Fun & Famous
Carolien’s Fast Lane Life
Yes, another fresh weekday diary from our Carolien. Because you know: she never sits still…
Whenever I’m out with Marly, things almost always go wrong. The concept of ‘just quickly popping into a store and only looking around’ is totally not for us, and nine times out of ten we walk back out with at least one well-filled bag. Just like last week, during a nice lunch at Brasserie Van Dam. Now this street is dangerous if you have even a little shopping urge, but it really started to go wrong when Marly suggested to ‘just’ take a look at 10 Days. Besides the amazing jogging outfits, there was a winter collection that just makes you drool! An hour and six fitting outfits later, Marly and I left the store with two bags full of new items. Like a child so happy, but still with a little guilt: why can’t we ever hold back? I’m afraid our next lunch date will be a McDo or a Febo…
Now my closet is full of beautiful leather pants, nice skirts, and cool dresses, but with this dreary weather, I only feel like wearing a comfy tracksuit. So I have to force myself every morning to put on something nice with matching shoes instead of those Adidas or All Stars again. And especially for winter, I find it quite a challenge to find cozy shoes that are warm and look appetizing. When I stumbled upon these shoes from Angulus (Scandinavian, so I’m already sold), with wool lining, point one was accomplished. And on my foot, they were also super trendy and quite elegant for a ‘mountain shoe’ model. Don’t there exist super stylish dresses that are made of leather or suede on the outside but secretly made of jogging fabric?
Last week, the new movie ‘Inferno’ premiered (you know, the new book adaptation of Dan Brown and the sequel to, among others, ‘The Da Vinci Code’) and especially for this occasion, Pathé had come up with a super exciting treasure hunt. Just like Tom Hanks in the movie, we had to follow all mysterious clues in pairs and complete tasks to see which team has a real Robert Langdon in them. Together with Marly, we ran through the city with great enthusiasm to hopefully finish first. Because if we participate in something, we damn well want to win too. A pretty annoying trait when you’re not the winner, but luckily our competitions have always turned out very positively so far. So we ended up first again this time and could proudly tell the folks at home what place we had achieved. That will be something for our first ‘defeat’, ever in the future.
It feels like yesterday that I stood by Marly’s bed and got to admire the beautiful Sammy-Rose for the first time… But nothing could be further from the truth, and last week she already celebrated her second birthday! It’s really bizarre to realize how fast time goes by when you’re with such a little one. But enough ‘grandma tells’, together with friends and family, this glorious moment was celebrated grandly with a huge cake from Life of Pie. Every time I see a cake from these ladies in front of me, I almost feel sorry to eat it! Because of the lovely late summer weather, we were all outside in the garden while all the kids could play happily. When I looked around and saw all those children, I was momentarily shocked by the time: my friends have all become parents themselves! Now I understand what all those adults used to mean with ‘how fast time goes’.
Since Jon and I returned from our whole wedding adventure, the evenings together can be counted on one hand. It’s a good sign that we’re busy, of course, but it’s also quite lonely. So the evenings we have together, we make the most of it. Last week, a nice dinner with friends was on the agenda, and we ended up at restaurant The Lobby in East. Yes, with the same name as the restaurant on Nesplein with a hotel attached, but now they have opened a second hotel and accompanying restaurant. Now I don’t go to East very often, but for this location, such a detour is really a recommendation! Besides the delicious dishes and the beautiful interior, there’s also very friendly staff, which is quite a rarity in Amsterdam… Absolutely worth repeating!
