Oh, how happy I get from spontaneous trips! For a control freak like me, it truly is a party to occasionally let everything go and be completely surprised by the moment. So when my husband announced that he had booked a spontaneous trip to Noordwijk, including a lovely boutique hotel, I couldn't pack my bag fast enough. Once we arrived at hotel Vesper, we immediately felt like we were on vacation: on the lovely terrace, we were welcomed with a cocktail and then enjoyed the sunshine and a delicious dinner menu until late in the evening, and the next morning after the (by the way, crazy extensive) breakfast, we dove back into bed for a little nap: for me, the ultimate vacation feeling! As a finale, we lounged the rest of the afternoon at beach club Bries, where I felt like I was abroad in our Cabana... If I plan another weekend like this right away, but only tell my husband a day in advance, does that count as a spontaneous trip too?
It's really fun to have an enhanced sense of smell during your pregnancy, but it can also be tiring at times. For instance, I could smell from a distance that Jon had had a cup of coffee at the beginning, and he really shouldn't come near me, and now that I'm at the end, I occasionally order a decaf cappuccino myself (mind you: I never drank coffee before my pregnancy). Or what do you think of our lovely Aesop handwash that I suddenly couldn't stand the smell of from one day to the next? Fortunately, there are still plenty of lovely scents that I smell much more intensely now, like all the flowers. And when I smelled the coconut-lavender scent of the new Thank Me Later sunscreen, I went completely crazy. I now apply it even when the sun isn't shining...
My surroundings think I'm crazy, but I've been looking forward to our annual ‘clothing shop’ at the LINDA. festival for months. Together with Marly, I sell our jewels somewhere every year and pretend to be the perfect market vendor. But now that we can barely lift with our baby bellies, this edition will be quite a challenge... Fortunately, Marly is just as excited about this event as I am, so we've enlisted a friend to help with the heavy lifting. We make each other sit down on a chair in between. And I can already look forward to all the food stalls that we absolutely have to test, so we just plan a little food break every hour! If you're heading that way this coming weekend, be sure to stop by the trunk sale!
For a planner like me, it's very strange to suddenly put a big cross in the calendar. Normally, I wake up and the first thing I do is open my agenda to check what my appointments are for the day, but now I can sleep in and calmly think about what I want to do today. Okay, to be honest: I'm now in week 37 and still a small work appointment slips through occasionally, but three-quarters of my days are blank. When an announcement for the Summer Afternoon High Tea at the Waldorf Astoria (truly the best high tea in Amsterdam!) appeared in my mailbox, I immediately called a friend to see if she had time that afternoon. Oops, others don't have a blank agenda, of course... But not to worry, I immediately confiscated her first free afternoon for this grand sugar feast: these kinds of dates are planned much faster when you only have to consider one agenda...
No matter how difficult I find it to give in to this: now that the countdown to our baby boy is really starting, I'm going to schedule a little writing break... With a heavy heart, because I look forward to sharing my ‘fast lane life’ with you every week. But not to worry: as soon as the little one is here, you will be the first to read about it! And then I'll quickly dive back into my pen: perhaps with a bit more baby talk than before, but hopefully with valuable tips for all mommy (to be) readers. And I'm also very curious about all your experiences and tips!
Here’s a valuable tip for all parents-to-be: the Zorgwerkberekenaar, which allows you to easily calculate your new financial situation.
