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.