Category Archives: travel

First House-sit of the Year

Posted on March 24, 2020 by

Unless you are a Buddha living under a tree you will have noticed we are in the grip of a pandemic which has severely restricted our freedom of movement. It now seems like some distant dream when we could move … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, lifestyle, travel, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Central Library, Oosterdok – The Jewel in Amsterdam’s Crown

Posted on February 4, 2020 by

OBA which stands for Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam boasts in total 26 branch libraries, 177,000 members and has 1.3 million books, CDs and DVDs in its collection. Amsterdam Central Library, Oosterdok is one of my favourite places in the city. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Creative writing, lifestyle, poetry, travel, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The End of the Dutch Golden Age

Posted on November 20, 2019 by

A Night in the Museum Only last week I was invited to an evening in the Rijksmuseum by a girlfriend who is a friend of the institution. The event offered a chance to speed-date with various experts dotted around the … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Creative writing, travel, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Balloon Flight over the Chateau

Posted on October 2, 2019 by

Frank and I celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary in September. On our ninth house-sit of this year we decided to book a balloon flight. Paying for our accommodation in kind (offering pet care) means we free up cash which can … Continue reading →

Posted in lifestyle, travel, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sailing along the Amsterdam Canals

Posted on August 27, 2019 by

Dear readers, I promised you a blog about Amsterdam and here it is! You might remember that Frank and I are OOPOEHs. Omas en Opas Passen Op Een Huisdier, which translates into the rather unflattering; Grandpas and Grandmas look after … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, travel, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

All Good Things…

Posted on July 23, 2019 by

After two months of house-sitting it is sadly almost time to go home again. We’ve travelled through Hertfordshire, Nottinghamshire, East Riding of Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Cheshire, Leicestershire and spent the last two weeks in the smallest county in England, Rutland. … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, lifestyle, travel, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Llamas, Outrageous Wealth and The Black Death

Posted on June 7, 2019 by

It’s a first! pet-sitting llamas in deepest Peru, I mean deepest Hertfordshire. Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, history, lifestyle, travel, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Is it OK to trample on the tulips, in pursuit of the ultimate selfie?

Posted on April 25, 2019 by

We live in an era of narcissism fuelled by sites such as Facebook and Instagram. Many people post images of themselves amongst the tulip fields surrounding the famous spring gardens, de Keukenhof and this often involves traipsing through and destroying … Continue reading →

Posted in lifestyle, travel, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Creative Hub – De Ceuvel in #Amsterdam

Posted on March 5, 2019 by

Sorry for the radio silence, dear followers! I have been doing a turbo-boost fiction course which I blogged about for Writers Abroad here. That took up my writing energy for a bit. Clichéd Vision The new series on BBC1, Sunday … Continue reading →

Posted in lifestyle, travel, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Coffee, Cake and Furry Friends #catcafe #jippies #haarlem

Posted on November 20, 2018 by

Haarlem is so close to Amsterdam that Frank and I often go there for a day trip. It’s much more civilised than Amsterdam. The Red Light District there is quite small which means it doesn’t attract the amount of low … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Food, travel, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments