Project Exodus in full swing

Despite the Christmas Holidays, during the last couple of days, lots of steps were taken towards getting things organized for our departure.

Pieter is taking care of the more serious matters; moving our household goods plus car, insurance (AUS + NL), tax filing (TWN), bank accounts (TWN), registration (NL - LOTS op paperwork with LOTS of chops on them!). I get to do the fun stuff; preparing our trip to Australia, planning what to take or send how and when, planning check-ups at dentist (much cheaper here!), getting rid of items we don't want/need anymore. And during all that, both of us are working. Did I mention that, since we're both on local contract, our companies don't feel the need to help? And that Pieter still has a trip to Europe planned in January and I a trip to China and a trip to the Netherlands? All this will have to happen before the movers come to pack our belongings on Janaury 29 and 30 ...

Even though above list is not complete, you probably get the picture how relaxed our Christmas Holidays were and the next few weeks are going to be :-) Well, actually, it's not too bad. It's all about making lists, ticking things off one by one and making sure you have a notepad and pen with you at all times.

We'll keep you posted!

Boerenkoolstamp for Christmas

Second post, mainly for practice. Next one might be one with a picture! If we figure that out, that is ... Don't let the posting date throw you off. We're writing this post on Wednesday, December 26, but as blogspot is US-based, it's still Tuesday, December 25 on its clock. Hence the date above this post.

Yesterday we had our Christmas dinner. As it was a rather last-minute decision, it wasn't very fancy. But it was good and we had fun, also preparing it. The menu contained the following: mushroom soup with French baguette and paté - mashed potatoes with kale (boerenkoolstamp) and cutlet with mustard and cheese - vanilla ice cream with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Not bad eh, for a last-minute Christmas dinner :-)

We bought Maggie some warm scarfs and bonnets for Canada; she'll need them! Here, we had the warmest Christmas we can remember; the thermometer still goes over 20ºC during the day and on Emma's birthday on Saturday, it was 25ºC! What a contrast with the landscape-in-white pictures from the Netherlands.

Sabbeltje on the move

After 7 years in Taiwan, less than 40 days separate us from our departure. We won't go straight back to the Netherlands though. First we will travel through Australia for one month, after which we go to Singapore for a last visit there. After a few days (hopefully only two days will do) back in Taiwan, to finish up some administrative things, it's off to Holland!

After all our belongings are packed end of January, until we move into our new house in Veldhoven early June, we won't be able to up-date our Sabbeltje webpage. Because we would like to keep our friends all over the world informed about our whereabouts, we created this blog. Everybody assured us that it is very easy to post a blog, even pictures, much easier than a formal website. So, here we are: Sabbeltje as blog. This way, we hope to be able to continue at least weekly up-dates, starting sometime in January.

Wish us good luck :-)