Here’s the highlights (and lowlights) from my side of the planet. This morning as I was driving to work I noticed flashing lights in my rearview mirror. To my horror I realised it was a police car signalling me to pull over. While no one likes to be caught by the cops I found myself in quite a precarious situation. You see I don’t have a Dutch drivers license. I’ve been happily driving round illegally for the past few months thinking “What could possibly happen?”.

Now I know.

Anyway, after muttering every swear word in my vocabulary I stepped out of the car. The guy asked me if I knew what I did wrong. At the time I had been applying mascara while driving, not wearing a seatbelt and speeding the wrong way down a one way road (I’m serious).

I went with the seatbelt option. Bzzzzz… wrong answer. He replied with “You went down a road with a big sign that says NO ENTRANCE”. Well I think he said that anyway, it was all in Dutch of course. I tried my best to feign a look of shock and remorse but this guy was tough. He then snarled “Please take out your drivers license”. I fumbled around in my handbag trying to find my Australian drivers license, thinking I could pretend I didn’t know the rules. To my dismay I saw that I didn’t even have my purse with me. So while the two men stood there rolling their eyes and the traffic piled up behind us, I dived into the back looking under the car seats. No luck. “Great” I thought, now I’m officially screwed.

In my kindergarten level Dutch I tried to explain I couldn’t find my license. I think I made some language mistake because all of a sudden they both burst out laughing and the bad cop smiled and said “I’ll just give you a little fine and you can be on your way”. I swear I’m never going to understand this country.

Other happenings. I bought a house with Jarno. No, that’s not a joke. For all those people who tease me about my fear of commitment or still call me “Runaway Bride” please eat your words. Not that I’m getting married (breathe Jarno, breathe). We’re just happily in debt together. The house, oh, it’s just so beautiful. It’s in the heart of Utrecht right next to a beautiful canal. We sleep in the attic which opens out to a magnificent roof terrace overlooking the city. Slight upgrade from the ghetto where we previously lived. This does mean I’m going to be in the Netherlands longer than I planned, but we are definitely coming to live in Australia for a while in a few years time.

I spent the first week of my summer holiday motor biking around France. Well ok, Jarno was motor biking and I was staring at the back of his helmet for 2000km but on the whole it was pretty fantastic. It’s easy to understand why the French are so arrogant when you see how unbelievably wonderful their country is. I sat in Monet’s garden in Giverny where he painted all the waterlilies and bridges (a bit tacky I know but it was incredible). We then travelled along the Normandy cliffs and visited the D-day memorial site. Finally we made it down to Le mont St Michel. If you’re ever in Europe you have to see it. It’s a unbelievable fairytale like island filled with beautiful buildings. Oh yeah and we camped, you know with tents and sleeping bags and things?

Anyway, I survived it and I may even do it again. The second week I went down to Belgium on a one week intensive Dutch course. It involved 14 hours of speaking Dutch per day. While my Dutch was coming along prior to the course I still felt like a moron every time I tried to speak it. So the course was perfect. Every evening I had to have dinner with a different person to practice my “Every day conversation” But it was always at a romantic candlelit restaurant with Dutch men aged between 25-35 so it felt about more like “First Date conversation”. On the bright side if it falls apart with Jarno then I’m ready to hit the dating scene over here (just joking Jarno, really). The school itself was in a cute little town. I had my own villa with these huge French windows, so in the few moments where I wasn’t studying I sat on the window sill and soaked up the last rays of Summer. This is already longer that I would like. So I’ll wrap it up. Jarno and I are coming to Australia for FOUR weeks (arrive Dec 30, depart Jan 23). We’re planning to cover Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Tassie. Send me an email if you’re going to be around.