Wow what a blast. What can i say. Ive had THE most amazing time here in Holland. Ive met beautiful people beautiful places and had beautiful experiences. I only hope that i return in a few months for this was truely a awesome trip and there is much more to be do and time to be spent with the wonderful people ive had around me. Pieter took me to a very flash resturant last night by the name of Boreas ive never seen or tasted such divine food. It was like Science and design infused in this equisite aray of flavours you can just not imagine. Im really struggling to describe our meals, everything was so inventive and so delicious the texture, flavours technique and time put in to such a incredible sight and taste was just incredible. What a special night i will not ever forget…. and at 150 Euro i should hope not!

The last ten days have been so hot and so enjoyable, visiting lakes that once were frozen when i arrived here. Biking with Anna to the A3 which is a huge lake and many thousands of dutch and belgium people visit and soak up the sun in the summer months. Relaxing with family in the garden sharing laughs and eating and talking amongst eachother, het was zoooooo Gezellig !! Its been so special…..  yeh.. im pretty speach-less now, but its home time for now, mum is where its at. Thunderstoms today so it seem like im taking the good weather with me.

Tot ziens Nederlands (see you later Holland)

love Nina

Hey all

Well the weather has been delightfully warm here, infact the the most sun Hollands had in the first weeks of may! The 70 hour average has been busted by the 130 hours we have had in the last week.  so as you can see theres been alot of outdoor doing as 20-4 drgrees has been a nice temperature to be getting out ad about. I joined pieter as he starts his fitness sceme back up. i was his refreshments assistant as he ran 16km in 1hour 10mins. Had some nice photo oppotunities on the way too as you can see… With all the sunshine, we’ve recently had a brief wizz around the yard on one of Franks 4 kids motorbikes got a deal on, picniced out in the sunshine and had a BBQ at Franks with Pieters other brother & Anna ( his sister). This weather has been is a real treat before I head back to New Zealand its been super cool to be out and about in the sunshine, as i seem to be following winter around the globe. As for work; I have been assured I remain first choice of the position I applied for and as it is not currently vacant I have a primary need and want to be with my mum and be there for her until the vacancy frees up for me. Taking life as it happens.

Nin’s

Show Jumping and Dressage Event

Pieter & I headed to an international three day equine event in Eindhoven on friday, I spent most of the day drooling at stunning horses and swearing in oath to myself that i will be back into my riding in the next ten years. So quote me now haha!

Queens Day!

Well after a late evening out on Queens night in Eindhoven showcasing some very famous DJs we took off the next day to Amsterdam for the heart of the celebrations to check out what all the fuss was about.

 Well aswell as attempting to sow my ’career’ seeds here in the Netherlands I’ve also been doing it in a a litteral sense too, and im talking strictly in the way of plant germination here so dont jump to any conclusions! 

I had fun this morning taking some photographs of some of the projects Pieter and I have been manifesting. And also the result two days plant searching 6 shops and one afternoon of planting by Mieke & I.

yip, never fails to put a smile on my dial

Well i had intensions not to write copious amounts of insignificant ramble in this blog and remain to posting only ‘worthy’ subjects. Yes it is true; I dont find it necessary for every Tom ,Dick and Harry to know how I got about my every day. However I’ll make an allowance for today

Today I went along with Pieters parents for our usual sunday walk . The weather was surprisingly and pleasently warm and spring is now very evident in every sense of the word. What you hear, smell, see and taste. I could count at least 8 different bird calls in the 2 hours we walked, You could smell fresh grass and new flowers. The sun was hot and shining strongly, everythng was a shade of crisp healthy green and unfortunatly for me i hadnt really been witnessing it all untill 3/4 of the way through the walk. At times during these last few days I’ve been struggling to stop my exessive thinking and today had its moments. Its highly frustrating at times, however i like to think ive become alot more conscious of it and the method in obtaining a calm, quiet mind. Anyways it didnt matter for long, after lunch I simply relaxed in the sun and had nothing to think about but the warm rays of light shining down on me. It was so good i fell to sleep with my book open, chapter unread and a rosey face. Dinner outside in the evennig sunlight was a nice event, the Holland i have experienced so far has been rather… chilly and indoors alot of the time. But im sure if im round for the whole summer i could be in for the complete opposite   

Some days are better than others, thats just the way it is we take the highs with the lows and go with the flow. At this very moment I am writing this post from Amsterdams central library in an aray of satisfied feelings. Today I have achieved 3 things. First and formost I sucessfully survived an interview with 180 ’s production manager and director aswell as impressing and establishing a good first impression and promising position! Secondly I managed to locate, meet and befriend a potential dutch flatmate. And last but not least, I managed to leave the flat in such a good mood I walked the opposite way to that which I intended and after 25 minutes and blisters forming from my new shoes I realised I was a little lost!

So all in all a very productive day I must say, and it isn’t over yet Im off to stay with on of my potential work collegues tonight and I am also still yet to make contact back home with my mum after her big interview today aswell.

Tot ziens!

This trip to one of Hollands biggest theme parks was triggered by a very sudden occurance to return home, however things have simmered down and i am remaining on this side of the globe once again. We didnt take alot of photos for we were simply enjoying the time there together but it was an exordinary day! It was the first day the park was back open after the winter season and being a friday it was totally dead. possibly 100 poeple in the whole park. This However was incredibly awesome!  you could almost always swap seats and stay on the ride! I think in total we went on a roller coaster at least 18 times along with all the othe Wicked rides on top of that ! there was a Magic Castle that you sat in and you or the room rotated that was buzzy. Four mammoth roller coasters, and smaller ones including “The wild wild west” which at a glance looked rather mundain and lacking in gravitational thrills that involved going upside down. However it turned out to be the most hilarious rides and we went on it 5 times. Its 5 sets of pin head turns at tree top level made a MEAN game of corners and seriously gave you the expectation of riding straight off the tracks and plumeting tot he ground below. This was then followed by a series of small humps/bumps which were so abrupt and stomach lurching -quickly followed by another sweeping last minute pin head rench to the right. Highly entertaining and addictive despite the ride actually putting my back out of place on the first round! There were some crazy spinning, twirling, entwining typical theme park rides that were smaller and stand alone but were very impressive and usually the ones that made you feel sick and dizzle afterwards. Then there was a huge tower of terror like thing. That gave a quick thrill, free falling from about 150m with the straping in process taking longer than the actual ride. Took it 4 times anyways  There was a skydive structure which cost but there was all th usuals, dodgem cars, log flume, ferris wheel, merry-go-round, go carts blah blah blah. yeah these photos dont do it alot of justice Awesome day though.

As the saying goes “that’s just the way the cookie crumbles” and generally when it does most are small enough to not bother savouring. Its easy to ‘acknowledge’ small crumbs and then let them be, as they are not substantial enough to eat and we find (more than often) that we are happy to not fuss about trying to claim each one. But when theres a significant crumble in the cookie there is generally a different response. You take action, you cease it and you savour it.