Sunday afternoon at the beach

Lovely few hours this afternoon at the beach, this time the main section from the harbour to the pier here at Scheveningen.  The yachts were competing in the regatta off shore and thousands and thousands of people were enjoying 26C in the sun.  I'll just put a few pictures and captions here - it's late and I have to get to bed and get up at a reasonable time because the place needs a good clean and we have visitors from Utrecht at 2pm. This long weekend is Pinksteren or Pentecost, and tomorrow (Monday) is Second Pinksterendag.

Walked from home to the harbour.  Past a street bedecked with bunting and
streamers plus flags for Holland in the European Cup starting in a fortnight.

Some of the magical sculptures in place on the almost completed Niewe Boulevard.

Some of the thousands of visitors to the beach.  If you picked your spot carefully you needn't have been near anybody else - the size of the place is enormous.  The new beach is a further 80m into the North Sea.  Very impressive indeed.

The Kurhaus looking its elegant best as usual. 

The other side of the pier, looking north, just as busy for ever into the distance.

One of the many, many beach pavilions doing a roaring trade in food and drink.
Yes, there are yachts in the distance on the horizon, hundreds of them.

A Big Band plays to an appreciative audience on the boulevard, in
competition with the many live bands in the pavilions below. 
NB all these pavilions disappear at the end of September, packed away until next March.
 Amazingly impressive!

The first beer after such a lot of walking (plus an Italian ice cream earlier on).

Yes, there was a regatta on. I couldn't take a decent enough
picture out to see, but this was from the site of
our second beer of the afternoon.

This was beer #2. Good!

So good we demanded a repeat performance - 3rd and final beer before walking home....

...and passing yet another orange draped street - did I mention they're
a bit scarily fanatical about football here? 
Mind you, nothing else stirs their sporting passions as a nation, not even the Olympics.
Yes, mildly interested, but not 'stopping the nation' kind of interested. 
We Aussies are a breed apart in that department.

Bit of an early summer thing happening

Oh yes, much anticipated and finally every Dutch person's wish is fulfilled - The Netherlands swamped by waves of warm to hot weather for several days AND IT IS STILL MAY!  The sailors are thrilled because, being coastal, wind is ever present to some degree and it is the North Sea Regatta all week long, until Monday. Rene and I are venturing off to The Boulevarde here in Scheveningen after lunch to catch some of the atmosphere - 1500 vessels are participating.

Rene started this 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle of the Panorama Mesdag weeks ago, and he finally finished it last Monday - it's really quite challenging with so much sea and sand plus sky.  He packed it all away just this Sunday morning, but it looked great whilst displayed on the dining table.

Monday was my birthday, and they made a fuss at school (nice) and one child thought I was 29 - no, I wasn't teaching a class for the visually impaired, but the child was in Year 1.  We won't mention the current status of the child who thought I was 78 - but I'm reliably informed that she will recover....eventually!

Rene had arranged a surprise dinner with some friends in the city and we met up in a lovely cafe in the Grote Markt and stayed there for dinner and drinks.  Three of us later adjourned to yet another cafe for more drinks until midnight - lovely!  I received a joint gift from a couple of young ladies in the form of peeled and ready to cook white asparagus fresh sealed from her parents asperges farm in Brabant.  Included were sauce mixes for white asperges plus a white crisp wine from Mosel ideally suited to this delectable vegetable.  Tuesday night Rene prepared dinner - white asparagus with potatoes and smoked ham and a delicious white sauce for asperges and the wine - stunningly delicious!  Another friend gave me an entry to Tong Tong Fair, which we used on Wednesday evening.

Wednesday saw us at Tong Tong, and it was lovely.  A huge event, it is the sort of thing I'll attend every 2 or 3 years.  Eating, drinking and shopping for all things Indonesian and local - very pleasant.  Afterwards we adjourned (yet again) to an Irish pub nearby until after midnight again.  Yes, I didn't have school the next day, but was 'on call', so I worked this week Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Thursday saw our car going in to have an engine light 'thingy' sorted, and it was done very quickly, but we gave them two hours but in fact we took over three because we walked from the Alfa dealer in Scheveningen to Clingendael Park.  Here we checked out the much talked about Japanese garden, and it was worth the long walk (in glorious sunshine again) to see the beauty of this spring season.

This garden is quite small, but exquisite.  It is in a small part of an extensive park and open now for six weeks and in October for just a fortnight.  I'm wearing sunnies, cap and 'only' two layers - you have to be prepared here for any eventualities, so I'm always cautious.

The boy is looking fine, but in reality he has a heavy cold with a touch of aches and pains which is getting better, but not completely gone even this morning.  As I type this he's reading a paper in the sun on the balcony, so he's resting and getting lots of fresh air.

The garden was the idea of the baroness who owned the land plus the whole suburb of Benoordenhout (before she sold it to the council).  She made several sea voyages to Japan at the end of the 19th Century bringing objects and plants back with her.  Japanese workers also completed the garden - now owned by the local government.

Rene has had his mind set on finding a ball light for the floor
and at Tong Tong he did, and it is very pretty indeed, giving off
lots of light at night and looking quite disco ball'ish during the day.

This was the exterior of the left half of our complex early yesterday morning.  The terraces were already covered by awnings against the sun, and umbrellas helped too.  Last evening they were occupied with Eurovision parties and other excuses for gatherings.  The upper sections of the underground car parks are visible allowing enough height for double decker car parks - each apartment has two parking spaces one above the other with an elevator for each space.  We use the upper section as overflow storage, but some people have two vehicles.

This is the 'back' of our apartment right on the street - no, not a busy street.  We have a wide footpath and then the road which is a dead end at the tennis club.  I had the lower sections of the bedroom windows covered with a window film that allows privacy and lets in lots of light.  Our main bedroom is the left section, our spare bedroom the right side.  Yesterday we received news that Monday June 4 we have our curtains being installed.  Can't wait!  Reflected in the windows is the open park that ensures we have an open vista towards the coast (no, we can't see it, but the top floors can).

Our neighbour's car park had two vehicles before, but this new white Peugeot 508 appeared Friday with their 'old' BMW above.  Our old Astra looks somewhat ordinary in this garage full of some really beautiful cars, but it made sense to just aim for some reliable basic transport until we get settled.  We have gone from two cars and a motor bike in Oz to one car and two bicycles here in NL.  I'll have some pictures of me and my new bike next post.  I got it for my birthday last Monday and so far have only cycled up and down the paths along the beaches.  Very inexperienced, with a gap of 45 years using a bike regularly.  On June 30 one side of the family have their annual bike ride (25+km) which is really a cafe crawl through the Brabant countryside.  I need to be more confident by then.

Yesterday afternoon, around 5, we headed off to the beach on our bikes IN SHORTS!  Yes, it was so very nice and sunny that it deserved an airing of the knees.  Rene, below, and I chose to sit in the shade whilst the sun hungry Dutch all broiled themselves in the sun.  They do think we are totally crazy avoiding the sun, but while I like walking in the sun, even cycling, I draw the line at just 'sitting' in the sun.

The beach zone was Zuid Strand, between the harbour and Kijkduin - and it was really lovely BUT I couldn't believe the litter that had (I assume) blown away and ended up along the water's edge.  You would never see that back in Australia where there are no litter bins on the beach.  Here, the council supplies large bins placed there just for the pavilion season but everywhere along the water was litter - lots of it.  Yes, it was windy but I plead with users to collect and store litter so that the stunning beachscape is just that - stunning.

Bureaucracy continues to annoy me ('annoy' sounds so much better than 'shits me off'!) I think I have one piece solved this week, and I have received a 'Driver Licence Receipt' from the Transport Dept in Brisbane (actually it is from Dalby).  Within a fortnight I should receive my proper new photo licence in the mail.  Then I have to arrange my theory test for a Dutch licence since I have to get one before 186 days is up. My driving here has been limited, but I just don't need a car often.  The public transport is so brilliant, and now with a bike, I'm fine most of the time.  Last Friday night after school Rene and I went to Utrecht for a birthday party and we rendezvoused at Centraal Station (I was at school nearby) and went to Utrecht by train off peak with a 40% discount, therefore Euro5.90 each way.  If you want to drink, it is the best way.

My pay is still being sorted out, but I don't mind. Contracts have been signed, and the system will eventually pay me (from two different schools).  All the more spending money when we go to Lannion in Brittany next month.   Our Brisbane friends The Cronks have got a five bedroom/three bathroom house with pool for a month (swapped with theirs in Brisbane) so another two retired couples will also be there from Brisbane and we will spend around nine days with them.  Always fun, always interesting, always relaxing in a busy way.  Before that, our friend Tom (from Brisbane, via Manchester and Berlin) is visiting us to coincide with another pair of friends from Bribie Island who will be between their two cruises in Rotterdam on June 16.  Mark and Jim are on the 'Rotterdam' and will berth from 8am until 5pm before setting sail yet again on their second cruise on the same ship.  Tom, Rene and I will spend the day with them in Rotterdam.  Tom is with us three nights from Manchester. We will attempt to arrange a reciprocal visit to Manchester for their 'Pride'  festival later in the summer.  It's all go here folks!

I have a week off from schools because of primary schools being on vacation.  Secondaries are not.  My next jobs are five days in June (arranged and booked) plus being on call other days - except the ten when we are in France.  We plan on going through Paris by train, but will leave a proper visit to Paris for another time.  The Thalys hi speed train is the only way to go - by far my favourite train in Europe.

Now, that's enough.  Dear friends, if you were to subscribe to this blog I won't need to personally send you an email  therefore may I respectfully suggest you do become a subscriber by following the prompts on this Blogger site. OK, off to lunch then the yachts off the coast.  Chin chin everyone, until next time...

Sunny Saturday

Yes, it has been sunny all day and quite lovely.  Not Australian sunny, but nice all the same.  I miss the bright light that Australia has, but I'm not letting that get in the way of enjoying the weekend.

Today Rene bought me my first Dutch bike.  It's an Oma bike; an old fashioned, very upright bike in a Henry Ford kind of black.  I'd like to show you a picture of it, but would you believe when I went back to pick it up two hours after buying it, whilst everything was being demonstrated, the big rear lock on the frame refused to work (this was brand new).  No amount of fiddling by the bike technician would get it to work, and of course I wanted an absolutely no fuss lock system (paid enough for it) sooooo has to be changed, the new serial numbers recorded on the warranty, and they were to call me back by the end of the afternoon - alas nothing, so I'll get it after school Monday.  It is a birthday present from Rene, and the birthday is Monday, but I was hoping to have it to cycle away for drinks at the beach....oh well, c'est la vie! Plan is still to cycle to the beach Monday evening for drinks and dinner - I just won't be as practiced as I had hoped.

This is similar to my new bike - 'oma' is 'grandmother' in Dutch - seriously basic bike.

I have cycled briefly twice in the past 45 years - once at the Kroller Muller Museum on the free bikes through the park, and again on the island of Terschelling.  That was eight years ago.  I am reluctantly going towards a bike as a major form of transport, but having said that Rene and I looked at second hand bikes in the city (plus lights for the apartment) and he had come into the city by bike, me by bus, and after he left me in the city to ride home on his bike yesterday I chose to walk home, and it was very nice. Just walking and looking and stopping and enquiring here and there, and making eye contact with passersby and a quick acknowledgement - kind of nice.  Oh, I'm also 3kg less now (face it, I'm never going to be a greyhound).  This city is really quite small and very easy to get around.  Would you believe I was asked for directions three (yes, three) times yesterday?  I must have that kind of face.

Whilst waiting for Rene to arrive in the Centrum yesterday (unusual because it's usually the other way round) a father and two kids arrived outside a huge toy store, they all hopped off and just went inside.  It looks like it's homemade, but not sure, and it certainly is a fully featured transport unit.  Amazing!

When I walk to the shops (which I'll continue to do because I like the walking) I use this pathway beside a pond and stream.  The bird life is amazing, and these babies are just some of the very many varieties of species calling the pond home.

This is Rene's part of the new office we have set up.  It is being tried and tested, and some modifications may still be made,  but essentially this is it.  We have six coloured lamps on one side of the bookcases and a string of hundreds of tiny bulbs across the top of the longer bookcase above my work space.  The small drawers and cupboards inserted in the bookcases are sitting unfixed, but once we have decided on the final configuration, a couple of screws inside each unit will have the whole space completed.  So far, very happy with it.

The office space sits comfortably in our long open plan living room area.  I'll get better pictures on another day, but for now happy, happy, happy.

Another thing was finalised this week - the curtains.  We have blackouts for the two bedrooms - you really need them here with the shorter nights and street lighting right outside the bedrooms - and unbacked ones for the living room and dining room.  I can't explain the fabrics, just that they cost a fortune but will be beautiful.  They'll be hung inside a fortnight.

So far I have three days work next week which is enough for me.  A Brisbane Airport Ambassador is coming to the south of France for work in August (she's a travel agent) and she's said that she very may well pop up to NL on that trip and see us, and another friend, Tom, from Brisbane (via Manchester and Berlin) is coming in June when we all three plan on seeing Bribie Island friends Mark and Jim who will be in Rotterdam on the 'Rotterdam' between cruises on June 16.  Also late next month we're off to Brittany (hopefully by train) to meet up with a stack of Queensland friends who are doing a house swap for a month.  We'll invade them for just a week. 

Last Thursday I made Donna Hay's roasted pumpkin and garlic soup for guests and it was delicious, so tomorrow I'm repeating the soup for another dinner guest but attempting to 'tweak' it a bit more for even more flavour.  I had a funny experience in my local supermarket last Wednesday trying to find out what 'tarragon' is in Dutch.  I had got translations for all the other things I needed to make a spicy Dutch stew to go with the soup, but this tarragon escaped me.  After one whole aisle of lovely Dutch customers all interrogated each other, the result was 'dragon' - which was duly found and purchased. Food and grocery shopping is a challenge for me at times, but people here are usually really lovely and helpful.  I'm one week off four months here now - I think I'm doing OK for a (nearly) 62 year old.

Update for May 13

We have been incredibly busy these past few days, so I thought I'd catch up a little and record some of the events before I've forgotten them.  Firstly, we have entertained The Cronks (Rebecca, Bernadette and Peter) on their annual three month sojourn to Europe.  Rene organised their tours, and this year's theme is 'water', so we all visited the Maaslantkering in Rotterdam near the coast where they can lower the barriers in case of storms.

 

They are the size of two Eiffel Towers lying on their sides - enormous AND THEY WORK!  If a high tide or storm from the North Sea threatens to inundate Rotterdam Europort, they are lowered and minimise the effect.  Tested annually, they have also been used in real life situations and passed their test superbly.  We passed many hundreds of glass houses before reaching Hoek van Holland where the barrier is installed. 

After a delicious lunch of smoked eel on toast at Scheveningen Harbour we then visited  the Sand Motor, an experiment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knVc9aBqnzg completed last year costing more than Euro 20 million.  The Project Manager, a former colleague of Rene's, took us around and we walked (and walked) along the beach from Kijkduin (near to our place) and saw the results of four months pouring of sand onto the edge of the beach - an area created 2km long and a km wide.  The video explains the theory behind it.

After getting home late, we ventured into the centrum for a rice taffel at a great Indonesian restaurant - something like 24 main and supporting dishes.  The Cronks left Den Haag happy.

The next day we had to go south to Eindhoven for my brother in law's celebrations marking his 25th year with Philips.  I couldn't take pictures inside (it's a bit top secret) but we did have an official photographer, so I'll post some later on taken inside the facility.  8000 people work in this High Tech Campus, and we started off with coffee and cake, a few presentations and a tour of the building.  My brother in law Jack's daughter Anneke (7) was there so the scientists had a bank of 'tricks' to entertain her as well as the rest of the family.  Good fun!

The final inspection involved us getting into clean clothes head to foot and going into a clean facility dressed like martians - it was very funny to watch our various reactions to wearing all white and hair nets.  The building cost Euro 30 million to build, but one experimental area was working on a project worth Euro 60 million.  Jack is involved in testing materials and other things, but the explanations were in Dutch - and with my understanding of things scientific it would sound Double Dutch even in English.

We walked along the lakes leading to an old farm house left on site and used as a social centre - and many dozens more colleagues joined us for drinks and snacks.  We finished the evening with just seven of us having dinner in a neighbouring village - and it was really delicious too.  We got home at 11:45 and to bed by 12:30 - and (surprise, surprise) I was awakened at 7:50 by a call from one of my schools to come in if possible.  I was at the front door by 8:45 and had a lovely day, but that afternoon after 5 I sat down and fell asleep in the chair.

These long stem tulips were pictured yesterday and are six days old - cost a whole Euro 5:96 (A$7.68) for 20.  Our earlier visitor Kay has said in an email today that she paid a lot more for tulips this week back in Australia - it made her cry handing over the money because she knew how inexpensive flowers are here. Hers cost A$11:00 for 5.

We were given three free packs of bulbs at an information centre a fortnight ago,
so Kay and Rene planted them and now we have new life on the balcony. 
Photographed yesterday - in pot 12 days.

Yesterday we drove yet again south east towards the Belgian border to another family event, this time the 50th wedding anniversary of one of Rene's uncle and aunts.  It was held in a part centre in a small village and had more than one hundred guests, plus around 30 extra visitors in the form of a town band.  Coffee and cake launched the function, other drinks soon followed, and there were speeches and funny songs (like De Dings Singers) and a performance from the band - Rene's uncle had been in charge of them for 30 years.  Lots of fun, and I actually enjoyed the whole evening - I initially worried about feeling too left out not speaking Dutch yet, but managed quite well and the people were excellent.  Masses of great food too, and I restricted myself to juice and soft drink except for one red wine with dinner because I was BOB (the designated driver).  I drove home around 140km which took around 1 hr 38 mins.  My first long drive here, and also at night.

The huge family had lots and lots of fun.

The band was terrific, and I apologise for not having the best photos, but I was working in a jammed space with a phone camera.

Svetlana and Anneke (7).  I love my extended Dutch family.

Yes, more family - Rene's older brother Huub, Jan and Claartje (who married on Straddie four years ago) and Jack - the Philips researcher and dad to Anneke. I couldn't get a straight picture out of them - I tried!

Looking more sane (just) late in the evening.

The tiny village where the party took place.  Incredibly neat, I'd hate to judge 'Nederlands Tidiest Town' because they all are.

The venue for the fun.  This was taken around 9:30pm as it was getting dark.  Love the longer evenings.