Books

I love books.

It's that simple. I love to read. I'm a real bookworm. I don't read as much as I'd like to. Due to lack of time and lack of concentration (that's for a whole other blog).
Over the past few weeks I've been buying quite some books. I get most of them secondhand on Amazon and I always go for a good bargain.

I read all kinds of books. I don't really have a fave genre. I never really liked fantasy stuff. But I love the Harry Potter books and am addicted to The Twilight Saga.

I buy books that people recommend to me. I hardly ever read the plot, I just get them. Trusting peoples judgement, and that they know what I like.

At the moment I'm reading a book called 'I heart New York'. It was recommended to by a friend, and I'm glad she did. It's such a lovely book and I can't wait to read the rest of them. There's 6 books in the serie. So I'm gonna be busy with that one for a while.

I also buy books that Rob (Pattinson) has read, mentioned or will do a film adaptation of. It may sound obsessed but there's a good side to it. It means I'm reading books that I normally would never have read. Rob usually reads books that are a bit outthere. But I do love most of them!

In films you always see these massive libraries in peoples houses. I wanted to have something similar. So My dear dad made all these shelves in my spare room and I've put all my books (CDs and DVDs aswell) on them. It's a nice sight. And I keep adding and adding.....

More amazing memories!

Wow, it's been ages since I last wrote here. I really need to do it more often. Even if it's just a little message.

Alot has happened over the past weeks. Some amazing things and some not so good things.
I'm doing very well at not getting too upset about all the negativity so I'm not gonna talk about the not so good things that have happened. Plus, it's waaaaaaay more fun talking about the good stuff!

• Due to certain circumstances (some of the not do good stuff) I was forced to change the plans for my Summer vacation. Instead of going to Wales for a weekend and a week to England, my son and I will now be staying the full 9 days in Wales. Soooo excited!!!!!!

• The European Championship has begun. I love footie!! Eventhough I don't follow any teams, my son and I go full on when our country plays.

•  I've finally found my reading mojo again. I just couldn't concentrate on any story for quite some time. But I'm back on track now. At the moment I'm reading the last part of the Fifty Shades. I can so recommend them ;-) And after I've finished I've got about 6 other books waiting for me
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• But the biggest highlight by far these past few weeks has been my trip to Portugal to see Rob Pattinson at the premiere of his latest film Cosmopolis. 

I'd been excited for such a long time about this trip. I was finally going to see my 2 amazing friends again (unfortunately due to some more of the not so good stuff, one of them couldn't make it in the end). I was also excited about going to Portugal as I'd never been there before.We went to 2 different places in Portugal. Rob was supposed to be at both events. But we found out on the day that Robs appearance had been cancelled from the first one. We decided to make the best of it and did the touristy thing. It was amazing!  We laughed sooo much and climbed a castle inbetween.

We had some lunch and decided to go to Lisbon. It was a long but fun drive. My 2 friends in the front ( I had my reasons why I wanted to sit in the back ;-) ) are both Austrian and by the time we arrived in Lisbon I was fluent in Austrian. Well, understanding alot better anyway ;-)

Lisbon was a great city. We went out to dinner in the evening. The next morning we made our way to the venue. Nice and early. They didn't wait long with setting up the red carpet. That's when I got my change: This was the first time I'd ever queue for something Rob related in the sunshine. And I was determent to make the most of it. So I found a new use for the red carpet:

This trip has been a true adventure! I got to experience things that I'll never EVER experience again. I got to be at the press conference!!!! I was sitting just a few metres away from Rob for half an hour! I was totally memorized! It was outof this world!

On this trip I also gained a new friend! An amazing person who is just as crazy as we are and fits in great in our little group.

 This was a trip to never forget!!!

In less then 4 weeks time Summervacation will start. It's gonna be loads of fun! All we need is some great sunny weather!!!!!

Untill next time!

Funny

Lately I've been watching alot of funny videos.

I thought I'd share some of my faves here.

Hope enjoy them too.

Sports

I've always been quite a sporty person. I like to be active and as a youngster I've always been involved with sports.
I have 2 swimming diploma's, then I did 4 years of gymnastics and then 4 years of badminton.

Swimming is just part of your upbringing. Here in The Nethies it's rare for a person to not know how to swim. Most kids start lessons when they're 4 and get at least 2 diploma's A and B. But alot of parents will already take their babies to 'baby-swimming'. To make they're not afraid of the water when they start their lessons.

After I got my 2 diploma's I did gymnastics. I wasn't very flexible but I was very strong. I did enjoy it though and even entered in some competitions.
My fave form was the uneven bars. I really liked doing that.

Then I did badminton. I loved doing that!!!
With school we could try out a few sports and one of them was badminton. I really like it so I decided to go my local sports centre and I registered. I had so much fun. I met a girl there called Chantal and we became really close. We played at the same level and also did competitions together. I played singles, dubbles and mixed dubbles.
I had to give up as I tightened my left arm so much when I played (bare in mind that I'm right-handed) that I kept bruising it.

Lately I've been thinking of becoming more active. I don't have the perseverance to go to the gym myself. And no-one wanted to go with me. So I thought about picking badminton back up again. Again, I had no-one who wanted to join me. So I've decided to take up lessons. Do proper training. 
I went to the sports centre to have a look a few weeks ago. But the trainer wasn't there. So I went again last Friday.

I went to get some info and was asked to join them. So I went back home, changed and went back to the sports centre. Three men who were playing together asked me to join them. A little while later the trainer joined us. It turned out that there weren't as many people there for the training as normally because it was Good Friday. So we just played some sets. After every set mixing up with new partners. I hadn't forgotten how to play. I thought I had forgotten about how to keep score. But it turned out they'd changed the rules since the last time I played. I got the hang of it quite quickly again.

I had sooooo much fun!! Loved playing so much! I started playing around 9pm and didn't off the court untill 11.15pm. The people were really nice, made me feel very welcome and didn't play easy on me at all. Which I was glad about.
The trainer was happy with my level. He explained that normally they train some technics aswell and that they work really hard. The training is intense. I told him that that's exactly what I'm looking for. 
I'm excited to go again.

The downside?? For the past 2 days I've been in agony with muscle pain. It's really bad. My right arm, right shoulder (blade), both my legs and my lower back is killing me. Sitting down, getting up, walking (especially up and down the stairs) it's a nightmare. I hope I won't have that every week. My body had to use muscle it completely forgot it had.

 

Tattoos

Ever since I can remember I have loved tattoos. Ever since I can remember I knew I wanted (at least) one.

The first one I had done was when I was 18. I had finally given my parents permission and I loved dolphins. So I went to a tattoo shop and picked one from a book. Not the best way to get a tattoo, but I just couldn't wait any longer.

I had it redone after I'd given birth as there are some stretch marks through it. This tattoo doesn't really have a meaning to me, besides it being my first. I had it done on the right side of my lower belly. That spot was inspired by Mark Owen from Take That. He too has a dolphin tattoo on that spot.

I've always said that I'd want the name(s) of my kid(s) tattooed on me. And so when my son was 7 months old, I did just that. I had his name tattooed on my right ankle.

 

Devon really likes that I have his name on me. I hope he'll still like it when he's 17. And if not, though luck for him LOL I've been a Take That fan for nearly 20 years now. When I was a teenager I wanted to have their logo tattooed on me. Eventhough it didn't feel like that, I did realise that me being a fan could just be teenage fase I was going through. But in the 10 years that Take That weren't together, I still followed them. And when they came back after 10 years, my love for this band, and the men was as strong as ever. So I felt I truely deserved this tattoo. So on Feb 29th 2008, in the company of 2 friends, I had the logo done. I'm still very pleased with it.

Then The Twilight Saga entered my life. Those books and films have changed my life. The most importand 'thing' they brought me is Rob. Robert Pattinson is such an amazing man. Becoming his fan changed my life even more. And for the better too.  I've met sooooo many amazing people through him. Some true life-long friends. The idea came to get a tattoo that to me represented The Twilight Saga and Rob. I didn't want something that 'screamed' Twilight. Like the word  'Twilight'. A dear friend of mine, who I met through Rob, came up with the idea of doing a down feather. I loved that idea. After asking her 'permission' I decided to go ahead with it. I would've loved to have a white feather but unfortunately that wasn't possible.  This feather represents the Saga for me. And also what Rob means to me, what he's done for me. He's made my life stronger, lighter, free. And I'm sooooo grateful for that. I love him dearly.

Films

For the past week or so I've been watching loads of films. Some which I've seen many times before and loads of new ones too. New to me anyway.
These are the films I watched:

All the Harry Potter films

                                                                                                                                     The Holiday

                                                             The Yellow Handkerchief

                                                                         Abduction

                                                                                                               Mr. Popper's Penguins

Johnny English and Johnny English Reborn

                                                                  Dispicable Me

 

Friends with Benefits

I have some more films lined up aswell.




                                                                   Bridesmaides

Knowing

                                                                                                                          Horrible Bosses
                                                                                                        

                     














                                                               The Social Network

 The Notebook

 

The Time Travel's Wife

                                                                                                        Crazy Stupid Love

                                                                 The Last Airbender

As my son has been feeling ill over the past few days, he's been watching some films with me. But I've also seen quite alot on my own. I really love watching films.
But my fave films are still the one with Rob in them. he's still the best actor outthere. In my opinion anyway ;-)

Off to a great start!

A new year has started and it's started very good so far.

On January 4th a friend of mine (who I hadn't seen for almost 2 years) drove to Belgium to see Bel Ami. One of 3 films Robert Pattinson has coming out this year. We had decided to make a day of it as we thought the coast city of Oostende would be quite nice to spend the day before going to see the film. We thought wrong. There was nothing to. No nice shopping centre or anything like that. So we picked a lovely little restaurant and sat there for hours catching up. It was really good chatting again after all this time.
Then we went to go and see the film. People asked me beforehand: isn't it a bit too much to go to another country, drive 2,5 to and 2,5 hours back for just a film? OMG I probably would've still done it if I had had to go there by foot. (Well, not really, but you know what I mean).
The film was everything I'd imagined, and then some!!!! Rob was absolutely stunning in it. And not just in how he looked. But his performance is amazing!!!! He nailed the part!!
My friend and I wrote a review of it. Send me a pm if you'd like to read it, as it's quite lenthgy.

Here are 2 pictures of Rob in the film

Half way through January (the weekend of the 13th to be exact), a dear friend of mine from Wales came over to visit me. It was really good spending some quality time together. Went to see Breaking Dawn part 1 (my 5th her 7th time). And as every other time, it was amazing. We chatted for hours and hours and also went out to dinner Saturday evening. It was sad to drive her back to the airport on Sunday evening. But we'll meet up very soon again. (sooner then we even thought we would)

I loved having Aly over and can't wait to spend more time with her!!

I've also finally been able to hang up some pictures on my wall. I plan to add more as time goes on but there's the first bunch.

And besides having my birthday next month (which I'm not paying any attention to), I have something more excited to look forward to.
Going to see Rob again!!!!!
I'm going to Berlin (yes, I know I said I'd never do Berlin again...but it's Rob...) to see him at the premiere of Bel Ami. It's at a festival. I booked my flight tonight and I'm soooooooooooooo excited! There's about 7 of us going, and it should be great fun!

Life is really good for me at the moment. I'm living my life to the fullest!!!