Sunday, January 15, 2012

New Year, it is!



Dear sisters,

Well, howdy.

Is it too late to say Happy New Year?

It has been long time and I have no excuse I can think of, so writing to you on a more regular basis on this forum is a good resolution for the coming year; that with book completion, a new home, a dog and a marathon in New York. And less focus on clothes-shopping this year; just to see what that’s like. And more open communication with my husband; just to see what that’s like.

So, you see, 2012 is not going to be the end of the world, but yet another grand beginning, although I seem to work better in academic years, starting in September, which means we are halfway through one or not yet at the other. January is a very difficult month to start all the above, due to its messiness; school holidays and the overeating.

I thought I would get back into the groove by rambling a bit on how we are doing in the Venice of the north, where the wind whips around corners, making us cycle backwards.

In between, I will present some holiday snaps to give you the necessary breathing space. Here is one of my new camera that is so advanced you can change the focus after taking the picture. My husband gave me that for Christmas.





Here is a picture of me and my husband, in the meadows of South Bohemia. We spent New Year in your country, S3, while you were not there, which is a shame.



The day after this picture was taken it snowed and looked like this amazing, isn’t it?



Jip wants to grow his hair long like Orlando Bloom in Pirates of the Caribbean 1, 2 and 3. I told him: “you realize they are extensions”. This did not go down well and, it appears, is not true. “Alright”, I said, “Fine by me, as long as you keep it light on top.”

We are buying Jip a new guitar as he had a ¾ one and it seems to be difficult to get his fingers around all the cords. Both Jip and his teacher seem to think the next one should be electric, which I fear is taking us down a whole new road of sound experimentation. Jip is very excited. “I love the eighties and nineties music”, he says. His favorite pants are his black tight cords and he likes his black skimpy vests because to him they symbolize rock music and his own personal freedom (I added that last bit myself). He said he wouldn’t mind a couple of white skimpy vests either.

Rosie also thinks skinny pants are the ultimate in style. She however has none. She has declared her love for Q, a certain classmate, and when she thought there was a chance she might have a play date with Q one day, she made great effort to dig out her tightest pants, which are more treggings than pants, added her favorite T-shirt with shiny bits and was ready. The play date did not come about unfortunately, but she was ready.

At the dinner table Rosie asked us whether we thought she should just go ahead and tell Q she was in love with him, giggling, adding she wouldn’t dare to, anyway. She has competition, so she tells me, as J and E are in love with Q too.

I have subscribed to this Letter in the Mail service, which I think might appeal to S2 in particular.

We saw this London lass in concert and both my husband and I agree she is very good.

Here she is playing for Jools.



My new hobby is making books on blurb.com, which is rather an expensive hobby. But after I had to pay many Euros to retrieve data on a damaged external hard disk, I believe strongly the pictures should be fished out of the computer as quickly as possible, just in case it happens again. So far, I am still having difficulty making ultra sharp editing decisions, which entails killing my darlings, meaning the books are still rather fat, but I am sure as time passes it will become easier. I seem take the same pictures over and over again. Look, another window with lacy curtains. Look another empty road leading to nowhere.

Allard is waiting for his electric car and goes to the gym before work.

In the next episode I will talk about the plans for our new house. Will we be able to squeeze it all into the budget? I might also talk about how I am resisting the sales. It feels like stopping smoking. If you wait a while, the urge disappears.


The last picture of today, shows a still life of our mother's natural air freshener at Christmas.




With love,

S1