Hans en Nienke: January 2021

Many beautiful sunsets marked the start of summer here, finally!

Hans got treated to fresh deer steaks for lunch by Tara, Roger and Maya. Lovely that friends dropped by for some much needed company and distraction from 'doing nothing' - no correction - 'no being allowed to do anything - there is a difference. And Hans is getting fed up with it as you could imagine.

It's been a long time since I wrote the blog, after 14 months of work with just one very short break of three days I was really crawling to the finish line after this first year back. Enjoying the challenge but doing two jobs for months after the solid waste manager quit unexpectedly was really challenging as so many problems kept propping up that hadn't been dealt with.

My team is great though and I am very lucky to have found a new very experienced waste manager whom I've know through my networks for about 12 years and she's awesome. So things will settle down in 2021 so I can sink my teeth into the climate change work properly! But I was very glad to put up my hammock in christmas day and start reading the book I wanted to read for a long time: Humankind, a hopeful history from Rutger Bregman. I was able to finish in during the 10 days of, and loved it. Very interesting, food for thought and just very well written. Recommended!

On Christmas Day I am always glad to be here, in de shade and the quiet with our thoughts going back to that day now already 14 years ago. Still feels like yesterday sometimes when it just flashes back into our brains. Brings tears because we've missed so much of this beautiful boy and he's missed so much, would have been a man of 22 in 2020. Our lovely neighbours popped in spontaneously and we shared some food and laughs which was good.

Just very lazy those first 5 days, we both slept until 9 or 10 each morning, so much catching up to do from work and from the Hans roller coaster.

We now have in writing that all is 'clear' and that we can leave prostate cancer episode behind us. Which is the best news, life can go on and we're making plans! Most evenings nice enough for dinner outside, beautiful.

Hans had a '10 visits + card' to the hot tub, to help with the cramps in his belly area - it worked wonders. He has to set up an umbrella to keep out of the sun while in 40 degrees (crazy eh) - but got sun burned anyway. Being menopausal the last thing I would want to do is join him, sitting in 40 degrees water while it's 23 degrees!

The oliebollen 'kraam' was open again on the 31st, gearing up for a lovely night in the garden counting down to 2021. Freshly made by Rutger, just yummy and looking forward to this every year. All our Kiwi friends are big fans too.

Lots of nice food and a lovely evening which was lucky after a few really windy days with cool temperatures.

Fire on, we're all sorted for the night.

And this year everyone made it to 12 for the toast to say goodbye to 2020, the year that our world changed, and hello to 2021 where hopefully some normality will return in the months to come.

Saying hi to Lies & Guy who were celebrating new year in the Waikato, we missed them!

Nice brekkie with scrambled eggs and we were ready for our first dip in the sea for this summer - the official nieuw jaars duik (new year's dip).

No Unox hats needed, bit cold to get in but after that pure bliss. We totally realise how lucky we are in this moment in time to be here in NZ and right here in Te Horo.

Last weekend we did a small repeat with two sets of friends that didn't make it to the new year's do - here's marshmellow man Pepijn showing his first one of the season.

The garden has been full of colour with the Pohetukawa trees in full bloom first, and now these fiery red succulents next to the front door and lots of blue flowers towards the beach. Coming home after work with at least 3 more hours of daylight to walk, bike, water the plants, dinner on the deck is so nice - I just love those longer lighter days. Weird to see the pics on the family app of the snow of this morning in Holland. But being a real Dutchy I do still miss the 4 seasons, as in NZ we really only have two wet/windy/bit cooler and dry/windy/warm.

Hans was a happy man a couple of days ago as finally it was time to go fishing again. He feels a lot better, the main aches and pains are gone and even though still not lifting anything, a good snapper was do-able! Dick had to crank up the boat a bit, because it had been a while.

But also very happy to be out there judging from this big smile. A good catch and dolphins around the boat I as told.

And counting 12, pretty good! And the weather was looking amazing from my office window....

Crumbed fish for dinner and lunch the next day, fresh on the plate - couldn't imagine ever doing that living in Holland. Veggie patch, catching fish for eating (no license needed no need to throw them back!) and tomorrow saying goodbye to our 'big' cow as she is going in the freezer.......

One of our Pohetukawas in full glory :-)

Did a few bike rides on the beach again, great summer exercise. Started going uphill a couple of times a week again - need to burn some of those BBQ wine calories. This one was a few weeks ago during evening stroll. It never gets boring.

This week I was off to Wellington for a girls night out to celebrate our 4 birthdays that all fall within 5 weeks in January and February. We decided experiences are way more important than 'stuff', no of us need more 'stuff'. This was awesome, Te Papa museum did a few night openings to see the World of Wearable Art Exhibition with mostly pieces of the WOW 2018 and 2019 shows. Accompanied by wine, beautiful canapes and live jazz music. Very posh and grown up. Just a lovely evening with a sleep over, it's so nice to live only an hour away from Wellington so it's easy to catch up and do things like this. Hans and I have only been to one show in 2017 but WOW is world famous and attracts huge numbers each August/September. It's a combination of Cirque de Soleil, live music and the most amazing art on models who all have to be a size 8 or 10 at the most. The great thing about the exhibition is that you can see all the pieces up close and see the detail and craftsmanship, just amazing and inspirational. This one is from an artist that loves tattoos so decided to let them come 'alive' on top of the skin.

And the wacky bra-category, always funky and funny.

On the way to work on the train at 8.30 from Wellington to Kapiti - what a view over the Paramata inlet. Again, perfect day for fishing.

But this is what Hans was doing with 25 degrees; burning the heaps of branches and small trees that I had been pulling out and cutting in my 10 days holiday...I did do a few afternoons of hard grind feeling too guilty about doing nothing at all. No fire ban here yet and at the moment it's hosing down, and indoors Sunday. But good for the garden.

This was on Friday after work, 104 haybales to get out of our two paddocks. Hans driving and me lifting, good exercise. We could not even store 42, both sheds were full! Another bumper crop so selling some off it to all the horse owners in the area. Lucky that the weather had been so dry and hot, making the bales pretty easy to handle. That was it, another year is underway. Few weeks of work and than off to Northland for our holiday - it was 14 years ago one our first trip to NZ that we went there, a beautiful place to explore again. Bye for now xx