Thursday, February 22, 2007

Speeding Fines and Washing Machine

Adam really should find out the speed limit in the Netherlands as we have just received our third(!!) speeding fine incurred in the month of January. I am worried about how many more are in the pipeline as it is now late February and it seems to take a month to catch up with us.

The other mishap of today is that a few days ago I noticed a stinky smell on the second floor, which is the floor which houses the laundry. As I am good about doing the washing very frequently I initially put it down to the fact that our neighbours appear to have manured their front garden last weekend and there is a general stinky-smell around the area at the moment. (Quite annoying because I tried to air the house this afternoon and the stinky smell outside was marginally worse than the stinky smell inside... so no airing of the house.)

Then I noticed that the washing machine kept stopping halfway through the cycle, with 2 red lights blinking. Hey! Our washing machine is on the blink!
Well. I thought I had solved the problem by setting it to a little picture that (I think) means 'rinse', and the machine would start off again and then ... 2 red blinking lights ... and I would set it on spin (little picture of whirlpool).. and then it would rest on the 1 red light, which is the end.

Finally I connected the smell to the blinking lights. So this afternoon I dug out the washing machine instructions (yes, they are in Dutch with NO English translation...), and after typing the Dutch into babelfish on the internet, thought I would try removing the bottom panel and cleaning out the filter. So with 10.5 month old Edward cuddled up to my side, I did this. Big mistake. Great gush of truely revolting water, with bits of disgusting filth in it (we use cloth nappies on Edward... so it must have been old bits of poo!!!) Oh, it was awful. My first thought was of Edward and the germs so I raced him to the cot. And then ran back to the fountain of watery-s*** coming from the washing machine.
Anyway... it is cleaned up now and I am currently running another cycle in the machine to see if the blinking light problem is solved. Have disinfected the laundry, hall and bathroom floor.

What a day. Roll on Friday!

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Mummy and Edward finally make some friends

Last week on Thursday I took Edward to be weighed at the Dutch equivalent of the baby health clinic. Was given a 'Green Book' (don't know the Dutch title) which contains guidance on child care and which also contains dozens of pictures of unhappy looking children. It's amazing, there is not a single photo of a happy child in that book. As it is all in Dutch and as I have my fabulous mother and wonderful mother in law to draw upon I'm not going to read it.
The good thing about the baby health clinic is that I met another mother in Eemnes (Katy), who speaks English!! She is not Dutch, but Romanian, and is married to a Dutchman.

So this afternoon Edward and I went to Katy's house and Edward had a lovely play with Katy's daughter's toys.

The other highlight of today is that I fixed the Luxaflex blind in our bedroom. Funny how the little things tend to really annoy after a while. We've asked for the blind to be fixed ever since we moved in and it has become obvious that nothing was happening.
It only took 3 hours or so.... as I removed it from the window, took the top off, rethreaded strings through little holes, along guidance lines and through a hook thing etc. Feel very proud of myself.

Edward is teething. I think he has 5 (almost 6) teeth, but he won't let me have a good look in his mouth.

Edward and Dad having a crawling race

Edward's latest game - a crawling race with his Daddy. I'm not sure who won the race.
Edward can crawl very fast when he wants to, with his little hands making a slap-slap noise on our wooden floor.

Thursday, February 8, 2007

Snow! snow! snow!

After a very warm winter here in the Netherlands, it finally snowed ! Very picturesque and exciting for us Aussies.

Sunday, February 4, 2007

Wakkerdijk

Where we live is on the edge of the Eemnes Polder. Between us and the polder is a road, the Wakkerdijk, that runs 5k or so down to Baarn. This morning we went for a stroll along the Wakkerdijk and I took some photos of the beautiful dutch country houses that line the route.

Saturday, February 3, 2007

De Hoge Vulewa National Park

Today we ventured out into beautiful Dutch winter weather and visited the Hoge Vulewa National Park near Arnhem.

Check out the pics and video.