Time is flying

Today, it has been 2 years since our civil wedding. Or our non-elopement. The original idea was to take our witnesses and go to city hall on a normal monday morning, in our everyday clothes. But when we told our families' about our plan, they were like no-oh and ended up coming. All in all we were 16 people. After the short ceremony we went for breakfast at one of our favorite cafés, Dudok. Their cake is famous. The boy says he feels grown up now. It has been the best two years. Fun, and adventures, and calm evenings on our couch.

Emptying a house

The boy's dad sold his house and so this weekend we were busy helping out to make it completely empty. This is the house where the boy grew up, where brother-in-law was born* and my first "home" in The Netherlands. It has been said before, but it is always amazing to see the amount of stuff people accumulate in a lifetime. Which is why we've made it a goal to regularly check and make sure we own the least stuff possible and have it be stuff that is either necessary or loved... Anyhow here is the random stuff we "saved" from the move.

- A photo of brother-in-law as a toddler, perfect childhood happiness all over his face.
-Good luck elephants
-A mug that little sister gave to me a few years ago
-An old metallic car that the boy's dad used to play with.
-An iron, we needed to replace ours.

 -Glass candy from our trip to Venice, from a little artisan shop in Murano. The fake candies are in a crystal jar that used to have a lid... but the boy broke it a long time ago when he was a little kid stealing real chocolate eggs. 
-An alarm clock (the one we have gives a lot of light and does not let the boy sleep). It has been two nights since we have this "new/old" alarm clock and the boy already reports sleeping better. 
-A cd binder with backup computer software, just in case. 

 -The latest cd of Natalia Lafourcade, here is a video of one of my favorite songs of this album. So fun and dreamy and melodic and real all at the same time.

* Surprisingly (at least for me, when I found out how popular this option is) The Netherlands is the country with the highest rate of home birth (24%) in Europe.

Peonies are in season

 Last weekend while choosing flowers for Oma (grandma) and my mom-in-law I saw that that peonies' season is here. Apart from tulips and dahlias, peonies must be my favorite flower. It is too bad that they are only in bloom between April and June, so we figured, better enjoy them while we can. The boy is the sweetest. Because as much as I was oohing and aahing when I saw them after I saw the price $$$ I was like oh well. But he went on and got them for us. I first put them by our window, but I knew they drink a lot and after a little research I found out it was better to keep them in a shady space. The weather is as weird as ever, with a *few* sunny and warm days here and there, amidst the rain and wind of everyday life in Holland. The good thing is strawberries are also getting sweeter and cheaper every week, and the days are so so long. Sometimes it is 22h and judging by the light you'd think it was 18h pm. As I write, I am sitting in the couch, home-alone. The boy left for a work-related trip for a few days and I have to admit it was hard to say goodbye. So hard, that instead of leaving him at the gate, before passport control like I always do, he came to the tracks and we said bye while I was waiting for my train to leave. I guess this has to do with the fact that we said goodbye so many times before at those same gates. Anyway, I finally picked up a new book at the airport kiosk. It tells the story of a girl trying to trace back the story of her dead sister Faith, a beautiful idealistic hippie who died in Italy in 1970. I hope it will be good. I've always had something for the youth revolutions of 1968, a part of me wishes I had lived that time.

On being brave

 The lovely Fiona from Far Far Away, whom I had the luck to meet for the last APW book club has started a new series, "The bravery files" where she asks different people what being brave means to them in real life. She is doing this because (be) 'Brave' is her aim for this year, her mantra. I was honoured when she asked me to write a guest post for this series. I ended up writing about well, hope and some hard stuff. So if you are so inclined, you can find my post over at Far Far Away.

May, things

I can't believe it is May already. The last month has been a bit weird... in that I keep getting sick. Not sick-sick but I've been on the verge of sick the whole time. You know the story, headache, tiredness, closed throat, trouble breathing and just general fatigue. I think it has to do with the fact that lately life feels like I don't stop running. Wake up, get ready, rush, get in fighting mode so to manage to get a seat in the train and sleep, take the tram, repeat (the fighting for a seat part), go to work, rush back home... you get it. But everytime we see the sun (and also when it isn't raining) we go for long walks and discover new places. Our most recent finds:
-an authentic french bakery, Michel boulanger-pâtissier,(Oude Molenstraat 17, Den Haag)
-and our favorite new place for cake and tea: Lapsang (Oudemolstraat 11 A, Den Haag).
Oh and here are some random snaps from these days, because I just can't do posts without showing you something.

Forget-me-nots, love them.

Mama sheep coming straight at me... I think she thought I had food for her.

Banana - Abuelita chocolate muffins, perfect when you have old bananas hanging around 

Marinello IJssalon is back

 Just a quick note, last Sunday the boy and I went for a long walk in the city and I was jumping up and down in happiness to discover that Marinello Ijssalon is back open and running (after having had to close due to high rents). Their new location is quite close to the original, you will find them at Lange Poten 3 in The Hague. This ice cream shop (that I told you about before) is so worth it. They still make their ice-cream in the traditional, artisan way and is owned by an italian family. Now let's hope the weather gets sunny and cooperates. Even if it doesn't.... I'd say I'm up for ice-cream on rainy days as well.

*first photo thanks to Marinello ijssalon