Think you've seen a nice house?

Tessa brought us to her parents house two weekends ago. I shan't even try to describe the house to you, please see for yourself.......... .... ....

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Big, pretty house with a thatched roof!

The thatched roof sure looks good but it has to replaced every 40 years. What's more, it's expensive to replace and home insurance also becomes more expensive because thatched roofs catch fire easily. So, beauty does come at a price!

Maggie with the de Vos family!

(Back row: Carels, Elsbeth, Tessa, Maggie. Front Row: Elsa, Svea / Svea, Elsa)

The guest house ( Would be content just to have a house like this next time!)

Somewhere to sit at tea overlooking the garden

We had yummilicious Danish cookies (from IKEA!) for tea & tiny pears that fell from the trees in their very own garden. It's kind of a pity that we only took pictures within the house when it got darker so the next few pictures are all kind of dark.

Absolute pity that a cosy living room should look so dark & gloomy :(

The kitchen

Ah. Warm & nice with the lights.

Now, wait till you see what comes with the house.

A hugggggge garden!!!

Big part of the garden

No fences mark the boundaries of the garden. There's just this little ermm... stream of water (covered with moss) that lie behind the two trees you see, and then it's a maize plantation!

One of the few times in my life I voluntarily WANT to sit on the grass

Flowers in another part of the garden that I couldn't capture in the other picture. The black thing Maggie's patting is not me. It's Svea. It's really amazing how Elsbeth & Carel can manage such a big garden all by themselves!

Everything in this picture is so pretty....

(Tessa, can we have pasta one more time? :) )

Elsbeth & Carel prepared a barbeque for us! I haven't actually had a barbeque within someone's house as far as I can remember! It's either at East Coast Park or at someone's condo bla bla bla.

Cold Tomato-y (Spanish) Soup to begin the meal

No more pictures with food. We were too busy eating :) Heeehee. Just imagine nice, barbequed hamburger patties, sausages, satay (meat on sticks) kindda thing ok? Except they're done perfectly, not charred, not still red & raw or too oily :) Carel did all the BBQ-ing & Elsbeth prepared most of the other things like the soup, the salad, bread etc. We just ate. Hehehe.

They ate me up for dinner so I'm no longer in the picture

Everything in the picture, the tables, chairs, umbrella and people were not there initially! Everything was moved out from somewhere just so we could have a nice bbq overlooking the garden... I guess it would be totally worth the trouble ( I'm just guessing cos it was Tessa's parents who prepared everything, not me) though so few people in Singapore would do it. (of course, we don't have a garden to overlook in the first place....... ... ...)

The sunset at about 9plus after dinner

Really glad that we came during summer. The days are long - the sun rises at 4plus in the morning and doesn't disappear completely till half past ten. It's not humid, the weather's cooling, though a little too cold when windy sometimes. Just like Singapore, the sky rains whenever it feels like but well, it's ok, we're used to carrying an umbrella around.

Anywayyyyyy, apart from the eating and lounging around at the house, we did something healthy too! We went for a walk at some sort of a nature reserve nearby the house in the afternoon!

The dogs at the back of the car.... really close







Elsbeth with Siamese twins!












Purple riding hood in the enchanted forest

Purple riding hood on the bridge crossing over to the dark woods

Big bad wolf in the dark woods

Purple riding hood - GONE











Big bad wolf below the observatory tower with a round tummy :)

Looking out from the tower for new prey

Scanning the fields.... Nothing to be found :(

The way down from the tower

Purple riding hood resurrected!

Yet another relaxing, enjoying - but to us a completely new way - of spending a Sunday. We wish very much to thank Elsbeth & Carel for being such great hosts for the day. Tessa too, of course but there's so much to thank for as well.