Víspera de Navidad

Kerstavond het ons baie baie lekker gekuier vir oom Haroen en tannie Marisabel, met tannie Aisha en Kees, en al die niggies. Soos julle kan sien is Víspera de Navidad die groot wonderlik klassiek familiefunksie van die jaar gewees. Die tafel het gekreun onder die berge lekker kos, die berg geskenke het onder die kerstboom uitgekring, die haardvuur en die emosies het hoog opgelaai, die moeg nooikies is afgelaai op die couch, terwyl die kerstmans die nuut musiek-dvd kyk en dans. Ons het net een dink gemis: die beskuit van tannie Hettie en Louis se ma.
Although Santa Claus tio Haroen couldn't wait to get his bouncing jingle bells into his brand-new pyama's and go to bed with his reborn babycushion, we partied till late on X-mas-eve (too late for the ladies, as you can see) and went home loaded with presents and doggybags. We'll spend the rest of X-mas enjoying auntie Marisabel's delicious quiches while we paint the livingroom walls & floor!

Familie-naweekkwartet - Baambrugge

Fourth stop in our X-mas familyround-a-bout is Baambrugge, where Maud's ouma Lydia lives. Maybe if you get very old you just fade away by lessening input - hearing and seeing less and less. But in between fading away the tough old lady is still sharp as scissors. What happens today, what happened yesterday, doesn't register, but she reacts like a hawk if there's a piece of information which really interests her.
Fascinating, in retrospect time gets another dimension - 44 years can be like 23, 25 years can be like a much, much longer period than over 40 years. And 90 years ago can be clearer than one hour ago. She remembers a brief moment in Marocco or Egypt way back when better than what happened this morning.

Familie-naweekkwartet - Vierhouten

Third stop in our X-mas familyround-a-bout is Vierhouten, where Maud's ma Marijke and her husband Dick live, with doggies Reus (giant - meant to be a joke, but he turned out to be truly gigantic) and Kyro (who thanks to his former owner likes his ocasional AA-drink). We arrived late, again enjoyed the luxury of just sit and talk, and then retreating in our own 'klein huisie' in the garden. Maud overdid being free by staying in bed untill two pm, waking up just in time to enjoy another delicious late lunch, after which Bram dived into the luxury of having a house without obligations, and slept until whiskey and snacks appeared beside his bed, followed by a fantastic dinner. This all accompanied by a little layer of snow - we had our white X-mas!!! We left with our share in the communual vegetable project last summer: an amazing load of pumpkins (we had a lot of courgettes also) - so amazing we totally forgot our firewood...

Familie-naweekkwartet - Marknesse

Second stop in our X-mas familyround-a-bout: Marknesse, where Bram's sister Christine, here husband Maarten and David (8), Jelle (6) and Linde (0) live. We dressed up posh because David&Jelle were to be the obvious stars in their music-school performance. Which they were, in the very, very best performance of the evening, dressed up in their 'wedding-suits' (meaning our wedding). And althoug a blond boy in a weddingsuit for a split second thouht his musical sticks were starfighters laser swords, David&Jelle were in the best unconditianally enthousiastic group on stage!!! Seriously, David en Jelle, jullie optreden is de beste voorstelling die oom Bram & tante Maud dit jaar gezien hebben!!!
Afterwards we had a private concert in the car, including 'Jingle bell's', 'My Tannie' and something about a 'farting donkey'. Back home we did some legobuilding (boys) and eating (girls). Linde obviously would be a star in lego too, if the boys wold just let her eat the redundant pieces.

Familie-naweekkwartet - Wilsum

First stop in our X-mas familyround-a-bout was Wilsum, where Bram's parents Tineke&Ivan live. Tineke prepared a delicious lunch (we'll blog the pumpkinsoup-recipe if Tineke reveals her secret) and arround lunch we sat in front of the hearth and enjoyed the peace of having time to just sit and talk. Which is our biggest luxury these days - taking time to do something we really want to do which isn't related to either 'work' or 'housekeeping' or 'Africa-preparations'.
Wilsum is a traditional Dutch village at the shore of the IJssel - a river in the Lowlands. In front of the parents' house, next to the old, old church, is a new house. Okay if you see it as a seperate building, but in the village setting it looks like someone put his Duplo-creation in the middle of your beautiful Lego-town. The good part is that it's a perfect protection for the harsh winterstorms, which started by now. But although it's wintery, there're still dilroses in their garden.

Molelo

Die naweek is vol primeurs: Anel kuier vir die eerste keer vir ons en beleef die vuurdoop van die open haard. En die eerste keer in die voorkamer sit. Nu nog die kersboom uit die Akker soek en die gordyne naai, en ons is gereed vir Xmas. En my ma sal eindlik maar al die dood hout uit haar bos kan los...
December will be without BigBuildingProjects (except for whitening the plastered walls as our kind of Xmas-party); just making curtains en seeing loads of people. Just the idea of us going away for three months leads to more appointments than we normally have in a year:-) We managed to set the house almost on fire yesterday - not with the open fire, but because of experimental joint cooking. Which proves Bram&Maud shouldn't cook together...

NVJ

Hallo allemaal,
Mens moet maar creatief zijn als de technologie half mee-, half tegenwerkt... Zolang ik net mijn mail kan lezen, maar niet terug kan mailen, gebruik ik blogposts+comments voor (niet-vertrouwlijke) boodschappen. Verder mis ik Nederland voor geen meter, alleen m'n katten. Halfnegen 's avonds, ga zo weer op de stoep zitten, de krekels tsjirpen, de padda's kwaken, de honden slapen, de sterrenhemel is magnifiek. Morgen (23 januari) naar Botswana toe, internettoegang zal daar wel iets lastiger worden.
Hier inmiddels een (dagblad)fotojournaliste leren kennen die prachtige foto's maakt, vooral haar slums-werk is fascinerend bijzonder. En natuurlijk boeiend om te filosoferen over krantensituatie hier vergeleken met Nederland. Morgen op pad naar Botswana,
groet,
Maud

The Knight's Hall

Removing a few, tiny, loose pieces of plaster before the 'stucadoors' started, ended up in a typical 'it must get worse before it can get better'-situation: we got the Knight's Hall, but still no space for the horses. After removing almost 1000 kilograms of old plaster the place is getting a brand-new look now, while the workmen get plastered on beers. Bram is moving around like a hare in spring, while Maud is sharing her bed with Flu; quite a tiring boy he is. Only two weeks now before Anel arrives from Potchefstroom (RSA); she'll be staying with us and working on her phd-research. So no more big renovation works after december 9, which is excellent, because we really have tot start our Botswana-preparations.

Redleg

The Madala has moved up from Eenbeen Gipsieking to High-heeled Redleg, which gives him a bit more 'moving around'-freedom. Still the progression in the house is even slower than it used to be, so we are going to sit in between a pile of boxes and our brand-new fireplace when we make our first in-house campfire. Which we don't really need now, because it's exceptionaly warm for the time of the year (we still have roses, canna, violins and more in our garden), but we have to start getting used to our African way of life; camping, cooking on an open fire... In honour of Bram's 50th birthday we'll be in Botswana & RSA for 3 months, leaving The Netherlands in January (you're all invited to Bram's Very Big Madala Party, March 10, just drive around in Kutse and Central Kalahari until you see an old Toyota-bakkie and a small tent). Fill the Gap!!!
Which was also the title of a conference we visited last week. About (to put it simply) filling the gap between the information-rich and the information-poor, specificaly internet-wise. Which brought back memories of old-fashioned so-called development aid; whities bringing their, according to them, goodies to the non-whities. Bram managed to spot one of the very, very few brada's.

Tlo ziet boten

Kleine Tlo is totaal gefascineerd door de zwartgeld-file die tijdens die mooie naweek langs onze tuin vaart.

gipsieking

Bram het hom getransformeer van aanstormend voetbaltalent tot eenbeenbandiet.

To: Christa & Michel

Het is zo hip hier dat een ouderwets mailtje niet werkt [heftig spamfilter bij de universiteit), we communiceren dus via de blog (weet niet of we na zondagochtend nog regelmatig bij de blog kunnen...)
Mocht jullie Afrika-expeditie nog lukken, Uit de sector campingspullen hoeven jullie alleen een tentje, slaapmatjes (we hebben wel 1 dun isolatiematje te leen) en een deken mee te nemen. Lakens, Borden, pannen, kussentjes, bovenkant voor campinggasjes etc. hebben we voor jullie.
Als je op comment klikt, kan je tekst invoeren die wij kunnen lezen en waaronder wij weer een comment kunnen plaatsen enzovoort.
Het is hier natuurlijk weer fantastisch, zon, ruimte, hadida's, een enorme puberhond (picture this: Careltje is pas 10 maanden oud, 4 tot 5 pookjes in 1 puberreutjeslichaam...)
tot gauw, de rhino's kijken uit naar jullie komst!