More and more measures are taken in the country

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Our weather isn't too nice, we have around 4-5C, yesterday it rained almost all day, today is looking grey too and I can tell you it isn't my kind of weather. But... some hope there is, later this week the temperatures go up a bit, still it will be rolloercoaster weather, with even some snowflurries here and there(most of them in the Eastern part of the country).

All together it was again a quiet week, and I did all the things as usual, some grocerie shopping, a little bit of house celaning and oh yes, I got to mail  a Christmasbox. I know, it is early but there could be some problems with the post so better too early. Sending to the USA is a little bit more difficult, we have to announce our postsending(either letter or parcel) on line and get us a customform printed. So I had a whole list of things for the Christmaspresents, with weight and discription, and started to fill in Okay, all good, till I reached item nr. 5 and wanted to go on with item nr.6. There was no option for it. HMMMMMM??????????So I called with some difficulty custormer service of the post and asked them how to do it and have n trouble with sending the box. After a while the guy on the phone  came back to m, he asked someone else. Well, they said I could combine some items and if that was really diffcult because of the diversity, I just could enter "Christmaspresent"then how many and the weight. Thanks a lot, I had a lot of time spent to make the list in advance and now it was all for almost nothing???? So I splitted it up in 3 items, Christmaspresents the amount and the weight of the combined items. Let's hope it is good enough.

Normally it takes not too much time you know, before I went to the post office, filled in a few items on the form, signed and ready it was. USA I am not really happy with your new rules!

Yesterday I was busy quite some time in the kitchen preparing for our dinner today. I tried my hand on an Indonesian meal, probably a true Indonesian cook or housewife wouldn;t be too impressed with it, but for us I think I did good enough. I made one stew meat in special sauce, on dish with some chicken, one dish with little meat balls in sauce too, green beans specially spiced, to that we will have some noodles and also some boiled and fried rice. I is rather time consuming, to prepare but on the other hand, I think I have enough for two days, so that's nice. I tasted a little bit of all, and think it is tasty. But I must say, this food isnt something ou make every week or so, first because then it isn;t something special anymore and second because it takes quite some time preparing. So this evening we will have a full table with lots of small dishes. We will take our time to enjoy it.

Strange thing happened again. Muppet the visiting cat suddenly disappeared somewhere. Friday evening she was visiting for a short time and then wanted to go outside, so I let her and since then we haven't seen her anymore. She did something alike some time ago too, and came back after a day or 2-3. So we will see what happens now. I just hope she has a good place to shelter with this bad and rather cold weather.

Oh, I started knitting again, I bought some red yarn and started on something that should be a kind of afghan, i think, for Christmas. It should cover an armchair or at least part of it, the Christmas blanket I use for it, is a bit small, so perhaps this will look better. Yeah, just one more week and then we will start decorating for Christmas already. Gosh, can you imagine??

Only the next few weeks will not be so nice,because there are taken more severe measures against covid. Now all shops, restaurants, cafe etc have to close from 5.00 p.m. till next morning at least 5.00 p.m. Only supermarkets and pharmacy's can be opened till 8.00 p.m., schools still open, but kids have to wear masks, at least when they move around. Well, lot more measures, it all takes a lot of commitment of everybody. Hospitals are still coping more or less, but there are not really necessary operations that will be persponed. Infections still rise, so something has to be done. I wonder if this all will help enough, at least they started giving the booster injections, but it isn't going too fast. And there are still people who will not take the injection, I cannot understand it.

Let's hope that some day not too far away we will have it under control, because everybody is a bit fed up with this. But of course I try to take care and stay safe and keep distance etc. It is a scary virus, don;t ou think?

With that in mind I better finish this post, wishing you nevertheless a fabulous week in safety and hope you still can get some Christmas feeling!

How soon it is almost December!!!

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Our weather is still not bad for time of the year, today we even have some sun, but temperatures get stuck at around 10-11 C. Next week it will get a bit colder, also at night, daytime could be not more than ca. 6C, brrr. It looks as if we are heading to wintertemperatures, May be it will not go that fast and perhaps it will not freeze too much. Best is, not having snow and ice, cold isnt great either, but the slippery kind of winter on the streets I really hate.

Last week was again quiet, although filled with little jobs done, which always feels good. Jan and I di go for our flu shot last Wednesday and this time I didn;t have much bother of it. Just a day that the spot was a bit painful, that's all. On that Wednesday my friend Heidi had an operation on some veins, some spots in there had to be lasered so her blood and Flolan(her medicin) could pass without trouble. She told me it didnt take all that long but was rather painful, seems the surgeon had trouble finding a good spot to enter a vain. Poor girl. let's hope all went well. Now she has to take some rest but also needs to walk regularly, even if it hurts the first days. (they entered a vain from one of her legs). Next week she has an appointment with her lungdoctor in Amsterdam hospital, to talk it through and see if they can do something about her feeling so tired. Could be her ration of Flolan has to be raised a bit, and of course she has to cut down on some activities. That she knows well, but it is hard to do. However, she will have to do so.

I think I will try to get a Christmasbox send away next week, I first have to make the forms on the computer for the customs, so that will take some attention to do it all as needed, but I realize that next week is the last whole week of November already! Soon Jan and I will have to start decorating a bit our room for Christmas. I think I will try not to do as much as other years, still a tree and the manger will be there and some smaller decorations of course. It will be funny to see how Muppet will react on the tree and the Christmasballs. I think she will find it very interesting and it could be rather streesing for us LOL! We'll see and I will let you know. One thing I said to Jan already about the tree. Wel wil tie the tree on one or two spots to something, so that it will not fall(just in case Muppet gets really excited and should jump into the tree, you'll never know).

Good, that's it for this week, not much but nice to be able to say we are more or less okay, no disturbing things happened, and that's already wonderful to write. We still have that partial lockdown going on. We will have that for 2 weeks more and who knows what will be decided then. It is a difficult situation and I believe in many countries. No, that Covid isn't a nice thing. But we will survive it somehow, we just have to believe that.

In the mean time I wish you a lovely week to come, and stay safe.

We are back into kind of lockdown!

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Our weather isn;t really bad, not too good either, hahaha. Temperatures are around 11C, they will drop a bit in the next few days, but they say that later this week we will reach around 13C again and also night temperatures will go up a little bit. How wonderful. Now it is sometimes a little bit of sun, some rain, periods of clouds and grey looking. 

It was bad news on a press conference last Friday. Government (it is a caretaker government already for a long time, after election there still isn;t formed a new government, how terrible is that?????)decided that infections of covid are going too fast, so restrictions are here. No public at sport events, cafe. restaurants have to close at 20.00p.m., all not essential shops to close at 18.00 p.m., essential ones(like supermarkets) at 20.00 p.m. Masks in transport and in shops and lots of facilities, theaters, cinema's can have to 1250 persons, but have to be seated. To enter cafe, restaurants, you need a qr code that you are vaccinated or recovered from covid. If possible people has to work from home, on colleges and universities also restricted of numbers in roomsso all together is isn't funny at all. It will last for 3 weeks, and they hope that infections will go down. Most of the people that are hospitalized are people that didn;t have a vaccination, for all kind of reasons, and numbers are to fast growing, also a bit on IC. And hospitals are very busy already for a very long time and have to go on also with giving "normal"care to lots of people. I have my doubts, if these neasures will have a really big effect, but for now we are back to past times again. Porbably soon(we have a government that likes the words "perhaps"and "probably"and "if all goes as planned") they will start with a booster shot vaccination. In speed I know of our government we people of our age, around 68-70 years, might get one soonest in January, but as well might be March. 

It isn;t good news, we all know covid is still around and making life difficult, but very best thing to do is getting vaccinated, and now it looks as if the bigger part of population, that is vaccinated, is suffering under the not-vaccinated. I respect ones opinion an freedon of acting etc. but just sometimes this has to give way to public health of a country. Difficult decision, but benefit of all has to prevale sometimes I think.

Whatever this partial lockdown will bring, it is effecting everybody and it takes away a lot of the fun of life and it is taking a too long time now. I fear we will have to deal with it still for perhaps another  6 months or even a year. Let's hope I am far too pessimistic.

Apart from this we had a quiet week, with every day a long visit of Muppet the cat. Most of the times she spends the later evenings and nights with us. And in the morning(mostly a bit too early, hahaha) she comes walking to my face on the bed(yes, she sleeps most of the time at the footend, terrible hey) and tips softly with her paw on my nose, like saying: "hey, I was very quiet, now I am a bit hungry, could you give me something?"And well, afer a while I get up( it is then around 8.00 or 8.30 a.m.) and give her something to eat. One day she wants to go out after her breakfast, m=but other days she comes into the living room and jumps on the couch, snuggles herself agains me and takes another few hours of sleep. Life of a cat is pretty good, don;t you say?

Good , I will have to go into the kitchen to prepare a bit for out dinner. I will make a pie filled with ricotta, salmon and spinach. I never made it before so it is exciting to do and I am curious to taste it. I think it will taste rather good. It isn't too much work, also because I use ready made dough, which is at times very handy. 

Wishing you all a wonderful week, and remember, be careful and stay safe!

A week with some results, whoooo!

 Goodafternoon everybody!

It isn;t too bad, our weather, of course it is autumn like, but not so wet, even periods sunshine, after today the wind should calm down again and we have temperatures around 11-12 C.

Even the garden is a little bit upset by the weather I think, there are even a few roses trying to bloom, we have also a Cosmea, which is still blooming as if it was summer. Still you see the garden comes to an end, such a pity. But all will be fine again next spring, we hope. we see some tits coming back, saw one or two robins, and of course the parakeets come as usual.

It was a week without big surprises(oh, I still love to write that, because "surprises"here are often not the best things LOL). I went out shopping on all places, some for groceries, but also found some Christmas presents, I am almost ready with that. Need one or two times to get me all. Jan found himself in rather good mood and washed the windows inside from the living room, the back and front). May be not sounding too exciting or much work, but for him it is, he did it in two days, otherwise it was too big an impact on his condition. Never mind, he was happy to be able to do it and accomplished something.

Best thing i can do is going out when he is doing jobs, otherwise he has no peace, neither have I, because I keep an eye on him all the time I know, I should not, but hey, that's in my system. So I was out and he could do his thing.

I was happy to hear, my little package arrived in the USA, and even on time. For me it was about the best news of the week. After all the trouble I went through to get that accomplished, it was nice to know all went well. And I know now how it works, so it will work a bit quicker for next package, a Christmas box. 

Had a phonecall with my friend Heidi, always nice and there is alsways some laugh too, but pity she wasn;t feeling too well. She had a very soar throat, (she tested, no Covid), but very unpleasant, so she got some antibiotics from her doctor. It was several days ago, so I hope she is feeling better now, I will call her perhaps tomorrow. We have a kind of agreement, not to call in the weekend, unless there is something really wrong. 

My back is still not really okay, so I think it might be an idea to call my doctor next week, to see if he can do something about it. It isn't really hurting too much, not all the time, just with certain movements, but it is very annoying. I need to be in as good as can be physical shape, and I cannot do all I need to with that back paying tricks with me. Hopefully next week i can tell you it has gone and all works again fine, hahaha.

I gave myself a kick in the butt yesterday and started wrapping some Christmas presents. Once you start it is okay, still it takes more time than you think. But I am happy I did it and I did almost all. Now just the last ones I need to find and I can send away the box real early, better too early arriving than otherwise. 

Time to spend a little bit of time in the kitchen, I have stewed pears to make to have as dessert. Yesterday I made a big pan of soup, and there is enough for today, so it is an easy cooking day, how nice.

Wishing you all a wonderful week, stay safe.

Strictly come Dancing is on and I do like it.

 Goodafternoon everybody!

Our weather isn;t all the best, during weekend lots of rain and wind, today it has been dry with even sunshine, but strong wind, so that mkes it not very nice to be outside(wind makes it colder). This weeks the temperatures will go down a bit more, it might be no more than 10-12C, here and there a rainshower. Yes, it is autumn and winter is slowly coming more to our area.

Last week I didn;t do a lot, because I still had my back playing games with me. Somehow I think I strained perhaps a muscle or so, it is bothering me, so I have to be careful in moving. It will go away finally(I hope) but for now I am a little bit handicapt. Glad Jan is there to lift things like laundry basket, or other things when needed.

Last monday we had a visit from Jan;s brother, nice for him, it breaks up the daily routine. And I was happy too, I could ask him about some thing on my smartphone(he is rather handy with those techinal things) and now my mail is synchronised with the one of my laptop, whoopee, so that works. Also the app for the post works now, and I am proud of myself, because I managed to get me a postage label and custom form for a birthday package(for some countries you need to make that online and pay in advance, and you cannot fill in a form at the poostoffice anymore), I payed it with my bank app(oh how exciting to try this out for the first time and scary too) and all worked and at the postoffice they could scan the label from my phone and now I hope it will arrive (and if possible on time).

But it was a good experience, for next time it will be easier to do.

Yesterday I first had a longer sleep in the morning and then I needed to be in the kitchen to finish all stuff for dinner. I started it already on Saturday, I made a kind of Indonesian kind of food, with two sorts of meat(one stew of beef in a tasty sauce and also chicken in peanut sauce. Tp that I made noodles with stuff in it and also fried rice and some green beans in a specail sauce. so all took some time and I wanted it to be all ready, so I only had to warm it up in the oven at dinner time. In between i also watched some speedskating. The saeson for it started with the Duch Championchip. You know by now that I love watching it, so the day was so filled up I had no peace and quiet to make a blogpost(and in the evenig I try to stay away from computering). So here I am for a change nce on a Monday. 

Oh, Saturday evening there was again Stricktly come Dancing on the BBC(it started already several weeks ago), this time they had a special Halloween one. I just love how every time again the costumes turn out and the the make-up. Amazing and that together with the scene setting it was a pleasure to watch. Halloween celebration is becoming more and more populair in Holland too, although it isn't yet as big as in America. I like it as long as it isn;t made too scary or bloody. 

Soon, just in about a month we will have to start decorating our house for Christmas again! I wonder if we will end up this year with a lot of broken Christmas balls, because I dont know how the visit-cat, Muppet, will react on the Christmas tree LOL. I am sure it will be quite an experience for her as well for us. First however I will have to finish the Christmas shopping, I think I have almost all, then the wrapping starts and package sending(and I will do that as soon as I can, they say there is some delay in sending and for sure that will be the case with Christmas).

Okay, now time to do some bloghopping and internet hopping, I have more time today because we have left overs from yesterday, will taste even better I think. I did some grocerie shpping too today, and Jan was nice to me and vacuum cleaned the house. 

I wish you all a wonderful week, stay safe and healthy.