August 28th, 2023: Floris

It's Floris's birthday today. He would have been 28 years old today. Here he is ready to support the Dutch for a football game. I had to check what game it was, it was the Netherlands against Danmark during the european championships of 2000, a 3 - 0 win for the Dutch and a great day for my little mate.

I'm not so sure he would have been keen to accompany us to the world cup football games for women in Wellington this month. I've got the feeling he may have had some issues with my attire. 

Spring is in the air, resulting in great views in the evening from our deck.

When some friends came over to visit us, Nienke assigned the important task of coming up with an idea for dinner to me. I wanted to make something a friend of mine once made when we were still young students cooking in turns in our student house. From memory it was a white fish (cod I think) with onions on top and then wrapped in bacon, finished of with a lemon/white wine/old cheese sauce. I checked with my friend in the Netherlands, but either his or my mind is fading. Anyway, if it wasn't that, I may have invented a new dish. It probably won't make it into the Weight Watchers cooking book, but it was delicious.

Sometimes you have to wait for a train or a funeral procession. In Te Horo it is quite often for about 300 cows crossing the road, to seek greener pastures a bit further south.

OK, I did say that I was done with female football. I really was. But how often does a Dutch team play a game here in Wellington? So, I felt like it was my duty to be a patriot and dress up in orange to support the Dutch team in their quest for success. Besides, Nienke had convinced me to get tickets, which was not an easy task. What a mess is that FIFA website. I was able to buy tickets for the men's world cup in Qatar (that finished 1 1/2 year ago) and later kept bidding on tickets that vanished before my eyes. A desperate mail in which I asked for help was replied to with the announcement that they would contact me within five working days. I guess they are still on day 4? In the end, after opening a third account, I managed to get tickets.

And once more we treated Wellington to a Orange parade. Maybe not with as many as the previous week, but here was some support from disappointed americans who had already bought tickets for the games of their invincible team who for sure would end first in their group. Ha!

Although we own enough orange garments to dress most the inhabitants of Te Horo Beach, we could not convince my tennis mate, an Austrian, to get properly clothed.

Maybe he did foresee what was coming. The Dutch coach used the same tactics that their male counterparts used in their world cup match against Argentina. Passing the ball to each other and then either losing the ball (80%) or give it an almighty kick forward to the lonely striker with about 5 defenders around her (19%). No chance. The Spanish played real football and deserved to win. Quite disappointed in the Dutch team, they did not even have the decency to thank the supporters who came from all over New Zealand and spend quite a bit of money to support their country(wo)men.

The same day we went to a tribute theatre show about Simon and Garfunkel. They must have been at the game as well as they were just as uninspired as the Dutch women. The Art Garfunkel guy sounded like a gremlin on helium. Luckily it was not just me. Janes' partner Chris jumped up halfway through the show to head home, but our spouses made us sit it out. By the way, they live in an amazing apartment on a pier in the Wellington harbour. Sitting in a comfortable chair with a nice chardonnay, enjoying a fantastic view, made us quickly forget the setbacks of the day.

Ran out of water again. As the tanks are made of concrete and I am not allowed to shoot on the property (it's a civilised neighbourhood) a leak from the tanks seemed very unlikely. We did not have a lot of rain lately and we were wondering if the water was actually getting into the tanks. Only one way of finding out. Checking the gutters. Not so scary on this side, but it was pretty high on the other side. The gutters were full of muck; sand, pine needles, pine pollen, leaves, bird feathers, etc. Time for a good clean. Next step is to put a hose in the downpipes and check if there is actually water running into the tanks. I need my lovely wife to assist me for that, so that will be a job for later.

And while I was up there I installed some bird spikes. They just loved to sit here and build nests in the gutter. And while sitting on the gutter and enjoying the amazing view they tend to drop things on the bonnet of our cars. Luxury problems of course.

Power cut. It still happens in 2023. Apparently fighting birds caused problems with the powerlines. We did not notice that our humongous boiler had switched of as well. So two days later it started to get colder in the house and suddenly we had no hot water. Luckily the heat pump did come with an English manual and not a Chinese one.

The planting has been done and the post for the new garage have been put in. Exciting. After carrying loads of mulch up the hill I kind of understand now what Tantalus' torment must have been like.

No comment......

Our golfclub is quite popular. Unfortunately. Outsiders are able to play tournaments and organise team building days. Good for some money for the club, but it does mean that it is always busy on Fridays. We don't like that. We don't want to share our techniques and game plans. Something like that. Today the John Deere importers had their annual day at the club. They had parked machine everywhere. Couldn't even negotiate a discount!

Not bad ay? A nice sunny day with snow on the mountain tops behind me. Only in NZ.

Live music at a local restaurant. A good night out. A very reasonable band from Wellington playing covers. Just ladies dancing. Who said 'men can't dance and ladies can't play football?'.

Yes, finally. Progress. Concrete. We started the whole process in February. The Councill took ages to get us our resource consent and later the building consent. They invoiced us for almost 40 hours of work, only for the resource consent. For a simple pole shed. Unbelievable. I guess you understand that I have parked my plan for an underground tennis court on a high shelf....

See? That is fast work. Nienke said she would like a colour on the wall in her study. Done in a day. My lovely wife has been very busy. I know I promised she would write the blog, but she only started her new job last week and it has consumed a bit of time and energy. Patience, she'll tell her story soon enough.

Our builder is a nice guy, but he only works like 1-2 hours a day or so. Anyway, we head of to Vanuatu tomorrow morning and when we come back it will be finished, he said. Vanuatu is a group of 80 plus Pacific islands stretched over 1300 km, about 3 hours flying from Auckland. The older readers amongst us know them as the New Hebrides. We're going to visit three of the island. Snorkelling, reading books, eating seafood, catching a huge tuna, climbing a live volcano are a few of the things we have planned. 

Watch this space!

August 3rd 2023; Orange!!!

We been helping our friends Marya and Roger to plant a lot of native trees on a plot along the Otaki river. The 'Friends of the Otaki river' want to create one of the most beautiful walks in the region. A nice track next to the river and amidst just native trees. Nienke and I are contemplating to donate as well and create our own spot in name of the kids.

Orange fever is in the air. At the Council the departments decided to adopt a team and make a contest of who had the best 'pod'. Nienke managed to influence the draw and her team ended up supporting the Dutch of course. It was surprising how many orange items we were able to find at home.

A friend of us managed to get us tickets for the Netherlands USA game. So I started preparation early. To change the somewhat dirty clogs, with a typical farmers motive on them, into supporter worthy footwear, they needed many layers of orange paint.

Temperatures have dropped considerably. It may be the hottest month on earth ever, but down under we do not notice that so much. Stormy winds as well. Our recycling bin has tried to walk to the gate on it's own a few times already. Tennis yesterday was one of the most challenging ever. Throwing up the ball for a service was practically impossible. Some interesting lobs.....

We've started planting natives in a few areas on our property. Carrying the mulch up the hill is quite a job. Tried backing up the trailer up the hill, but just like Verstappen I am better in going forward. Must be losing weight I think, lost my breath anyway.....

Is this outrageous?  To be honest, I am not really a fan of female football yet. But I did not want to miss the chance to be part of a small orange party in Wellington. You just can't appear underdressed at such an event, so I am wearing anything Nienke did not already drag to the Council.

What a pair ay? Unfortunately dogs were not allowed in the 'Cake tin' (the nickname of the Wellington football stadium). If you have ever seen the insultingly ugly collection of steel you might wonder who drunk the architect must have been. He did not win a price for the horrible bowl in our capital. If it is not the whirling wind that chills your bones to almost freezing point, it's the sun that prevents half the crowd from seeing almost anything of the game. The stadium is probably, just like Wellington itself, completely designed by a planner in London. Completely ignorant to local circumstances and oblivious of hills and mountains. 

Compliments to the staff of the Dutch embassy. The pre-party was very well organised and the orange flags, they handed out, made the parade to the stadium outstanding. At the head of the parade a group of women, not exactly appropriately dressed for the cold weather, danced enthusiastically, followed by a Dutch drum band, also dressed in orange. Behind them hundreds of orange fans waving flags and trying to follow Nienke in singing Dutch football songs. I'm afraid too many of them have been away from the homeland for too long, as hardly anyone knew the lyrics. Here is a small impression of the Parade and the stadium.

With Landa and Rutger in row YY. A bit away from the pitch, but not as exposed. Lots of yanks all around us. Apart from their flag on practically every garment, they were quite unimaginative. No songs either, just the boring chant U S A. They started very slowly with the U, a few seconds later followed by the rest. After the 1 - 0 by the Netherlands that prompted a funny Dutch guy to scream in between their letters 'what's the score?'. It was obvious they were not amused. By the way, my clogs have been photographed about a hundred times, and not only by the rednecks. After the game we went to the Dutch embassy as we were invited for a reception there. We did not have time to go home and had no other clothes with us, so we were a bit underdressed in the presence of  two ministers of sport, the minister for long term care and sport, and a few others in grey suits. She (Conny Helder of the VVD) pretended to be interested in general practice here in NZ. I have bad experiences with VVD ministers. The only reason they almost always have health in their portfolio is to make the budget for health as unhealthy as possible. 

In the weekend we participated in an exercise; getting Te Horo disaster ready. As you can see our neighbourhood was not very well represented in the Community hall. Nienke and I had even driven around half a day, dropping of flyers in letterboxes. 'It won't happen in my time' is what most people think. Kiwi's only learn the hard way..... The biggest danger is the Hikurangi subduction zone (nice video with explanation here). A big earthquake there will cause a tsunami on our side. As it is overdue, why worry? Scientists have made a model of the disaster, scary???? Well, after the quake we have about 5 minutes to seek higher ground.... Good thing is, that's where we live now.

For some reason the campervan did not want to start. The house battery was functioning, but the car battery did not. Couldn't charge it as it was completely empty. 'Just bring me the battery' said David from our garage. Opened the hood and the lack of a battery was quite obvious. Turns out it is located at Nienke's feet. Connected to multiple wires as well. A job for another time.....

Another job done. This is one of the steep slopes on the sides of our house. Just difficult and dangerous too mow on the ride on and a lot of work with the weed wacker. So we just plant it out with flaxes. Picked up a bunch from a friend of ours. Managed to avoid the waterpipes this time. 

A small success story. One of our old iPods had a dead hard drive. Ordered a new one in China, with a new battery. Opening the thing is harder than the average driving exam (including all the lessons). When I finally got everything in place again, the headphone jack did not work anymore. Must have broken one of the tiny cables. So I ordered that as well from China. After some more fiddling with three pair of glasses on (the screws are the size of a hair follicle), I now have a perfectly working iPod again with a 512 GB hard drive. Who needs Spotify. Go and watch the documentary about Spotify on Netflix.

Yes, they finally started work on our new garage. Under a beautiful rainbow, that must be a good sign. I did point out all the pipes to Kyle, the confident driver of the truck, digger and compactor. 'Sweet as' was the reaction. Just spent a few hours correcting the work after all. I'm not very fond of Putin's Russia but I prefer to have the pipes pointing up in the air and not aiming for Moscow.