It’s our 11th wedding anniversary today! Yes… thank you! *bows* ๐
We’re not doing anything special today, but tomorrow (my birthday) we have the day off and will go to the nearby zoo, the beautiful Gaiapark in Kerkrade.
Last weekend we finally went to Alkmaar, been on our list for a long time. My longtime friend and “sister” Angelique lives there with her boyfriend Michiel, and their 3 cats and we hadn’t visited them in many years (they were over here last year to get our screen printing gear).
On our way up on Saturday, we briefly visited Marc, Brenda and the kids in Velsen-Noord, who will be leaving for Canada next month! We know them from the CBB (Dutch forum about emigration to Canada) and met them last year when we all had the same flights to and from Canada in October. After 28 months of waiting and setbacks, they finally received their (permanent) visa. In Velsen, it was easy to spot their house with the Canadian flag ๐ It was great seeing them again and being able to hug them one last time on Dutch soil before they fly to B.C. (we can’t make it to their little goodbye party in October). It was also great to see what those permanent visa look like! So that’s what all the fuss is about… BTW, we’re waiting for a work permit and no permanent visa (yet), so that’s different.
Then we continued our trip to Alkmaar, to Angelique and Michiel’s place. They live close to the centre of the city, in a cute old house in a small street. We spent the rest of the day chilling and cuddling with their awesome cats: the old Omar, the slightly “challenged” Sinbad and the funny and cuddly Didi, who slept with me all night. The next day we slept in, cuddled with the cats some more ๐ , had breakfast outside, went into the city for some shopping and a coffee on a terrace. The weather was great, pretty sunny, only a bit too much wind. Back at their house, we had the pleasure of meeting Michiel’s brother Daan and friend/band-mate Isak (Onkt) with their respective families. We stayed at their place until early in the evening and after 2 hours and 40 minutes (we had one small traffic jam on the highway) we were back in Heerlen again. Thanks A & M for a great weekend! And uhm… cuddle the cats some more for us ๐