Man at the Door

Strange Morning.

I was in the shower, then suddenly there was ring at the door.

Oops.
Ran down in my track suit and with a towel on my head.

Guy at door was just as shocked as i was.

So between my broken dutch and freezing hair, I determined he was here to fix something. But for what? I HAVE NO FREAKING IDEA

so I got the phone, called Geert's dad, who happened to be not with his mobile, but on a toilet seat.
Soooo...colleauge of Geert ran to the toilet with the phone, he answered it and then I passed the phone to the guy waiting outside in the cold.


blah blah blah later, ohkay. That guy was LEGITIMATE. HE was here for a reason ( as in not to kill/rob the people/place)

PHEW

I'm sure he had a big story to tell his friends back at his work place! :D

My First Sinterklaas

Culture is a strange thing.
I had my first Sinterklaas celebration of my life on December 11th. When of course, the actual date of the celebration was supposed to be on December 5th.
Well, what do you know..:) let's break this down into numbers then.

(NB: they have to like buy presents that everyone already wrote a list of what they want from...budget 15 euros and then pretend that the present is from Sinterklaas. who writes funny poems together with it like a SURPRISE...you KNOW?)

7 pieces of presents I wrapped for
2 frigging hours
3 which did not belong to me
1 belt/purse thingy i had to make
10 mins my boyfriend spend on writing
3 poems for
4 surprise gift
1 screaming girl kid
2 other normal one
2 sisters-in-laws
2 brothers-in-laws
2 parents-in-laws
11 cups of tea
1 wooden handmade rocking horse
1 pilates mat
1 body lotion
1 humongous headache
10 gazillions forced smiles as I try to understand all the going ons

And mastercards and visa aside?
What a wonderful sinterklaas experience.



Oh and my surprise gift from my boyfriend's family?

A box that contained

15 Licorice Drops (sweets...i hate..but dutch people love)
20 little heart shaped candies with words like SORRY, PA, GIVE, LOVE, HAPPY etc etc
1 pair of yellow wooden clogs
1 sweet wood ( Yes...IT IS A BRANCH...A REAL TREE BRANCH THAT YOU CAN CHEW!)
1 cinnamon candy stick
1 bottle of peanut butter
2 boxes of chocolate hagel (t hink chocolate rice, they like to eat it with butter on their bread)

What is all this you ask? WEll...it's my Dutch Culture Intergration Package.

We gonna ParTy like IT's your Birthday! WHEEEEE

GOOOD MORNING FOR MEEE!!

I woke up to my first pressie!


Isn't my new satin clutch Pretty!? YAY! Thank you Geert-Jan!
Oh and next to that? A beautiful birthday card..WITH......

50 EUR stuffed in it! THANK YOU GEERT and JEANNE!!

YAY!

and I run downstairs at 6 am because GJ yelled, and

I love Geert and Jeanne. They are Sweeet sweet sweet people! I think this is the first time I've had streamers on my birthday and Balloons (8!!!) since I was 9!

WOOT WOOT!

and best of all, the smell of this..

the ORIGINAL, the ENIGE

Famous, Jeanne's Home Made Apple Pie!


LOVELY!

Calorie Minefield!

I have arrived in Holland! Made my way nearly 2 hours west to nice old Meppel! (Trust me..it's old. Meppel is a town (because it has a title deed) and Amsterdam does not!) See..OLD

Anyways. it's all nice, calm and quiet. NSIAP seems to be just a long nightmare away.

Then we hit the town(by which i mean, a single shopping street about 6 m wide), to shop for SINTERKLAAS Presents (Sinterklaas Story) and my god.

In between keeping warm at 6°C, looking for pressies from a little scribbled list and tons! of people, we had Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet


Yes, them.
They were jumping in my path, trying to pelt me with Pepernotens

, Candies and what not! It was a CALORIE MINEFIELD! I had sweets thrown into my shopping baskets. Fat old hairy caucasians and a black-body painted white dude trying to waylay me! Not fun! BUT HIGHLY AMUSING!

By the way? the food for this festive time? Chocolate Letters. Yes..Your name spelled out in CHOCOLATE. HELLO JANICE..YOU HEAR?

Anyways. I resolve to guard against carbs this holiday season, I am determined to not gain a layer of holiday happy fat.

And my reward??..

oh!
A pair of pink suede leather gloves (ooooohhh...drool)
and

these

Sayang! Don't give me heart attack!

Happily worked my way to our pretty pretty Changi Airport Terminal 2, Row 12, for check in at the Malaysia Airlines counter for my butt-numbing 15 hour flight to AMSTERDAM! WOOT WOOT!

And of course, drama enthuses!

Girl at Counter (G@C) : Hi Wendy, MAS would like to wish you a happy birthday in advance!
Me: (GLeeefully happy! with images of champagne and free gifts floating around my head) Thank yoU!
G@C: Let me just check for you, window or aisle?
Me: Did my luggage go over?
G@C: No, only 40 kg.
Me: Phew.
G@C: You know that your connecting flight to amsterdam is not confirmed? You are only on standby?
Me: (internal and external) SCREAM!!!! Sayang!Don't give me a hEart Attack like that!
G@C: yes it's a very full flight and you're only on standby
Me: What? what do you mean I'm only on standby? I don't have a seat?
*FRET FRET*
G@C: Why don't you take a seat? I will make some calls and figure it out for you.


I crawl back into one of those stupid plastic chairs at the airport, then i whip out Green Peas. Called my travel agent frantically, and yelled:"THEY SAY THAT MY FLIGHT IS NOT CONFIRMED? WHAT DO YOU MEAN? WHAT DO THEY MEAN? I CAN"T BLEIVE THIS?! I PAID UP 1 MONTH AGO!???! I BOOKED 2 MoNTHS AGOOOO!!!!!!"

More yelling and shouting enthuses...then the agent said...let me speak to the counter girl. Judging by the looks of the G@C, I think the agent was a veritable bitch to talk to. I'm so happy she squirmed. How dare she scare me like that. So more yelling later, a DISSATISFIED agent demanded to talk to the manager in charge. More yelling I'm sure, happened on the other line.

YAY! The girl assures me...
I have a seat..on MH16! Bound for Amsterdam.


buuuttt..

she didn't tell me...I would be SQUUUUSWHED between Faaat, Weight...Elderly people..the entired blardy 13 hours....

Congratulations, Wendy Tan, You've booked yourself a place on a flight home for a bunch of elderly (note, farting/nose picking/burping/beer-gulping..hence frequently peeing) touring Asia.

I wished one of them had a heart attack. At least I would have had some breathing room.