30. Paint My Toe Nails at least 5 different colours (1/5)

Finally my big toe nail has grown back on both my feet after they fell of earlier in the year, so I decided to paint them so that my toes won't be naked on holiday.

I've been using black polish for a while but as it's nearly Christmas I choose a lovely deep red colour which I've had for ages.  It's called 'I'm not really a waitress' which always makes me laugh because I would be the worst waitress in the world.

I was tempted to paint each of my toes a different colour so that I could complete this task in one go but as I'll be wearing sandals soon I decided against it - don't want people to think that I'm mad.  Maybe next time...

78. Make Cakes Using 5 Different Types Of Vegetables (3/5)

I decided that I should make something using carrots as they seemed to be taking over the fridge, I guess that's the problem with doing internet shopping without actually checking what we need. 

After looking through all of the recipes I could find that used carrot I managed to narrow it down to one that I knew I would be able to get all of the ingredients for (if only we had Tesco or Sainsbury or Waitrose or Asda or any decent supermarket here).  So the cake of choice for this weekend was Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins made using my super new magimix food processor.

I managed to make such a mess in the kitchen that Ian said it was like someone had been cooking with kids - it did look a bit like there had been an explosion with grated carrot and chocolate everywhere.  But it was worth it, the muffins were lovely.  I was a bit sceptical when I put them in the oven as they looked strange but they turned out fine.

64. Go To The Christmas Market In The Caves

As it's never very Christmassy here we've been going to Christmas markets in germany for the last few years to try and get into the Christmas spirit.  This year we thought that we give the the one in Valkenburg a try instead. 

As we woke up rather early on Saturday morning we decided to go and see what it was like.  Saturday was the first day so we were expecting it to be really busy but figured if we left Rotterdam early enough it shouldn't be too bad.  Valkenburg is about 2.5 hours drive away so we got there just before 11am and managed to find a parking garage very close to the caves. 

The market itself wasn't too bad, some Christmasy stuff and some other random things like bedsheets!  It was still pretty quite which was nice.  We bought a couple of little things and then decided that we would wander around Valkenburg for a while and then we found another cave market.  The second one was much busier than the first one and we got fed up of the pushing and shoving pretty quickly and decided to head back to the car.

Valkenburg looks like a nice place to visit so I think that we'll go back again when the Christmas market isn't on and have a proper wander around.

16. Try A New Recipe Once A Month For 12 months

Inspired by our trip to Budapest last month I decided to try and make goulash.  I found a recipe on good old internet and spent ages chopping meat & veg.

It turned out ok but not as nice as the one I had in Budapest, it was lacking any heat to be honest even after throwing in a chilli from the stash that I have.  If I make it again I'll try a different recipe and see if that's any better.

72. Change My Name On My Dutch Bank Account

As I had the day off work today, I thought that I'd do something useful. 

I went to the bank to change the name on my accounts there and it was relatively easy!  All I had to do was to show my passport with my married name on it and then sign a few papers. 

So now I have a double barrelled surname to match my double barrelled first-name - if I have to write my fullname on anything there better be a big space for it ;-)  Apparently that's what they do here, whether you want to or not doesn't really come into it.  Same thing happened with my health insurance.

It's only taken me 3 years to get around to doing this!

90. Buy A Better Zoom Lense For My Camera (70 -300)

I have a Nikon D60 camera with a 18-105 lense which I love but I did feel that I needed more zoom capability when we were on safari in South Africa the last time.  I've been looking at getting a 70-300 lense but I was really struggling to justify spend so much money on something that I might only use a couple of times a year.  I know that I'll use it when we go to Kruger at New Year but not sure how regularly after that.

I got quite a lot of money from my parents-in-law for my birthday last week and decided to look at getting a zoom lense again but I still struggled with the price.  It just didn't sit right with me, I wouldn't mind spending the money if I felt that it would get used enough but I couldn't honestly say that it would.

After much pondering I decided that I would look at other makes of lenses instead of Nikon ones.  I found a Sigma 70-300 lenses which was 1/3 of the price of the Nikon one (120 euros compared to 375 euros) and Ian and I went to the camera shop yesterday to look at it. 

The Sigma lense isn't much longer or heavier than my current lense and shorter and not as heavy as the Nikon equivalent which I bought Ian last year.  The lense also has a macro function which I have no idea about but seems like an added bonus ;-) 

So I bought it!  And now I still have enough birthday money to buy a netbook too :-)

5. Visit Budapest

After we'd been in Vienna for 3 days, Ian and I took the train to Budapest to celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary.  It took 3 hours to get there on the train but it was lovely and relaxed, we booked into the premium section and we were the only people in there! 

I really liked Budapest, we stayed on the Buda side of the Danube in Lanchid 19.  Lanchid is the Hungary name for the Chain Bridge which crosses the Danube and which we could see from our hotel room.  The hotel was much more relaxed than the one we stayed at in Vienna and I liked it more. 

We were just a few minutes walk from the funicular which took us up to the top of Castle Hill.  Ian and I spend a lot of time just wandering around the area as it was really pretty.  We had manged to time our visit so that we got there before most of the tour buses arrived and managed to get a lot of good photos without lots of people in them.

We went to a lovely restaurant in the Castle district that Ian had booked for us on our anniversary called Alabardos which served traditional Hungary food with a modern twist.  The food was fab and we drank lots of Hungarian wine, a different wine with each course as recommended by the sommelier.

6. Eat Hungarian Goulash In Hungary

I was under the impression that goulash was a type of stew but on most of the menus that I saw in Hungary goulash was listed as a soup. 

Having eaten it on a particularly cold day, I can see why it's popular - it was lovely and warming and I really liked it.  Definitely one to try and make...

45. Celebrate My 40th Birthday And Not Care That I’m 40

It was my 40th birthday when we were in Vienna.  To be honest I don't care that I'm 40, I certainly don't feel like I'm 40 - how does that feel?  In my head I still think that I'm about 25, I guess one day I'll grow up and figure out what I want to do with my life (maybe when I'm 60?)

Ian had secretly organised a suprise trip to the Ice Hotel in Sweden for my birthday!  I'm so excited, I've wanted to go there for years!  We're going for Valentines weekend in February and I've already started planning what I need to get - thermals are high on the list.

We went to Demel to eat (birthday) cake.  I told Ian that I had to eat 40 types of cake while I was in Vienna but I didn't manage to make it past 3, one each day that we were there.

Ian had organised dinner at the restaurant near our hotel, Drei Husaren It was listed in the guide book as one of the top 10 restaurants in Vienna (number 3 I think) so we were expecting something nice. 

When we first arrived at 7.30pm there were 2 other couples in the restaurant but both of them were just finishing their meal and went off on a tour.  So we were the only people in the place, along with the waiters and the piano player.  The piano player asked if we had any songs that we wanted played and I told him to just play whatever he wanted, so he got up and walk offed :-)

The food was ok but nothing special really and the dessert was bad, chocolate cake that didn't taste of chocolate.  And the waiter with a bad case of BO.

We each had 3 courses and one glass of wine as well as one bottle of water and the bill came to 200 euros!
Then the waiter came to tell us that the credit card machine didn't work and we needed to pay cash!  We didn't have enough cash with us so Ian had to go to the cash machine in the snow to get more money.  After that we had to pay to get our coats back as well!

Ian and I had a good giggle about how he had planned this surprise meal that wasn't very good but was one of the most expensive that we'd had.  It was beginning to seem like an episode of Fawlty Towers by the end.

3. Go To A Proper Kaffeehaus In Vienna And Eat Cake

One of the most famous Kaffhaus in Vienna is Demel which is just outside the Royal Palace. 

The whole reason that we went there was to eat cake but when we looked at the menu there was no cake so I asked the waitress for a cake menu and she 'Cake is at the buffet'.  We were a bit confused about what we were suppose to do and thought that we had to go and sit in the other part but finally Ian figured it out.  You have to go and look in the display cases and tell the assistant there what cake you want, then she gives you a ticket for your waitress. 

You can also watch the bakers at work through a glass window. 

Phillipe Starck and his wife were having lunch just a few tables away from us....

4. Eat Schnitzel In Vienna

I really like to try and eat at least a few traditional dishes when I go to new places so it seemed logical that I tried Schnitzel in Vienna. 

We went to the oldest schnitzel restaurant called Figlmuller which has been running since 1905.

The schnitzel are huge, they were hanging off the edge of the plate!  I really liked it but there was no way that I could eat it all.  I think that you would have to starve all day to be able to eat a whole one, most of the other customers around us couldn't finish their's either and quite a few of them wrapped them up to take home.

2. Visit Vienna

Ian and I went to Vienna for 3 days to celebrate my 40th birthday.  Neither of us had been to Austria before and we were really looking forward to it. 

We stayed at the DOCO Hotel in the centre of Vienna which was a really nice hotel and opposite St Stephen's Cathedral.  Unfortunately the weather decided that it wouldn't play nicely and it was freezing when we were there, apparently 10 degrees below the normal temp for that time of year and it snowed too. 

Not exactly the best type of weather for sight-seeing but we did our best - we went to the Spainish Riding School and watched the horses training. 

We also went on the Hopon-Hopoff bus tour one day so that we could see most of the sights without freezing.  We went to see the Hundertwasserhaus which was pretty funky looking, unfortunately you can't tour around any of the apartments so we could only look from the outside.

65. Clear Out The Kitchen Cupboards

As half the contents of the cupboards had to be taken out anyway this weekend, I decided that this would be a good opportunity to clear out all of them.  So I empty everything and threw away all of the stuff that I didn't want/need.

Everything is all neatly back in the cupboards again but I'm not sure how long it will take us to remember where I decided to move everything too.  Ian jokingly asked if we could label the drawers, at least I think he was joking.  I might just hide the label machine incase he wasn't.

26. Go For Afternoon Tea

We went to the Hotel New York this afternoon for Afternoon Tea.  It was lovely, nice sandwiches and lots of dinky little cakes and pastries on a cake stand.  I did think that the sandwich could have been cut in half to make them more dainty but I'll forgive them for that ;-)

Not quite on par with the afternoon tea that we had at the Mount Nelson in Cape Town - there were only 19 types of tea to choose from compared to 35 at Mount Nelson.  I'm definitely going back there for afternoon tea one day.

After that we went for a walk in Kralinge Bos around the lake as it was quite a sunny afternoon still.  It was a little bit cold but I like it when it's sunny and cold, always seems like it's much healthier to walk in that type of weather.  Probably not any different from normal but it is in my head.

47. Finish The DIY Jobs In The House So We Can Sell It

We're busy revamping the kitchen to make it look more modern.  The actual cabinets are perfectly fine and still look good and we've replace the combined microwave/oven and put in a new oven and replaced the dishwasher over the last few years so they're all fine too.

The worktop and tiles were really old fashioned and I've never liked them so we decide to replace them.  So this weekend Ian and his Dad have changed the worktop and installed a new sink and hob.  Even without the new tiles it looks great, once the tiles are in place it's going to look fab. 

There was a lot of attempts to get the wiring in the hob correct because it has to be connected to 2 fuses due to the Dutch wiring system.  Lots of trial and error with only certain parts of the hob working but they got there eventually.

2. Visit Vienna & 5. Visit Budapest

Ian and I are off to Vienna and Budapest on the 12th of October.  We'll spend 3 days in Vienna and 3 days in Budapest, taking the train between them.  We'll celebrate my birthday in Vienna and then our wedding anniversary in Budapest.  I'm really excited about the whole trip, they are 2 places that I've wanted to go to for ages.

Ian has been busy making lists of place to visit and things to do in both place while I've been planning what I want to eat in each place :-)  Lots of cake will be involved I think. 

Ian's booked restaurants in each place for us to go to dinner which are a surprise.  I'm finding it a bit strange to have no idea what he has planned as I'm normally the one that plans everything.  I'm a control freak, can't help it.  Maybe I should have put something on my list to do with that....

16. Try A New Recipe Once A Month For 12 months & 89. Use The Slow Cooker At Least 12 Times

I'm combining a few tasks into one on this entry :-)

I decided to dig out the slow cooker and make something for dinner tonight as Ian's parents are arriving from Edinburgh this evening.  They arrive in Amsterdam at 5pm so hopefully they'll be here around 6.30 or 7pm depending on the traffic.  I'm really looking forward to seeing them as it's been a few months.

So I'm making Dublin Coddle which is basically a sausage and bacon casserole with potatoes, onions and carrots.  As sausages are one of my favourite things to eat I'm hoping that it turns out ok.  With so few ingredients I can't see how it could go wrong really.

42. Make A Photo Book From Our Honeymoon

Another task to cross off the list!

Ian and I spent quite a while making a photo book of our honeymoon yesterday.  I can't believe that it will be our 3rd anniversary next month! 

We've ordered both books so hopefully they won't take long to get delivered as I'm looking forward to seeing how they turn out.  We used Photobox before to make a book of our last trip to South Africa with Ian's parents in April and that turned out great. 

Ian is finally allowed to sit down again but only for short periods of time :-)

41. Make A Photo Book From Our Japanese Trip

We've pretty much been 'grounded' by Ian's chiropractor as he's not allowed to sit down, he has to lie down flat or stand-up.  Poor Ian is going stir-crazy having to spend most of his day lying down. 

In an attempt to relieve the boredom we decided to sort out the photobook from our trip to Japan.  Ian spent hours looking through over 1200 photos to find the ones that we had chosen to put in the book and then loaded them into Photobox.  Then we had the fun part of arranging the photos onto pages for the book. 

It's been a while since I looked at these photos and it was lovely to remember some of the places that we visited and the things that we did when we were there.  I think that the trip to Japan was one of my favourite holidays that we've done so far and I'd really love to go back but there are so many other places that I keep adding to the list of future holidays that I'm not sure that we will go back.

One photobook read to order, one more to go...

20. Knit 3 Gifts Including One For Ian

Ian has been wearing his socks and he seems to like them! 

I uploaded this photo into my Flickr account as I wanted to keep all of my 101 Things photos together and someone marked it as a favourite which seemed a bit strange.  So I had a look at their flickr account and it seems like it's someone with a sock fetish!  But only for mens feet not women's as he didn't mark the photos of me wearing my socks as a favourite... I don't know how to unmark it as a favourite so I've deleted the photo from Flickr and I'll try uploading again without 'socks' as a tag word.

20. Knit 3 Gifts & 47. Finish The DIY Jobs In The House So We Can Sell It

Socks! Yeap, more socks. 

I've knitted a pair of socks for Ian which are the same as mine but in more manly brown and bigger so that they will fit his feet.  He hasn't actually tried them on yet as he's hurt his back doing something for task 47 Finish The DIY Jobs In The House So We Can Sell It  - and can't bend over very well, poor thing.  Hopefully he'll be better soon.

Some of the other wool I ordered has finally arrived so now I can knit something other than socks, yipee!  I might change my mind about 'yipee' once I get started.  I'm going to attempt to knit a cardigan, nothing like taking it slowly... but that will be for me so doesn't really apply to this task.

47. Finish The DIY Jobs In The House So We Can Sell It - we're getting the kitchen prepared for when we replace the worktops, tiles and hob in a couple of weeks.  It's a bit chaotic but it will be worth it in the end, the kitchen will look a lot more modern.  Then we'll start on the other jobs on the list...

78. Make Cakes Using 5 Different Types Of Vegetables (2/5)

Cinnammon Banana Bread

This is the second of my cakes using vegetables - courgettes with this one.  This must count as 2 of my 5 a day as it has both courgette and banana in it.  I have actually made this before but it turned out different this time, not sure what happened.  It might have had something to do with the fact that I swapped the nuts to a different kind.  Next time I'll stick to the recipe and see if turns out the same.

19. Knit something for me

Knitting the socks turned out to be pretty easy and quick.  They're really warm and cosy.  I think I probably have enough wool left to knit another pair but I also have wool to make Ian a pair of socks so I think that it's only fair that I knit his next. 

The socks didn't turn out quite as stripy as I wanted because I had to use 2 balls of ball at the same time and knit with double strands to make it thick enough but I still like them.  Maybe I'll have a look for a pattern that uses thinner wool so I can knit with one strand but that will probably mean using double pointed needles which I haven't done since I was at primary school when I knitted mittens.

18. Start Knitting Again

I have been thinking about knitting something for ages.  I learned to knit in primary school but haven't really knitted much since then.  I did knit a teddy bear for my niece when she was born last year which wasn't too hard until I had to sew it up which caused me a lot of stress.  Let's just say the bear has character (for that read a little bit lop-sided).

Before I started this project I tried to start knitting something again.  I went to the local wool shop on a mission to knit something but they were so unhelpful and all of the patterns were in Dutch that I left the shop empty handed and feeling quite put off.  But I'm not really one to give up on something and with this project in mind, I spent some time surfing the internet and found some lovely patterns and wools (what did we do before the internet?).  I must admint that I got a bit excited and ordered rather a lot of wool, quite a few patterns and a set of bamboo needles which are still meandering their way here from the UK. 

Being the impatient person that I am, I then decided that I should knit something small while I was waiting on this and found a pattern for socks on the internet.  It's supposed to be for easy-peasy socks, knitted on 2 needles rather on 4 double pointed ones.  Of course now I needed wool for socks so I ordered some more wool from a shop in the Netherlands - and I'm still waiting on that.

Unsurprisingly enough I found myself back in the first wool shop this morning :-)  After explaining to the more helpful assistant that I wanted wool to knit socks and the size of needle that I needed she told me that the wool I had choosen wasn't thick enough.  I want stripy socks so I need this wool, so she told me that I could use it doubled and voila I'm now knitting a sock.  Not quite as stripy as I wanted but still pretty...

74. Sort Out Desk In The Office For When I’m Moved To A Flex Desk

As I'm in the office today I decided that I would clean out all of the stuff from my desk that I don't want or use in preparation for getting moved to a 'flex desk'.  It really didn't take long as I hardly ever use my desk drawers, I try to keep everything I need on the network or my laptop so that I have it to hand if I'm working from home.

The contents didn't come to much more than a New York travel guide from 1998 that I had lent to someone, some earphones and some paperwork for the wedding.  That shows you how often I open the desk...

I'm a little sad about my desk though, it's always been my desk since I started at here.  I have a nice view over the canal and can watch the birds and rabbits when I'm on boring tele-conferences.  I'm one of the few people that have sat at the same desk for the whole time that I've worked here which is over 7 years now.  How did that happen??? I was only coming to stay here for a couple of years and yet here I am.  It's must be Ian's fault, if I hadn't met him then I would more than likely have moved somewhere else by now ;-)  Funnily enough he says the same thing about me.

78. Make Cakes Using 5 Different Types Of Vegetables (1/5)

Cappuccino Cupcakes

As I'm home alone tonight I've decided to make the first of my 'healthy cakes'.  These are cakes made using vegetables instead of fat from this book. The cappuccino cupcakes use sweet potatoes but you really don't taste it, they taste just like normal cakes. 

I'm suppose to ice these but I actually prefer not too as I normally find icing too sweet.  I think if I make these again I would make the coffee taste a bit strong as it's really subtle but that might just be me as I like really strong coffee.  If there are any left when Ian comes home then he might think differently.

Would it be wrong if I just eat these for dinner?  They must count as one of my 5 a day if I eat enough of them surely?

The Beginning

I read about this project on a forum that I use and it seemed like a great idea.  Reading the blogs of a few of the posters inspired me to write my own list and give it a go.

I'm sure that Ian now thinks I'm having a mid-life crisis - is 40 mid-life?  In the last few weeks I've decided to start baking cakes and to try knitting again.  Add the list into that and I can see why he thinks 'mid-life crisis'.  I did think I should wait until after my 40th birthday in October to start this project but then I realised that by creating this blog I had already started and to wait until after my birthday would therefore be cheating.

Some of the things on the list are already in the planning stages, others were only thought of as I wrote the list.  I'll update this blog as and when I plan, start and finish each item on The List.