Alkmaar

Something fantastic has happend! I have discovered H&M.
Words cannot describe the sheer beauty of this store, the range, the price, the variation, the style, the sales!
I am just so in love

It all happened when we went into Alkmaar to do some shopping for the day. Alkmaar is about a half hour drive from Hoorn. Wim, Mum, Lisa and I set off just before 11 on Saturday morning, Els wanted to stay home so she could do some things around the house.
The shopping strip in Alkmaar is probably the same size as Rundle Mall, and this isn't even a large town! I really had the best time, Lisa is a wonderful shopping companion, she showed me all the best shops and helped me at the registers when i had problems buying things.
We started out wandering around with Mum and Wim but before too long (ha! i am listening to that song by Paul Kelly right now) we left them behind and went off on our own.
We went to Zara as well which is also amazing, the quality of these big stores over here is just something i can't even compare to Australian stores. Zara is just as nice as H&M, this store had 2 floors of womens clothing and then a floor each for mens and children, but anyone who knows me knows i like quantity over quality, and Zara is a little more expensive. Still i bought a pair of jeans here for 25 euro which i thought was very reasonable. We also went to Only which is a smaller store, similar to cotton on or jeans west, but i had been told about H&M and i didn't really want to buy anything until i had been there. Alkmaar has two H&M's, in the first one i bought 2 jumpers and a pair of trackies for 50 euros and was very pleased with myself. This store had womens clothing, accessories, basics and underwear on the bottom floor and then mens and childrens clothing upstairs. After that we met up with Mum and Wim and had some lunch at Hema, which i can only desrcibe as a cross between target and IKEA. After lunch we left them at Hema and went to the second H&M! This one was completely different to the first one, it was smaller, it only had mens and womens clothing and some accessories, but none of the clothes were the same, it was a completely different style. Here i bought a shirt and a beanie. I have been reluctant to buy too many winter type clothes becuase i know when i het home it'll be too warm to wear them but i am going to have to give in because i am getting to cold!
We went to a few smaller shops after this but i still had H&M on my mind so i didn't buy anything else. We met up with Mum and Wim again and went to get something to eat from McDonalds becuase i wanted to see what it was like. While we had something to eat Wim went to look for a USB stick for me to put all my photos on so i didn't loose any. McDonalds here have croquette burgers and stropwaffle mcflurry's! I have to say i was a bit disappointed though, my nuggets here did not taste the same as mcnuggets in Australia.
While we were waiting outside McDonalds for Wim were were treated to a parade of marching bands, i'm not sure what they were doing there but everyone seemed very excited so i thought i should be too.

Mum was so so so so SO excited about the show they all put on, she was like a kid at Disney on Ice. I had some really good footage of them but i can't upload them so it'll have to wait til i get home.

I warn you now, i plan to take photo's of every windmill i see, so this might get a bit boring for you. If you can picture it mum is standing looking up at the windmill pictured here, and underneath the water behind her is a carpark where we parked that day. Wim could not stress enough that the carpark was UNDER the water.

On the way home Wim took us on a scenic route.

i took this photo for you Dale, its the local soccer (or football) stadium



this is the statue of Hoorn, we came across it on the way home. It marks the boundary of Hoorn (i think)
you can't see it here but it is on the banks of a canal so that ships sailing down knew where they were
i just thought it was pretty

  i have no idea where we are in these pictures, but that is the harbour of Hoorn in the background. And look, there is me holding Hoorn

That night Lisa's friend Anitra came over and we did face masks and painted our nails and generally acted very girly. Lisa has this amazing talent with painting nails and nail art etc, as you can see with mums nails

Later that night i went bowling with Lisa and Anitra, it was really fun becuase the bowling lanes play similar music to what is popular in Australia at the moment. By that i mean they played Jason Derulo, so of course i was happy



I went with Lisa to Andre's brothers house after bowling, he was there with some of his friends. Andre let me choose any game i wanted to play on the playstation which i thought was nice, i didn't have the heart to tell him i had no interest in playing on the playstation. I had the dinkiest little bottles of beer there, tiny little heinekens pilsners i think they were.

Yesterday i was in a fowl mood and didn't want to do anything at all. We went and watched Roy play soccer for a bit but it was cold and raining so i just stood there scowling a lot. I barely see Emma or her boyfriend becuase they are always at his house, so far i don't think i have made the best impression with them

Thankyou to Emily for making me smile yesterday when i was feeling my worst