Margaret-Anne's 101 Things in 1001 Days

9. Eat Peking Duck In Peking(Beijing)

2010-08-12T16:52:00.000+02:00

I love Peking Duck and was excited that we had a Peking Duck Dinner included in our tour of Beijing. Our guide took us to a lovely park and Ian and I had a walk around before dinner.

The restaurant was nice and the food was probably some of the nicer stuff that we had in Beijing. But the Peking Duck was exactly the same as Peking Duck that we've had everywhere else. I wanted/expected something to be different.

8. Walk On The Great Wall Of China

2010-08-12T16:39:00.000+02:00

This was one of the things that I really wanted to do when we were in China but in reality I hated every minute of it.

I have no idea why I didn't really think about how high it was but it just never crossed my mind. You would have thought that reading about cable cars in the guide book might have given me a clue. And it's not like I haven't seen it on the TV or in magazines before.

But nope, had no idea. Even riding in the cable car on the way up the mountain with my eyes closed didn't make me think that it wasn't a good idea. All I was thinking was "I'm going to walk on the Great Wall of China!" when I should have been thinking 'oh, this is a bit high". A bit high is an understatment! Considering that I don't like to climb on a the first run of a step ladder this was not the best place for me.

It was so busy with people on the wall and it was pretty narrow and very steep in some parts. It gets to about 80 degrees in some part, luckily not that step where we were but pretty step.

All I wanted to do was lie down on the ground and cry. I tried so hard to be brave so that Ian could look around and not worry about me. I basically plastered myself against the wall (the high side) and clung on while he wandered around a bit.

7. Visit China - May 10

2010-08-12T16:24:00.000+02:00

Ian and I decided to do a last minute trip to China in May. Luckily I had been researching it for ages (not surprise there) so we were able to put it together in a couple of days.

Ian was dispatched to the Chinese embassy in the Hague with our passports to organise the visas that we needed, luckily it's just around the corner from his work and we got them the same day. We book our trip with a tour company based in Beijing and they organised everything - hotels, guides, internal flights. All we had to do was to get ourselves to Beijing airport.

On the whole I enjoyed the trip but there were certain things that I didn't like - people staring at us all of the time for one. Not even subtle staring, they come right up to you and stand staring. Apparently it's not rude, maybe not but it's flipping annoying!

I also didn't like the way the we went every where via a 'museum' which turned out to be a tacky souvenir shop where you had to haggle over the price of everything. Luckily as Ian and I were with our own private tour guides we told them to stop taking us to the 'museums'. Some places even had separate entrances for overseas visitors and domestic visitors - guess which ones didn't go through the shop, sorry, the 'museum'?

Over all it was a good trip but at a frantic pace but I found it hard not to compare it to Japan and it didn't come out the winner....

I'm a Bad Blogger!

2010-08-12T16:03:00.000+02:00

I can't believe that I haven't update this in months! I have still (sort of) being doing the 101 things but stupid things like work and life keep getting in the way.

How I miss the days when I had nothing to do at work and actually had time do things like this...
Not really, I like my new job but it seems to take up such a huge amount of my time - oh, yeah, that's what works suppose to do ;-)

Of to do some proper updates now.

40. Visit Luxemburg

2010-04-10T14:30:00.001+02:00

Ian and I decided to visit Luxembourg during the Easter weekend. It took us about 3.5 hours to drive there on Saturday morning. The weather wasn't too bad when we left home but the near we got to Luxembourg the worse the weather got.

We had booked to stay at Le Grand Ducal hotel so we headed straight there so we could park the car. The hotel was lovely and we had a stunning view out over the Petrusse Valley into the old town from our room.

As it was raining we decided that the best thing to do would be to take a sight-seeing bus tour which lasted about an hour. To be honest after the bus tour I was feeling a bit undecided about Luxembourg, there just didn't seem to be much to it and the highlight of the tour was the financial district. We wandered around for a little bit after the tour but it was so cold and rainy that we headed back to the hotel pretty soon.

After breakfast the next morning we decided to head down into the Petrusse valley and risk a walk around, it was still raining on and off but not as bad as the previous day. And finally we found a really picturesque part of Luxembourg!

I think that the roads down into the valley were too narrow, steep and winding for the bus so that was why we missed it the day before. We managed to wander around for a while before it started to rain again.

I'm pretty sure that Luxembourg would have been much more interesting if it hadn't rained so much and been slightly warmer. Maybe one day we'll venture back that way but only after we check the weather forecast first!

57. Go For A Walk In The Rain And Not Care That My Hair Will Frizz

2010-03-27T10:07:00.000+01:00

I forgot to write about this one when it happened, better late than never I guess.

Ian and I went to an ice scultping exhibition in the south of Holland and it was a really stormy day. After we went for a walk and there was absolutely no point in even attempting to use an umbrella as it was so windy. Plus I only had my lovely Lulu Guiness umbrella that I got for Christmas with me and I wasn't risking it being destroyed on it's first outing. So we walked in the rain and wind and I ended up with 'interesting' hair. Luckily as it's so long I can easily tie it up so it doesn't scare small children.

We decided to have some lunch while we were there and we could see people struggling with umbrellas and little kids nearly getting blown over. Then the chairs from outside one of the other restaurants started flying along the street too.

Oh, and the ice sculptures were good too ;-)

101. Grow A Vegetable

2010-03-26T17:19:00.001+01:00

After the success of last years chilli growing, I decided that I would try to grow red onions, beetroot and strawberries.

I planted all of the seeds and was really impressed that the beetroot sprouted within a couple of days. They looked very pretty with their bright purple stalks but unfortunately they all proceed to die on me :-( The red onions are looking better and some of the strawberries have appeared now but they are teeny tiny things.

Watch this space for a progress report...

82. Try 5 New Restaurants

2010-03-26T17:15:00.000+01:00

A couple of weeks ago it was 'Restaurant Week' in the Netherlands which is when a lot of restaurants over special prices menus to try and encourage people to try new places.

Ian and I decided that we should try out a few places and the first one we went to was Lulu which is an Asian restaurant. The food is a mixture of Japanese, Indian, Thai, Malaysian and probably a few others too. The starters were pretty nice but the main course was very strange - it was 8 little taster dishes which were all lovely but it seemed wrong to be eating a Japanes seaweed dish along side a Thai curry.

The next place we tried was Bistro Do which says it's a French restaurant on it's website. When we arrived they couldn't find our reservation which was a bad start but they more than made up for it with the service and food. We had to wait a little while for a table but they gave us free drinks and snacks at the bar until it was ready. The food was really nice but a bit confusing as it seemed more Italian based than French but I think that we will probably go back there at some point.

48. Use Up All Of The Toiletries That I Have Before I Buy Any More

2010-03-26T17:02:00.000+01:00

I'm declaring this one finished! I've finally got through the stash of lotions & potions that I had when I started this blog. I actually had to go and buy shower gel this week, can't remember the last time that I did that.

Now I can spend money on nice smellies again :-)

49. Do 3 Things That I’ve Never Done Before

2010-02-20T15:11:00.000+01:00

I actually nearly changed this task as it seemed a bit wooly but I think I can mark it as complete now thanks to the weekend at the Ice Hotel.

1) Snowmobiling

I went snowmobiling which was a lot of fun, little bit cold but thankfully we had all of the clothes that the hotel provided so not too bad. We stopped half way and had dinner in a little cabin in the woods.

2) Ice Sculpting

Ian had arranged for us to try ice sculpting which I was not really hopeful for as I'm the least artist person that I know but I was willing to give it a try. I was suprised how easy it was and I really quite enjoyed it.

Ian decided to make a diamond and I attempted to make a heart as it was Valentines Day the next day.

3) Dog Sleighing

Instead of taking the bus from the hotel back to the airport in Kiruna, Ian had arranged for us to take a dog sleigh ride. There were a couple of hair raising moments as the snow was so deep due to the snow fall overnight that the dogs couldn't find the track so we got stuck. Once the sleigh tipped over and we fell off into really deep snow, about 60-70 cm, and had to walk to catch the dog sleigh. The huskies were very pretty but a little bit smelly....

17. See The Northern Lights

2010-02-20T14:52:00.000+01:00

I've always wanted to see the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis to give it it's posh name.

I hoped that we would be able to see them on our trip to the Ice Hotel but it didn't look to good. The first night there we went out on snowmobiles for a couple of hours but there was too much cloud cover to see anything.

One the second night it wasn't so cloudy and we could see some stars but nothing seemed to be happening so we went for dinner. During dinner the restaurant staff annouced that the lights had appeared and everyone went outside to look at them. It was to difficult to take a photo of them without a tripod so we had to make do with just watching them.

I was so busy looking that I started to walk along what I thought was a path but as soon as I stepped on it I was up to my knees in snow - it was a path of sorts, one made by a snowmobile.

We only saw the lights for a few moments but it was beautiful, maybe one day I'll see them again for longer.

73. Stay at the Ice Hotel

2010-02-20T14:42:00.001+01:00

I used to spend a lot of time in Sweden with my last job, so much that I actually contemplated moving to Stockholm at one point but decided to move to America instead (stupid choice but that's another story).

People kept on telling me about a hotel that was built each year in the north of Sweden, made out of ice from the river. After looking at the hotel's website I decided that I really wanted to go there at some point. Most people that I mentioned it to didn't seem to keen on the idea of sleeping on a bed made of ice so I sort of put the idea on hold and would occasionally mention it. I'd more or less given up on the idea of every going there when Ian surprised me by planning a trip for my 40th birthday last year. As the hotel only exists for a few months each year we couldn't actually go when it was my birthday so Ian had booked everything for February.

It was a very hectic trip to get there and I don't think that we could have cut the timing of our connecting flights any finer. We flew from Amsterdam to Copenhagen to Stockholm to Kiruna...

When we arrived at the Ice Hotel they kitted us out with snowsuits, boots, gloves & balaclavas so that we won't be cold. They kept telling us that it was quite warm that weekend, it only got to about -12 outside. Inside the Ice Hotel the temp is quite stable, between -5 and -8 and they provide you with big thermal sleeping bags which you can zip up until only your face is sticking out.

The staff give you a little talk about how to sleep cosily (how to survive really) - wear layers of thermals, gloves & a hat when you go to bed. You have to prepare for bed in a warm dressing area then run outside in the snow in your thermal undies to get into the Ice Hotel and then find your room.

Ian and I were suppose to be sleeping in a room called Abancio (which means fan in Spanish) but there was a problem with the lights so we switched to The Magical Life in the Far North which was themed on husky dogs.

The beds are made of ice and covered in reindeer skins for insulation. It wasn't too bad to sleep in, we did actually manage to get some sleep but it wasn't fun when I had to get up to use the toilet in the night as I had to run from our room outside into the snow and then across to the warm dressing room area in my thermals.

There are lots more photos on our website

43. Go 30 Days Without Eating Take-Away

2010-02-11T15:09:00.000+01:00

As all we seemed to do when we were on safari was eat, I decided that this would be a good task to work on when we came back from South Africa.

We don't actually eat many take-aways anyway, maybe once a week but I think that before Christmas the number was creeping up as we were both very busy with work. It's so easy to just think 'stuff it, can't be bothered to cook' order something. Especially now that you can paid by card, I don't even need to think about if I have cash or not. And I can order over the internet so no problems with them not understanding my limited Dutch.

Yesterday was our last day of the 30 days and it really wasn't a problem to not have take-away. As long as we were organised and actually thought about dinner before dinner time.

So I think that we'll celebrate completing this task by ordering sushi for dinner tonight! The only thing I've missed having is sushi - we could make our own but I'm never organised enough to go to the proper fishmonger for very fresh fish so it's much easier to order.

61. Watch A Sunrise And Sunset

2010-01-19T16:02:00.000+01:00

I forgot to update this one when we came back from South Africa but this is definitely complete thanks to getting up in the middle of the night when we stayed at Lukimbi.

Sunrise - The morning game drives leave at 5.30 so you get a wake-up call at 5am. When we were going to bed on our first night Ian and I had a conversation about how he would have to answer the phone as it was on his side of the bed and I told him not to be grumpy as it wasn't the ranger's fault that he had to wake us up.

In the morning I leaped out of bed shouting that we had slept in and it was 5.20! I started running around getting dressed and complaining to Ian about hanging up on the ranger and that we were late because of him! A rather bemused Ian told me that he hadn't hungup as he hadn't answered the phone! Apparently I had a dream that he had answered the phone and then went back to sleep, oops... It was only 3.40 in the morning. We tried to go back to sleep but then we heard lions roaring near by so we gave up on sleep!

Poor Ian!

Sunset - the afternoon game drives leave at 4pm and they last 3 or 4 hours. Part of the way through the game drive you stop for sundowner cocktails. A lovely way to watch the sunset, drinking cocktails and listening to the animals.

15. Spend The Day Watching And Photographing Wildlife

2010-01-09T10:05:00.000+01:00

Kruger Park is definitely a great place to see wildlife - we saw 4 of the 'Big 5'. We also saw 3 of the 'Big 6 Birds' and heaps of other birds and animals.

The first night we stayed at Lukimbi we woke up to the sound of lions calling to each other. They sounded very close but our ranger told us that they were about 2 kms away and then we went to find them. It was amazing how close we got to the animals and none of them seemed to be the slightest bit bother by us.

Lukimbi is a private concession in Kruger Park which means that the roads can only be used by people staying there or by their rangers and over the years the animals have become used to them. I loved staying at Lukimbi, everything is set up so that you can see outside at all times just incase there might be something to see. You even have a view outside from the bath and the toilet!

44. Go For A Picnic

2010-01-09T09:46:00.000+01:00

Ian and I decided that it would be a good idea to pack a picnic lunch on the days that we were self-driving around Kruger so we bought a cold box from the local shop to try and keep everything edible.

It was 44 degrees the first day when we stopped for lunch but luckily we manged to find a picnic table under cover in a nice shaded part of one of the camps. You are only allowed to get out of your car at camps or gates in Kruger which is good as I didn't fancy share my sarnies...

70. Go A Week Without Straightening My Hair

2010-01-09T09:40:00.000+01:00

This one was pretty easy really. When we were in South Africa it was so hot and humid that it just wasn't worth straightening my hair, it would have frizzed up again the minute I went outside. Plus it was just too hot to spend 20-30 minutes using hot straightening irons and I didn't think that the lions would care if I had frizz hair or not.

So I had curly hair for a week...

14. Go To Kruger National Park

2010-01-08T10:00:00.000+01:00

The place that we stayed at in South Africa was only 15km from one of the entrance gates to Kruger so we decided that we should spend some time there. After reading a lot about limits to the number of day visitors to the park I decided that we should make some reservations so that we could get in without having to start queueing at 4am.

We set off from Marloth Park thinking it wouldn't take us very long to get there, but what we didn't know was that the 15kms was on a dirt road which isn't exactly an easy thing to drive on at any speed in a Ford Fiesta. When we finally made it back onto the tarred road just before the entrance to Kruger we hit a rock in the road and the hub cap came flying off! Ian managed to find the hub cap and we drove to the gate only to be told that they had closed it as the daily limit had been reached already. Luckily we had a reservation so we were allowed in. Sometimes the Crocodile Bridge gate is closed because the bridge is flooded and it's easy to see why when you look at the photo below. Easy to drive over if you have a huge 4x4 but not so easy in a Fiesta! It was a bit of a heart stopping moment each time we had to drive over it!

Once we managed to get to the other side of the 'bridge' Ian had to change the tyre as the rim was buckled and he thought that it would be better to change to the spare tyre in the car park rather than end up being stranded in the park.

Kruger is a huge place and was fantastic, we saw 4 out of the 5 five in the first day (just the leopard missing). But it wasn't quite as relaxing as we had hoped - one of us was always driving while the other was trying to spot animals which meant both of us had to concentrate all the time.

We had a very close call with a rhino - we were driving along one of the quieter back roads and went round a bend in the road only to find a huge rhino just a few feet away from us. It didn't seem to happy that we were there so we quickly reversed away from it.

Ian and I decided to treat ourselves and book a couple of nights accommodation in one of the safari lodges in Kruger which meant that neither of us had to drive as they organised 2 game drives a day. We stayed at Lukimbi Safari Lodge which was fantastic and a perfect end to our holiday.

13. Go Back To South Africa

2010-01-07T16:10:00.004+01:00

Ian and I spent New Year in South Africa. I love South Africa, it's one of my favourite places to visit so I've been really looking forward to this trip.

It was a bit hectic and stressful before hand as we were a bit worried that because of all the snow in Holland and Scotland that we wouldn't actually make it there. The plan was to go home to Scotland for Christmas, come back to Rotterdam overnight and then fly out to Johannesburg the next day. At first we thought that there would be problems with the flight to Scotland because of the snow in Holland but that cleared up in time. On the day that we were suppose to fly back to Scotland Edinburgh airport was closed in the morning so we thought that our flight would be cancelled but luckily it wasn't. When we got to Edinburgh it was -11 degrees and still snowing. There was even snow on the beach at Port Seton!

When we were worried that we wouldn't get our flight back to Amsterdam in time. Luckily we had already packed and left our bags for South Africa in the left luggage lockers at Schiphol airport so in the end everything was fine.

We decided to go to a new place this time and picked a place called Marloth Park which borders Kruger National Park. Marloth Park in a conservancy area which means that there are animals wandering freely around and that the properties don't have fences around them. We rented a lovely house called Khaya Romantica

On the day we arrived we saw giraffe and zebra wandering by the roadside and a huge warthog came to the house, climbed the steps to the veranda and lay down in front of the door. I was a bit scared of the warthog as it was an older one and had quite big tusks so I ran inside to hide!

The next morning when I was sitting outside drinking tea a huge bunch of about 30 striped mongooses (should that be mongeese?) came running over the path and then a few minutes later a kudu came to graze on the bushes. We also had a rock monitor and a water monitor and more warthogs come into the garden (smaller warthogs this time so I didn't hide)

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

2009-12-20T15:47:00.003+01:00

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)

2009-11-30T13:26:00.000+01:00

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

2009-11-24T13:39:00.001+01:00

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

2009-11-17T16:19:00.000+01:00

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

2009-11-06T14:11:00.000+01:00

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)

2009-10-22T08:13:00.000+02:00

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

2009-10-16T22:08:00.002+02:00

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

2009-10-16T10:16:00.001+02:00

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

2009-10-14T22:21:00.000+02:00

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

2009-10-14T20:13:00.000+02:00

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

2009-10-13T20:26:00.002+02:00

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

2009-10-12T12:00:00.000+02:00

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

2009-10-04T18:59:00.000+02:00

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

2009-10-04T18:51:00.002+02:00

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

2009-10-04T18:00:00.001+02:00

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

2009-09-30T11:19:00.000+02:00

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

2009-09-30T11:11:00.001+02:00

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

2009-09-22T15:20:00.000+02:00

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

2009-09-21T09:16:00.001+02:00

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

2009-09-18T09:09:00.000+02:00

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

2009-09-16T16:43:00.001+02:00

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)

2009-09-14T08:36:00.001+02:00

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

2009-09-14T08:30:00.001+02:00

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

2009-09-12T15:45:00.002+02:00

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

2009-09-09T13:17:00.003+02:00

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)

2009-09-08T19:20:00.003+02:00

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

2009-09-08T07:44:00.002+02:00

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.