February-March break in Austria & Netherlands.

As you all could read Noa arrived the day before the elections in Nigeria. February 16th we woke up with first thing on our phones, ELECTIONS POSTPONED BY 1 WEEK. Weird to cancel it that late, but who am I to judge this. This delay had many consequences for a lot op people; what do you think if you get married on the 23rd of February. You’ve chosen this day on purpose, a week after the elections. Now you are in deep trouble.... How on earth can your family and friends come to the wedding venue if you’re not allowed to travel during the day. Also for all the businesses it cost a fortune. Not only did they postpone by a week but the Friday for the new elections was declared an additional national holiday. For us it had a small impact too since we were leaving for the Netherlands on the new election day. We even thought of maybe going to a hotel the day before in order to catch our flight on time. But Nigerian Breweries was very relaxed and came with the following solution; the airport taxi driver with the mo-pol (police escort) stayed in a guest house near Bella Vista. They would start the engine right at 6pm and be at our compound maybe 15 minutes later. There was not much traffic expected so all should go well and it did work this way. Except for the last kilometre, suddenly all the cars were heading to the airport and this last bit took us almost an hour. But we were on time, that’s all that matters. So the three of us flew to Amsterdam, we landed Sunday morning 06.00am, and after getting our suitcases from the belt we headed home in a taxi. Noa came along, her next leg of the journey was planned for 13:00. She had a few hours in Zoeterwoude with us, Jack and Ailsa. We came home in a very tidied up house, the table was set for breakfast and Ayo sniffled around in his new home for the next two weeks. The silly thing was that no one asked for any paperwork at the airport about Ayo!! We could just walk off the airport without checking on him whatsoever. Strange. We slept two hours, had a lovely breakfast and around 10:30 Noa had to go back to the airport again. A last cuddle with Ayo and us and off she went. Her next flight brought her to Galgary, there she had an awful long stop over of 9 hours before she could fly to Kamloops.

The photo on the right you see three pictures of Ayo, Sam and our first dog Charlie, this was my birthday present, I'm so thrilled about it. Really really cool!

We went to Wijk bij Duurstede to see Rob’s sister and brother in law and nieces. Also his parents were there, and they were happily surprised to see us. In the evening we went for dinner with Pieter and Tineke. Unfortunately both Tineke and Rob were suffering with a serious back pain. Nevertheless we had a great time together. The next day Hugo and Geraldine came to Zoeterwoude. We want to have either a veranda in the garden or an extension of the house. We came up with all our wishes and Hugo and Geraldine had great input as well. The only thing is it won’t be ready this year, as it’s kind of expensive and we don’t want to rush it and therefore the plan is to do it early next year. On Tuesday we flew together to Vienna. Main reason of this trip is my yearly big check up. Tuesday afternoon we saw my doctor, we had a nice chat and there he decided to plan an extra scan for the pain in my back. I broke a spine last year during skiing and it is still painful at times. Tuesday evening we saw our dear Swedish friends Ulrika and Erik where we also stayed and Wally came to the restaurant as well. Ailsa asked me to cuddle Fonzie their dog very often, she loves him. Look how sweet he is!

I think Ailsa loves all the dogs. Wednesday was filled with examinations, first blood counts then bone density. From 11am I wasn’t allowed anything to eat or drink anymore. 2pm was first the PET scan with an intra venous drip after that the mammogram and ultra sound. I am so glad I can still go to Vienna for these check ups, they also give you the results straight away. So I needed this extra scan and on Thursday morning they had time for me. Also the doctor on site gave me the positive feedback that all was fine! Wednesday evening we had a wonderful night with our dutch friends and Oliver, our Belgian friend. It was so lovely to catch up with everyone. In the beginning we didn’t want to sit down, we were all chatting. Most heard comment of the evening was” OMG you look so tanned!!!” Yes, life treats us well under the African sun. Rob went on Wednesday to Brau Union in Linz and saw a lot of his old collegues and friends. We had a great dinner together and I ate my favourite Austrian dish, a huge Wiener schnitzel!

Thursday we drove to the mountains. We choose Obertauern, the reason was that the weather was changing. Rain was the weather forecast in Flachau and Schladming, so we chose Obertauern. We had a great hotel wit pool and spa and near a lift. Friday we went skiing and I had rented fantastic skis. Rob and I don’t often ski together, most of the times it’s with friends and the children. Saturday morning it snowed heavily but we went up and did our very best. At some points we could hardly see where we were going. Late afternoon Robin and Armin arrived. We found a little hotel in a village nearby. The next day we went skiing together and it was kaiserwetter! Beautiful weather!

Around 2 pm Sunday afternoon we drove to Steiermark to see Robin and Armin’s new flat. They live in a lovely little village, very hilly and green. They’ve made their new house a nice home, I’m very happy for them. The booked a fabulous hotel for us, just around the corner of their house. In the evening we ate at the hotel and we saw Edith and Fritz, Armin’s parents. They mentioned a ski area we never heard of before. So maybe we should try out next time we visit them again in Austria.

While we were in Austria our little doggie Ayo turned two years and Jack and Ailsa celebrated this in stile with him. He also had play dates with another dog from one of of Ailsa's friends, so sweet.

Monday we had relaxing morning in the spa at the hotel. We swam outside and enjoyed it a lot. Around ten we drove to Vienna, visited quickly SCS shopping centre to buy some trousers for Rob. Then we were off to the airport to fly back to The Netherlands. We had a bit of a disappointment to deal with. We planned these two weeks as a holiday together, but Nigerian Breweries had a different plan. Rob needed to do an exam in Abuja the capital to be a registered accountant. Therefore he needed to fly back on Tuesday to Lagos. The next morning, Wednesday 5 am he left Bella Vista to fly to Abuja. There he learned that his course started already on Monday!!! They gave him a book and ten minutes later the exam started! But you all know I married not only a very handsome but also a very smart man. He passed his exam, unbelievable. After almost 30 years he has another degree.

The reason they started earlier was because of the elections (again). There are always two sides on something, in this case he won two days and therefore he flew back to Amsterdam and landed on Friday 10am. I fetched him from Schiphol airport and we went to Amsterdam together. We bought a sofa for our house in The Netherlands. We are very excited. 

I had a few nice days at my house in Zoeterwoude. I had lunch with Sanneke and my niece came for dinner and cuddled Ayo the entire evening.

Then suddenly it's time to go back to my other home in Lagos, to warm weather and sports and great friends too. First thing I had to do was giving Ayo a proper grooming. But oh dear I don't like it Ayo with no hair! But it was all tangled and too much hair in these temperatures it's awful for him. See the photos below, no comment.

When I was back on Nigerian soil I was invited together with Thil to attend the inauguration of my friend Nkoli, she's the new president of the IWSN, International Women Society of Nigeria. Mathilde and I went and as very often is the case it went very different than we expected. I was invited to sit at the high table almost next to my friend Nkoli. Aiki was also there and sat on her other side. At a certain moment an old lady walked behind the table, started with me, so I shook her hand politely I thought, but the other women stood up and were all bending for her, how little did I know........very awkward. After the ceremony we went outside to shoot a few photos and then we left again, back in busy traffic towards home.

I'll end this long epistle with one more photo of Rob and I with our Lagos friends at the Jet ski Club on March 15th. So you see we're having a fabulous time, we do loads of things and just enjoying our time here in West Africa.

Back in Lagos means also back to painting and silk painting together with my buddy Mathilde. We have a lot of fun together.

In March Nicole Crombach came for a pre visit to Lagos. Her husband is here since the beginning of January, now it was Nicole's turn to come and see how Lagos is. She didn't have the best experience unfortunately she ended up in hospital with a very bad stomachache, she spent a few days there and went sick home. Not good, but the first days she was fine and we took her on a tour to a shopping mall and the Nike Art Gallery and we went for a nice lunch at the Cactus.

Back in Lagos also means back to our VEE school in Lekki. The school had an enormous make over during the winter, but still the class rooms have no light and it's quite simple.