I know I haven’t written in a while, and well.. sorry. I have been busy with things here in Windsor, trying to get stuff organize, packed, dog ready for take off, paperwork A-ok, luggage under 50lbs (which let me tell you hasn’t been easy), driving all over Windsor type things for the last week.
On Sunday we had a family dinner where I had an early Birthday party, I would show you pictures but since I wasn’t “camera ready” I’ll just delete them and pretend it never happened. It was nice celebrating here in Windsor before leaving, since I have never in the *ahem* 29ish years I’ve been alive have I celebrated anywhere else. I know Frank will do something nice for me (wink wink) since it will be my first official birthday away from my family, but still it will be hard. This year will be a “first” for many things that I normally do here in Windsor, and now will take place elsewhere. Although I do plan on making it home possibly the following year for Christmas.
I did manage to get Stoney in for his grooming, and my little devil looks too cute! I didn’t get a picture of him though since I forgot the camera at home. However, I did take a picture of the new snazzy jacket I bought him. Yes the dog has more clothes then I do! but it’s a Windbreaker type jacket! Perfect for those blustery Dutch days! Or at least that was my reasoning in buying it. Oh that and it has the Canadian Flag on it! You’ll notice the bright red colour with the lovely accents in white, how Canuck is that? It even has a little collar on it! Stoney is so used to me dressing him, he now just sits and puts his paw up in a “lets get this crap over with” type attitude. Which makes so much easier for me to dress him. Granted he still isn’t keen on hats, must work on that. Once I get it on him, I’ll take a picture. Now how cute will he be, dressed in that jacket sitting in the front basket of my bike as we tour around Amersfoort? Tomorrow the little guy has his International Health Certificate appointment at the vets…aka…suck more money out of Melissa to bring Stoney to Holland.
Other then that, I’ve now experienced enough of the Windsor heat and humidity to remind of this for years to come. Frank said it does get humid in the Netherlands, but I highly doubt it will get as humid as Windsor. When you can take your pet fish out for a walk, you know it’s going to be a sticky day. I had to stop myself from buying too many summer clothes since the climate isn’t quite the same in NL, they don’t get the stretch of hot days like we do. In fact, the other day Frank complained that he was COLD… as I nearly sweat to death in the sauna we call “The City of Roses” in 32C heat, but FEELING.. yes that’s right, this is what the humidity does, it makes it FEEL more like 38C.
Mom’s flowers are doing well, we had a few good storms pass though and they managed to survive. Her peonies have opened fully now, and looked pretty. But they are so top heavy that they have to be tied up so they don’t fall. Her clematis vine is growing well too, it’s a double one so there are two different looking flowers on it. I’m hoping to get out tomorrow and take a picture of the lilies that are now in bloom and there are some other odd looking flowers on the other side of the yard that I need to investigate. Speaking of flowers and gardens… I wonder how mine is doing….
Well I did manage to add a widget or two on the site, one is a news feed for Dutchnews.nl. This is an English newspaper for events that take place in the Netherlands. I would like to also add the Windsor Star, but I’m having problems finding the RSS feed for it. I also added a page, and will add a second one very shortly. The page “Where I come from”is a brief explanation of Windsor Ontario. I will soon add one for “Where I live” about Amersfoort in the next coming days. So look to the right of the blog and you will see the links to take you to those particular add ons. I hope to get on here before I leave, but if I don’t I will write again as soon as I arrive back in the Netherlands.
Now time to get to bed, since I have another day of running around to do.
A Canadian in clogs 
Oh wow, how exciting and scary at the same time, moving over here. It seems like just yesterday I was the one leaving everything.
Whatever you do, don’t let Frank throw you a birthday party! The Dutch birthday parties are screwed up, all they do is sit in a circle and drink coffee and eat cake, it’s bizarre 😛
It’s going to be hard for a while for sure. It gets depressing when things come up like Thanksgiving, family reunions and stuff like that where you know your whole family is together and you aren’t there. The best advice I can give is to go out and do something here in NL, pop down to Belgium… do something that nobody you know back home has done or probably will ever do. It creates a bit of balance hehe
It’s really hard to not compare NL to home, but I think if I had one piece of advice it’d be to try as hard as possible not to do it. I spent years comparing and NL was always on the losing end. This made it incredibly difficult for me to adjust and cope with the move.
As for the weather, ugh… Frank is right it DOES get humid here. SICKENINGLY humid. I don’t know what it’s like in Windsor but I lived in and around Toronto and never experienced anything like the humidity here. When we went to the south of France we had 25-30ish weather and I was fine out jaunting around and seeing everything. We came back to NL and it was about 26 degrees and I couldn’t even blink without breaking into a sweat. It’s gross. All North Americans I know complain about the humidity here, so be prepared! It may just be as bad as Windsor, or worse.
LOVE the doggy jacket!!!!!
HA! I’ve heard about the birthday parties. Good thing when Frank turned 40 in December, I’m the one that gave him the party and not any of his Dutch friends. I think we’ll keep it low key and maybe go to a new city that I haven’t been too for the day.
I think we are actually going to Belgium for Thanksgiving and taking a quick ride in to France. We are going to stay at a SunPark (they do accept dogs) in De Haan and then go into Dieppe. Next summer I want a bigger trip.
I think you must get the humidity worse me us here since you are closer to the coast then I am. I’m in the centre of the country. The problem with Windsor weather is that it will be 30C plus and the humidity sitting at 100%. It will feel like it is going to rain, but it just won’t!
Stoney’s not too keen on the jacket, I have to figure something out since underneath it rubs against him. It’s just a hair too long. Other then that I think he’ll tolerate it when I make him wear it.
How are the babies doing at home? I see Spencer has adapted quite well again.