Fàilte Gu Alba Àlainn

Viv & Rob Kleinjan
Jan 7
11 min read

Updated: Jan 8

Happy New Year from Rob and myself. What to expect to read in this blog? Perhaps about flying on a jump-seat, or how about moving, having both cars in repair but not driving them yourself, buying a car without a test drive, Sinterklaas, skiing and more. Do you want to know what this title means? It’s Gaelic for, “Welcome in beautiful Scotland”.

Beginning of October, Rob and I flew to Amsterdam to see Jivan for his 60th birthday party. A day before I brought Ayo to Lindsey and John, they always welcome Ayo to their home. Buddy, their dog, and Ayo get a long well. Since Ayo sometimes pees, and they have a new house with carpet upstairs, the doggies needed to sleep downstairs in the living room. Ayo who loves to sleep close to us started whining and whining, so in the end John slept downstairs on the sofa with Ayo close to him. Ayo slept like a baby; I don’t think John did.

We had a lovely time in the Netherlands. Friday evening, we had a little reunion with Rob’s family: Cora and her husband, their three children and partners. We had a wonderful evening at Freyja’s.

The next day we went to Bergen in Noord-Holland. We had a walk with all Jivan’s friends through the forest to the restaurant where we had dinner. He asked us what we would wish him for the next 36 years, he plans to become 96 years old.

Jivan gave a small speech, focusing on friends and family in a chronological order meaning he started with me as I’m his oldest/longest friend. We grew up next to each other, this means our friendship is 59 years old, I cherish this very much. Our parents were best friends, we had holidays together, and Jivan and I used to go on sailing courses together in Friesland when we were young. My dad and oom Rens shared a love for sailing. We had a wonderful party; it was brightened with many personal stories.

Sunday, we flew back to London with BA, and at the airport we learned that I was on standby. I did not have seat, but Rob did, although we booked our flights together, really strange.He told the airport personnel that he won’t join the flight if I was not able to be on the plane. I was not the only one on standby, seven people in total were on standby. After a long wait, I was able to join the flight on a jump seat with the crew at the tail of the aircraft. I had some nice chats with them and so this way we made it to London. The next morning, I went back to Leigh-on-Sea to pick up Ayo again.

On October 11th, Frank came to London to join us to a concert of Crowded House at the O2 stadium. Frank and I first went for a long walk and had a nice lunch together. The concert was fabulous with a few new songs from their new album. On Friday night, we started with a few episodes of the best tv-series ever, TED LASSO. If you haven’t seen it yet, watch it. It’s brilliant! While we were still living in London, only a few more weeks, we had the plan to go for the Ted Lasso tour in Richmond. We took the train, went too far, had to go back again and finally we made it to Richmond.

We had lunch at the pub where the series was filmed, we only missed Mae there. We walked in the park and were in front of Ted's house where he lives. Frank bought a beautiful coat in an Italian store in one of the little alleys in Richmond. In the evening, we watched again a few episodes as Frank didn’t know the series and he loved it.

On Sunday, we went to Spitalfields market and to Brick lane where we had a quick lunch before Frank had to run for his flight back to Amsterdam.

During the same weekend, Anna moved into her new apartment in Brussels. With the help of Hugo and Jack, they had to use an outside lift to get her things inside. Jack became our moving guy - when you need help, call Jack!

Robin and Armin were sailing in Croatia with Lianne. Rob and I were invited but that would not really fit in our schedule because of our quickly approaching move.

During the last weeks of our stay in London, I made a few nice last photos of Hyde Park in autumn.

During the last weekend of October, we went to see Lindsey and John in Leigh-on-Sea. Lindsey had booked a spa for Rob and me. We misunderstood, thinking it was meant for the four of us. It was a tiny spa - two people only. It was wonderful and the timing was just perfect and very relaxing. The next day we had a nice stroll in Leigh-on-Sea, it was great to catch up again. One of the shops that we discovered is Cook where you can get really good quality ready meals and dishes at a very affordable price.

Then it was our turn to pack our things, leaving London behind, and move to Edinburgh in Scotland. On Sunday November 3rd, we opened our Hyde Park Garden doors for the movers to start packing. In a rapid speed, they packed 101 boxes on that first day. Rob and I were on the sofa with a glass of wine, while these men were working hard. No, just joking about the wine, the rest is true though. After the men left, we had a few drinks and dinner with our neighbours Ben and Trond in our favourite pub around the corner, the Victoria. We will miss them, but luckily they're coming to see us in Edinburgh in March.

Wednesday was the day we left London and drove to Scotland by car. This took a bit longer than anticipated as the motorway was totally shut down in both directions. Therefore, we had to make a detour of two hours. We drove through little villages and had to stop at a certain moment because a flock of sheep were coming home to the farm. You won’t believe me if I tell you that when we passed the Scottish border it started raining, the whole day was beautiful weather and one minute in Scotland and it rained!! This promises something, right?

We slept in a Hilton hotel (of course) close to the Castle in Edinburgh.

Rob had booked a huge Ikea delivery for the next morning November 7th, but we were also getting our new house keys of Regent Terrace at 08:30. Ikea could bring our 14 wardrobes all day long, but a text message said they would be at our house between 07:00 and 11:00 am. So, we had an early wakeup call. We drove to our house, luckily it was a stunning day, with a beautiful sunrise behind Arthur’s Seat, the volcanic hill in the middle of Edinburgh, which was going to be our view. Ikea was early, we didn’t even have the house keys yet, so the only solution was to put it outside on the street. Imagine, if it rained…..

We got the keys at 08:30 and the movers came at 10am, the party of unpacking could start!

There was a little problem with flushing the bathroom toilet at the second floor. I called the real estate agent, and they sent a plumber. I walked into the living room where four men were staring at the ceiling. It was leaking water from the ceiling…..not good! I ran upstairs and told the plumber what was going on. He had no idea. It took him a long time to solve everything and now we live with a bit of a damaged ceiling. When you visit us, don’t look up!

Meanwhile, the movers worked their butts off! They were so sweet to bring all these heavy wardrobes upstairs to the second floor.

I had trouble understanding them, they came from Glasgow, and so they speak Glaswegian, it just goes very fast and with a strong accent.

Rob was non-stop assembling the wardrobes, it killed his back, but he did not stop before they were standing vertically where they had to stand. Another little problem we were facing was there was no hot water in our shower. It was lukewarm, not very pleasant.

This took four weeks to get it fixed, but it’s the best shower you could wish for. On Friday the 8th of November, our trooper Tineke came to help us. This is our 5th move where she’s helped. The first was in Finland with help of Oscar her youngest son. She was also there in Vienna, Lagos, arrival date exactly the same as this year, and then came London and now Scotland. She walks in, pulls her sleeves up, and starts. She has a good eye of what to do, when to do it, and importantly, too, where to put it.

One day the gardener came as the garden was a jungle. After he finished working, the garden seemed twice as big. Tineke and I were curious so we went down to the garden and Tineke walked through the door at the end of our garden... There she discovered a park - a private park for all the houses in our street, or at least the ones who pays a fee for it. It’s wonderful to walk with Ayo without a lead out of our house straight into this beautiful park. It also has a tennis court and ‘pitch and put’ spots and a few play areas for little children. I met the park manager Charlie, a kind lady who’s in charge of the park’s maintenance.

Tineke and I also explored the city a bit, it was already in Christmas spirits. Only the Christmas market opened the day after she left. We had lunch at a place and an older guy was helping there, who was in love with Ayo. He gave him sausages and biscuits to eat. We got a package more when we left, but I never gave this to Ayo, not healthy.

On Friday, she left really early and it happened that she left with the aircraft Joe my niece came with. One out, the other in.

After one week of hard work, everything had a place. We’re so grateful to Tineke’s hard work. The only thing that needed to be done was hanging our paintings. A mission for Joe to help with.

We also did some exploring with Joe, as the Christmas market just opened. We also did a ghost tour on Sunday night. It was very interesting, but it was also below zero, chilly and dark, which Rob found a bit too much.

In the meantime, my knee was a mess. I was in a lot of pain and had to take it easy. I called my physiotherapist in London to see if he could help. I also found a new orthopedic surgeon in Edinburgh. In February, I’m going to see him for a consultation. I know I need a knee replacement but am still a bit hesitant, so I have been delaying it as long as I can.

The weekend after Joe left, we had some snow in Edinburgh. It looked magical.

On December 4th, I flew to the Netherlands. We’d decided to celebrate Sinterklaas this year in the Netherlands. Jack and Ailsa are traveling through India for a month when we usually celebrate. They have their best friends’ wedding in Bangalore and took the opportunity to see a bit of this beautiful and massive country.

This year, we nearly celebrated Sinterklaas on the right day - December 5th. We managed it on the 7th.

Friday night, we played the dice game where you all bring one little silly gift, you put it on a pile and then you throw the dice and the game starts. Sometimes you’re can unpack, other times not, or you must give your present to the person with the least or you all must give the gifts 2 times to the right or left, etc. A lot of fun. Sanneke joined us this year, which was great. Noa had an idea of making a funky family photo with a box - Instagram inspired. Sanneke as a professional photographer was assisting Noa holding the lighting. The result was amazing! Using this theme, Rob made this year’s Christmas card.

This was the result of the photos using the box.

Saturday December 7th, we started with Sinterklaas marathon around 13:30, slightly later than we wanted. We had to buy a little 'new' car. We had with both our cars a bit of trouble. The red one broke down at Robin’s with the whole motor and wheels were off. Rob honestly thought it was an early Sinterklaas prank.

But no, a long and expensive repairment was needed.

In Zoeterwoude, we have a mini. This car also broke down a few weeks ago. Jack and Ailsa needed a car to bring Zara their dog to Austria in order to be close to Milan from which they flew to India. The costs to fix it was about 4000 Euro. Was it worth it? Jack leased a car for two months, so there was no stress. We decided it was better to buy a ‘new’ second-hand car. Off we went to Versteegen in our village, a little car shop. We looked around and spotted a little car that was affordable, and Rob wanted to buy it without a test ride. Jack said “no way you buy a car without driving it”. So, they made the deal that Jack and I would drive the next morning to see if it was good (enough).

We even don’t know if Rob fits in it. Long story short, we bought a citroen C1, which has no radio, old fashioned window handles, and is generally just very basic. It’s all we need in the Netherlands. Essentially, we will use it to see family and friends, and to do some shopping. The moment we move back to the Netherlands, we’ll look for something bigger and fancier.

And so Sinterklaas started, everyone was finished preparing their surprises. I had a few items that did not arrive, so I had to improvise for my surprise. Anna had the same issue. Each and every surprise was done with a lot of fun and love. We laughed a lot, but with one surprise there was a serious note to it, Rob’s surprise made by Hugo, so we heard later. It started funny but the second part was about Rob’s dad who passed away this year in July. All of us sent in some stories about Piet, and this was touching and made us all cry. Afterwards, we had to take some time before carrying on with the Sinterklaas fun with more gifts and surprises. Armin proposed this year to Robin, and we learned that he owns one suit for 15 years already. So, Rob bought him a blow-up tuxedo and had a wooden horse as well. You should have seen it, hilarious!

There’s too much to talk about this year’s Sinterklaas, it was brilliant. Photos will tell it all.

After cleaning up and going to bed late, there were five of us plus a little doggie who had to leave for Schiphol Airport. The next morning, we travlled to Schiphol Airport in the car rented by Robin and Armin, which was great because the airport was packed - at the exit to Schiphol airport there was so much traffic! Where did all these people come from? We could escape this traffic because we had to return our car at the car rental, which saved a lot of time. Anna, Robin, and Armin flew with Austrian Airways. Hugo and I were together on a KLM flight. For the second time in a row, we forgot that December 8th is a national holiday in Austria, something with Maria getting pregnant. Luckily, our local pizzeria was open, so we could have a nice pizza for dinner.

Anna was working and skiing a bit. Hugo started working as a ski teacher a couple of days later. In his first week, he had local kindergarten children aged 2-6. Afterwards, he was busy with group lessons, sometimes 11 children, and private lessons. He already lost one kid on the mountain. He felt awful, the parents were more relaxed. When this happens, this person needs to give a round of drinks in a bar to all his/her colleagues.

We arrived on a Sunday in Austria, Jack and Ailsa followed the next day. On Wednesday, their adventure to India started. We have Zara here now since December 10th. Soon they’ll be back, and we’ll hear all their stories about the wedding, the desert, the food, the beach and much more.

We also had Michiel and Annemiek over from Vienna. We went for a nice walk in the forest with both dogs. It was fun to have them over, 4 years ago, they were one of the first friends who stayed with us at Don Papa.

Noa joined us for a week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

Rob and Noa skied and snowboarded together. I stayed with the dogs and gave my knee a good rest.

Rob left on Sunday the 5th back to Scotland, I’m staying to help Hugo getting to his work and back.

This year's Christmas card from the Kleinjan family.