An Aussie taking on the Netherlands , one klompje at at time…
In order for me to live (legally) in the Netherlands, I’ve had to do a few things. One, of course, was to be approved to live here with husband … and this came with the condition that I learn Dutch in a ‘timely’ manner (3 and a half years, to be precise) and basically also learn how to be a functioning member of Dutch Society . Continue reading “The one about the Great Residency Permit Hunt.”
I’d like to say it was because I have been busy. Well, that’s sort of part of the reason. We’ve just dealt with chickenpox, family trips to Germany, a solo weekend for me and a lot of just general business.
I’ve also been battling some personal demons – I realise that I’m pretty open on this blog and that does leave me open to criticisms and judgements. I’d like to say that they don’t always bother me, but sometimes this isn’t so true. Sometimes they hurt, and I tend to shrink into myself when this happens. I suffer dreadfully from self consciousness and often find myself overthinking things and wondering what I have done or why I am being excluded. It’s me, and I’m trying to be more open about this instead of internalising a lot of things. Part of the purpose of this blog is to help me develop the skills to talk about things that hurt and make me stress. (And that yippee! that you just heard was my shrink.)
I will post soon about the last 2 months and the sagas, but for now I felt I owed you an explanation about my quietness. I’m not going anywhere. I just needed some down time to realise how lucky I am. And I’m truly blessed to have a support network of amazing friends who watch out for me!
I reblogged recently an amazing post by a friend of mine – Jessica from Mishmash Moments. I’m really happy to say that not only is she one of my favourite bloggers from her honesty and humour, but she’s a real life friend of mine.
Jess posted about a funny situation in her life – her bank account was down the last 14 cents, no bread, no petrol, 2 kids to get to school and running late. Did I mention she’s also 24 weeks pregnant with baby number 3? We can all relate to being in a similar situation, but Jess’s sense of humour shone through and really made light of something that could have been so depressing.
So last night we went out for dinner with my parents. A old friend from bowling (yep – I used to do 10 pin bowling for a sport. Fun fact, I once came 4th in Australia) was driving through and crashing at my parents house so we went to the local pub where they have…
Sometimes we have a hard time. Be it illness, be it family issues, be it unemployment, be it whatever is making you down. It’s not a competition as to who can be the saddest, or the loneliest, or who’s having the worst time of it all. Continue reading “The one about the sometimes …”