February 3rd, 2014: Kiwi life

Can you imagine what would happen if I was to do a home visit for a terribly ill, bed bound patient and on enterig his home I'd say 'what a lovely day it is outside'. I do not think that would be appreciated. Yet patients entering my consultation room during summer have no problems stating the obvious; 'it's such a marvelous day outside'. I usually answer them 'That's like telling a prisoner it's beautiful out there in the free world'. While the prisoner might have deserved that kind of ill treatment, I am sitting on the wrong side of the window having to take care of you lot'.
Unfortunately it IS agonising nice out there. Again. We are really enjoying the summer at the moment. I was invited to get out on a boat on Wednesday but since the tennis competitions started again this week I really needed to restring my rackets, so I had to decline and sweat it out on the deck listening to music. Yeah, it's a hard life. It worked, though as that evening we won the first round 7-0. I took out my frustration on the rabbits. Shout 15 of those bastards in 5 days. There are so many of them.

Nienke found a big box of gurkens and made many new jars full of her delicious sweet and sour gurkens, our own Atjar Tjampoer. We had just opened the last jar of the previous batch so, it was necessary. Great on cheese!
On Friday I went out fishing and did (traditionally) NOT catch a snapper. We had to settle for a parrot fish, a teraki and a kahawi, which were quite tastefull. It's quite some work to get fillets of those smaller fish, would rather catch the fillets right out of the water. Fishing out here is amazing. While floating around on the choppy waves blue penguins were swimming alongside the boat. I have yet to catch my first snapper, but it seems to me they are as rare as the famous kiwi itself.
It was an early morning again on Saturday. Regional competition started. Somehow we did get promotion last season (nobody knew) and we're now in the second division. Our younger team mates had not won a game in the third division so for the club coach it only made sense to keep them in the team and let them suffer a bit more, great way to boost morale. We were playing last years runner ups in the first round so we had little illusions. Won my single surprisingly simple (6-3 6-1) against their higher ranked number 2, but we lost 4-2 in total. Not a bad start. We did tell the stubborn club caoch that it's either a veteran team next year or we won't be playing at all. Those young boys are not really company. By the way, I did hit an amazing ball (no spectators so I have to brag about it myself). During the double our opponents hit a ball out of the field and I could only just reach it, hitting it around the net. Took us a while to convince one of the opponents that this was in fact perfectly legal. Like I said, no spectators (and yes, I am married) so I won't be number 12 in this video.

Anyway, after all the stress of the days before we had a great relaxing BBQ again on Saturday with Indonesian spiced hamburgers and Ikan Bali from the grill. Together with Jane terrific Thai appetiser it was yet another great event. On Sunday I had to spent some calories again, so with Nienke doing a beach walk with Jules and Miriam in Plimmerton I went out with some guys to play a round of golf. Had two other games in the last 2 years so I was well prepared. Did not hurt anybody. The game is still the same, was pretty happy about my hitting, but I'm not patient enough for the putting (or the whole game for that matter). With an average of 7 strokes per hole my efforts are not worth mentioning. My best hit was a ball that is now deeply embedded in the bark of a rather awkwardly placed tree on the 8th. It'll be a yellow reminder of my presence for the coming years.

Humour is important and we Dutchies are good at it. Stumbled upon this picture. Not far from the truth I'd say! What wasn't funny at all was a bunch of drunks knocking over all the mail boxes on Sims road. We had a repair job to do, but it's proudly serving us again.

Nienke has been training a lot in the past weeks. Many an early morning wanderer may have frowned upon seeing Nienke carrying a big red backpack along the Waikanae river track (a well established urban area). But she kept on going, unflappable and determined. The beds in the guestroom are littered with tramping stuff. Coming weekend we'll be doing the Raikura track on Steward island. The weather forecast is great so we'll have heaps of fun! A report will follow next week. In the meantime: keep up the spirits and have some fun!