Miss My's Dream Home in Holland.

I found a beautiful house in Holland. I love love love everything about it. The cute and quirky exterior (typically Dutch in style and dates from 1902), the veranda and its furniture, the living room with its classic East Coast look, the dining room with its gorgeous French doors (so light!), the bedrooms, the bathroom and even the utility room and shed are lovely! It was love at first sight and oh oh oh how I wish I could buy it and move the whole house to Finland. Feast your eyes on this gem and fall in love with it too.

For more information go to:

http://www.housetohome.co.uk/house-tour/picture/be-inspired-by-a-coastal-house/1

Miss My went ice skating and liked it!

Today I went ice skating with L and our daughter. I hadn't skated on ice (or anything else) in over 20 years. Wow, that makes me sound really old.

I started ice skating in Holland when I was very young. I started with ice skates you could attach to your shoes and/or boots. My sisters and I put the ice skates on at home and then 'walked' through our backyard to the canal behind our house. In summer my older sister swam in that canal (she once saw a turd floating by when she was swimming in that canal, eww) and in winter my sisters, friends and I ice skated on that canal.

I remember our school class had ice skating competitions (I never won) and the route was to this old mill and back as many times as you managed. You got a stamp every time you had returned from the mill. It was fun but being a born foodie I was just interested in the hot chocolate and warm sausages.

I don't remember ice skating much when I was a teenager. Maybe the ice on the canals wasn't thick enough or maybe I just had better things to do (chasing boys? shopping?). I do remember going to a big ice skating hall called Thialf. It was with my friend and her father. In Holland people use speed skating ice skates and I remember I managed to skate one round (the hall is really big) and then had to sit for a while as my ankles were hurting. I think I liked the whole cosy-winter-ice-skating atmosphere more than ice skating itself. I was rubbish at it anyways.

Fast forward 20+ years to today and I was putting on my new figure skating ice skates (really quite different from speed skating ice skates) and was, well, a bit scared to be honest. But as soon as my flat feet got used to the ice I remembered how to ice skate. Is like riding a bike! It felt great and I don't think my butt hit the ice at all. Success!

While I was enjoying my time on the ice L was teaching Isabella to skate on ice. Well, he was just holding her hands while she tried to stay in the upright position on the ice as it was her first time on the ice. She was really excited, wasn't scared of falling (she had practised 'falling' with her ice skates on at home), looked really cute with her pink helmet on and was really quite excellent for a first timer. She skated without support multiple times and I think we might have ourselves a Michelle Kwan. Just kidding, I'm not a tiger mom! I was really proud of her.

The thing that struck me most about ice skating today was how much fun it was. I tried to do some pirouettes and managed quite well. L (by his own admission really rubbish at giving compliments) said I did really well. The only thing missing was the hot chocolate and warm sausages. But all three of us agreed it was a lot of fun. So fun that we will go ice skating again tomorrow. You have to find some fun activity during these long Finnish winters!

Will this be me next year?

Missed the lovely hot chocolate.

Food

I'm what they call a foodie. Many people have noticed I can talk about food for hours and that my eyes start glowing whenever I talk about food. Growing up in Holland with Chinese parents (who grew up in Vietnam) I was lucky enough to be exposed to many different foods from many different countries.

My first food memory is of my mom's home made fries. She made them (from scratch!) whenever we had a birthday party. Well, actually, my first food memory is of me drinking my younger sister's leftover milk from a bottle. Maybe I'll just go with the fries as my first food memory. So yes, my mom's fries were really delicious. So was the birthday cake our neighbour made whenever we had a birthday party. Yes, we had good parties back then. This was the time (a long long time ago) when people made many foods themselves as opposed to buying ready made foods from the supermarket. Back then we also had bakeries, butchers and fish mongers. Imagine! Many people also had vegetable gardens back then. My mom had a vegetable garden. She grew green beans, carrots, herbs, strawberries (although the snails always got to them before we did) and probably some other vegetables. Nothing tastes as good as food from your own garden. My mom doesn't have a garden anymore but she grows mint and coriander in boxes on her balcony. She's a stubborn woman, my mom, and she WILL grow something!

Another food memory is of me asking (begging) my mom to make a traditional Dutch dish called Stamppot boerenkool. All my friends' moms made it and I wanted to be Dutch so I begged my mom for weeks to make it. I still remember my mom slaving in the kitchen making Stamppot boerenkool. I also remember us all sitting around the table and no one wanting to eat the Stamppot boerenkool. And my mom bursting into tears because of that. My sisters and I felt so sorry for my mom that we started crying too. It's not the best food memory but for some reason I remember it really well. I also remember having to take cough syrup and being paid a quarter to drink it. But cough syrup isn't really a food.

Anyways, my mom and dad (my dad is his own biggest fan and he is often convinced his food is the best even though he doesn't mind hearing it over and over and over again) are really good cooks and growing up my parents often made Chinese and Vietnamese foods. I like Vietnamese food more than Chinese food. Ah, glorious Vietnamese food. Spring rolls, marinated pork chops with spring onions, rice paper rolls with fresh vegetables and prawns/meat, Phô (traditional beef noodle soup) and savoury pancakes filled with minced meat, vegetables and covered with a generous helping of my dad's fish sauce. Writing about it makes me want to move back in with my parents. I probably had the best Phô in Paris, the best marinated pork chops in Vancouver and the best savoury pancakes (accompanied by an ice cold Coke) in Ho Chi Minh city. Or maybe I had them all at home with my parents and siblings.

I am such a foodie that from all my trips I mostly remember the foods. I don't remember Vancouver Island but I remember I had the best Chili con carne on the boat to Vancouver Island. I don't remember much about Malta except the delicious ice tea (mediterranean flavour) which you can't get anywhere else. I remember the goat's cheese salad I had on a terrace in Paris and the tartiflette I had after a day of skiing in Les Menuires. Living in Holland you don't really have to travel anywhere for exotic food. Holland has/had so many colonies (Suriname, Indonesia, Netherlands Antilles etc.) and so many immigrants which has created this wonderful and delicious melting pot of flavours. I would recommend a trip to Holland. Not for the cannabis, red-light-district or the canals but for the glorious food!

Miss My

Hello, this is My. My being a 34-year-old mother living in Helsinki. How I ended up in Helsinki is a long story. I guess it would make sense to start from the beginning.

I'm Chinese but I was born in Vietnam. If you know anything about the history of Vietnam you know about the war which ended in 1975. Vietnam was recovering from the war but burdened by communism. When I was a baby my parents decided they wanted a better future for their children so like many others they tried to flee Vietnam. Their first attempt was unsuccessful and as a punishment my mum and dad spent some time in jail. My older brother, sister and I were in jail with my mum. So, that means I was a jailbird before age 1. Their second attempt to flee Vietnam was successful. We were some of many Vietnamese boat refugees. We ended up in a UN refugee camp. My mum told me that while in the camp I almost died of diarrhoea. It's not the best way to die, is it? But as you might have guessed, I made it.

We then ended up in a refugee camp in the Netherlands. My younger sister was born there. After a while we were provided housing in a very small village in the northern part of the Netherlands. The part where they speak Frisian. Like my life wasn't complicated enough I had to learn Frisian and Dutch while my parents were speaking a Chinese dialect at home. My parents decided we didn't speak enough languages so my siblings and I had Cantonese lessons on Sundays.

Slowly but surely we got settled. Back then refugees weren't the outcasts they are now so we got a lot of help and support from the locals. My dad got a job and I went to school, learned Frisian and Dutch and made friends. Life was very good back then. I have many happy memories from that time. Such as my father coming home from work by bike. We could always hear it when he came home because his bike's breaks sounded like a big fart.

There were also unhappy memories. I remember my father being sick a lot back then. The doctor visited our house a lot. I guess the doctor became a family friend as I remember a play date with his daughter. I think the culprit of my father's poor health was his welding job at a shipyard. So, when my parents had the chance to purchase a Chinese restaurant they took it. The Chinese restaurant was in a slightly bigger village so the change in scenery wasn't that big for me. I was 9 at the time and assumed that my life would be pretty much the same as before. It wasn't. My parents spent a lot of time working at the restaurant and that was quite hard on my younger sister and I. At that time I started craving a normal family life like my Dutch friends had. Normal being: a house, a father who works, a mother at home with the kids and possibly a dog. I really wanted a dog. It all resulted in an identity crisis.

Fast forward to September 2001. The time I started law school. I was very proud of getting into law school. However, I knew my law study was doomed when we got an internet connection. Someone introduced me to a chat program and that was it. I was very excited to have the chance to talk to people from different countries from the comfort of my desk chair. Imagine! I found out I liked talking to Finnish people more than my law study. So, after struggling in law school for 3 years I decided to put my study on hold (I don't think it will ever be 'off hold') to work as an au-pair for a year. My destination? Finland.

In Finland I met a guy (why does that always happen?) and we started dating. After my au-pair stint I had difficulties finding a job in Finland so the guy and I ended up in Ireland. As you do. In Ireland I worked at a company where at some point I befriended a Finnish girl. She was the only Finnish person working at that company (with at the time hundreds of employees) so naturally we instantly bonded and I had her at "moi". We spent many a lunch hour making jokes (and fun of others) in Finnish.

After three and a half years in Ireland my guy and I moved to Finland. We now live in Helsinki with our 4-year-old daughter. For a long time I was struggling with my identity and didn't feel like I belonged anywhere. Now, for the first time in my life I feel like I'm at home. The main reason why I feel at home in Finland is because my sense of humour is very Finnish. Some Finns have even told me I am more Finnish than they are.

I have many interests and like to write about whatever pops up in my head. I could write about food, fashion, celebrities, interior, books, art, restaurants, Ryan Gosling, parenting and what life as a foreigner in Finland is like. You name it, I'll write it. Your input and comments are very much appreciated. Also very much appreciated is the friendship of my blog-buddy, a.k.a. my blog-partner-in-crime: Miss Mo. Together we have shared many a sweet moment and together we will write about the sweet things in life. I hope reading our stories will make you feel like you are sharing our friendship and make you feel, in today's individual society, a little less alone. I also hope that reading our stories will make you remember the sweet things in YOUR life!