On The Move.

At the beginning of November, I wanted to go finally to our house in Austria. I collected lots of items in our house in the Netherlands to bring to Austria to the Backyard. Rob wasn’t keen on me driving all the way, since it is 1142 km.

So, I tried to find a solution for this. First, I spoke to Nick, Dennis and Mathilde’s son. He was willing to drive during his one-week holiday, but this didn’t happen because of the Corona regulations in Austria, like quarantine and so. Therefor we spoke with an event company who converted their business into helping others with errands. They were willing to help us and they would come with a small lorry and bring our belongings to the Backyard. But on the morning, they were supposed to come, the boss called and explained that his hands were tied, he needed the correct paperwork for crossing two borders as he was driving with a lorry, for work, and this wasn’t allowed. To cut a long story short, this route did not work either. Then I called Mathilde who is home alone just like me, Dennis is also in Lagos, if she wanted to join me to the Backyard. She was very happy to do something different and have a little break and another scenery.

We planned to leave on Monday November 9th. The day before we saw each other at the PCR test location. She was very worried about the health of their 11-year-old Labrador Joep. There was something seriously wrong with his leg, a tumor and he didn’t walk or eat anymore. Luckily Nick’s girlfriend is a vet and she could explain what was wrong. The sad story was he could not be helped anymore. You can imagine what a rollercoaster Mathilde was in. This all went so fast. It turned out the next morning on Monday November 9th around 11:30am, with Dennis on Face-time, Joep took his last breath in the arms of Mathilde.

But what a trooper she is, she still wanted to drive with me to Austria. In the morning I picked up the rented minivan. But when I came home, I saw that it would never fit. So, I called the Huurmij company asking if I could still change it in a bigger van (13m3). Jack and Noa helped me to load the car with all the ski stuff, and boxes.

Around 16:00 I was at Mathilde’s house in Maassluis. Our first stop and night over was at Heerlen’s van der Valk hotel. The reason to do so, was because of the curfew in Austria. You had to be in at 20:00 otherwise you get fined, these amounts don’t lie. So, leaving very early from the border gave us an additional 2 hours to reach the house.

At 19:30 Thil and I walked in the restaurant of the hotel in order to have dinner. We asked the waiter for two glasses of white wine to start with and ordered our meals. Just after 20:00 we asked for another glass, Thil could use some drinks after all she’s been through.

But then the waiter said that he wasn’t allowed due to the Corona regulations to serve any alcohol after 20:00. We should have asked for a bottle and he should have told us that after 20:00, he could not serve any alcohol anymore. Anyway, it happened, maybe better we couldn’t drink anything, because the plan was to leave at 06:00 the next morning.

The trip went pretty smooth, Ayo behaved very well, also because Thil was feeding him all kind of nice things, like prosciutto ham and bread, things he never gets from me.

We discovered there are two ways to get to our house, one is over the Turracher Höhe Pass or via Milstatter See. We followed the navigation and it sent us over the pass, which is absolutely beautiful, but as you can expect curvy and steep. From there I knew where we were. The last little bit was our steep little street up to the house, but also this was not a problem to find in the dark, although it was a bit of guessing in the end. You need to realize that I had seen the house in the summer with day light. Now it was so dark, and it felt a bit different. After 12 hours of driving, we were “home”. Hugo was waiting for us with two glasses of white wine.

As you can see we got them in the car, the sweetheart.

Then you’re in a house you’ve seen twice briefly and that is now yours. It still brings tears in my eyes. A very special feeling, bursting with pride and joy, couldn’t wait to see every inch of it. We arrived on Tuesday and left again on Saturday. We unpacked all the boxes, tried to give it a place and cleared out the kitchen cupboards. We bought the house with everything in it, the whole inventory came with the house. There were some great things included like table tennis table, wine fridge, but also some serious junk. Every day we tried to make a walk as the weather was stunning. We had a great week together.

On Saturday we drove back to the Netherlands in one go. It took us less then 12 hours, pretty good I think. Sunday, I took another PCR test and on Monday I flew back to Vienna, and I took a domestic flight to Graz. A taxi driver brought me to the railway station where I could just catch an intercity bus to Klagenfurt. Unfortunately, the two times I took a bus that day I had bad luck. The first bus in the morning to Leiden Central Station was behind an accident. I was standing at the bus stop for half an hour and no bus showed up. I called Pieter, he had to dress himself, but he was so kind to bring me to Leiden. The bus in the afternoon was similar but now we were in the bus behind an accident, that happened in a tunnel. After a long time, we drove slowly a D-tour in one huge traffic jam. Robin was picking me up from Klagenfurt, then it’s another hour before we were home, all in all I had almost 2 hours delay. It’s been a long journey, but I made it. Strangely enough no-one was asking for test results, which I still find very weird.

At the house we started to clear out more and more things and collected everything in the garage we have. When Rob arrived, he sorted the garage tools and threw much of that out as well. After a week or so we decided to rent a trailer. Luckily Robins car has a hook to pull a trailer. We dumped everything in Feldkirchen at the recycling station, this felt really good. “A cleared out house gives a clear head”, as Annemiek’s my neighbour’s motto is.

Also, this way you feel the house becomes more and more your own house, like brushing off the previous owners. When we had the trailer, we drove to Klagenfurt to Ikea to get, yes indeed… Ikea closets, what a surprise. We changed the ones in our bedroom into Ikea ones. The one we had in our bedroom went upstairs to the attic. The load was so heavy and our little street was covered with a lot of snow, so I drove up and down the mountain with a few pieces in the car until the trailer was empty then we drove up the mountain with the trailer as well. Robin’s car is amazing, a four-wheel drive car and a lot of power, so there are no problems with our street. We bought Robin’s car and she bought a new one, just a smaller size. Robin and Armin will take care of the car and the service, it will be parked at their house, but it’s so convenient to have our own car there.

Every night we played games after dinner, we are a family who really likes all kind of games. We taught Noa and Hugo “klaverjassen”, they were only familiar with the “boeren bridge version”, we always play this with our ski family de van der Meijsjes. Klaverjassen is similar but can only be played with four people.

Then Jack arrived and Robin and Armin as well. Sinterklaas was almost there, the house was filled with notes “do not enter”, very often you try find a buddy who can help or come up with suggestions. Noa and I were ordering all these crazy sweaters. We wanted onesies, but as you can guess, these weren’t available in Rob’s size. Therefore, we changed the plan in buying silly Christmas sweaters.

Robin and Hugo had a surprise on the night before ‘Sinterklaas’, it was second Christmas day. After dinner, they came up with a game they had made together. Kleinjan Family Monopoly with all the addresses where we and the children lived/live. In the middle of the board game, you have these Chance and Community Chest cards, they were changed into hilarious ones.

I’ll share some examples;

*“Family is all about sharing and caring, right? The next player is allowed to take a random property of yours (if you refuse, go to jail with double the punishment).

*A massive snowstorm is bearing down on your residence, pay 50 euro for supplies to get you through it.

*The family is posing an intervention into your drinking problem, go to jail but all other players must each pay 30 euro to the pot (if you pass start do not get money).

*It’s time to pay for tuition fee, pay 100 euro to both parents.

The other cards were more like the following.

*Sinterklaas is feeling generous, receive 500 euro from the bank.

*On the way to the airport, Jack realized he forgot his passport, everyone must pay 50 euro into the pot.

*You’re looking back at your childhood, pay 50 euro into the pot and travel to your house when you were 15. (if not listed, go to a property that is listed) if you pass start, get money)

*In the new house in Austria, you discover a money tree in the garden, receive 200 euro from the bank.

You can imagine how much fun we had, but also the effort Robin and Hugo have put into this extra project was wonderful and we loved it.

The day Jack left, Noa’s friend from Austria arrived and with her loads of snow (again). They went for a walk with Ayo. At a certain moment Isabella said to Noa, “I think we have to go back Ayo has a hard time walking”. “Noooo” replied Noa, “he’s fine”. Pretty soon she also realized that he did walk strangely. Back home he was shivering, and his belly was full of clumps of snow and ice, to let him feel better, they gave him a bath.

On Silvester we had fun in the hot tub with Annemiek and Michiel, together with some good cocktails served by Noa. At a certain moment the light of the garage went on, this goes with a motion sensor and there was a fox staring at us, probably thinking “what the heck are these crazy people doing in a tub”. At the end Michiel did some snow dipping, I just like to run inside to get warm again.

The house felt empty, Jack left on the 28th, back to Ailsa, Isabella, Michiel and Annemiek were also all gone. Noa left on the 2nd of January back to Switzerland by train and Armin also left the same day in the morning, Robin that afternoon with so much snow that she needed her snow chains around her tires. She knows how to do this, she even taught Rob and me how to do it. She also installed a camera and all kind of lamps what we can switch on and off with an app. Noa is more of assembling Ikea closets, very patiently she spent days in our bedroom assembling them with Rob. Hugo is our gardener, he used every free minute, or in between classes, working in the garden. He made two big stairs in the garden, an amazing job.

Jack is the best chef, he loves to cook.

Two days before we left, my birthday present arrived in many boxes, the driver with the lorry got stuck down in our street, coincidentally he came from Lagos. He put all the boxes on the street and Rob had to get them with our own car. Rob gave me new tableware from Laura Ashley, a mix and match with different patterns. I’m so happy with it. Also, that same day an IXXI poster arrived with our house on it. It was a picture taken with our drone. It took a bit to hang it, but the result is brilliant.

On January 7th we drove back with our mini to the Netherlands. It took us 11,5 hours, not too bad. All the Raststaettes (restaurants along the motorway) are closed, only the petrol stations are open, there you can get a snack or coffee or tea to go. As you could read in the previous story of Rob, during our journey we learned that the situation wasn’t good in Lagos. I was so disappointed, man this was not the plan at all. But safety and health come always first. In the end Rob left without me on January 14th a day before my birthday. Hopefully with a new formula, 4 weeks Nigeria, two weeks Europe, we can do this for one or two times.

We also went quickly to a GP in our neighbour village, for more than 20 years, we didn’t have one. Nowadays with all the Corona crap going on in the world I/we need a vaccine and rather soon please. Monday I’ll have a consult, I can explain our situation and maybe she’ll add me on a list.

The Corona regulations were tightened after my birthday, so still two persons could come.

I felt a bit sad that Rob wasn’t near me, but we have wonderful friends. First came Tineke for a coffee then Loes and also Mathilde who almost passed our house after she dropped off Dennis at Schiphol airport, she rang if she could come in.

The first photo is from the day Rob left, so the day before my birthday, he gave me a huge bouquet of tulips. One of the presents of the children is a new Mac book cover.

On the 15th I received so many messages, phone calls, flowers and cards, I felt cherished. Around 5 pm I was supposed to have a Facetime “drink” with Frank and Ria in Nijmegen, who already had sent a bottle of wine over the mail. Ria rang, I answered and walked from the sofa to the kitchen island, focused on my screen to connect with Ria. In the living room I saw someone on my left, I thought it was Jack (similar size), but it was Frank, this was such a huge surprise! He thought “she’s never in the Netherlands for her birthday, let’s surprise her”. I did something very forbidden, I hugged him spontaneously. Don’t tell anyone please.

Stay safe xxx