Istanbul

On Thursday I casually said to Jochem that it might be nice to get away for a short weekend. On Friday we looked at some websites. Today we booked a plane ticket to Istanbul for the end of February. It's like I don't even recognize my responsible, unable-to-be-spontaneous, hoarder self!

A Kinder, Gentler Philosophy of Success

Anna told me about this speech by Alain de Botton today, and I recommend anyone to watch it carefully. It is truly inspiring! Check it out here.

1 + 1 = 2

And then there were two: Bicho ('Bug' in Spanish; on the left) and Manchego (same old Spanish sheep cheese; on the right). Two cats for twice as much fun!

Halloween

On Saturday, October 31 Jochem and I celebrated Halloween. This American holiday is not yet widely celebrated in the Netherlands, but we decided to make something special out of it. First, we went downtown to do some shopping. Unfortunately, the Jamie Oliver book that we wanted to buy was sold out, but hopefully it will be back in storage in a week. After that we bought a lot of food. For starters, we had Spanish ham and Italian cheese. We decided to open one of our special Cinque Terre wines after more than a year of proudly having been presented in our kitchen. We made special Halloween pasta with black spagetti, fresh spinach, pumpkin and Ricotta cheese. Jochem carved a scary face in the pumpkin that we used for our pasta and we put a candle inside. We also lit all of our other candles in the living room and we gave the cats fresh salmon for dinner. We had brownies and our favorite green tea with ginger for dessert. Since I don't like to watch scary movies, we watched a bunch of House episodes. I wish that we had had a digital camera, but since ours are both broken you'll just have to believe me: it was perfect! :)