16 juni 2023; 20 jaar geleden. Floris

It is exactly 20 year ago that our beloved son Floris passed away in the Academic Hospital in Leiden after a excruciating battle of nearly a year. We still miss our little hero so much.

An old post, just sitting there. Posted almost a year later.

This post was just sitting tyhere as a draft. Just posted it, more a year later.

Yep, sitting in the pub again. Having missed the annual medical conference twice in a row because of Covid lockdowns, it finally was on again. My decision to go was a bit late this year, but the registration had not closed yet. The problem was more accommodation as because of emergency housing issues hotels were already quite full and a lot of rooms were already booked by other doctors and nurses. Being kind on the phone always helps and I managed to book an apartment close to the venue. Nienke was not able to come along so I offered a friend to come along so he could enjoy himself for a few days in that smelly town. The apartment had a swimming pool, but we had forgotten togs, so we scored some cheap stuff at the Warehouse. When we walked back to the car it started to rain. It kept raining till we drove back to Kapiti 3 days later..... So what doe you do after the sessions? You seek shelter in the pub.

A quick walk to the lake in between speeches. I kind of like the conferences like this. In only 3 days you can nourish your brain with new interesting medical developments. The days are long though. From 7.30 a.m. till 6 p.m.

Like every year there were lots of stands from health organisations and pharmaceuticals and if you got your booklet signed of at every stand you could enter the draw for a big price. And lots of doctors with good salaries did just that, like little children, collecting goodies. Needless to say that I did not join them.

After a long morning of listening and an afternoon of resuscitation I was thirsty and hungry. Picked up Dick from the motel and went to the Irish pub. Ordering the lamb shank was a good idea, it was delicious but I was glad I did not order the XL version. In between beers and meals the All Blacks or some other local rugby team won the game on the big screens.

On the way back home I became a touring guide and showed Dick the Aratiatia rapids. It's the  start of the Waikato river and it originates from Lake Taupo. Several times a day the dam opens the doors and in a few minutes the small stream from the dam deep down in the canyon changes into a turbulent and dangerous wall of water. Seeing this you can imagine how dangerous it is to do canyoning when it rains.

Back in Kapiti it was nice weather again and we could enjoy the winter sunsets.

Matariki is the Maori name of the Pleiades star cluster. The celebration of its first rising marks the beginning of the new year in the Maori lunar calender. Nowadays that is a public holiday in New Zealand and this year there were celebrations around that event in Paraparaumu. With a couple of friends we listened to the music, looked at the 'light and art show' and went to the fire on the beach. I offered my help for next year as you can hardly call this a fire......

We are close to finishing our book. That means that there is no need anymore for me to take up half the dining table anymore and I have to move my screen and laptop to the mediaroom. Somehow I have to fit an extra screen and laptop in here as well.....

Our friend Mira, who was the Dutch ambassador here, is moving back to Europe and will start working in Germany. The Dutch 'borrel club' had decided to organise a farewell dinner for her.

Yes, it was in Welly. The lady who's surname now starts with an 'i' is the 'i'.

A nice Indonesian 'rijsttafel' of course, including the mandatory speeches and presents. Great evening.

Full moon. Time for reflections.

Dinner with some good friends from Sims road.

After many unsuccessful visits to open homes and even two offers on houses (but losing out) we had kind of accepted that we would stay put. But we had bought a campervan and you can't leave that outside so close to the sea. So I designed a new garage to replace our campervan.

Called the council who agreed with me that according to the current law I did not need a resource consent for the garage and also no building consent. The only thing that was needed if I was going to build it myself was supervision from a certified builder. OK everybody happy. And then Nienke said "He Hans, that house on the hill here, the one that is for sale, let's have a look so I can put it out of my mind".

A couple of days later we were the proud owners of a new house. It is one road further from the beach. In fact, from our kitchen we have seen it build.

Nienke immediately fell for the Scandinavian design of the house. 

And the flow of the house is great too. It has one bedroom less than we have now, but it does have three indoor garages and an elevator (for when we get old...).

The house has an outside room, with heaters in the ceiling and a special vent for the barbeque in the corner, so that when it rains you do not have to get wet when you attend to your steak.

Dick helping us making a video of our house. Now we have to plough through a 1000 pictures and a few video's so we can make a nice portfolio of the house.

Isn't this just an attractive entrance. Who would not want to live here.

In the end we did decide to go with a real estate agent. I was not too happy about that as I think they ask an awful lot of money for basically not doing very much. And the whole process is not very transparent either. Our add in the paper. That should attract a few people.

Have a look at the video. We're mighty proud.