Storm and sea

Today my oldest brother had his birthday and that made it the 25 year anniversary of my mom being a mom.

Because we needed to use up traintickets for a day to travel anywhere we wanted we went with us 4: my twinsister, my brother and mom. We've done this before and we always liked it a lot.

We never go with a good plan but just see what happens.

Mom wanted to go to the beach, my brother needed to go to Amsterdam.
When we were on the train someone mentioned an airplane in the hall of schiphol, so we went there first. Took some photos and had a look at the airplanes. We tried to find out which one would be the one we will be on to our exchange.

Our visit to Amsterdam was nice too.
We went to a couple of shops after our brother went to his appointment.
I bought a surprise package at our favorite buddhism shop and got some lovely items, like a chinese pendant and incense. And I brought a kind of chinese umbrella.
we were lucky to be there at the beginning of the sales.

Mom always said that she loved to be at sea during a storm and she was right.
Even though the sand was very hurting in the face, it was great to be there.
It was easy to escape from the sand just by walking near the sea.
Only at the end of the afternoon it started to get a bit cold, but for the rest of the time we had a good temperature.
It was magnificent to see the sea. All white with lots of waves and foam which was blown over the sand.

When we came home we all had lots of sand between our toes and we were very tired. But it was great!

Rain and dark grey skies

This winter is one of extremes.
We had snow in autumn until after christmas and old-and-new, and now we have temperatures in the double digits and lots and lots of rain.

The town is still dealing with high water.
All we can hope is that the rain won't cause such a rise of the river that it gets above the safety level.

Bye snowhut

Today the temperatures went up a bit and the sun was shining very bright.
So our snowhut started tp change a bit.

The 20 cm of snow that was on top became brittle.
It wasn't water, but it melted a bit and then went ice again.

The walls are much smoother and more compact.

So in fact the hut has become a bit better except on top.

We're not using it, so we're not in danger of getting the whole lot on top of us.
Mom warned us enough!

Dangerous woods

The past week we've seen that not only snow was covering the trees and lanternposts, but also ice.

Mom already said to be careful not to stand under trees and other places where ice was on top of hanging from.

Today it was on the news that large parts of the woods are closed because of the same danger.

During a few hours today it wasn't freezing anymore and I saw quite a lot of snow and ice falling from roofs.
Inside the house it was a a strange noice.

It's sad we can't walk in the woods at the moment.
Today my sister and I arrived home again after staying with our oldest brother.
We now have to make other plans for the rest of the week.

Almost no busses

Again we had a lot of snow.
My mom had to go with one of my brothers to hospital for a check up and later realised they were lucky to have found a bus to go there.
It took them half an hour longer to get there, which didn't matter as mom always leaves in time and is always early for appointments.

When they were finished she called us at home to tell they were waiting in the freezing cold, trying not to feel the wind, already for over 4o minutes.
We needn't worry, she said, but ofcourse we were not happy with that news.
The trains were not going, so we wondered how and when she would be at home again.

Finally a bus came going into the wrong direction... to town, but they decided to take it anyway, because it would bring them nearer to the busstation and nearer to friends. In case they got stuck.

Well, they managed to find a bus going in our direction and after hours they arrived at home.
Very tired ofcourse.
We made them hot chocolate and bread.

..and more snow

Maybe it's a bit boring: reading about snow, but when you would be here you wouldn't be bored at all.

This morning we woke up and the bedroomwindow was completely covered with snow.
It had snowed so very much that we couldn't see the street.
The trees had white branches and everything else had a layer of about 10 cm on it.

Soon after it started to snow again.

Right now we have about 20 cm of snow and more is expected.

Ofcourse we had a lot fo fun in the snow. It's nice to have friends living close to my home.
When we were all cold and wet we went inside again. We got hot chocolate and it smelled very good.

Today was the last day of school before the christmas vacation.
Last year we had just a few days vacation, but this year it's two weeks.

I had another day of job orientation, but I'll write about that another time.

My sister had a balletperformance.
Just a small one.
Instead of an open lessen with hardly any place for visitors to sit, the combied the classes and gave a performance in a small theatre.

My balletteacher is still ill, so our open lesson was cancelled.
I hope she feels better soon.

I was glad to be home again, because it was no fun eith so much snow and slippery pavements.

Ice and school

When we woke up the world was covered in ice.
It was freezing and all the water from the rain and melted snow was changed into ice.

I had to go to school, but it was quite a job to get there.
First I had to walk...ahem...slippery slip, through the neighbourhood. The streets were mirrors.

Then I arrived at the main roads were parts of the streets had been treated with salt, so the cars drove rather fast. That was dangerous, because at the crossings there was more wind and so there suddenly was ice again.

So watching the trafficlights wasn't enough to be safe.

I nearly fell three times.

I was just in time at school.
The teacher of the first hour kept the door open for those who were a bit late and she let me in too.
That safes me coming back to school at 8 tomorrow morning, which means I have to be up at 6. So I was very grateful for that.

Going back home was far easier, but when I came back from ballet it was freezing again.
I was so happy to be home again!

Trains and snow

Today it snowed so much that traffic came to a stand still.

Even the trains couldn't move forward or back and thus the main traffic stations couldn't be reached, because trains blocked the rails.

Last week all trains came to a stand still because there was a fire in the communication centre, today the snow caused problems.

People were brought to some larger stations where they got coffee or tea and had to wait in the cold.
Nothing special was organised for children or people who need a bit of extra protection, like pregnant moms.

Then they were loaded in trains, hoping the train would stop at their own station. Otherwise they would be in an intercity and had to find a stoptrain to go back to where they wanted to be.

We can fly to Mars, but we can't deal with snow.

No busses

Today I went to school for the first time after the flu, but after a few hours I started to feel bad again. So they allowed me to go home.

Maybe I was lucky to feel ill again.

I was home before it started snowing again. The whole afternoon it snowed very small flakes and that created a wonderful white blanket.

My sister needed to go to her balletlesson.
She decided to walk to the trainstation and take a bus there.

Turned out that they stopped riding, because it was such a mess on the roads.

I had a quick look on Twitter and it turned out that many people complain about the traffic. For 300 meters someone used 35 minutes!

I wonder how it'll be tomorrow.

Let it snow!

I heard from my family that the weather here is going to change.
It will snow a lot more than monday. The snow from monday is almost gone so it's nice.
It will get be like 2cm à 5cm, the people on the television said it would be bad but they already said it isn't going to be as worse as they said.
I love snow so it will be fun, too bad I'm sick, but it is nice to look at.
Well I think this is it about the weather here for today.

I love snow

Today we were surprised with snow.

At first it got very dark. It was just 2 in the afternoon, but it looked like it was evening.

Then suddenly someone called "snow! snow!" and we looked out of the window and saw the first flakes.
Soon it was like looking at a wall of white spots.

The wind pushed them forwards, so they flew horizontal.

Ofcourse we went outside to have a bit of fun, but I've got the flu, so it was just for a short moment.

There's more snow expected on wednesday.