Speaking of climate change, the whole world is flying in for the World Cup football (the real one, not that thing with an oval ball) for ladies. The Dutch embassy has asked the Dutch to come to Wellington for an orange parade through town ahead of the football match between the Netherlands and the US. We got tickets so we may as well. Afterwards we'll join the ambassador for either celebrations or an appropriate form of mourning. To get in the 'orange mood' we made another great batch of Dutch pea soup. This time with real 'roggebrood' and 'katenspek'.
Yes, very observative. This is a small screw with glue on it. It was holding the strike plate on our door in place, the glue that is. Well, it was trying to do that. Our door wouldn't close very well and therefore the automatic lock didn't always work. First I discovered that the screw was not used the way it should be, only then to discover that somebody had been using a mini sledgehammer on the metal door frame.
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I tried to get the company that installed the door to fix it, but of course, they do not exist anymore. And the person who took over that company just says it has nothing to do with her. Yes, we live in a quality building, but there are a few issues....
No, this is not a form of art or communication with extra-terrestrials. I have sprayed 3 patches of grass with Roundup, a glyphosate that kills weeds and grass in preparation for new planting. In order to see where I'd been I added some colour to it (fittingly named 'Been there'). These area's are either too steep to mow or the grass does not row there very well. We will plant natives on there, just like you see elsewhere on the property. That glyphosate is potentially nasty stuff (and has been forbidden in a few countries), so we are quite careful with it. In the land of the lunies (USA) some people were awarded quite some money by juries deciding that there was a link between cancer and this stuff. Of course we're still waiting for similar cases against Coca cola, KFC and McDonalds, well, at least I am.
The site for our new garage is also ready. Water and electricity pipes are in, and I dug (also manually) a few soak pits for the down pipes, the drainage and the fish cleaning table. It was amazing to see how fast the guy on the digger prepared the site. I clearly need one of those things. I am working on the business case to present to the other director here...... Now all we need is the building company to turn up. Like always, very communicative when the contract had not been signed yet, a lot quieter after that....
Stan visited us from Australia, where he had been working. Stan is one of the two sons of our former neighbours in The Hague. They were both very good friends with our sons Floris and Tristan.
It was a bit of a short visit to Aotearoa for him. A few days in Queenstown and after that 2 1/2 day here in Kāpiti. The poor man was raving about Australia, not realising New Zealand is so much more beautiful. It was clear we had to give him a bit of an NZ outdoor experience.
On the first day Nienke showed him around Kāpiti, including our former house on the beach. The next day I did the Makara beach loop with him. As a 60+ man (I know, hard to believe) I had to proof to the youngster that I was still quite fit. So we did the 4 hour walk in half the time. Something I did feel the next two days. Blamed it on a wrong move during tennis of course.
Last picture for the parents in the Netherlands. When we left the Netherlands, Stan's mother, Brenda, gave us a small jewellery box with the hook in it that I attached to the letterboxes so I could put a rope between them. Thus making sure that the boys could not walk of our shared driveway onto the road. Nienke mailed a picture of that jewellery box to Brenda, who immediately replied with a picture of her own box with the hook. Out of sight, not of mind!
Because Stan had been in Australia for a long period we treated him on a classic Dutch/Indonesian meal: nasi goreng with home made atjar, pisang goreng, seroendeng, 'kroepoek' and sateh sauce. Now he really wants to go home!
Had a mad day at the office. I was helping out a few days in my old practice. Early in the morning I saw a woman with a classic acute coronary syndrome. I was still prepping her to be send of to hospital when a man with a classic anaphylactic reaction to a bee-sting came in. With the help of the great nurses we got on top of that as well, but his saturation would not stay high, so we had to ship him of as well. The next patient was short of breath, 'it's my lungs doc'. I didn't think so, I thought she was pretty anaemic, so of to the lab. In the afternoon I was doing the respiratory clinic. Found this pic on my phone (I know, it should not be in that room), must have put something on the phone to get this selfie. When my clinic was finished I could attend to a man who had been clipped by a car while he was racing over the marine parade on his motor bike. And when you are young and invincible only a T-shirt and shorts should do, even though you you tend to lose some skin when you fall. In this case the skin of his knees, elbows and upper leg. Quite a lot of work for the nurses. Did it end there? Nope. The older lady was indeed very anaemic said the lab (64 instead of over 115), so I needed her to go to hospital as well. Problem was, she did not answer her phone, nor did the family. Then a mother ran in with a lifeless baby, to which my colleague attended luckily. Followed by about 10 men from the fire brigade (who's station is right next door). Although it turned out to be atypical fever convulsions it caused quite a stir. The ambulance came for the third time that day and while backing up contributed to the party by crashing into the building. As I could not reach the old lady I decided to drive to her house with a friend who works in admin. Found the old lady comfortably stroking her cat in front of the TV. Ah doc, yes, I switched the phone of for the weekend...... Time for a drink.
We went to the beach in Otaki for Matariki.
Matariki marks the start of the Māori New Year. Since a year it is a National holiday and gets celebrated over the whole country.
A bonfire on the beach (I offered to build the fire next year as you can imagine) in combination with music was attended by a lot of locals. For the hungry people there were food stalls. We finally met up with Zafraan, a Moroccan chef, who made quite a name for himself in the lower part of the North island. His lamb wrap was amazing.
A short video impression of the evening. A famous New Zealand artist, Anika Moa, singing with some locals.
It all ended quite early. Partly because it became colder and also because the the fire brigade did not allow them to continue the whole evening. Luckily we met the new owners of our old house on the beach, who invited us over to their house to have a glass of wine with music around the firepit. Good memories. Here in the picture with the parents of James.
Cathy and Nienke and our old house in the background.
And in the weekend we worked hard in the garden again. To prevent me from rolling over with the ride-on mower (who would do such a thing?) we planted flaxes out, 39 in total. In the future we probably won't have to mow there anymore.
We have volunteered to be involved in the community emergency response for Te Horo. End of the month we'll have a practice day where one of the disaster scenario's will be chosen to basically wake up everybody. Anything from chemical or fire disasters to the more frequent ones in New Zealand like; earthquakes (with or without tsunami's) and cyclones. Very interesting.
A short video impression of the evening. A famous New Zealand artist, Anika Moa, singing with some locals.
It all ended quite early. Partly because it became colder and also because the the fire brigade did not allow them to continue the whole evening. Luckily we met the new owners of our old house on the beach, who invited us over to their house to have a glass of wine with music around the firepit. Good memories. Here in the picture with the parents of James.
Right, you're up to date again. A bit of good news about Nienke still. A very happy girl as I did not make the final with tennis this year. So the ugly cup will be moving out tonight. More importantly, she has a new job and is very happy about that. I leave it to her to tell you about it next time.
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