Boy, oh boy…what a heat. It is 34 degrees Celcius (93 F) in the Netherlands. We Dutch aren’t used to such temperatures. This is a country where it rains all the time. Granted, it did rain for 6 weeks in June and July, but not all the time and the sun came out as well. And when the sun is showing its face as well, it doesn’t count as a rainy day. But this heat…man, you cannot do a thing, sweat dripping from my head to my toes.
I decided this was THE time to buy a pair of shorts and I was all set to go into town (in that heat), when I remembered a pair of shorts somewhere at the back of my wardrobe. I wondered whether a new one would be that much better it was worth going into town for. Found the shorts in my wardrobe and pimped them up a bit with sandals, belt and top. (Pimping up is a Dutch expression, I think. Are you familiar with it? It means making it prettier.)
The top isn’t really silk but it feels like it. Wore it for the first time in this post in Turin.
For various reasons (heat, kidney stone etc) I wasn’t able to go out on photo shoots, so I asked Ron to come to the rescue.
Below: Ron doesn’t like me holding on to something, so he commented: “Nice and sturdy that shed, isn’t it?” Yes, sarcasm is humour to me too.
Below: We tried several positions to give you some variation. Trying to wipe the sweat from my neck.
Below: Ron gave me this old bird cage to hold and I had no idea what he meant. So I held it up as if I was a hook where it hung from. “NO….” he said, “You have to look at the little bird.” It cracked me up.
Below: A view of the back. OK, still a small bum, but if I wear my top like this, it doesn’t look too bad.
Below: I said: “Come on, take another head-to-toe shot.” The bracelet is vintage from Bella, the Citizen Rosebud, sold through her vintage Etsy shop, Bloom Town Vintage. The belt is by Isabel Marant, the top by Storm and Marie, the suede sandals by EIJK Amsterdam. The sandals are called the Lucille strap sandals black (still available). The strap across your instep is adjustable.
Below: Close-up of the sandals.
Below: Husband Ron was enjoying his ‘new invention’. He has clipped a water hose with sprinklers on to the awnings.
Below: Can you see the water haze? It cooled really nicely. After I had been to the hairdresser two days later, I didn’t join him in that spot any longer. If the wind was turning even a little bit, you got wet. That is very refreshing but absolutely devastating for my hair-do.
Below: I received a request to show our cat Sophie. Here she is.
Below: And another photo of her. She looks sweet but she is all teeth and claws.
What happened in my life this week
Saturday. Nothing happened. Hot, hot, hot. We went to the beach for an hour or 2 with dog Watson really early and didn’t move the rest of the day.
Sunday: Did my exercises in the morning (the discipline…I am so proud). Didn’t do a thing all day. Had a Facetime conversation with Anja (my ex-neighbour but still my friend), who has arrived in Spain at her new home, which is still being renovated. She showed me around with her iPad. I am so pleased for her.
Monday. Hurray. No more kidney stone after-pain. No need for any painkillers anymore. That’s that. Glad it is over.
Had to go to the vet with cat Sophie to have her vaccinated again. Before she went into her travel basket, she got a tranquilizer. For her sake, mine and the vet. The vet said she dropped quite a lot of weight, so I have to keep an eye on her.
In the afternoon I went back to the salon to have my eyebrows touched up (standard procedure). The girl also made the colour a bit lighter. Wore this outfit, which is my blog logo. (Link to original post. scroll down a bit.) I couldn’t wear my body shaper so my waist looks bigger. If you think, gosh she looks tanned… no I am not, that is caused by the orange awnings which are out haha.
When I came home, I just took everything off but briefs and dress:
Tuesday. Another hot hot day. Had to go to the dentist first and after that to the piercing shop again. I thought both my earlobes were healed, but it turned out that the left one is still a bit so so. The piercer did put in my own gold earrings, but I have to take care of the left earlobe, not take the earring out for a week and not sleep on that side for a week.
I will be so pleased when the whole earlobe and eyebrow thing is done. It is getting annoying.
In the afternoon the hairdresser made my hair look beautiful again. But I am afraid that all this sweat pouring from my skull ruined it. Wore this that day. I wasn’t all that keen on the shoes or the trousers but didn’t have the time to think. (Link to original post.)
Wednesday. As I was going through my mail on my iPhone at breakfast, I received an email from husband Ron, sitting right across from me. Subject line was: “Starting the morning well”, together with this picture of me whahaha:
Thankfully it is not a sharp photo. I always put on my shower cap to keep my hair away from my face when I apply day cream and sun protection cream. Then I’ll leave it for half an hour before I wipe off the remaining grease from my face. Wearing reading glasses here and not having any make-up on. Charming. When I was about 29, I had a Scottish boyfriend who called my shower cap ‘a passion killer’.
Wore one of my Max Mara outlet dresses (link to original post), see below. I decided not to elongate the dress with a pencil skirt as it was too scorching hot. Instead I didn’t cinch the waist, thus allowing the dress to hang longer.
In the morning I met my friend Yvonne, from whom I buy vitamin supplies. Had a coffee and a chat. You can see that I am taking the ‘less sunbathing’ seriously as I feel very pale next to Yvonne.
In the afternoon Kitty and I did a photo shoot. Oh the heat…I thought I was melting.
Thursday. I was to meet my friend Helena in Amsterdam but we decided it was too hot and we postponed our date to September.
After seeing yesterday’s morning photo, I decided to better my life and came downstairs with make-up on. I brushed my hair but didn’t style it. Got another email from Ron with the subject line: “Just a bit of combing and you’ll look like someone I know”. OK, granted, there is room for further improvement tomorrow. I thought it was funny enough to put both morning photos on Instagram. For some truth haha.
The eyebrows will hopefully get lighter.
Friday. I came to breakfast fully clothed, make-up on and hair styled. After all, you have to work on your marriage, right?
The temperatures had dropped a bit and in the morning it was a little cloudy. HURRAY. I got dressed in my RIXO London dress (link to original post), but put my white block heeled sandals on instead of my red patent leather peeptoe shoes. I prefer the red ones, but for walking through town, the white ones are better.
Did some errands and at 12 o’clock the sun blasted again. No movement from me in the afternoon. Then at the end of the afternoon, it got cloudy and some rain fell. So needed. Ron suggested we would go and have dinner at a beach restaurant. Well, why not? I dressed accordingly but with an upgrade on the shoes:
Just as we were going out the door, Ron spotted a stain on my shirt. Solved it by putting a necklace on to cover it. Below at the beach with not such a wonderful background as you might expect from a beach but Ron was impatient. The shoes are from L’autre chose and you can see them better in this post (you have to scroll down a bit).
We had a lovely meal and that’s it for this week.
Greetje
Oh, gosh, I can’t handle that kind of heat – you look great in all of your outfits, Greetje! I’d be dripping with sweat too, constantly.
We say “pimp out”, meaning to overdo in a gaudy way (like a pimp). Eg. I pimped out my outfit by adding a feather boa and face glitter.
Sophie is so pretty! I hope she is feeling better soon.
Thanks for telling me about the pimp out expression. I live and learn.
Sophie is fine. I just have to watch her to see whether she drops more weight. But she is cheerful and eats well. Now that I am at home a lot, she is getting friendlier. As a matter of fact, as I am typing this, she is on my lap. (Not handy but these rare moments of affections I cherrish.) Oh.. and it has cooled down at last.
Hi Greetje
Love your breakfast photos! You look very good in your shorts too!
Sophie is a beautiful cat, I adore cats! I also know how vicious they can be!
Hope the weather has gone cooler as here, we have had lots of rain until todayx
I hope you had a good laugh over the breakfast photos.
Shorts were never my thing. I only wore one pair when I was 29, never after that. All of a sudden with this hot weather, it seems a very good choice. As long as I wear a long shirt with it, hanging down at the sides and the back. My inverted triangle body shape isn’t the right shape for shorts, you see.
The weather is going to go cooler tomorrow. I cannot wait.
I get such a kick out of you! Your English vernacular isn’t bad at all and you write as if you’re speaking, which is charming. Speaking of that, I really like watching movies filmed in the UK to hear how they turn a phrase. Love the Max Mara dress and I agree that I appreciate dresses unbelted and left to their own devices. So carefree and casual.
We bought political bumper stickers that say, ByeDon, a great double entendre.
Also, no excess heat here in Minnesota right now. See you next week!
I think you analyzed my writing pretty good. Whether it is in Dutch or in English, I do indeed write the way I speak. Friends have often said: “I can hear you say it, when I read it”.
Let’s hope the elections will bump Trump out of the White House. I am not too sure whether that will happen, but one can but hope.
As for the temperature… it has finally gone done and we have had a couple of nice heavy showers.
Hi there, love your RIXO London dress. Every time I see you wear it I wish I could find one similar.
As for Sophie, LOL. My tortie was a little stinker and had what we called tortitude😄
I have to say that I cannot see this style on RIXO’s website anymore either. Perhaps they changed their style? Strange.
Next time I will have a cat, I want a male cat and I will get one from an animal shelter. So I already know what his behaviour is.
Now that I am at home much more, Sophie is getting a lot friendlier.
greetje, oh i hope you are feeling better with those kidney stones…did you actually pass them? or are they holding somewhere on the tract?….i love yellow/chartreuse on you!….and it’s 108F/42.22C here in Northern California—just awful…we had a thunderstorm minus the rain–very strange phenomenon…
xo eva
The echo showed no kidney stone anymore, only that there something had been going on. Probably I had some minor after pain. I did catch three very little pieces.
The fact that yellow still suits me after I changed my hair colour from brunette to blonde, surprises me very much. But i am grateful as I really like yellow.
108F… oh my, that is really far too hot. We fortunately have had rain showers and the temperatures have gone down considerably. Yay.
Hi it has been very hot here in England too, I you I think around 70ish is hot enough one day car thermometer showed 38. May I ask what you are eating for breakfast it looks like porridge with Philadelphia cheese.
Fortunately the temperatures have gone down now. We can breath again.
My breakfast consist of custard with flax seed, followed by three pieces of glutenfree toast, covered with Philadephia cheese.
Hi what an interesting breakfast, do you have to eat Gluten free for health reasons . or do you eat Gluten free bread by choice ( although can’t imagine that as its disgusting, well it is here anyway)
I don’t think I am allergic to gluten as I eat gluten in lots of things but I try to avoid bread. I am seeing a mesologist for my migraine and she agrees. Mind you, the migraine is almost completely gone since my retirement. Maybe stress was the cause? Before I start eating all the food from the forbidden list, I better wait a while longer to see whether the migraine stays away and then add one thing each month. You are right though, glutenfree bread is rather disgusting. Not too bad when it is toasted.
Looking fabulous, Greetje. You don’t look melted by the heat at all. And I laughed at Ron’s morning text messages and photos. It’s great that you guys can joke like that. It’s not the heat here that’s terrible, although it’s still not bad, it’s the unending sirens!!! Noise pollution!!! Sigh. Your garden is an oasis.
I carefully select the photos which show me the best Melanie. You know that. No red head, no sweat dripping from my nose, although it did often enough.
Ron had a great sense of humour and makes me laugh every day, bless him.
Sirens…hmmm…strange…New York has that problem as well. We don’t have that at all. And we even live two streets away from the ambulance and fire brigade depot.
Our garden is indeed an oasis. Very quiet as well. The noise (although very little) from the street doesn’t get to the garden. Our neighbours on both sides are very polite and quiet. And the little children two houses down.. oh well, they are children.
Love your dress from the Max Mara outlet; wish we had one here. Your cat Sophie is lovely! She is a tortoise, just like our cat Maple. Thanks for showing her 🙂
The Max Mara outlets are the best in Italy. That outlet was the reason my friendship with Daniela of the Pretty Cute blog developed. I have been to stay with her a couple of times since July 2014. And of course we always go to the Max Mara outlet where I just go crazy. The shoes I am wearing with the Max Mara dress are als from the outlet.
And it is my pleasure to show you Sophie. Darned cat.
I always look forward to your weekly blog. Such fun you are! And yes, it is hot here in Texas. We had triple digits all week. I pretty much stayed inside. Only ventured out for short periods. Yellow is one of the great colors on you. And tell your husband I like his sense of humor. Your cat looks similar to a neighborhood cat that visits us everyday for treats. Since she is brindyl I named her Brenda Lee and it has stuck. She “comes on strong” for fish treats.
Triple digits… the horror. Any temperature over 76F is too much for me.
‘Brenda Lee’ and ‘coming on strong’ was in the lyrics of a Dutch pop group called Golden Earring. The song was called Radar Love which came 13 in the American Billboard Hot 100 in 1974. In 1983 they scored even higher with the song Twilight Zone. Perhaps you have heard of them.
My husband has a great sense of humour. He makes me laugh every day. This is a quality most sought-after by women I believe. I got the jackpot.
Ahhh, 93 F! that is what I live in for 7 months a year here in Florida! Every day it is 90 or more! Once in awhile the temperature drops to 88 and we are happy! Now you can understand why I wear shorts 95% of the time yearround!
Ah yes I can understand that. But there can be a big difference between 93F in various countries. I spoke to a friend of mine today who had just come back from Spain. It was the same temperature there but it didn’t bother them at all, while here they cannot move because of the heat. No idea what it is. Humidity?
I am no fan of temperatures over 76F.
Great glasses and legs for miles!
You have some great gams there! You look fabulous in those shorts!
We’re suddenly getting extreme heat too. I knew July was trying to lull us into a false sense of security, LOL!
I really never wear shorts. Only when I was 29 I had a pair of shorts but now it is sooo hot.
Certainly hope that it won’t be like this in LA.
madame, vous avez beaucoup de L’Attitude!! Bravo!!
Thank you very much. L’Attitude has a lot to do with being confident I suppose.
I really like the combination of white and green and these silk shorts too, they look great on you. Although the posture in the fifth photo is a bit masculine (LOL). I love sandals, and above all, your garden, this house is wonderful.
I love the yellow dress, especially without a belt and nothing else. The penultimate photo is also a bit strange in the pose, right? But I love sky blue and white.
So are you sweating from the heat? So you will know what we live in Spain (LOL)
Thank you for the compliments. I am much obliged.
I like the yellow dress without belt as well but I feel it is too short.
My poses? Hmm yes, working on that haha. Probably need to follow a course in posing.
And yes I am sweating a lot and cannot do anything. I just sit all day. So no thank you, I will never live in Spain or any hot country.