Happy New-ish Year

You may have noticed that I've not posted anything in a couple of months, I've had a lot on my plate recently and needed one less thing to think about for a while.
Since my last post, I've moved house, got a new job and acquired a furry, little addition to the Macleod-Pieters family.

Back in November, Arjan and I were staying in our friends's house in Hilversum, looking after their cats whilst they were on an adventurous honeymoon to America. Whilst there, we made the decision to use our time in the north to find jobs so that we could get a place of our own again. We'd had no luck finding jobs in the south, but in the areas around Amsterdam there is a lot more work available and much of that is english speaking. Within a couple of weeks Arjan had already been accepted into a training course for a social media job and I had had a couple of interviews. In the final week of our stay my mum came to visit us for a few days and in that time we found our perfect apartment that was ready to be moved into only a week after we were due to leave Hilversum, luckily we have some wonderful friends in Utrecht who, not only allowed us to camp out in their living room during that time, but also gave us furniture and helped us move into the new place!

We're now living in Bussum in a newly refurbished apartment just big enough for the two of us, it's adorable and we love it. Here's a few shots of the living room:

Cat grass is the savior of my houseplants! (and yes, that bowl has been licked clean) 

Arjan's new baby and "best birthday present ever", no pressure for next year...

A few days later, during a trip to Ikea (the first of many) I received a call I'd been waiting for. I'd had a couple of interviews with a Lush store in Amsterdam and was anxious to hear the results, Arjan's wage was supporting us, but only just and we were getting desperate for a second income. When I spoke with the manager that day, she said it had been close between me and one other girl but that they had just pulled out ahead and they were only able to hire one person. I was really disappointed, I felt like I'd nailed the interview and done well at the trial period, my confidence took a bit of a beating when I heard I'd not gotten the job.
Fast forward one incredibly pouty half hour and the phone rang again. It was the owner of a wine bar/bistro called Zies that I'd interviewed at back at the start of September, they had opened in October and were doing so well that they needed to hire more staff to spread the hours out. I was asked to come in the next day for a chat about what hours I could do and to meet the rest of the staff.
It was unreal how quickly everything turned around, one minute I was losing hope of ever gaining employment and the next, I was basically handed a job!
I did a trial shift at Zies the next week and was asked if I could start work the next day. I've now been working there as a kitchen assistant for 2 months and I'm loving it. The work is hard and the hours are long, but I'm learning so much and doing something I love.

The final recent change to our lives was the adoption of Anton, our new kitty. We'd decided we would adopt a cat the second we had our own place and could afford one, so when that time came just before Christmas we took a trip to a shelter in Amsterdam and cuddled ALL the kitties until we fell in love with one little gentleman in particular. We knew he was the one when he sauntered over, allowed me to pick him up and promptly melted into my arms. He is approx. 2 years old and he was a stray cat, living on whatever he could find on the streets until he was brought to the shelter. He's now living the high life in his own cosy palace, with all the feathery toys and tasty treats he could possibly want! He still has some cheeky habits that might take a while to be forgotten (we can't keep food on shelves in his reach as he's stolen a few unlikely items before, baked goods seem to be a favourite) and he's now decided that when it's breakfast time at whatever ungodly hour of the morning, it's ok to sit on our chests and claw our faces until we wake up, but he's the most adorable, cuddly guy ever so it's hard to be mad for too long. Plus he has 'pubes' in the shape of the Batman symbol which is just awesome.     

Now that we're fully settled in and have a vague rhythm to life, I'm going to try get back into blogging regularly, so keep an eye out for the next post. I hope your 2015 has started off well, I look forward to seeing what this year has in store!