Where to begin? It has been over two months since I last posted anything on this blog. I will spare you the usual excuses of having been very busy and having a lot of work - they are all true, but not necessarily the most interesting part of my life. I have worked a lot and earned a lot of money - and let us just leave it at that. On to more fascinating things.
So what has happened of note. Well, we had some guests in October and November. I finally managed to meet the last one of Olaf's international bunch of friends, the lovely Miss Lotte from Denmark. You would think that I had met all of his friends seven years into our relationship, but this one had escaped me on several occasions. I was starting to think she was afraid of me, but fortunately she turned out to be lovely. Olaf's brother Lars and sis-in-law Rachel paid us a visit too and, among other things such as late-night games, good food and too much booze, we went for a gorgeous sunny autumn stroll in the Schlosspark Charlottenburg, of which you can see some pictures here:
As it was my birthday on 28 October (my big 30th!), our wedding anniversary on 30 October and Halloween, we decided to throw a massive Halloween party. I believe we had a fantastic idea re costumes once again and I am very proud of our creation:
We were Edward and Jacob from Twilight who had decided to get rid of Bella (there was a certain body in the shower cabin) and to continue as a couple! For more pictures click here.
At the end of November, we met up with Mickael, Louisa and Gerry in Brussels for a weekend of old-fashioned alcohol-induced fun. It was as if our little group had never fallen apart and we did not live miles away from each other. Always a pleasure, my dears!
We were too drunk to remember taking pictures most of the time, but this one is quite cute. Mickael had the privilege of showing us around his home town. That same weekend, we also took a little trip to Kortrijk to meet Orlando, Belinda and Enrico's new young one. He needed to be pampered and his parents were in desperate need of some adult conversation. Plus, we got to enjoy Belinda's famed lasagne.
This period has also included a lot of reflection and important decisionmaking. After a lot of twisting and turning, hoping and planning, we finally made the decision to remain in Berlin for another couple of years. Olaf accepted a job as project leader at his current institute and will be running a project on terrorism with his own team for at least three years. Please do not think we are done with Berlin or do not like it here, but we have been here for 2,5 years and there are just too many places in the world left to see and live in. In short, we were ready for a new challenge. Now that we have decided to stay in Berlin, we are going to find that challenge elsewhere. Having a baby is quite high on our list.
One of the conditions on basis of which we agreed to stay is that we want to be able to go away for a significant part of the dreadful Berlin winter and this year we are going to travel Malaysia, Myanmar/Burma, Singapore and Java in Indonesia for about 7 weeks! Fortunately, Olaf's employer was quite alright with this and I managed to convey this piece of news just after I had committed to working for my schools for another couple of years in order to butter them up a bit.
And now it is Christmas - or rather, Christmas is almost over again. My Christmas part was wild once again, I ended playing snooker with colleagues until about 4am and smoked a packet of cigarettes (yes, that my thirtysomething definition of 'wild'). I am still recovering from the two wonderful multiple-course Christmas dinners Olaf prepared yesterday and on Christmas Eve. Tuna carpaccio, shrimp cocktail, basil souffles, mint spoom, pear spoom, homemade cupcakes, lobster in vanilla salt, clams alla portoghese and much, much more. I was really happy my brother Ward and his girlfriend Anne were able to join us for Christmas. Thank you guys so much, I hope you like your prezzies, I certainly loved mine!
Oh dear, it looks like our dear Christmas snowwoman Margaret had an eetsy-beetsy too much to drink...
Looking back on this year, I am quite satisfied and look forward to 2012. Bring on the 7-week holiday!!
Before I end this post, I just want to share two of my new favourite Christmas songs:
Jethro Tull's 'The Christmas Song' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFvth5GWFSw
Amy Winehouse singing 'I saw mummy kissing Santa Clause' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-pFNsapyTw
So what has happened of note. Well, we had some guests in October and November. I finally managed to meet the last one of Olaf's international bunch of friends, the lovely Miss Lotte from Denmark. You would think that I had met all of his friends seven years into our relationship, but this one had escaped me on several occasions. I was starting to think she was afraid of me, but fortunately she turned out to be lovely. Olaf's brother Lars and sis-in-law Rachel paid us a visit too and, among other things such as late-night games, good food and too much booze, we went for a gorgeous sunny autumn stroll in the Schlosspark Charlottenburg, of which you can see some pictures here:
As it was my birthday on 28 October (my big 30th!), our wedding anniversary on 30 October and Halloween, we decided to throw a massive Halloween party. I believe we had a fantastic idea re costumes once again and I am very proud of our creation:
We were Edward and Jacob from Twilight who had decided to get rid of Bella (there was a certain body in the shower cabin) and to continue as a couple! For more pictures click here.
At the end of November, we met up with Mickael, Louisa and Gerry in Brussels for a weekend of old-fashioned alcohol-induced fun. It was as if our little group had never fallen apart and we did not live miles away from each other. Always a pleasure, my dears!
We were too drunk to remember taking pictures most of the time, but this one is quite cute. Mickael had the privilege of showing us around his home town. That same weekend, we also took a little trip to Kortrijk to meet Orlando, Belinda and Enrico's new young one. He needed to be pampered and his parents were in desperate need of some adult conversation. Plus, we got to enjoy Belinda's famed lasagne.
This period has also included a lot of reflection and important decisionmaking. After a lot of twisting and turning, hoping and planning, we finally made the decision to remain in Berlin for another couple of years. Olaf accepted a job as project leader at his current institute and will be running a project on terrorism with his own team for at least three years. Please do not think we are done with Berlin or do not like it here, but we have been here for 2,5 years and there are just too many places in the world left to see and live in. In short, we were ready for a new challenge. Now that we have decided to stay in Berlin, we are going to find that challenge elsewhere. Having a baby is quite high on our list.
One of the conditions on basis of which we agreed to stay is that we want to be able to go away for a significant part of the dreadful Berlin winter and this year we are going to travel Malaysia, Myanmar/Burma, Singapore and Java in Indonesia for about 7 weeks! Fortunately, Olaf's employer was quite alright with this and I managed to convey this piece of news just after I had committed to working for my schools for another couple of years in order to butter them up a bit.
And now it is Christmas - or rather, Christmas is almost over again. My Christmas part was wild once again, I ended playing snooker with colleagues until about 4am and smoked a packet of cigarettes (yes, that my thirtysomething definition of 'wild'). I am still recovering from the two wonderful multiple-course Christmas dinners Olaf prepared yesterday and on Christmas Eve. Tuna carpaccio, shrimp cocktail, basil souffles, mint spoom, pear spoom, homemade cupcakes, lobster in vanilla salt, clams alla portoghese and much, much more. I was really happy my brother Ward and his girlfriend Anne were able to join us for Christmas. Thank you guys so much, I hope you like your prezzies, I certainly loved mine!
Oh dear, it looks like our dear Christmas snowwoman Margaret had an eetsy-beetsy too much to drink...
Looking back on this year, I am quite satisfied and look forward to 2012. Bring on the 7-week holiday!!
Before I end this post, I just want to share two of my new favourite Christmas songs:
Jethro Tull's 'The Christmas Song' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFvth5GWFSw
Amy Winehouse singing 'I saw mummy kissing Santa Clause' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-pFNsapyTw
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