some frost at night. We are having more rain too at the moment, so it is not quite my kind of weather anymore LOL.

First of all have to send birthday wishes to my friend Edna!(http://missednasplace.blogspot.nl/
Happy Birthday Edna, have a fantastic day.

Jan and I had to go to 2 appointments concerning financial stuff,for the time we will be pensionados. I always get very stressed about those things in advance. All kind of things go through my mind and I know I often worry too much, but that seems to be in my system lately.
Well, the guy who handles or stuff is a very nice one and all so relaxed and he sorted things out and of course I worried far too much.
I think the guy did far more than previewed( it was a orientating conversation so no charge for it, pffff), but next year he will have to do some handlings and of course that will cost a bit of money.
We'll see about that when time comes, it has to be done and it's worth it that somebody handles it who has experience it this kind of work.

Did you know, that just a few years ago, retirement age was at 65 years, but this government decided that costs of retirement payment from the government was getting too expensive, so they decided that retirement age had to be moved ahead to finally (for now) 67 years
They made it in steps so for Jan and me it means we will not get retirement money until we have the age of 66 years and 4 months.
Younger people will have to work till 67 and they even are talking about even 68 or in time 70 years of age. That is because people are getting older and the costs will be tremendous(as govenernment tells us).
But in a lot of professions it is almost impossible to work any longer that till 65 and even that is real hard for some.
I don;t think it is a really good thing. I understand kind of the why, but for people who do very physical work you cannot expect that they will hold on working till 67/68 or even longer.
I my opinion it should stay 65 years, for retirement with possiblity to work longer if you want and are able  to.

More and more parakeets appear in the garden, and also the miserable looking one "Japie"is still around. He even looks more miserable when it is raining, then the few feathers he has on his head and chest are not showing too much anymore, so he really looks like a pityful bird. I just hope with the seeds and fat we give him, he will be able to survive winter.

Today is time to do just a little bit  of grocerie shopping and I must not forget to pick up my medicins. I brought the prescriptions of Jan and me earlier this week to the drugstore, so they have time to gather them. Then I will have to think of something quick and tasty for me and Jan to eat this evening and also the rest of the weekend(today is Jan's first day of volunteer work again, so I will eat alone and Jan later when he comes home).
And later today may be some time for me to design a bit at the computer. I will have to do something this weekend for sure, because I got a message of Antoinette(Dutch Sparky) that she is putting together again a World Wide Christmas Scrapbooking blogtrain, and as I joined it every time,  will do so this time too
Start of blogtrain will be 1st of December, as always.
Okay, time now to show the freebie for today.
It is named "Moments to Collect".
Have a wonderful day and weekend and stay safe!

Download    HERE

And just because I think it is nice to have the clusters at the same time here already the clusters from Arlene!(And how lovely they are!)

Download    HERE