Writing nonsense in the name of cookie avoidance

I baked a large batch of chocolate chip cookies for a visitor, who's just phoned to cancel. In my attempt to avoid working my way through them, I thought I'd catch up on a bit of overdue blogging. The cookies are in the cupboard calling my name and I have an incredible lack of self-control when it comes to these things. Especially on a grey sunday afternoon when there's no one around to remind me to stop after the fifth one.

So I'm going to focus my attention away from the cupboard and towards the keyboard.

What's been happening recently?

I have become the owner of an extremely pink phone. I don't see myself as a particularly 'pink' kind of girl, but it was a good deal and it can take short movies. As a result I have a Barbie hot-line and can post some very bad quality films on youtube. One day I might even work out how to embed them in my blog, but until then you'll have to visit the site and do so at your peril - this has to be the least educational and most addictive experience on the web.

I've been in the UK visiting family for a few days and catching up on Oscar's newest skills. He can now say 'mama', 'daddy', 'sweetcorn' and 'toast' but hasn't managed to master 'auntie Lucy' yet. I've set him homework so he's prepared for my next visit. He's cuter than ever these days.

While I was there, I changed my homepage so it looks a little less like a 12 year old Japanese girl designed it. Actually, my sister Claire did (thanks Claire), as well as burning me the first 6 episodes of the new Doctor Who series on DVD. Sometimes sisters are just great.

On April 30th I celebrated my fifth Queen's Day since moving to Amsterdam. How time flies. I spent this one in the nearby Jordaan (fantastic to be a stone's throw from one of the nicest areas of the city). Bought myself a tatty old wine rack and some computer speakers with terrible sound quality on the Free Market. Good job I only parted with 7 Euro 50. You live and learn. Met up with some fellow revellers (is that Dave or Mandy??) for a bit of a jump around to the bands in the sunshine and walked home with a smile on my face.

I'm still in love with the new apartment and have been occupying myself with various projects around the place in the recent weeks. This mostly involves making a huge mess until I'm happy with the results.

What else?
I've become addicted to my Fatboy. It fits nicely between the balcony doors and when the sun is shining I can be found snuggled in there with a cup of tea and my feet sticking between the railings. Bliss. Good job I've entered the Amsterdam marathon this year because the cookies and the fatboy might need a bit of balancing out.