Ages, I know. I thought after my performance in September it might be wise to take a breather. Thanks to everyone who wrote back full of sympathy and outrage, it reminded that I?m lucky to have you all. Fortunately, things have improved radically since then. Last Friday I turned 27 and celebrated til 5am with a girl?s night out. My old friend tequila made the seedy bars seem cool and the dodgy music danceable. Check out the photos at Fun, People & Parties

My parents also came for their first visit to Europe. As expected, they were blown away by the beautiful art, architecture and culture. We went to Amsterdam, The Hague, Bruges, Antwerp and Paris all within two weeks. The dreaded meeting of ?The Parents? went very smoothly. I think they might have even liked each other?? The photos can be found at THE ROOKE’s IN EUROPE

Dance class is back on and we’re repeating the 2nd year as we missed a lot with Jarno’s jaunt to Mauritius. We’re now in the same class as Gosia and Marcin which makes it much more fun. New this year is the samba, rumba and slow jive. We’re still as terrible as ever but enjoying it a whole lot more.

The last episode of Sex and the City screens here tomorrow. Somehow I’ve managed to invent my own version of the show here in Utrecht with three friends. Colleen (Canada), Miranda (America), Lora Borderliner (Bulgaria) and I meet every Thursday night for shopping, coffee and chitchat. So it’s kind of like the international version of the show. While we don’t talk so graphically about sex, it does make life without your nearest and dearest a hell of a lot easier. Now we just have to fight out who gets to be Carrie?. This is turning out to be long, yet I can’t leave it without mentioning the scary turn of events here this month.

A Dutch filmmaker who was very outspoken against Islam (he called them goat f*ckers) was murdered violently in Amsterdam last week. There was major outcry about the loss of “Freedom of Expression” and the government responded with a declaration of war against Islam Fundamentalism. The TV was full of angry Dutchies screaming that the country has been too tolerant of immigrants, especially Moroccans and Muslims. Several mosques and Islamic primary schools were burnt to the ground in response, the charred walls were spray painted with the white supremacy symbol. My colleague (who is Indian) was even spat at on the street, the guy hissed at her the equivalent of “immigrant scum”. So it seems the public didn;t treat this murder as a one-off incident, instead it presented the much awaited confirmation that in addition to committing all crime and bleeding the economy dry, we foreigners also want to blow ourselves up for Allah. Yesterday, the Minister for Integration ordered me to adopt the Dutch “norms and values”, in essence assimilate and forget who I am, or leave.

If the past week is any indication of the ever illusive “norms and values”, I’ll definitely be passing on that one. The scariest part is I’m much more terrified of the Dutch government and the racism in this country than all the terrorists put together.