Veel Geld!

That title means "lots of money" in Dutch. The reason I use it  is that I'm hoping to have a lot of extra cash very soon. No, I've not won the lottery but I have managed to find a buyer for my car!

I do tell a small lie....I'm only getting £100 (120 Euros approx.) for the vehicle itself but I've worked out that by cancelling my  insurance I'll save £2700 this year, plus my insurance company will owe me roughly £350 of my current  premium back as well. Add that to all the money I'll save on petrol and things are looking good for my bank account.

This is especially good news as I'll be getting the train to work from now on, which means listening to lots of Dutch audio files whilst travelling, on my nice new MP3 player:

It's also good news as sadly, it looks like Rosetta Stone aren't selling the different levels individually anymore on their website, only 1-3 as a complete set. Not great when I've already got level 1 and don't want to buy it again just to get levels 2 and 3. Luckily, Amazon still sell the individual levels so I should be fine, although I don't get the money-back guarantee unless I buy from RS directly. Oh well, c'est la vie (still don't know the Dutch equivalent so the French wil have to do here!).

As for the language learning, it's still coming along. I now know how to talk about times of the day and how to speak to Dutch shopkeepers, which will be very useful when I get around to visiting the Netherlands and Belgium soon (another advantage of no longer having a car!).

Now, that reminds me....time to do some travel browsing and get myself a holiday booked! Until next time, faithful readers.

Tot ziens!

Still Alive and Breathing!

Now then, where was I?

As you have probably noticed, I havent't done much blogging in the last 3-4 weeks. I've been busy with a multitude of things, mainly my Easter break away in Robin Hood's Bay (amazing place, but that's another story).

The whole learning Dutch thing  is still an active goal of mine though. Even while I was away, I took my Dutch books and a notepad and did plenty of swotting like the good student I am!

Even better, the cottage we were staying at had not one but TWO balconies, one of which overlooked the sea. This means that while I was casually learning key verbs, this was the view I had:

What's more, the weather was mostly wonderful and warm, so sitting outside was the best thing to be doing. I'd say that it's impossible not to be motivated to do something with that as your backdrop!

Aside from my little jaunt, I've been working hard and trying to finally get rid of the damn car, which I will finally be able to do on Monday. This means more £$£$ in my pocket as I'll be able to cancel my outrageously obscene insurance. It also means I'll be able to get the next lot of Rosetta Stone CDs as I've completed the level one course now.

Now that I'm back in the groove, I can hopefully return to focussing on the Dutch and less on other annoying and distracting things. Watch this space!