October 2018

We have been home in New Zealand since October 5, so over three weeks now. Being on holiday feels like such a long time ago, the everyday mundane-ness of work has taken over. The trip home was easy, it seemed to go much faster than the outward journey, even the long wait in China. I think my favourite city was Amsterdam.

October has been quite busy for us. Luckily we came home to good weather because the lawns were all knee high and we still don't have them quite under control. The garden is mostly going well, the chickens have been escaping and we have been doing work both inside and out. I sawed a wine barrel in half to make new planters, I'm very happy with them. There will always be so much more to do though. Our biggest job at the moment is staying on top of the veggie garden, and building a new enclosure for the chooks. But I think plenty will get done in the next few weeks because today is Nathan's last day of work. He's going to be my unemployed house-husband for a while. He's hopefully going to build a patio, keep the lawns under control and keep the house tidy.

On my first day back at work, I got a surprise in the form of an extremely decorated desk. On account of having completely surprised everyone, they felt the need to go overboard. Some of the decorations are still up - we are supposed to be decluttering and keeping our desks clear but it's nice to have decorations. I also got a big glittery card and flowers. Work has been keeping me busy, and when I can't concentrate I can spend time 'de-cluttering'. Throwing away everything in your filing cabinet is quite satisfying. But when it comes to my knick-knacks, it's a different story. There is a lot of resistance to our upcoming building-move, and the 'flexible work-place'. We will not have as many desks as we do people, and this week has already shown us how hard that is, with everyone back from leave.

Other things that have happened in October include Cher getting a tummy bug and creating a big diarrhea mess on the carpet. That wasn't a fun evening. On the weekend Nathan and I went looking at motorbike gear and I managed to stumble and fall over, taking a shelf full of boots down with me. It was so embarrassing and now I have a bruise on my arm. We have planted new fruit trees, put up shelving and my new lillies have started flowering. And I have continued my halloween tradition of dying my hair - this year it is bright red.

From Amsterdam Airport

We are on our way out of Amsterdam and we have had a very good week here. The weather has been nice, the food is nice and we have done some cool stuff. Including going to a concert, Electric Light Orchestra, and we were only 8 rows from the stage. It was really good, I've never been so close to the stage before. We also went ring shopping here and now I have an antique sapphire and diamond ring from the late 19th or early 20th century. We did a tour of a diamond factory and saw raw diamonds being polished, that was pretty cool.

I would definitely recommend Amsterdam to visit, and would like to come back one day. Many European cities look the same to me so I was surprised that Amsterdam looks so different. Maybe the buildings are older  There are lots of churches and really big brick buildings, and all the houses along the canals are leaning against each other, some are definitely not standing up straight. We did the obligatory canal cruise that all tourists must do in a city like this. Only ours was a pizza cruise, with pizza  ice cream and limitless beer and wine. Despite that we were the only group in the cruise that seemed tiddly at the end! We also went up a big tower to see the view, another obligatory tourist activity. We didn't climb a church tower this time though  we went up this lookout that has been built at the top of a fancy hotel, and instead of going up stairs you get taken up in a psychedelic elevator, they call it their elevator experience. It had a glass ceiling and an LED light show as it went up. There was a swing up there but you had to pay extra and it's not like it was a bungy swing, just a big normal swing that goes a little over the edge. We just looked around instead.

We have been away for 3 weeks now so we've been a bit exhausted. We didn't go to any museums here, people will say we missed out on important cultural experiences but there choices a point on holiday where you just can't take in more information. Plus you need energy for museums and we were going to go to one but when we got there we realised neither of us could be bothered. So we went and got food and then I found a shoe shop. I have got some great new things on this trip!

So what do you do in Amsterdam for your last day on holiday when you are tired and over cultural activities? You go to a spa! I found one in the city centre, decorated in art deco style. It was a Finnish sauna. It turns out that means everyone is naked. At first it was all men but then other women started to arrive, which was a bit better. It was great though, there was steam, sauna, a cold pool and a little outside sun area. And the decor was so beautiful. No photos allowed though, which is understandable considering the naked people thing.

Now we are on our way home, it will be a long couple of days. We've had a great trip and are already planning where we want to go next!