Japanese Garden, Clingendael

The Japanese Garden in The Hague was reopened for only 2 days last week, and we managed to visit it. It is the oldest Japanese garden in Europe and it only opens for 6 months every year, spring and summer. However, this 2 days was special because there was an Ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement) exhibition on display.

The Japanese garden itself is situated within the Clingendael park. It is so close to our place that we decided to just cycled over. The garden is very beautifully designed. You can immediately detect its uniqueness through the use of bamboos, bridge, tea house and small walking path. It's a calm and serene garden, definitely worth a visit next year for those who have never been there before.

You can see more of the Japanese Garden photos by clicking here

Don't forget the Clingendael park. This park is a very popular park in The Hague. It's extremely huge and a very comfortable hang out spot. You will see dog owners, cyclists, book lovers, couples, families in the park, enjoying good sunlight (when there is) and each other's company. I'll definitely bring my baby there for a walk every week!

Oven

Oven is not a common kitchen appliance in most Asian kitchens. I didn't discover how much fun it is to use an oven until I moved over to the Netherlands.

The oven at our place has recently come alive because we managed to find time to clean it up and started using it more often. It is a very old model and I have to specially request its user manual from the manufacturer and then translate the manual from Dutch to English using Google translator to understand what it is all about.

I know you'll laugh: but the truth is, it is only by now I discovered that there are many pre-made pastry and frozen food packages available in the supermarket that I can just buy and bake it, and the food can be ready in a very short period of time! I especially like those croissants, they are so delicious to eat with my favourite strawberry jam and butter!

What a life saver discovery especially when the little one is coming! Plus, there are so many food baking recipes available and as long as I can marinate the ingredients before hand, I'll be able to have dinner/lunch ready in a very short time.

PL introduced me to Nigella Lawson, and oh boy, it is the first time I actually studied western cookbook and try those recipes! I never really enjoy pasta or steak as part of my daily meals, but after seeing how easy these recipes are, I am willing to give it a go, and they do turned out well :D

Now, one mission that I've after the whole pregnancy thing is to learn to cook Japanese food... I think that is a good goal to aim for since recently hubby has developed this liking of Japanese dragon sushi roll :P

Oh great....

Today is the 36th week and we had our midwife appointment at night. Bronovo hospital started night-time appointment service, which is great because now hubby can join me for the checkup.

The midwife checked the baby's heart rate... fine. She also went through a checklist about when we need to call the hospital and what to watch out for when labour starts. Basically, bits and pieces of what we have all learned from the childbirth class. Both of us were just nodding our head. After awhile, I sensed that she thinks she doesn't need to explain any further... Thank God we took the class together!

However, after she did a position check, she suspects that the baby's head has not turned yet! So, I'll be off for another round of ultrasound (ouch) within the next 2 days so that they can decide whether to continue to take me under the midwife department or send me off to a gynae's care. I guess I'll be spending some time reading up on c-section tonight, just... in.... case... the baby decides to have some fun.

I have one last jewelry-making workshop to run and that's it, I'll be sitting at home not going anywhere. Weather is not good either, I hope hubby do not need to push me to the hospital with a wheelchair under a heavy rain. He is starting to feel anxious. I'm showing him around the hospital (like where to buy food and drink, where is the emergency entrance, how to get to the hospital from our place etc...), and also typing out instructions on what number to call and when to call, especially for the kraamzorg service.

One good news is that I've put on another 2kg! Finally, I'm approaching the normal weight gain range. Trust me, this is the one and only time that a woman will feel happy putting on weight than not.

Superb weather! Sigh...

One great topic in this Dutchy land is the weather.

And well, the weather suddenly dipped from 18 celsius to 10 in just 2 days. We are all hit by this cold, lousy, windy, cloudy, no-sun weather. My winter jacket is out, after putting it in the cupboard for more than half a year!

Leaves are turning yellow, more rains and less people on the street. I'm not so sure that I welcome autumn that much now, eventhough I like to see golden hue parks and beautiful yellow leaves dropping from the sky.

In any case, I'm under the weather too, juggling between running nose and sore throat. The only place I want to be is under the blanket.

Baby stroller

Woohoo!! Our baby stroller has finally arrived!

It took us great faith to buy this model, without even touching it! We bought it based on the reviews that we read and video that we watched. Considered silly or dumb, I don't know, but it is really a great buy, knowing that it will last us through the next 3 years! Hubby's colleagues help us to bring it over from US. We really appreciate their help!!!

The first thing that I tried out is the collapsing mechanism of the stroller. Man, I've to give it 10 thumbs up! It is SUPERB easy! By applying a bit of pressure and a little twist, the stroller just collapsed into one unit, not to mention that it's lighter than any other standard strollers that were on our shopping list. Surprisingly, opening up the stroller is amazingly easy too. Basically, the collapsing and opening of the stroller can be done with one-hand.

I still remember the time when we spent trying out different strollers at Baby Park in Gouda and it was frustrating because most of the big brands out there promised the sky, but it took us dozen of trials and errors to open and close the stroller, not to mention that they hurt my fingers!! On top of that, they are bulky and heavy (even without a baby sitting on it), which I couldn't handle it at all due to my size. Considering how many times we need to take tram or bus, or maybe later have a car, to unload and load a stroller in and out is going to be a major part of our lives, and we want that part to be stress-free and enjoyable, for us and the baby!

Overall, we are very impressed with the smoothness of the mechanism and how user-friendly the design is.

Of course, there are other reasons why we wanted this stroller :D
The stroller is high, so baby can be sitting at the same level as adult. Yes, we are cheated by 'the higher is better' concept from Stokke. The stroller is light, the stroller is ergonomically designed, big wheels so that baby can sleep and sit comfortably, the stroller's seat can turn 360 degree, comfortable padding, it gives higher value with the price that we paid than buying those that we tried and didn't like them etc...

Ok enough... the company isn't paying me anything to do the marketing for them. We are very happy that we made a good choice :D Now we are just waiting for the baby to test run it.