The sun makes me happy.

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Oh, yes, definately true, that the sun makes you happy. From the middle of past week the weather changed a lot. Now we have around 20-21C, with little wind and lots of sunshine. And that is a big difference to say one week ago!

In our garden it always is even warmer, because it is quite sheltered. And then the parasol is really a must. What a wonderful thing to open up the door to the garden and drink a coffee in the morning on the terrace. Lret's just hope it will stay this way for a looooong time and even get somewhat better. 

It was a quiet week, with just the normal things done. Ha, it was now just the good weather to clean our windows outside(the new ones in front of the house). That task Jan took onto his shoulders and he did a fine job!

I am glad to know, that I am not the only one who has trouble in getting to know a new phone, LOL! I discover every other day or so a little  new thing(at least to me it is new), but I hope in a bit of time I will be able to see Séverine, who will be able to explain a lot of it to me. 

Today I was rather busy, first I had my coffee on the terrace with a garden magazine to read. Those magazines I can read over and over again, and there always is an idea that comes up to do in the garden. Just love to see how other people have their gardens, specially the smaller ones. That's also a thing they show at the moment in the BBC program Gardener's World. Every week they show 3 or 4 short video's from watchers, who show what they do in their garden, or give tips etc. It is amazing to see the creativity of all those people!

After the coffee I jumped under the shower and after that I went into the kitchen to make a lambs stew for this evening. I also had quite some left over from a pumpkin and I made a little soup of it with some potatoe in it. I took a small spoon to taste and it wasn;t bad at all. 

That ready or on the stove I spent some time in the garden, repotting some things. Even went out for q uick visit to the supermarmet to get us some garden soil( and with the repotting you always need quite some soil).

And of course there is the happy news, that tomorrow Jan and I will be able to get our second vaccin shot! Yeah, that's something wonderful We still have to be a bit careful and take precautions when going out, like wearing a mask in shops or tram or bus etc. but we can feel more safe. Now it is necessary that the whole population get's vaccinated as quickly as possible! 

I am glad we can travel tomorrow with really nice weather, and we will certainly take our time and perhaps spend some time on a bench in the sun in the neighbourhood of the vaccination location(it is a very nice and green area there).

That's about all I have to tell. Now I just hope my friend Edna will be able to get on line again soon. She had major laptop troubles, may be they can be solved at the re[pair shop, otherwise she needs a new one. I was glad her daughter Audrey posted a message on her mother's blog, that edna was okay, it was just the laptop who was sick. Good luck Edna with perhaps the repair of finding a new and good working laptop. I really miss you.

To all of you I wish a very happy and safe week.

Summer (and even real Spring) seems far away

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Our weather isn;t spectaculair at all. We linger on in temperatures of around 14-15C, with sometimes rainshowers, hard wind, and for next week still no real improvement. So in real early Springtime we had a few days of wonderful weather, but at the moment............. nothing great. I even couldn;t sit in the garden  to have my cup of coffee,( sigh).

This week was a little bit, for us, chaotic. Monday afternoon we had visit from Jan;s brother, which is okay, of course. And he could help us  bit with understanding our new phone. It took him some time to find out where some things were hidden in the  options etc.(cause every phone is different, also something weird). So the afternoon we were bisy with that and some chatting too, of course.

Next day not much happened, I did some grocerie shopping, had to get a battery placed in Jan's wristwatch. we could do it probably ourselves, but it is a more expensive watch(I gave it to him when we married), so I rather let the jeweller do it. Now it can work around for about two years.

Next day we both looked around in the house if we had things for the waist pick up later in the week. Of course we found more things! If wanted we could have 3 times more, hahahaha. But okay, we kept to the most necessary, that already was enough. We started to put it outside a day early, but so we could do it in parts. Tuesday evening all was out on the street and already people were taking things from it, that they thought they could use or repair. Okay for me. Friday morning the waist pickup truck came along and hoorray, all was gone. we made quite some space in our shed and even in the house a bit.

Then there was also an annoucement from our cable distributo for tv that they would soon make an upgrade on the box. Updates they do have no influence on installed favourite lists and recorded programmes, but this time it was and UPGRADE so we would loose all recorded programmes and had to make again our favourite list of broadcasters. It sounds of nothing complicated, but it always takes a lot of time and hassle to get all again as you had it. Pffffff, and now get used to the new form of using the program. Is it an improvement? I am not completely sure yet. Some things yes, other things not better than it was. As usual we had a few question points in using so I made a call, no even two, to customer service. Must say, they tried to help me well, and friendly too. Pity they couldn;t answer to all my questions(what's new? LOL) . But enresult was they would send us a newer remote control and all would be a lot better. We had it the next day, and is it better? Perhaps. On the old one you had a few more buttons(and they were handy), but okay, we will learn to use this one within short time. 

Still, this week was a kind of learning week and I hope it is done with now for a longer time again Okay, the phone is still in view of learning process, but all those "new"things in just one week?????? I know a lot of you are grinning(is that the right expression?), but for me it is feels like too much stressing. But all will be fine, it is in fact.

I will go into the kitchen now and prepare my butternut for this evening's dinner. This time I will just boil it in water with half a stock cube and a pinch of salt. I will have more than enough for a next meal this week, I might make it in the oven then. Some boiled potatoes to it today and a pork tenderloin, and the dessert will be strawberries with some whipped cream, yummie.

Wishing you all a wonderful week, keep yourself safe!

New phone, new grocerie trolley, oh my!

 Goodafternoon everubody!

Weather is on and off a bit here. Some sunshine, sometimes rain, sometimes just cloudy and temps around 14-15C I think. so not the best weather but it could be worse. We even can sit at moments in the garden, if the sun is shining.

I did accomplish a few things this week.

First of all I called municipality for the waiste colletcion. I did that on Monday, had to wait some time till I got someone, but I have a date. They couldn;t come earlier as Friday the 21th. I knew collection could take a bit of time, but this was rather long. Oh well, we will put things outside next Thursday evening and hope they really will come on Friday. We already assembled quite some things from everywhere near the kitchen door, so it will be quicker and easier to put all on the sidewalk.And there will be some things added from the house. It will be a small clean up at least.

Then we went for a new phone. Jan did managed quite good to walk to the store, he paused every now and then to look into a shop window(he wasn;t there for a really long time) and all went well. We were helped really good I thought, the guy had a lot of patience with us, hahaha. We have both now the Samsung A02S. It is  rather big phone, but for us with our old eyes it is a good thing. You only cannot put if very simple into a trousers pocket or so. Well, we will find something for that too.

However it will take us some time to learn how it all works. We never had such a phone before, we only had those very, very old mobiles, so it is quite a difference. Of course you can find all manuals and so on line, and some shorter ones are really good, and if it will be really necessary I can go back to the shop where they can and always will help me. Or I can ask somebody, of course. I already did go back the next day to the shop with some quiestions and was helped really friendly and with patience. May be we payed the phone a bit more expensive (you always can find the same cheaper somewhere) but we have a real good service and that's worth something too.

Next thing I noticed that my grocerie shoppig car had a bit of a wobbly wheel and that isn't a good sign most of the time. So I decided to get me a new one, and of a better brand. Yesterday I found one, It was a bit expensive but I hope it will pay off the money. I have a picture of it from the web, onlt I have it in a kind of turkoise color( and you can change the handle, you can have about 30kg in it and it has a cooling bag, and a support for putting it on the supermart shopping cart) , oh and changeable wheels)

Smart looking, isn;t it?

As we were in a shopping mood, after the phone stuff(gosh, we spent a bit of money on them) we went to another shop to see if there was a coffee m=filter machine a bit smaller than the one we have now(it is a rather old one too) and we saw a neat little one but....... not in stock at the moment. The same with a small airfryer...... not in stock. Gosh, now we finally decided and were able too to buy some new stuff, also needed and then it isn;t in stock. Not really bad, we could do so long without, we can wait a bit more and may be in a few weeks they will be availeble.

So the next few weeks I and certainly Jan will be busy with our new phones, it is almost the same as getting to know your away around on a new laptop with new windows version, LOL.

Now I need patience when explaining Jan the things I found out, help! But, with some struggle here and there, it will be done at some time. Hope always is there, hahahahahaha.

Good, it is now time to look after some stew meat on the stove and then I think I first will take a shower and may be a little inspection round in the garden, if the sun still shines.

Wishing you all a very good week to come, stay safe.

One day, it will be summer.

 Goodafternoon everybody!

What a difference already the weather today and yesterday. Yesterday it rained a lot, it was cold, almost looked like it was autumn, but today the temperature is already a lot warmer and even the sun came out. At the moment there is a small thunderstrm and it is raining, but that should stop in a while(hopefully). 

Because of the hopeful sight of the sun and the much warmer temperatures, Jan and i set up our new bistro set, it looks so nice. Last week I also bought two small pillows in bright yellow for the chairs(and that is a much better sit-experience, hahaha), and it looks ever so nice and happy. Although I had to ake them off quickly, when the rain started.

Still I am happy with the little table and chairs, it looks nice and I think we will use them a lot . Also the parasol stands near it, so whenever the sun will shine too strong, we have some shadow. All prepared for better days. 

It was a quiet week, again. We had Liberation Day on the 5th of May, and usually it is a day people go out and visit markets and fairs or go for a picnic or barbecue, or just visit eachother and have a drink, but of course nothing of that could be done this year. You could say we had some luck that the weather wasn;t really good, so it did burt a bit less not being able to do all those nice things. 

I hve a link for you, telling about our Liberation Day, if you are interested in a little bit of history it mightbe interesting.

 https://dutchreview.com/culture/society/liberation-day-in-the-netherlands/

I am quite busy every day with feeding the birds here, specially the parakeets, they found their way to our garden again, and now at times in the morning and early evening we have seven of them sitting on the rosebow and eating of their bits of apple. They are still a bit shy and fly away when you come too near. Perhaps they will get used to our presence during summer. 

Tomorrow I will try to call again the bulky waiste collection service, to see if they can pick up our stuff we prepared. I called last week, but there were so much waiting to be connected that I gave up. Perhaps I will have more luck next week. 

And also next week Jan and I want to get us a new phone, which will be quite a physical effort for Jan to go to the shop. He will have to pause during the walk once or twice, so I will have to be patient. But I will be happy if he will be able to go there and choose his own phone. It also will be good for him to be out and see some shops again etc.  The guys in the phoneshop are very nice and very helpfull and patient.

So that is about all to tell for now. I hope soon the sun will come out again and w will be able to enjoy some moments on our terrace. It is about time we can spend some time outdoors, our bodies will be happy with it and also our minds. At least next week the temperatures will be aroound normal for the time of year, so perhaps 16-17C, and then hoping real warmer spring weather will arrive finally.

Have all a wonderful week, stay safe, 

 

Old fashioned customer service till exists.

 Goodafternoon everybody!

It is still too cold, but we have sunshine and when there is almost no wind it can even be agreable to sit and feel the warmth of the sun. However, later this week we will get some rain(which isn;t too bad, it was very dry) and no view on really warmer temperatures till now. Pity, but we'll have to deal with it.

Last Thursday we had a visit from my friend Heidi, and it was so good to see her again. Now it is up to us when we will visit her in her new house. I think we will wait a bit, till we had our 2nd vaccination too. She and her family didn;t had any vaccination yet.

Yes, last Monday it was the BIG day for us to get our first vaccination. we were much too early on place, but no problem, we could go in almost right away, and both of us at the same time. Wonderful. We got the Pfilzer vaccin. I almost didn;t have any problem with it, only  at night it was a bit painful to lay on the side I got the injection. And next day I had a little bit of muscle strain in the upper arm. Day after it was gone, so all went well.

Life is opening up here a bit, like shops(with restrictions too number of people at the same time in), terraces, high schools one day a week having "life"education. Let's hope all will go well and that hospitals can cope and that there will not be an outbreak of infections again Vaccination program seems to go much better now. So hope is there, but some carefulness is needed too(wearing masks in shops etc., trying to keep distance etc.).

Oh it was ever so nice to be able to go into a shop again! And I must say, I couldnt help to do so, hahaha. No I didn;t go to town centre, fearing it would be too crowded, but in our shopping street near us, it already was nice. We were looking for a long time already for a little table on the terrace(the one we had till now was really done, too low and falling almost apart). There was needed only a small one, mostly for Jan, to do his puzzle and having something to put your tea-of coffemug on. And last Friday I saw a little set in a shop not far away from us.  I went in to ask if it was on stock and if I could have it delivered. All was yes and even didn;t took any deivery costs(and the price of the set was really low, just about  € 50,00, and that is not much. it was a little table and two small chairs.

Then next morning I saw the mail from the shop saying they couldn;t deliver, because it wasn;t in stock anymore and I could get my money back if I would send them my bankaccount number. I knew that would be okay, because it was the right mailaddress of the company, but still I rather had it back in cash, as I payed in advance cash in the shop. So I called customer service to ask if that would be possible. In this case it should be no problem(it was ordered on line by the shop, the girl helped me with it and payed cask there). Okay, I was a bit disappointed because I finally found something right, but I went to the shop to get my money. Then there was a real nice lady, who said, she still had one set in stock in the shop!Wow, that would be great, onlt it wasnt possible to get it delivered, I should take it myself home. Gosh, problem, it was a too big package and also too heavy. The lady came with a solution. If I was able to carry the table home myself(and it wasn't the heaviest of ht eset) she would bring the two chairs herself by foot, because she lived in the neighbourhood, always walked to and from the work and it should be no problem at all. Wasn;t that every so nice? And the more because she came after work and it also was Satuday! Well, I was soooo happy with it, I bought her a little box of chocolota for her kidness and wonderful, old-fashioned service! and yes, at 6.45 p.m. she was there with the chairs and with a smile too.

A little while after I came home in the early afternoon with the table I went out again too buy a few happy plants for the garden, yes, Jan has to stay busy LOL! Our tulips were almost at the end and had to be cut(just the blooms, the leaves should stay on and the leaves must die to give the bulbs new energy), so Jan did that, took them out of the containers and I put them somewhere back in the garden. Somewhere in august or so I probably can take them out, let them dry and plant them again in Novemebr or so. And then hoping they bloom again so beautiful as they did this year. 

Okay, this was more or less our week, and now it is time to look after the stew that should almost be ready and turn the gas off. I will make mashed potatoes with lamb's lettuce through it to go with the lamb's stew. And we will have some strawberries as dessert. 

Wishing you all a safe and wonderful week.