It was an over cast day in which our family (het gezin) headed off to see Dr Fleur.
This is how we head to the vet now. In a backpack. I really need to re-think the whole backpack-handbag thing when going to the veterinary/dierenkliniek.
Thanks to that quick (hour) visit, our fur-kids …
… made it to Dutch/EU citizenship before we did.
Ungrateful little wretches! How come they don’t have to speak the language?!?
The astute amongst you will notice that I didn’t provide an update for week 4. I made it to the first lesson that week, practiced my 150 most common verbs along with everyone else, we told stories about Willem, and then I put my back out so missed the second lesson of the week. After checking, I only needed to cover chapter four. Even with the missing lesson I didn’t seem to have any problems picking up with the rest of the class when I got there this week in time for …
Week 5, lesson 9. I knew I should have looked up how to say “sore back” as an explanation of my absence! For future reference it’s “zere rug”, and now I know. And you do too.
We began with question structure. Getting my words in the correct order for Dutch is more problematic than I hoped, but I’ll get there! I just need to stop thinking in English.
There was then some role-playing, and the ever important phrase “Kunt u langzamer spreken? Ik leer Nederlands.” (“Can you speak slower? I’m leaning Dutch.”)
After spending time running through various standard responses to frequently asked questions (“I’m off tomorrow” could be answered with “that’s nice” or “sounds enjoyable” … you get the idea) we then all stood up and mingled at the front of the classroom, pretending that we were at a cocktail party. It was remarkably amusing given how little we could converse. But then, how much depth does one go into at those things anyway?
One of the questions on our wee palm cheat sheets was “Hoe oud ben je?” (“How old are you?”) which I had mentioned to the teacher was a bit unfair (not to mention depressing) given that I’m the oldest in the class! So I have my own response to that now! “”Met de leeftijd komt de schoonheid.”(“With the age comes the beauty.”)
For homework we needed to Google (at .nl) all the various public holidays for the Nederlands. We also need to remember while doing this that days of the week and names of the months are not capitalised in Dutch unless they are “important”. For instance; vrijdag (Friday) isn’t capitalised, maar (but) Goed Vrijdag (Good Friday) is.
I had noticed this on some winkel (shop) doors where they posted their hours, but had written it off in my head as purely a design decision. Seems I was mistaken!
In lesson 10 the nitty got grittier. There is so much information to absorb in each lesson, and with each lesson building on the last, there’s ever more to revise and add to our knowledge base. First we continued working on sentence structure. We learnt that though one sentence can be said 4 ways and all will be correct, we learnt the Dutch way.
Then we moved on to learning the rules for pluralisation. Just to screw with my (and your) English mind, they do use apostrophes for plurals of words ending in vowels that aren’t “e”.
Finally we learned new sentences. We were creating sentences about hobbies, and whether we liked or didn’t like them. As with most of our classes, this ended up being quite loud and boisterous as we all spoke at the same time while trying to listen to our fellow students mangle the language.
As always, a wonderful week, and a LOT of homework for the weekend ahead! I think my brain may leak out my ears!
I have been working on a few projects for another swap I’m doing on Ravelry at the moment. The theme is Super Heroes, and I don’t really want to post pictures of those projects until after they’ve been received in case I’m being stalked for information! So you’ll have to wait a little while for those pictures. I’ve been working hard on them and they’ve been taking up most of my time!
But, you’re all in luck! I have also been unable to put down some of the beautiful new fibres I came home from the craft fair with, so I thought I’d show them all off to you!
Though I’ll begin by telling you about the one lone, single, solitary, button which is also in the picture below. I purchased it from Luena and the photo just doesn’t do it justice. It’s made of shell, so when the light catches it at just the right angle it glows with all the colours of the rainbow! I couldn’t leave it there, and I think it will make a wonderful statement piece or brooch! Maybe I can turn it into a shawl pin?
All 3 yarns I got were from Bart & Francis who just have the most amazing and inspiring collection! We spent a fair amount of time in front of their stall listening to all the technical aspects of how the yarns are made and put together. I hadn’t left myself enough budget to purchase any of the really fancy yarns (think; brushed silks, mohair, cashmere …) But I couldn’t walk past the cobweb weight baby alpaca (right), and when I got to the register there was the impulse purchase of the 100% Mulberry Silk (left)!
The silk impulse purchase was aided by the scarf they had made up by the register which showed off the luster of the fibres to perfection! My photo doesn’t do it justice at all unfortunately!
Also by the register was my other impulse purchase. The Silk Shantung. It’s so fine, so delicate, and yet, being silk, a really strong fibre. The swatch piece they had made up to show off fabric made from the yarn, was soft and airy and with a simple but regular pattern. This showed off the texture of the yarn to perfection! Hence, upon coming home and having a quick flick through my stitch dictionaries, I cast on immediately.
This is the perfect knit night piece. It’s easy to follow, and quite a brain dead knit being only 3 stitches in combination. So I can talk and drink while knitting, with little worry about going wrong in the pattern. With all that taken into account though, it still creates an airy, interesting, and textural fabric. I love it!
And yes, I am knitting with something that is the equivalent gauge and density of sewing thread on that spool. Would you expect anything less of me at this point?
I love walking around Amsterdam. There’s always a street you haven’t been down, and even if you have, there’s always something new to see.
This young lady is obviously taking her Frisian cow for a walk in its clogs. What else would you do with your cow? Perfectly normal!
The houseboats have their own gardens. They are often bigger than mine!
How can you not love going for a walk when you’re surrounded by this?
We had a purpose to our wandering this week, and hence were walking up the northern end of town up on Haarlemmerstraat.
We were heading for the Spanish food specialty shop Hollandaluz so Himself could make one of his world famous paellas for dinner that night!
Of course being such a busy strip there are lots and lots of shops up there, both specialty and kitschy. We found this in a home wares store. No, we didn’t buy it.
But I do want a Nijntje (Miffy) night light!
Of course the scenery never stops being spectacular and photo-worthy.
There’s always good sport in searching for all the different types of wall tablets too. Before adopting street numbers these tablets, along with the differing gable shapes, were how different homes were identified. They often told the profession of the inhabitants.
Of course, having been surrounded by all these specialty stores all afternoon, we weren’t immune to the calls of their contents. We may have succumbed to one store, and brought home a variety of samples for later consumption!
I can tell you now with authority that there is a reason the Dutch are known for their chocolate. These were rich, creamy, heaven!
Wow! It never rains when it pours! Have a couple of quiet weeks, and then suddenly a week where I’m out constantly and feel like I’m doing everything!
I had a few errands to run during the week and whilst out finally made it into the secret convent garden of Begijnhof Court. The Begijnhof is the only inner court in Amsterdam which was founded during the Middle Ages, and therefore lies within the Singel — the innermost canal of Amsterdam’s circular canal system. The Begijnhof is at medieval street level, which means a meter below the rest of the old city center.
There is a plethora of information on this place and it’s inhabitants if you’re so inclined to go searching and reading.
It was beautiful, serene, quiet and a perfect place for meditation … until the next tourist group walked through. So I didn’t spend long there, and vowed to go back and visit the chapel on another day. It’s not going anywhere after all.
I then walked through to Dam Square where there was a bagpipe player. This is remarkably incongruous with the country, and so I had to snap a picture to prove to you all that I’d seen him!
Opposite him was the regular Batman. (Palace backdrop is quite effective, don’t you agree?)
Then on Friday I packed myself up onto a train with a group of friends from knit night and we went off to Zwolle for a craft fair! The snow in Amsterdam had melted away under the drizzling rain which had set in; Not so once you got a little bit more East though!
If you squint really hard you can see a farm house in this picture. I swear!
I was glad we’d all been able to go on the Friday as if it was this packed when the general populace was at work, then I wasn’t so keen to be under the crush of people who would have turned up over the weekend!
I’ll think about whether or not to thank my “friends” later. They may have introduced me to a remarkably dangerous store that goes by the name of Bart and Francis.
650m cobweb weight baby alpaca cones, three for EUR15.
You better believe it came home with me! I’ll figure what I’m going to make with them later!
It was only then that my new “friends” introduced me to one of their friends Loret. But by then I was out of budget! And she had the most amazing packs of yarns in colour pallets inspired by the Dutch masters! Oh well. I know for next time that I still need to have money left to hand over to Loret!
The floors were filled not just with stalls that catered to every kind of craft, but there were classes too!
I might look into those for next year when I know the language a little better.
All in all, a spectacular way to spend the day! Thank you guys for taking me with you!
ghoti industries 