Hoi!
(Thats a dutch word i have learnt which i believe translates to 'hi'')
I thought i would ellaborate on my earlier post now that i have some time.
Lets start at the beginning. Dad, Maddy and Dale drove us to the airport. Mum had packed too much. I had to pack some of her 'extras' in my suitcase. We got to the airport, mum insisted she had to buy cigarettes and bourbon from the duty free shop straight away. We said goodbye to Dad, Maddy and Dale, i found this part very hard. Then we went through international security, i had a brand new bottle of moisturiser which as 25ml over the 100ml limit of carry on toiletries. I had to throw it in the bin, i found this equally as hard. But then finally me and mum were ready to get on the plane!



this is probably when it hit me that i was actually heading overseas



I handed them my boarding pass, then mum handed them her boarding pass. There was some confusion, the air hostess was saying something about 'she's already boarded' but they let her through. We found out seats, middle isle, second to last row. There was someone in mum's seat. More confusion, another air hostess told mum to sit somewhere else for the time being. I started to feel uneasy. Almost ready to take off, the air hostess comes back, takes the seat stealers boarding pass, it has mums name on it. Nevermind, the air hostess moves the seat stealer along the isle so me and mum can sit together, everything is fine!

After we take off we were brought something to eat, chicken curry, pasta salad, cheese and crackers and a roll. It doesnt look great but tasted good. We settle in for our 7 hours flying to KL. By the time we arrived we pretty happy to be off the plane. We only had 2 hours to kill before we boarded our transfer flight. I insisted we find our gate BEFORE we look for a smoking lounge. Mum reluctantly agreed.
 

the highlight of mum's trip so far, that and watching the karate kid on the plane


Before we knew it it was time to board our next flight. We quickly shoved down our burger king. Then it was 'Welcome to KLM'. This plane was much nicer than Malaysian Airlines



this looks a lot nicer than malaysian airlines

 At this point it was approximately 11pm at night Malaysian time so it would have been around 2am in Australia. But KLM brought us some dinner anyway. Don't be fooled by the box, whats inside is not in any way a delicious meal. After dinner we had 12 hours to kill before we landed.


this may look like a photo of mum but it is actually a clever attempt on my behalf to get a photo of the man sitting next to mum.
(hint: he is under the blanket)

 I tried to sleep but it was very uncomfortable. I managed to watch the bounty hunter, modern family, friends, frasier, top gear and nine. Then finally....

flying in over amsterdam

We arrived at 5:54am Holland time which is about 1pm in Australia. Once off the plane we headed straight to the smokers lounge. While mum had her fun, i went and marvelled at the giant tea set.

giant tea set

Els, Wim and Lisa were waiting for us when we came out of customs with hot tea. Aren't families the best. And just when i thought they couldn't get any better....

welcome to holland

They had organised a cake!

The rest of arrival day was spent in Hoorn which is just the damn prettiest little town. In the evening I met Andre, Lisa's boyfriend and then later on Emma came around with her boyfriend Roy. I assured them i had a boyfriend too

So that was yesterday. Today we had a very lazy day, we were going to ride to a nearby shopping centre but it was raining so we drove, on the wrong side of the road i might add. Tonight i am looking forward to getting movies and ben&jerry's ice cream from Lisa's work

Hi Levin-i am keeping my eyes peeled for a souvenir for you, the biggest, dutchest one i can find! Missing you all xxx