Oh Oh the Kleinjans in Gerlos!

Friday December 14th Rob and I flew to Amsterdam via Paris with Air France. It was the first time we really needed the many hours travel time to the airport. You need to know that you can drive to the airport in about 40 minutes. We flew at midnight but left home at 17:00 after many phone calls from people from the office that is was madness on the Lagos’ roads. And it was! Our airport driver Andrew did things you will never do in Europe, but it was the only way to manoeuvre through the chaos. It took us more than four hours to get to the airport and the airport was empty, that was the anti climax. We saw quite a few Dutchies on the airport all with similar stories of being stuck in traffic. Everyone went home for the holidays. We came home in Zoeterwoude the next morning around 11:00 and the house was different than the last time we saw it in November. Nikki my cousin painted the boys’ rooms, that made us extremely happy.

Sunday night we were celebrating our Sinterklaas party, so many things needed to be done. Wrapping presents, buying last presents, writing poems and making a “surprise” as well. And Jack and Ailsa needed a bed to sleep on, because also Hugo and Noa arrived home safe and sound. Robin came home on Sunday, but was very delayed due to the fog in Amsterdam and northern part of Germany. And then the Sinterklaas party started, we were all so excited and even a bit nervous. Noa made a compilation of silly pictures of the Kleinjan clan to start with, which shouldn’t see daylight. It was funny though. The evening was filled with laughter, silly poems and a huge container for Rob and me in the tv room. The boys combined their forces and made a surprise for us together. I think the most hilarious part of the evening was Rob and me singing karaoke, this shouldn’t see daylight either. Around 01:30 we were done with everything and left the mess as it was and went to bed very satisfied and dreamed about all the crazy stuff of the hours before.

The next morning, Monday 17th of December, Rob, Hugo and Noa went to the Nigerian Embassy to get the visas organised. This took very long. Jack and Ailsa went to school and Robin was working from the dining table. So I had to clean the mess, not very pleasant, but it needed to be done by someone. The rest of the following days were filled with getting the house done as we like it. Two students living in the house have different ideas about what is clean. Plus we were suddenly with seven people at home and the make over of the bedrooms still in progress made it a terrible mess at home. Now when I’m writing this in the plane back to my other home the one in Nigeria, I can at last say "yes the house is forming exactly how we wanted to have it”. But it takes up a lot of time in the short matter of time we only have in The Netherlands.

The second leg of our journey; We drove with the six of us on Friday morning 21st of December with my little BMW and a rental car to Starnberg in Bavaria. We were invited by the Zuill’s family for a pre Christmas drink and we stayed over. At our last stop just before we arrived in Starnberg we had a petrol stop Jack opened the car door and it flew out of his hands due to a huge storm unfortunately it hit an iron garbage bin with as a result the door badly damaged, scratched and dented!! Ard and Louise came with the girls as well. The next morning we left around 10ish via our old house in Ammerland to the mountains in Tirol. The van der Meysjes with two cars, us with two cars and later Robin and Armin with two cars. Noa drove with Annabelle. We sort of arrived all in half an hour difference in Gerlos. We couldn't get in our apartment so we decided to have a lunch. Surprise surprise they had bitterballs and frikandellen at the restaurant. We arrived in little Holland! Dutch things on the menu and waiters spoke Dutch too! Dutch people who refused to even try to speak German, we were so embarrassed. One thing was good fun and that was the CIn Cin bar. We went there one evening with the children to have a bit of fun and fun we had! But again every person working in the bar was Dutch speaking, songs were all Dutch Carnaval songs. Half of them we didn’t know, but the lyrics aren't very complicated.

Skiing went well. Robin and Armin joined us again after having celebrated Christmas in Bad Gleichenberg at Armin’s parents. Unfortunately Ailsa got injured, tomorrow we’ll know more if something is torn or damaged in her knee. She’s walking better every day so we have good hope it isn’t too bad. A Dutch young man told Jack that his snow board had died, they weren't able to fix it anymore so he lent three different boards for a couple of days and so he got a new one at the end of the week. My ski shoes were always giving me blisters at my caffs so I let this checked in the shop and it turned out my shoes were two sizes too big! Not good, so I bought new ski shoes and the first day I hated them but after that it felt really good. We left on Friday evening after first having lunch with Joep and Ann. This was wonderful, always a pleasure seeing these guys. We drove to Frankfurt had a stopover there and the next day we continued our journey to Zoeterwoude-Dorp.

Back in Zoeterwoude we washed all the ski wear and did more refurnishing of the Boterbloemlaan. This feels absolutely amazing to get the house exactly how we want it. As you know we’re living in rental houses for many years, nothing can be done there, we’re enjoying painting our own house and decorating it just how we want it.

I took Jack, Ailsa and Hugo to my cousins in dordrecht. This is the city where my parents grew up. we had a stroll around old Dordt, which was very nice. We could show the children the houses of the van Deventer's and where my dad grew up. In the evening Dino and his son Damian came over for dinner at Nikki's, this was really nice. We had a great time.

In the meantime Ailsa saw a orthopaedic doctor in Leiden, she needs a MRI soon but he thinks it’s ”only” sprain and with some physical therapy she’ll be up and about.