Merels week #1

It’s been pretty quiet on my blog for quite a while. But now that I’ve blown out 29 candles, I know it for sure: I’m restarting my blog. I’m excited to write articles again, and share not only about my travels, but just everyday life. So here we go!

Monday

The new work week has started, and I’ve worked at the office for the day (which is pretty standard). All day long I thought I was going to pilates class after work, but by the end of the afternoon I realized I wouldn’t have been able to make it to the hairdresser in time. To still get some exercise, I walked to the hairdresser that evening. (And because it would have been a shame if I took the car for an 800 meter drive). As I always take some time at the hairdresser, I took a book and enjoyed reading and some coffee. 

Tuesday

Another standard work day, but a night filled with activities. Since my birthday was on Wednesday, I wanted to bake cakes. After work, I did the shopping and drove straight to my parents’ house. I have a mini-kitchen and no oven, so the occasion baking moved to my parents’ kitchen. Another added benefit, I could sit down for dinner and for once didn’t have to do the dishes. (I don’t have a dishwasher at home either).

That night I baked two Speculoos cheesecakes and a rocky road cheesecake. Both from my favorite cheesecake book by Ohmyfoodness. While the cakes had to go into the oven one by one (except the rockey road, which is no-bake), I watched the first three episodes of Soccer Parents with my parents.

Wednesday

My birthday has been giving me some mixed feeling. Grateful to be one year older, but also realizing that I had imagined my life totally different at 29. I had hoped to live in a nice house at this age, with a husband and maybe already a family or a dog. The reality is a mini-apartment and I have not yet met the love of my life.

I did have a good birthday though. During the day I worked in the office, treated my coworkers to homemade cakes and around four o’clock I decided to go home. I did some last-minute grocery shopping and went back to my parents to celebrate my birthday. I was spoiled with nice gifts; Blond tableware, an aifryer cookbook (for lack of an oven, my airfryer is working overtime) and money.

I had invited two girlfriends with their partners for dinner at my parents’ house. We started with a burrata, tomato salad with French bread and dips, lasagna (made by my father) as the main course, and for dessert the speculoos cheesecake. We finished the night with a few rounds of Hitster.

Thursday

The reason I just celebrated my birthday on Wednesday is because we all had Thursday off. I had a wonderfully productive day cleaning my house and going for a run. The rest of the afternoon I was at my parents’ house watching Cody. So I decided to clean up my bedroom there. Unpacking and cleaning up gives me a lot of peace of mind!

Friday

I worked all day from my father’s home office. I was one of the few in the company working, but I must say it was a pretty productive day. That evening I had a hiking date, but after an hour I was back home. From both sides it was pretty clear pretty quickly that the click wasn’t there. So that evening I laid back on the couch and watched the latest episodes of Soccer Parents.

Saturday

I started the day without an alarm clock and did what I felt like doing at the time. So I chose to sort out old photos and see if there are any topics I want to blog about. Ooh and I booked the accommodation for the weekend trip with my mom at the end of the month. Where exactly we are going, you will hear about that.

Since I still needed shoes for my cousin’s wedding at the end of this month, I went to Rijssen to shop for shoes. (They had 20% off and I had already looked online to see which shoes I wanted). My parents were also in the store at that time with Cody, the dog, and she was totally surprised that I was there too. She didn’t recognize me at first only to greet me with great enthusiasm. I bought the shoes I had already seen online, went to the cheese store and immediately did all the weekly shopping.

Late in the afternoon I drove to my parents, who were not home yet. So I sat in the garden with a book. Oh and my photo book of Paris had arrived and I am very happy with the result. Early in the evening the three of us went for a barbecue and then I drove to Lichtenvoorde. Julia had her birthday on Sunday and celebrated it Saturday evening. We had a nice chat and enjoys some drinks and snacks. And now that Julia has a house with a guest room, I couldn’t resist staying over.

Sunday

I slept at Julia’s house so woke up to the view of the Achterhoek meadows. We had breakfast with sandwiches and a cup of coffee while we still had plenty to chat about. Around 11 o’clock I got in the car towards the Twente countryside. First a quick visit to my parents, I had borrowed my father’s car, and at the end of the afternoon I returned home. On the couch with a book and pretty soon I fell asleep, oops. 
That evening I ate baked potatoes with zucchini and feta from the airfryer and watched some episodes of hell or hotel. 

My first week as a 29-year-old was totally fine and I’m very curious to see what the rest of the week has in store. I would say until next week! Then another long weekend is planned.