Holiday fun. In spite of the fact that the trip to Spain with my BVA girlfriends was cancelled I am still having a jolly good holiday, seeing many friends and having fantastic weather. Some people need to go on long vacations to exotic places. Not me. The only thing I want is to laugh as much as possible. Usually you laugh with friends. And friends are not in far away places (unless they travel with you or you meet them there). I am weird in this respect.
So this post will be a bit of everything. Starting with the photo above: this is Katrien, my friend who lives in South Africa. She was in the Netherlands for a short while and included me in her tour around friends. This Monday she saw three friends in one day. Exhausting. Katrien is a very accomplished woman: a marketing manager, an advertising manager, a manager of a school. You name it, she can do it. She was wearing a lovely dress that really suited her. I was wearing my dotted dress from last year. If you want to see the dress with high heels, click through to this post. The photo shows that my teeth are getting pretty straight again 😆 .
After meeting Katrien at 9 o’clock in Amsterdam (a very early rise) for a couple of hours, Sylvia and I roamed through this city. On flat shoes as you see above which is the sensible thing to do. We tried to be in department stores as much as possible as it was scorching hot that day. You can have too much of a good thing. We didn’t buy anything.
The next day I met Marjolein in The Hague.
Below: She had a lovely suit on, in the fashionable PJ style with matching sneakers. The photo isn’t very flattering (sorry Marjolein) as the sun was very bright and she was squinting.
Below: Close-ups of her bracelets and earrings. “Details dahlings.. details”.
Below: I was wearing my green Essentiel checked shirt, this time combined with a pair of baby blue 3/4 length trousers. YES THEY ARE BABY BLUE. Not white. Couldn’t get the colour right in the hot sun. You have seen this shirt before with jeans in this post.
Below: Head to toe shot. The sandals are last year’s and never worn because of the bad knee. My knee isn’t too pleased with all the activity going on during my holiday. It is swollen again as you can see. Oh well.
Below: Close-up of the sandals.
Of course I didn’t wear these sandals when we hit town. As usual I switched to flats. Pictures are pretty but real life has no mercy.
Below: We went to Sail 2019 in Scheveningen. It was ridiculously busy.
Below: Now this was funny. Or not really. The pink lady spotted a sailor… a young sailor, unable to defend himself against the pushy lady.
Below: The woman to her friend: “Take a picture of us and then I will take a picture of you two” … you know how this goes.
Below: Sure enough he had to smile as well. He so didn’t want to haha. Laughing out the other side of his face.
Below: This I liked. I just don’t know whether it was a photo on canvas or a real painting.
We left at my request. It was just too busy and we hit town for a couple of hours. Chatting away I lost track of time and got home a lot later than promised. Which meant I had to cook…
A trip to the east of the Netherlands
Over to the Wednesday and Thursday I spent with my BVA friends in the small town of Borculo and surroundings which is in the very green east of the country. About two hours drive away. Had to get up early again to arrive at coffee time.
Below: Here we all are behind the holiday cottage later that day. Claudia is taking the picture. Marijke sadly wasn’t with us as she and her husband did go to Spain. The flooded apartment is theirs and there were some damage claims to see to.
Below: Back to chronological order (sort of). We started with cake and coffee (tradition). Marianne wore, what we call, an Ibiza summer dress.
Below: I broke my promise for the first (and last) time in three weeks: I drank coffee. It tasted soooo good. I am such a good girl for not drinking coffee as I am addicted. It is a test to find out whether it effects my liver and in turn gives me headaches as they have returned.
Below: Lunch at Marianna’s house before leaving to town.
Below: Jilske and Claudia, dressed for the heat. We were sitting on a terrace in Lochem, a little town near Borculo (where there are more shops…).
Below: Marianna, the following day when we went to Zutphen. Been there before. More pictures of this lovely town in this post.
Below: I was dressed in an unusual way. Normally you will never see me in shorts, other than going to the beach, but it was too hot to wear anything else. These shorts, very breezy high/low top (seen before here) and worn-out ballerinas, were perfect.
Below: Marianne (left) posing haha. Marianna on the right.
Below: In the evening we went for dinner in a very nearby hotel, walking distance. All lovely in the woods.
Below: Here we are.
Below: This is what I was wearing. More possibilities with this dress in this post.
Below: And Claudia’s outfit.
Below: Jilske (sorry a bit of a blurry photo).
Below: The next day we went to Zutphen, a pretty old town. Claudia wore the dress she bought the day before.
Below: Marianne had another lovely dress on with golden ballerinas. We were in a nice clothes shop. I bought a tank top by Marc Cain in green (in the sale).
Below: Goofy expression. I was wearing my silk shirt for hot days. (More in this post.) With white sneakers of course. The same as you saw above with the dress.
Below: One last thing. Claudia told a funny story at dinner about a man who had waited two years to finally carefully choose a Labrador puppy to go hunting with. The man turned up at the puppy training fully dressed to go hunting with the exception of his rifle. He was very proud of his male pup, boasting about him. He had named him Shadow. Only when it came to “fetch this quickly”, the dog didn’t fly like a shot but danced and hopped. You can imagine the things that were said. I was in stitches.
Nothing in the series “What happened in my life this week” as the above is quite a report and you will get another report next week.
Greetje
I agree with you about vacations – I don’t need to go anywhere exotic, but wherever I go I want to have lots of laughs! And speaking of which, the last photo of you is great! I really like that blue and white print dress you’re wearing near the end of this post. Shelley
I had to share that photo. Made me laugh too. And that dress is a star. I agree.
Greetje
Greetje, I love your last pic –of you “in stitches.” It’s fantastic and shows exactly what you were feeling on this happy day. p.s. when it’s scorching hot, shorts are the best 🙂
If there is one thing I am good at, it is laughing. Very loud. I am known for that haha.
Greetje
So sorry your trip to Spain got cancelled but what a fabulous time you had catching up with friends. Thank you for sharing. Regards – Jill stylishatsixty
http://www.stylishatsixty.wordpress.com
It was indeed a shame Spain got cancelled but as you observerd it didn’t stop me from having a bloody good time.
I missed where YOU went with ALL these GIRLFRIENDS but it must have been local?
As far as the headaches……..try drinking 24 ounces of water FIRST THING IN THE MORNING then have your coffee!It has made a BIG DIFFERENCE for me!
Your teeth are Bright and straight and the KNEES look GREAT!
YOU are ROCKING the SHORTS…………….
PS. Thank YOU for being on MY BLOG and there are still comments coming in!Just do not want YOU to MISS ONE!YOU WERE A HIT!
XX
I went to various towns in the Netherlands. As this is such a small country, everything is local really.
The water drinking… I already do this. Unfortunately that is not the trick for me.
I will come to your blog again to answer the comments. I am working again which means less time.
That last photo of you is such a TREASURE and fully illustrates what you said at the beginning of this post.
It’s always delightful to see you with your friends Greetje! Especially when you’re on an adventure!!
When I saw that last photo I had to laugh (again). Thought it would be nice to let you laugh as well.
I didn’t get the joke. Ah well. Some Dutch humour I think.
Looks like a wonderful week spent with great friends and enjoying amazing weather. All of your friends are so stylish, even in the heat.
It was 40 C here yesterday. I’m thankful that today it has cooled down to an acceptable 26 C.
Suzanne
http://www.suzannecarillo.com
Perhaps the joke doesn’t go down well enough on paper. And I didn’t finish it completely either. Or perhaps indeed Dutch humour haha.
40C is outrageous. I think I would lock myself up and not move.
Greetje
I agree with you Greetje, you don’t have to go away to have a lovely time on holiday – you look like you had a fantastic week with all of your girlfriends. Lots of lovely outfits (I’ve just discovered that white sneakers look too and love it) and in particular I would have loved to see you standing up while wearing those cute white shorts – I bet you look fab! How is your darling puppy?
Standing up in shorts is less good as my thighs are pretty wrinkly. Far more than the lower part of my legs. I just couldn’t care anymore. It was hot.
Puppy Watson is getting better. He doesn’t bite anymore (now he licks your hands and legs (ugh, yak). And he doesn’t jump on chairs and the bench anymore. We are slowly getting there.
Love your silk blouse. So perfect for staying cool.
http://a-woman-of-a-certain-age.com/
It is indeed prefect for staying cool. Loose, very light-weight and airy. I am just having trouble with the current trend of wearing sneakers. As sneakers to me are quite warm. On the other hand, a very good alternative for flat shoes when you have to walk a lot.
True. I’m just ignoring the whole sneaker trend. They just don’t suit me and I feel like I’m wearing my teenager’ shoes.
I had the same feeling until I discovered the sneakers by Essentiel and Vic Matié, they are more modern and feminine.
I really don’t see how you manage to look so chic in the heat, Greetje. I just look like a miserable, crabby, sweaty, shiny mess.
Such a lot of fabulous outfits (love the shorts) and shoes (those pink sandals!) and friends. You’ve really been all over the map lately, lady! xx
Your comment made me laugh. Yes, I saw the sweaty mess you were haha. NOT. You looked lovely, crisp and clean. And all over the map… hmm… My own country and London. Not that big a part of the map.
Greetje
Such fun to see how everyone manages to look great even in the heat! You look great in the shorts, too.
Daring though.. shorts at my age. My legs still have a very good shape but a bad skin. Oh well, when it is hot, you just want comfort. The women in Argentina don’t bother with wrinkly arms either.