March

Hi all,     

Welcome to my new blog post!

I have to tell you a lot so make sure you aren’t in a hurry. Let’s start….

One evening I was a bit in a hurry because I was supposed to meet Dania (new Dutch Au Pair) and Alexandra at Crystal Palace. I wanted to drink some water so I grabbed 2 glasses that were stacking into one another. I tried to get them out of each other.  Suddenly one of the glasses broke in thousands of pieces so there was glass everywhere. I didn’t know that I had superpowers to break a glass…

After the whole glass incident, I went to an Italian restaurant with the 2 girls and we had a great evening.

The next day I went to a meeting of my Dutch Au Pair agency ‘’Travel Active’’. It was nice to share my experiences and stories with other girls.

On Monday the 6^th of March it was confirmed that we would move house on the 10^th. So I packed most of my stuff but it didn’t fit in my 2 suitcases of course.

On the 9^th 2 employees of a move company packed the whole house. All the pans, little jars, books, cd’s furniture etc. At the end of the day they packed 200 boxes full of things, it was unbelievable!

The next day there were 8 men in our house to put the boxes and furniture in 2 big vans. It looked a bit like an army of movers.

 

Lean and dabb…..

Lean and dabbbbbbbbbbb….

Around 2 o’clock we said goodbye to our old house and we went to the  North of London by car.

Time to say goodbye…

When we arrived the moving company brought all the boxes into the house.

The house is beautiful, it’s really modern and I don’t know why but the street and the house look a bit like a movie set.

I love my room. I sleep on the top floor because a part of the bed of my host parents didn’t fit through the staircase, so that’s why I got this room. I’m very lucky. In the beginning we had a laugh about this room because it smelled cheesy but after a while the smell disappeared fortunately.

In the evening we went with the 5 of us to an Italian restaurant. We were so tired after dinner. We sat in the car and in a moment of silence Erin very randomly said: ‘’I suppose we don’t have a bath tonight’’. This was very funny.

It was special to experience the whole moving thing. It was a big step for my host parents and girls.  I feel that this made my relationship with my host family even stronger than it was before.

There were a few funny situations because of the chaos:

• In the evening we couldn’t find the bed sheets of my host parents because they were somewhere in 1 of the 200 boxes, so they slept underneath Frozen and Disney princesses sleeping bags.
• We kept 1 blue suitcase separately with pyjama’s and things that they needed for their first night but apparently they had 2 blue suitcases, so when we opened the one that was in the girls room we found out that it was empty so Graham had to go to the shed in the garden to get the right one.
• On the second day I wanted to make breakfast but it took so much longer than normally because I had to open all the drawers and cupboards to find the things I needed.
• When I was tidying up the closets of the girls I found a machine and I thought it was for breast feeding so I asked Seema if she wanted to keep it but she told me that it hadn’t to do anything with breasts but it was a steam machine for when you have a cold or a sore throat. We had a laugh and Seema didn’t understand why it looked like a breast feeding machine.

We slept in a flat in the neighbourhood of our old house for 3 weeks. The girls had to go to school at their old school until Easter and it would be impossible to travel from the new house because it would take us 80 minutes approximately.

In those weeks I had a few times breakfast or lunch with Dania and Alexandra and I said goodbye to my lovely Zumba lessons.

On the 18^th I went with Alexandra, Marielle and Kim to Shoreditch. This is a bit of a hippy area with graffiti, vintage stores and coffee shops. I bought an old map of London at a market. There were stands with delicious muffins, cupcakes etc. While we were eating a muffin Kim said: ‘’Now I know why I don’t look like a Victoria Secret model.’’ When I was on my way home I was a bit lost because I took the wrong bus stop but the app ‘’City mapper’’ was my hero and brought me safely home.

The next morning was pretty chaotic because Seema had lost her Oyster card so the plan was that Graham and the girls would take the tube to activate the new card. Seema would drive to the next station on the Piccadilly line to pick them up. But after 30 minutes Graham called me because he was wondering where Seema was and she left her phone in the kitchen so nobody knew where she was and we couldn’t contact her. We were worried because we thought that she had a car accident or something. Suddenly Seema came home with the car and we found out she was waiting at the wrong station all the time. Seema and I drove to the station and when we came there Graham was surprised to see us because he and the girls had still no clue what went wrong. At the end we were safe in the car with the 5 of us on our way to our house.

In the afternoon I was a bit late for my meeting with other Au Pairs because of the whole misunderstanding. I went to Notting Hill (of the movie Notting Hill). I walked with Lara and Lisa through the town. It was a nice afternoon but very windy and cold.

On the 22th was the horrible terror attack at Westminster. It was strange to think that I often walked on the bridge and that it was a horrible scene on this day.

Isla and her class had a play about an airport this week so they were all dressed up as Steward and Stewardesses so cute to see. And she had a performance of her choir. Isla did very well and the children had beautiful voices.

On the 25^th I went to my favourite shopping street in London. In the evening I went to a Dutch pub called: ‘De Hems’. We ate some typical Dutch food. I had a nice evening with Marieke, Amelie and Farina.

‘Frikandellen speciaal’

 

Some random things I just wanted to tell you:

• One night I took an uber (taxi) and I had a driver that looked like the singer: Sean Kingston so let’s call him Sean. I always have a chat with Uber drivers because otherwise it’s so awkward. But this time the driver thought I was interested because when we arrived at my home…

Sean: ‘’Would you like to go out in the centre?’’.

I wasn’t sure what he meant with that so I acted like I didn’t understand his question.

Me: ‘’What do you mean?’’.

Sean: ‘’With me.’’

I thought oh gosh what now? So my non-existing ‘’boyfriend’’ popped into my head.

Me: ‘’I’m sorry but I have a boyfriend.’’

Sean: ‘’Oh you will miss him a lot then’’.

Me: Uhuhhh

• Another Uber story:  One day Isla and I had to pick up Erin from nursery because Seema’s train was delayed. We booked an uber and picked up Erin. On our way back the driver took the wrong way. Isla and I weren’t paying attention to the way because we were talking but after a while Erin said: ‘’You are going the wrong way. This isn’t our street but that’s our street. The taxi driver was surprised that a 4 year old girl could show him the way.

• One day Erin wanted to write down some words but she didn’t know how to write them so she asked me: ‘’How do I write Custard (pudding)?’’. In Holland we say for the A= ahh but in English the alphabet is different of course so when you say it in phonics then it’s different too so Isla said: ‘’No Ennelain it’s A= ehh.’’ I was so confused so Isla had to help me to help Erin.

• At one evening the girls didn’t want to go to sleep and they were laughing all the time. In the meantime Seema and I were hanging up some clothes on the laundry rack. After 30 minutes Seema said: ‘’If I hear one of you again you have to sleep in the bathroom!’’ Suddenly it was so quiet and we had to make an effort not to laugh. We didn’t hear them anymore the whole evening.

• Further I enjoyed the little moments of the girls. For example: at one evening I read Isla a book and after a few minutes she laid her head on my shoulder. This was so sweet because she never did this before. That night I checked if they were asleep and while they were asleep they looked so sweet and peaceful with their minds in dreamland.

While I’m typing the last few sentences of this blog I’m sitting outside in the sunshine.

Today (30^th) is my last day in the South. Earlier I had lunch with Dania and now I’m typing and waiting to pick up Erin at the nursery. It feels so strange and I think I will miss this area because this was my home for 6 months. Erin and I will go to the new house in the afternoon and Seema and Isla will come home tomorrow after Isla’s last day of school.

Bye ‘Anerley’

On the 31^st I had to take care of Erin. We had a nice day and we did many things. We baked banana bread, we played nursery, we painted our nails etc.

 

This month flew by because of the move. I’m looking forward to April because it feels like I finally can start a new life in Southgate. My life in Holland is on pause so it felt like my life was on a double pause because we stayed in a flat in the South of London. So I couldn’t discover my new living area. My parents and sister will come to London in April so I’m really excited!

Next week I will look for a new gym to do Zumba, a language school and a pre-school or Nursery where I can volunteer and of course I have to make a start with applying for jobs in Holland. As you can read I have a long to do list.

Thanks for reading and see you in April.

Lots of love,

Annelein