Merry Xmas everyone!

Yes it is that day of the year again. I always find it a weird day, the day where your age increases with 1. It makes you realise that it is another year gone and also wonder if you spent that year wisely. I am not sure I spent it wisely but I did buy my own place which is nice and I am really enjoying my current job (where I have really nice colleagues as you can see on the photo!). I do sometimes miss London though, the cafes, cinemas and theatre shows and just to live in a place that never sleeps.

Seeing as I now have changed from a big city girl into a house owner with a mortgage living in a small town, I am not sure I have enough interesting things to tell here on this blog. (Hence the lack of updates). But I will let it stay on here for a while to see if any writing inspiration returns at some point.

I have dug up my previous birthdays from my archives, funny to see that they have been spent in different countries and with different state of minds:

• 2010 – Apparantly I was so depressed about having a birthday that I did not write anything at all!
• 2009, great quotes for any birthday.
• 2008, spent having cake and a Knickerbocker Glory in Devon
• 2007, reading this post back – I have absolutely no idea what I was on about there!
• 2006, spent in London and a birthday post accompanied with that beautiful poem, I’ll have to dig up that MP3 as the poem being read by Bill Nighy is even better
• 2005, probably already pondering about leaving Denmark for London
• 2004, spent in Denmark

My birthday present for this year? It is being broadcasted on Sunday on BBC2, 9pm (BST). Yes, some things never change.

There are so many apps available for the iPad that it is hard to figure out where to start. I started out looking at some drawing apps, to figure out which one I like best.

Here are the apps I use for drawing:

Sketchbook Express (free – I use this one most of the time)
Adobe Ideas ($5.99 – this one lacks some functions that Sketchbook Express has. It does give you the option to export your drawing in a vector based format though.)

Moleskine app (free – it’s like drawing in a Moleskine notebook)
Bamboo Paper (Still free)
Penultimate ($1.99 – Sketch app)

I also bought a Boxwave iPad Stylus to make the drawing a bit easier and precise.

Other free apps I can recommend:

Springpad (multiplatform notetaking, I just don’t like Evernote, this is a great alternative. I use this a lot)
Wunderlist todo list manager (multi platform)
Flipboard (fantastic personalised magazine, turn your twitter stream into something really cool)
Zite(alternative personalised magazine, cool to I use it beside Flipboard)
MyPad (Facebook for iPad – official Facebook app still lacks)

Weather HD – nice looking weather app
TV Guide UK (to not miss all those great UK tv programs)

And there is a nice WordPress app for the iPad too.

I haven’t really tried any games yet as I am not to big a fan of games in general, but if you have any tips for (non shooting and non angry birds type of) great games then do let me know.

I also bought an iPad smartcover. Even though it works great, it lacks protection for the back, so maybe it is even smarter to buy another cover to protect both sides in one go.

What are your favourite apps on the iPad? (If you have one that is!).

Last weekend I bought an iPad (2). The iPad is great for a lot of things, but one of them surely is drawing. And then especially drawing for people who aren’t particularly good at it, like me.

Yes I drew the sneaker below, but you could have done the same thing, as it has just been a matter of tracing the lines on a photograph and color them in. (don’t tell anyone that secret though!) I admit you could have done the same thing on a laptop in Photoshop but it is so much easier to just do it on the iPad, not the least because it is instant on and it fits better on your lap.

Anyway, here are a few drawings I made tonight (can you guess what my favourite color is? Yes ok). And I will write a bit more about my experiences with the iPad soon. It’s also a great thing to write blogposts on.

I was lucky enough to be able to spot yesterday’s moon eclipse through some holes in the cloud deck. I managed to take some photos.

Did you see the eclipse too?

Happy Easter everyone!

With my lovely London city light.

Already long before I had my own place to live and long before I moved into my own appartment I knew that one day I would like to paint my front door pink. I got hugely inspired when I saw this photo, I just had to wait until I had my own place (and no landlords prohibiting it) to actually be able do it.

Yesterday was the time.

The pics are not great, but this is the before photo:

En here is the after:

With the first couple of strokes I thought – wow, this is very pink! But now that it is done, I love it. It goes well with the grey and it is much better than the yellow colour it was before. (You can’t see that on the before pic, as it was already grounded with white paint there).

What do you think?

Last weekend I made a short visit to Copenhagen. Favourite band tv-2 played a release concert for their new album in the Copenhagen Operahouse, so there were several reasons to hop over: a tv-2 concert in an incredible venue (have a look inside here).

I hadn’t been in Denmark for several years and it was both nice and weird to be back. It feels very familiar but yet it is no longer my home.

There are a couple of things I noticed (some of them I had missed):

Kaergarden with salt
There is nothing better than fresh baked bread with Kaergarden butter. The good thing is that they salt all butter in Denmark, which just gives it a much better taste.

Gullerodsbrod
Fresh carrotbread. And just the fact that all Danish bakeries are open on Sunday.

Cyclists with helmets
Everyone, children en grownups, is wearing a cycle helmet. I think we have as much cyclists in the Netherlands, and no one here is wearing one.

Great trains
The Danish trains remains one of the most comfortable trains to travel in.

TV-2
It had been a while (March 2009 to be precise) but one never can see enough tv-2 concerts. This one was entertaining too and it was also nice to meet some old Danish friends.

Great design everywhere
From fantastic buildings (Operahouse) to the clocks on the railwaystation to the furniture in the SAS lounge on the airport. The Danes are masters when it comes to beautiful design.

Backpacks
It seems the preferred way of carrying your goods around in Copenhagen.

Sandals with socks
Wrong. Especially in the winter and even worse with white socks. Just don’t do this.

I didn’t have that much time, but did have a walk around town, also to visit one of my favourite buildings in Copenhagen:

Records shops with Showtime sleeves

tv-2

and a great Danish breakfast.

I stayed in the Cabinn City hotel, which is affordable and has a great location close to the trainstation and Tivoli. Recommended.

It is slowly starting to look like a real home.

I painted the below half of my entrance walls grey, it makes it look a bit more sophisticated (and will go well with pink, which is the colour I will paint my front door!). And I put up some small frames with photos of a place I like – New York (bought those small canvasses for a few euro in a discount shop – they look great though). I will add some London and Denmark bits somewhere in my place too.

These two are tweeting around in my kitchen, holding my towel and tea towel. Aren’t they cute birdies? (They are from Qualy)

This tree is located on the wall in my entrance. A good place for my keys, and postcards and other stuff. And – isn’t that a ticket for a tv-2 concert in the Opera in Copenhagen? Yes indeed it is! I am off for a short weekend trip this coming weekend. I look forward to both seeing tv-2 again (it has been too long!) and meeting some old Danish friends too.

TV-2 is playing a special release concert for their upcoming album Showtime, they play in the Opera house in Copenhagen, a really wonderful building, and reason enough for me to fly over for a weekend to go and see them. Here is their new single and a very cleverly made black and white video. Good to see that Steffen Brandt still has that grin on his face.

Sleeping in a new home is always a bit special. Especially when your bed collapses in the middle of the night when you are sleeping.

Which made me think of two things:

• How can it be that it didn’t collapse the first night I slept in it?
• I am not the DIY master Jedi I thought I was. (half of the nuts and bolts needed to keep the together were still laying on the floor!)

So yes I am sleeping in my new house. I did assemble the bed correctly now, so hopefully tonight will go better.

Most of the work is done but I still need to:

Put protection laquer on my dinner table
Paint the colour stripes on my wall
Paint 5 meter of book/photoframe/other things shelf white

I’ll take some photos when all is done. And I will also post the photos of my sofa which had to be lifted onto my balcony by a huge crane (as it was too large to be carried up the stairs – nice way to let the neighbourhood know !)

There is progress.

All the paint work is done, wowee! Except the stripes in my living room, but that’s not a lot of work and will be done next week.

I have assembled 4 closets. There are two more Billy’s to assemble, that should be a breeze (with a name like that).

The floor has been installed. (Color: weathered oak (grey-ish))

I have a livingroom with a pink chair and two glossy white coffee/tea tables. My dinner table is waiting to get up and my dinner chairs (I ordered an ice blue, purple, orange and grey one – to keep it colourful) are hopefully delivered next week too.

I have a sleepingroom with a Pirates of the Carribean blue wall and 4 closets. And funky curtains!

I have a terrace with flower bulbs, the snowdrops are nearly blooming.

Tomorrow the movers will deliver the rest of my things so I will be reunited with my stuff.

Tuesday my (grey) sofa will be delivered.

Hopefully on Wednesday it will look like a real (ish) home. I really look forward to have some relaxing time on my new sofa having a tea and watching, well Inspector Lynley perhaps on Wednesday? Making a new place your home is a big job but the end is in sight.

How are you all doing?

I can’t look more depressing than it does now can it? It will only get better from now on. At least it is stripped if any sign of previous inhabitants now, ready to be built up again.

The old laminate floor has now been completely removed too.
And I have the plastic wrapped pink retro chair and a great solid oak (light colour) dinner/coffee/hygge/cosy table in a card box standing in my basement – waiting to come upstairs to my living room. Before they can come up – I have 4 days (Sat-Sun and Wed-Thu) to:

• paint my sleepingroom (walls and ceiling)
• wallpaper 2 walls in my living room with glassfiber (so I can paint them too)
• paint my living room (walls and ceiling)
• paint my kitchen ceiling

Will I make it in time?

And what do you think about these colours – are they too “cold” for a living room and should I go for the pink/orange ones? (White wall and three stripes over the length of one wall is the basic idea)

Alternative – leave the walls white and put up some colourful posters in stead?

Making a place your home needs a lot of:

Endless trips to the DIY shops
Hole filling
Red (no really!) Carpet removal
Laminate floor removal
New floor installation (this will be done for me thank goodness)
Wall painting
Wall papering
Patience
Decisions on what colours to put on the walls (any ideas?)
Loads of Radio Rock

Current status: carpet gone, old wall paper gone, one (smallest) room painted.

Today’s planning: pick up my new pink retro chair (will be stored in the basement until the painting is done).  Paint the second room.

2010 was the year where I

• left the UK to return to the Netherlands
  (I haven’t regret it a single second, I am happy to be home again)
• bought my own place
  (It needs a little bit of painting and I need to install a laminate floor in two rooms, but apart from that it is a great place with a nice view near a small river. I have the keys and will spent the next couple of weekends moving in.)

In 2011 I intend to:

• Rediscover my home country.
  I feel like a tourist having been away for 15 years, and there are many places I have never seen in the Netherlands.
• Enjoy living in my new apartment
• Rebuilt a social life in the Netherlands
• Be happier in my job (I will start a new one the 1st of February)
• Get a little car so it will be easier to get around and go and see things
• Travel
• Find happiness and peace of mind
• Blog a bit more

What are your plans for 2011?

I wish you all a fantastic, healthy, joyful and happy 2011!

Merry Christmas everyone!

May you all have some lovely days spent with the people you want to spent them with.

(We still have snow here in the Netherlands, so it will indeed be a white Christmas for me.)