Hi all,
So were you surprised? You really did not see this one coming? Olaf and I had been talking about getting married for years and had decided on how we were going to do it way before he actually asked me. We have always agreed on the fact that a wedding is something you do together and that you do not need an audience for. I mean, a wedding is not about showing other people how much you love each other, the only person you make a promise to and declare to love forever - or as long as it lasts, I am that realistic - is the person you are marrying. And then tell everybody about it afterwards and have a wonderful party! That is why we wanted to do it in secret and why nobody was invited to the ceremony, but trust me, you will have plenty of chances to celebrate with us at the party. In the end, we decided on doing it in Holland for practical reasons and it seemed fitting to ask our parents to be our witness, the four people without whom we would not have been here at all and hence without whom this wedding would not have been conceivable (and yes, the only four people we would have told about our plans anyway!). I really enjoyed all the positively surprised reactions and your sweet messages. Thank you all, hope to see you at the party in June!!
Talking about the asking, several people have asked me how he did it. Well, here goes. When I came to Berlin, I had only seen our new apartment once before when it was still empty. Olaf moved in about a month before I arrived and had already stocked it with furniture from IKEA and all that. So, when I finally arrived on 31st May around midnight after several delays, we popped open a bottle of champagne to celebrate and he showed me around our new house. And it was - and is - beautiful. He showed me the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom, the guestroom and, finally, the master bedroom. He had bought the bed I liked from IKEA but which he had said he did not like as a surprise. While I was looking around the room he did not say anything until something in a frame on the wall caught my eye. It was a photo collage consisting of loads of pictures of us taken over the 4,5 years we had been, grouped around THE QUESTION. I obviously said yes and the rest is history...
So, when we got back we were almost immediately submerged in work. Olaf has been really busy lately and I have also picked up a surprising amount of courses. We were also busy every weekend and did not really have much time to ourselves. The weekend after our wedding, we had a little mini-honeymoon to Trieste, to visit Louisa and Mickael (photos). It was short but good and I really enjoyed seeing them again (as it had been at least six months) and hearing how surprised they had been to hear our news. Trieste's excellent spaghetti allo scoglio was obviously consumed in copious amounts, too much wine was drunk and there was also a scary kind of walk through a suddenly dark forest that I do not care to repeat. We then entertained Jorryt & Lilian (and her pregnant belly), Bard & Suus and Felix and Annaig in subsequent weekends. For pictures, I refer you to Olaf's blog and Facebook. They were all very good weekends, each one different to the other but all exceedingly happy-making. It does mean, however, that we have not really had any time to get used to and celebrate being married - although we did celebrate our first mensiversary last Monday... Fortunately, convention has provided us with the perfect solution to our problem: the honeymoon. On 30 December, we are leaving for 4 weeks of adventure in the inlands of Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. I cannot wait!!!
Christmas time is here and that means Christmas markets. The traditional German Weihnachtsmarkten cater to the needs of the young and the old, the male and the female, the gluttonous and the, well, merely fat. One can simply not avoid putting on weight at this time of the year. Besides the fact that it gets colder every day - I am soooooo scared of the coming weeks - there is just too much to eat. There is a cornucopia of Gluehwein, hot chocolate (preferably with a shot of rum), cakes, pretzels and lots and lots of sweet stuff. I even found a stand where they sell curly cale with smoked sausage (boerenkool met worst!!!) which I thought was a typical Dutch delicacy not found anywhere else!
As soon as all my courses started they ended again as well, wherefore I am looking forward to slow December. I am not getting any new courses because I will be away the whole month of January but I do not really care. I still have a lot to do, what with preparing for the trip (MUST read all lonely planets from cover to cover!) and finally finish Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur which I got for Christmas (or my birthday?) last year and which I have been reading for the last couple of months. It is 700 pages of Pre-Shakespearean Middle English, that takes a while. I have now finished the actual book and am have got to the commentary and criticism section where I am reading up about Malory's sources and backgrounds and how he was influenced by The Wars of the Roses. I know, you think I am crazy but hey, this is what I like!!
Olaf and I are also having some trouble deciding what to start watching, now that we have finished all seven seasons of The West Wing and nothing really seems challenging anymore... I am looking forward to our honeymoon but also to some other upcoming events, some of them very mundane like the joys of a weekend to ourselves, the first one in a while and the last one until the end of the year. Oh baby, bring on tomorrow night! The weekend after Stephanie and Cobus are coming to visit, followed by Rosie and Vanessa who are going to be using us to crash in between their Rammstein concerts. And then, to make the yuletide truly gay, we will be celebrating Christmas with Olaf's brother Lars, his wife Rachel and their two daughters, whose visit in August was so awesome that I am sure the sequel is going to simply be blissful!
Now, let me just leave with one of the best ways to get into the Christmas spirit:
the Indian way
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