Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Our weekend!

Last week Friday came around and the plans we had had for the weekend had been canceled. We decided to go out to dinner at Woodstone in the Raaks and go see a movie.  The movie wasn't at a convenient time, so we decided to just have a nice dinner out. The weather was nice enough to sit outside on the patio which was very pleasant.

Saturday morning Andrew had an appointment to get his eyes checked for a new prescription for contacts at Hans Anders. While he was gone I stayed home and cleaned the house. At 1230 we had arranged to go with Bruce and Linda to Sligro here in town to get some chocolate chips (they are very difficult to find here!). Linda was able to use the membership card from her workplace. We ended up buying quite a few things.

When we returned we saw Hetty and Michiel outside and they invited us over for drinks later in the evening, around 1700hrs.

At 1430 Andrew had an appointment with Carla for a haircut. I went over there with him to make an appointment for myself this coming week. While we were there talking, Carla invited us to join she and Theo for a boat ride through the canals to Leiden on Sunday. Luckily, we had just purchased a small cooler at Sligro, so we had a way to bring food to share!

We went over to Hetty and Michiel's with Bruce and Linda at around 1700hrs. Saturday evening. We ended up going to our respective homes later in the evening to bring back supplies to make salads to share for dinner. We had a nice time together, shared lots of laughs (and champagne and wine!) and stayed till around midnight.

The next morning we met Carla's friend, Stephanie, in front of the Carla's Salon at 1000hrs. We drove over the Theo and Carla's house and left from there for the boat. Their boat is docked at a place called "Doeshaven".
 Theo walked over to get the boat while we waited on the dock.....
 When he arrived with the boat, we loaded it up with all the food and drinks...

Theo took us through the canals towards Leiden. What a beautiful, picture perfect day!








We got to a bridge that is opened and close by young boys and girls. They lower a wooden shoe down and boats going by put in some change to have them open the bridge to get through!



We saw horses and cows and ducks....



and more windmills!
There were a lot of other boats on the water....




Our Captain......Theo!
 What a relaxing day!

 We stopped for coffee:

The guys enjoyed a cigar together....




We saw some beautiful houses along the canals:




 We headed into Leiden....



We had stopped for another coffee along the canals in Leiden......then Carla took over steering the boat on the way back to the Marina...

We got back around 1800hrs. Beautiful day......perfect weekend!

When we got home my dizziness was really really bad.......I had trouble getting to sleep because my head was just spinning spinning when I laid down. I had a feeling I would pay for spending the day on a boat...

Yesterday I woke up feeling pretty good and my dizziness was much less pronounced most of the day. I did end up taking a nap for a couple of hours during the day because I had gotten so little sleep Sunday night.

Today, the dizziness has been very bad. I don't understand why. I've had a tough time getting around today.....I always try to continue to live my life and do what I would normally do.....but sometimes it can be difficult. I went over the Louise and Gary's today where Louise and I shared a nice cup of coffee in their garden. Just getting there was a challenge. I refuse to stop living my life because of how I'm feeling though......

I took a 20 minute nap today, and the dizziness subsided, but now it's back again. Ugh.......I guess I still need to practice what one therapist told me to "embrace the dizziness"!!! It's like retraining my brain to stay balanced....I wonder if it will ever get better.....