Yesterday Nathan and I had plans to meet up with a mutual friend. Our plans were bowling and takeout. It was a really nice evening with some funny moments during our games.
I made a reservation at the bowling place at 3 pm for 1h30, so our friend agreed to come to our place at 2 so that we could go there together. Before he arrived I was just enjoying a new game that I have been playing on streaming called “Kingdom Come: Deliverance” while chatting with my friend. As soon as our friend arrived we almost left instantly. On our way he told us about how it has been being back in Belgium and visiting family.
We arrived almost 20 min before our time, but our spot was free which meant that we could start earlier. There were a lot of people there which wasn’t that surprising since it was on a weekend. I put our name in and then the games began.
Our first round went great. You could tell that all of us were very rusty xD We did improve throughout the game. We all had problem finding the perfect ball for us, so we just had to make do with what we were given.
Throughout the night I was having a bit of a rough time because I wasn’t preforming that well and a part of me kind of gave up half way. It just felt that the boys were way ahead and I wasn’t able to catch up. Didn’t even get a strike which mad me kinda sad, but at least the boys had fun which is more important for me and I did win a game although it wasn’t a normal one. There was one round where Nathan got 9 point seven times in a row, which was funny and frustrating to watch.
After we were done with bowling we just head home. We ended up playing league with our other friends and order Kapsalon together with some bubble tea. Our friend stayed to around 9 before he headed home.
Yesterday I was invited to join Nathan and his colleagues for their annual Christmas dinner. It was really nice meeting the people who works with Nathan we did have something unexpected popping up.
It all started with Nathan and I making our way to meet up with one of his colleagues that live fairly close to us. When we arrive we all just waited together because the plan was to take a bus together with the rest of the party. After a while we got a call from another colleague telling us that they had try to get a hold of the bus driver, but he wasn’t picking up the phone which meant that we would have to make our way into the city. This was also the day that the public transport people were striking, so we were a bit worried about not getting a tram in to the city. Thankfully it wasn’t that bad and we found our way.
When we arrived into the city we were a bit early so we decided to check out the market while waiting for the others. They had some really nice stalls with food, clothes, jewelry’s etc. After around 1h of walking around we decided to try one of the places that sold gin. I went for chocolate flavor. It was okay but I still don’t like the taste of alcohol that much. We finally met up with the rest of the group and one of the girls immediately brought up a bottle of vodka for us to share. This was something we were not expecting. We all had some including me and Nathan was enjoying the look on my face when i was drinking it. After feeling warm inside thanks to the vodka we slowly made our way to the restaurant. Nathan was feeling a bit tipsy since he hadn’t eaten since noon. I was also feeling lightheaded cause I hadn’t eaten at all xD.
The place we went to was a small tapas place called Tapabar. Everyone had already decided on a menu. I went with a meat version while Nathan took the seafood one. I had a great time talking to the others. I was surprised on how many knew English. Some people were defiantly feeling the effects of the alcohol during dinner, but no one was being super drunk. We got served a bunch of different foods and just shared everything amongst everyone. We had shrimps, mussels, chicken, chorizo and a bunch of other dishes. They were all really tasty. When we got the check everyone’s faces lit up since it was above € 800. Everyone paid for their own food, but we still managed to fall € 100 short so one guy just decided to pay for that instead of having everyone double check again.
After dinner we all just walked around some more because the others hadn’t seen the Christmas market yet. We took some pictures under the tree and had some more flavored gin. Eventually Nathan and I decided to head home because it was getting late and we wanted to make sure we found a bus so that we wouldn’t have to take the electric scooters. I also had a small headache from the drinks and we were both quite tired.
When we got home we just relaxed for a while before heading to bed quite early. All in all it was a really nice evening and I had a nice time speaking to all of Nathan’s colleagues. They also seemed very interested in the fact that I was from Norway just like most of the adults I have met so far.
Yesterday my boyfriend and I took the train to Tilburg in the Netherlands. This time we saw one of my favourite bands perform. It’s was really fun.
Nathan had taken the day off and my teacher was sick so we could sleep in until noon. Our train didn’t leave until 5 pm which means we had a lot of time to prepare. We started by taking the train from where we lived Roosendaal and then over to Tilburg which was the city where the concert was being held. It only took 1h30 min which is close to the same amount it took us to get the one in Brussels.
When we got to Tilburg we had 1h until the first band would play. We decided to get something to eat and drink before heading toward the venue. I had a salmon with eggs sandwich and a some small fries while Nathan had a croissant. The venue was only 10 min away so we didn’t have to rush.
Cute Christmas decorations outside the train station.
When we got to the place and got in we headed towards the concert hall. This place was noticeably smaller than the other one and there was barely any place to sit beside some steps in the back. So we decided to go there. Then began the waiting.
The warm-up band was someone called “Charming Liars”. They are a band from L.A and UK. I like their songs and thinking about looking more into them. Nathan wasn’t too impressed which is fair since its not really his type of band either.
Charming Liars
Then came the main attraction! AGAINST THE CURRENT. It was amazing to hear them live. They performed some songs I had heard before and some that they released before I started listening to them. They even had some fun chats in between songs. My favourite were definitely “wildfire” and “that won’t save us”. We had to leave before the concert was over because we had to catch the last train home and the entire concert was also behind schedule. We really wanted to hear “weapons” and “legends never die” but those were unfortunately their last songs. If only we could have predicted what would happen next.
Against the CurrentAgainst the Current
We headed towards the train station and made it on the the train as it arrived and got ourself to Roosendaal. Then when we were to check up on the information for our train that would take us back to Belgium it said that had ben cancelled. This is where we started to panic a bit cause we were still in the Netherlands and it as almost midnight which means most public transports had already stopped. I started to reach out to a friend cause I know that she has friends that live in the Netherlands to see if they could help us out.
The first option was to stay at a friends place until morning and then take the train and our second option was that a friend was willing to drive all the way from Belgium to our location and then take us home. We first tried to get a hold of the guy who lived close, but he ended up not being and option so then I messages the guy to ask if he was still willing to get us and he were so yeah. Then we just had to wait 1h for him to drive all the way from his location in Belgium to us. We tried to see if there were any bars were we could sit and wait, but EVERYTHING was closed which we found quite surprising seeing that it wasn’t that late. So we just ended up waiting at the station, by the time he arrived my legs were soo cold. We had really pleasant time in the car and only 40 min later we were finally home.
Nathan hugged the couch as soon as we got home and we immediately made some food, put on our comfy cloths and relaxed in front of the tv watching “the big bang theory”
Despite this not being the optimal concert experience we at least managed to get home only 1h later than planned which is a pretty positive outcome given our situation. All honor goes towards our friend for coming to get us and drive us home. Without him we would probably have had to find a place to stay for the night even if that meant sleeping at the train station.
Yesterday Nathan and I decided that we would go out and spend the day together. It was really nice to do something just the two of us. It’s been a while since we last did that.
We decided that we wanted to try out the restaurant that my parents had gotten us gift vouchers for. The place was called “Umami” and was an Asian cuisine dish located in the southern part of Antwerp. It did take us almost 1h to get there with public transport but the food was worth the trip. The restaurant was big and spacious despite it being located on a side street. There were a lot of people there which wasn’t too surprising cause it was a Saturday during dinner hours. They asked for a reservation, but we didn’t have one to which they advise us to do that if we were planning on coming during the weekends. The restaurant was luckily not full and we got seated right next to the kitchen. We could see the chefs cook in front of us. Then came the time to decide what to eat.
The menu was more expensive than what we are used to with almost every dish being between € 15 – € 20. My parents gave us two cards for € 100. They had shared plates both cold and warm, plus sushi. We both decided to go with something from the “Rabata” menu. I went with the “Tandoori lamb chops with roasted eggplant cream” and Nathan ended up with the “Sticky Korean bbq baby back ribs”. We got a bowl of fried rice to share and the rice felt like it melted on our tongue. We just decided to go with regular soft drinks with it.
Lamb ChopsBBQ Baby back ribs
After we had eaten everything we were feeling very full. Both of the meats were super tender and the cream tasted delicious. As we were about to pay the guy told us we had to use the whole gift card in one go which meant we had € 22 left which we spent on a “Mai Tai” for Nathan and a “Red karaf” for me.
Mai TaiRed Karaf
We ended up being at the restaurant 1h later than expected, but it was a really fun experience. Then we just took the tram to where the Kermis was and even though it was super late and the other stalls had already closed the Casino one with all the coin pushers was stil open. We had some points from a previous time and after playing we ended up with 82k in total. Nathan got a lot of winnings on his machine. They had a bunch of prizes, but we went for a small bowl set and a grilled cheese machine. Then it was finally time to head home.
The rest of the evening was pretty chill. All of our friends had gone to bed early which was a bit sad, but we just ended up watching “The big bang theory” while eating some chips with the the a new dip that I made last week.
That was my weekend. Today I just did my Dutch homework and played games with friends while mentally preparing for next week. I hope you guys have had a nice weekend and are looking forward to Christmas times.
It has been over a month since I last posted something here. November has been a bit of a rough months for me, but now that we are closing in on Christmas I feel the holiday spirit lifting me up and I’m in a much better headspace.
Not a lot happened in the month of November. It started off with my Autumn break from school which I used for mostly gaming and streaming from home. I have been trying to focus a bit on improving my streams for my current viewers and for potential new ones.
For anyone new; I’m a variety streamer of at twitch.tv/yannani where I play all kinds of games such as League of legends, Teamfight tactics (auto chess), Drake Hollow, 7 days to die etc… I stream every Monday, Wednesday from 2 pm cet and Friday from 6 pm cet. I mostly enjoy playing with friends, but I do play single player games from time to time.
The two other events that happened during November were dinners with Nathans family. We got invited to his mother on the 12th together with Nathan’s brother and grandmother. The plan was to also play some boardgames, but we just ended up having dinner and watching photos from their honeymoon. It was a alright evening. The mum did comment how my naturel hair color was SOO much better than the one I had last time she saw me. She did think I was blond which was surprising since I have only been blond for a brief moment during my bleach. She was referring to when my hair tips were blond, but I found the comment funny non the less xD
Two weeks later on the 25th Nathan, his brother and I were all invited celebrate Nathan’s dad birthday. We had reserved a table at a Chinese restaurant. Nathan’s step mother had also invited her two sons. It was my first time meeting them and they were even around the same age as Nathan and his brother which was a funny coincidence. I ordered some shrimp snacks and then some Chinese spareribs while Nathan had Chinese mushroom soup together with crispy duck. The rest of the table all had a 4 cours menu which included 1 soup, a lumpia and a main course and dessert that they could choose from total of 5 different dishes. The food was really tasty but the family was surprised on how much it was and that the lumpia was so huge. So we did have a lot of leftovers that we split among the party.
As for the rest of the month I was just doing school, gaming and streaming. We do have some plans for the month of december; Against the current concert in the Netherlands, Antwerp winter market and we also have some gift cards we could use. One for a lunch, one for a dinner and one for the movies. So this months will be more active than the previous one for sure.
I will try my best to keep you guys updated on everything. Hope you guys are all going strong and are staying safe especially with everything that is going on in the world.
Last week Nathan and I went to Germany for 4 days to meet up with our friend. This time we would also have another friend joining us. It was a really fun and well worth the travel
The entire first day was used for travel. We started by taking a 7h bus to Frankfurt and then a 30 min train to Aschaffenburg where our friend would pick us up with her car.
On Friday our plans were to pick up our friend from the airport and then head into the city for some sightseeing. We had trouble finding him cause he went out in the departure section instead of the arrivals area. After we found him it was off to Frankfurt City for some shopping instead of sightseeing cause it was a rainy day. We walked around the shopping area and i got myself a new pair of gaming headphones, a power bank and some medicine for Nathan since he was ill. When it was time to get dinner we were planning on going for conveyer belt sushi, but the two places that was located in the city was either closed down or closed. In the end we found a restaurant that served Pokebowls. We all made our own bowls with our decided protein, mix, sauce and topping. The place was small and very cute. After dinner we just headed home and spent the rest of the evening gaming and hanging out.
Saturday was the most exciting day. We drove into one of the neighboring city cause we were going to do “escape room”. Our theme was Thanos and our mission was to find all the infinity stones and save the universe. We had 60 min and it took us 58 of them to solve it. It was really fun, but we ended up getting way too many hints which kinda ruined the whole figuring out experience. We later were told that the people who worked there had just started up and that this was a new project for all of them. Which was the reason why they were helping us a lot. They wanted to make sure that everything went smoothly. With some time and more experience they have potential to become a really good business. If you are ever in that city and want to do something fun with friends definitely check them out.
After the escape room we had a couple of hours before dinner. We decided to go to a bar to get some drinks. I had my first “Cubra Libre” and it was stronger than I had imagine, but it tasted really good ^^ Our reservation at the “all you can eat” place was at 7.30 pm which meant that we had a lot of time to kill. We decided to head over there and just played “code names” in the car. The restaurant was super crowded this day. We even had to wait to get seated. When we finally got our table we headed towards where the food was. They had everything from salads, sushi, soups etc… Our friend said that they way people did it was that they first choose their raw meat that they want the kitchen to prepare for them and in the meanwhile you just pick something else to eat. I just had to try the sushi and for my main course I had some lamb cutlets and meat strips together with some broccoli and potatoes. I was very satisficed with my food, but Nathan wasn’t as fortunate. His main course was seafood and apparently his dish was half warm, half cold and his mussels weren’t good at all. Our friend told us that it was usually not that bad and that this was the werst experience she has had which was a bit unfortunate, but nothing to do about it. After we arrived back we again just chilled and played some vr.
On Sunday we just drove to the train station, had a quick breakfast at MacDonalds before heading towards home. Our friend joined us on the bus this time cause he was flying out from Brussels instead of Frankfurt the next day, which meant that he would be staying with me and Nathan for the night. On our way home with the bus something funny happend. After we had left one of the stops I looked out the window and saw a guy running after the bus. First i thought that it was a friend of one of the passengers, but it turned out to actually be one of the passengers. He had gotten off to do something and then missed the buss while it was driving away. Thankfully the driver saw him too and found a place to park while he got on. I have only seen this in movies so it was kinda fun to see it happend in real life.
When we were back in Antwerp we decide to eat out on one of our ramen places. Since Nathan was still feeling under the weather we went to Wagamama cause it was closer to the central station. They had some new items on the menu as well. I had the ramen with duck gyoza (dumplings). After our dinner we just headed home and played some league with our friends.
That was it for our mini vacation. Despite it not going totally as planned we all had a lot of fun. I think the highlight of the trip was the escape room and the pokebowl place. It was also really great meeting the dogs again.
Today was a really eventfull day for both me and Nathan. First Nathan was going to participate in an entrence exam to one of his band members and later in the evening he was preforming with his music school. I got to see him play live for the first time ^^
The day started really piecefully. Nathan had to wake up a bit early today as well because we and his band members were heading to Ghent at around 11 am. The guitarist was having his entrece exams for a music school. One of the exams was preforming with a band. So they all went together early to make sure they made it.
In the meanwhile I decided to do a small stream where I tried a new game. It’s a small indie game called “Little Witch in the Woods”. Where you play as a which who is on her way to a big city, but after the train stops and then leaves without her she finds herself alone in a small eara. She startes living in an abandond witche’s house and explore the wilderness as much as the village near by. This was my first playthrough so I’m still discovering things here and there, but overall a really great first impression. The game is super cozy and I love the potion making aspect of it and that it seems like you get to build an abandoned village from scratch.
At around 4 pm I got a message from Nathan saying that the guitarist didn’t get in due to not doing to well on his theory exam and that they were on there way home. When he arrived we had around 1h until we would head out for Nathan’s second concert. This time with his band from music school. They were holding a public concert close by. We headed over there and it took a while before their band could preform, but eventually they entered the stage. They played 3 different songs. Their preformance were really good and I enjoyed myself a lot. It was really great watching Nathan play live for the first time ^^
When they were done preforming we just headed home and relaxed for the rest of the evening. Tomorrow we will just stay at home and chill since this week as been pretty eventfull xD
Nathan took some days off work and today there were a market that we decided to check out and then we took a small bike ride to play golf since it has almost been a year since last time.
The day started with Nathan heading to band practise at around 9 am while I slept a bit longer. He sent me a message around noon informing me that he was on his way home, so I started to get myself ready to head out. As soon as he arrived home we both went out towards the market. The place we live is holding a small market every Thuesday and since Nathan still has more free days we decided to check it out. It was really cute and there were a bunch of things there. People sold vegtiables, meat, fish, snacks, cloth etc… there were even a van that sold animals. Mostly birds but they did have 4 very cute bunnies. There were a lot to see, but we only had 1h before they shut down for the day. I did buy some olives since they actually had the ones where the cheese is inside.
When we were done at the market we quickly stopped by our place to just put the olives into the fridge before we continued our day. This time we were heading to Brasschat to check out a mini golf place. We were planning on going somewhere else, but they were closed. It was a really nice ride and the wind really helped with the heat. It took us around 20 min to get there. The place was right next to a big park so it was nice and quite. We parked our bikes and headed in.
There were no one playing when we arrived which meant that we wouldn’t have to wait for people to be finished. We got our clubs and golf balls and started our run. The courses weren’t too interesting, but they did have some veriations to them. One thing they did have which I haven’t seen before was that 2 of the wholes were set up as regular gold where you started from a far and had to hit the ball over the lawn and on to the green field. It was really fun and I manged to get a really good hit on one of them. Nathan was leading pretty much throughout the entire game, but I did have my moments. Nathan won with 3 points less than me. He had 55 and I had 58. So close!
We decided to stay for some food since neither of us had eaten before we left and it was already almost 2 pm. The place was a bit expensive so we ended up sharing some Nacho’s and Ice cream and then we each had a milkshake. The Nacho’s were way bigger than i thought they would be, but we managed to get through everything. It was really good and the ice cream was perfect since it was almost 30 degrees.
When we were done eating we decided to just head home and die on the couch. I sent a message to my family back in Norway because today is Norway’s National day which is a public holiday where we celebrate the time we got independent. Some people have parties with their family and if you have kids in school there are also parades where the childring walk down a long street towards the castle where the royal family would be on the balcony and wave to them.
Tomorrow is also going to an eventfull day which I’m looking forward to. I just really hope that it won’t be as warm as today cause warm weather always gives me a headache.
Hope you guys have had a lovely week so far and are making sure to not get too hot escpecially if you live in the middle of Europe!
This weekend Nathan and I went to the movies. It’s nearly been half a year since the last time we went to the cinemas. We went to see Sonic 2 and it a really good movie.
Recently Nathan and I watched the new Sonic movie on Netflix. It’s about how Sonic became the iconic figure we all know and love. Unlike Nathan, I haven’t played a lot of Sonic games, but I really enjoyed the movie regardless. I was also looking forward to seeing it because the villian aka Doctor Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik was played by the legendary comidian actor Jim Carry. The movie was super fun and I loved how they drew the new Sonic character. For those of you who didn’t know the first ever trailer they made potraited Sonic really bad. It got huge backlash from the community and they had to re-draw Sonic which was for the better. The new one is more cartoon ish which fits him better. After watching the first movie we figured out that the second one recently got released and was showing in the cinemas.
We booked our tickets for this Saturday and decided to make a date out of it. Our movie started at 19:45 which meant that we could just chill before we left. When we arrived at the cinema we bought some drinks and some snacks. Nathan had chips while I had a large popcorn with cola. The second movie was just was much fun to watch as the first one. They had all the same funny elementas as they did in the first one. It also included some other character which you would recognise if you ever played the games. It was really nice to return to the cinema. It brings a whole different experience there rather than when you watch movies from the couch. After the movie ended they did teased the potential of a third movie featuring another character. I really hope we get to see that one as well.
After we headed out we went to Burger king and had a menu each. I went with the long chili cheese menu and Nathan wenmt with bacon and chicken. When we got our order we quickly figured that they made the wrong burger for Nathan. He got one with beef inested of chicken, but he didn’t mind and we just decide to do nothing. When we were done it was already almost 11 pm so we just headed home and relaxed the rest of the evening before heading to bed.
Hope you guys have had a fun weekend as well and I would defintly reccomend watch theb Sonic movies if you ever had any intrest in the franchise.
Easter break is officially over now and it’s back to school. I’m really happy I got 2 weeks off, because I really needed a break from the Dutch lessons and just the stress from schoolwork in general. This was the most active easter I have had in years.
I haven’t had a lot of easter plans since I was younger. When I was growing up me and my family sometimes went up to the mountains for some skiing, but when we got older we lost interest plus my parents were tired of hearing me and my sister aruge all the time. The last times we went they blamed me forruining the trip because I would want to talk to other people and not be spending ever hour with them. After a while we just stopped going all together.
For the past years I have only been sitting at home with my family without anything really planned. Most of our easter celebreation is about food. My parents would always make a special easter meal where we would usually have lamb with some side dishes. Last year we had an entire lamb leg. I don’t really mind since I really love my moms cooking, but this year I acutally had plans.
This years plans only happened during weekends since I was the only one who had the week off. Nathan only got one day of because it was a public holiday.
The first thing we did was the Kermis. Not the one I wrote about in another post but a proper one. This one had HUGE vans with bunch of attractions, one of them being a Casino. I got to try “Coin Pusher” for the first time. We didn’t win anything big, but we did gather a lot of points which we can use for next time they are in town. I also did the thing where you throw a ball and try to knock down a tower of empty cans. There I won one of them Octopus that you is happy on one side and then you can fold it and it’s angry on the other side. Last one was shooting with a rifle. Here I didn’t win anything since my aim was too bad.
The weekend after that we went to the convention “Made in Asia”. That’s by far my favourite out of all the things we did. It was so hug and so much to see. I’m looking forward to returning again next year to see EVERYTHING!
For our last weekend we tried to visit another Kermis, but as you may have red from my last post that one was a huge dissepointment compared to the first one, but Nathan and I was able to make a great day out of it regardless.
In conclusion it was a really fun Easter. Even though I wasn’t able to enjoy my mothers easter dinner because of the move I was still able to talk to them and make sure they were doing alright, and maybe next year I’ll be able to visit them and spend some time with them.
The Anna behind Yannani 