an you buy happiness? In fact you can! According to the study Prosocial spending and buying time: Money as a tool for increasing subjective well-being conducted by a group of researchers from Harvard University, University of British Columbia, and Simon Fraser University, spending money on giving (including charity), experiences, and time can actually buy you happiness.

I made a couple of big purchases lately. By big purchases I mean more than €150 and none of it among the 3 things mentioned above. Which led me to ask myself, am I trying to buy happiness?

t’s Sunday afternoon. I just lay down my sleeping daughter on the couch, after singing Frozen’s North Wind 10 times to lull to her sleep. I’m sandwiched between my child and my snoring husband. The dishwasher is spinning noisily in the kitchen. From my window, I can see a faint orange glow from the setting sun. The Christmas tree emits a delicious smell. It’s freezing cold but I’m wrapped in woolen socks, two layers of clothes and a thick blanket. In about an hour I’m going out for my second run this weekend before cooking dinner.

I was a few months shy of 25 when I moved to Holland. Yet in the first few years, I would always be carded if I buy alcohol or cigarette. I don’t remember exactly when they stopped asking for my I.D. but last week at work, I jokingly asked a colleague if I still looked 27 and he looked at me confused and sternly said ‘no”, as if my question was the most bizarre he heard that day.

Eleven years of living in the Netherlands and I barely noticed how time changed. I recently turned 36 and since my immigration, the years have been grinding steadily, albeit boringly consistent. I fell in-love, I migrated, I worked, I amused myself with wine, travel and marathons in between, I bought a house, I started a family and since then life had been about motherhood and working to pay the mortgage, debts and house renovations.

(Don’t worry! This is not a quit-my-job-to-travel-the-world kind of post)

In June 2019 we rented a mountain cabin in Norway for our summer holiday. Unlike our French trip the year before, we decided to go car-less because we wanted to save money and remove the pressure of having to see so many tourist places when you have a car. Our modest accommodation is located four kilometres away from the nearest supermarket, and our two year old daughter was just getting the hang of walking.

Geilo is the capital of Hol, in Viken county. Smacked between Bergen and Oslo, it’s a popular winter destination among Norwegians based on the number of privately-owned winter cabins in this area. Geilo is less busy in the summer and has a relatively cooler temperature compared to summer destinations in Europe. But what do you do in the mountains for 10 days when you don’t have a car?

On the evening of March 13, when the Dutch government imposed a lock down due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we were offline enjoying the swimming pool at Hotel Sterrenberg. Our planned activities were cancelled, including a visit to the zoo and museum. Fast forward to July 2020, against wisdom and the government’s advice, we booked a weekend getaway back to Gelderland as a make-up trip. Gelderland is becoming our favourite Dutch province, escaping to the nature of the Veluwe whenever possible. Armed with face masks and two bottles of alcohol gel, we drove to Wolfheze on Thursday morning.