Counting the days

For over a year now we are in this huge fight against the Covid-19 virus, which means working from home for the most of you, students studying online, gyms closed, restaurants, bars and shops closed, negative advice of traveling abroad and more of these kind of regulations (I can easily make the list much longer).

In the meantime, new virus variants appeared from South Africa, South America and the UK, these viruses are more contagious and provide a whole new threat to our lives once again. Although the vaccination programs have started all over the world, we are not at the finish line yet, but we're getting closer.

Exactly a year ago Rob started working from home and he’s still doing this most of the time. He is in Lagos and over there it is a men’s world right now. We are desperate to get a vaccination as soon as possible so we can live together again. But as it stands now, we are not on anybody’s list. We left the Netherlands 20 years ago, and although we have a Dutch passport, we cannot get a vaccination in the Netherlands. The reason is that we are not residents in the Netherlands any longer. Our company doctor told us to find a GP in the Netherlands and use that route to get one. Rob and I did this and now we officially have a GP in our village. However, it was made clear that we are not on any list. In January I went to our GP with a little excuse, just to show my face and tell her a little about my medical history, it did not help much though. Heineken tells us we have to get the vaccination in the country you live in, well this might be no problem if you live in Europe or the US, but West Africa, seriously? A month ago, we received our Tax declarations to pay tax in the Netherlands from the Dutch Government, as we do every year. We also received our papers for the Dutch elections (these were sent to us). So yes, we are allowed to vote! So collecting money from me as a Dutch citizen is good, asking me to vote on a party to support the Dutch democracy is brilliant, but being eligible in the Netherlands for vaccinations….. is a NO.

Therefore, I escaped to our house in the mountains again. To stay safe and stay in isolation as much as possible. I left on February 4th, with all the necessary paperwork and PCR test.

Armin fetched me from the airport after his work, which was really sweet. We drove close to Graz where Robin was waiting at a petrol station to switch cars. From there I drove with Ayo to the Backyard.

Hugo was here at the Backyard as of half of January already and had a few friends over from Vienna. I stayed in quarantine for 5 days and day two the Police came to the door, to check if I was home (isolation/quarantine check). Day 5 I did my test to see if I could go outside again. Rob arrived on February 12th, and once again the police came to check, this time on day 3. We think it’s really good and smart that they check on those in isolation. With Hugo I went skiing a couple of times and also with the three of us. Hugo is a fanatic skier, he can easily ski a hundred kilometres a day, incredible. His new speed record is 124km/hr, he just loves skiing. In sale he bought in a new pair of skis, for off-piste, he has now 3 pair of skis and one pair of cross country skis, so in total 4 pairs of skis. He often went skiing on his own. The slopes are/were so quiet, it is/was one of the few advantages of the Covid pandemic. But covered with a FFP2 face mask, the only mask you are allowed to wear in Austria he did not really get a tan. The only thing you can do while skiing is skiing, as the restaurants are still closed. I like to ski, but I also like my hot chocolate (the others also like their Apfelstrudel with vanilla sauce) and a little break now and then, so the overall atmosphere is very different.

On February 15th I drove to Vienna to get my yearly check-up. Only my calcium was a bit low, but the rest was good.

Rob and Hugo cleaned the gutter from all the leaves. To do this Rob ordered online a ladder to reach the high roof. It looked very scary what the two were doing, but the result was great.

On the 25th I drove Hugo and Rob to the airport and again I drove more than 7 hours back and forth.

It is a pity KLM doesn’t fly to Graz at the moment, this is only a two hour drive to our house. Anyway, it is what it is.

Rob and Hugo left, so I was/am on my own in our house, the Backyard. We made plans to do some small alterations to the house, like an extra shelf in the ski-room, a wooden cupboard around the washing machine and dryer and a shelf above it. New curtains and hocker in the living room and in our bedroom we’ll get a desk, new curtains and a new bed frame because we have a bed right now of 200cmx200cm, which is not convenient with Rob’s length, therefore we now bought a 180cmx210cm mattresses. The headboard is green velvet, also not our cup of tea, so this will become a wooden headboard instead. So these are small changes, but because I’m here all the time I can go to the local carpenter and talk about the design of wood and fabrics so easily. I can take everything home, they are very easy-going. Hopefully before the end of the month everything is done.

The photos above are showing my time with Ayo on my own. We make nice walks together and you see my bare feet in the morning sun with a cup of tea at our deck. Although it was around 0 degrees, the sun has its strength already and so I can enjoy my breakfast outside.

But we also had some snow. Right now it's snowing again.

During the week Robin is working from the Backyard, as she is still doing home office. This is really nice for me, to spend so more time with Robin and have company from Monday till Thursday. Last weekend Armin was here for the weekend, this was wonderful. He hang a few birdhouses for me and carried heavy chairs to the garage. I bought twelve new chairs but we needed to assemble them over the weekend. Robin did all of them, Ayo and I were assisting her. These are small changes but with great outcome. We went skiing together on Sunday. It was really cold and windy with a bit of fresh snow. The slopes are still in a great condition with only few people on it. Soon Rob will have his time on skis for sure.

Rob got his eyes on a website in Nigeria to sign up for Covid vaccination. But Nigeria only received 4m vaccines, so waiting lists are huge. We are also looking at options to get a vaccines in another country. My doctor in Vienna said just take the first one you can get. Well, I’m still hoping to get a call from the GP in The Netherlands somehow, but that just feels like wishful thinking at this point.

A year ago I was in Rotterdam to finally meet all my fellow delegation hosts colleagues. It looks like I'm still planned to be Austria's delegation host, but things can change, we need to be flexible. We had an online meeting last week, it was good to see how hard they work to make this year's event a special one, although things will not quite be the same. So open up to Rotterdam 2021, let's make this year's Eurovision Song Contest a special one. Sadly I have to tell you that two days ago I withdrew from my participation due to Corona. I'm choosing to be and stay with Rob, otherwise we would have been separated for another two months.

Do you know that more than 200 million watch this all over the planet, amazing isn't it?

In the meantime Rob has arrived at the Backyard, yeah!!! He will work from here, but also have a week off, I’m over the moon, and so excited to do things together again. Then we’ll head back to The Netherlands first Easter Day, get Ayo’s travel paperwork organised, then Rob & I are going back to Lagos on April 13th. In Zoeterwoude, there’s Jack and Ailsa, Noa and Hugo. Noa was of course supposed to be back in Switzerland a long time ago, but they are in lockdown and then she's stuck in a tiny room (with a view) but, she also had an appointment with her doctor in the Netherlands for her elbow and physiotherapy. She was on the waiting list to get the screws removed from her elbow, as these are bothering her, but I share now that she's planned for April 1st and this is not an April fool's day joke.

Jack is busy with work, but he really enjoys it a lot.

Hugo is applying to new universities for a second and maybe even a third master in Switzerland, Leiden, Maastricht or even Cananda. He’s eager to learn more and I get it, this year was like for many students a difficult year, no interaction whatsoever and that sucks. I wrote it before but it’s such a blessing we kept our house in Zoeterwoude, as the kids are there together. Even Joe, my niece, often joins them in Zoeterwoude to study together with them. She’s doing law, after an art study, which is very impressive. The boys help her with economics kind of topics and Hugo says she works so hard and is very focused, which helps him as well to sit down together. A win-win for all of them. Excellent!

Stay safe everyone and get vaccinated!