Bart & Tineke's wedding

The last big thing I need to tell you guys about is the wedding we went to last week. We were honoured to be of the party when Bart promised eternal love and devotion to his amazing Tineke. He could not have a chosen a more beautiful spouse and they both looked brilliant. The got married in a beautiful chamber at the old city hall in The Hague and after that we were swiftly transported by tour bus to a beach club near Scheveningen for the reception and the party. Here are some of the pictures we took of the event:

The bride and groom

Joost and Kim, who are to be wed in August, were nice enough to let us stay

The happy couple about to drive off into the sunset in Bart's personally done up VW beetle cabrio. Quite literally into the sunset, actually, as they are going to be cruising through Italy, the land of sunset, for their honeymoon

After a while, the bride started to announce the less formal part of the wedding, i.e. the party, by messing up her groom's hair

Olaf tried to make a pass at the groom

And I tried to take steal some of the bride's brilliance

But in the end we had to admit they looked too perfect together and we decided to content ourselves with each other

We had taken an extremely early morning flight in and had some time to visit The Hague before the wedding. And where did we accidentally end up? At the gay pride, obviously!

For some pictures click here.

I have now brought you up-to-date of all the great things that have been happening in my life. I have got some more work on as well, which is not bad at all. The one thing I have to get used to is having to start teaching at 7.30am on two consecutive days, which seems to be a lot for my body to be able to cope with and I have not been sleeping well since that started. Oh well, as soon as I get into a rhythm it will be fine.

The sun is out and the temperature has suddenly gone up a bit. It is now 25-30 degrees C on a daily basis and I am actually started to get a summery feeling. No doubt that will all change again very soon, what with the fickle Berlin weather, but one must look at the bright side of life. I did all my summer shopping today and have decided not to wear anything but linen trousers and summer shirts until September, come rain or come shine. Olaf has left for a series of conferences and I have basically got the rest of this month to myself. I am planning to relax, get a tan and work on my social life.

And cycling back through Tiergarten park around noon, looking at all the unemployed Germans showing off their perfect bodies (for unemployed people have far too much time on their hands and all go the gym all day), with my summer playlist at maximum volume on my MP3 player (Taio Cruz' 'Break your Heart', Owl City's 'Fireflies' and Train's 'Hey Soul Sister' stand out this year), I realised I am quite content...

Weddings, Le Morte Darthur, Weihnachtsmarkten and a honeymoon

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

Married!!!!

On Friday, 30th October, Olaf and I got married in secret. We had a very small ceremony with only our parents as guests and witnesses in the picturesque medieval town of Naarden. I am very happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are some pictures:

For more pictures, see Facebook. If you have received an invite to the party, please click here to RSVP.

I promessi sposi

Ciao tutti,
It's already been a week and a half since I last posted something and we are in dire need of an update by yours truly. After Liberation Day I worked Thursday and Friday, although most of my courses were cancelled and I had a lot of free time. On Friday, Marianne and Thijs arrived. Marianne is an old study mate and Thijs is her new boyfriend who I had only met once - very briefly - at my graduation ceremony. It was an interesting weekend. Seeing Marianne again was nice, because she was in Wales when I last came to Holland just after New Year's and we hadn't seen each other since last August. I had a little bit of trouble adjusting to Thijs, though. Let's just leave it at the fact that he's very young and still has a lot to learn about the world - although I suppose he disagrees as youths recently graduated from high school usually do (don't you all remember those days???).

Anyway, when they left, they unfortunately took the good weather with them as well. Last week it rained, rained, thundered, rained, rained, thundered and rained some more. And this rain was very much needed as well. The Italian government has recently declared a state of emergency because there isn't enough water. It has hardly snowed last winter and if we (Italians - I didn't even think of the consequences, I suppose I do consider myself to be Italian by now) continue our usage as we do now, there'll soon be a threatening shortage of water. As the Italian public transport system had announced a national strike on Friday, it goes without saying that it rained cats and dogs that day. As I was walking through this god-forsaken weather, I felt anger piling up inside me and when I found out - two-thirds of the way there - that the metro was working as usual I shouted, but was also very grateful. It's just unfair. It always rains when I have to walk because of a strike - e non mi piace!

Friday afternoon, I met up with Belinda and her family and friends from South Africa and Ireland who had come over for her wedding and showed them around town. I wasn't too impressed with Belinda's mum and brothers, but her Irish friend Miriam ('Blue Girl' - Even though she was the only one to appreciate my tour, I couldn't remember her name at first but could just remember she was wearing something blue) is lovely. Everybody was very anxious about the weather, because Belinda and Enrico had planned to have their wedding reception outside. Fortunately though, it was dry most of the day.

Saturday morning, the kids got married at a lovely city hall branch office next to the Giardini Pubblici ('Public Gardens', a large park in the middle of Milan) and I did my utmost to be the best Matron of Honour I could be - which just means I got to sign as witness. After that we drove to a rural area near Crema for the reception and, even though it rained for about 20 minutes, we were very lucky to be able to spend the rest of the day in the sun. And it only rained while we were eating outside under a cover so the rain didn't bother anybody - well, except for the odd child playing in the courtyard that is. The wedding was lovely, the two of them looked beautiful and most people had a great time. At around 6 pm, a lot of people left but a small group of us stayed to dance and sit around a campfire and have a chance to really talk and get to know each other. I think Belinda and Enrico really valued this part of the day most, because at this point they could stop feeling responsible and just start enjoying this day which was and always will be one of the most important days of their lives. We all got drunk, of course, and started dancing, knocking over bottles, having good conversations, joking around and spending a lovely evening. It's too difficult to describe everything that happened but let me just say that I had a great time. And so did Olaf, I think. We especially had some good laughs when Belinda's Christian fundamentalist friends Mike and Caroline got really drunk and went into a matrimonial crisis - which meant he went for a walk and fell asleep in the mud and she got into sexy dancing and started groping everybody, yours truly and his lover included. I didn't mind it at first until she got into my lap and started whispering how easy it was for her to combine being a Christian with sex - and how much she wanted dick... Anyway, we also met two lovely couples: Nicola (Italian) and Aniela (Flemish) from Verona, who I wouldn't mind seeing again, and Roger and Chiara (both Italians) who were a bit older but very entertaining and awakened my desire to go to Sicily by their description of what must be heaven on earth. Here are some pictures which will illustrate the day and the atmosphere much better than I can describe it.

Just before the official wedding ceremony, they look a bit nervous, don't they?

Belinda looks fantastic, doesn't she? This dress was the cause of a lot of excitement among the conservative Italian visitors...

Rushing by in a horse-drawn cart to make a grand entrance

Cutting the cake

Aren't they looking sexy while making this toast?

She's radiating, looking so happy and beautiful!

Enrico, Belinda, me and Melina

Melina was looking very nice

Belinda had actually made sure that we were seated across from a Flemish girl called Aniela and her Italian boyfriend Nicola. Simona, one of Belinda's friends a lovely - though crazy - Italian lady, just had to get in the middle. I was so surprised and delighted that we were actually able to speak Dutch yesterday!

Being a little drunk Olaf started taking pictures of Nicola, Aniela and me trying to find alternatives for 'Say, Cheese'... This is 'Say Radicchio'

Don't the kids look lovely together?

On Sunday, we slept late, cleaned our house and relaxed a lot. In the evening, we went to Mas for aperitivo with Enrico, Belinda, Miriam and Belinda's family. We couldn't let them go back to South Africa and Ireland without introducing them to the concept of aperitivo, now could we? Melina joined us later and we were very happy she came, because we wanted to find out whether she had 'gotten together' with Marco the night before - he's an Italian friend of Enrico's who gave us a lift back to Milan Saturday evening, who Melina got on with quite well and who she ended up alone in the car with after they had dropped us and Simona off. They would be a great couple, but unfortunately nothing happened. Well, that just means we're going to have to put some more effort into getting her a boyfriend...

Today, my working week started and it started heavily. As two of my colleagues are on holiday, the rest of us need to cover a lot of courses and I'm working about 35 hours this week. Well, at least this'll liven up my paycheck this month. I've got an early start tomorrow, so I'm wishing you all goodnight and sweet dreams now. And for those in Nijmegen, I'll see you all in 4 or 5 days.

Ciao, Fe