Winnie Time!

First things first. Last week evaluated the first half of my internship with my mentor. Some of you may know that during my last internship, all the feedback I got was negative. It seemed like I didn't make any progress whatsoever, even though I worked my butt off to please everyone. So, naturally, I was pretty nervous about this evaluation. Now, I know everything I told you so far about the internship has been positive, and the only things I'd heard from my supervisor were positive as well, but when the moment is there when it counts, things might not turn out as bright as expected. This time though, was different.
My mentor had to fill out a form on the internet where she graded me on certain aspects of my internship. Without even reading the questions properly, she started ticking the excellent boxes for all the points asked about. I was watching this prosess open-mouthed, because I really couldn't believe what was happening. This was the exact opposite of my last internship. After she'd ticked all the boxes. My mentor explained to me, why she did this. Appearently I am one of the best interns she has ever worked with, I listen carefully, I ask the right questions, I am eager to learn and learn fast, and I show initiative by taking on work that is not specifically handed to me. I couldn't have ended my short work week better!

To add to the festivness, Winnie arrived in London Thursday evening!
And I had a surprise planned for her. A few weeks back, I found out that in cinemas around London (and the rest of the world), an exclusive screening of the play Frankenstein starring Benedict Cumberbatch (an actor Winnie and I both love) were shown on Thursday 30 October. I couldn't let that chance pass me by. Luckily, it was a good surprise, she loved it! We both did, in fact. It was a good start of our weekend.

Friday morning, we went to Camden Town (a place I can't visit enough). The afternoon, we spent in Soho. I took her to Forbidden Planet, a must visit for every Doctor Who fan. I finally got around to buying my very own Sonic Screwdriver, with which I'm now very happily opening every lock I encounter.
That night, our original plan was to go out and celebrate Halloween somewhere, but when we finally arrived home, we were both so tired from all the walking around town, that we really didn't feel like going out again, so we made Joke's Snoepjeseten and cozied up on my bed with an episode of Doctor Who.

On Saturday we got up early again, to do some grocery shopping at Sainsbury's. Afterwards we had breakfast and then we went to the Design Museum. In the end, we found out that the way to get there was more interesting for us than the actual museum, because of all the "doorkijkjes" Winnie found and had to photograph. I love to watch her do that. Her face lights up with excitement, it's like she already sees what her picture should look like. She's now using an analogue camera, but she keeps looking at the back of the camera after she's taken a picture to check how her picture looks. We had a great laugh about that. As it turns out, we didn't buy tickets to go into the Design Museum, because we found out that the expositions held at the moment weren't really our thing. We walked over to the Tower Bridge instead and crossed it to get to the Tower. Winnie was really amazed by the big field of poppies. You can't really picture how many poppies are actually on there (888,246 on 11 November), there are just to many to imagine. Because of the big crowds we didn't manage to go around it fully, but we did get to take a few pictures.
After lunch, we went over to the Natural History Museum. That should have been easy. It was a one way trip on either the District or Circle line, but of course both lines were not in service due to repairs of some stations. After a lot of walking and probably a very big detour, we arrived at the museum, where we walked into an ice rink lying right next to it. We decided to visit that one during her visit in December (sound like fun Schelte?).
The Natural History Museum is a very big museum. We managed to walk through the earth section, where we got to feel an earthquake, and see a big part of the mammals and dinosaurs section. Even though we're both not especially interested in biology and geography, we did really like the things we saw. And besides, the building itself was really beautiful, so even if we didn't like the rest, we would have appreciated that.
Because of our detour, we weren't able to visit the last museum of the day, the Museum of Brands. This one we'll have to leave for another time too.

On Sunday, we went to Stratford. During the morning, we had planned to visit the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, but because of the repairs going on and the bad weather, our visit didn't last as long as expected.
The rest of the day we spent at Westfield Stratford City, a shopping center of three storeys high. Because we didn't get to spend that much time at the Olympic Park, the shops in the centre hadn't opened yet when we arrived. It was nice to see the whole building wake up. We were able to take a few pictures and get a cinnamon and sugar crêpe for breakfast. The rest of the day we spent trotting around and shopping. A good way to end a great weekend.
That night, we cooked Lise's Tagliatelle met gehakt, spek en groente. Great recipe!

This morning, we had to get up at 7 (which I like a lot more than 3), because Winnie had to get her coach to the airport at Victoria Station at 8. No tears were shed during our goodbye, I'll be seeing her again at the end of this month, so that's a good thing to look forward to.

Now I have to get back into working mode again, because the fun short working weeks are over. Five days it is again. But the good thing about that is, that the people I work with appreciate the work I do and really enjoy having me around. I couldn't ask for more.

I'll talk to you again on Sunday! I don't think I'll be doing much this weekend, but you never know what might come up...