August 22, 2008, Denmark
It is an age ago since the last post, over a year and so much has happened in that time. Two trips out to New Zealand, multiple trips within Europe, New York and the UK at christmas time also. The boys completed their second year at de Blijberg International school and also endured 3 months living in New Zealand attending a local school; Redwood Primary School in Tawa. Too much to recap here.
I'll add the text of emails I sent while in New Zealand to friends and from Denmark in our first weeks here, which will prompt my memory in years to come. The twins are now 5 and doing well in everything they do, they are reading, writing, and talking, talking, talking. Both are riding bikes and have been doing so without training wheels since they turned 4. They are completely into Lego - obsessed really, which is turning into an expensive hobby for us. Hard to believe they will be 6 in a couple of months time.
To backtrack...Stuart was made redundant from Maersk just after the Christmas break, a very stressful and painful time for everyone, especially him with the weight of the welfare of all of us resting on his shoulders. The redundancy was particularly cruel and unexpected and typifies how Maersk treat their employees. It was announced on the eve of Christmas by the "big men" that there would be some 'structural changes' in the new year, have a good christmas and see you on January 8th. That day rolls around and completely out of the blue to Stuart and his boss, we find that he is now out of a job. His boss (a Dane) didn't have a clue it was coming. We never received anything in writing, was prevented from finding the terms of redundancy, they withheld the internal job portal and drip fed information for several weeks. With Lars having been made redundant also, our only source of information was gone. When the job portal opened up for Stuart's level mid March, he was given 5 days to apply for a job (before knowing terms of the redundancy). He was in South Africa at the time.
The decision of whether to move back to New Zealand and all its' unknowns or make another expat move was hard. Maersk did not make it any easier for us to come to a decision, out of the 4 jobs that Stuart subsequently applied for, he was offered one in Copenhagen and we had the weekend to decide. We were not allowed to find out the terms of the redundancy, or wait one week to hear of the other jobs he had applied for before having to accept. He was to start the following week.
With me in New Zealand for 3 months, it was a difficult and stressful time. With me being so far away, I could not guage or understand fully what was happening, with Stuart being back in Rotterdam to have to go through it all alone. I was going through my own set of dramas in New Zealand with the stress of our unknown life in the background.
But decision made, Stuart came out to visit for 2 weeks and took up his new post 1 week after arriving back in the Netherlands in the second week in April. The holiday was great fun, we took the boys all around the island - luging, jet boating, to Napier, Taupo and Rotorua. We put everything out of our thoughts and just enjoyed each other and our precious family time. The weather was superb. When we weren't travelling around, we hung out at the bach and caught up with friends. It was sad to see him go, as we had another month to go.
We arrived back at the end of April, had a couple of days rest then drove up to Copenhagen to have a look around. Stuart was staying in an apartment in the city, so it was a reasonably relaxing and informative couple of days. We were able to drive around for me to see the different suburbs and locations of the schools. Very helpful over the coming weeks when Stuart was trying to find a house.
After 3 days, the boys and I left Stuart in Copenhagen and drove the long drive back to Rotterdam. We stayed on for another 5 weeks until the end of June when the boys finished school. Stuart came down for the last 2 weeks of our stay and took leave from work.
As we had come to expect from our experiences in Holland, the preparation for the final move was arduous and time consuming and involved many phonecalls and much paperwork.
We weren't sorry to leave, Stuart more so than me. I was ready to leave and resigned to it, the hardest thing about leaving was saying goodbye to all our friends and there are many. Some we may never see again. We had created such a good life, I enjoyed the friends I made and the friends the boys made, it made everything much more bearable. I was surprised at how upset I was at leaving but ready for it. Four years was enough.
I am writing this from my new desk in Denmark and I have started a new blog for this next chapter in our lives.
August 22, 2008
September 10, 2007
March 8, 2005
Yesterday Oliver had his grommets put in. We had to get to the hospital by 7.30am to fill out paperwork and it was happening at 8am, they did all the baby procedures first up. It was quite busy and there was another little boy who also was having grommets in. Oliver handled it all very well despite not having anything to eat. He was in and out of the surgery within 10 mins and awake immediately. There was a little bit of a delay in telling me when I could give him something to eat or drink, so he was quite upset about it but once he could eat something, all was well again.
Stuart was at home looking after Benjamin and we were home by 10am.
I don’t know what I was expecting but he was quite subdued due to the gas I suppose and he seems to be able to hear a little more than before. He is generally in a good mood but just tired and not really eating. Will wait and see when all the ‘glue’ starts coming out, hopefully the real improvement will be then.
After all this attention being heaped on Oliver, Benjamin is really wanting my attention and doesn’t want to leave my side.
We took the boys to Bal-loric together on Sunday rather than Stuart going on his own with them. I think I should have let him go on his own as whenever the boys wanted someone to help play or whatever, they would say ‘no mummy help’ and push Stuart away. Hugely upsetting for him and he felt quite rejected because of it, I felt very guilty to have put him in that position. Is this normal? I wonder if it is because of Stuart’s heavy travel schedule, they do adore him but it is limited, they are very focused on me for 90% of the time regardless if he is around.
Oliver has been waking early in the morning for the last few weeks, his ear infection has cleared so he isn’t waking screaming but in a good mood. He pads in and climbs in with us with all his favourite things (blanket, dummy, giraffe, pillow and some toys). Most often he just settles down and sleeps, other times I give him a pot of yoghurt first and then he settles down. When he wakes up, the first thing he does is to turn to me and give me a hug and kiss and say ‘hello mummy, clothes now’. I don’t know what I can do to make them give more of themselves to Stuart, he is crushed when they reject him. He tries so hard to get them interested and they love playing with him but not without me.
Oliver’s osteo appointment was today and I got the time wrong, thinking it was 3pm (which was the time of an earlier appointment) I forgot that I had changed it to 1.30pm. I put them down for an early sleep thinking I would take them when they woke. One look at my calendar at 1.45pm I realised I had missed it. I was rifling through the phone book as the phone rang, it was the osteo wondering where we were. I felt so bad it means that Oliver won’t see an osteo before we leave for NZ along with messing the osteo around. I won’t know now whether it would have helped him on the flight or not.
The other thing that has been happening lately is the snow and unbelievably cold weather. It has snowed pretty much for the last three weeks and solid over the last week. By Friday evening, we had about 15 cms snow on the ground. Oliver loved playing in it and at the weekend we all got out and made a snowman. Benjamin really doesn’t like the cold and would rather stay inside. It does look lovely when it is covering all the gardens and houses but is a pain if you have to go anywhere. So treacherous on the road driving around, I have not driven in snow before and it is really scary, our car is not built for snow, I miss the Rangy.
Still it is spring time now and the previous weeks’ snow has melted.
Yesterday Oliver had his grommets put in. We had to get to the hospital by 7.30am to fill out paperwork and it was happening at 8am, they did all the baby procedures first up. It was quite busy and there was another little boy who also was having grommets in. Oliver handled it all very well despite not having anything to eat. He was in and out of the surgery within 10 mins and awake immediately. There was a little bit of a delay in telling me when I could give him something to eat or drink, so he was quite upset about it but once he could eat something, all was well again.
Stuart was at home looking after Benjamin and we were home by 10am.
I don’t know what I was expecting but he was quite subdued due to the gas I suppose and he seems to be able to hear a little more than before. He is generally in a good mood but just tired and not really eating. Will wait and see when all the ‘glue’ starts coming out, hopefully the real improvement will be then.
After all this attention being heaped on Oliver, Benjamin is really wanting my attention and doesn’t want to leave my side.
We took the boys to Bal-loric together on Sunday rather than Stuart going on his own with them. I think I should have let him go on his own as whenever the boys wanted someone to help play or whatever, they would say ‘no mummy help’ and push Stuart away. Hugely upsetting for him and he felt quite rejected because of it, I felt very guilty to have put him in that position. Is this normal? I wonder if it is because of Stuart’s heavy travel schedule, they do adore him but it is limited, they are very focused on me for 90% of the time regardless if he is around.
Oliver has been waking early in the morning for the last few weeks, his ear infection has cleared so he isn’t waking screaming but in a good mood. He pads in and climbs in with us with all his favourite things (blanket, dummy, giraffe, pillow and some toys). Most often he just settles down and sleeps, other times I give him a pot of yoghurt first and then he settles down. When he wakes up, the first thing he does is to turn to me and give me a hug and kiss and say ‘hello mummy, clothes now’. I don’t know what I can do to make them give more of themselves to Stuart, he is crushed when they reject him. He tries so hard to get them interested and they love playing with him but not without me.
Oliver’s osteo appointment was today and I got the time wrong, thinking it was 3pm (which was the time of an earlier appointment) I forgot that I had changed it to 1.30pm. I put them down for an early sleep thinking I would take them when they woke. One look at my calendar at 1.45pm I realised I had missed it. I was rifling through the phone book as the phone rang, it was the osteo wondering where we were. I felt so bad it means that Oliver won’t see an osteo before we leave for NZ along with messing the osteo around. I won’t know now whether it would have helped him on the flight or not.
The other thing that has been happening lately is the snow and unbelievably cold weather. It has snowed pretty much for the last three weeks and solid over the last week. By Friday evening, we had about 15 cms snow on the ground. Oliver loved playing in it and at the weekend we all got out and made a snowman. Benjamin really doesn’t like the cold and would rather stay inside. It does look lovely when it is covering all the gardens and houses but is a pain if you have to go anywhere. So treacherous on the road driving around, I have not driven in snow before and it is really scary, our car is not built for snow, I miss the Rangy.
Still it is spring time now and the previous weeks’ snow has melted.
Glue ear trials and tribulations
March 4, 2005
We have discovered that Oliver has glue ear in both ears this explains a lot of his behaviour over the last few weeks or months. This means a lot of the time I thought he was ignoring me, but he couldn’t actually hear. Once I had figured this out, I started to speak to him face to face and have started using sign language again. I have to tap him on the shoulder and get him to look at me when I want to talk to him.
He does this to me also, if my back is turned and he wants to tell me something, generally I respond even if not looking at him but he will come over to me, and take my face in his hands and turn me to look at him. He will repeat his question and watch my mouth for a response, when I have responded he is happy and toddles off again. All this has helped hugely, he is much happier and although he can’t really understand or say new words, he has my attention and understanding in a positive way. I feel hugely guilty for the way I have been handling him during all this, he was just in pain and really couldn’t hear me. He also had an ear infection, by the end of the antibiotics course he was jumping around and not waking up screaming from sleeps.
Merille came to visit for four days last month (11-14th Feb) and it was during that time that he was finishing the antibiotics and nose drops. Merille as usual was a fount of knowledge and help, just as she was when she visited us in NZ. I was able to really have good chats with her and get lots of pointers of what to do. Hugely grateful to her.
I commented to her when we were leaving sa that I was very lucky to have a cousin that was such a good friend, she said in return that we were good friends and just happened to be cousins. That described our relationship, that we have been corresponding since we were 10 is testament to this.
We now have to tackle the glue-ear the doctor doesn’t seem to be too bothered about it, believing the wax will naturally make its way out but the infection needed to be cleared up with antibiotics in the mean time.
I had a coffee morning here last month (11th Feb) for In Touch mums. A woman who lives in our suburb, Vera, came and we talked about the glue ear thing. It seems to be such a common complaint amongst small children and the general course of action seems to be grommets. When I asked the doctor about this he dismissed it as unnecessary. Rachel’s little one Jamie has had grommets in lately and Yvette’s son Jake has also had grommets in. Another little fellow at mums and tots has had them in recently also.
Vera mentioned that her husband was an ENT specialist (or KNO in Holland) and gave me his number to call and see him directly. She said I did not need a doctor referral. What a relief but I really need to do it before we leave for NZ, the cabin pressure will burst his eardrums.
I also read in a toddler magazine that Les had sent over an article about ear infections and glue ear and what you can do about it. It mentioned Osteopathy as a good option for helping to clear out the eustacian tubes, Les asked if I wanted to make an appt for our osteo in Wellington. I wondered if it was this good I should take him while still here and have made an appointment for a local Osteo next week also (at a whopping $250NZ). Anything to make him comfortable on the flight I will gladly do, I hate seeing him in pain and he is really difficult to handle also.
So with time really running out, I called the specialist and managed to see him last Thursday at Ijselland Hospital, Elizabeth looked after Benjamin for me so I could concentrate on Oliver. He said that yes it was glue ear and based on my info about his repeated failed ear pressure tests in NZ and a failed ear pressure test with him also, the only solution was to have grommets in and we couldn’t really fly without it happening. I was relieved to hear that he would do the procedure on Monday morning.
We have discovered that Oliver has glue ear in both ears this explains a lot of his behaviour over the last few weeks or months. This means a lot of the time I thought he was ignoring me, but he couldn’t actually hear. Once I had figured this out, I started to speak to him face to face and have started using sign language again. I have to tap him on the shoulder and get him to look at me when I want to talk to him.
He does this to me also, if my back is turned and he wants to tell me something, generally I respond even if not looking at him but he will come over to me, and take my face in his hands and turn me to look at him. He will repeat his question and watch my mouth for a response, when I have responded he is happy and toddles off again. All this has helped hugely, he is much happier and although he can’t really understand or say new words, he has my attention and understanding in a positive way. I feel hugely guilty for the way I have been handling him during all this, he was just in pain and really couldn’t hear me. He also had an ear infection, by the end of the antibiotics course he was jumping around and not waking up screaming from sleeps.
Merille came to visit for four days last month (11-14th Feb) and it was during that time that he was finishing the antibiotics and nose drops. Merille as usual was a fount of knowledge and help, just as she was when she visited us in NZ. I was able to really have good chats with her and get lots of pointers of what to do. Hugely grateful to her.
I commented to her when we were leaving sa that I was very lucky to have a cousin that was such a good friend, she said in return that we were good friends and just happened to be cousins. That described our relationship, that we have been corresponding since we were 10 is testament to this.
We now have to tackle the glue-ear the doctor doesn’t seem to be too bothered about it, believing the wax will naturally make its way out but the infection needed to be cleared up with antibiotics in the mean time.
I had a coffee morning here last month (11th Feb) for In Touch mums. A woman who lives in our suburb, Vera, came and we talked about the glue ear thing. It seems to be such a common complaint amongst small children and the general course of action seems to be grommets. When I asked the doctor about this he dismissed it as unnecessary. Rachel’s little one Jamie has had grommets in lately and Yvette’s son Jake has also had grommets in. Another little fellow at mums and tots has had them in recently also.
Vera mentioned that her husband was an ENT specialist (or KNO in Holland) and gave me his number to call and see him directly. She said I did not need a doctor referral. What a relief but I really need to do it before we leave for NZ, the cabin pressure will burst his eardrums.
I also read in a toddler magazine that Les had sent over an article about ear infections and glue ear and what you can do about it. It mentioned Osteopathy as a good option for helping to clear out the eustacian tubes, Les asked if I wanted to make an appt for our osteo in Wellington. I wondered if it was this good I should take him while still here and have made an appointment for a local Osteo next week also (at a whopping $250NZ). Anything to make him comfortable on the flight I will gladly do, I hate seeing him in pain and he is really difficult to handle also.
So with time really running out, I called the specialist and managed to see him last Thursday at Ijselland Hospital, Elizabeth looked after Benjamin for me so I could concentrate on Oliver. He said that yes it was glue ear and based on my info about his repeated failed ear pressure tests in NZ and a failed ear pressure test with him also, the only solution was to have grommets in and we couldn’t really fly without it happening. I was relieved to hear that he would do the procedure on Monday morning.
February 25, 2005
As today is Friday it is gym crèche day. A shaky start to the day as Benjamin seems to be really unhappy away from me and is very clingy.
Feeling guilty and wanting just to take him home, Judy took over and suggested I make a run for it. I had started taking an exercise class in the pool and really wanted and needed to do it, Benjamin really wasn’t happy with me leaving and wanted either me to stay and play or to come swimming with me.
He did the same thing earlier in the week, when we pulled up at the crèche, he got very upset and wanted to go home “home own bed mummy, home now”. I decided not to push him if he wasn’t happy with it Oliver however, was very keen to go in but had to miss out as I can’t leave them there while not at the gym. I think he was quite disappointed.
I managed to do the class, although had nearly missed it. I figured it couldn’t be too arduous as the average age of the attendees was around the mid 60’s. There even a few 70 plus there. I have been to two classes now and it is really hard – or my three times per week swimming has not really increased my fitness dramatically. I was thinking to take the instructor aside to see if he felt comfortable about potentially giving his students coronary attacks.
While the gym crèche is great and allows me to have some time to devote to myself without rushing around, and the boys time to spend with other children, it is quite a small space and they need more space to stretch out and more structure. I also want to have time to get things done. Getting anything done whilst taking the boys with me is next to impossible in Holland. The shops are small boutiques and because there are two of them, I can’t take them into a shop not in the buggy. They get into everything in separate directions and I have to suffer the wrath of the shop owner as well as try to communicate to a non-english speaking person what I want. The other problem is I can’t get the buggy in or around the shop.
I have found a spot in a local play group (peuterspeelzaal) for three mornings per week. I haven’t yet established how much it costs as the dutch are not very good at giving away useful information. I had emailed in English and said I my dutch comprehension was limited at this stage, so of course, all emails were responded to in dutch. I think they don’t speak English or are just proving a point, don’t know. The online translator is not that good and only translates about 60% of the text and is word by word translation. For a lot of Dutch words there is no direct English translation. Hopefully, I can make it down to have a look at the place and fill in the obligatory forms and more importantly find out the cost before we head off to NZ. This done, they can start when we return.
As today is Friday it is gym crèche day. A shaky start to the day as Benjamin seems to be really unhappy away from me and is very clingy.
Feeling guilty and wanting just to take him home, Judy took over and suggested I make a run for it. I had started taking an exercise class in the pool and really wanted and needed to do it, Benjamin really wasn’t happy with me leaving and wanted either me to stay and play or to come swimming with me.
He did the same thing earlier in the week, when we pulled up at the crèche, he got very upset and wanted to go home “home own bed mummy, home now”. I decided not to push him if he wasn’t happy with it Oliver however, was very keen to go in but had to miss out as I can’t leave them there while not at the gym. I think he was quite disappointed.
I managed to do the class, although had nearly missed it. I figured it couldn’t be too arduous as the average age of the attendees was around the mid 60’s. There even a few 70 plus there. I have been to two classes now and it is really hard – or my three times per week swimming has not really increased my fitness dramatically. I was thinking to take the instructor aside to see if he felt comfortable about potentially giving his students coronary attacks.
While the gym crèche is great and allows me to have some time to devote to myself without rushing around, and the boys time to spend with other children, it is quite a small space and they need more space to stretch out and more structure. I also want to have time to get things done. Getting anything done whilst taking the boys with me is next to impossible in Holland. The shops are small boutiques and because there are two of them, I can’t take them into a shop not in the buggy. They get into everything in separate directions and I have to suffer the wrath of the shop owner as well as try to communicate to a non-english speaking person what I want. The other problem is I can’t get the buggy in or around the shop.
I have found a spot in a local play group (peuterspeelzaal) for three mornings per week. I haven’t yet established how much it costs as the dutch are not very good at giving away useful information. I had emailed in English and said I my dutch comprehension was limited at this stage, so of course, all emails were responded to in dutch. I think they don’t speak English or are just proving a point, don’t know. The online translator is not that good and only translates about 60% of the text and is word by word translation. For a lot of Dutch words there is no direct English translation. Hopefully, I can make it down to have a look at the place and fill in the obligatory forms and more importantly find out the cost before we head off to NZ. This done, they can start when we return.
Winter sets up
February 28, 2005
Minus 9 degrees this morning! This is the coldest I have ever experienced, and apparently other countries and places get even colder than this – hard to imagine. It snowed quite heavily yesterday and the temperature didn’t rise much over minus 3. The snow stopped around lunchtime and was beautifully sunny for the remainder of the day, I had forgotten how good it feels to have sunshine. Stuart got the boys up and breakfasted this morning then took them to Bal-loric for an outing for the morning. His instructions to me were clear, to climb back into bed and have some more sleep. The last time he took the boys out, I got up and spent three hours cleaning and was exhausted when he got home with two tired and grumpy lads. Won’t make that mistake again.
Thankfully, the boys were better behaved with Stuart than last time and he enjoyed the experience.
Saturday morning we took the boys over to the Alexandrium crèche facility. Our new Saturday plan is for us to have some quality time together while taking advantage of the fantastic facility. It is not ideal, leaving them at this type of place but we don’t have any other way of going around this and we need to concentrate on us a bit more now. Having the boys has been quite an assault on our relationship and I don’t want it to destroy us. I believe if we are strong, the boys will be too. Unfortunately, all the stresses and strains of the last three years as well as this move have really taken its toll on our relationship and we now need regular time together away from the boys and this is the only way we can achieve it at the moment. Hopefully they wont suffer too many abandonment issues with what we are doing.
Benjamin really didn’t want me to go yesterday, “mummy leave later, mummy stay play”, broke my heart and made it extremely hard for me to leave. We cut our intended time by half because I didn’t want to leave them there if they are not happy. Benjamin seems more comfortable at staying at home lately.
Minus 9 degrees this morning! This is the coldest I have ever experienced, and apparently other countries and places get even colder than this – hard to imagine. It snowed quite heavily yesterday and the temperature didn’t rise much over minus 3. The snow stopped around lunchtime and was beautifully sunny for the remainder of the day, I had forgotten how good it feels to have sunshine. Stuart got the boys up and breakfasted this morning then took them to Bal-loric for an outing for the morning. His instructions to me were clear, to climb back into bed and have some more sleep. The last time he took the boys out, I got up and spent three hours cleaning and was exhausted when he got home with two tired and grumpy lads. Won’t make that mistake again.
Thankfully, the boys were better behaved with Stuart than last time and he enjoyed the experience.
Saturday morning we took the boys over to the Alexandrium crèche facility. Our new Saturday plan is for us to have some quality time together while taking advantage of the fantastic facility. It is not ideal, leaving them at this type of place but we don’t have any other way of going around this and we need to concentrate on us a bit more now. Having the boys has been quite an assault on our relationship and I don’t want it to destroy us. I believe if we are strong, the boys will be too. Unfortunately, all the stresses and strains of the last three years as well as this move have really taken its toll on our relationship and we now need regular time together away from the boys and this is the only way we can achieve it at the moment. Hopefully they wont suffer too many abandonment issues with what we are doing.
Benjamin really didn’t want me to go yesterday, “mummy leave later, mummy stay play”, broke my heart and made it extremely hard for me to leave. We cut our intended time by half because I didn’t want to leave them there if they are not happy. Benjamin seems more comfortable at staying at home lately.
A bit down
February 24, 2005
Is this it? I feel so foggy and consumed by parenthood, I just want to get off. I am not sure where my environment ends and I begin at the moment. Even the time it has taken me to write two lines, the boys have climbed on top of me and Benjamin is trying to involve himself in what I am doing. I am so tired I feel like I am in a submarine or capsule of some kind, just moving around on the inside looking out the portholes in whichever direction gravity or something external pulls me. My vision seems obscured by the portholes of the cabin and sometimes I only have a snapshot of an image or thoughts or conversations before the pod moves around again.
Stuart asked me last night to start jotting down my thoughts and ideas for the beachhouse completion as we are off to nz in 2 weeks. This is supposed to be my thing and I couldn’t even muster any ideas or enthusiasm, the worst part was that I didn’t care what happened to the place. It was simply too much energy to expend on thinking about the place. I didn’t care. I was happy and preferred for Stuart to decide what to do, I don’t think he was too impressed by my attitude.
I am looking around for suitable childcare, for a couple of mornings per week so I can establish me again. I need to something creative as I feel I am dying inside bit by bit.
Is this it? I feel so foggy and consumed by parenthood, I just want to get off. I am not sure where my environment ends and I begin at the moment. Even the time it has taken me to write two lines, the boys have climbed on top of me and Benjamin is trying to involve himself in what I am doing. I am so tired I feel like I am in a submarine or capsule of some kind, just moving around on the inside looking out the portholes in whichever direction gravity or something external pulls me. My vision seems obscured by the portholes of the cabin and sometimes I only have a snapshot of an image or thoughts or conversations before the pod moves around again.
Stuart asked me last night to start jotting down my thoughts and ideas for the beachhouse completion as we are off to nz in 2 weeks. This is supposed to be my thing and I couldn’t even muster any ideas or enthusiasm, the worst part was that I didn’t care what happened to the place. It was simply too much energy to expend on thinking about the place. I didn’t care. I was happy and preferred for Stuart to decide what to do, I don’t think he was too impressed by my attitude.
I am looking around for suitable childcare, for a couple of mornings per week so I can establish me again. I need to something creative as I feel I am dying inside bit by bit.
Hurrah! 2005 at last
January 1, 2005
Made it into another year and have survived the last stressful few months in this infinitely strange and frustrating country. Hopefully this year will be better.
We spent a surprisingly enjoyable six nights in the UK with Beryl and David. The trip there went very well also. We drove to Boulogne and then took a fast ferry to Dover and drove from there. All up it took around six hours. All was going very well in the car, the boys had played and then napped, then they pulled the armrest between their seats down. Unfortunately, the item sitting directly in front of the opening was their toy box with the favourite book of the moment (popup book) facing directly at them. The tears and tantrums that followed trying to explain that we couldn’t get the book…Daddy won’t make that mistake again.
Beryl and David did such a great job with preparing the house for our visit. They had made a room for the boys, bought beds, got toys, books and videos for them. Done a great job of twin proofing the house and putting a barrier on the kitchen door and had bought a set of table and chairs for them. I was so surprised and hugely relieved. Because of this, they settled in immediately, slept and ate well each day, a vastly different experience to Sth Africa. Even David enjoyed it.
The really funny thing about this trip was the weather, as it turned out we went to the uk for good weather, not many people can brag about that. It was cold and very frosty for Christmas and boxing days but clear blue skies and sunny.
We visited Brendan and Sarah and their new baby, Grace (11 weeks old). I was pretty pleased to discover that Sarah (the previous chimney) had completely given up smoking apparently the day she found she was pregnant. Brendan on the other hand, is still a chimney. She told me she has been making a pretty determined effort to get him to give up and absolutely hates the smell of smoke now – quite the crusader for non-smoking. How ironic.
We also visited Christine and Mike in their new digs in Buckinghamshire, a lovely new converted Victorian Dairy. Fantastic place, the suburb is very rural and very much a designer pad. Christine has great taste in all things interior, I aspire to have a house as attractive and orderly as hers. I get a bit tired of buying everything second hand or the cheapest we can find (except for electronic gadgets). It is funny, we have known each other going on 23 years now but during our adult, independent lives we have lived in separate continents. I know what Christine likes in books, clothing and jewellery but the rest was a mystery to me. We have always been close and in good contact but our day-to-day, adult family lives are only now connecting.
Her pad is magazine spread good looks, tidy and clean. There was a bit of Connors toys around but it did not look like the child tornado that ours regularly does. I was reminded of Kath’s place. Chris seems to have a fine tuned sense of order.
After three hours of all three boys racing around, the place did look like a tornado had gone through it – I was pleasantly relieved. Stuart made the comment that it must be a whole lot easier to keep order when you only have one child to consider.
I am grateful for Stuart finding this house as we have a loft area that all the toys and messy play can happen. Our bottom floor living area is reserved for adult living and eating. Although, I do find the house quite oppressive and depressing sometimes and get very frustrated with my limitations. We had to purchase quite a few things from the Olivers prior to moving in and the company also purchased some items that really should have been tossed, like the curtains, I flat out refused to pay for them and held out that if the Oliver’s wanted money for them, then PONL had to pay.
Margaret bless her, made some truly hideous curtains in all of the rooms. They are beyond description and have to go. Such a silly thing, but I really can’t look at them for three years. Finding suitable fabric is difficult, Spotlight would have a cornered market if they set up here. We are still finding our way around the furniture shopping side of things and apart from IKEA, we don’t know where to find good quality and design, curtain fabric. The other problem is coordinating ourselves enough to do this searching with the boys and the limited knowledge and shopping hours.
The house is cream everywhere and coming from our previous houses and total lack of colour around me depressing, even the sky is beige. When I go outside all I see is beige, the houses, streets, buildings even the cars are sombre colours. The sky is constantly misty and grey or beige and it is constantly damp and wet.
Made it into another year and have survived the last stressful few months in this infinitely strange and frustrating country. Hopefully this year will be better.
We spent a surprisingly enjoyable six nights in the UK with Beryl and David. The trip there went very well also. We drove to Boulogne and then took a fast ferry to Dover and drove from there. All up it took around six hours. All was going very well in the car, the boys had played and then napped, then they pulled the armrest between their seats down. Unfortunately, the item sitting directly in front of the opening was their toy box with the favourite book of the moment (popup book) facing directly at them. The tears and tantrums that followed trying to explain that we couldn’t get the book…Daddy won’t make that mistake again.
Beryl and David did such a great job with preparing the house for our visit. They had made a room for the boys, bought beds, got toys, books and videos for them. Done a great job of twin proofing the house and putting a barrier on the kitchen door and had bought a set of table and chairs for them. I was so surprised and hugely relieved. Because of this, they settled in immediately, slept and ate well each day, a vastly different experience to Sth Africa. Even David enjoyed it.
The really funny thing about this trip was the weather, as it turned out we went to the uk for good weather, not many people can brag about that. It was cold and very frosty for Christmas and boxing days but clear blue skies and sunny.
We visited Brendan and Sarah and their new baby, Grace (11 weeks old). I was pretty pleased to discover that Sarah (the previous chimney) had completely given up smoking apparently the day she found she was pregnant. Brendan on the other hand, is still a chimney. She told me she has been making a pretty determined effort to get him to give up and absolutely hates the smell of smoke now – quite the crusader for non-smoking. How ironic.
We also visited Christine and Mike in their new digs in Buckinghamshire, a lovely new converted Victorian Dairy. Fantastic place, the suburb is very rural and very much a designer pad. Christine has great taste in all things interior, I aspire to have a house as attractive and orderly as hers. I get a bit tired of buying everything second hand or the cheapest we can find (except for electronic gadgets). It is funny, we have known each other going on 23 years now but during our adult, independent lives we have lived in separate continents. I know what Christine likes in books, clothing and jewellery but the rest was a mystery to me. We have always been close and in good contact but our day-to-day, adult family lives are only now connecting.
Her pad is magazine spread good looks, tidy and clean. There was a bit of Connors toys around but it did not look like the child tornado that ours regularly does. I was reminded of Kath’s place. Chris seems to have a fine tuned sense of order.
After three hours of all three boys racing around, the place did look like a tornado had gone through it – I was pleasantly relieved. Stuart made the comment that it must be a whole lot easier to keep order when you only have one child to consider.
I am grateful for Stuart finding this house as we have a loft area that all the toys and messy play can happen. Our bottom floor living area is reserved for adult living and eating. Although, I do find the house quite oppressive and depressing sometimes and get very frustrated with my limitations. We had to purchase quite a few things from the Olivers prior to moving in and the company also purchased some items that really should have been tossed, like the curtains, I flat out refused to pay for them and held out that if the Oliver’s wanted money for them, then PONL had to pay.
Margaret bless her, made some truly hideous curtains in all of the rooms. They are beyond description and have to go. Such a silly thing, but I really can’t look at them for three years. Finding suitable fabric is difficult, Spotlight would have a cornered market if they set up here. We are still finding our way around the furniture shopping side of things and apart from IKEA, we don’t know where to find good quality and design, curtain fabric. The other problem is coordinating ourselves enough to do this searching with the boys and the limited knowledge and shopping hours.
The house is cream everywhere and coming from our previous houses and total lack of colour around me depressing, even the sky is beige. When I go outside all I see is beige, the houses, streets, buildings even the cars are sombre colours. The sky is constantly misty and grey or beige and it is constantly damp and wet.
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