Dinner, Rugby and Plum Jam!

This week we had a lovely dinner in Amsterdam on Wednesday evening with our friends Evan and Kerryn from Cape Town. Evan and Kerryn had been visiting Evan’s parents in the States for a month with their 4 year old son, Cameron, and stopped over in the Netherlands to visit friends on their way back. For those of you who were there, Evan played guitar and Kerryn violin at our wedding. We were fortunate to be able to spend an evening with them in their crazy two days in Amsterdam! Thanks for seeing us guys, it was really great to catch up and hang out! Thanks to Travis and Amanda for hosting us and for a very yummy dinner! Enjoy week in the Netherlands Kerryn and all the best for back to work this week Ev!

Four months ago I applied for a residence permit and last week I finally got the letter from the IND saying that it has been granted! Woohoo! We weren’t worried that it wouldn’t be granted, since I am married to Justin who is a British citizen they can’t really say no, we were just wondering why it was taking so long! Apparently home affairs and immigration services are the same the world over ‘~) So it has been granted but I am still waiting for the IND to let me know when and where I can collect, apparently that also takes time. Funny story though, I could read the whole letter in fancy Dutch but got one word wrong which changed the whole meaning of the letter, lol. I read ‘ingewilligd’ (granted) as ‘ingewikkeld’ (complicated)! One nice thing is the permit is valid for 5 years during which I can move freely around the Schengen states, yay! At the end of the 5 years I can apply for citizenship =)

This week also saw the start of the rugby world cup. Rugby is not very beeg in the Netherlands but we managed to rope together a few people to watch the first games! (They include another South African and an Englishman but that doesn’t matter! ‘~) ) We headed to Paddy Murphy’s Irish pub yesterday morning to watch England narrowly win against Argentina and today we were there in our SA rugby jerseys to watch SA unconvincingly beat Wales. I really hope the boys in green and gold get it together in the next few weeks! Justin is teaching people at work how the game works and has a friendly betting pool on Super Bru with some people from work. He will also arrange an afternoon to throw a rugby ball around and teach them some rules. Should be fun.

While I have been writing this blog I have also been making plum jam! I made a batch last week and since it turned out well and I have too many bottles left over I thought I would make some more! Except this batch doesn’t seem to be setting as nicely, hm. Hope it works out ok!

So not much to say this week but some nice news too =) Below is a step-by-step photo guide on how to make your own plum jam!

Hope you are well! have a good week and enjoy the overdose of rugby!!

x

PS: Thanks for 4000+ page views! =)

Guide to making your own plum jam! 

Step 1: cut up the fruit, remove the pips but leave the skins on. Add an equal amount of sugar to fruit and soak overnight.

Step 3: Bring the fruit/sugar mixture to the boil.

Step 3: Wash out bottles and lids and sterilise in the oven.

Step 4: Bottle the jam! Seal with wax wrap dipped in brandy.

The finished product =)