Ceilidh, Rugby, Beltane Fire Festival, and a Robotic-TKR

Viv & Rob Kleinjan
Apr 30
12 min read

Updated: May 1

When you live in Scotland you do scottish things right? Except for eating haggis, that we won't do. Read everything in this blog about our latest adventures in the Scottish capital Edinburgh.

Beginning of March Morgan came to Edinburgh and introduced us to a few of his friends and family members. We met Kirsty’s sister Audrey and saw all the Zuill kids. Jack lives in Edinburgh, but Alexander came all the way over from Vancouver Canada and Angus was here as well from Amsterdam and Annie popped in too from New Castle. Our Jack and their Jack share 4 years the same class at the Munich International School (MIS) and so did Hugo and Gus. We know the Zuill family now for 20 years, and it’s always good to see them. Morgan goes every year with the boys to the rugby, 6 nation league. The evening before the match we went for dinner and drinks in town with Morgan and ended up in a small pub ‘The Oxford’ full of Welsh fans and when we left, outside some of them starting to sign beautifully the song ‘Calor lan’. We joined this year for the match, it was amazing! Before the match we saw each other downtown in a pub. The city was red and blue, Wales and Scotland colours. The match was a good one! Luckily Scotland won this time, last year we saw the match against France which they lost in the last second. After the match we went to a pub, but no one had eaten anything, city was overloaded with Welshmen and women, and Scotland supporters of course, so we ended up in our house, throwing things in the oven and making some snacks. The next morning the Zuill men would fly back to Munich where Morgan and Kirsty live, flight was early, really early! They left at 03:45am, except for Gus he stayed a bit longer with us, telling enthusiastic stories of his new plans to start a coffee business in Munich.

The Zuills left and Sanneke came in, she did not get on the tram like I asked her to do, but took a bus instead, which is fine, but different pick-up point. So, after waiting at the tram stop for 20 minutes I decided to go home, weather was cold, and I was afraid she might be standing in front of my door. No contact, so old fashioned waiting started until she called! Yeah, sign of live, she was around the corner. We had breakfast together and then I had a telephone call with my orthopedic surgeon about the MRI scan I had. The scan learned us that there are no ACL ligaments anymore in my knee. This was fixed in November 2016, but due to the arthritis it’s gone now, and now I understand why I walk on uneven surfaces my knee is wobbly and instable. Conclusion of the surgeon was that I needed a full total knee replacement and not a partial one.

Afterwards the meeting we rushed Ayo to the groomer, the Scruffy Dog Groomer. Two hours later we could pick him up again and he looked different again. I love my Ayo when he has a lot of hair, with short hair, not so much. Sorry Ayo.

San and I did a lot of different things. We went of course into the old town, then Dean Village and Stockbridge, but we also took the bus to the beach and drove with the car outside Edinburgh, a cliff restaurant called "the Drift". Great food, lovely location, but we couldn’t find the access to the beach that was below us.

I took Sanneke to the Golf course, she made lovely photos. I had a lesson indoor and here she saw how difficult this game is.

I also gave an interview in an expat magazine about living in Edinburgh and how expat life here is different to for example London or Nigeria.

Friday afternoon San left and our neighbours Ben and Trond from London came to see us for a weekend. We had a great time together, went for dinner to a new place called Hawksmoor, great food, but acoustic was bad. Saturday night we ate at one of our favourite restaurants, La Maison Blue at Victoria street. It was full moon this weekend and we made some fantastic photos at night.

On Sunday we also took the bus to the beach to have a nice stroll there and have tea and coffee with cake. Ben and Trond needed to head back to London early afternoon, so we couldn’t stay too long.

Friday 21st of March we went to a Ceilidh, then you think a what? This is a Scottish dance evening, with a lot of young people, but also a few our age, but we were definitely the minority.

This was a gift of Jack and Ailsa for Sinterklaas (Christmas). For this reason, Rob decided to wear a kilt! And he looked smashing!!! We had a wonderful evening, but my knee was not good, so we unfortunately joined only two dances. There’s a band playing and a narrator who’s telling you what to do. In the audience there were a few men who were really good at it, and they were helping the youngsters pushing them in the right direction. We had such a joyful evening, and I love this kind of gifts, experiences rather than more stuff.

The next big thing was April 1st, it was on a Tuesday, Rob’s team came over for dinner at our house. We started the day before with cooking, an Indonesian Rice Table, many different dishes, not too spicy as quite a few don’t like spicy food. We have a lovely dining room but in extended form our table fits 8 people, not 12 or 13 people. So, the weekend before we drove to Ikea bought a few table legs and pieces of wood and Rob made the table a bit bigger. It was tight, but cozy and we had to deal with the size of the dining room, it is what it is. I bought some spring flowers, and laid the table beautifully, I love doing that. We had a brilliant evening all together, 13 people, and we will do this again next year. It’s nice to take it away from December and do it around Easter. Everyone is busy in December and not so much around Easter. A new tradition has been born!

Team Dinner

On April 3th we flew to Vienna. We landed late, so we stayed in the city and took the train to Graz the next morning. Rob was working all day, I drove. We drove to a little village in Steiermark, we saw Robin there. A new attempt in finding the perfect wedding dress. It was just Robin and me and Rob was working outside in the shade. When we had something nice, Robin would walk to the front door and Rob could give his thumb up or not! We found the dress! She said yes to the dress! Happy with what she has chosen. It suits her!

From Deutschlandsberg we drove home to our house Don Papa in Carinthia. We finally saw our two new bathrooms, they are spectacular!!! It’s beyond our expectations! We’re broke now, we don’t care, it’s awesome!

The house was extremely dirty due to all the workers in and out. We did a good spring clean session of the whole house also because the whole family was coming for a weekend.

Before and after

On Thursday Noa took the train to Graz from Prague and stayed with Robin and Armin. The next day the girls came in the afternoon. Hugo and Anna were the first to arrive. They took a train overnight from Brussels to Spitall an der Drau, we fetched them from there. We had a little lunch in Spitall, which was nice. The weather was gorgeous. Peter, Caroline (Rob’s sister) and the girls Maxime and Kim and their boyfriends Rico and Sander came all together in a little van. Unfortunately, they had a huge delay around Rosenheim, and arrive 1 hour and 15 minutes later than expected. We played two days a bit of golf at our golf club in Bad Kleinkirchheim. The club was still closed but one part of the course we could use, holes 13-18. With Ayo we played these holes, fabulous!

Rob made goulash à la Willy, the way his mum always made it. On Saturday we did a barbecue. Saturday was a beautiful day to spread Rob’s dad’s ashes up on the mountain above us. At the Falkertsee (lake), this was still frozen and it was covered with lots of snow, much more than last year in the same weekend when we spread Rob’s mum’s ashes there. This year we reunited the two of them and we had two bottles of port with us and boterkoek, a biscuit Caroline made, something his dad enjoyed eating. It was kind of difficult where to spread the ashes, as everything was frozen. We found a big rock pointing out of the lake and around this rock, Piet’s ashes are scattered. Afterwards we went for a walk in Bad Kleinkirchheim. We also played a lot of games, as the Kleinjan family loves playing games!

We also agreed that we continue having a family weekend once a year, maybe not to Austria but next time in the Netherlands or Belgium or wherever. I think Piet and Willy look down on us and are happy that we do this.

On Sunday the weather changed a bit, it was cloudy and colder. Hugo, Anna, Noa and Robin all left in the morning. We decided to go for a walk at Turracherhöhe. We waited till it was dry and then we left. Monday morning 7am the Vroege’s left back to the Netherlands. It took them 12 hours to get back home. Rob had to work all day, I could do all the bed linen and clean the house before we left. That is the benefit of leaving late.

We did almost the same as we did when we arrived, we left the car for Armin in Korneuburg, we took a train to the city we slept in a Hilton, next morning we took a taxi to the airport. We wanted to check in at the sky priority line, but I don’t know what happened, the line was long and extremely slow. It took us a long time, but we got through went to the lounge, had a bit of breakfast and flew to Amsterdam. I stayed there for a few days, Rob had a long layover to Edinburgh and arrived safe and sound home that evening.

I took the train home, and when I stepped out of the bus in Zoeterwoude, a car stopped and saw me with all the luggage and Ayo and asked if I wanted a lift. Very sweet and kind but Ayo needed a walk, so I declined. Ailsa was home, that was nice. Tuesday night was kindergarten night, my two friends I know from Kindergarten and elementary school and Monique also from middle and high school. The three of us met at a small Italian traiteur, we had great time catching up again. We share our childhood, and it feels so home to see them. On Wednesday I saw Frank at the Vlietlanden, a little lake near our house. It looked like it was ladies’ day, only women at the restaurant and Frank. He had a busy schedule seeing more friends in the west. In the evening, I ate with Ailsa, Jack had a work event. Thursday I had my hairdresser appointment and had dinner with Mathilde in Delft. This is right in the middle of our homes plus it’s a nice city. Unfortunately, I didn’t see much of Delft, although I wanted, I ended up in one of the busiest traffic jams of the year. Welcome to the Netherlands where 18 million people live on a poststamp. We forgot to take a nice photo so we did it at the parking garage.

Friday, I went to see my ENT doctor, a nice doctor who always sits in the treatment room of our best friend’s uncle.

Afterwards I had a lovely lunch with Tineke, before I headed home again. The journey back home was via Harwich and not via Newcastle. Newcastle fair was more than 800 pounds, therefore I choose to go from Hoek of Holland to Harwich, 10pm boat leaves, arrival, 6:30 am at Harwich. There I took the train to Liverpoolstreet Station and arrived there 08:45am. I took the tube to King’s Cross for the train to Edinburgh Waverly station. We left at 10 am and arrived 14:30 in Edinburgh. Before Rob picked me up from the station he climbed Arthur's Seat, this is the vulcanic mountain or hill in the middle of Edinburgh, it's our view from the livingroom and bedroom upstairs. He made stunning photos of the city but also of our golf club that was very clear and full with cherry blossoms. The bottom middle photo you can see a red circle, it's our house.

From Arthur's Seat

From Prestonfield Golf Club

On Sunday we played golf and tried a new Spanish restaurant nearby. It was great! Monday I had to go the hospital as in a few days my knee replacement would be a fact! I had to give blood, finding vanes is always hard, after three attempts it was done. Afterwards we saw a sweet lady who will be dog sitting when we need it. Most of the time Ayo travels with us, but as you can see, traveling back by plane is impossible, I must take the ferry, which is alright but very time consuming. So, for a short weekend, it’s nice if we have a dogsitter.

And then it’s April 25th, the BIG day, hopefully my knee problems will be solved by getting a knee replacement. A big thing, but necessary. We came in at 10:15am, surgery was planned 11:30 am, we already thought this would be a little optimistic. Indeed, too optimistic, surgery started around 2pm. I got a spinal anesthetic and a bit of sedation to let me sleep. This last thing didn’t help all the way through, so I was quite awake and aware of everything. At the end they bring down the blue tent around you and I looked into the face of my doctor, his face shield was covered in blood spatter. It felt like waking up from a horror scene.

After I came back at the ward my legs were still numb. A weird feeling not to be able to move your legs. We met quite a few nurses from different countries. Smith, this was his first name came from Zimbabwe, although he still prefers the name Rhodesia. There was an American nurse, and a Philippine nurse and two were from Nigeria, Ann and Rose, they were super sweet and were jumping and clapping their hands when I said “how fa?”” No wahala”! Rose told me in the middle of the night when I walked with a walking frame to the bathroom, "remember you are strong", "your knee is strong now!" These words somehow gave me a lot of confidence and positive boost, like a mantra. The next morning, I walked with the walking frame up and down the corridor with a physiotherapist, I was so surprised, so short after the surgery you are up and about. In the afternoon another physiotherapist came, she let me walk with two sticks and then with just one, and we did the stairs. I passed this exam with flying colours. I think I was still under so many drugs. The good news was that I was discharged! I could go home with Rob and Jack. We spoke to the doctor after the surgery, and he informed us that all went well and that my knee was in a very bad shape. Good decision, although I waited many years to do this. It was a robotic surgery; the doctor explained why this is a good thing to do: this improves accuracy and precision, less destructive and intrusive, greater chance of restoring movement and mobility, improved patients results, and less bleeding. There was only one hurdle during the operation and that was that there are still two big staples in my bone from a previous ACL operation. He tried to get it out, but it was like it was sealed in concrete. He was afraid to break my bone if trying to drill it out, so he left it there. He showed an x-ray, very impressive and bit sureal how it looked.

Saturday night I came home and that’s the best place to heal. Two men taking care of me, Rob and Jack. Jack arrived Saturday morning, to be here for a week. Rob is traveling to London for one day on Wednesday. Jack is giving me my anti blood clot injections in the evening, he’s brave, when he leaves, I have to do it myself again! I must wear tights to prevent from clotting, during the day I can handle it but in bed, it’s too warm. Every country is doing things their way. I don’t need physiotherapy for 3 weeks. Of course, I already had a physiotherapist, pre-op, and I’m booked for two weeks after the surgery. I find this interesting; you feel the need of someone guiding you when you do your exercises, you're in pain and need support. Jack helps me, that’s so sweet, it’s different than we have experienced in other countries where I had knee surgeries.

On Sunday morning Jack and Rob climbed Arthur's Seat together with Ayo.

Last night there was Beltane Fire Festival at Carlton Hill. Rob arrived late from London but the two of them went up Carlton Hill to see what was going on. Jack had seen it before with Ailsa when they lived in Scotland. It was impressive! It's the Gaelic May Day festival marking the beginning of the summer. Beltane is one of the eight seasonal festivals in the Celtic calendar, alongside Samhain, Yule, Imbolc,Ostara, midsummer, Lughnasadh and Mabon. Its roots stretch back centuries across Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the Isle of Man. It's a pagan festival honouring fertility, renewal and the sacred arrival of summer. Traditionally, Beltane rituals involved igniting bonfires as symbols of protection, prosperity, and the potent union between earth and flame.