Driver license

The day has just started and the sun is out and shining bright! I love the fact that it’s almost spring. That means that summer is on its way too and that I can hit the beach in a couple of months! That’s the nicest part of having a beach right near your house, when you have time you can always go and you don’t have to travel far. At the moment I’m still looking for a job. It’s frustrating because I know what I want and know where I can get that job but for some reason they never invite me for a job interview.

My first driving lesson starts in one week. I’m planning on getting my driver license in 2 weeks. It’s a very ambitious plan, especially because you need to have at least 30 or 35 lessons to be a reasonable driver but I’ve booked all my lessons in two weeks time so we’ll see how it goes. I’m 24 and I really need a driver license! Not to mention that the age in The Netherlands for driving is 18 and that I could have got my license way earlier but the costs have kept me back. Right now I’ve paid 1971 euro’s for lessons and the final test. It's almost 2000 euro’s! Which is 2532,60 dollars! I have to pass otherwise it will cost an additional 500 euro's. It’s crazy. I could have gone off to the US to get it there but then they won’t let m drive in The Netherlands, so there was no choice.

This week I’m heading to Belgium. One of my friends does an internship in Genk and so I’ll be visiting her on Thursday and Friday. Belgium is a whole other country than The Netherlands, but they speak Dutch too and so I don’t really see it as going to another country plus it costs me 3 euro’s to get there. I do look forward to be somewhere else for a day.
Other than that I’m working fulltime for my dad at the moment. He has his own company and advises other companies in technical installations. I’m doing the administrative side of it. He’s off to Frankfurt on Thursday so I’m glad I will have the rest of the week ‘off’.

Recipe

I love to try all kinds of salads on my bread, for instance egg salad, or salmon salad.

Normally overhere you put it on little pieces of toast/bread at birthday parties but I just like to eat it at lunch and put it on my bread.

So today there's a recipe for Ham & Leek salad

Get 2 leek and get some ham, chop them both in small pieces and add whiskey cocktail sauce to it.....voila, DELICIOUS on a white bun!

Note: The cocktail sauce may be a Dutch thing....we usually poor it on schrimps but I think you can get it in other countries too.

Decorating

I officially moved back to my parents place. Everything is moved but not everything is unpacked. In the craziness I re-did my room too! There's new wallpaper and well basically new stuff. I can't show you everything because my room is still a mess but here are some pictures:

This is the new wallpaper:


And this is one of the two old chairs I refurbished with a new 'coat' it's actually sheepskin and from IKEA! I LOVE IT!

Nostalgia

This week I've been thinking about the bands I liked (and still like!) when I grew up. I was a big Hanson & Kelly Family fan. To this day I still love their music and try to go to their concerts whenever they are around.

I remember that I had a huge crush on the drummer of Hanson (Zac) and a huge crush on the singer of The Kelly Family (Paddy) I was obsessed with them, seriously! ;-)
You can imagine that the hormons of teenager set off easily, mine actually did!

Today I was surfing through the web and came across a video of Paddy Kelly. Paddy is still a Kelly but he's not in the bpart of the Kelly Family (as in band) anymore. Actually he joined a monestary. I barely could imagine that a 'hot' guy like Paddy joined a monastary! But yes he did.

To be honest I really admire him for that. He has had the rock 'n roll life, probably had many women around him fighting for his attention and well lived that lifestyl but still it wasn't that fulfilling so he quit the lifestyle and went to a monastary to learn more about his catholic faith and in the end joined the monastary. He's now called brother John Paul Mary.

I'm not a teenager anymore neither am I still obsessed & crazy in love with Paddy or Zac or someone else (other than maybe my boyfriend ;-)) But looking back and seeing how the lives of Paddy Kelly and Zac Hanson have evolved into something meaningful makes me admire them even more. Being a christian myself I find it hard to fully give everything up for God and Paddy did this! He gave his fame (and probably fortune) up to live a simpler life and a life of celibacy. Wow. I only wish more famous and not so famous people could do this.




Paddy (now)


Paddy (then)