It has been a while since I last wrote a blog, but so much has happened and changed that I want to share it with you. I finally have the time to write. As we are already in 2025, it still made me look back at 2024, and I can say without a doubt that 2024 was my busiest year yet! As many of you know Pieter proposed to me on November 4th in New York. It was a fairytale proposal. He thought of everything. His sister was running the New York Marathon so the family was in New York to support her. I got the flight and I arrived 21.30 at the hotel. Pieter arrived a day earlier, and said that we would go to a rooftop the same night I arrived. Sure, 24 hours New York, let's get the most out of it. He arranged a big suburban SUV and we drove to this 'rooftop bar', we crossed the Brooklyn bridge and then we stopped at this small park. All of a sudden Pieter was walking very slowly, when normally we walk super fast. This was a bit strange, but I still had no clue what would happen. We arrived at this beautiful romantic spot, looking over Manhattan, the Brooklyn Bridge, we could see the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, everything! All of a sudden Pieter starts laughing and looking at me with a face I know something you don't, he started telling all these kind and sweet words and ended his story with: do you want to marry me? I was crying, obviously, and said YES YES YES!!! I was going to marry the love of my life, and my best friend! The taxi driver was waling behind us (that's why Pieter was walking so slowly) to film the proposal! So we have it on film as well. I was so so sooooo excited. I did not sleep at all in New York and the next day we went through the whole city to support Annelotte. She run the New York Marathon, so extremely proud of her! The fun part was that we could tell Pieter''s family in person, first we played it cool and then showed his dad the video. Roos knew exactly what was going on and I will never forget her reaction. Time to start planning our wedding!!! Woehoeee!
Before Pieter proposed we talked about how our wedding would look like, and one of the things we decided that we would like to wed in Spain. Pieter's family have a holiday home near Marbella. In January we went to Marbella to look at some locations, I made 4 appointments with special wedding locations. The first one was a beautiful restaurant in the mountains, but since it was located in a national park the music had to be off at midnight. That was a no-go for us, since Spanish weddings already start a bit later then dutch weddings. The second location was amazing, we immediately fell in love with this place. The third and last location did not top the second. Within a week we decided to go for the second location, and we also decided that we would keep it a secret for our wedding guests. We had a location and a date, 4th of October! World animal day, this way Pieter will never forget it, haha!
Time to go wedding dress shopping! I planned an appointment at Modern Romance in Hilversum. This boutique shop I was already following on instagram for some time now. I also knew a few girls who got their dress from this shop. I took my mom, Nikie and Hanneke with me. While we were in the train (Hannie and I) I showed her a picture of this new dress that just arrived at the store, it was called the Hudson dress. I tried 2 others first and then I tried the Hudson dress and I was absolutely what everybody always says, you feel it when you feel it. Especially when Nikie asked me: how do you think Pieter will react when he sees you in this dress? I started crying and knew this is the one. We also went to another store in Leiden, but the dresses weren't what I had in mind, it was a completely different style, and the Hudson stayed in my head the whole time. Mom and I went back to MR a few days later to try on the dress one more time to know for sure that this is the one. I said yes to this dress!! I took all my sister-in-laws with me (including mom) to put on the dress one more time and pick it up and take it with me, after 6 months since the dress had to came all the way from Australia!!!
Later in January I went for a (working)trip with my friends to Edmonton (Canada), a 72 hours skiing trip. We made plans to go to Banff, a popular skiing area in the Rocky Mountains. Which was absolutely beautiful. We rented a car and drove early in the morning. We stayed for the night at this gorgeous place with a headed pool! The slopes were wide between the trees and it was not busy at all!
However, when we arrived in Banff I heard that my only grandmother has passed away at the age of 92 years. She was the generation whom experienced the world war 2, she knew what hunger meant and later she worked her whole life. She even owned her own bar in 's-Gravenzande. Everybody knew who she was and they respected her. I even have two chairs from her that stood in the bar. A week later we hold a beautiful funeral for her and gave her a proper goodbye. I learnt - from her - that in life you have to work hard to get what you want and don't stay too much in the past, and don't complain. She was a wonderful person that I will never forget. While we were skiing in Banff the weather was very cloudy, and at one point the sun came out full on and I felt my grandmother very close-by.
In February I took my father with me to Buenos Aires, a trip that was on the planning since he turned 60, and now he is already 65. But corona came and we had to postpone. It was so much fun having my father on the flight and show him my work-life. The crew was amazing, we went for dinner together, and some of us went for a bike tour, one of the best biking tours I have ever done in my life. So much history in this city and country. Wouter arrived in Buenos Aires a few days later so that was super fun, since my dad knows him very well as well. Then the day before we would leave again back to Amsterdam we heard that the flight the day after us was cancelled, therefore all the 13 crew of that flight was deadheading back with us, including all their compagnons. Conclusion, the flight was full and my dad could not join us on the flight back to Amsterdam. This was the worst case scenario that came true. Luckily my dad doesn't panic with stuff like this, he booked a one-way ticket back to Amsterdam via Rome, probably his most expensive ticket in his life. However, now we can laugh about it and look at it with a great story to tell.
We had to go back to Spain to go for our menu tasting at the wedding location. However, I got a stomach flu, got it in the Netherlands but while I was in Atlanta I got really sick and had to fly back as a passenger. If you ever had a stomach flu you know how horrible it is, stomach cramps and not being able to eat and drink, no appetite. I gave Pieter the stomach flu since it is very contageous. I had to call sick for at least a week, but when you call sick your whole roster is gone. Ofcourse this was an issue since we had to go to Spain for the menu tasting, I had a Lima and Singapore, but what I got back was a San Fransisco, Paramaribo and Delhi. Not the best trade I can tell you that. But in between I had 5 days off so straight after San Fran I took the plane to Malaga with Pieter. It was a lovely few days in San Pedro and the menu tasting was a success, we agreed on everything.
In between we also were looking for a new apartment in Amsterdam. We had a few viewings and even made a bid om 2 apartments. On the 19th of April we went to have a look at this cute house in Amsterdam North (just above the IJ waters). It was a full on grown-ups house with 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a garden and even a driveway. The realtor told us that the house was already sold two times but they couldn't get their finances in order. This was a good sign for us, meaning the selling party wanted to get rid of it asap, so there would maybe be space for negotiations. And on the 20th of April, on the day we bought our wedding rings we heard that they accepted our offer, and that we would be the owners of this adorable house in Amsterdam. We were so excited, and could not believe it. Even now when I am writing this blog at our new kitchen island I look around and see what we have accomplished in such a short period of time, even while planning a whole wedding. In between I also went to Paris for a few days with my friends Danique and Karlien. Which was a lot of fun, walking, drinking, eating and going to the Moulin Rouge. We stayed at an Airbnb just a bit outside the city centre, but next to the metro, perfect. Expensive croissants and cappuccino's on the terrace is an understatement in Paris I think. The girls knew exactly where to go for nice places to drink and eat! The weather as you can see was also on our good sides!
After Paris it was Kings Day, the best day to be in Amsterdam. Pieter and I were going to sell beer and wine again on the corner of the street (knowing next year we would not be this close to the centre). Wouter came to help as well, he is a natural selling and drinking. We had such a good day again with a lot of laughter. Robert and Tanya als came to our selling spot, Daniel their son baked some cookies that he was going to sell. That's what I love about Kings Day, everybody is so nice, in good spirits and they just want to have a good time.
Nobody tells you when you buy a house you have to arrange so many things and papers and of course get a mortgage to pay for the house. It was full on, getting the papers, and all the information the realtor needed for the buying certificate. But we had a date, on the 1st of July we would go to the notary to sign everything. Since this all happened so fast we did not take into account that we still had a trip planned to Ibiza with friends of Pieter. We stayed for a few days at this massive beautiful villa. The first night we went to the most famous club on the island Pacha, which was a once in a lifetime experience being in the VIP area. Jord and Channa know the island very well so they took us to all these amazing restaurants, and we had amazing food and drinks. We also rented a boat to go to Formentera (which is an island close to Ibiza), where we would have a boozy lunch with paella, music and the best rose there is. It was a few intense days but we would not have missed it for the world.
Singapore is my favorite destination, not only because we stay in one of the best hotels, but also since Valerie moved there. It's so much fun when you fly over the world and you get to meet with your friends. I had another Singapore on my roster and my sister-in-law Saskia - that I already know more then half of my life - was joining me. It is always special when you take somebody with you. It was such a pleasure having Saskia with me, so easy going, we went to food courts to eat, and to drink we went to rooftops. That's how you keep the balance with your spending. We also went out and Valerie joined us, she immediately lost her voice for a few days, hihi. But it was worth it. Singapore is just chill, lovely people, safe, amazing food, massages, good shopping and good partying if you want. Singapore has it all. While we were in Singapore the dutch national soccer team had to play, we watched this with around 30 crew and a bunch of other dutch people who went to this local bar. And not to forget it was my birthday at midnight, so we were popping bottles (the cheapest ones).
Just before the signing at the notary I already had planned to go to a festival named Lago Lago with Danique and Karlien. Layla and the others were going to be there as well. The festival itself was not that big, but I actually prefer that, then you don't have to walk such long distances. One night I was super tired so went to bed early and then it started raining very heavily. I also left a day early since I wanted to be fit for the signing.
WE SIGNED FOR OUR FIRST HOUSE!!!!
In the meantime we were looking for contractors to renovate our house. A renovation is something you should not take lightly. It was intens. We started mid august and we eventually moved in on the 19th of December. You have to think about EVERYTHING, it is a whole proces and things change every day. But again in this, Pieter and I are pretty much on the same page with the major things. One time we were in the Hornbach at 20.30 - the shop closes at 21.00 - and we had to decide on tiles for the bathroom. Okay should we take these? Hmm, what about these? No I like the other one better. Okay done, let's take those. The End. We don't agree on everything all the time, but that's fine.
This is how the living room looked when they took out all the walls and the floor...Pieter said we would have to go to Amersfoort to go looking for floors, a bit suspicious but okay. We went on Pieter's motor that he bought that week. It was a beautiful day and when we arrived at this pittoresk bridge I saw all my girlfriends standing there cheering me on. I had to cry ofcourse. How amazing was it to see everybody with a big smile on their faces, ready for the day. And it was a beautiful day that I will never forget for the rest of my life. First we went on a boat for a few hours, I had to do a test in between, we had drinks, shots, and peed in the wild. After that we went to a park to do 'dirty-seconds', which was a laugh as well, and I learnt things I didn't know before. Then we were walking through Amersfoort heading to Djengiz his place (boyfriend of Hanneke) and there my dream came true, A STRIPPER!!!! I always said to my friends, if I ever get married I am not leaving my bachelorette until I have had a stripper. I think he just started stripping and was probably not expecting 25 women looking at him, since he almost ran away after the "show". During the whole day I had to do assignments. One of them was to explain the safety briefing, which I managed to do on stage since there was a stage somewhere, I had to lift around 10 guys (some still have a little trauma from that experience I think), I had to find somebody who was called Pieter, and 9 other tasks. It was a blast, we had dinner at the Dolle Diva, an amazing restaurant and the food was incredible, which was much needed after so much alcohol (especially for me). After that we went to go dancing and drink more, and finish my task list. I got drunk, and shed some happy tears feeling so loved by so many amazing friends who all came.
Once every 5 years there's a gala from the union of the pilots of KLM. We were there 5 years ago, and of course we wanted to go again this year. Via via we got tickets, time again to find that ball gown and dress up with the girls! This year it was held at the Muziekgebouw at Amsterdam, with different stages, a cocktailbar, non-stop food and performances.