My Holland homes

My 3 month stint in the Netherlands started today back in 2005. This has been the longest 3 months of my life!

I've been in this country for a long time now, I haven't felt foreign for a long time and the language doesn't sound Chinese to me either. But even though I've stayed in the same country for this long it doesn't mean I haven't moved around. In fact I have lived in 4 different locations during this time.

My first apartment in Amsterdam was a first floor tiny place in a traditional canal town house. It was located in one of the best spots of the cities and looked over the canal. I spent so many weekends on the windowsill looking at the activity below: boats full of tourists shooting with their cameras, locals with a bottle of Rose' wine cruising on their boats, people riding their bikes and others just walking around.

After 3 years I made my first move to an area closer to Amsterdam Centraal Station, but slightly off city centre. It was a ground floor apartment in a block of apartments that used to be storage space in the past. Being on ground floor meant that I had a little garden, perfect for many evenings spent BBQ'ing.

I didn't spent a long time at this apartment since I met my boyfriend at the time and my life with him continued in yet another apartment this time in a city called The Hague. The year in our third floor apartment was one full of love. This was the year in which I learnt to share my space again with somebody. Once you spent many years living by yourself you get used to your space and it's not always easy to give this space to someone else. Obviously being in love helps with the sharing!

Somehow though I started wanting to live in a house with a garden and that's how we ended buying a house on the islands of The Hague. The Hague doesn't contain real islands but a decade ago 6 fake inland islands were built to generate a neighbourhood of around 500 houses. This place became our home and finally it looks like I'm not going to move around again so soon.

A boat on the canals

The Netherlands is a country full of canals and rivers. In winters these canals are perfect to skate on while in summer many people fish in them or else enjoy an afternoon on their boats. While living in Amsterdam I even saw post being delivered from barges on the canals. So once we moved to our current house, which has a garden directly at the canal it was obvious that I wanted a boat of my own.

So we scoured the internet for a small boat to start calling our own and a few weeks ago we finally got ours. We were also lucky to have a perfect weekend to use our boat.

The boat

It's so lovely to check our neighborhood from this angle. I even got some ideas on how to improve our back garden!

An evening ride

Hemelwater 

And obviously cold beer or a glass of rose wine makes the trip even more idyllic.

Successful climbing

Climbing last weekend was successful. I went there feeling much more scared than I was during all the weekend. In fact I'm really proud of myself. Sometimes it would also be nice that I don't worry so much about everything!

I learned a lot and I now know how to secure myself on top of a climb, how to secure a partner from top while he's climbing and I also learned how to create an abseil for the team and also for myself. These steps are the main steps one needs for climbing outdoors.

We were lucky and had good weather all weekend, so good that while climbing I was feeling really hot. It might had to do with all the exercise though!

Michael at the top

Michael abseiling

At the top

Me climbing

My body might be slightly confused at this point since in the last couple of weeks I trained much more than usual. I have now started jogging a few times a week in the country side around my house. It's so nice to be able to be away from the city's hustle and bustle in a just less than 5 minutes. And even though the weather in Holland hasn't been what one expects at this time of year many evenings have clear blue skies, which makes everything look like a picture on a postcard.

How to lose your BBQ

This is a story based on real-life incidents.

There was once a couple who owned a house with a lovely garden next to the water. The couple loved BBQ'ing in summer but rarely ventured out in the garden once it started getting cold. They did cover the bbq but never got around to storing it inside. They looked outside many times and pointed out that it should be brought in, but most probably they were too busy doing other things. With time they forgot about the BBQ out in the cold and rain, until after a stormy day they looked out and the BBQ was gone!

It was nowhere to be seen floating in the water. The BBQ was lost forever (or maybe till next summer when the kids jump in the water and bump into it).

The couple did think to put a fence after this incident but seeing as there are no kids yet they prefer to have the looks instead of the safety.

Will the couple be more careful in the future? I hope they do!!

Spiders

Our garden is definetely a spider nesting area! In the first months living in the house I used to try and remove the spider webs regularly but they always came back the next day. I never minded spiders until I saw the size they can grow into. We've got mutant ones who make huge webs and in turn prey on large mosquitos. Sometimes it's fascinating seeing them prepare the web, mostly though they're just a nuisance.

Spiders are protected insects, thus we cannot buy something which will kill them. However we did find a more humane solution. We got a spray that will not allow the web to stick on the surfaces, so the families of spiders have to move somewhere else. We're going to try it out soon, I really hope that it works out, otherwise we need to get the Spinbusters (aptly named like Ghostbusters).

 
You would think why is our house full of spiders? There seems to be a reason which is not related to us living directly by the water. The newly built areas in the Hague were green areas before they were built on. They were areas where spiders lived. Once the building process started, the spiders relocated in the buildings structure and never moved out.
 
[Image Credits: http://pinterest.com/pin/275502511/]

Parkpop, 2011

This weekend turned out to be full to the brim with fun activities.

Every year in Zuiderpark in The Hague there is an open air free festival called Parkpop. Every year this festival is on a day that is worth calling a perfect summer day. This is rare in the Netherlands, other festivals have been nicknamed for the bad luck with the weather, but not this one!

Early afternoon we cycled on the extremely busy bike lanes to the park to spend a relaxed afternoon listening to music. The park was full with all types of people, people that would not generally go to a festival if there was an entrance fee.

The only down side of this event was that there were no ATMs inside and the nearest one was pretty far away. Luckily being the foreigner I didn't know where the ATM was located and it was the job of my boyfriend to walk all the way, outside of the park grounds, to get us some more cash! In this plastic oriented world I had expected a cash machine inside the grounds.

The move is done

Yesterday my life was literally packed into boxes. A life which was moved 6kms across The Hague.  It felt somehow sad to see the apartment, my home for more than a year, being emptied. At the same time I was also worried that some piece of furniture or a box full of glassware was going to fall off from the movers lift. Luckily the movers worked hard and didn’t do any damage, if you ignore the speaker which fell from around 1 meter height. In the end though this speaker was delivered all in one piece but we didn’t dare yet to try it out. Overall though I had a huge smile plastered on my face.

By the end of the evening we had unpacked half of our belongings. As the hours of unpacking went by frustration ensued but luckily my great boyfriend was there to help to rummage in boxes in dark rooms to locate my lost bathroom products. Once found, I could take a much needed warm shower, whose immediate relaxation effect was more than welcomed.

Now that the big days of February have just passed, I can look forward to my birthday just 9 days ahead. And even though 30 doesn’t sound great at all *come on who wants to turn 30, really, and leave the amazing twenties behind?!*, I always look forward to my birthday like I did when I was a child.

[Image Credits: Staff Room Project]

Our apartment is up for grabs

Now that we have bought a new place we have to sell the apartment we're living at. Take a look here for the details and pictures of the apartment.

A spacious 3 room apartment on a quiet road in the Houtwijk area, ideal for starters or young couples.

• Just 10 minutes away from the beach of Kijkduin;
• Small shopping center with AH and Lidl just walking distance away;
• Bus and Tram stops to city center round the corner.

• A well lit, sunny, L-form room (25 m² (4 X 5.6 / 7.7 m)) on the front side of the apartment;
• A separate kitchen with inbuilt fridge-freezer, electrical oven and 4 hobs gas cooker, with a sunny balcony;
• The hall contains a sun roof; a in good condition toilet; a spacious heater/geaser cabinet with storage space available; a spacious storage room (2.5m²); meter cabinet;
• A spacious L-shape main bedroom (4.00 X 4.30/3.10 m);
• Second bedroom (3.90 X 3.10m);
• A tiled bathroom with separate shower cabinet, sink and cupboards. The room has connections for a washing machine and dryer.

• The living room and bedroom have laminate flooring. The bedrooms floors have just been changed;
• The balcony faces South-West;
• The front side of the apartment has double glazing windows;
• Own spacious storage room on the ground floor perfect for storing bicycles.