Dutch designer and artist. I love my sweetheart Wouter and our son Seth. Interests: photography, art, design, games, music, beauty, cooking and travel. I have lipedema.
For my design work, please visit Miss Design. For my handmade items, go to Retro Hugs. And for my game reviews and downloads, go to SNW. Looking for my brainchild Junior? He's at Juniorwood!
Dead Ringers
Minecraft
Granny Smith apple
Water
I'm still working on the new website. Most of the posts (including artworks, blog posts and 365 posts from 2009, 2010 and 2011) are missing. These posts will return eventually. Thanks for your patience! 
Three pizzas for Wouter, Rens and Rosie. Some garlic cheesy bread on the side. And Ben & Jerry's for dessert. Nom!
Today was the last day we could really go to the center of London, and so we did. After breakfast, we ordered a taxi at the front desk. Now I don't hate foreign people or anything, but this taxi service has only got foreign taxi drivers. And the one we had this morning didn't understand us, and vice versa. We tried to get a free ride. I forgot to tell in my previous blog post, but yesterday, the taxi service called to tell us they got the text messages about 1½ hours later after I sent them. So they never got a chance to send a cab. But then again, they can't really expect us to wait for that long either. They did understand our frustration and offered one free ride. But when we tried to claim it this morning, the taxi driver refused and wanted to see money.
We hurried to Buckingham Palace, to watch the changing of the guards, and it was crowded. I didn't mind though, just as long as I had a good view. And I did. I made a couple of nice pictures of the guards.
After this, we traveled to the London Film Museum. There, we viewed the old Tardis and Daleks, and we're all on pictures with them! Lol. It was a lot of fun. We also visited the Charlie Chaplin exhibition. I definitely enjoyed this museum visit.
I was a bit nauseous, so we went to 'Enough to Feed an Elephant' to buy two cokes and a donut. I don't like donuts. So I'm not sure why I bought it, but I needed to eat something and they didn't have much else.
Next door there was a souvenir shop. Unfortunately it was too expensive so we didn't buy anything.
Then we traveled to the London Dungeons. I didn't know what this was all about, but I regret going there now. It's probably all very nice for normal people. But with my legs, I get to stand still for a long time, only getting to walk from one room to another after having to listen to stories about the old times in London. I can't stand still, because of my legs. I really hate this, but I can't change it. If I had known I would be standing still so long and often, I would not have gone to the London Dungeons. Because of all the pain I didn't really hear what people were telling either.
I got out of the Dungeons as quickly as I could and then I just had to sit for a little while. It was really cold though, so sitting still wasn't an option either. We discussed the plans for the evening. We would walk across the London Bridge, take pictures of the Tower Bridge, and go back again to look for some place to eat. The pictures are lovely by the way.
We didn't really feel like having Subway, Burger King or a meal in the hotel. We searched the area for a nice place. We came across Pizza Express. Another pizza place? Pizza, again? Well the name screams fast food pizza take out but in reality, it's a really nice Italian place. Nice ambience, nice people, and GREAT food! ChEeTaH ordered lasagna and I ordered a Leggera pizza. This is what the website has to say about the Leggera pizza:
Leggera
At around 500 calories, the Leggera is an entirely new kind of pizza.
Inspired by the ring shape of the fresella bread from Italy, we've removed the centre of the dough and put a generous fresh salad in its place. These lighter pizzas are each designed to be lower in calories and in saturated fat without compromising on taste.
Our Italian executive development chef Antonio has also been looking for simple ideas on how to eat healthily the Italian way. Keep scrolling for tips on how to Live Leggera.
I tried the Gustosa pizza:
Hand torn prosciutto cotto ham, light fior di latte mozzarella and slices of portobello mushroom with sweet yellow peppers and a sprinkle of thyme
I LOVED IT! I enjoyed the entire visit. I almost got teary eyed because we don't have a Pizza Express nearby. And we're leaving London tomorrow. 
But not to worry. I will visit Pizza Express again in the future. And in the meantime, I will try and reproduce the pizza I had there. I'm a pretty good cook so...
When we left, it was already dark. I was happy about this, because this meant I could make some more pictures of the Tower Bridge! Woot! 
Walking back to the tube, we visited one more souvenir shop, and bought one more souvenir.
Back in Edgware, the taxi driver came to pick us up. And when we were at the hotel, the taxi driver didn't charge us the ride! So apparently the free ride was linked to my mobile number. Anyway, problem solved. We got our free ride. Thank you taxi service. We do appreciate it!
In the hotel, I packed some more and then we watched Office Space to end the lovely week. Tomorrow we're going back to The Netherlands. 
Today we didn't really go out. We are very tired from all the walking, especially me with my legs and all. So we decided to make this a Sarah Jane Adventures marathon day! After having breakfast, we just started watching SJA and when we watched everything from series 3, we went outside to get a frappuccino and a muffin at Starbucks, and a quick visit to WHSmith.
Back in the hotel we watched the first new episode of SJA on BBC2. And because we didn't feel like waiting another week, we watched the second episode on iPlayer. All legal too, lol!
After this, I fell asleep. I was so tired... When we woke up again, we went downstairs to the restaurant and ordered pepperoni pizzas!
I ended the day by packing some bags to save some time on Friday morning.
Breakfast today was different. For the first time, the girl helping us (every day another one btw) told us we could just sit wherever we want. Breakfast tasted nice. I did enjoy it.
Today we planned to go watch the changing of the guards. But we were also eager to send some mail to The Netherlands and the UK. And some of the mail required large envelopes, something the local postal office did not seem to sell. Luckily a Pound Stretcher store was nearby. There, I also bought three pairs or fluffy socks (yay!); zebra print, pink leopard and plain pink. So awesome. And a lot cheaper than the ones I can get in The Netherlands. Once all the mail was ready, we realized it was too late to get to Buckingham Palace. So we just decided to skip it today. Maybe Thursday then.
We traveled from Edgware to Baker Street, via King's Cross St. Pancras. We took the Metropolitan line. And it was here that I first heard the 'Mind the Gap' message out loud since we arrived here last week.
At Baker Street, we went straight to 221b Baker Street. We also found out it's not an actual address (anymore). Obviously we noticed the Sherlock Holmes museum. ChEeTaH wanted to see the souvenir shop. I on the other hand got annoyed because we don't have any money any more to spend on souvenirs. And then he wants to take me to a souvenir shop? Hell no.
We had loads of time to spend, but nowhere to go. ChEeTaH spotted a Starbucks. So far, every attempt to go to Starbucks has failed. Simply because it's either closed or just too busy. I'm not going in there, spending a lot of money on a drink that I have to take with me again and not having any place to sit. I don't like strolling down the street with a drink in my hand. After yesterday, my legs were still hurting badly, so I had the need to sit.
So no Starbucks then.
We also spotted Costa Coffee. But this one, was next to the Starbucks and was just as busy, maybe even worse!
So no Costa Coffee either. Pfffrt.
And then we came across the EAT. (The Real Food Company). There was enough room to sit, inside and out. They had free wifi. And the drinks were pretty cheap as well! So we got two cokes. We had a bit of an early lunch inside, 2 Ham & Jarlsberg baguettes (unfortunately English cheese isn't the same quality as Dutch cheese), a chocolate muffin and a strawberry cupcake!
When we were done, we slowly walked towards Madame Tussauds. We already had tickets for this. Despite the pain in my legs and feet, I had a great time. Junior went on many pictures with many celebrities. Pay attention to Junior's website because he will soon be updating with lots of cool pictures. Imagine Beyoncé or Barack Obama posing with Junior! People were laughing about Junior. Everyone seemed to like it. At Madame Tussauds, we also watched Marvel Super Heroes in 4D. This was really cool! 
Again, we didn't buy any souvenirs. If I would have known how many cool souvenirs they sold at Madame Tussaud's, I would have saved more money.
We traveled to Waterloo station pretty quickly. There we decided to wait a little, before entering the London Eye around sunset. But first we watched the London Eye experience in 4D. We were indeed in the London Eye during sunset. I made some great pictures! Again, people noticed us taking a few pictures of Junior. And people were laughing again. Some even took pictures of Junior! People really like Junior.
After the London Eye experience, I took a few more pictures at the pier, and then we continued to the Namco building, where we went to Costa Coffee. Unfortunately there was a corporate party so dinner was taking some time. We waited for over an hour, but I didn't mind that much. Just as long as I could sit down and relax, use free wifi and watch some TV. After drinking a coke and a hot chocolate, we got our pizza and chips dinner. There was something wrong with the communication between staff members. The girl serving us the plates of food, gave us ketchup and barbecue sauce. I don't like either of these. And yesterday we got sour cream with salt, pepper and vinegar. I absolutely loved that! She seemed annoyed that I asked for sour cream. When she came back again with drinks, I asked if I could have some pepper. This time she seemed even more annoyed. What's the problem? We had the same items yesterday. I didn't enjoy today's visit to Costa Coffee as much as yesterday. Service was so-so and it was freezing inside! Food tasted nice though. And we got to see the first half of the England-Montenegro game.
When we left, I took a few more pictures of the London Eye and of course the Big Ben. The lights made everything so pretty. After that we traveled back from Waterloo to Edgware.
In Edgware we texted the taxi service. 30 Minutes later there still wasn't a taxi. I got annoyed. It's cold outside, it's dark, there are people outside that make me feel uncomfortable. I texted again. 15 Minutes later, no taxi. We decided to grab a different taxi service. Expensive compared to the taxi service we normally use, but it was almost 11pm and we were tired and just wanted to go to the hotel. I did send a third text, because we're decent people and want to let them know we want to cancel the request. 45 minutes is too long.
Luckily the WHSmith store around the corner is open 24hrs a day. So ChEeTaH bought a couple of Buxton bottles, another Frijj milkshake (Thick & Smooth Chocolate Fudge Brownie) and a Lion candy bar.
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