Surgery

This morning R. had to be at 7 at the hospital for his surgery at 11!
Isn't that crazy, you can fly to the other side of the world and show up 2-3 hrs before leaving with all sorts of security checks and simply because the hospitals don't get their logistics right, the patient can fill up the gaps by waiting.

Anyhow.
His surgery was delayed, so they gave him an extra shot coz they didn't exactly know how long it would be delayed and they don't want you to go: hey guys i think we'd better stop here, coz i can feel my toes again.
Which meant that when i picked him up at 3 he still couldn't feel his toes :)

We're all back home now.
He's looking into a motor magazine.

Life as usual.

2 bikes and 1 washing machine coming up

Yesterday we went to Drunen, of all places to get the boys new bikes.
R. and i were planning to by some 2nd hands on the net, but the prices we saw almost justified new ones and when we thought we'd found a real good bargain, we set of to Drunen.
Now as it happened, Lucas one of M.'s friends was playing and staying the night over.
That meant 1 little 3 yr old, 1 5 yr old and 2 6 yrs old at the back of our car.

Ever since R. drives on his motor, he had earplugs because of the noise outside.

Let me put it this way; I almost begged him to let me use them.
My god.

Ok.
we finally arrived at the store where C, realised her brothers were getting something and she wasnot and burst into tears, whereupon Lucas asked what we was getting today.
A kiss I said and that made him run for a little while.


After an ice cream at the McD.'s to cool everyone down, this is how our evening ended: the boys in pj's almost standing on R.'s hand and begging to help.
Today it was raining all day but tomorrow i hope we can take them outside and i'll take some pictures then.

Then the washing machine broke down.
Again.
We have our handyman over every other week it seems and as we learned this morning; he is on a holiday till June 6.
That means more than a week no washing, which is IMPOSSIBLE.
So.
If you see 2 ppl tomorrow morning working themselves into a back injury getting one washing machine 2 flights of staircases down and then another one up, that'll be R. and I.

Dordt in stoom

This -almost 400 yrs old- sign was on one of the houses we passed.

Yesterday we went to Dordrecht where they were having all sorts of machines which now run on electricity but back in the day used steam.
Dordt is really a very cute place, especially around the harbor where most of the events took place.
I'll let the pictures speak for itself and tell you why we ended up at the hospital in the end.

Cleaning and selling fish

Make way make way

Fire wagon

A locomotive

The old harbor of Dordt

On the steam ship

Model cars

A modelship

The oldtimer bus we took with 1.6 million kilometers on the counter!

The steam train coming in.

This train brought us to the station where we took another bus back to the parking space were we parked.
Funny enough C. was still not using her arm.
See, right before we left, she somehow fell on the ground (no one was there so we didn't see it happen) and hurt her arm. She cried and said she had pain, but hey, that's what they say a couple of times a day.
We tried to ignore it and get her to use that arm/hand but she refused so on our way back we thought we'd better check at the emergency because other wise we would have to go there tonight after a lot of deliberation and saying; shall we wait another night and see tomorrow, no lets go anyway etc etc.

So.
the moment she understood we went to the hospital and she had to have her arm checked, it cured miracurously.
That didn't fool us.
R. stayed in the waiting room with the boys and C and I went into a small room where first some aid came to ask what happened.
Then a doctor (in training) came.
He pulled, she cried.
Then we had to have X-rays.
She cried coz her elbow had to be twisted into a certain corner.
When nothing was to be seen, we had to have her other arm X-rayed.
when again nothing showed another aid came to have her arm in a sling.
when her arm was bended she started to bail again and the doctor came back.
He then began some SERIOUS pulling and yanking.
She cried
and I cried.

But her arm was fixed.
Her elbow bone snapped back.
And she was laughing and talking as if nothing had happened.
In fact she was so excited (she got a bear and stickers from the emergency guys and a balloon and a coloring book and pencils from R.) is almost wished...
NOOOOO
bad thinking.

Typical Dutch landscape with Maasland in the background

Yesterday evening R. and I went out for dinner to restaurant Sand in Hoek of Holland.
For the last couple of days it's been quite windy, not to say bloody stormy, but that does mean the wind blows the rain away like a madman, so I could shoot some nice postcard like pictures on the way over.

One of the 11 weeks old pups

Now this restaurant we went to, had something quite unusual planned; they hired Serge van der Zweep and his wife to demonstrate his skills of sheep herding.
You've probably come across this when you zapped on tv and landed on the BBC. In the UK this has been a tradition for a very long time, but this Dutch man was Dutch, European and World Champion (although the Brits didn't compete in the last competitions).

Problem was, we were situated right across the de New Waterway/Nieuwe Waterweg with only dunes (meaning sand) before us and with this wind, nobody dared go outside.

In fact, the sheep also needed some persuasion.

It was very cool.
His wife and all of us stayed inside and he went outside with 2 dogs to give a demonstration.
Funny thing was there were also other people outside, walking their dog, and once they saw the flock of sheep and this dog running around you could almost read in their eyes..
what the ...

All in all a very pleasant evening.
And guess what we ate.

Lamb.

Serge at work

Dinner with friends

Dinner at D.'s place

Yesterday evening we went out to see the old club again and have dinner at D.'s place.
It always proves to be too long since we see each other.
We caught up on everyones lives (sort of) and had a lovely fish-inspired dinner.
M. will be thrilled when T. brings him (and his brother) back this afternoon and he learns he can stay another night over at her place.

Ok. off again to shoot pictures for Rotterdam DP.

Swimming update

Did i tell you that next week T. can probably upgrade to tub 3 (the DEEP) ?

Keeping our fingers crossed.

Judo

Now many of you know that M. and T. are both judo-ing.

Thing is the world champion judo, Dennis van der Geest, is Dutch.
He's also doing a commercial on television, so you can't help seeing him a lot.

Now Dennis, is T.'s and M.'s big example.

I don't know how it started but since some weeks, especially T. is eating like a madman, coz he wants to be as big as Dennis vd G.
Immediately after dinner he rushes to the weighing scale, only to discover he is 21 (or sometimes 22) kilo.

A few days ago i emailed Dennis and this is (sorry for the Dutch, but I'll translate later) what I had in the mail today:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Beste Timo en Morten,

Toen ik 5 was woog ik nog geen twintig kilo. Ik ben pas vanaf mijn 20e gaan trainen om zwaarder te worden. Zwaarder worden doe je door gezond en goed te trainen en darvoor kun je het best naar je judotrainer luisteren. Jullie moeder weet het best wat je moet eten, mijn moeder heeft er ook voor gezorgd dat ik gezond en zwaar ben geworden en dat is niet door veel maar verstandig te eten. Drie bordjes leegeten is niet gezond voor jullie en hebben jullie niet nodig op dit moment. Pas vanaf ongeveer je 18e gaat dat pas belangrijk worden maar zelfs dan is het beter drie bordjes over de hele dag te eten dan in een keer. Komen jullie ook naar de clinic die ik geef op 3 juni in Haarlem? (kijk even op http://www.kika.nl/) dan kan ik een handtekening op je pak zetten. Het belangrijkste is dat jullie veel plezier in het judoën hebben en vel ervaring opdoen. Groot en sterk worden komt later.

Groetjes,

Dennis van der Geest
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In general it says that they should listen to their mother (thank you Dennis) and simply eat normal and healthy and practise a lot. Getting heavier and stronger and thus eating more or different is only important after you turned 18 and Dennis started to gain weight after he was 20.

Isn't that cute?!

Ofcourse i registered them for the clinic, so June 3 they can meet their idol!

R. drilling his first of 4 holes

Ok.
So it´s cool to have a motorbike but in the neighborhood we live in, you´d better lock it a dozen times and secure it to something unmovable or it´s gone.
So R. bought some wicked lock, 4 enormous bolds and we are now the proud owners of a never to be removed again thing to our frontside of the house.

She's got a new hairthing and it looks lovely on her.

Pity she only lets it stay like this for 40 seconds.
Still, i can vow now that it looks cute on R. too.

Caroline in one of her typical poses

See those shoes?
I presented 2 pairs to her, but i could have known.

These are pink.
I rest my case.

Kiss wannabees

We went out this afternoon to have me shooting pictures for Rotterdam DP and the kids got fed up after a while.
Ok sugerpops.
Mommy got the message.

Although there is 18 months in between, they weigh exactly the same. Kind of handy sometimes.

This and next week the boys have vacation from school and today was the first day we finally were able to spend it outdoors for the better part of the day.

In order to speed up T.'s swimming results I registered him for lessons this whole week. Tomorrow I saw that had been a good decision.
His "vissestaartje" on his back is ok but while swimming on his chest he really doesn't come forward at all. I think it's because of the waves the kids next to him make, that he progresses or else he would just stay at that same spot for the rest of the lesson.
Not that it bothers him I think.
When he looked at me he gave me a thumbs up.
Well.. the kid is not lacking self confidence.

Playground Heemraadssingel

R.'s motorbike

After getting his additional motorbike drivers licence, R. has been to one of his best friends P. who lent him his bike. P. bought it about 2 yrs ago, but hasn't been riding it lately and instead of letting it stay in the garage, R. is using it this summer. It's not the bike he wants in the end, but for now it's good enough and it will get him accustomed to driving a bike anyhow.

T. took one look at it and said; hey dad, you can deliver pizza's now!