Jul9

Review: Het Medaillon van Thrianta

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Review: Het Medaillon van Thrianta

Het Medaillon van Thrianta by Mariska Buijs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I can't not like this book. I've waited (patiently) years to read it.

The book tells the story of princess Quahira who dreams of adventures, the kind she reads in books about. When the chance of adventure happens to present itself -- like they do -- she grabs it with both hands and sets off to make the kindgdom of Thrianta whole again. Not a small feat for a girl who has barely left the castle all her life. Luckily she gets help from several friends and together they go save the world! The story has a good dose of romance, humour and other exciting moments.

I have my doubts the people in the metro with me appreciate me giggling, however, I still enjoyed this book thoroughly. :-)

View all my reviews

Jun25

New shoes

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New shoes
My new shoes.

I needed new shoes. I don’t own many so when I say ‘need’, I do mean need.

I had proper bad weather shoes and a pair of awesome teva sandals that I loved wearing during warm weather. The sandals had one big issue: my insoles don’t fit. I have special insoles, specifically made for my weird feet to help prevent pains. The few times I wore my sandals this year I ended up with hurting feet — even after only two hours. So I went on a mission to get other summer-y shoes. These will fit my insoles, didn’t cost a fortune and I like them because they look a little weird.

Also, they look great for drawing.

Jun21

Little books

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Little books
Filled up IBC003 and started IBC004

I have filled up three little books with my Inkblobs. The fourth has the writing on the outside and no drawings yet.

I think I’ll fill it up pretty soon and then on to the fifth. And a sixth, and probably a seventh and so on.

Clearing out my bookshelves, just in case I have lots of them next year. One has to prepare for these things :)

May17

Gardening

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Gardening
One might think I went a little overboard on the plants this year.

I’ve planted all my seedlings outside because the weather permitted it. We’ve had a lot of sun, very summer-y, for the past month or so. I did however appreciate the amount of rain we got this week and my plants did too.

Every year I seem to end up with a lot more plants than I can place, especially because I also get some plants from TG’s father who has an allotment and usually plenty of extra seedlings. I have about eight extra tomato-plants, on top of the ten or so I had already grown myself. I also got some lettuce and greens which comes in handy because my saladboxes seem to have stunted (probably the heat, the saladboxes seem to thrive in typical Dutch weather — rain and a bit of sun). I’ll resow them and see if I get some tasty greens out of them.

I also received some melon-plants. I wonder how to deal with those…

Apr29

Biking

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Biking
My new brompton bike!

I’ve trained a lot over the past months and I have finished up the official part of my physical therapy. I started out with cycling on my stationary bike for a mere minute or two and worked my way up to some sort-of-serious cycling. I do still need to take breaks every five to ten minutes because I get tired, and I certainly need to keep myself from overdoing it, but I can do some cycling.

Roughly six weeks ago, when the cycling started to look better and improving my health a bit, I ordered myself a brompton bike1. I took six weeks to arrive, in which I cycled and cycled.
Then, a week ago, I finally received the call that the bike arrived and naturally I rushed to the bike-shop2. I rushed a bit too fast as they still had to prepare my bike and do their regular tests. I waited patiently while they preformed their tests, and they kindly attached my bike-computer and bike-cage.

I hopped on it, and cycled home from the shop; a good 7.2 kilometres. I took breaks and walked while I crossed some streets because I couldn’t handle all the traffic. Before that day I hadn’t cycled in a little over ten years, an amazing event in this country ;) Halfway I stopped checking the map and cycled on instinct and mostly little signs that pointed to my neighbourhood. I happily arrived home, having seen more of my neighbourhood than I normally do.

Since last week I’ve cycled lots. Too much actually, and I crashed a bit a few days ago. I do like that I cycled so much and I really love my bike. It gives me more freedom to go places. I have cycled to the nearby shopping center, which I usually go to by bus. When I take the bus it takes me five minutes to get to the bus-stop, then I sit in the bus for fifteen minutes (after usually waiting for at least five minutes), and then I walk a few minutes more. By bike, it takes ten minutes–which of course doesn’t include taking the bike down and storing it somewhere upon arrival.

We’ve had great weather the last week, and both Nano and I enjoy taking the bike out and going for a ride. She can sit in the front basket (hooked up in her harness) or runs beside it.

So far, my bike has made my year :D

  1. In case you wonder why I bought a folding bike and not a proper bike: I do not have any storage in my building which means the bike has to stand somewhere inside my flat. A brompton folds up nicely into my hallway-cupboard. ↩

  2. I got my bike at Tromm Tweewielers, a very nice bike-shop in Amsterdam. ↩