Sarah’s Blog

Sorry, I am crap at this I know. I can just about keep up to date with MSN. Forget Facebook and Hyves (no, I don’t have them, it’s the Dutch version of facebook); I don’t know how people can keep their pics up dated and find everyone from their school days.

Has it really been that long - May? Well since then, I have now gone back to my old job - so no more travelling around for me….

Travelling will be for pleasure only; England last weekend, Germany this weekend and the weekend after, we will be hitting Belgium.

Cheers…

I have just come back from New York - as a holiday this time Together with Marcel and his sister Mirjam and her husband Martin, we explored The Big Apple together. It is a great city! We had 5 full days and tried to fit as much in as possible. We started by going to the Top of the Rock to see the city, then we started on a ‘Hop on - Hop off’ bus tour going down-town, walking along Ground Zero and then back along 5th Avenue. We went back up to the Rock in the evening to see The Big Apple at night.

Other sights we have seen are: Central Park, Lexington Ave (great shopping area), Phantom of the Opera,  American Museum of Natural History, Statue of Liberty (via the Staten Island Ferry), Soho (another great shopping area) and Greenwich.

Walking, walking and more walking. You don’t realise how much you have actually walked during a day.  We didn’t get to go in one of the yellow taxi’s, but we did use the subway, the Hop on and off buses and we travelled back to the airport in a Limo! That was great fun! It is a city I definitely would like to go back to, but first I need to get back to work and save a bit of money first…

Yipppeeee! I can come home early I have just changed my ticket and I will be going back home tomorrow!

Easter is now over; I still have my easter egg to eat. I did behave this weekend and helped other people eating theirs first (well the chocolates :-)) What a long and busy weekend it has been: It started on Thursday very early in the morning. I flew in to Luton from Dublin, met up with Marcel and Andy and went to the DG gig in Hammersmith Apollo - It was fantastic! Then on the Friday Marcel and I drove down to Westgate-on-Sea to see Venessa; one of my best friends who I have not seen for about 5 years (sorry I forgot to take pictures) then we drove back up to my parents and from there we went to Cambridge on the Sunday to see the last DG gig of the tour. Mum and Karen came with us and really enjoyed it as well. Yesterday was spent chilling, packing and traveling back to Ireland for the week. Back home on Friday!!

I hope you all had a lovely Easter and enjoyed the extra day to do what ever you wanted to do. Take care !! xxoooxx 

Last weekend we were in Edinburgh - yes for another DG concert (only the first one this year - but not the last!) It was a great weekend, we had a trip to the Famous Grouse Experience on the Saturday. Sunday we spent the morning walking up to Arthur’s Seat and the afternoon in the pub Monday was time to chill out a bit during the day - the concert was in the evening; we met up with a few more DG fans; Dave and Caren - they will be following the tour, so we will meet up with them again in London!

It is now Sunday, and after spending a few days back home - yep it is time to go again. I am now in Naas and will be in Ireland this week, going home at the weekend.

Have a good week and take care!

This week, I was in Ireland for a few days.  Kildare is about 25 minutes from Dublin, unfortunately I didn’t have time to visit this great city - not this time anyway

I will be coming back over the next month or so; time to see a bit more of Ireland instead of only Dublin…

Time flies and so did Miami. After work (during the day) it was lovely to walk around in the evening without a jacket; going for dinner and then walking back to the hotel (or driving most of the time from downtown Miami). In the weekend it was time for a mini road trip… From Key Largo to the Everglades (taking a trip on an air boat), to Naples to Orlando - yes, yes yes! No time for Mickey and his friends, but Universal Studios and Island of adventure! Wicked!!

Unfortunately it all went very quickly and from 20 degrees celcius in the evening, back to 2 degrees celcius in the evening - it was a cold return home…

Yes, the sunny state. I will be leaving tomorrow to go to Miami for a week or so. I am looking forward to warming up a bit with the sun and nice weather there. I will be working - of course, but after working hard, it is time to play hard!

Take care

I came home on the 20th December - with ‘Coming home for Christmas’ singing in my head. It took me a while to get into the Christmas spirit this year; if you are somewhere where it is 20 degrees, the Christmas decorations seems a bit strange next to ‘Palm trees’ , but as soon as I arrived at schiphol, about 4/5 degrees, then drove home, opened the door and saw the Christmas tree all set up - Then I had that warm soppy feeling again (also ’cause Marcel was home as well :-))

We spent Christmas at my parents in England and New Year at Marcel’s parents here in the Netherlands.  It seems totally different worlds; England with all my family, nephew’s and nieces and school friends and then at Marcel’s parents with his sister and her husband; much quieter and less hectic. I wouldn’t swap either worlds at all. I am so lucky to have both.

So now we are into the New Year, 2008. The years seems to fly by and you need to remember to take time out once in a while to reflect exactly what you have been doing. So with this I wish you all a very Happy New Year!!

Yes! I went there this morning, by bus and it is a typical border crossing: Get off the hotel shuttle bus, get a ticket from a coach company, leave China (not forgetting to fill out your exit form and stamp in passport); get on the coach to the Hong Kong border; get off the coach; queue up for about 20 minutes to go through passport control (not forgetting to fill out your entry form and stamp in your passport); get back on the (right) coach to your required destination. About 2 hours in total!

Then it was time to find shopping centers, from Wan Chai, I took a taxi to Causeway Bay and went into Times Square shopping center. I had to try and find a hotel that I was going back to, so I would get picked up from later by a driver I managed to arrange for the way back (Well I was not prepared to catch 5 trains to get back to Shenzhen or pay 360 Euros for a driver and car for the whole day - I went in between, about a third of that, which was still alot).

After that was sorted, I was able to relax a bit more; walked a bit further around the Causeway Bay area, visited a few other shopping centers, phew and then went back to the hotel to get my lift back.

Border crossing by car: Hong Kong border - queue by car and hand over passport, get it stamped - exit; Drive on to Chinese border - queue by car (this time about 20 minutes in the meantime, fill in entry form) - hand over to passport control, get it stamped - entry; go to next point where they point this laser type pen at your face (don’t know what for..) and then drive on to the hotel. Total journey time - just over one hour!

Photo’s - I didn’t have time to take any photo’s - but then there were only skyscrapers where I was…

By the way - just in case you are thinking - hey what’s the big deal, well I did go on my own, which I found a bit insecure at times. But hey, I am back at my hotel room now able to tell you about it

Take care!