New bicycle for Hessel.

Tom with a friend.

Amersfoort Muurhuizen from Appelmarkt.

Green.

Jazz at Appelmarkt.

There is not much to tell about this week. I have been very busy still arranging my documents.

Colourful garden.

In Eemnes I visited Hessel, to see how he was doing with his new bicycle. I went to my physician to have him to check a small knob at the side of my head. It appeared to be nothing to worry about and he removed it using nitrogen. From Thursday there is a jazz festival going on in Amersfoort.  At Saturday I went into town on my bicycle to get a touch of the events there. At four stages in town there were shows going on. The music was good but there were not as many people listening as I was used to see in past years. It is just too cold to sit still or stay around to listen. That’s a pity of course. I did stay two hours and had two small glasses of beer, wondering about the cost of it. Expensive. The bar-owners are clearly trying to fight the Euro crisis by raising their prices, which as economists say is not the right way to do it. I agree with these economists. Volume is more important and lower prices will stimulate ordinary people to buy!

Westkapelle meters below sea level.

Dordrecht, fountain in parc.

The weather on Sunday allows outdoor activity. That is convenient, because I am visiting one of my friends birthday in Huis ter Heide. This friend I know since we were 7 or 8 years old. The majority of the other attendants at the party are known to me, but I only see them once a year at this occasion. We have much to tell and food and drinks are available in abundance, which makes it a very pleasant and interesting afternoon.

Party go-ers in Huis ter Heide.

 Van Hoornbeeck college, my neighbours. 

The rest of the week I did stay mostly at home. I followed the events from this week on television; theQueens’s birthday and Liberation day.

The queen’s birthday in Eemnes.

The air temperature and further weather conditions did not appeal to me nor did they invite me to go out other than to walk my dogs.

Golflinks close by.

Find the two playing squirrels.

Work on my computers is taking much of my attention and fortunately I managed to retrieve the pictures taken last week, which I thought to have lost during downloading from my camera.

                                                          My two sisters in Amersfoort. 

View at my rear garden

After the delivery of a new garden bench, I stayed in Ridderkerk with my sister until after lunchtime, trying to get my blog published. It failed and time flew away until nearly 3 o’clock. I pulled the plug and hurried to Westkapelle. At arrival the sun was shining but there was a cold wind. After a short walk at the famous “West kappelse zeedijk” with Tom and Tommy, I found the birthday party at Restaurant “het kasteel”. At first I had to look very good but soon enough I did find the family. I had not seen them together since long, so there was sufficient to tell. It was a pleasant occasion finalized with a visit to the new apartment of the elderly of the family. I finished the day at a friend’s place in Middelburg.

At Monday I travelled back home toAmersfoortand stopped halfway inDordrecht. InDordrechtI used lunch at “het Bevertje”, the lunch-café from my friends there. They told me about their plans, to sell the café and move to Brouwershaven to enjoy their retirement.

Back inAmersfoort, nothing much happened. For a change I did do some shopping in pouring rain. When I was downloading the pictures I made during this week, something went wrong in the process. I lost all pictures made this week, causing me to say loudly a dirty word.

Street in Bergquarter.

Back entrance apartment block.

The weather this week was pretty leading in organizing my activities. I did stay at home most of the time, dogs in my apartment and central heating on. It was cold, windy and rain, hail and thunderstorms passed, riddled with some sunny spells.

Forrested back garden.

They never walk alone!

I ordered a new garden bench for my sister and by mistake, my mistake, the bench was delivered inAmersfoortinstead of Ridderkerk. At Saturday I went to Ridderkerk where I demolished the old bench and replaced it with the new one.

Town  centre Ridderkerk.

Blossoming Japanese Cherry tree.

More interesting in theNetherlandsare political problems and the trouble with the railway system. These two items will keep all journalists busy for a while and not in Holland alone.

New garden bench.

Easter service in Bergkerk.

The tedious work with my laptops is concluded. All data are sorted and a backup was made. The rest of the job is to organize the data so that I can write it onto CD’s are remove it from the harddisk of my laptop. This hard disk is pretty limited in size, only 240GB.

TNT digging for prey.

Sunday was of course special: Easter. In my church there was a play by children, depicting the times from Israel from Mozes up to Johannes. Five children from two families where baptized.

Ferry across river Meuse near Alem.

One day was spent to visit friends. I was in Alem, where we had a pleasant conversation and discussions. They produced a lovely meal and a good night sleep in their guestroom. Alem is laying inside a dike to protect it from highwater from the rivers Maas and Waal. I walked around the place, which took 1,5 hours.

Alem village.

Interior pub next to church.

Alem workhorse.              Alem village.

It was good to see these people again and find them in good spirits and full of ideas and plans.

No sale at the door in Ravenswaay.

Morning view from my room.

A speciality this week occurred: Tommy found a rabbit baby, already killed by another dog. He chewed a little bit carefully at the dead body, took it proudly in his beak and walked away quickly, ahead of me which he never does. Later I saw Tommy bury his prey. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me, which is absolutely extremely rare.

My friend Tom, 14y old.

My friend Tommy, 12y old

It was a cold and autumn like week, with rain, hail and wind. In between we enjoyed some sunny spells every now and then.

After a quiet Sunday, as usual with a church visit, the Monday became a pleasant one. Early in the morning some woman from Eindhoven called and asked about my car up for sale. She arrived in Amersfoort around midday with 3 men. She herself, a self-employed midwife, in waiting and due for delivery within a week, was highly interested in my car. After extensive investigations by the three men and a successful test-drive, we agreed on the price. The deal was concluded which made me happy and the owner of the garage where the car had been parked was surprised that I had sold it so quickly.

As promised I came to the garage with apple struddle and cream the next day, to celebrate the sale of the car.

One of the inhabitants of the apartment block Ijselberch, is a man from Sri Lanka. He is a very nice man, hardly speaking Dutch and very difficult to have a discussion with. He is to nice and has been tricked into lending money to others in the flat, which he never got returned. He asked me for help, because he is in need for a ticket home in June. The man is a grounds man for the Hilton hotel in Soestduinen, so he does not earn much money. I did find a cheap ticket for him via Dusseldorf. Next week we will find out the details for him to get there and get back as well.

Friday was a very interesting day: I went to Garrelsweer. Never heard off? That is not so strange, however, when I told someone in my apartment block he looked at me slightly astonished, it being the outskirts of the Netherlands where he appeared to live. Look it up at Google, you will be surprised to find it, along the canal called Damsterdiep. I went there on the invitation of a young woman (40) I met 20 years or so ago in Amersfoort. She and her husband came there to become a nurse in psychiatry. It was far away from Amersfoort, very cold and windy across the barren fields. A gust of hail completed the picture. Anyway, the occasion was worth it very much. We did have a pleasant evening, I met other acquaintances from 20 years ago which is always surprisingly funny and of course we did have a lot to tell to one another. After the party I was invited to sleep on the couch in the house when the “after party” had finished at 2 am. I did sleep very well. Saturday morning I was the first to get up, walked the dogs and came back to the house to find others struggling to get awake. We had good coffee and a very nice breakfast. Of course we continued the conversations left unfinished the night before.   After this, I left to go back to Amersfoort, did some shopping and had a good nap in the afternoon. Up for Easter! A new beginning, shown on a “happy Easter” card sent to me by a friend living at Staten Island in the U.S.A.                                                     

He’s got a sore arm.

This week I saw my grandson He hurt his arm and is using a sling to support the arm when he feels uncomfortable (which is not very often). The family is very busy with four boys growing up. School, sports club, social activities and so on. It takes a lot of energy and a lot of money too.

Street in Woudenberg.

On Tuesday I went to see my orthopaedic shoemaker. I tried the dummies he produced and showed him the type of shoe I want him to produce. After that visit I did receive a call from a distressed friend who called me for support. I went there to help her get over her dip. I think I succeeded.

I am still awaiting a second offer for the renovation of my teeth.

Countryside in Eemnes.

The 1^st April is approaching. That is the date on which our authorities expect from every citizen the tax forms filled in. Filling in is basically simple for me. No loans and not any deductible costs so I will have to pay as usual.

School for special education

At home I did spend most of my time reorganizing my documentation, especially the archives on the various “information carriers” like CD’s, external boxes and Memory sticks. Everything has to be checked for the latest version, before I store it on the new laptop. I did not manage to finish that dreadful job this job, but when that is done I will be happy and can start really studying the software on this machine. So far I do find it unpleasant.

One of many very nice estates around my area.

Art at Zon en Schild.

My  host’s birthday.

Two parties this week governed my activities. The first party took place on Sunday in Hedel, a tiny village close to ‘s-Hertogenbosch. A long time friend celebrated his 82^nd birthday. It had been a long time since I had met his descendants. One of his sons offered to help me with digitizing my many analogue films and videos. My new computer is supposedly good enough to cope with this activity.

The second activity was the celebration of my sister’s 75^th birthday on Saturday. The celebrations were held in an activity centre in ‘s Gravendeel, a small village on the banks of the river Dordtse Kil. The party was well prepared by the son of Alma and his wife.

Hotel school.

Apart from the consumption of cakes and other sweets, we did spent much time on a workshop for the production of chocolate sweets. All the ingredients for it were prepared for us; we just had to fill them in the prepared forms. A full box of homemade sweets for everybody was the tasty result. The evening was concluded with a very nice diner in Puttershoek.

My driveway.

The weekdays in between were mainly filled with the standard activities, with one exception: I was a second dentist who will supply me with a second opinion on the renovation of my teeth, which is absolutely necessary by now.

Dordtse Kil

Church in ‘s-Gravendeel.

Berchchurch Amersfoort.

Bergquarter Amersfoort.

The only activity out of the ordinary, is the fact that the laptop used during my trip throughEurope, seized functioning. The pc-doctor’s verdict: this laptop is dead. So I did buy a new one.

Tom goes left, Tommy right.

Birch eaten by bugs.

Working at my Evo N600c is still very good possible, since I don’t need speed. The only problem is when Internet is installing updates, automatically as chosen by myself. When that is done, I have to be very patient for any other applications to open or function.

My neighbours

The new computer is not in use yet and that may take a while, because it is geared with Windows 7 and that is very unusual to me. I don’t like it at all.

Kamperbinnenpoort Amersfoort.

Monastery school.

The week past without much excitement. In other words: it was a quiet week.

Branch with waterdrops.

On Monday I saw a new orthopaedic shoemaker, after consultation of the health insurance company. I appear to be entitled to get new shoes every 18 month and 3 month after the supply of the first pair I am entitled to get a second pair as well. Up to now I had only one pair and the pair I am still wearing now, is 10 years old.

View from my room.

On Tuesday afternoon I was quietly working on my laptop, when I all of a sudden realized that I had an appointment to “baby sit” in Eemnes. I arrived half an hour late, but since the “baby’s” are from 8-20 years old, this was not a problem.

Stichtse roundabout.

The week ended with a malfunctioning laptop, the one I normally use. I had to take it to the PC-doctor. This work, typed here and now, is done at an ancient 16 year old Compac laptop. Amazing is it not?

New shoes to be made as shown.