Concert

Well the concert was awesome I had a fantastic time although I did get a little light headed during the end of Wednesday 13 set but I recovered. The girl next to me asked f I was ok after the gig had finished dunno what her names were she is dutch. I started talking to her about Wednesday 13 before the gig started and she told her friend that I was from New Zealand.

Me being from NZ seemed to be the hit amongst people before the gig I met so many people during the afternoon when people started turning up the most common question was did I come all the way to the Netherlands just to see The 69 Eyes lol I wish hell I want to see them live again I had such a great time.

The after party was fun I talked to so many different people.. A Canadian guy who was telling me about a festival happening in June, A lovely lady who goes by the name of Red Devil (I know her real name), another guy who got the bar tender for me and we bumped into each other constantly through out the night one of the guys who works with Wednesday 13 he was British and gave me the Wednesday 13 set list because I asked lol he was amusing.

Didn't manage to get pics with the band they were busy throughout the night and I didn't want to be a bother and ask for a pic although I did talk to the guitarist from the 69 Eyes before we left at 4am when the bar closed.

Next time I will just book accommodation instead of getting back to the train station here in the Hague and sitting there waiting for the trams to arrive hours later.

The pic is of me and Red Devil taken for Mama Tash who promotes bands she's on myspace just go to the 69 Eyes page and she's there in their friends.

I have a sore throat so hopefully things are open tomorrow so I can get some strepcills I am hoping it's not what one of the twins has she has a nasty throat infection and hasn't eaten since Monday.

They have taken her to the doctor and twice to the hospital the health system here is nothing like it is at home you can't get alot in the chemists here it's all on percription only things you can buy are things like panadol, advil and a limited amount of vitamins.

Thanks for the box and thank gran as well. I am still planning on going to Finland for the Annkarock festival will have to book flight through a travel agent and hope they do cheap flights like they do online.

Do need the curl controller though my hair is mental without it the others I can deal without I hope.

warm weather and concerts

Hey all

Well so far it's been an ok week I got another concert ticket today to see My Chemical Romance in June which I am really looking forward to I again get to meet people I have talked to online ;o)

The weather has been great I got a bit of sun on my face today from sitting out the back this afternoon while the twins were playing on the way to the playground the temp said 14 degrees but in the sun it was alot warmer lets hope this great weather continues.

I am planning on going to an ANZAC service they are having here I will have to be up earlier as IO have to be at Den Hagg Centraal by 7am to catch a bus to the cemetery the children are away that week on a trip with their grandparents so it will only be the mother and i that week and looks like things are working out for next Friday and August - next Friday they are planning on going away for the weekend and then they are away in August for their summer holiday so I don't have to worry about getting time off for my trip to Finland.

Speaking of Finland I'd love to spend longer than a week there so if I can save enough I might be able to and see who else is going to stay on after the Annkarock Festival which is on the first weekend of August.

I am loving wireless internet it's alot faster and I have becoime addicted to youtube and just being able to be online whenever and not worry about the phone being tied up is a big plus I was told woreless and broadband are alot cheaper here than dial up is which seems strange as at home its the other way tound.

Colds

Well it seems I have picked up a cold I have felt crappy all day I even went on a big walk to the beach which is actually easy to get to it took me 10 minutes to get back to the main road from the beach.

I bought some panadol which I think is normal panadol they have many different ones there and alot of nurophen, advil etc. I thought about buying strepcills (sp?) but decided not to as I didn't really need them and it's kinda hard to tell which is the normal one.

You can't get pain killers at the chemist here you have to go to another store that sells them bloody annoying the chemist sells alot of shampoo stuff, toothpaste, tooth brushes, hair dyes, perfumes by the mile and other stuff.

I walked right along the boardwalk and looked at the shops and the beach pavilions ( restaurants, surf shops) they are right on the Beach so when summer comes they will be buzzing with activity.

It was a little breezy walking along the waterfront but wasn't overly cold it was 10 C according to the temperature thing I saw. I walked along the pier which was kinda freaky looking down at all the water and managed to take a couple of pics.

I am on another laptop it was given to me tonight by the father it was the mother's but she is now using his downstairs this one has windows xp so I will have to change the settings for my ipod since I was using windows 2000 on the old crappy one I had.

I have to figure out how to get my photos off the old laptop as the Internet went down before I could get them uploaded the CD player is an attachment so maybe if the battery life is ok I will have to buy a blank CD and load them onto that and send it home or just hang onto it until I come home later in the year.

Last week the children were right little shits mainly the twins either in the morning or at night when it came to bath time one or the other would pack one hell of a hit and not do as they are told by getting dressed with me helping them in the morning and at night getting undressed and having a bath with me supervising I gave up trying to get them to do as they are told as it just never worked.

The mother and I were at our wits end the other night and have started a sticker chart with rules set out eg getting dressed with me in the morning, getting un dressed at night for a bath, no screaming and stomping feet, no crying out for mama at bath time when they don't want to get in the bath.

Whenever they do one of the rules they get a sticker and the one who has the most stickers at the end of the week gets to go to the shop on Frederick Hendricklaan and pick out one lollie.

I tell you the female twin can scream you don't want to be in the bathroom when she lets it rip it's not nice on the old ears.

Fingers crossed that I have Internet access all the time now it's low but still quite fast it's faster than dial up that's for sure.

Well the past few days have been a real mixed bag of weather we have had hail, snow showers, wind and rain.

Today's temp was 8 C which isn't too bad but the wind is bloody chilly especially when you are standing round the playground in town here.

I met two Aussie ladies one that lives right round the corner and another who has taken my number for some babysitting and will put me in contact with another kiwi for more babysitting.

There is a perfume shop round the corner haven't gone in yet but I will at some point lol

I am trying to figure out which is the better hairdresser the one the family goes to apparently they aren't cheap and the family don't really like them so I will have to go into a few and see which I like better.

I am looking forward to payday next week I have 10 euros left and am hoping it will last I only have to buy orange juice and bread every few days so hopefully it won't be too bad.

The 6th is hopefully going to be a blast I will be spending the whole day in Amsterdam with the girl I met online she knows alot of people going and has said they will save our spot in line so we can wonder off to get food and drink.

Everyone here has been sick with the vomiting dioreer sp? bug ;o( it's nasty...

Gotta go got a crying child in the hall as her mum has taken the eldest to ballet and she isn't happy about it due to their bad behaviour we have set up a sticker chart they get a sticker when ever they do something on it eg help me dress them and un dress them each day, get out of the bath etc..

can't wait for my box to arrive I'm trying to spare the marmite lmao

email me and mail me people it would be nice to get some mail

I have added some pics to my photobucket can't add anymore until the Internet is working upstairs in my room

hello

It's been an ok week we have had one kid sick each week with the vomiting bug which is not nice at all have managed to miss most of it as it seems to hit them around the time i'm not working or on a break.

The weather has been really nice it's been fine all week we had a little drizzle yesterday morning but it managed to clear up the warmest temp we have had so far is 14 degrees which is nice as i managed to wonder around outside without my jacket on.

Went looking for a magazine today but it's not out yet only one of the two stores has some music mags so at least I get to read Rock Sound each month shame they don't have Kerrang here.

My hours are pretty good I tend to start at 7:45 each day and then one of us takes the twins to school at 8:45am and I then either start back at 11:30 or 2:15 when the mother goes off to get the eldest from school.

Went on the bike again this week and I am still not 100% confident on it lol you sit up so straight and I have to get used to peddle brakes I am used to the brakes being on the handle bars plus the bike is a little big for me.

Was a tad disappointed with dinner on Thursday the mother and I just had some salad thing all I thought was where is the rest of the food. We eat alot of spaghetti (pasta) haven't seen anyone eat something like steak or any other type of meat dunno if its just this family...

I currently have no Internet upstairs the modem we had died last week the mother finally got a new one after many phone calls to the Internet company it finally arrived in the post on Thursday so we are waiting for the father to get back possibly next weekend so he can get it up and running in my room.

I am quite looking forward the the 6th when I go to the 69 Eyes / Wednesday 13 gig in Amsterdam I will be going by train out to Delft to meet up with Josine who I met online through a friend and then we will travel together into Amsterdam and I may possibly be meeting someone I have been talking to on myspace who is also going.

gotta go now will try and write more another time

end of week one

hey all

it's been a busy week getting used to everything and my first full week of working which has gone well.

I am still getting used to life here and trying to find my way around the town which isn't so easy lol I have found a nice bakery that makes really yummy chocolate covered dounuts *yum* they are alot better than the ones we tried in the USA when we were there back in 99/2000

Now what I need from you lot is meal ideas..ones that don't require a oven as I don't have one so meals for microwaves and stoves would be great. I got some postcards today and have written on them so you will just have to wait a little longer until I can send them and I do know where the post office is that's really easy.

Now my address is a little different than the one i left it's 33 then the street name,next line the other numbers and KG on the next line then The Hague and on the last one Netherlands.

I don't need any chocolate got plenty of that just things like chippies, mellow puffs, toothpaste unless I start using sensodine as they don't have the Listerine one here.

Just anything you can think of would be great get cheycoda to write a letter if she can and do some pictures for me also send me some new pics of my cat and the dogs I miss them alot.

I am off to a concert with a girl i have met online who lives not far from this area we are going to see a Finnish band called The 69 Eyes they are from Helsinki Finland.

I have actually never heard their music before so it should be a really good night and I think my name has been put on the list for the after party which should be rather interesting I will have my digital camera on me so when I can I will take pictures..

Speaking of which I may have to just get my pictures printed off in town and sent home as I can't upload them to a computer here :o( so when I can I will get them done and sent home. There is one of me taken last Saturday at the beach when it was freezing cold, blowing a gale and raining and look frozen lmao.

Flowers are starting to bloom so things are starting to look pretty..Birds pigeons are alot bigger than the ones you see in welly, crows are everywhere I want to take a pic of some as they really fascinate me for some reason and magpies are totally different here they aren't just black and white they have some blue/green in their feathers and have longer tails than the ones you see in NZ another bird I have to get a pic of at some point.

Ignore any spelling mistakes I'm not used to typing on a laptop lol

send me mail please give me something to do on weekends when I'm not out with new people.

I'll post another blog sometime next week or so when ever I remember lol

Until then
Renee

P.S the time is actually 8pm not am

hey all second day here and i really don't like it here lack of food, homesick basically want to come home. not happy here at all do not feel comfortable want out asap. sleep deprived.....

The Countdown begins

Only 5 days to go and I'm off.

Well I have officially booked my tickets. I went into House of Travel this afternoon and organised my flights to Amsterdam.

I managed to get window seats all the way to Amsterdam *yay* I will be flying Air NZ from Wellington - Auckland - LAX then I will be flying KLM to Amsterdam instead of flying to London this saves me another stopover which will be good.

I got travel insurance to cover me for 10 days and hopefully after that I
will have sorted out all the medical and normal insurance for the rest
of my stay.

I should be collecting my tickets on Monday I'm just waiting on the call from the travel agent that booked all my flights.

This weekend consists of getting myself fully organised and packing.

Here's a link to a website on the Hague the city I will be working and living in for the next year.

http://www.thehagueonline.com/

Until next time ;o)

Moving

I'm moving to the Netherlands for a year working as an Au Pair.

I will be responsible for two 3 year old twins getting them organised in the morning and off to school, colecting them from school, eating with them, playing with them, supervising and playing while dinner is being cooked..

I will be working 30 hours a week 5 days a week which is pretty good plus a little babysitting.

The mother will be responsible for the eldest child who is 4 ½. The only time I will have all three kids is when I am babysitting on a Thursday. I have weekends off so I can explore the Hague which apparently is a really nice city and close to the beach which is a bonus in summer.

The only other jobs I have to do is washing and ironing plus keeping my apartment clean and tidy they have cleaning lady so I don't have to do any housework.

I have a friend who is also working as an aupair in the same city and also will be living in the same street only 10 houses away so we will be spending alot of time together. The two families actually know each other as their kids go to the same school.

I have my own apartment within the family house I am on the top floor which I have all to myself with all the usual stuff kitchen facilities, tv, stereo, internet, bed, couch which aslo folds out to a bed, my own bathroom... the only time the family will be on the same floor is to use the washing machine and dryer and I have been told they will knock first so I will have alot of privacy.