Several months later than planned, we finally managed to get several days off and booked a vacation to Texel. We found a nice hotel near the small village of De Koog, and packed our bags, scope, binoculars and Garmin GPS.

We had done our homework and printed the information of 50 geocaches hidden on the Island. We intended to find as many as possible, combined with sightseeing and birdwatching. It turned out to be an excellent combination: most caches were hidden near points of interest or close to bird spotting huts.

Our first choice was a short multi cache, which meant we had to do a bit of hiking and find a couple of clues on the way. We had lovely weather, so this wasn’t a chore at all! We had a beautiful hike through the dunes and ended up near the lighhouse.

We found the cache without trouble and hiked back along the beach to the car park. It would be the first of a grand total of 33 caches we managed to find.

In the evening we had dinner at a Indian Restaurant, enjoying a punjab menu with several Tandoori dishes, some sweeter curries and lovely coconut flavored Nan bread to the side. Alex enjoyed the Kingfisher beers and I tossed my diet out long enough to indulge in several glasses of wine.

The next day, we got up early to enjoy the breakfast buffet and head out for a second day of geocaching. The makers of the caches apparently knew the Island well and had left a couple of puzzles here and there, mainly: how to get to the caches without being blocked by water, dunes or dikes. Once we had to approach from the far side and use a “trek pond” to cross the water.

We mostly enjoyed the caches where we had to walk a bit first and discover pretty sights along the way.
Where oh where, would the cache be hidden? A couple of options: the information board, the little bridge and that iron thingy. Our Garmin GPS tracker was spot on and guided us unerringly within 1 meter of the cache hiding place.

After a quick search, we found the small container cleverly hidden:

Yep, there! Found it! Time to write our names on the log inside and be on our way.

More pretty pictures and stories of victorious finds coming soon! Stay tuned!

On Sunday the in-laws will be over, arriving almost full force with hubby’s mom, his sister and her husband and their two sons. They’re great people, even though they are vastly different from hubby and me. It’s taken all sides some years to get used to eachother, but now that we have a working relationship, we’re all pretty intent on keeping it that way and let everyone live as they please.

So, whenever they come over, i want to make a good impression. The house has to look good (YAY for starting early this year!) and I want to pamper them with nice food and drink. It’s never really certain what time they’ll arrive precisely, but it’s a couple of hours drive and they’ll be hungry so I’m preparing a mix of a lunch buffet and a high tea, so they can serve themselves and pick whatever they fancy.

On the menu so far:

Mushroom soup
(other soup, don’t know what yet)
croutons
french bread
breadsticks
butter
garlic dip

salmon pie

three kinds of sandwiches: salmon/dille, chicken/tomato chutney, cheese/pickles
raisinbuns

chocolate cake
banana bread
rhubarb cake
macaroons
profiteroles

Of course I’l have tea/coffee, several kinds of softdrinks and alcohol free beer.

This should be enough, I think ….

And so… Day 2.

So far, so good. Didn’t get everything done yesterday but close enough. I have to be content with what I got done, although I still had that nagging feeling bugging me before sleep that I should have been able to cram more tasks into the day. Most importantly, my writing. I got one post done that I had been putting off forever, as it was one with different viewpoints, action and some character portrayal; in short, it wasn’t the easiest to write. I just hope my partner will be content with it, and then it will be worth the trouble. Both Hubby and Master seemed content with the first baby steps onto the new path, so I’m likely being too hard on myself again.

Today’s project room is the bedroom, which means cleaning up some clutter there and making it look cosy and inviting. After that, it’s finally time for coffee. OMG, i am craving. I just might grind some whole beans for that real fresh coffee experience to treat myself.

Oh, and for breakfast:

A lovely smoothie with plums, buttermilk and melon. It could have done with a lil sugar, but it was good without too! The picture is from the Internet, btw, I didn’t feel like photographing, but mine looked just as tasty!

The sun is shining and it’s a splendid day to start the “New Year” or new month or new week. Whatever really. It’s just one of those times when I’ve swept the broom through my old habits, and thrown them out to make room for new, healthier ones.

All this resulted in a shiny new schedule written over the weekend, ready to be used by this morning.

As per usual I got up, made hubby’s lunch to take to work, but rather than sink behind my computer and lose myself in Everquest for an hour or two to start the day, I got dressed and went out for some fresh air. Thirty minutes of walking and a visit to the supermarket later I had the fridge stocked with healthy food and treated myself to a fresh smoothie for breakfast (buttermilk, prunes, banana and a little of the breakfast juice Alex drinks). Some household chores after that, which told me that the pile of junk laying around was much larger than it originally seemed, followed by a cup of coffee and a slice of gingerbread – finally at the comp three hours later than usual.

So far, I’d say this is a good start, and my schedule has the next hour marked down for writing. I hope to finish the reply to “May the Lord have Mercy” and perhaps start on a post for the Brave New World-thread which I really should devote some attention to. If I get that done, I’ll be rather pleased with myself.

Off to writing I go.. More later!