Busy Times

Made my last run up to the Polish Pottery outlet in the Netherlands on Friday and it there were women there from four different countries, but everyone was American! There were women from Brussels, Luxembourg City, Amsterdam and Dusseldorf there buying Polish Pottery.

Saturday we made a run to the town of Aachen, which was the seat of Charlamagne when he ruled the Holy Roman Empire. I'd been there several times, but Skip had never seen it. The treasury not only holds treasures but relics from Charlamagne and other saints, so Maddie wasn't real thrilled about looking at ancient bones, nor did she appreciate the Catholic art that featured a bleeding Christ on the Cross. She said she doesn't like the bloody Jesus. Good thing we're raising her Protestant.

It was quick trip into Aachen as we had friends coming over for dinner with their three kids. Natalie (from New Zealand) and husband Russ (from England) instructed me on how to make a proper pot of tea--and there's more to it than you might think. First you must use good water and boil it, when it is just short of boiling, you pour a bit of water into the pot and swirl it around to warm the pot. Then you add the tea bags and pour the water in. After it steeps for exactly five minutes, you pour just a tad of tea out into the sink just in case there are any bits from the tea bag floating around. Then before pouring the tea in the cup you add the milk. You never pour the milk in after the tea as a film will form over the top of our tea. And you always pour the tea just shy of the brim, otherwise your guests will feel you are being a bits. See? Who knew? I have been saved from making several faux pas the first time I have an English neighbor over for tea!

Today we are juggling pick up of some of the stuff we are selling, cleaning the bunny cage, going to church and getting Skip to the airport by 3:30. He'll be in London all week.

We are the lucky ones, though. We know where we're going and when. So many of the ex-pat families here are in a kind of limbo. We have several friends who are in various stages of waiting to see when and where they will go next. Ex-pat life is no place for control freaks!