Chasing babies in The Netherlands

15th Novembr 2006
god this girl charlotte is a spoilt little bitchy princess. she doesnt get her own way so she go out of her way to be a pain in the arse... she has a totally skewed view of reality and whats right and wrong, the thing is, she doesnt care, her only concern is herself... it realy pisses me off. the 2 boys are fine but shes a bitch, how an 7yo girl can already be a bitch i find amazing...

one day shes gonna get a serious reality check and shes gonna hae a mental breakdown cos she doesnt know how to handle it... problem is, mum n dad are gonna handle everything for her so shes never really gonna experience hardship or living off the bones of your arse to appreciate how good shes gotit... shes so spoilt and its so annoying cos she just gets handed everything!

and ive only been here 2 weeks and she hates me! lol just cos i dont drop everything and give her what she wants, when she wants it. shes the kinda girl where her whole room is pink and filled with roses (real ones... pink ones...) and fake jewels and dolls and fake fur wraps and designer dresses.... shes like a paris hilton of 7 yr olds!

grrrrrrr

6th Jan 2007
ok ive been back at "work" for about an hour and already im sick of it... why i thought being an aupair was a good idea i have no clue. i think its partly cos im waiting to get in trouble for something, as the family were back in the house before i was n so, luckily the cleaning lady came n fixed everything but maybe she missed something> i dunno i didnt do anything wrong or something... and also a bit worried that the bike has been stolen, but thats my own fault for leaving it in laren chained up for a week... this is a notorious country for bike theft, im a fool...

im already missing being with rens every day, and the freedom of being able to come n go das i please... as here i dont have that freedom and it sucks. i guess i just have to stick it out for a few months, as in march they go away for a week and im free again... and then in june they go away again for 3 weeks... but after that, who knows... hopefully ill have sorted out ssome sorta social life outside of just seeiing rens on the weekends, as im sure hed getting sick of me...

i also have a cold, and the kids are all in shitty moods cos theyre so tired... im tired too, and i dont wanna put up with their shit... im already so over it... this boring life of ironing and washing up... why anyone would wanna do this for a living is totally beyond me. for me its a means to an end, as the result ofbeing extra optimistic that this would be a cool job, but im in a family which is very nice, but at the same time expect that im there 100% for them and that i should prioritise my life around them... which sucks... rens dads 60th birthday is on next friday and i have a feeling i cant go, as theyre going out for dinner, and rens really wants me to go, but i have a feeling that theyre gonna say no... and im pissed about that i kinda wanna do whsat he wants atm sincei feel like i kinda overstayed my welcome a little (he had to study n stuff...), ni think that me not being able to go to his dads is gonna annoy him a bit... he knows its not my fault but yeah... i dont wanna let himj down...

10th Jan 2007
ok im a little annoyed here... what happend to give a little, take a little? why has things turned into only taking? this family iw ork for take take take, and give very little... I thought it was just common for ppl to think if you give something youll get something back, not the case. how naive of me really... so i had my bike stolen, well the mothers bike stolen... i hsave to pay for a new one. it sounds fair, but this family has SO MUCH money they could afford to pay for the shitty bike that im getting, the shitty bike thats costing 400euros. i get 550 a month. god only knows how much they get, but their holiday to eustralia is costing them something like18000 euros. for 3 weeks. they hasve enough money to help me out here with the bike. i mean, dont they wanna keep the person looking after their kids on good terms? its not like ie expect so much from them, that they have to make all the effort, its just that i do extra things for them all the time, i babysit for them, for nothing, i clear up after the mum n dad all the time, its not part of the job to tidy the parents room, but i have to do that, i have to clean up after these grown adults all the time, yet they cant find it in them to part with a small amount of their money 9as opposed to a BIG amount of mine...) to help meout when i help them all the time... i never get a thank you. i no its my job here, and its just all expected of me, but why not improve relations and just be friendly and nice by saying thank you once in a while? make me feel like im doing an ok job, instead of feeling like im crap all the time, and if i AM doing something wrong then tell me! maybe i dont iron fast enough idk... shes pretty picky for someone who does nothing, so it could be anythhing.

also, ive asked for a week off when my parents come to visit in august, after they get back from australia... this all seemed too hard, until i suggested that i make up the days i want to have off. so for the next 7 weeks ill only have sunday off... which is shit because rens trains twice on sundays so for most of the day i wont see him at all. whyi couldnt just get this one week off, i dont know... how could i expect her to give a little? well i hope she doesnt expect me to anymore. she hasnt given me any reason to. i could do it anyway for goodwill, but why should i make her life any easier than it already is? im the one facilitating her easy life, youd think shed be somewhat grateful, even if she is paying for it... if she wants me to stay out the whole year she'd better start being a bit more user friendly, cos atm im not happy here and shes not helping at all...

13th Jan 2007ok working tonight has been a dream... why? mum n dad arent here, theyre in den haag, so tonight ive had to babysit. its been a dream because they organised for the girl to go and stay at omas place. its amazing how much easier things are without her here... last night she screamed at me that she had more respect for animals than she did for me,which explains alot of why im happier without her here! theboys are so much easier to look after theyre much less demanding... the oldest one even sat with me n watched jamie oliver, and really got into it! n when the youngest one came home from tennis, the oldest one was really into helping make the chocolate slice, and then in making the pizzas! it was pretty cool, he listened, did what i told him to do (the girl wouldve tried to tell me what to do, like she even knows...) and looked out for his little brother ie telling him to watch out cos the pans hot etc... it just makes it so much more fun and soooo much easier!! i WANT to do things for them when theyre like this, when the girls around tho, shes so demanding and selfish that she always ends up getting in trouble or fighting with one of the boys... not fun. the boys are have a much better, chiller attitude...

i wish it was just them all the time...

PS the pizzas look wicked and smell amazing, i made my own tomato sauce by roasting cherry tomatoes and red peppers and blending them with garlic (too much actually, next time just the one clove! lol) and some passata and it smells incredible... next time im gonna put a few more things in there, asim making it for the boys and they might not like basil or too much pepper... as a rule they dont like veges, so im trying to ease them into it!

i also made my own bases and put then thru a pasta roller so theyre thin, but i used self raising flour so theyre gonna be nice and not too crispy but just perfect! theyre sitting in the oven atm n im loving what im seeing!! if i do say so myself :P

18th Jan 2007
i SWEAR to god im gonna go crazy here. im sick of being babyed and treated like im stupid... every morning this mother tells e what im meant to do that day, thing is, its the same every day! theres a list of things to do, i do them every day, and every day she tells me what to do... i mean WTF!!!! does she think that doing the same shit every day is gonna make me FORGET what im meant to do? no i doubt it... the monotony is killing me and she just reminds me of it every chance she gets... im so sick of her condescending, patronising way she speaks to me! and today i was like yeah swet i finished the ironing early, at like 10:15, i nornmally finish at 12,so i was like sweet! shes always at me that i dont do it fast enough n hinting "do all the ironing you can so it doesnt build up..." and so i finish early today and she comes in and says oh can u do t hese too? and gives me 2 business shirts which are impossible to iron. u just think of the word wrinkle and they wrinkle... i was like FUCKING HELL!!!! and then she comes out witha list of all this other shit she wanst me to do... dont i get tie formyself? am i meant to live to make her cushy life easier? no, thats not my job... i pick up after her all the time, coffee cups laying around, tea bags, cereal bowls. how hard is it to stack the dishwasher urself?? i wanna get out and explore this place but i dont have time! today is stormy as hell so i wasnt planning on doing anything at all really but relaxing and watching tele, doing my dutch honmework, but no... i have all this other shit she gives me. if rens wasnt moving outta his room to this shared house for rowing, id very seriously consider leaving and getting a job in amsterdam in a bar or something and doing other work, cos im sick to death of this job. today has been an exceptionally annoying and irritating kinda day, but shit... im not her personal maid! she always only picks up on the negative things, she'll never see any positives in anything i do. h ow am i meant to WANT to do a nything for her when i clearly cant do a thing right? she seems to think that buying me a sweater here n there or a pair of cheap thongs from argentina is gonna make me feel like im appreciated or something? its all material shit.. theres so much more value in her saying thank you, or leaving me the hell alone for an afternoon when ive finished my morning jobs...

im sick of her taking advantage of me and not even getting thanked for it.

the only reason im staying here is cos i have nowhere else to go...

28th Jan 2007i am at my wits END with these kids. their obnoxious disrespect disgusts and astounds me. their selfishness is incredible. all 3 kids act like an only child. ive had to yell, and i mean seriously yell, 3 times this weekend, because ive been yelled at, abused in some way or screamed at. the oldest kid is addicted to pokemon on his game boy and while he was away one of the other kids played it and accidentally deleted his progess... i h ave never in my life seen a more devastated person, mourning the loss of anything. ive seen ppl at their parents funerals more composed than he was. when i told him if he was going to scream and yell and kick and throw things, to go and do it in his room, he screamed at me NO IM NOT GOING!!! like really screamed... and totally in my face.. after a day with the girl pissing me off all day doing the same sorta thing i had just had enough. i yelled back at him to get upstairs right now and stay there until dinner and he was to go back there after dinner and he again, screamed IM NOT GOING! it was only until i threatened to confiscate his game boy that he apologised... and i have a personal rule that if they apologise for something then its somewhat ok. but theyre on thin ice. so i told him as long as he was sorry he could stay downstairs but hed better watch his step...

im just so frustrated... this 4 days has been fucking long, and for what, no extra pay or anything, just for the mum n dad to skiing in Lech. she'd better have a bloody good time..

30th Jan 2007
so i thought that id write a blog on exactly the things that im expected to do here at this families aupair, some ppl ask, and as time goes on, my tasks get even more menial, anal, and lazy (for everyone else). this doesnt make me happy.

mondays i have to be up and ready to go by 7:45, i have breakfast, pretty much every day special K, sometimes with bananas, i have to clear up the breakfast mess, if there is any, as the kids rarely eat brekky. they get hot chocolate from a baby bottle (even the kid whos almost 10) which they leave scattered around the tv room, which is the first place they go when they get up (they dont get dressed first, but watch tele). the mum gets them dressed and i finish off their lunches. the ids come downstairs, run around and be silly, dont brush their hair when theyre told, walk around mind numbed by game boys or throw tantrums. they usually leave late. im left to clean up the tv room which is scattered with coffeecups and rugs; i have to fold the rugs, fluff the cusions and open the curtains, as well as put the kids toys away (cos apparently theyre incapable of doing it themselves). i then have to unpack and pack the dishwasher, which has all the dirty dishes needed to be stacked strewn in the sink, often on the side with clean dishes in it, because they dont really care much about it, as they dont have to do it. all the curtains need to be opened, otherwise i get in trouble, cos the mum has to do it. i dont blame her for getting narky, opening 3 sets of curtains is quie taxing... i then have to go and make the beds. sometimes mum will make 2 of the kids beds but the kid who has a double bed she doesnt make, guess tahts too hard. i also have to make the parents bed and clear up their bathroom and bedroom (if it needs it). i hve to pick up the kids pjs that are strewn on the floor and take htem to the bathroom (mum cant find the energy or time to do that either, poor thing). the kids rooms have to be tidyed up, heaven forbid they have to do it themselves.....

then i have to do the washing and ironing. none of mums underwear can go in the dryer but the kids can, and none of the parents pants can go in either. everything has to comne out of the dryer and be folded into the ironing basket. i often get told i havent folded things right, or theyre too dry coming outta the dryer. then i iron e erything, the shop way otherwise mum has to fold everything again......... same thing goes with towels... every tuesday the bed linen gets changed, mum n dads bed is very particular, as their doona isnt the right shape for the cover (since they just HAD to buy them both even tho they dont match up in size...) so oi hav e to make sure i oput the doona in the right way, otherwise they get cranky, poor things...

i have to hang the kids coats up when they come in becuse "theres no point standing there fighting with the kids about it, they dont do it properly anyway...". so they walk in, chuck em, and walk off. i have to take the kids lunchboxes outta their bags,epmty and wash them...

and now t hat mums working, i have to lift my game a bit, since mum is "happy to cook when i get home but i want everything done, now that im working". thing is she works ONE DAY A WEEK! and she makes out that cooking dinner is some kinda huge favour to me.

this job totally blows and i cant wait to leave... i will be leving early, thats for sure, this kinda laziness and fob it off to the nanny attitude is totallu ghey.

26th Feb 2007
ok so ive found out that these kids are on a new level of spoiled.... they had good reports from school... so dad gave them each (inc the kid whos FOUR) 100euros, which is about $175AUD...

the oldest one put $50 of his own money in, and then dad chipped in another 100euros to get him an IPOD NANO.

hes NINE.

its got 8MB of storage... a kid that age doesnt even know that many songs... when i was 9 i doubt i knew 10 songs to put on there, apart from peter coomb.

so now hes dancing around the house listening to U2, cos dad likes U2 so he does too...

unbelievable.....

5th March 2007
one advantage of living with a rich family.... they go on lotsa holidays! im getting paid an extra 100 euros to stay home with the dogs (who apparently cant be left alone more than 4 hours...) when the fam go away to ski in Lech for a week. at first i was well annoyed about them asking me to stay home with the dogs, but for a hundred euros, it becomes less of a hassle :P

7th March 2007
hate this job.
hate it
hate it

these kids are so spoilt, their behaviour sometimes is beyond me, why the hell should i have to cop all their shit? why am i the first in the firing line? mummies perfect, jacqui, who does all the bloody work, is "the meanest nanny ever and i hate you". all because thijs spend HOURS on the computer and i told him to get off. he said i just wanna do this n that! no thijs youve been on here way too long... even as i was speaking to him he was playing with the controls, not looking at me. so i threatened to just turn it off, he hit me, started crying and charlotte yelled at me about being the meanest nanny etc.

im so sick of it... i have no freedom, no respect and im having no fun. weeks go past where every day is the same and its all just blurred into one. this isnt the year away i wanted. im dissappointed in the "aupair experience" if there is one. i think im a very typical aupair tho, go into it all optimistic, convinced its going to be fun... but then once reality sets in, you become a little bitter, very bored and apathetic. youre lumped with all the shitty jobs no one else wants to do. youre the hired help thats not really meant to be seen OR heard.

this isnt what i wanted, these kids are NOT my responsibility and im sick of having all their shit flung at me every time they dont get what they want. maybe i shoul djust leave and see how they like that...

10th April 2007
ive had such a shit night i cant even find the words to write it down. matthijs was like an angel from heaven tonight, calm and cool while the other 2 screamed at me... swore at me... blatently ignored me and what i told them to do... i tell them tostay upstairs, they go down, screaming at me, i even told ollie at one stage, if youre going to act like an animal then fine but you sleep in the dog basket and put him in there, he screamed at me and got out, then called me a fucky head. thats not a typo either. fucky with a Y. i told denise and she thought it was funny. FUNNY. what the HELL is wrong with her? and she has the balls to come in and look at me, and ask me, like ive done something wrong, why matthijs isnt in bed?! why do you think?!? youre other 2 children are demons and its tough to sleep on the same level as a spoilt angry demon, let alone 2!

they literally sit there and just scream till theyre red in the face... staring at me.

im looking for another job, right now.

had a bad friggin day...

today i went to the van gogh museum. museums arent really my thing but i figured that id go anyway, maybe ill learn something, and its something important in the history of the netherlands so it something that should be seen! even if it was just to say id been there... but now that ive been, im glad, even tho i didnt wanna pay the 10euros to get in. but when you think of the masterpieces in there, i can see why its justified, but at the same time i didnt wanna hand it over!

anyway, as the title says, i now have an opinion on art... well, on expressionism, which is apparently the movement he inspired. i agree wholeheartedly with the idea behind expressionism, in that it allows the artist to paint what he feels rather than only what he sees. i like that because back in the day so many governments and regimes suppressed the art world into just basic pictures with no meaning, as any hidden meaning might be blasphemous/cause for treason/ or hold negative messages or connotations for the governmental strongholds that were in pwer at the time. in this way, expressionism was a breath of fresh air in art, allowing the artist to let his heart do the painting rather than his eyes. even if it was just a picture of a field or a house, it was still the freedom they had to just paint the emotions that they held, looking at the field or house. this is what i like about expressionism.

what i didnt like about it was some of the actual paintings... i know that it sounds weird to say yeah expressionism is the ducks nuts but the pics are crap, but in some cases its true. it seemed that the freedom they had to paint what they felt, gave them reason to be a bit.. well... lazy! some paintings seemed to show the artist painting in a hurry, not realy bothering to concentrate on fully showing the form of the subject, as if you were looking at it with blurred vision. but then, its the artists feeling about the subject, so it cant be wrong, can it? other paintings however, i did like.. most of them were by van gogh. sunflowers i didnt find esp mindblowing, i didnt like the colurs or the way the sunflowers sat, they looked as tho they were dying with the browny oranges and yellows, instead of vibrant yellow and green. i liked mots of his self portraits, as i found they were consistant,and gave me a pretty good idea of how he looked. isnt that the idea of a self portrait? there were some more detailed than others and those were the ones i liked.he managed to make one of them very lifelike, even tho the colours werent 100% lifelike... some were really good painting, when i looked at the skill involved in sitting there anfd painting a field, and it coming out looking like a field. i look at things and appreciate them more if i know i could never do it, and painting is one thing thats not my forte!

There wasnt any paintings that i really liked, none that i would consider buying, but i dont really like paintings that much to buy them. theyre a bit olf fashioned for me, i prefer photography and cool prints like andy warhol and things like that. the cambells soup can is dumb in my opinion but hey, i know nothing about art! pop art is cool, and i like funky art rather than traditional art... but i can certainly step back and appreciate the things i saw, theyre popular for a reason. some of them had wicked colours, bright and vibrant and theyre the ones i liked the most, i dont like dull or bland... is this another reason expressionism is cool? i dont know, idk if excessive and out of place colour is a trademark expressionism thing to do or if you were allowed to do that before... someone who knows, feel free to tell me! my opinion is based solely on a 45 min trip to a museum about one painter!

so to sum up my uneducated opinion, the expressionism movement was cool, but most of the paintings, were not.

ok so ive been out a few times for meals... n so far, nothings been bad really! Ive only really eaten at the Leisdeeplein which is a bit silly cos thats a bit inflated cos of the tourists, but there are SO many restaurants there to choose from its mad...

so today when i was shopping i went to the chain Wok to Walk, which ive seen a few times and its always had ppl in there... good sign! its cool cos you can choose everything you want, you choose what kinda noodles/rice/vege base you want, then what extras (what meat/tofu/extra veg eg pineapple shiitake mushrooms etc theres about 10-15), and then what kinda sauce, n theres about 10 of them too... i chose today to have egg noodles with chicken, baby corn, and mushrooms, which a coconut curry sauce... it cost me 9.90 which was a bit steep, but i got a coke too, and the size of it was to much for me. i looked around when i got it and there were a number of ppl sharing theirs... obviously been there before!! but it was yummy, the sauce was a touch hot but it was a curry so i cant really take points off for that! i couldnt finish it so portion size isnt a problem! you get your moneys worth thats for sure! they ask your name when you pay and then they call it out when its ready which i always think is cool! There are so many different things to choose from there, and you can see it all being cooked right in front of you, which is sweet, and you know its DEF fresh, and hasnt been sitting around for ages!! Ill def go back there again...

I went to Matias' Mexican restaurant when i met rens parents. Its (again) just off the leidseplein, about 4 shops down. It has a cool interior, and our waitress was very patient when rens parents wanted to move all the time (cos rens dad was sick and there was a draught...)! We had this really yummy appetiser, which was 2 dips, a tomatoey salsa-ish one, that was a touch spicy but not much, and a REALLY good guacamole with tortilla chips. sounds boring and pretty standard but it was really nice... not sure if it was complimentary or if we ordered it...... i think we ordered it! But then i had a thing which had rice and beans (that came with pretty much everything) a little salad and 2 burritos, one with chicken and one with beef, and they were SO GOOD!! i had the same as rens mum and the 2 fellas had something else, but i couldnt finish mine, it was too much! tho i managed to eat the burritos :D they had some of the salsa/guac and sour cream dolloped on the top (not heaps but enough!) and it really was so good! i loved it... i wanted more!! I didnt pay the bill, so i dont know exactly how much it cost, but when i walked past the other day i had a look, and it was a little expensive, it was about 13-16euros for a main, so its prolly not somewhere id go again, just cos of the price, and i know there are so many other good places to go around that area! but if it was a little cheaper id be back there all the time, it was really really delish!!

Torey and I went to a place called Muy Thai which is next to or a few shops up from Matias'joint... its cheaper than there too, and its a nice place for a quiet meal, even if the guy that works there is a little creepy! I had a chicken curry and it was really nice, you have to buy the rice seperately, but we shared the rice and it was enough... it was yummy rice too! there was a little something extra in it, and it was very moreish, as was the whole meal! he bought out prawn crackers for us with a really nice dipping sauce, i dont know what was in it, but it wasnt spicy... im not good at picking out fl avours in asian food, as theres often so many in there! but it was really good, torey gutsed heaps down! But so did I haha.. it cost us about 9euros each, and we left pretty satisfied! both full and content! it was good enough for me to go back the other night and get take aways, and i got thai soup which i dont remember hte name of, but its the coconut nad chicken soup, and it was too hot for me to eat lol but im a pussy with chillies.. it did taste really good tho! just too spicy... i got 2 things off the express menu, which were 9.5euros each. i dont remember the exact combos, but i got satay chicken with rice which was dissappointing, it was 2 kebabs, which tasted SLIGHTLY of satay but it wasnt saucy, which is what im used to... maybe its authentic? and im used to the westernised version? idk but the malays in my town made satays all the time and they were MUCH more saucy and peanut-y.. and so there was nothing really to mix with the rice, which wasnt a prob as i mixed it with the other thing i got, which i have NO idea of the name, but it was beef n some veges with a runny dark sauce which tasted a little of soy but not overpoweringly of it... so not sure there! but it wasnt bad! perfectly edible but it dint blow my mind... and then pad thai, which at first i thought was bland, and then when i are more, it got better somehow lol the flavours werent at all in ur face, they were very suttle, and couldve done with more sauce, but it was still nice! if i went there again id eat it, but prolly wouldnt order it... the chicken curry was nice! i think it was a royal chicken curry or someting along those lines!

The 2nd trip torey and i made to amsterdam we went to an italian restaurant.. now atm the name escapes me, but its on the same street as the last 2 places ive written about! theyre pretty much all next to each other! there are 2 italian joints, next to each other almost, we went to the 2nd one. I ordered the tri colour bruschetta which was with mozarella/basil/tomato, it was 5euros which is a teeny bit much but payable really, you got 3 pieces which were big enough really, if you werent hungry then itd be perfect! it was nice but a bit burnt on the sides, and the tomatoes werent in season, so thats my fault for ordering it in the first place... it was very basic, but still very nice! Torey had the minestrone, but didnt really like it, cos she thought the base was made with chicken stock, and being a vegetarian, that didnt go down well with her! If i hadve eaten it, prolly woulda liked it... so ya know... if youre a vego you prolly wont like it! Then we shared a 4 cheese pizza, which was def enough for us both, youd need to be HUUUNGRY to eat the whole thing! tho its do-able, the boys could do it! the pizza was pretty nice, tho im not a massive fan of blue cheese and there was some on there. in moderation its nice but every now and again i got a big mouthful of it and its a bit strong for me! torey loved it tho... it was a very nice pizza for only having cheese on it! i saw the calzone come out to someone else andi t was massive! it seems so far, that portion sizes in the leidseplein are big! we also shared a caraf of red wine which was too easy to drink, it didnt have alot of body, but was drinkable all the sme, esp for me whose only just getting into red wine... the pizza was about 8.50 i think so to share a meal, we did pretty well! it wasnt that expensive in the end... and again, we left full! id go there again, if there wasnt so many other places to pick from! the lure to try a new place is too much!!

There are tonnes of argentinian and uraguyan restaurants/steakhouses which im keen to try out, tho i wont be able to when im with torey since shes a vego! but thats cool because eating with her opens me up to a whole diff world of food that ive never tried before, i wouldnt have chosen myself! So many places to eat, so mucht ime! its great!!

This R'dam section is just a copy and paste from another blog, but since i know some ppl read only this entry, im just taking it and sticking it in here!

Ok so in Rotterdam, we went to the Bagel Bakery for some coffee, and the city redeemed itself somewhat (since we werent that impmressed..), for having a wicked coffee! it was served in a massive bowl like thing, which looked more like it was used for soup rather than coffee, and you had to pick it up and drink it like you were geting the last of the milk from your bowl of cereal. i kept expecting to get my hands slapped for being rude lol and it tasted like it had some cinnamon or vanilla or something in it, but just a tiny bit... it was sdweet enough that i didnt need any sugar in it, which normally do! it was just really yum, and it looked like they had other really good things to eat and drink... the mint tea was served in a moroccon style tall glass with hot water and a big sprig of mint in the glass, it looked really pretty! but i dont like mint tea that much, so i wasnt really tempted to drink it!
we had lunch (at about 4pm lol) at this wicked bar place which i just cannot remember the name of... you could pick from all kindsa little finger foods, and get a platter of them, and it was delish! il oved it... we had too many glasses of wine with it, and a good old chat and it was awesome, the waiter was SO nice, he had a really good attitude, he hada laugh with us about our crap dutch, and he spoke english with us a few times, and it was all just good times! We had a platter with 2 x 7 little appetisers, and they were ll vege and fish ones, since the girl i was with is vegetarian. There was a tiny vol au vant (i KNOW thats spelled wrong..) with some melted cheese and cranberry sauce which was YUM! and a little tuna, tomato and onion tart, some really soft crumbly bread with anchovies and cheese and herbs, a tart with parsnip creme fraiche (i THINK it was parsnip, he said it was a kinda white carrot.... im assuming thats parsnip...) uuum... brioche with pesto (YUM), some white bread with salmon paste and other stuff (we couldnt quite put our fingers on it!) i cant remeber what else there was, but it was so good! If i could remember the name of it id recommend it! it was down the road from Burger King (kinda far down the road...) where you walk on a little red carpet past the clothes shops... if anyone knows then help me out!!!

Torey and I went to r'dam on sunday, just for the day to check it out... i wasnt expecting a good looking city, since it was bombed flat in WW2, and all the buildings are new... and i wasnt wrong! Its a very modern city, which is what everyone always says about it. modern meaning ugly. grim. grey. it was a sunday, so the lack of any atmosphere isnt the fault of the city, but there were a few things open, just not a very lively atmosphere! There were alot of weird artworks around, statues, things by the canals... i dont really know what they were meant to be but there was something that looked like 5 jumbo rollies (rolled ciggs) laying on the grass in different colours. riiiiight. im no artist, but it just looked weird.

We went and saw the building shaped like a pencil, which was built in the 50s (any dutch ppl pls feel free to remind me of the dutch name!). i thought it was ugly, but when you condsider when it was built, its cool. it was a thinking outta the box kinda building, and i can imagine there werent many building like that around at the time! right next to that are the apartments shaped like cubes, which did look cool! they were yellow which was a bit garish but it was a nice change from the grey that surrounded it... i have pics, ill add them a bit later..

we went to the Bagel Bakery for some coffee, and the city redeemed itself somewhat, for having a wicked coffee! it was served in a massive bowl like thing, which looked more like it was used for soup rather than coffee, and you had to pick it up and drink it like you were geting the last of the milk from your bowl of cereal. i kept expecting to get my hands slapped for being rude lol and it tasted like it had some cinnamon or vanilla or something in it, but just a tiny bit... it was sdweet enough that i didnt need any sugar in it, which normally do! it was just really yum, and it looked like they had other really good things to eat and drink... the mint tea was served in a moroccon style tall glass with hot water and a big sprig of mint in the glass, it looked really pretty! but i dont like mint tea that much, so i wasnt really tempted to drink it!

it was at this cafe we decided to go somewhere else... the city wasnt doing it for us, and we were looking in the book for other things to do. but upon discussion decided to go to another museum (we went to the national museum of architechture but decided not to go in), the Boijmans van Beuningen (http://www.boijmans.nl/smartsite.dws?id=2039276). not being an art lover myself, i wasnt thrilled at teh prospect really, but ya know, im still happy to go there really... anyway, it was a VERY comprehnsive collection, ranging from 14th century to modern art, some pieces being made in 2006. There were pieces by Mondriaan (i like his stuff, its pretty cool, i copied some of it in yr 10 art), Dali, Picasso, Rembrandt, and other famous artists (a few that have escaped me atm). but in terms of value for money and something for everyone, it gets 10/10. it was 8euros to get in, which is cheaper than the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum in amsterdam, and it was WAY bigger. it had a really comprehensive collection, and there was something different in every room. some of the modern art was just plain weird, and it kinda bugs me that EVERYTHING has a name ie expressionISM, cubISM.. functionalISM... if something didnt fit the bill exactly, then they just made a new category and added ISM to the end. a branch of surrealism and magic realism. uuuuh ok. the definition was meant to be that surrealism is meant to be totally unrealistic, impossible to happen, but magic realism is meant to be possible, but highly unlikely. and there was a "movement" dedicated to this kinda art. it was all just pictures of very weird things, and so i didnt really like it at all. they had displays of 60s retro kitchenware, and 70s ceramic vases (which was just packed into one room with HEAPS of boring coloured vases lol) which i thought i recognised from my mums kitchenware at home! They had art deco displays, modern furniture... there really was a bit of everything... how there was a shift in the 70s (or 80s?) to design things where function was more important than form, which left the art deco-ists in a huff lol. it was a good museum, and was the saving grace for rotterdam! the city itself isnt much good, but the museum was great! i think its the kinda place where you need a plan before you go there, you need to know where youre going, as walking around there isnt really much of an experience... not like amsterdam...

we had lunch (at about 4pm lol) at this wicked bar place which i just cannot remember the name of... you could pick from all kindsa little finger foods, and get a platter of them, and it was delish! il oved it... we had too many glasses of wine with it, and a good old chat and it was awesome, the waiter was SO nice, he had a really good attitude, he hada laugh with us about our crap dutch, and he spoke english with us a few times, and it was all just good times! If i could remember the name of it id recommend it! it was down the road from Burger King (kinda far down the road...) where you walk on a little red carpet past the clothes shops... if anyone knows then help me out!!!

anyway, i think i need to give rotterdam another chance... it wasnt bad but it wasnt good either, and i think maybe its the kinda place thats great to live, but its not a touristy place. it looked like there were some good restaurants all over the place, and the shopping looked alright, so myabe its worth another visit, when its got a better atmosphere than on a dreary sunday arvo!

1st Nov 2006ok so ive been in holland for less than a week, and at this family for like...2 days.. it feels like ive been here much longer than that! i dontknow how many ppl read this, but ill jsut give some of my first impressions of this place.... for the dutch ppl reading it, youll prolly have a laugh cos i notice random things lol

Driving: thank god i havent had to drive yet, im a little scared to! im glad that i have the presence of mind (usually) to look both ways before i cross the road as alot of the time the ppl are driving too fast in a tiny street and wont be able to stop in time. and this was at a zebra crossing! dont ppl stop at them?? if ppl dont stop at them whats the point in having them at all!? rens told me look, if u wanna use the ZC then just walk and im like WTF are u mad look how fast theyre going! n i bet ill cop the abuse too, when someone has to slam on their brakes to avoid kiling me.. and as for ppl giving way... well i dont think theres a rule for that, as ppl pull out in front all the time, and denise, the mother of this family does it too! how there arent that many accidents i see all over the place, is beyond me! the streets are so fkn tiny n narrow n she has a BMW X5 which is pretty big n wide, i dunno how she hasnt scratched anything or buggered up a nyone elses car! tho apparently the aupair before me totally destroyed another car with the BMW... so i geuiss it certainly DOES happen!

Cheese: blooody hell, if you like cheese COME HERE! i knew that teh dutch were big cheese eaters but you can go to a bar and order a plate of cheese chunks with a toothpick in them... and you can pick between young and old cheese lol and as for the cheese section in the supermarket, damn. its like double the size of what we have. this doest come as a complete suprise to me really but its def worth a mention!

Old ppl: there are so many old ppl on bikes around here... i mean everyone does the bike thing but... when im riding to take or pick up t he kids from hockey, i see more old ppl than young ppl. by old i mean nannas. with headscarves lol this country is overrun by nannas! altho i think it may have something to do with the lifestyle here... ppl are generally more actifve here with the biek riding, and everythings so close that you can often walk, or ride the bike... so maybe the old ppl just live longer or feel more mobile than ppl back home feel at the same age. i dunno... worth lookin into!

Dog walking: why is it necessary to walk the dogs like10 times a week? i mean shit... dogs need walksim ALL for dogs getting walks but theres a point where the dogs are thinking shit not again.... i just wanna chill! lol it says in my little book of what im meant to do n stuff, to walk the dogs sometimes 3 times a day. now WHY. 3 times a day? bit much i woulda thought...

but to be honest... il ove it here... i really do. in germany i never really felt at ease or anything but here i really do. i feel like ive found something here, i really dont wanna let go of it, which i guess is good considering ive been here like 5 days out of like, a year!! i think maybe it has alot to do with the fact that even tho im IN holland im not totally immersed in dutch language as the kids speak english 90% of the time and so does the mum... so imj not faced head on with the language barrier. ive had a few very brief encounters with ppl talking to me, me understanding and actually knowing what to say back, which is a big big thing really, considering in germany i woulda just given them a blank look back! and alot of the time when i AM saying something, even tho its something easy and really simple it feels normal, i dont feel like a freak butchering a language!! tho when i start to talk dutch all the time ill probably feel a bit like that sometimes!

but how mad, rens is a crazy keen kiteboarder.... and the dad of his family, wouter, is also into it... weird! rens reckons it means that its meant to be! lol maybe hes right... i hope so!

7th Nov 2006
thought it was about time i sent you an email letting you know what im
up to! Ive been in the netherlands for about a week now, and im LOVING
IT! i think, no i know, ive found my second home! it feels like ive been
here for ages, i feel right at home! doesnt matter than i barely speak
dutch! i am learning more n more, but not THAT fast, as the kids im
looking after speak englishmostly, and the parents speak english to them
80% of the time... ill be taking a dutch course sooner or later, but in
the meantime im jsut going to be doing some online and CD stuff to get
me speaking and not just smiling and nodding when ppl ask me something
:P also alot of the ppl im meeting are english... theyre mostly mothers
of the kids friends from school but since they go to an international
school where they teach in english its fair to assume that the parents
are english speakers!

but a typical day for me is...

7:45am dressed and ready to go, i just have to clear away breakfast
dishes n clear up the playroom (which thankfully looks nothing like ours
at home where you cant see the floor!) 8:30 - 12pm Washing and ironing.
ironing takes me forever!!!! i reckon its got something to do with the
fact that EVERYTHING gets ironed. fitted bed sheets. kids pjs. ive
decided that i realy do hate ironing! before i came here i was just
going by what everyone else told me about ironing, i never did it myself
:P but now i can say from my own experience that it sucks!
12-3pm FREE WOOHOO!
3-8:30pm taking the kids to hockey, tennis, horse riding ballet....
stopping them from killing each other... clearing away dinner dishes and
clearing up, bathing the kids and then helping put them to bed...

it really is quote a cushy job tho i dont really have to do that much,
yet.
ill have to do way more when i have to start driving the kids around,
which im not looking forward to as the car is huge and the streets are
small and they drive on the other side of the road here, as most of you
know! i also dont wanna get lost and make the kids late! they have a GPS
in their car tho so hopefully that'll help me!

my room is on the 3rd floor of the house. well, it IS the 3rd floor, as
its a rooftop room, but its pretty big! i have a doublbe bed, a little
fridge, tea n coffee making stuff, a sink, 2 little armchairs, a tv/dvd
and a computer (well i WILL have one theyre just getting their wireless
inet set up on it!), and the room is decorated heaps cool! it was
renovated pretty refcently i think. the house itself is massive and
really nice too, the kids rooms are all decorated really nicely and its
very posh! they have a MASSIVE tv and the chillest couch ive ever
seen... its huge. its like a bed not a couch.... its the best thing i
ever saw to watch tv or movies on! they have
2 dogs, one a 10month old black lab called max who jumps on you like
itsw going outta fashion, but hes just so cute you dont mind so much
hehe and a brown lab cross with some kinda hunting dog, called magic,
shes about 2 i think. pretty funny dog, very good at soccer!! speaking
of soccer, their backyard just about fits a soccor pitch onit! its
pretty big... their house and garden is considered pretty big by aussie
standards so imagine how it must seem to the dutch! HUUUUUGE!!! Wouter,
the dad is a private equity banker or something, the dude in charge i
think, at a bank in amsterdam, and denise was a lawyer but now shes a
stay at home mum... with a nanny, a cleaning lady, a gardener and window
washers (they came today!). to her credit tho, she does get them up
every morning and ready for school, drives them there, and then after
school drives them to 101 diff activities in diff towns, cooks dinner
and puts them to bed, and she has no help from wouter, as hes ALWAYS at
work. its a little sad realy as the kids dont see their dad that often,
maybe for 30mins or an hour in the morning, n thats not really playtime.
dunno how the weekends work here as i havent been here for one yet maybe
hes home more then? but i guess his way of helping is earning the money
to be able to afford all the help! and the holidays.... they go to
argentina for xmas, and australia in the summmer. a few weeks before i
got here they went to thailand for a month and also spent some time in
spain (they used to live there). denise and the kids also went to london
for a while and flew back the same day i got to holland. oh and denise
and wouter are flying to london this weekend for a party lol apparently
wouter was born in holland and lived there till he moved to paris when
hewas like, 10 or something, then went to uni in london... i dunno about
denise but i know she lived in london and america, and then they got
married and lived in england for 9 years where they had all the kids
(and which is why they speak
english) then moved to spain for 2 years and then moved back to the
netherlands. crazy!the kids are pretty grown up in some respects but in
otherways are spoilt and sheltered a bit..... olivier is 4, charlotte is
7 and mattijs is 8. i asked charlotte to put away a pair of pants in her
room the other day and she said she didnt know where they went. clothes
in her own room. but i guess its not really her fault, shes never had to
do it herselfl before... they do expect sometimes to be a bit waited
on... but for things like getting a cup of tea i cant expect them to
make it themselves as its hot.. but they can be prone to tantrums
sometimes, and im just very lucky that theyre pretty easy to get them
out of it. olli especially...
he'llcrack the shits about something stupid, so ill take one of dads old
tricks and say dont you DARE smile! you do not smile at me!! and he ends
up pissing himself laughing. hes one of the happiest kids ive ever seen
really... i am lucky with the kids, while they can be pains in the
arses, they do love me haha charlotte tells me all the time tthat tehy
lke me better than the last nanny because i play with them more lol
theyre pretty well behaved really, i dont have much trouble with them.
theyre mostly just cheeky!

I was in amsterdam with rens last weekend, but we only managed to get
out to the entre of the city on sunday, as saturday was spent sleeping
and buying rens a fridge (yeah welcome to holland... lets go to harvery
norman woo). it was just how i remebered it, better actually. we werwe
meant to go to a market ton the waterlooplein but it wasnt open so we
just walked around a bit.... checked out the red light district at about
2-3pm...w as full of chicks in the windows... i guess when you have
"needs" in amsterdam youre catered for any time of the day!! it was
pretty funny to watch them tho (rens n i sat in a bar watching over a
few heinekens!) theyll just stand with their ciggs looking bored and
indifferent but then a guy walks past n they put their sexy face on lol
it was funny.... i dunno how they do it tho, some of the guys that went
into those little rooms were old and feral and looked homeless. i doubt
they were cos if they can afford a RLD girl im sure they can afford some
kinda house but y aknow... alot of bums hangin around...

imheading into amsterdam again tomorrow, as i need to go shoping! i
wrecked my boots, as they heel kept slipping into thee cracks in the
cobblestone streets and now theyre gradually getting sharpened, and are
starting to look like a pencil. its not fun to walk in them! so io need
shoes, and also pants as smart me only packed like jeans, 3/4 and
trakies. good one. also bought 2 longsleeved shirts. smarter. so ill be
spending alot of my $$ 2moro on the kalverstraat in amsterdam
(apparently a good shopping street!).

11th November 2006ok so atm im confused... im not sure about my opinion on the way the mum n dad of the family i aupair for, live...

the dad is a banker, and very well off. he works alot, and whike im confused about other things, him im sure of. i dont esp like him, at least his attitude to his family. he seems totally and utterly indifferent to spending time with his family. his first priority is his work, hich is sad. he doesnt like the traffic at peak hour on the dutch highways, so he comes home after 8pm everynight. the kids go to bed between 8:00 and 8:30, so if theyre really lucky theyll see their dad for 10min before theyre sent to bed. for the same traffic reason, he leaves at like 9am for work, the kids are gone by about 8:30 at th4e latest, while they see him for 10-15mins, some times hes still sleeping when they go. the weekends are the only time the kids get to see their dad, and every other weekend he travels somewhere or has something on. poor kids just fall over him when hes around cos they just never see him! they just idolise him cos they never see him... its pretty sad... which leaves the mum, who used to be a lawyer, but gavethat up when she had thekids.

the thing that i dont know if i agree about, is how she runs the joint... they make alot of money, so they can afford a gardener, a nanny, a cleaning lady, window washers etc... but the thing is, my jbs are really not that hard. i have to just clear up after meals, do the washing and ironing, bath the kids and kinda look after them in the afternoons and various babysitting... but small things like putting away their toothbrushes that they leave in the sink, putting their clothes away... i mean, why do they need to employ me to do things like that?? im not sure i agree with the fact that these kids have no responsibility at all, not for tidying up their rooms or anything... i asked the girl to put aeway a pair of pants the other day n she told me she didnt know where they went. it was her own bedroom and she didnt know where her own clothes went! if i ask them to do something sometimes they respond with we dont have to do that... amazing. i mean, they do nothing but go to school, after school activities (which they can get out of with just a whiney voice to mum...) and playing. they have no sense of commitment or responsibility and i dont like that, i dont like those kids to think im just gonna run after them doing things for them all the time. yeah i look after them, i do the washing and ironing... but im not their slave, why should i have to do things like put away their toothbrushes??? but then again theyre paying me so i just do what im told right? but theyre sooo spoilt.. i mean for spoilt kids theyre ok, totally managable so far, but at the same time im like JEEEEEZ you kids need to learn that you cant just rely on someone else to do everything for you!

the mum, i dunno if i agree with her way of life either... i mean, i understand it, totally, but i dont know if i agree with it. she has the cleaning lady, and me to clean the house and just do the stuff that she pretty much just cant be arsed doing. in her defense she DOES have a fair bit to do, when the kids are around but during the day she hasnt gotmuch to do but go shopping and pay bills n non strenuous things like that... meeting friends for coffee etc. when the kids are around she has to get them up n ready for school, n then take them to their activies, hockey, horse riding, ballet, tennis... and then she comes home n cooks dinner for them, helps them with their homework and puts them to bed. she goes in and helps at school, doing reading and things like that in her kids classes, and also volunteers at the local hockey club her kids play at working in the canteen and the bar n thing like that... but... i just wonder, is it fair enough that she gets someone to do all the shitty jobs, shes certainly got the money to pay for it! or is she just lazy? i mean... im torn between thinking HELLO this is the real world and you cant just pay ppl to do all ur shitty jobs while you go out and drink ur coffees and get ur facials and nails done... go shoping for DKNY and Ralph Lauren clothes for your KIDS! and thinking well... no one LIKES these jobs, if youve got the money, why not get someone else to do it??

maybe im a bit jealous? maybe im a bit pissed off that im the one who has to do her shitty jobs, effectively allowing her hassle free lifestyle... i dont know... but at the same time, im in themiddle of a pretty steep learning curve, seeing how the other side lives. i came from a small town where there were ppl with big houses, medium houses and small cr appy houses. there was "rich", "normal" and "poor". because i had a swimming pool and a massive house, i was consideredone of the rich ones, which wasnt helped when i went away to a private all girls boarding school... but in reality, while my parents could afford to swend me to a good school, and could afford to give me enough money to have nice clothes and a nice house, we werent rich. were not rich. were well off, but not rich... but we were the family who had our ironing done for us (mum had no time, as she works from 7-70 and a cleaning lady come in once a week. but my dad was so fuckin anal about me having my room tidy... we had to put our own clothes away... we had to do the dishes, stack the dishwasher... take our clothes to the laundry, n tidy our own shit up. we had the same responsibilities as anyone else, maybe not things like mopping the floor or ceaning the toilet, but the same base chores as everyone else... so while i know how it is the be the one employing the cleaning lady, ive never seen the other side...l either "other" side, the uber rich or the hired help... i am now livingin an uber rich household as the hired help. im experiencing 2 totally different lifestyles that i never thought id be living in... and while today the kids shat me to tears, i have to look at the positives and know that im going to be a better person at the end of the whole thing, as ive experienced how the other side lives.

ill also know how to iron a business shirt :P