So what have I learnt this week in the Netherlands? It takes me 12min to cycle to work along the beautiful canals but somehow it takes me an hour to half cycle and half shop my way home along the high street!!! Gotta stop going that way home, my purse can't cope!
I also attended my first Sinterklaas evening on Tuesday night, we swapped presents and poems (yes, I was even forced to read a Dutch poem out loud to the group despite the fact I only understood about 2 words on the page and ended up getting a poem about 24 lines long!). We drank wonderful chocomel and I was introduced to all the traditional Sinterklaas biscuits. My office has also been full of these everyday so I'm getting really unhealthy especially as I still haven't had any exercise.
So far I went along to a badminton club a few times... despite being a popular sport in this country and the club I joined were in a league, the standard was fairly low and I don't even play badminton regularly. After spending two hours without breaking a sweat I won't be signing up long term... means I still need to find a sports club to join.
Went along to table tennis, probably more exercise than the badminton but still it's not a sport, it's a game! Still need to find some exercise.
I cycle around everywhere but the country is so flat and I have a 27speed UK mountain bike so I literally have to pedal twice every 20minutes or so.
May pop along to a squash club this weekend... it's a 40min cycle ride away so even if the squash is lame, I should get a bit of exercise getting there and back.
So, the sport and exercise is the thing I miss the most about the UK.
Food here is also rather unhealthy (but wonderful).. the snacks are every where and absolutely delicious, but if they're not beautiful waffels and biscuits, they're various deep-fried reconstituted meat products... but oh yes, they're tasty! I got free lunch in the canteen on Thurs and ate about 3 lunches and tried all the snacks. Also had a lunch meeting with free sandwiches today, was much amused to see that you can even order a "hagelslag" (chocolate sprinkle) sandwich for your lunch meeting if you're so inclined.
Sounds like my kinda place! I could be considered sporty there, then ;-)
ReplyDeleteKeep on blogging: I love reading about your discoveries, and your sense of humour. Pedalling twice every 20 minutes indeed!
On your health and safety comments: I went up the theatre tower at Stratford-Upon-Avon yesterday. You can look down on a flat part of the theatre roof that is no higher than a domestic house and looks like a great patio. There are loads of sword props stuck into the gravel. I had a notion that the actors might use the patio on this flat roof to practice fights, but the guide told me it was an art installation. Then she pointed out a wire about 3 metres in from the edge of the roof and said that anyone who went onto the roof had to clip themselves onto this wire... I wish I knew the smiley for rolling my eyes!