Sleeeeeeeep
Birthday party with my friends was awesome! Family’s coming tomorrow. Very tired now. Bed!
Birthday
Happy Birthday, Dad!
Wednesday was my Dad’s birthday. He turned 67. I got him a pretty birthday card and Wednesday morning Mom and I did a quick trip to the next town over to see about a present. Dad doesn’t have a lot of hobbies or something so finding him a present is usually tricky. It so often becomes the same thing over and over. Succeeded half this time. Mom bought him a shiny pair of pants, and I got him a very cute new coffee cup, together with some same-old-same-old puzzle books. He was pleased with the gifts though, and in the end that’s all that matters 🙂
My aunt who lives farther away was the first of the family to arrive. Mom and I picked her up from the train station after getting Dad’s presents. Rest of the family came in the afternoon and evening. It was a fun day. Nice weather so we could sit outside for a substantial portion of the afternoon. I took Tessa for a quick walk half way through, together with my 8 yo second cousin who wanted to come along. When we got back, the wind had picked up and everyone had moved inside.
Could tell it was a mid-week birthday though. We usually hold birthdays in the weekend, and then it’s often nearing midnight when the last ones leave, now we were with just the family again around eleven. Makes sense of course, there’s work and other such things the next day. Thursday was a work day for me too, but an easy one with just four hours from 15:15 to 19:15.
I’d just gotten there and settled in when I figured I ask if I could leave half an hour early so I could catch the 19:06 train and not have to wait until the 20:06 one. I got an e-mail back saying I could go right away if I wanted… And the weather was lovely and I wasn’t really in the mood to work anyway so I took it and left after having been working for all of 15 minutes 😀
So I was home fairly early, giving me time to sort various things on the laptop in its semi-regular maintenance/backup/update cycle.
Today another quiet work day, just 3 hours this time from 16:00 to 19:00, but followed immediately by the team outing. We’re going out to dinner so I’ll be home late after all. Tomorrow I’ll be spending most of my time working on pages for my uncle’s birthday. My cousin is making a book of sorts (he’s turning 75) and has asked all of us to create something with their memories of him. So mom wrote a big piece of text, and tomorrow we’re sorting some pictures to go with that and then I’ll be making scrapbook pages (I doubt I can fit it on one) of that to send of to my cousin. I’m thinking it will take me the whole afternoon at the very least, and probably a bit of the evening as well.
I’m hoping the weather will still be lovely on Sunday, I want to sit outside and read and do nothing then.
Now off to shower 😀
Spring in my Head
Halfway done with the attic, yeehaw!
Emptied the Ikea shelf unit in the bedroom (no, not an expedit 😀 a magiker, they don’t sell it anymore), piled all the crap on the bed and then took the unit apart to be taken up. I first had to vacuum there some more, I hadn’t gotten round to doing half of the attic room previous time and it hasn’t been vacuumed in like a year…
Once that was done I could hoist the unit parts up and put it back together. Luckily for me, by now I’m a reasonable expert on putting together Ikea furniture 😀
After that half the crap that was on the bed, mostly my craft-related stuff, had to be dragged up stairs (and yes, by that time dragged was all I was capable of) and put in the magiker up there. The whole process took the whole afternoon, but the bedroom is a lot emptier (safe for the pile of stuff that did not go up stairs) and ready for the two Billy’s I’ll be getting end of the month; and the attic is a lot fuller, but also a lot neater. It still needs a lot of finishing touches, there’s still quite a lot of stuff that needs to be in cabinets and such. Plus the junk part of the attic also needs a tidying up. But that can wait until next week.
Today I have to work and tomorrow I’ll be at the parents for food and my aunt’s birthday. Sunday I have planned to paint the garden door to seal it. I’ve also figured out how many tiles I’m gonna need for the little terrace I’m planning. And Sunday will also be good to get some boundaries laid out for the other parts.
Other random life stuff:
Got fined in the train the other day 🙁 I couldn’t buy a new train/bus card that morning ’cause my salary hadn’t been deposited yet (it usually arrives after noon, which I forgot) and forgot to go get one in my lunch break. So when I got off work, I had 5 minutes to catch my train and no time to buy a ticket or a card. I decided to take my chances since half of the time they don’t check. And when they do, it’s 50/50 from what end they start. So I went to sit at the end farthest from the driver, gambling the controller would start from there if he showed. And then he a) showed, and b) started from my end 🙁 No way to escape him anymore so 37 euros down the drain.
Monkey managed to gash open his cheek earlier this week, he was covered in blood. Cleaned it up a little but then had to leave for work. When I came back, he was all clean again 😀 Good little washing machine. It’s healing nicely too, turned out to be a much smaller cut than the amount of blood would suggest.
Right, 10:30, time to get dressed, need to leave in 45 minutes.
Teehee
I’d ordered some new clothes a little while ago in one of my favourite online stores and they finally arrived last Tuesday afternoon. Everything was there, even the blouse I’d been informed would come a few weeks later…
That evening I went to Eva for her birthday and we had a very nice and happy, lots-of-laughs evening save for a bout of sorrow when my friend got reminded of her pet dog who would be put to sleep the next day. Lodewijk, as he was called, was really, really old and just couldn’t go on anymore so the vet came by at their place yesterday afternoon. Eva said it had been a difficult day (of course) but that he had gone peacefully and it was okay.
Today was my mother’s birthday, she turned 57. We didn’t really celebrate though, that’ll be Saturday. We went grocery shopping this morning which enabled me to hop into the bookstore and get her a present. I’d been unsuccessful at finding a nice book last week but now I succeeded in finding a very nice book with short stories in our provincial dialect which was priced so nicely I could add another book to it. This was also a short story collection in our dialect but of a different author.
After I’d bought the gifts and we had finished the rest of the shopping we drove home. Along the way, we stopped at a car dealer ship as my parents (who’ve been after a new (2nd hand) car for a while now) knew he had one they thought was nice. So we spent some time there and they took the car for a little spin around the neighbourhood and when they came back they’d decided to buy it. They’ll go in next week to pick it up and leave the old car there. I’m gonna miss the old lady we’ve got now, a Volvo V40, ’cause she’s a very pretty red and we’ve had her for years. The new one’s gonna take some getting used to, I’m not too fond of the colour or the model of the car but it’s my parent’s car so their choice. And this one, a Peugeot 306, was very nicely priced.
When we got home, we stored away the groceries and then I finally got to give mom my presents and she was very pleased with them so yay me 😀
Rapalje, Friends & Family
The Rapalje gig saturday was great! Check my gallery for a bunch of photos. Eva also put some video bits on Google, see: Rapalje playing, Rapalje & Annemarie doing Caledonia & fans playing music on the field
Ingrid picked me up from my parent’s place at around 2:45 and we went on our way to pick up Eva, Judith and Mellien before going back to Ingrid’s place to get some stuff she forgot.
After that, we were finally ready to head to Nieuweschans where we arrived roughly 3:30.
We took a stroll across the fantasy market they were having and it was fun, I was tempted to buy some mead but decided against it. We lounged about for a bit until we met up with Renate, a colleague of Eva. We had just gotten comfortable on the grass when all of a sudden, the fenced of part of the terrain (reserved for the concert) needed to be enlarged. As we were sitting right were they were going to pass with the fences, we hastily made way.
After that had happened, the market soon drew to a close and the concert was near. Everyone had to get out and come back in so it could be checked that everyone had their ticket and the complimentary Rapalje beakers could be handed out. Fortunately, we already had ours so we were back in pretty soon with a shiny new Rapalje beaker.
We found ourselves a spot on the grass behind a bench so some of us who wanted to sit on the bench could while the rest lounged on the grass. Ingrid went to get Fyndlings, the coins used to pay for the food and drinks on Rapalje fests and we all went lazy and gave her money to get us some coins as well. 😀
Cooking Highlander was there to cater, as usual, with their kick-ass three tier barbeque and soon we we’re standing in line to get some food. I had a very tasty chicken leg, yummy! My first drink of the night was a simple coke but later I decided to get some mead and, while I usually don’t like alcohol, I’d found out during an earlier event do like mead. And this night I found out I really like mead so I had another.
Shortly after we’d gotten food, the concert started and it was great as usual. David Myles was there to accompany them. He’s an amazing bagpiper and I adore his playing. I hope to one day be as good as he is.
As this was a fest to celebrate their 10 year jubilee, they’d invited musicians that played with them in their first years and played with them again. There was also some dueting with a very good singer called Annemarie whom they apparantly sometimes play with. Her voice and Williams’ mixed wonderfully!
Rapalje played three sets spread over the evening and in between there was a jam session opportunity for the public. Annemarie and some of her friends played and some others as well.
The evening ended around midnight and then we still had to get back home and drop all of us off at where we belonged. All in all, I was in my bed at 1:30, not a good time if you have to get up at 7:30-8:00 (on Sunday morning…).
That was since my folks would be at my door at 9:00 to pick me up to go to the birthday party of my aunt and uncle, two hours away. I was quite sleepy in the car and may have dozed off even. We arrived safely and the day was lots of fun as the party was at the special needs daycare centre my cousin works. It completely took care of the kids who loved all the play opportunities as well as the snuggle room that had a waterbed and moodlights and stuff like that. I had great fun as well, playing a bit with the kids, taking photos (and some movies as well) of them.
We had brought the dog with us as well as we had no sitter for her and she enjoyed herself as well, the terrain was fenced in so she could walk around freely and me, my mom and an aunt of mine went for a walk with her that afternoon.
She did nick a cheese sandwich when we got back 😀 They had been placed on a low shelf, right at dog mouth height and we got back in from walking her and she just went straight for it and grabbed one.
At first I didn’t quite see what she was doing and went like “Tessa? What’re you doing?” She glanced back guiltily with the sandwich in her mouth and I couldn’t help but laugh. I sent her outside and quickly put the sandwiches up higher. Funnest thing was, she did it again later… 
Only this time she nicked a sandwich from someone’s bag…
Ah well, she didn’t end up with any nasty side effects and neither did the person she nicked it from so, all’s well, end’s well.
Went home with the parental units and slept there for ease. Was glad to be back in bed that evening, two busy days had me pretty beat.
Stuff & Things
Heya folks! It’s been a bit but then, I’ve been busy 🙂 Last weekend (9-12 June), Othalla and I went to Gent to pay Zel a visit. We left Friday morning around 11 and finally arrived at Gent Station around… ehm… sixish? Something like that, it was a hell of a train trip anyway. Went out to eat that evening and then had a good time out in the city.
The rest of the weekend were fun where we got to see some of the sights Gent has to offer and enjoyed the good weather as well as the new X-Men movie. Monday morning, we left again taking the elevenish train out of Gent and finally arriving back in Groningen around 7. Ugh! Almost all the trains we were in had a delay of some kind and the weather was terribly hot so all in all, the train trip back could’ve been better. Although, pleasant company does make up for a lot of it 🙂
June 2nd was my Dad’s birthday, the old man turned 63. The family came by and we had a very nice day and evening. I really like my family (and I have a lot of them) and am always pleased when special occasions or events (like a birthday) bring the family together. Just two days after my Dad’s birthday, my uncle had his so there was another get together.
Coming weekend, the 18th, another aunt and uncle of mine will celebrate their birthdays. The 18th is not the actual date but since their birthdays are only about ten days apart, they usually pick a date in between and celebrate both birthdays together. I’m not sure whether or not I’ll be going seeing as how they’re having the event in a nearby community centre thingy and not at home. So, whether or not I’m going depends on if my parents can bring the dog. If they can’t, I’ll be dog-sitting.
The Saturday before, on the 17th, me and some of my friends will be going to a Rapalje performance in Nieuweschans. Fun!
Finally, Sunday the 25th I’ll be dogsitting as well when my parents are going to visit another aunt and uncle of mine and, if all goes well, the day after that my excavation will start. We’ll be registering the profile of a wierde in Anjum (as far as I know, I will be going down to the city to check up on the exact specifics). It’s gonna be exciting as it’s down to the original habitation layer at some points.
Weekend
Zo, het heerlijk weekendje is weer voorbij. Zaterdag was Eva jarig en ben ik daar gezellig heen geweest. Ik had een boekje voor haar gekocht dat ik helemaal vol heb geschreven en geplakt met leuke plaatjes, tekstjes die Eva gezegd heeft en dergelijke. Verder was het erg gezellig want iedereen (lees: Eva, ik, Ingrid, Nienke & Marleen) was er plus Mellien (Eva’s paardenvriendin), natuurlijk vriendje Remco en Marleen der lover Mark.
Zondag vierde mijn moeder haar verjaardag (eigenlijk was ze maandag pas jarig). Dit was ook heel gezellig want heel de familie kwam op bezoek (en ik heb nogal wat familie). Zoals gewoonlijk hadden we weer taart over dus maandag ook nog taart bij de koffie gehad enzo.