It’s April!
I lost track of time a bit, and am also short on time right now. So short this will be, as well.
April first I went to see Zootopia with Gert. It’s a very good movie. Very well made, good story and a good message as well.
April 2nd, Ikea brought my shelves and Nienke’s dining set. I built mine, and Nienke’s parents picked up her set to deliver to Nienke’s house.
Then on Sunday I went to the farm where we had a work day to get material for our re-enactment camp back in good shape. We fixed existing benches and tables, and also built new ones. In the picture we’re working on the new kitchen workbench. It was a good day to spend outside, and we got a lot done.
The week after saw the voting for the Ukraine-referendum. I voted for the agreement, and am pretty bummed it didn’t pass.
Last Saturday I went to the Farm again, this time for Feije’s birthday. I got him books, as I like to do for small children. An informative book with huge pictures and fold out sheets about animals and a story book about a little kid on a farm with a goat. The kid as drawn looks quite like Feije.
Later this week we’re going to Ikea again. This time to pick up an extra dresser for my bed room. Plus there’s a movie plan for Friday and a Mom birthday this Sunday 🙂
These first few days of my week off have gone rather fast. Did some more sorting of things around the house and such. Sunday it was Easter. So I had Easter brunch and later dinner at Nienke’s. Which was fun. And in between I wandered off to the parents to visit them.
And, this morning, my chairs came. I’m in love. I’ve been eyeing these Eames-replica chairs for quite some time now. And with having my own dining table, I have space for my own chairs. While the chairs aren’t very expensive, they were too expensive to get all six at once. So I was planning on buying them per two or three. However, when I was at the parents, last Sunday, Mom and I got to talking about the chairs. And she said they would give them to me o.0
After finishing the cupboard I left it standing for two days to fully dry everywhere. I then enjoyed myself in packing it in. I’m also slowly starting to work on other bits in the house to get that as I want now that I have the space to myself. I pulled my old bed from the attic and put it together in the spare bedroom. I can now have guests sleep over! And, while I was painting anyway, I put a chalk board rectangle on the wall in the kitchen.
Now that Nienke has moved, the need for a new kitchen cupboard has become rather more urgent. I’ve been scouring Marktplaats for a while now looking for a good match. But I’m pretty picky and hadn’t found anything yet. I wanted a white cupboard, with an open space in the middle, at least two drawers, a shelf with glass in the doors in the top part and tall enough that it sort of matches with the bookcases. Oh, and also affordable and requiring little work 😀
Other cupboards were too short, or had no drawers, or no glass doors at the top, and so on. Eventually, however, I stumbled across one that was perfect. Except it wasn’t white. But, based on the image, it seemed the wood was mostly unvarnished so it should be easy to paint. I mailed back and forth with the seller and he confirmed it wasn’t varnished. If the only thing I had to do was paint, I’m good. So we agreed I would come pick it up Friday Morning.
The next morning my Uncle, whom I ‘d chartered to drive and help, and I headed for the rent-a-trailer place in town. I’d reserved one the day before with a hood on it in case of rain. Once trailered-up, we headed to Friesland to pick up my cupboard. And it is glorious.
I bought standard white paint for the exterior. I also snagged a jar of deep red base paint from the sale bin. I didn’t know what I would use it on, but I loved the colour. In the end, I decided to use that for the interior of the cupboard. Which turned out to be best decision ever 😀
The time has come, Nienke has moved. She got the key to her new house last Monday. Those first days she and her parents did cleaning and painting. And then the moving started. Last Friday and Saturday were designated for the big move. I got off work early on Friday so I could help. Then we spent the day, and Saturday, driving back and forth between my house and her house.
New month, new chances 😀 I’ve continued the demolition of the wretched laminate on the stairs under the trusty snoopervision of the catsIt is now free of laminate, but I still need to spend some time removing more of the cement-glue.
Then I saw on Facebook that Ronan Keating is coming to the Netherlands in August for a one-time concert in Utrecht. I was a big fan of Boyzone and Ronan in my teens and early twenties. I still like their, and his, music a lot. As such, I immediately texted Ingrid if she wanted to go with me. Which she did! I immediately ordered tickets and they showed up a few days later.
And not just a queue to get in the museum, no, the queue to get a ticket. Every minute or so, yellow-jacketed hosts would let another handful of people through to the queue at the door where they could go in to buy their tickets.
Disappointingly it was not allowed to take pictures in the museum. Not even just flash-less pics, no, not at all. This did not stop us from sneaking in a few phone pictures anyway.
After a well deserved break, we got back on the tram, the right one this time, and headed for the city center. From there it was just a few minutes to get to The Book Exchange. We dove straight into the basement where they keep the scifi and fantasy books. I picked out some Star Trek books and then went around the room alphabetically. I found several books that had been on my list, or are sequels to works I have. I found Elizabeth Bear’s first books (the Jenny Casey trilogy) that I’ve been wanting. I found the follow-up to C.F. Bentley’s Harmony and also the sequels to Robert Sawyer’s Hominids. I’ve been looking for these last two for ages! They also had a fun Stargate book, and two Kim Harrison books that I still needed. And, in a surprise, twist, part four in that trilogy I got at the local thrift store on Wednesday…
A quiet hour later, we both had our arms full of books and decided to call it quits for now. With packed bags we stood outside and quickly agreed to skip the American Book Center for today. We walked back towards the city center. Gert bought himself a pink waffle with sprinkles. (I tasted, it’s ridiculously sweet)
Eva had offered to help me get the table so after some contact with both Eva and the seller, Wednesday afternoon was agreed upon. Eva came shortly after I’d gotten home from work. We had a cuppa first and then drove a few towns over to get my baby. The table is one piece and the legs cannot be removed. We had no other options then but to put the table in the back of the van with the legs pointing up. We strapped the legs on one side to the car seats. Then we tied the van doors around the legs on the other side so they’d keep still while driving. The doors couldn’t close, so we drove home gently.
We then decided to check out the thrift store and turned the rest of the afternoon in a fun little shopping trip, taking Nienke with us. I almost bought a jacket, but didn’t like the fit enough. I did find a nice wooden decorative box and a reed basket. And books. Because I cannot leave there without books. It’s usually children’s books as they don’t generally have a lot of English works.
Wednesday Gert and I went to see Deadpool. We had some time before so we first had lunch at Wadapartja. A few years ago it would never have worked, but now it does. It’s a very vintage-retro-hipster place. Furnished with old formica tables and chair, mis-matched lights. A lot of wood and brick and signs everywhere that if you see something you like, you can buy it. They have a lunch and dinner menu and fall in the mid-range when it comes to price. I went for a brown seeded bun with slices of pear, blue cheese, walnuts, honey and arugula. It was very tasty, but it could’ve been a wee bit larger for the price.
Yesterday being a Wednesday meant only half a day of work so lots of time for fun things! I’d planned to meet up with Gert and see two movies. I was in the city centre a bit before him so I browsed the market square and then headed for the News Café to have a drink. Gert met up with me there. We chose our movies and headed on the way to the cinema. However, we had some time left so we decided on some clothes shopping. This turned out to take more time than we thought as there were sales going on at several stores. I managed to score a pair of pants and a belt for under €20 and then another pair of pants elsewhere for about €10. Score!