Hans en Nienke

Still having good memories of the experience of the Vincent van Gogh exposition, we start this blog with the song 'Vincent' from Don McClean:

Something funny to start with. I was listening to a news program on the radio about the van Gogh exposition when a very annoying reporter, Mike Hoskins, an arrogant narcissist, was talking to a so called specialist on 'van Gogh'. They discussed how to pronounce his name. Their conclusion was there were only two ways and either way was all right. Well, as a Dutchman, I can say they were both wrong. English speaking people just does not have the capacity to pronounce it the right way without producing copious amounts of spit or losing their false teeth.

I know, I know, you want to know what the result of my biopsies are like. Well, I have prostate cancer (😟). Yep, another curve ball in our lives. Like losing tree kids wasn't enough. Gleason 8 (that a score to score how bad it is). On a scale from 0 - 10 it tells you this is not exactly the best news.

By now we know a little bit more. I have had a PET-scan (no that does not concern our rabbits, pigs and chickens). It's a scan where they use a radioactive drug to look at how organs function. It's highly sensitive. First they bring you to your 'cell' and put a line in your arm. Then they inject some radio active stuff and leave you waiting in your cell for 2 hours. Good enough for a Norwegian movie. The door is locked from the outside (I think) and a little window gives the 'guards' the opportunity to sneak peek on you. They do tell you not to be close to children or pregnant women for a while. I was wondering what to do when a young female officer would stop me on my way home. How would she react if I asked her if she was pregnant?

Anyway, finally a bit of luck. The day after the pathology of my atypical lesion in my oesphagus came back as normal (my skin lesions had turned out to be old mans lesions 🙄) my colleague surprised me late Friday afternoon with the news that the PET-scan was OK, meaning the cancer was contained in the prostate and had not spread anywhere else. Good news I guess, now we just have to get rid of that thing and I should be normal again. Well, as normal as before. The operation is planned for December the 10th.

Beautiful view on the Kepler track.

Unfortunately that means we can't do the Kepler track we were so much looking forward to do at Christmas. Instead of being away in the beautiful environment of the southern fjords I'll be sitting on the deck at home with my new friend,the urine bag, dangling on my leg. It will only last a few weeks said the urologist. I saw a patient this week who told me he had been incontinent for 13 years. So when you ask me to come over for dinner and sit on your new couch maybe you should check with Nienke first. Just finished my last working days of the year. After a few minor Covid scares in New Zealand (one was really close and resulted in many swabs in our practice, none of which turned out to be positive by the way) I decided not to take any chances and stay at home the coming three weeks (with a prostate). Not so much to bother Nienke (😉), but to avoid every risk of getting infected with anything and so risking postponement of my operation. Now I know, let's get it over with.

Our weather is very strange at the moment. We have alternating days of really fine weather and weather bombs. Today was a great day for golf. Looking very relaxed at the 10th. As we only play 9 holes I had not lost a ball yet. In fact, it was a very good day if I say so myself.

No, this is not preparation for another radioactive adventure. We were contemplating buying a nice rugged 4 wheel drive camper van. But after calculating the costs and looking at Nienke's holidays we concluded it would absolutely not be a cost-effective investment. Far from it even. So I decided to work a bit on our current van. I sprayed the whole bottom with a anti rust chemical and afterwards a nice layer of bitumen. That'll protect it for years. Nienke already came up with the idea to paint the rest of the van in flower power motifs during Christmas. Mmmm. I was thinking orange.

This beauty is still not happy with her hair. I asked her to let it grow again when we were in South America. Reluctantly she did. Except for herself, everybody seems to like it.

A few days ago we decided to climb the Colonial Knob (I know, horrible name) once more. It was a practice run for the Keppler track. At that point we didn't know about an operation date. In the background you see the outskirts of Wellington city and the Cook strait (the one fake hero Abel Tasman ignored because he wanted to go home)..

We did this track it in the past, but it seemed a lot easier now (or we became fitter 😅😂😉).

Unfortunately the view on the top was obscured by a sudden sea fog. Even in the fog our salmon/avocado sandwiches were amazing.

Just a few meters further down the track we were able to look all the way from Mana island to Kapiti island and beyond (= our home).

As we were a lot faster than we had estimated we had time to visit a new development on the Paekakeriki hill road. There were 9 sections, this one having an amazing view over Mana island and the South island in the background. Not much of down sizing though as it was 20 hectares of steep land. Lots of birds, quietness, great views, but according to my wife... too much wind.

Very nice dinner with our friends, celebrating their new house. They merged two households which explains a still overloaded garage.

Yep, bought a bit of paint. Going to paint our house, inside and out. Have started in the bathrooms and the hallway.

We just have to upgrade the colours of the house again like nature does in the garden.Look at the Tui bathing in the sunlight

My mother was enjoying the white asparagus from the Limburg province in the Netherlands. Traditionally served with ham, mashed potatoes, boiled egg and butter. No white asparagus here, but we managed to copy that menu pretty good. Amazing taste. I guess, a benefit from the catheter/urine bag in December will be that I'll miss out on that typical smell of your pee after asparagus.

And a full day in the kitchen to prepare an Indonesian meal for my South island trip compadres. Beers and food, memory lane......

Great night. Those arms? Nothing serious, they are just trying to hide the beer bellies for the camera. Hang on, there's one missing. Where is Gavin?

And the arts trail was on again. We've been so often now we could hardly imagine there would still be artists we had not visited yet. So we were only going to visit one, or two..... And most likely not buy anything as we do not have much more space in our house for it anymore. Well, we failed.... Loved this lady of chicken wire. Would rust away at our property in no time. Nice project though. We did buy a painting here, a 'Dutch pour', a certain paint technique. Great for in the bathroom according to Nienke, therefor validating her purchase as of course, there is an empty wall in the bathroom. For a reason....

And then we deserved a rest. A glass of wine and some snacks. Not sure why Nienke had popcorn on there, but the salmon and asparagus with Parmesan cheese were delicious. The summer has not even started properly yet.

A few years ago we introduced Sinterklaas to our friends here in NZ. We did leave zwarte Piet (black Pete) out, realising the controversy in the Netherlands would soon spread over the world. This year everybody prepared their food and poems for a great night at Cindie's place.

Yes, exactly, where is Nienke? All the ladies were present for a group picture, but my lady was discussing the progress of the ham with the guys at the barbeque.

Mr. Tui (he refuses to drink any other type of beer) got a 12 pack of different beers, in a Tui box. With a very funny poem.

Some presents were hilarious, Like Cam's tea towel with the Oldies text code on it.

I got a stress ball in the shape of Donald Trumps head. Not very useful but I can use it as target practice as my plastic magpie ceased to exist. Not that I need it, as I shoot rabbits on a daily basis. Probably 35 a week. The egg alarm is to support his head as it won't stand up straight (much like in reality). The hand sanitiser speaks for itself I guess.

Amazing night and lots of fun. What other Dutch traditions could we introduce? I was thinking of 'klootschieten', 'carbid schieten', 'fierljeppen', 'elf steden tocht schaatsen' or 'sjoelen', to name but a few. Now that I have participated in curling, they could do something weird too ay?

Dick and Nettie had organised an evening with Fred and Liesbeth. Fred and Liesbeth had traveled through the America's and England for 5 years in an old mercedes. They gave their (I think 68th) presentation, amazing adventure. Great to see some of the places we'd been to well. I guess after the operation I will have some time to complete our presentation/photo book.

First a few jobs I have to finish on our property. Our drinking water was a bit smelly said Nienke. OK, definitely not a 1959 Margaux, but also no Chateaux Migraine either. I did not smell it, but after changing the filters (I must admit, I was a month late) Nienke's nose still picked up the odd smell. So I had a look in the water tank. Quite some leaves and other muck on the bottom. Our first flush system is supposed to take care of that. That is the big white thing in the picture. The first water coming from our roofs is going through the big white pipe on the right towards the storage tank. That first water has the sand, dead insects, bird poo and leaves in it. When the flush tank fills with that dirty water a ball will close of the entrance at the top and 'clean' water will run into the big tank. That's the theory. Our first plumbers ('plumber of the year' in NZ 👹) installed that flush tank horizontally under the ground. Indeed, that guy missed the elementary lessons about physics in plumbing school. Well it never did. So a new plumber was going to make it all right, while we were in South America. He was going to shorten the tank so it would end up above the ground, giving the flush tank the opportunity to empty itself and me to get the bottom cap of in order to clean it. Well, they must have had a few beers when they did it, but it ended up with the bottom in the ground. A bracket fixed to a pole in cement (that helps draining the water very well 😕) holds the tank up straight and is mounted in such a way that is was nearly impossible to unscrew the cap. When I eventually managed to do so (after digging up all the pipes) it was full all right. Full with dirt. This water storage tank by the way is Kiwi design. See the manhole at the top? If you don't own a helicopter you have to put a ladder against it to reach the lid. So where do we place the pipes? Exactly, right underneath. And what to think of the electrician? A power point, right underneath the overflow pipe. I have added some rain pipes to lead the overflow water away from a certain electrocution site. Kiwi's are absolutely great people, but often we wonder where their brains were. I am now busy creating a proper drain pit with river stones in it underneath the first flush tank and will make a will line the pit you see with retaining wall timber and put a very firm lid on it. Sorry, had to get this of my chest. Not enough rabbits around today to calm me down today.

Meanwhile my lovely wife is enjoying herself. At work as well as of work. Although her work is full on, she really loves it. This night they had the Council Christmas party. Staff and partners were welcome. The organising committee had rented the Waikanae golf club as the party venue, but forgot to ask the fire department how many people were allowed to attend. When the finally were told no more than 200 were allowed inside the building all the available tickets had been sold and a lot of staff would not be able to attend. So me and a few other good blokes offered our tickets to staff members as it was their party after all. Nienke picked up Margareth, don't they make a lovely couple (I agree, that jacket is awful)? OK, that's it for today. No ranting about COVID or Donald T. I'll add a few really good ones without comments. Have a laugh. Next time we'll probably have some very exciting news (does not involve my private parts) and I'll update you on my operation.

Translation: Of course there are more corona infections because we do more tests. If we did more IQ-tests we would find more idiots too.

So you have been eating 'frikandellen' all your life, but you refuse the corona vaccin because you don't know what's in it? (A frikandel is a skinless sausage made of 'rest-meat'. Loved by many, despiced by others. Usually eaten with raw onions, mayonaise and ketchup. One of the worst attacks on Dutch coronairy arteries ever invented)

Translation: Sometimes I wonder;what were our parents doing without the internet? I asked my 12 sisters and 9 brothers, but they didn't know either.

Wishing you all a very good December, cheers, Hans

As a doctor you never really want to sit in that other chair, the one for the patients. That's probably why a lot of doctors don't even have a doctor to look after themselves. They are their own doctor. Have to say that the role of being a colleagues doctor is not an easy one as the moment he or she decided to see you they have already concluded there was a medical need for it. Often you just have to agree with your colleague and just acknowledge that he or she is right and their proposal is just what needs to be done.

Something wasn't right, and I'm not talking about this weird spooky clock of ours (check out the second hand). After the trip to the South island my belly did not settle from all that food (and a few drinks). So after a while the doctor in me thought 'let's check a few things'. Good news on the belly front as there were no alarm symptoms. But I had also ticked the prostate box and that came back as increased. Bummer (well, that's more or less where it is located). I consulted my colleague who agreed with me that this needed further investigation. I got an MRI which showed 2 suspicious lesions. So, last Monday I had the pleasure of performing as a dartboard while a medical version of Michael van Gerwen threw a couple of '180's'. 28 biopsies if memory serves me right (which it might not as it is not an experience you would like to remember). Anyway, now we have to wait for the results.

Then Nienke said 'let's finally make a picture of those spots on your back'. This time we actually did make them and I scrutinised the spots I normally can't see myself. I had to agree that if they were presented to me (well, they were) I would advise to take 2 out and send them of for pathology. So, 3 days after the 28 needles I got a few others stuck in me and my friendly colleague cut out my wives worries.

Enough you say? If only that was true.

Will get a colonoscopy and gastroscopy the coming week. The first one because of my belly symptoms and age and the second one because, well, I will be there anyway. OK, because me and my family have been buying large bulks of anti-acids for years. As of today I'm on a diet for the colonoscopy. White bread for breakfast, horrible. So, turbulent is a bit of an understatement.

In the meantime I keep myself busy with hunting rabbits and the odd magpie. There are thousands of them. I usually shoot 5-12 a day. Just bought a new torch for the gun, a Convoy C8+ Cree XPL HI, 1350 Lumens. Amazing thing, gives a bundle of light with a range of 630 meters. The rabbits are totally confused. Unfortunately I still haven't got a good silencer. This little guy managed to trap itself in the possum trap. Uh, no, I did not let it go. One pair of rabbits (and their offspring) can create nearly 4 million rabbits in 4 years. A female can get pregnant at 3 months old and from then on produce a new litter every month! In New Zealand we're waiting for the rabbit version of covid.

Our pigs were not fazed by this at all. I had just chased this one (only Nienke sees the which one is Thelma and which one is Louis) from the other paddock as I needed to work there. Told her to do something useful. Well, she just found another spot to do eh.. nothing.

While writing this blog it is raining pretty hard. It is an exception though as we have more and more beautiful days. Summer is definitely coming. This week we had a south-easterly and while the sun was shining when I was working in the garden, the peaks of the Tararua were covered in ice. It shows you how the weather is not to be trusted in New Zealand and you always have to be prepared. People start a hike in the sun and freeze to death later on the day. This little blue creature is a Blue bottle by the way. They end up on the beach by the thousands when there is a fierce wind.

No, not a difficult meeting for Nienke (although she has more then enough of those), but the 30th anniversary dinner of 'the Dutch borrel club'. It is a club for males only (with the exception of the ambassador). But we have so many dinners that half of the meetings are mixed anyway.

Our FDC (Friday afternoon drinking club) is mixed though, a group of friends meeting once a fortnight. Tia, the little girl, part of it as well and often takes care of the entertainment. Her they are playing a game she came up with.

Little joke in from our kitchen drawer.

The Dutch doctors that came to work at Otaki Medical Center last year welcomed a little girl into the world, Mette. So Nienke and I took the two boys out for a few hours to give the couple and baby a rest.

Brings back memories of our own boys who thoroughly liked the railway museum in Utrecht or all the little trains in Madurodam, Here they are en joying themselves in the drivers seat of a '30's Wellington tram.

And the biggest surprise were the 'real' trains.

Enjoyin multiple rides on the mini-trains in the Raumati Marine gardens.

Told Nienke so many times we need a digger (to build my own tennis court), but she doesn't budge (or I am just a weakling). She is enjoying herself pretty well here though and I can remember now she once enjoyed herself even more on a real digger during the Mitre 10 womens open day (the NZ equivalent of the GAMMA). Maybe.......

Last week we visited the Wellington van Gogh exhibition. The placed a few big white containers in a circle and project van Gogh's painting on them while they play classical music.

Good music too, although they were mainly all the popular classics. Pretty impressive not, well, the Kiwis' thought so. Some of the projected paintings had moving objects in them. No idea if this is a travelling exhibition, but it is recommendable.

A nice break from all the news around Covid and the elections in NZ and america.

No, we haven't kept anything from you guys. This is Nienke with Mette, the new Dutch-Kiwi. We were all invited at our new neighbours and Mette was there as well.

I have picked up playing golf again. Became member again. In NZ you do that by just paying. None of the ridiculous Masonic style committees you have to address. And you can wear what you want. Had a pretty good day with Roger and Dick on the Otaki golf course.

And a last update. Labour won the elections in New Zealand. The charismatic, honest and empathetic young Jacinda Adren won a majority in New Zealands parliament. I'm happy with that, we need a greener and more honest future.

This is Judith Collins, the third leader of the National party this year. They were in total chaos, lost almost half the party on their way to election and now another half because they were almost annihilated. Well, with a grumpy face like that (and to be honest, they were inconsistent and always squabbling amongst themselves), what do you expect.