Friday Five

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Holding myself accountable while also being gentle with myself is a seriously tough line to walk! I really wanted to get back into the weekly writing routine and here I am having missed 2 weeks.

Dani - it’s okay. The world kept spinning and I didn’t have a massive panic attack. It occurred and now I can move on and share some of the highlights from the last 2 weeks.

ONE

We took our first weekend trip of the year with Laney to Texel Island (just a 2+ hour trip by car from Amsterdam) near end of June. This was one of the most dog-friendly places we have ever been. She was even able to join us on a boat tour searching for seals. I mean how cool is she? For sure cooler than the wife and I.

I love Laney and am glad we can work on bringing her places but also she is really a third wheel sometimes. Haha. Needing to make sure if we do bring her - we can find places to eat in inclement weather if she is with us. Since it won’t always be 30C and terraces everywhere. But still, I am thankful for the time we have with her as we know there aren’t many years left.

TWO

We actually hit the road two weekends in a row and the first days of July were spent in Luxembourg. This was a 4,5 hour drive from Amsterdam to Luxembourg City on a Thursday night. We both worked from the hotel on Friday so that we could hit the ground running right after work.

But Luxembourg City was a cruel mistress and gave us the best weather of the weekend while we worked away on Friday and hit us with the rain on Saturday.

Now initially this was a tough pill to swallow it was also nice to just slow down and even enjoy a rare afternoon nap.

Luembourg City was a gorgeous historic and hilly city that we would recommend to others. Be ready for the prices as they were much higher than we expected.

Despite the unideal weather/working patterns, we did walk over 30km in 2 days, saw the most historic sights, stumbled upon a charity festival and even took in a Castle.

Overall it was a weekend that reminded us both why we took the opportunity to move to Europe… we wanted to experience different countries, cultures and history!

THREE

I came out of NP Co-leader retirement for 2 weeks to help out friends and boy it felt amazing to be back.

These people fill my heart and soul with happiness. Especially when it comes to the annual #Pride workout. This workout for sure means the most to me every year. It reminds me I have found the right framily (friends turned family) as they support the shit out of me, my wife and the entire LGBTQIA+ community.

In case you don’t know, the Netherlands is the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage. This happened on 1 April 2001 and it was NOT an April Fools Joke. While NL still has their fair share of homophobia, I am still thankful to be living and surrounded by a group of people that are so forward-thinking and supportive.

FOUR

Look at this: I did my hair! And this wild mane never looks like I even tried…

I’m working on growing my hair out to make another donation. I have done 2 hair donations in the US (Children With Hair Loss) and 1 donation in the Netherlands. It takes about 2-2,5 years for me to grow my hair out long enough to donate so I am now about 2-8 months away from being able to chop it off and make another donation.

If you are thinking of donating hair, please look into if they charge their clients for the wigs!! This is a BIG piece of information to know before choosing where you will donate. Also whether they accept dyed hair or not. For US friends, Children With Hair Loss does!

FIVE

Our YouTube Channel, Castles and Canals. It’s my time to again shamelessly plug the hard work the wife is doing on this other slice of the internet of ours. It has been amazing to see the fabulous videos she is putting together.

I am thankful that we are able to use that as an excuse to start booking more holidays, visiting the places we have had on our bucket list and overall prioritising the travel we have wanted to do since moving here.

If you can - and haven’t already - please like and subscribe to the channel and follow along on some of the fun adventures we have planned.

We promise it is more than just castles and canals, but we have to hit a few, right?

Well a quick hot take at some of the highlights of the last two weeks!

What do you want to see more of on the blog? I can use the motivation/direction as I have too many thoughts/ideas in my head!