A few months ago, in August, when the health of Aric’s father was still quite good, we have been thinking about celebrating Christmas and New Year in Holland. It’s not my favourite season, but it might be interesting for Aric. Maybe even a White Christmas?

When the condition of his father became worse, we cancelled that plan of course and now that his father has passed away, Aric is quite busy with sorting out his fathers papers etc, staying often in Sabak Bernam. Why don’t you go to Holland to visit your family, he suggested, last weekend. At first I was reluctant to go alone, but a few days later, chatting with my brother, I changed my mind.

So, tomorrow 9-12 I will fly to Holland, where I will stay until 1-12013! And where it is winter at the moment. Here is a picture, sent by my sister, a view from her living room of her garden. Quite unusual, as officially winter starts only on 21-12 and generally January and February are the winter months.

The weather here in Malaysia is also unusual with lots of heavy rain, landslides etc. Global climate change! As a contrast here a picture taken from our living room of the hill opposite our condo. When we moved in it was a beautiful forested slope, now it is a noisy construction site..:-(

To end this post, a few food pictures, as this is Malaysia. Last weekend we were invited by friends  for a “real” Chinese dinner. And a delicious dinner it was!

And here I have lunch with IKEA friends. Location: Jalan Bellamy near the old Palace. A simple Malay shop, famous for its Mee Rebus.

It is durian season and these days they are very cheap. Even supermarket Tesco sells them, and for the first time in my life I decided to buy two, although I have no idea how to pick the good ones..:-). Later Aric’s cousin brought more, so we had a durian feast today.