Memories from the 80's

Maybe it is my approaching 40th birthday (still few months to go, phew) that got me reading through my old diaries and calenders (some Finns out there might remember the popularity of Teinikalenteri back in the 80's). The older they are, the funnier they get. I have to admit I have very fond memories from the 80's. What an unforgettable decade!

Tragic hairdos. Who could forget those perms and mullets? I look like a poodle in some of my old school photos.

Tragic fashion. I solemnly declare I will never ever wear shoulder pads again! Nor shirts with batwing sleeves. Not to mention those two combined.

Tragic make-up. Who the heck decided that loads of blue eye shadow and pearly pale pink lipstick is a good combination? I also abused black eyeliner BIG time.

But at least the music was fab back in the 80's. Or am I the only one who thinks so? I still listen to loads of 80's stuff. That is the best way to do some time traveling.


I find it quite shocking that over 20 years has passed and I am now officially middle aged. How did this happen? Or should I ask WHEN did this happen? The saying "time flies when you are having fun" springs to mind. And based on my diaries I definitely had fun.

I am wishing you all a lovely weekend and remember, Frankie says RELAX. And do not forget to wake me up before you GO-GO. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt! How about you?

P.S. these pictures have nothing to do with the subject, but there is NO WAY I am going to publish my 80's poodle hair portraits here ;-)

House clearings and makeovers

It has been a quiet weekend, as planned. We have been relaxing, but also doing some house clearing. It is amazing how quickly one can accumulate a huge amount of junk. We just keep stuffing it up to the attic until it is about to collapse. So this weekend we rolled up our sleeves and chucked away loads of stuff, from old clothes to electronics. And it felt so GOOD! :-) Have to do this more often.

We also did this mini makeover. The original colour of the Chinese rice basket was not bad, but it did not fit with the rest of the decor anymore. A coat of white paint and some sandpapering and it is spot on again.

Waiting for the weekend

This week has been slightly chaotic, so I can hardly wait until the weekend starts and I can just RELAX. So many things seem to go haywire these days, especially at the office. Murphy is having a laugh again...

It has not been only bad though. On Tuesday my boyfriend came to The Hague to pick me up from work and we went to a dinner. If you are ever in The Hague and looking for a good restaurant, I can recommend MAX. Their food is sooo yummy, mmmhh. On Wednesday I went for a walk to the dunes and the beach. Very soothing for my nerves, as always. Today my physiotherapist gave me a massage, which I needed SO bad. Groceries we ordered online arrived tonight, so even that is sorted. Now I am as ready for the weekend as I'll ever be (just need to put a bottle of nice rose to the fridge). Hopefully the weather is going to be ok. Would be nice to sit outside...

I have not had time to take many new pictures, so this is all I have to show for now. Please bear with me :-)

Flower power vs snail power

We have enjoyed a lovely weather today. Finally we had some sunshine and even the wind calmed down. Really cheered me up.

Our Hortensia suffered a great deal during last spring's cold spell. It took a while for it to recover and I already got a bit worried, but now it is blooming. Hopefully by next summer it will be back to its old glory.
Few details from our "sunny section". This corner is basking in full sun almost the whole day, hence the name. The Phlox and Cattail are currently blooming and bringing a dash of colour to the garden.
And then to one of our holiday casualties. During our absence it rained a lot and snails and slugs were feasting with our Hostas. We were hoping our hedgehogs would have been munching the snails before they manage to destroy our Hostas, but no such luck. Slimy buggers!

Birthdays and garden views

We have a small celebration tonight as it is my partner's birthday. He is two years younger than me, hence he calls himself my "boy toy". Not sure if a two year age difference quite entitles the title, but if it makes him happy and feeling young at heart, I do not want to spoil his fun :-) And no, I did not bake a cake. Trust me, it is MUCH safer for everyone if I just buy one. I do not want to traumatize anyone with my non existing baking skills...

Couple of pictures from one corner of our living room. I have shown this corner before, but it keeps changing, hence the repetition :-)

Views from our patio towards the garden, which is a typical Dutch garden, long and narrow. That one empty urn sticks out, it is still waiting for a new lavender. All the way to the back of the garden we are planning to build some kind of garden room/pergola. Hopefully we will get it done next spring. At the moment we have nowhere to sit if it drizzles a bit, hence this garden project is on the top of our "to do" list. This is it for now. Wishing you all a nice week!

Some progress

With our (seemingly) never ending dining room plan that is. Our new(ish) chest of drawers has been finished off with a coat of oil and wax. We did not want all furniture to be white in our dining room, hence we are leaving some pieces wood coloured. Painstakingly it all is coming together. I am still pondering if the new ceiling lamp should be modern or should we go with a traditional chandelier. Decisions, decisions.

Then to other things. We have had some sunshine today, which is great. I was starting to get so fed up with the constant rain and I was also running out of dry shoes.

Our garden looks very luscious though. This rain has caused couple of casualties (happened during our holiday), all our lavender died, basically drowned. The picture below was taken way before our holiday, when we had just planted the lavender. And now it is all gone. But hey, that is gardening. There are bound to be some setbacks every now and then. Guess we need to make a trip to a gardening centre and get some new lavender. Better luck next time :-)

Root canal

So, I am currently going through my first ever root canal treatment. Toothache started during our holiday and at first I thought I will be fine after a regular filling and antibiotics, but no such luck. At least they got me through the holiday, but this morning I realised tougher measures were needed and called my own dentist. Making that call was not easy as I knew the next stop is root canal and I was not looking forward to it. Dentist is pretty much one of my pet hates, or fears...

My colleagues were more than happy to share their root canal experiences with me. One colleague told me it is done without local anaesthesia, which almost made my eyes bulge out and knees buckle in fear. Two others made me feel a bit better by assuring me local anaesthesia will be used, but then yet another colleague made me worried again by saying, whilst dramatically rolling her eyes, "Ooh you will be in tears after the local anaesthesia wears out". Like a lamb to the slaughter or sort of...

You can imagine my heart was pounding and hands were sweating when the dentist called me in. He told me not to listen to any horror stories, that it will not be that bad. And hey presto, he was telling the truth as I did not feel a thing! Mind you, because of the local anaesthesia I was hardly able to feel my nose, not to mention my teeth! Now the anaesthesia is wearing out and I am waiting for those tears I was warned about, but I do not think that will happen. Next week the dentist will replace the temporary filling with a permanent one and then it is done :-)

Lesson to be learned... do not believe everything people tell you!

These pictures have obviously nothing to do with the subject of this post. I just cheered up the living room with some pink and pale blue cushions.

Almost back to normal

All good things come to an end, so did our holiday. We came back from Finland yesterday evening. I think it has been raining quite a lot in The Netherlands during the past 2.5 weeks, as our garden looked more like a jungle than a garden. It had also been taken over by spiders, some of them being almost cat-sized. Everywhere you turned you encountered a huge spider web, stuck against your face and hair, eugh. I do not mingle well with those creatures...

Anyway, today we have been busy with gardening, cleaning the house and doing laundry, the usual post-holiday stuff. And now back to "work", just wanted to do a wee post, to let you know I am back.

This pretty little artwork is one of the purchases we made during our holiday.