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“Zegels erbij?” or “Spaart u mee voor de actie……?” You probably regularly hear sentences like them when shopping in one of the chain supermarkets. Should you collect these stickers and stamps (zegels is the Dutch word for stamps) and what can you do with them?
I would like to share with you a family recipe for a traditional Simnel Cake.
Simnel cakes have been around since the Middle Ages and are predominantly eaten in the UK and Ireland during Easter week, or sometimes for Mothering Sunday (the Sunday halfway between the start of Lent and Easter).
In the 19th century, girls “in service” used to bake them for their mothers and take them with them on a rare trip home. It is a traditional fruit cake with marzipan in the middle and on top; and if you wish to adhere to religious tradition you can place 11 marzipan balls on top of the cake to represent the 12 apostles minus Judas. Some add an extra ball to represent Jesus.
My Dutch husband and I were married twelve years this year, which prompted many family members and friends to make noises about a party in six months’ time. Turns out that your copper or 12.5 years’ wedding anniversary is a big deal here and is often celebrated with a party for family and friends. I suspect we shall quietly accidentally on purpose forget the day….
Do it!
Don’t be daunted by the weather, the madness of Dutchies on their bikes or hatred of exercise; cycling is fun, practical and good for you!
By the time I was 20 I had lived in 3 countries. By the time I was 30 I had lived and/or worked in 15 countries. Then I met my Dutch husband on a flight back to the Netherlands from the USA. We married and had our first child in Amsterdam and then moved to the UK for 5 years (where we had two more children). Around 6 years ago we moved to Groningen and we had our fourth child. So all in all I am pretty experienced at the whole ex-pat stuff.
Then, last September, my husband’s employer asked him if he would like to go to Cardiff for 6 months and take his family with him.
In the Netherlands, if you need medical attention, your first port of call is not as in some countries the hospital, but your “huisarts” (general practitioner). This is for all non-emergencies.
[If you require an ambulance (heart attack, road traffic accident, etc.), please phone the emergency number 112 and ask for an ambulance clearly stating the address of your location, the nature of the emergency and the age and gender of the patient.]
