Tulips at the Keukenhof

I was keen on checking out the Keukenhof, which is the second largest garden in all of Europe and is open only two months out of the year. It's about an hour drive away from Amsterdam, and we signed up for a bus tour that would take us there and bring us back with ample time to explore the gardens. 

The gardens were absolutely breathtaking.

It was still a bit too early for the outdoor plants to be in full bloom so it was a bit meh when we first entered the grounds. However, once we got into the greenhouses, the riot of colours and gorgeous smells were just stunning.

It was a lovely day of wandering from pavilion to pavilion, and the weather was absolutely perfect, a bit chilly but sunny.

The focus was on tulips, of course, but there were boatloads of other kinds of flowers and plants to examine and sniff. I discovered I love hyacinths! J treated me to a little boutonniere that I pinned to my coat, but I got mugged for it by a goat in the petting zoo.

Look at him, just munching away on my posy. 

We treated ourselves to some waffles and strolled around watching people crouching among the flowers to take a picture.

It's funny what beautiful flowers can bring out in people - grown ass men were revelling among the blooms and posing for selfies. Hilarious. 

We had just enough of the gardens when it was time to hop back on the bus and head back to Amsterdam. Once we reached the city, we grabbed a cab to head over to dinner at Blauw restaurant. Everyone had advised me not to eat Dutch food, but instead to sample the Indonesian cuisine, which was supposed to be phenomenal. I dutifully obeyed, and we sat down to a veritable smorgasbord of absolutely delicious Indonesian fare. I didn't always know what exactly I was eating, but it was all super delicious! 

We were both pretty bushed by the end of the day, but I wanted to make one more attempt on the Anne Frank House. No such luck, the queue was longer than ever. J promised we could come back and do it again, which is great since now we know where to eat! A friend of mine is running the Amsterdam marathon in October, so maybe I should go ahead and make the Anne Frank House reservations and restaurant bookings now...

Intermediate Term Is Over!

It's been a crazy week, but I've managed to make it through somehow. It's been busy what with exams, selling our condo, and getting tested for my laser eye surgery.

The practical part of my exam went pretty okay. I thanked my lucky stars that we got the opera, woohoo! It's supposed to be the fastest cake, but also the most technically difficult. I've done better operas at home, but I think the one I did for the exam was enough for me to pass. I didn't start studying for the theory exam until the day before, and it turned out that none of the things I studied were actually on the exam. Doh! But I filled more blanks than left empty, so I'm not kicking myself too hard over it.

After the exams were finished, we got a taste of what to expect from the superior term. One of the chefs demonstrated the making of a chocolate box with tempered chocolate, and the end result was beautiful.

I'm almost tempted to give it a go, but maybe after I've recovered from exams.

We had the last few classes to decorate the fruit cakes that we had made earlier in the term. The chefs have been feeding them rum on a regular basis, and I tasted a bit of it. It tasted better than I thought it would and reminded me a lot of Christmas spices with the dried fruit and rum. It is, however, hard as a rock and quite dense.

In any case, we got to work on decorating. We had two technicals demonstrating how to decorate using flowers, but I just could not get the hang of it. I squeezed and rolled the same piece of paste for two hours before producing a few pitiful looking petals and giving up. I think it's become a mental block dealing with those fiddly little things, and I'll get to practicing again when I no longer feel like putting my head through a wall.

It was just as well that my cake didn't call for flowers, and I chose to do a stained glass inspired cake instead. I ended up taking the cake home to do a bit more work on it, and Casper decided to help by tasting my food colouring dust. I think I laughed for twenty minutes straight before I finally got back to decorating my cake.

I finished my cake just in the nick of time at the last practical, although there were some finishing touches that I would've liked to added. I was piping like a madman for the last thirty minutes or so, but I was actually pretty pleased with how it turned out! The chefs were also really complimentary, and it made my stone cold heart all fuzzy and warm inside.

It's hard to believe that intermediate term is officially over. Especially since the current plan is to take a break during summer and return for the autumn term. I'm maybe reconsidering that plan since the chefs told me autumn is going to be manic busy and super crowded. Ugh. I can't imagine the locker room fuller than it already is. That's one thing I'm definitely not going to miss. But I will miss my group and hanging out with the chefs. But it's not goodbye, just see you later, especially since I live so close to school, and I'm planning on volunteering regularly for the short courses. In fact, I'm volunteering for the boulangerie course that's scheduled to begin on Wednesday! 

Some of the other girls are leaving as well, but are actually leaving the country, and everyone got together for a dinner at the Savoy to say farewell. It's the sad part of being one of the few that actually lives in London. Pretty much everyone else is from far away, and it feels odd to feel like you're being left behind when school comes to an end.

Some of the girls got me flowers since I won't be returning for Summer term, and I'm going to miss going to classes with them. I really can't imagine being part of a funner group.

But I've promised to visit them lots over summer, with the cats and champagne in tow!