i forgot how much it hurts when you trip and fall, i cut my hands open and bruised my knee. the swelling and such went down yesterday and the bruise has faded but man i hit that damned ground hard. I managed to laugh, even though i was having an extremely bad day in an extremely stressfull week and that was the icing on the cake :) Sadly i was not drunk and was not on my bike when i fell. i was just walking to my caravan and happened to fall infront of 10 or so builders working on the house. so there goes my crazy story to tell my grandkids. but im pretty darn impressed with myself. i didnt even cry or get angry about having a bad day guess im getting stronger or something haha

my knuffle: 

Knuffle- lit. hug and/or childrens cuddle toy

All three of the kiddies i look after have a knuffle, Baby Rinse has a small and very cute soft peice of material with different fabrics sewn on the edges- to stimulate the tactile sense. Annemijn has a pink clown doll with a long hat of the same material, although its considerable worse for wear as she chews on the end when she is scared. Wende has a giant hond. Its incredibly cuddly :)

The point of this story is that I too have a knuffle. My mumma sent it to me. Its just a handtowel, but its blue and smells of her. It feels like a mumma cuddle. You know that special cuddle only mummas can give and it makes you feel like you just melt into her and all her love makes the world go quiet around you.

Well i now have a smaller version of that in my Knuffle, it sleeps on my pillow next to me. It makes me feel safe when the wind knocks tree branches onto my roof. 

sometimes i forget how much of a kid i still am. We all have our weak moments where fear makes us doubt our strength and ability to continue on our adventures. Being afraid of the dark i used to get homesick at night in my caravan.

But not anymore, now that i have my knuffle. i feel like im home again :)

i maintain that my previously loose jeans are only a snug fit because they shrunk in the dryer.... who am i kidding. haha. Im looking very... healthy. is the word barber used lol. some of it is muscle. actually most of the wieght ( 5 kilos!!!!!!!) is muscle in my calves from that stupid mumma bike! god i hate it with everything i possess haha.  But i will admit that Im in a love hate relationship with the food here. i love how yummy it is. But i hate how quickly is moves in on my hips haha.
I have however gone out and bought myself a skipping rope. ive missed my skipping. AND GODDAMN! i miss my walking. monring and afternoons just arent the same without my walk along the wauchope river.

Virpi and I lay in the sun all day on Zondag. This is on the point of the port of Stavoren. Im glad i have her here. It was nice just laying and talking girl talk :) She has got me hooked on drinking coffee. Man i feel like the biggest yuppie haha drinking coffee and living the european life :)

Im not kidding when i say this is all i want for the rest of my life! I even found a few cheapies on ebay that would make a great xmas pressie for me :) seriously! could you imagine the fun i would have with one of these babies. i wouldnt have to drive to amsterdam. id just make like Tom and Cruiz there in my personal bubble! (amsterdam is acrross the Ijselmeer lake) This isnt actually me in the bubble much to my dismay. I was hungover and minding the kids at the marina open day. i wish i had've been feeling better, i would have gotten straight in and put up a struggle when they wanted me to get out! My goal this summer is to a) use one of these on water and b) find one for land and see how far i can run :)
who knows i might even find one for the snow! no more having to pushy to pick up the kids from school! Ima arrive in style haha

Tuentje :) a curly hair sausage dog who is my new bestest friend! He is my little friend while barber and sander are away. im seriously considering stealing him and housing him in my caravan for the next year. Hes no pepper and salt. But hes just as loveable :)

The Bos. Makes for a perfect Sunday walk with the kinderen :) i go there all the time but i still love it, scenes like this are from all the fairytales and picture books i used to read as a child. I really wish it was closer so i could take a chair and a book and a pot of tea. I wouldnt mind becoming that crazy pigeon lady who hangs out in the forest in her spare time haha.

so much has happened. i cant wait to blog all about it. first however i need to recover from my adventures and plan some new ones. 

i cannot wait for each new day.  life was always meant to be like this :) thanks to everyone who tuaght me that anything is possible. wouldnt be here without you

Hindeloopen Marina- Open day

you are never to old to enjoy a jumping castle. Top of my xmas wishlist people

:)

whats doing in stavoren on a friday night?

not much...

Thankgod for Virpr and this bunch of 15 year old German tourists.

I managed to convince them that kangaroos are killing machines and people back home have them instead of guard dogs. They were some of the funniest people i have ever met and also some of the nicest. They took so many photos of me because i was the first aussie they had ever met. I hope they come back again :) It was nice having them steal my bike and feed me lollies.

Cultural lessons with Sander

 

This is called Jumpen.

This is how the kids dance here, apprently because most of them are on speed you must include weird facial expressions in the dance if you are not on drugs.

I cannot wait to go out and see this live haha

home away from home

Dont be fooled. This lady is tiny. I was expecting this grandiose statue. but alas. i missed her the first few times :)

Het Brug

Stom Brug! :) the main bridge into town, i swear it is up everytime i have to go somewhere! especially when im taking wende to school/ gymnasteik/ spelen.

I ride over this at least 10 times a day. Im going to start waving to the controller soon. or flipping him off if he keeps raising it :)

Het Station. 

Mondaag and Donderdaag i have my Nederlands les in Sneek. Its half hour by train. half hour of hell with the little kids going to school. sometimes i might get lucky and sit with the uni students. doesnt happen to often as the lazy sods catch the later train to Leeuwarden. The big smoke with my favourite art stores.

The draw card of Stavoren- the site of the train crash :)

a few months ago the train did not stop at the station, which is the end of the line- instead it plowed through the store infront of the station. the first train crash in the Netherlands in how ever many years. put this little town back on the map haha

Main drag.

two pubs, three cafe, one hippy store, op shop, vis and patat store, supermarkt, tourist shop, art store, ice creamery and local hangout, school, only ATM in Stavoren, bike store and two churches.

it may sound like a lot. but most of these stores open at 10 am and close at 5, they arent open sundays and because its such a small town, everyone goes to lunch 4 and 5 times a day. to network for their business of course :)

The other street. used mainly to get to the main drag. Cafe/ Bar Max is the only attraction here (see below)

Cafe Max

There is a parrot behind the bar, he sings and dances, you can order patat, coffee, tequila while you listen to old school spanish reggae, blues, jazz and hip hop played on the antique grammar phone. You can play pool, billards, poker and darts. or you can stand and repeatedly flush the broken toilet a million times. it really pays not to break the seal here. haha.

its dark and dingy, the walls are canvas with a dutch landscape painted ontop. The atmosphere is totally relaxed and the regulars are upwards of 65.

so far its one of my favourite hangs :)

Herfst- Autumn

The towns quite pretty atm, the leaves are changing colour and falling quite fast. its a pity that its always overcast (ryhme not intended) haha

This brug... served as the most entertaining part of mine and Virpi's (the Finnish au Pair) day out on sunday. we rode backwards and forth trying to find something to do. Sunday is my least favourite day. If im not with the family, there is literally nothing to do. its like everyone hibernates. even the teenagers retreat to some unknown corner of Stavoren. My mission is now to spice up my Zondaag's. I went and bought spray paint and a whole heaps of 4 euro Tshirts. i plan to be the best dressed person here by next weekend :)

The beach....

rendered me speechless for all the wrong reasons haha. 

its quite relaxing to walk out to the tip of the breakwall and watch the ships sail out. This is the Ijlsemeer and not the sea so there are heaps of huge pirate looking ships and luxury cruisers and oil ships that sail past. on sunny days its quite nice to watch them all. And just on the other side of Stavoren, in front of de Potvis (Barber and Sanders resturant) there is always Kite and Windsurfers. Ive even managed to score some free lessons in summer time. I cant wait :)

Marina Stavoren-

Home of Strandpavijlion de Potvis and the Crossontarie.

This isnt the marina out my back door. (yes i have a marina out my back door, and the option to use the heated zwemmen pool whenever i like)

There are maybe 4 or 5 marinas in town. Every man and his clogs has a marina haha

As the year progresses there will be more photos. More undiscovered gems... i hope :)

Arts and craft with the kinderen :)

My days comprise of being a douche bag, playing arts and craft and the occasional work like putting them to bed and feeding them. haha. life is bliss :)

Emily we want to help with folding the washing!

never turn your back on a neatly folded pile of washing and two children...

These girls make everyday fun :) even when all they want is kangaroo and paardje (little horse) rides

En route to the train station for language school. The sunsets are even better :)

Picnic At de Potvis

Wende: 'Emily... Mag Ik de Potvis spelen?' roughly translates to; Emily can we play at De Potvis (family resturaunt)
So i packed up the mamma bike, an instrument designed to torture your calves as you struggle to peddle not only yourself but also a carriage, a child and all the neccesities for a picnic up what is- im sure- the only hill in the Netherlands :)

But so what! i mean what is better than a muddy picnic in the sun! we pulled faces and sang songs. the sun was warm and the wind was still. couldnt have asked for a better day.

Warns Pole Sit

The town next door (Warns) hosts its anual pole sit just down the road from my house. Basically a pole sit is a bunch of farmers; each sitting on a pole sunk into a canal for 70 hours. They sit day and night, rain or shine and the prize is 1000 euros. For that kind of money id be willing to... actually. no i wouldnt haha.
I was really excited to see these guys do their thing because i knew it would be the event of the year. So after he finished work my host father Sander took me along with him and some of his employees. I couldnt fathom why he kept confirming that i could drive. He asked if i would drive the whole 15 meters home. Naturally i agreed. i was keen to drive on the otherside of the road haha.
When we arrived at the Pole sit at midnight i was greeted with the sight of a huge tent and music blaring.

What Sander forgot to mention was that tonight was the Disco and that everyone within a 100 mile radius was making an appearance haha. The night was HILARIOUSLY fun. Everyone was interested in the new Australian girl, everyone wanted to buy me a beer. the beer had the Biggest head i have ever seen on it! talk about gross haha. i saw my host father dance, i had a long conversation with one of the boys on the urinal before i realised what he was doing and stumbledd inside to dance.
i ate Searing Hot Patat Friets (potato chips) with mayo without thinking and had to live with ulcers and blisters for a few days. I managed to create a new drink a mix of warm beer and flat coke, everyone kept telling me that 'the things you do in down under are strange'.
Apparently i appologised to a complete stranger for mistaking him for a woman. This i am told did not go down well. And after 6 hours of complete madness. My host father and i managed to stumble home. thanks to one of his empolyees who carried him for the last part.

To this day (about 2weeks later) people still stop me in the street and ask how i pulled up the next morning. all i can say is better than my host father :) one of the best nights in a long time haha

Opa, Balk & the forest

Sanders father suprised us all with a vist on the weekend. he was funny. he didnt realise i spoke engels and would often deliver long monologues before i realised he was talking to me :) As a treat for the Kinderen we took a trip to just outside Balk. A really pretty town 20 minutes away.

The sun was shining ( a rarity here) and the forest has a specific track for children. It has tiny wooden mushroom markers that you have to find. The adults of course no the way thanks to signs in the trees but the children think its a blast. Barber tells the children that there are  Kobowters living in the mushrooms (little dwarves) so the kids were forever knocking on the wood and laughing and saying they could hear them talking. very cute :)
I was enjoying not having to walk with my eyes glued to the floor looking for snakes and lizards :) a nice change haha.

After our trip in the forest we gathered up all our leaves (we bought a flower press for the kinderen) and we decided that chinese in Balk was our next stop. Opa advised me that chinese was going to be something of a treat for me. i just smiled. thinking yep Opa pretty sure we have chinese in Australia too. BUT what i didnt know is that in the Netherlands. Chinese food is mixed with Indonesian spices and dishes because of the Dutch trading history. so you get this kind of funky IndoChina flavour. tons of spice and rice :) just the way i like it.

Whilst waiting for the chinese i had fun taking photos across the road. The sun was setting- more importantly it was actually shinning haha. And the boats were coming in from the Ijselmeer. I almost fell in the water trying to get some shots. The things we do for art :)

Zwolle

Zwolle. A pretty city in the middle of the Netherlands. i had to go there for my visa. The town is surrounded by a huge moat :) with willow trees and a water fountain. Historically the moat was used because the Dutch had a monopoly on the trade market and Zwolle was the HQ amongst the other co operating towns ('Stavoren was in it too!' haha. my host mum always adds that part)

The shopping was also amazing. not only were there heaps of cutesy cafes and eateries but they had tons of fancy boutiques that my host mum bought the nicest clothes from as well as my stores. H&M, Hema, Bristol, The Sting and London.  Amazing clothes for cheap :) my kind of heaven haha.

This green man was in the centre of the old city square. He either wasnt there when i got back of they have more than one old city square haha :) knowing me. its the later. My host mum and i felt pretty guilty after our day out in Zwolle. Instead of coming home to work we had fun shopping and chatting and drinking coffee. i could get used to this european lifestyle!