Folks @ Work

To commemorate their birthdays Janny & Cees wished for a weekend of labour and lekker food & fun with the kids at their Zeeland farmhouse. The first accomplishment is all of us actually arriving more or less awake Saturday morning, after an extremely exiting Dutch soccer match & party Friday night.


Every new arrival is well fed to regain strength for the zillion jobs. The experienced trampoline team first erects Janny's other birthday present, so we can put Jack & Tui in their new cage.


It's a miracle we get anything else done cause the kitchen team keeps producing food that has to be eaten.


In between meals a lot of restoration, painting, pruning and weeding is accomplished after all.


Mates @ Work: Jack & Bram put the old wooden bench back together before the painting team has a go at it.


The freshly pebbled terrace is the showiest result of a perfectly orchestrated group effort.


View the real slideshow of the mates and everyone else:

Alan's Zeeland pictures

Change Management 2010

Obviously during succer championships every bar & restaurant has to make a crucial marketing decision: big screen game watching (most) or soccer-free (a profitable niche-market). Another lucrative niche-market is courses; crochet your own igloo, produce the swirliest ice cream, expert bonsai pruning - succer widows & widowers will subscribe to anything to escape home game watching.


Home game watching? Yes, as the devotees get older, they're not up to bar game watching all wars with their fellow disciples anymore. Their first resort is 'It'll be so nice to watch together, all together - my succer friends & partners and you darling.' Although the heathens suspect they are invited to serve beers, cook, and wash dishes, cause the believers are too busy, it really is nice.


Organizing braais almost every day for over three weeks is a bit much, so their second resort is 'It'll be so nice to watch with you darling.' Yeah, sure, as long as there's enough cold beer and hot snacks at hand you'll never notice whether I'm there or not - darling! That's where the courses come in.


Being really old, we have our own solution for the non-braai events. Take Maud's fatboy & big tele, locate them strategically close to her computer, the fridge and the snacks cupboard, put Bram and our cats Tlo & Tau on top of the fatboy (yes, that's the big blue cushion), and there's a happy family!


For those who didn't believe our post 'Manual 2010': the Dutch national anthem is about the freedom war against the Spanish in (1568-1648)! And a running Low Lands joke is 'If we reach the next round, but the Germans don't, what's the point?'
What really irritates Maud is they took out everything interesting. Succer fasion used to be hot pants & tight shirts, but nowadays they're clad in these potato bags. On top of that they cancelled the charming habit of teams switching shirts on the field after the game. So what's the point of watching?

Manual 2010

Red Alert: in 2010 an invasion of weird & wild European tribes is expected in Southern Africa. How to recognize them? They move around in groups, wearing their tribe colours, carrying strange attributes in the same tints. They feed on liquid bread (beer) and chips only. It's not sure they have a language - if so, it consists of about ten words, of which oleoleoleole is the most important. According to recent research they communicate by varying the tone and length of 'oleole'. Before and after each succer match they roam cities & villages - an excellent chance to study them in the wild!


To collect data, your research team staked their lives and went to Amsterdam during the Romania-France and the Netherlands-Italy tribal wars. Even though we disguised ourselves in tribal colours, we were lucky to find a safe h(e)aven to hide until the heat was off again. The UN managed to supply plenty food & drinks & bandages, and some charcoal to cook on - imagine!


There even was a tele so we could watch The War live. The day before the Germans took revenge for their silver medal during the Second World War by beating the Poles, but the poor Italians saw the gold going to the Netherlands again. Just so you know how deep this succer goes: a Low Lands - España match is a replay of the Tachtigjarige Oorlog (1568-1648; the guerrilla of the Dutch against their rightful Spanish King or the freedom war of the Netherlands against the Spanish occupation...). That's why the main tribal colour is orange, even though de Dutch flag is red-white-blue: Willem of Orange, forefather of the Dutch Royal House, was the leader of the revolt.

Folks again

We can hardly believe it, but the weather has changed! Right in time cause we planned a weekend in Wilsum with Bram's parents. Wilsum is a small village on the brink of the river IJssel, in the eastern rural part of the Netherlands. The yards are a bit more spacey, with room for vegetables, fruit trees and marvellous flower compositions. Bram's dad Ivan is a wizard with roses, just like his great-aunt Ma Jet!


After a lovely lunch Maud feels like a nap, so she misses the arrival of the sweeties. The boys make up by jumping on top of her after deciding sleeping aunties are boring. This is the perfect introduction of their new hobby: grapple.


It is also the first day of the European Championship Succer, so David has to join uncle B and oupa in watching all and every game, boring or not. This leaves poor Jelle uncle Ivan jr. (sorry, hernia), dad Maarten (sorry, pimping laptops) and, yuk, females for grappling. Though he must admit mom Christine is a good match...


Linde compensates for being the smallest by being the most strong willed, and a fierce soccer-player. No way getting past her and ouma Tineke for the boys!


We put a cherry on our cake by spending the evening in front of the outside fireplace with the neighbours and South African wine. No wonder everyone is latish Sunday morning! Again the weather is so nice: sunny and dry, perfect for sipping a cupper or two outside before really waking up.


Finally we manage to drive to the brink of the IJssel to do some bird watching and enjoy a light liquid lunch before we hop on a train back to urban Holland.

Kaasfondue

Here's a typical Dutch treat: Swiss cheese fondue. The recipe is simple: put grated cheese and white whine in a pot, heat until cheese is melted, add secret ingredient(s), and serve with bread for dipping. Like all simple recipes it's very hard to make a good kaasfondue; the result might be like well-used chewing gum, warm vinegar with a lot of salt, or even worse. Once again Carel proved he's an excellent cook. Perfect fondue, accompanied by just what the doctor ordered: jokes. Beware Batswana, when Margot, Mink and Melle decide an African safari is just what their doctor ordered, Carel will introduce kaasfondue in Morwa.


After dinner the boys decided to compare injuries. Yes, sure, charming, your ripped off Achilles resulted in one perfectly shaped calve and a funny floppy formless one for both.

More 'our Folks'

Although Machteld is much younger then Maud, in the matrimonial department she got a 1 year, 3 months, 4 days head start. To celebrate her fifth wedding anniversary, we hopped over to Amsterdam to kidsit our nephews, while Maggie & Alan went partying downtown.


We left for Botswana last September when Tui was just born, so he doesn't know us at all, but he was very cool about this strange uncle and auntie. In fact he refused to go to sleep, cause he really wanted to make up for lost time, and get familiar with us. He especially flattered Maud by crying if he was not in her arms.


Jack decided on a different approach by being a compliant angle. Maybe he was practising for loosing his status of 'terrible two' by turning three coming July, but we of course like to think he was just happy to see us. The bottom line is we've never seen a two-year old agree to 'let's bath', 'lets go to bed', and etcetera that easily! On top of that he was delighted to share is new 'big boy' room with us for the night.

more J&T-pictures

After a mellow, extended breakfast with Alan and the boys (poor Machteld had to report for work early), we biked to Bram's great aunt Loes. Ninety year old Louise Aisha is the last of Bram's granddad Bram many sisters and brothers alive. She's still incredibly sharp, and has all this amazing stories about colonial Suriname. Nothing beats oral history from someone who really lived through it!

Wildlife!!!

Hey, we got the perfect location, in the old city centre, with a patch of garden, and one of the famous canals right behind our miniature masimo! Those canals will take you everywhere in the city, so instead of driving to Trade Centre and Builders Botswana, we can boat to the shops, and load our petite vessel.
There's even some wildlife floating in the canals, like these swans, which exactly know which suckers will feed their offspring. Seriously, they have this fixed forage round, stopping at certain yards and houseboats to see if anyone is around to hand over their share!
Wanna check it out on Google Earth? Boat: latitude 52° 9'40.81"N, longitude 4°30'12.29"E. House: latitude 52° 9'41.70"N, longitude 4°30'12.07"E. Masimo: latitude 52° 9'41.19"N, longitude 4°30'12.24"E.

Transport

Since we don't have a car in the Netherlands, and still want & need to move around, we're subject to the joys & sorrows of other modes of transport...


Luckily public transport by train is quite good - if there are no accidents or maintenance works on the rails, broken down trains, or strikes. In fact it equals driving your own car, which is also hampered by accidents, road works and breakdowns, and, instead of strikes, omnipresent traffic jams.


The problem is getting to & fro railway stations, but we got the perfect solution: folding bikes. Bicycles are very popular in the Netherlands anyway, and the fold-in, fit-in public transport, variety is like the best invention ever to extend your radius!


A few 'big' cities in the Randstad (urbanized area in the west) also have metros and trams (like a goutrein), but biking is so much faster. And then there are the busses - well, avoiding experiences with those, we can't really tell you anything about them...

Roses & Thorns

When we arrived, not a single rose was blossoming, and now we already have a shower of flowers! The jungle of weeds has been taken out, and in the tiny vegetable patch the beans & other stuff we sowed are popping up. The empty spaces we had after the weeding are filled with nice new plants, thanks to Janny. She took Maud to the nursery to cash the 'Pick Plants next Spring'-present Cees & Janny gave us last autumn.
The garden tells us it's spring; otherwise we wouldn't know. After a first nice warm week the temperature changed, so Maud is walking around wrapped in a blanket like a real Motswana, to survive the overnight frost...


Right now the concrete jungle doesn't pester us too much cause we're buried in work. Maud's glued to her computer day & night, busy with editing and writing. Luckily she's got an extensive cyber social life now that Steven & Richardt told her to take a Facebook account. Add that to gmail & gmail chat, and being online almost always, and your virtual socializing is guaranteed.


There's a lot of real life socializing to do also. Although after our Pentecost weekend we postponed most 'meet & greet' events till after this extremely busy month of May, we had Marjan & Rubel over for an evening do, Charmian for tea & chatting, Bram's tio Haroen & family for boating (the family & Bram) and loitering in the garden (Haroen & Maud), Janny for dinner, Maud's dad for lunch, and Mehmet & Astrid for 'kuierkos'.


Our theme for this summer's guests: kuierkos; a plate of this, and that, and something else, and suddenly you can call it 'dinner'. This is the great part of being in the Low Lands: spending time with friends, having these evenings where you suddenly realize 'mi gado, it is morning already, and I have to work today!'

Bram's Women

Think twice before you put '4 Bitches in my Bed' on your Xxx-mas Wish-list!

Our Folks

Pentecost Sunday the train brings us to Maud's mom. Her one-hectare plot in Vierhouten offers ample opportunities for gardening, especially since a tornado hit it last summer, so it's a huge playground for Maud. Tornados by the way are not supposed to happen in the Netherlands...


There's ample space to make it a playground for others also. The youngest additions are a trampoline, a soccer goal and an outside 'snack' table. After Maud's brother Nils and Bram assembled those, the quality is heavily tested by nephew Marijn and his mother Arna.


To complete this triple festive day - Mother's day, Pentecost, welcome back - Nils produces a stack of special pancakes. One might say we honour our mom's maiden name, Koekebakker; Maud does her share of 'pannenkoeken bakken' in Botswana.


Bacon, ginger & apple, onion & garlic, pepper & cheese - Nils proves you can bake virtually everything into a pancake. After dinner Marijn's party goes on: he'll camp on the lawn with ouma.


Pentecost Monday we are supposed to go to Bram's parents in Wilsum, together with Bram's brothers & sister, and their partners & offspring. Unfortunately the flu hit Ivan & Tineke heavily, so we move the party to Vierhouten. It's another beautiful spring day, perfect weather to enjoy our very Dutch meal of soup & bread & cheeses outside.


A flock of nephews and nieces means more heavy duty testing of the new equipment. Once again the boys have to cope with the fact that Jolin is the best soccer player - how many generations will it take for Dutch males to accept girls can excel in soccer?
At least they recognize Little Linde bossing everyone around as the natural state of things. When asked 'who's the boss' they'll always pick the woman of the household - with a special position for oupa Ivan. Ouma Tineke is of course the boss in general, but 'oupa is his own boss'.


The family bravely endures the usual bombardment with pictures & video out of Africa, and meekly rounds up for the unavoidable group photograph (Maarten, Sandra, bro Henk-i, Maud, Jolin, Harriet, David, Jelle, Marijke, Dick, bro Wanja, sis Christine, Linde).


Beware: there'll be more scary pictures of other bros & sister and etcetera soon...