Getting through the Dutch Winter

Hello everyone, it's been more then seven months sins I wrote you last. Lot's of time, but not much has happened or is very different.

I'm still living in the old squatted school and I'm still working at the Winkel van Sinkel in the very centre of Utrecht where the pay is pretty bad but the variety is awesome.

This is my place of work on the canal.

Just before real winter started I made another bikeride through the forests of Holland. It got really cold that night, with frost on my tent and a flat tire just before it got dark. I had to walk about two hours before I found a bikeshop to fix it the next day.

It was very nice to just bike around, but it was very frustrating to not find one spot without people or their sounds. Holland is really full. Also the nights are not very clear, even here in the forrest there were orange glows from all the cities closeby. Really a shame.The palace of the Queen in Soesdijk.

And then it was time to hop-on with Siebe.

We were together for nine months before I left five and a half year ago. Thinking I was just going for one year we were certain we would be back together after that. But now that things had gone a little different, one year became five and both of us had been involved with other partners, things weren't that sure anymore if we would look at it from the realistic side. Never minding that, I followed my feeling and instinct and came back to Holland to figure out what was still going on between us. I had never forgotten about the easyness of our relationship, the respect and trust I got from him and the love I could give to him. It turned out he hadn't either.

Eventhough he was involved with a very nice girl at the time I came back, after we saw eachother just once it was clear to him to. Winter fell down, we played games, people came visit me. And when it became too cold I moved in with Siebe for three months because there is no heating system in my squatting place.

Christmas at my parents place.

With new years we drove to Berlin with my mums car. 12-7-03 we had met at the Love Parade in Berlin so that was a fun coincidence too. We slept in the car and cooked noodles in the snow. God was it ever cold. We wondered around with thousands of other people, saw the big fireworks, found a little place where a chinese woman turned the musictable and after that we were taken to the fattest dig in Berlin of that moment: Deep. A big factory graveyard with many cellars and rooms........

Around 1pm the next day we were done dancing and ready for the big dip in the Spree River. It was a very cold newyears dive, brrrrr.

Winter stayed for a long time in Holland. we had so much snow and ice, it became a hassel to bike to work cause you would slip and fall and there was not enough salt for the roads. Almost everyone made a snowman this year.

And then my cuty Marie from Denmark came by to relax just one last week before she had to study die-hard for her last exams to become a doctor. My room was a freezing 4C at that moment, but with a sudden 'warm' day in the week, all the stoves turned on and lots of candles we got the temperature to 12C and rising.

Yes, this girl could be your surgeon in the future:

I did go to the hospital myself to remove a big varicose vein in my leg. Not because it was painfull or anything, just very ugly. It was an experience in itself. To get an epidural injection is so funny. It feels so strange. I was feeling the narcotic go through my nerve-system and make it feel cold but hot to the touch. Listening to all the sounds and suddenly seeing a leg straight in the air that was mine. Absolutely weird. Just four days I was at home, taken care of by Siebe.

The 11th of March Siebes sister Nienke gave birth to their first child: Amelie

I did invite all of you, but only one came. Zeph, my ex-partner from Paris came down with a friend and absolutely made my night. A few other people from my Salsa lessons (so we did dance salsa in the beginning), my work and one other good friend came down, the rest of the 60 people were related to Siebe. I'm glad we did this together so it became a real party for our 30th birthdays.

Some came early so we made dinner, the same amount slept all over the school after we quitted around 5am and they also helped clean up and eat all the eggs in the morning.

My brother Luc and his fiance Nina were such helps and big party-makers, my parents were the best making hamburgers at 1am for all the youngsters and Zephs friend carried the tipyar around to get us fixed with finacial help. The band who came by (friends of Siebe) were totally awesome and played from 1am untill 5am in the morning, having a 420 break here and there.And at the end of March we went skiing in Devoluy in the South of France.

With 12 people, family and friends, we enjoyed super fresh snow for three days, making the first trails, red cheeks of the sun, wine with games in the evening, a nice walk and lots of chatting.

Siebe and me before heading down.

There is still a lot to learn when I take my ski's out and I'm not the fondest of the cold, but with others who are so enthousiastic and smooth you just kept on going.

Spring.

In the heart of winter we got ourselves outside after a night of clubbing with a bottle of wine and a bag of tulips. We planted them in letters and see here the result:MOOI is whats written. It should have been 'Mooi he ........ alles' which means so much as 'Beautiful eh ...... everything'. But the rest didn't work too well.
And then it was time for the first bbq at my schoolyard.

Here you see Siebe and Jeroen, a new buddy of mine, boy can we ever sit and talk talk talk.

You really have to be carefull what you wish for. I was really starting to complain to myself that enjoying the moment was becoming more and more difficult. I was being ruled by my timescedule of work, my plans and appointments and it was starting to be impossible to just not think about how I was gonna arrange all the things I wanted to do in the next free days. Not that I have so much to do, but just sitting down with a book, writing my journal or being on my own were all skiped.

And then ..........

I drove with my bike to work, one of my Indian bells hit the frontwheel and six of my spokes got jammed inbetween. Yes I was going really fast and at once I stood still.

It did hurt I think, just the first minutes I was pretty dizzy. My elbow started to swell emidiatly and the called ambulance brought me to the hospital so make some photo's.

I had a broken elbow.

A huge cast decorated my arm for the next ten days before they could operate.

But not to be sad. You can still do many things with plaster.

Like having bbq's with the telly outside to watch football.

Go to the big queens night and day where you see everyone in Orange and you can buy so many things at the secondhand plaids of all the kids. What a lovely day was this.

The Festival of Liberation on the 5th of May was really cool to. Some nice bands, a really cool stage, many friends from different groups and a big blue sky.

Then it was time to operate my arm. I got really lucky because they could give me local anesthesia once again so I could hear and amuse myself once again with the sounds of drills, hammers and pleiers. Not to mention my funny arm afterwards.

My mum & dad and Siebe all came down to spend the night with me, while they ALL snored away I was awake by pain and discomfort hahahaha.

Because they put the broken piece back with a rod and wire (a certain clam) I didn't need another cast. YIPPIEYAYEEE, the recovery would be so much easier and quicker. I'm still not supposed to charge my arm with anything more then a cup of tea for six weeks, but now I can move it freely.

This is what it looked like when the pressure dressing came off 48hours after the operation.
The next day I jump on the back of Siebes motor to go to Kinderdijk, one of Holland most famous touristy spots because you can still see many windmills here.

And then just one weekend ago we had another little family weekend at my parents place. Three caravans parked in the backyard, my dad put up the tipi in which I slept four nights long and we all made ourselves usefull with peeling aspargus (famous in our province), pingpong, shuffleboard, volleyball, getting the kids to ride horses, ride in the tractor, go for evening walks in the dark, spooky forrest, go along in the wheelbarrow, shoot the air gun, go in the little sauna, watch really old family movies from 1980.......

....... pay al lot attention to big breakfasts and dinners.........

........ and get icecreams in pajama's for breakfast at the local supermarket.

All those things you're not supposed to do.

My elbow is healing great, everyday I can reach and stretch it a little further. It's not to hard to not lift anything heavy, you feel it anyway.

In the last week I've visited with lots of friends in the park with tea, we had a great warm week after a few weeks of cold and rain, so all is perfect.

Siebe really wants to become a skipper, so at the moment he's in the North of Holland on a big Tjalk (a tipical Dutch flat-bottom boat) making sea hours and learning how to handel the ropes. It's set up to make sailing tours/trips around the Wadden sea with groups up to 12 people. It means I have my school for myself, can do my own thing and miss him once again, hihihi.

Within two days I will go to Lithuania, just a cheap little nine day trip to get through the six weeks of not working. It's the reason I thought about making a quick update because when I come back I will tell you something about this small country between Poland and Russia.

This site is ment for travels, so that's just what you'll hear and none of these days these travels are gonna disappear.

In the future are planned: Lithuania, ten days Oerol on of Hollands Islands, two weeks Denmark, two weeks Garda Lake in Italy with Flow a travel company for people with a disability (I will be a guide) and one month Marocco with Siebe.

I'll never stop eh, hahahaha