The year 2019 is almost gone!

Goodafternoon everybody!

We have still not really bad weather. It is a bit chilly, around 5-6C, sometimes a bit of sun. Not much wind, so that helps when you are outside, it feels not so cold when the wind isn;t blowing strongly.
During the night in the estern part of our country there is a tiny nightfrost, here at the coast we still haven;t that. Hoorray!

And how was your Christmas?
I can say ours was wonderful! Christmas day we took it very easy, did all in a kind of slow motion way and it was nice to do so. Later afternoon we unwrapped our presents from Miss Edna and we had a real good time with it. One present, no, two presents were reallt remarkable and good fun, Jan received a puzzle book with a Dutch wordsearch!! Isn't it funny to receive that from over the ocean?
And Miss Edna found me too  a fantastic thing. It is a cook book, titled The Art of Dutch Cooking, written by a Dutch lady, the Countess of Limburg-Stirum! Now how surprising is that! It is written in English, but with all kind of recipes of really Dutch things! From starters, to meat, fish and deserts, cookies etc.
Oh, I will enjoy reading that and I am sure I will try some of them.
We had lots more of things, like for Jan a warm and cosy sot pair of lounge trousers, and some yummie cookies, and I received an address book, a pretty shawl, socks, and also a lovely, sweet lookijg with on a brrom! And we had more, so she made our Christmas very special.
And I sneeked in also a present for Jan this year, a small bottle of aftershave of his favourite scent. He didn;t buy it for himself the last few years, because it is not really cheap, but I thought this year we had the opportunity of having a some more money, it was about time to do this. And he was really happy with it.
After we finished the unwrapping, slowly I started to make our dinner. And I can say it was delicious, all succeeded so well, during the savouring of it we watched a wonderful show on tv. Then we had a bit later our cup of coffee with some oh so yummie bonbons, and all was well and cosy.
Next day we went to my friend Heidi early afternoon to have a cup of coffee. I made her the stew pears and she was happy with them(I know she likes them a lot). It was a nice visit, very relaxed, I think we spent there may be two hours, may be a bit more and then went home again.
That evening we had a soup for dinner and then some french bread with all kind of meats and some cheese, also very tasty and also very easy to prepare LOL.
Looking back I can say we had a lovely Christmas.

And then suddenly, after looking forward to it for so long, it is over in a light flash! The days after we also took it rather easy, took all as it came or as we liked and now is left only one holiday this year, New Years eve and new Years day.
Tomorrow I will go out to buy us some of the traditional "Oliebollen" and "Appelflappen". I still don;t know really what we will have for dinner on New Years Eve. It will be something quick and simple for sure.

It was a kind of rollercoaster year for us, lots of things happened (as well good as less good)and some changes took place. I just can hope and wish that next year will be less of a bumpy ride and that for all our health stays in order. We surely can use that for some time.

It is all for this year. I hope you all will have a fabulous New Years Eve and good start of the new Year and I am wishing you all the best and good luck for next year already. Thanks for your visits this year, hopefully you will come back next year?
Take care of yourself and you loved ones, life is so short, take advantage of the good moments and cherish them.
Till next year!!!!

Christmas is almost there!

Goodafternoon everybody!

Ourweather is still not bad, today it is somewhat cloudy, during the night there was some rain, but temperatures daytime are still around 8C and at night also above zero, so that all is rather good. There are other places on earth where people do have cold temperatures, and like in Australia they would be happy with some of the rain.
That really is a disaster for all living down under! I hope the fires will be soon under control and that they will get some lower temperatures.

This week I did every day something. Sounded like a good plan it it worked rather well.
I am happy with myself that I settled two things that were really necessary on financial side. Now I can sleep relaxed, knowing it is done.

Finally on Wednesday I went to the hairdresser to get a severe haircut. Oh my God, how good it feels to have your hair in good order, short and easy to maintain LOL.

Almost every day I did some grocerie shopping, most of it for Christmas, and I am almost done for that. There are just a few small things I have to get tomorrow, like some bread and lettuce, and one or two fresh herbs. That you just have to get almost the last minute.
Shall I share with you what I have in mind for our Christmas dinners? Why not?
Christmas day we will have a prawn cocktail as a starter(with tiny little shrimps, called here Dutch shrimps (very confusing shrimps and prawns), made with a whisky sauce.
Then we will have big shrimps(or prawns) just quickly fried in the pan, I will marinate them first in some oil with a lot of garlic and some fresh dill and parsley. We will have a salad as side dish, may be a few slices of baguette to dip in the marinade. And probably for desert some stewed pears(but that could change still in something else).
photo shrimp 1

Shrimp two looks a bit like this

Second day( that is called Boxing day if I am right?) we first will visit my friend Heidi in early afternoon to have a coffee together and a little chat. I will bring her some of my stewed pears in a glass jar, that she can use later to put some flowers in or burn a candle in it.
Our dinner that evening will be very easy! I have a ready made soup, asparagus with fennel and parmesan cheese, then we will have slices of French bread(baguette) with several delicious meat in thin slices, like a special salami, a dried ham from Spain(which is rather salty), one or two sorts of French cheese and some slices of smoked salmon. All that will be left over from that, we can have the next day or may be even days. LOL!
I hope there will be a good Christmasshow on tv that we can watch during our meal(s), I didn't really looked for it in our program guide yet.
And of course on Christmasday we finally can open our presents, that our calling out to us already for 3 weeks or so. I don;t mind, really, it is just such a happy sight when I look at our Christmas tree with the presents under it, all wrapped up in beautiful paper, some even with bows on them. Lovely!
And the best always is the anticipation, the waiting for it!

That is about all I can tell you about this week.
There is only left one thing for me to do and that is wishing you all

                                           MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

A bit of a sad day.

Goodafternoon everybody!

I am not really in a mood to do a lot  writing today.
Let's go to the weather report first. It has been not too bad, we had some rain(yesterday quite a lot) and some days the wind was really strong. Even this morning it was blowing too much to my liking.
But later on this week it should get better, even some higher temperatures, around 10 or even 12C, which is nice.
The longer the really cold weather stays away, the better(at least for me LOL).

I had a quiet week, although I have the feeling I did quite a lot of things(I probably did so, but nothing worth really remembering I guess).
Trying to get all things for Christmas, mostly the food, as much in advance as possible, and every day or two I find something to go into the "Chrïstmas dinner stash".
Also did send away some Christmascards. It almost isn't funny anymore to send cards, because the stamps are expensive and get more expensive every year. Still I find that getting "real"post, so I mean envelopes in the mailbox, is lovely.

Although this Friday we had a sad news envelope in the mail. It was a card announcing the passing away of an old friend. We didn;t have much contact, but every now and then we had a phonecall, or little email. We knew him already for about 20-25 years. And today was the funeral service.
So Jan and I went to it, of course, it was rather early in the morning, at 10.00a.m.
Again one person of the""old group" that passed away . There aren;t many left anymore of that group that knew eachother because we all went to the same pub in earlier days. And some of them met also outside the pub. Like a smaller group that came to Christmasdinner at our house for several years, or even went on holiday with eachother.
At moments like this morning, you notice more that you are growing older.
A funeral is part of life, but still it is a sad moment.

Okay, hopefully next week I will be here with a more uplifting post.
Wishing you all a lovely week.

Christmas is in the house!

Goodafternoon everybody!

Weather here is quite good, today there even is a bit of sunshine, temperatures are around 8C, there is somewhat more wind. During next week temperatures might drop a wee little bit, but there might come more rain. All in all we still cannot complain.

Last week I fnally did a task that was on my to-do list for a longer time. I had a phonecall with the tax office to settle a thing, it didn;t take long, the lady at the phone was very helpful and all is done as it should be. I aso did almost finish another task, have to do the last bit somewhere in the next two weeks and yes, I will do that, and then the annoying but necessary things are done(only tax stuff has to be assembled like every year, but that is for February/March).
I was happy with myself when mentioned things were done. The second task will not take long now because I had a very good phonecall and also chat by net and now i know how to do it. Sounds kind of mysterious perhaps, but it i all in the financial corner, part to do with pension, part with kind of tax.

Then last Tuesday jan had the appointment with the cardiologist, finally.
Outcome: nothing to really worry about, Jan has a bit of cholosterol too much, but he is taking medicin for it and there are no disturbing results of the small test done. Still the cadiologist wants to see Jan in another 3 months to talk through how he is feeling. The doctor knew Jan had a surgery not long ago and still is reovering from it, so he wants to give him time to do so and see how his condition is in 2 months time. Seems this cardiologist was  very nice man, easy to talk to and making some sense too. Well, if Jan says so, it has to be really a good doctor, someone who takes some time to listen and to talk, even if they are very busy and have terrible tight schedules.

Thursday was the holiday of Sinterklaas. We didnt do much about it, we watched on tv a nice show with Sinterklaas in it, it was rather funny and amusing. I just had some special sweet things, like little marzepan balls, and an almond pastry, as on this photo:

During the day Jan and I already took down the boxes with Christmasdecoration, so we could carry them into the room the next day.
And on Friday we started the decorating. We didn't start too early in the morning, but around noon we began. Gosh, every year I got surprised how long it takes to get everything done andwe didn;t manage to finish it that day, so Saturday till mid afternoon we needed to get everything done. I must say I was quite pooped out. Nevertheless, the result is great again and it lookes all very cozy.
And now I could place all the presents I got from overseas under the tree! Okay, we have to be patient till Christmas, but it looks so nice!

So today I ordered myself to have a lazy day! I need to do that to kind of protect myself, LOL.
In the morning I sat at the couch and looked a bit of tv, very late morning I finally took a shower, and then sat down again, to have a little bite and watch some more tv(speedskating this time) Then it was time to make my blogpost.
When I will have finish there still is some cooking to be done, but I will not do something difficult, it will be very straight foreward for today.

I still had some time this week to get some more into Windows 10. Mostly I read a few tutorials, or small classes, and some of them were very nice and easy to understand. I will not rush into things, slowly does the trick(I hope).
I am already ever so happy with the speed of my new laptop. It is a difference of day and night to the old one!

Now I will have to think of the dinner for Christmas, I want to get the things I might need quite in advance, so that I don't need to make the grocerie shopping the last few days, because then it always is sooo crowded everywhere.
Good, that's for next week, now it is still  "lazy time", for a little while anyway.
Perhaps I will do a quick solitaire game, then prepare the simple dinner as much as I can(you know,peel the and cut te potatoes, cut in parts the broccoli and putting in the pan, season the chicken breast filet), so that around dinner time, there isn't much more to do then really cook and fry the things.

Wishing you all a lovely week, and stay safe!

Windows 10 isn't bad, but will not be soon my friend!

Goodafternoon everybody!

Weathr here isn;t bad, it is a bit colder, daytime around 5-6C, night about zero in our aerea. Today it is rather friendly, with some sunshine and some blue sky, no rain expected. Well, just about the kind of weather this time of year(although I remember others years, that it was much colder and we had snow and frost).

It has been so mild with the weather that some of the daffodil and tulips bulbs we planted already show up above the soil! It can do no harm, but if they grow more and suddenly there would come a very cold period, I don;t know what harm that could do to them. Oh well, we will just have to wait, to see and accept.

Last week I spent some time here and there, to get somewhat familiair with Windows 10. Some things aren;t so bad, but there is still a lot I have to figure out. Good there is internet where you can find lots of things that can help you, but still the fact remains I am not really good in it and never will be, so several things look difficult or to me and have long explanations and there I mostly get lost LOL. It needs time and for all patience and a bit of courage to. Hmmmmm, I have the feeling I am lacking on two of those(the last two ROFL).
Never mind, somehow I will get there.

Oh, I was in the city this week, I had to find myself a nw pair of shoes. I have one pair, that is really at the end(but they still walk so good, however, they don;t look good at all anyore) and I have another one that has a little leakspot somewhere in the bottom, so when it is raining slowly I get one wet foot.
Lately I already looked around but it is difficult to find, because I have very small feet and have to look a in the child departement. Nowadays it isn;t that bad, but still hard to find something to my liking and also fit well and comfortable. Perhaps I could find more on the internet, but I like to try on before I buy and I hate it to have to send back and order again etc.
This time I was lucky, I found a nice pair of shoes, more the sporty looking kind and there was a discount of 50% on the price because the shop had Black Friday week!!! So I have a nice pair of shoes for very little money. And if they only will last one year they served well for that money.

Also I made finally time to make a visit to Heidi. Good I didn;t go there the week before because she told me she had been ill. I was angry with herfor not letting me know. And then she always starts laughing, when I say that kind of thing. I think she doesn;t let me know(unless it is very serious)for not letting me worry about it. Very kind of her, but sometimes I better like to know, and perhaps I can do something for her. Lucky she has her mother living very nearby, so she can ask her to do some shopping, or walking the dog, but I wouldn;t mind to do that too. May be not every day, but once or twice, so that her mother can do other things, you know.
She felt much better this week and it was ever so nice to see eachother again and have a good chat about lots of things, some not serious, some of more importance. It is good to have someone you can trust completely and tell whatever is on your mind.

I also made a start of doing some important stuff, that should have been taken care of already but the hospital stuff of Jan intervened that and then it takes me some time to get less stressed again, and then I have to gather courage to pick up the phone and have conversations abut subjects I am not all to familiair with. Perhaps some of you have the same.
Now next week I have to finish it.
And what comes then???? First the holiday of Sinterklaas, but we don;t do much about it and the day after, that will be the 6th of December Jan and I have to start decorating for Christmas. Perhaps it will take a bit more time, because Jan still has to take care to not lift or stretch out too much(although it is going well with him), which doesn't matter. And I will have to start thinking about our Christmas meal this year. At the moment I have no idea yet, it will come to me suddenly(I hope).
Then I got news that a Christmasbox I sent rather early, already arrived at the address! Wow, the post really did it's best this year! Now I pity the receiver having to wait that long before she can open the presents!
Have patience and courage and perseverance, my dear LOL!

Well, this is about all there is to tell for now. Next week Jan will have an appointment with the cardiologist, at last! That to hear about the results of the test they did about 4 month ago or something like that. Well, I suppose result wasn't alarming, otherwise they would have let him know something much earlier.
So with all things to do next week, I think I will be quite busy. And also a friend called last week that he wanted to pay a visit coming week.
We'll see how much of the planning will take place, hahahaha!
I think my washingmachine is ready with the program, so I have to hang out the laundry and then I will have still a moment to perhaps play a little solitaire and then dinner has to be made. Very easy today, because I prepared the large part of it already yesterday. Just have to warm it up in the oven. Tadaaa!
Wishing you all a safe and wonderful week!