Photo weekly review Judith #435 – Hip & Hot

A short but busy week. It was busy at work and on Wednesday evening I flew to Edinburgh with Sterre and a girlfriend, where I was busy all day. In all I walked 35 km in 2 days, with painful blisters as a result. Fortunately, I flew home late on Friday evening so that I could rest my feet on Saturday and Sunday to recover.

Read also: Photo weekly review Judith #434

Monday

Early on I was in a school for an interview. After that I was home for a short while, but that was not so nice, because it was very cold in the house. The painters are still busy, so everything was open: the front door, the windows, and it’s not that hot. Maik was downstairs wearing a thick sweater, I finally dragged a table from the study to the bedroom to work there with the door closed. Otherwise it was impossible. Around noon I had to go to another appointment, which lasted until 5 o’clock. After that I didn’t feel like going to the gym anymore, so I skipped that. Fee went back to school for the first time and luckily that went well. She still doesn’t walk on her flat foot, she says it still hurts. The deep wound is closed, but there is still a shallow cut, so to speak. So I think it kind of feels like a gap. After dinner there was suddenly a message that it was parents’ evening. We had completely forgotten! Quickly jumped in the car and went to school. We know all the information after 4 children (and since I have been a teacher myself for 15 years), but we still wanted to show our involvement and it was also quite fun.

Tuesday

I started Tuesday in the gym. I hadn’t been there for almost 3 weeks for strength training, because last week I had only been there for a while on the elliptical trainer. So now I did a full house of strength training. Then I had to quickly go to a school to record a video for the newsletter. In the meantime I had to consult with the painters whether the windows and the door had to be opened and so on. hassle. After this appointment I was home for a short time and then I had to quickly go to a meeting of Bert Wienen in the vd Valk hotel in Nootdorp. It was very inspiring by the way, unfortunately I had to leave a little earlier because I had to pick up Fee from school. She can’t walk home with her foot yet. Fortunately the sun was shining and after answering some emails I sat outside for a while. Sterre had to go to work early, so I started cooking on time. After dinner Fee wanted to take a bath with me, so that’s what happened.

Wednesday

I had to get up earlier than usual because I had a very early appointment. It turned into a few intensive multidisciplinary meetings, but the sun was shining so the bike ride back home was nice to clear my head. At home I had lunch (not in the garden, had too much to do) and worked at the same time. Around 3pm I went to pack my bag for Edinburgh. We didn’t have to be at the airport until 5 pm, but because of the Ascension Day weekend and the associated traffic jams, we left a little earlier just to be on the safe side. That was a good thing, because Sterre forgot her phone in the car, so Maik had to drive back after he had dropped us off at the departure hall. That took another fifteen minutes. In the end, everything went smoothly with check-in, etc., so we arrived at the Gate in plenty of time. We arrived in Edinburgh around 7:00 PM UK time (an hour earlier). We took the bus to the center, which was very easy. Airlink 100 and it stops right next to the airport and again at St. Andrews square where we had to get off for our accommodation.

Wasp

We decided to have dinner first, which we did at an Italian restaurant near St. Andrews Square. It was a fifteen minute walk to the accommodation and otherwise we kept going back and forth. The food was nice but the girls were tired so we didn’t make it late. Check-in at the accommodation was not very smooth. We were all in a different building and didn’t get the rooms we booked with a whole gossip about them being fully booked and stuff. But I saw on booking.com that you could just book another room for that night, so I kept trying and eventually we got an upgrade to a 2 bedroom apartment. Still not quite what we booked (a single room and a twin room with both private bathrooms in the same building), but we found it acceptable. Then the pass to get into the apartment didn’t work, so I had to walk back and then there turned out to be a very large wasp in my room. I had to go to that reception again, because I didn’t dare to catch it myself. He was really mega. Well, after all the commotion we could finally go to bed, it was now midnight (1 o’clock for us feeling) and go to sleep.

cairn hotel

Other than that it was a good one accommodation yeah, even if it doesn’t sound like it right now. Normally I wouldn’t have booked this myself, but I adapted to the girls, who obviously don’t have much to spend. For this hotel we paid €60 per person per night including breakfast. A nice budget hotel as far as I’m concerned, because it was in the center of the city, within walking distance (15 minutes) of most sights. So if you also want to go to Edinburgh on a low budget (tickets via easyJet are also very cheap), then this is a tip. If all goes well, the wasp’s nest will be removed, they promised me when checking out that they would look into it immediately.

Thursday

I managed to sleep quite quickly, but I woke up at half past five because it was so light in the room and I heard a wasp buzzing all the time. Now there appears to be a nest near my window. So that wasp was not inside, but it kept buzzing at the window. Irritating. Later it turned out that the wasp was still inside. Apparently the nest is in the wall and they enter my room that way. Well, we had breakfast on time and then we all went our separate ways: Sterre and her friend went into Edinburgh and I walked to Leith, a neighborhood on the water. That was about a 5 km walk from the apartment, along the Leith walk, a nice road with all kinds of trendy coffee shops. Once there I walked around and eventually ended up at the Royal Britannia, the royal ship. You could visit that. It was nice to see what the rooms of the Royals looked like on board and what life was like for the officers and stuff, but I thought the final tour was just a bit too long. The last floor I stopped and went to the exit.

Blisters!

It was then time for lunch, I ended up at The Kitchin, a star restaurant. I had a delicious meal there, the lunch menu. Then I started the walk back to Edinburgh. I wanted to visit the castle. Meanwhile I started to get more and more pain in the soles of my feet. Once inside the castle I discovered that I had two large blisters on my feet. Walking became a stumbling and after the castle I decided that I would change my shoes first blister plasters went to buy. (From now on I always carry blister plasters in my backpack as a precaution!) Eventually I met the girls again at Calton Hill and we walked to an Italian restaurant together for dinner. That went on my new one All Stars + blister plasters a little better, but walking was still very painful. I was happy to be in my bed!

Friday

Fortunately I had slept better, only my feet hurt a lot. The blisters were now completely filled with fluid and were tight. I couldn’t stand on it. After much deliberation I decided to ask the reception for a sewing kit and something to disinfect so I could pop the blister. This is actually not recommended because of the risk of infection, but it really didn’t go that way. I had to walk all day and it was so painful! So I carefully punctured the worst blister, which was really big. A lot of moisture came out. It immediately gave some relief. I left the other blister, it bothered me a little less. After breakfast we each went our separate ways. I didn’t want to go past the busy, touristy places anymore, so I first visited two museums (free in Edinburgh) and then walked through the shopping area to a park. There I saw a nice restaurant where I had lunch. The waiter advised me to visit the Stockbridge area, about a 10-minute walk away. That turned out to be a very good tip, because it was a very nice part of Edinburgh, with water and nice houses and stuff. The weather had also become wonderful. Around 3 o’clock I thought it was nice with my feet and settled down on a sunny terrace, where I sat until the girls were ready too. Then we took the bus to the airport, where we took off again at a quarter to 8 in the direction of the Netherlands.

Saturday

I couldn’t go swimming because of my broken feet, so I just sat on the rowing machine at home for half an hour and didn’t do anything else. Except lying in the sun. And read the Foodies. And take some pictures of everything that is blooming in our garden. In the evening I made a tomato soup and that was it. I really noticed that I was tired from those two days of walking a lot, not to mention the blisters. So just rested a lot, sometimes nice.

Sunday

Because of the blisters, running was not yet possible, although it really went a lot better this morning. I have the blister plasters took it off and it worked fine. Instead of running, I went to the gym, where I mainly did strength training and stood on the elliptical trainer for a while. Once home, the weather was just starting to get nice, so the sliding doors opened and the garden became our living room. We decided that the garden could use a little more color, so we went to Groenrijk to buy some new plants. We came home more than 200 euros poorer, but it was nice to work in the garden with the nice weather. Weeding, dead plants out, new plants in. Little pruning here and there. A beautiful week is coming up, so nice to be able to sit outside with so much color around us. We also have a net stretched around the fruit trees. Every year the crows and magpies peck a large part of our cherries, blueberries and strawberries. Even our apples try to peck them. Hopefully they can’t get to it now. What I also liked: the neighbor gave me a cutting of his raspberry last year. I put this in the ground, but had no idea if it would do anything. I didn’t see anything happen all winter, but now suddenly leaves are coming and it’s starting to grow. So funny! We spent the rest of the afternoon in the garden. It was a nice and quiet weekend.

Press packages

Every now and then I get some books or press packs. I like to share them with you, so here I tell you what I received:

• The Gnome Book by Loes Riphagen. A cool and innovative book about gnomes. Fee has been reading it extensively, she really enjoyed it.
• The power of the Elements from Tasya van Ree are cards that help you listen to your gut and intuition. I’m never that floaty, but I already got some nice insights. Things you actually do know, but more in your subconscious than your conscious. Funny.
• Nice stuff from the brand One Two Free! through Douglas. For example to get a nice glow on your legs in the summer, but all these products are nice anyway. Sterre uses them a lot with us.