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.