I made it! (Well, kind of...)

I finally had my auditions!
For the ones who don´t know what auditions:
I really want to become a circus artist, but first I have to go to a professional circus school.

Last week I had the auditions I've been looking up to for the last 9 months. The audition at the school where I wasn't taken last year. Back then, I was completely devastated by that, and I felt quite depressed the months afterwards. And now I've done them again!

At the first day I got really nervous, because there were quite some people who had a lot of skills in every circus discipline (acrobatics, juggling, aerials) and I know I have my weak points at dynamic acrobatics (like tumbling in gymnastics) so I felt quite inconfident.
We had some classes, while a commitee full of really serious circus teachers were watching you.

Which is really good for your nervousness

We started with floor acrobatics, then handstands, theatre and aerial acrobatics. They all worked out OK for me. There were almost no exercises I couln't do. Only climbing a rope without your legs didn't work out at all.

But hey, I have to carry a 180 cm long body with 75 kilograms attached to it. I know this is quite a invalid argument, but still ;-)

On the second day we had all the 'artistic'things except theatre (so dance, improvisation/composition and music), a flexibility and strength assessment and  a presentation of our individual acts.
For the ones who are interested about my act:



A lot of things went wrong actually, but I'm still working on it. in 24 days I have another audition so enough time to improve it!

After all the individual acts (they were all supergood!) such as normal juggling, static trapeze, aerial silks and partner acrobatics we had to wait for the results....

That feeling that you have to wait for the results of something this important (at least, it's for me) really kills you from the inside. After two hours of deliberating they came with the results.

The group consisted of about 19 people. And they first started with the people who got a NO. those No's were 5 people, including 2 of my friends... Not so nice.

But as soon as I realised that I wasn't n the No group, I suddenly realised that I could be in the YES group or in the YES, BUT group.
And I was!

Together with 7 other people I'm on a kind of waiting list. They want about 20 people a year, and they already passed  7 other people.
At the end of June, there will be a second auditions with new people.

If all those people are really bad (I HOPE SO) then I have a big chance of getting in.

If all those people are really good, then I'm screwed...

So Time will tell!

And that's the reason why I also do audition at another school in Holland, and at 3 schools in France.

Now I'm quickly off to my modern dance and gymnastics classes, my motivation is bigger than ever!

Cooking experiment: Caramel topped Chocolate Cake

Sometimes I just want to throw random ingredients around, and see what it becomes.

Sometimes I´m lucky with the outcome, a lot of times I´m not.

Anyway, last week I found a can of sweetened condensed milk and two bars of really cheap chocolate.
I was extremely bored, and since I try not to eat when I´m bored, I decided I should make food instead.
First I wanted to make a kind of chocolate brookies, but I just had to use the condensed milk.
So in the end, it became this slightly gooey chocolate caramel cake

The golden brown sticky caramel layer on the cake..

What you need:
-300 gr unsalted Butter


-250 gr sugar


-4 eggs (2 eggs if you use vegabin, which is made of locust bean gum)


-(2 ´spoons´ of Vegabin if you use 2 eggs)


-400 grams Flour


-1 teaspoon baking powder


-1 'Splash' of milk


-200 gr dark chocolate, melted


-1 can of sweetened condensed milk 


How to make it:


-Preheat the oven at 200 degrees Celsius (390 Fahrenheit)

-Mix the butter, sugar, eggs + vegabin together.

-Sieve the flour and the baking powder, and mix it with the rest of the mixture.
  Then you add the molten chocolate and mix it until the batter is 'fluffy'. When the batter is too thick, add some milk

-Put the condensed milk in a small saucepan and heat it up. Stir once in a while!

-In the meantime, put the batter in a cake tin.

-When the condensed milk starts to thicken up, remove it from the heat. and let it cool for about 5 minutes. Keep stirring :-)

-Cover the cake batter with the thickened condensed milk and put it in the oven for about 40 minutes.
Every oven is different, so keep watching the cake! Just make sure the cake is dry and the toffee layer isn´t burnt.

As you might see, my cake has been in the oven for a bit too long... The edges of the caramel layer started to get burnt :-(

 The gooey cake matches perfectly with the sticky caramel.

I have this really strange eating habit...

When I'm going to eat something really tasty, I just have to eat it with with a plastic spoon from a plastic cup. I don't know why, but that makes the whole eating experience so much better

Transformation complete....

Finally got them!

I´ve been wanting these ´hippie´ trousers for so long. Though my sister laughed at me really hard when I told her that I ordered these. I do admit that I've become a bit of a hippie since I'm going to circus festivals. About 75% of the people at those festivals wear these pants (in combination with dreadlocks), and those pants just look like they're really comfortable, so I had to try them!
One step further to being a circus hippie :-)


I bought them on Ebay for 16.35 euros (20.99 dollars), which is quite cheap if you compare it to dutch stores. You easily pay twice as much for such trousers. Of course it's even cheaper yo make your own, but that's going to be my next DIY project ;-)

 How awesome is the package?! It's sent in a cotton bag with old school stamps on it with indian symbols on it. I like it so much more to receive a package like this, than a regular carton box.

 The trousers've been sent directly from India. It's a cool idea that this package has been travelling through all kind of different countries. I always imagine how it looks like over there when I got those foreign packages.

 I really like the fabric. It's not too striking for a colorphobe for me, and my favourite colors, blue and grey, are in it.

As you can see, the trousers are a bit too short

Neverending story...

Really charming pose

Chocolate chip Brookies

Het zijn geen brownies, het zijn geen cookies. Het zijn Brookies.
Dit heerlijke recept kwam ik tegen op Bakerella , die ook de 'uitvinder' is van de cake pops, cupcakes op een stokje.
Het is een perfecte combinatie, de buitenkant is hard als een koekje, maar de binnenkant nog heerlijk zacht als een brownie...
Omdat ik anderhalve week terug naar Parijs ging voor een circusfestival (Cirque de Demain), wilde ik iets lekkers maken voor de busreis. Of nouja, ik wilde iets bakken en ik moest een goed excuus bedenken...
Na wat rondzoeken kwam ik uiteindelijk op dit heerlijke recept!

Chocolate heaven... - Magnetron Chocolade Cake

Ik zal het toegeven,

ik ben een troosteter. 

Niets lekkerder dan zielig en vol zelfmedelijden op de bank iets lekkers wegwerken. En hier is eigenlijk ook helemaal niks mis mee, zolang je het maar goed doet. Geen hele zakken chips wegwerken, of een pak koekjes; Maar iets écht lekkers, waarmee je je écht weer goed gaat voelen.

En daar heb ik het perfecte recept voor!