Summer of 2019

A new bar at Bella Vista.

We asked a company who makes furniture to build not only a wine rack and a signpost pole with places we lived before but also a decent bar for us. We call it "the Bella Bar". This was quite a project, trust me. Many things went wrong, the effort was there though, the finishing touch is not quite what we hoped for yet. They’ve also made a very cool wine rack. Another thing they’ve made is a signpost pole made from a Nigerian tree. With colourful signs and kilometres on it of all the places we lived and the places of the children too. The end result is amazing.

Hugo’s second stay in Nigeria.

When Hugo arrived his hair was terribly long. It won’t disturb his eyes though because it grows upwards , but it was clear he needed a haircut. I took him to Rob’s hairdresser at the Radison Blu on Victoria Island. He loved the washing of his hair, they put a warm towel on his face and did things he never experienced before. And this for 6.000 Naira (15 euro). 

At home when we were sitting on the sofa in front of the tv, Rob and I noticed that Hugo squeezed his eyes in order to see something on the television. When we were in The Netherlands we took him to an optician and yes we were so right, he needs glasses, he’s nearsighted.

Rain season

From, let’s say May till end of October, we have the rain season in Nigeria. When it rains it rains a lot, not only outside but also inside the house! I think Hugo was here a couple of days when our bedroom ceiling leaked at several places. Interesting is that it is not leaking at the outside walls but in the middle of the ceiling and we are not living on the top floor! Luckily I noticed it in time, so only the bedding was wet not so much the mattress. We had to move our bed from one side of the bedroom to the other side. Hugo, Rob and I were struggling with moving the bed, so we called Glory for extra hands, this lady is so strong. She almost did it on her own!

Beach House with 14 men and ladies football world championship’s final

On July 7th we took Hugo to the beach house together with 12 other men! It turned out I was the only lady left in Lagos. It was very funny to be in the pool with 14 men! They were very sweet for me and we had a lovely day there. The beach house has been renovated. It looks stunning now.

New thatched roofs and the main building totally renewed. We love being there. It’s an escape from the city really. We barbecue and drink and chat. Rob organised a quad bike for the younger men in the group. They enjoyed this very much.

Afterwards we went to the Jet Ski Club to watch the Ladies Football final. We knew we didn't have a lot of chance, but you never know. We can be very proud of our ladies, they came very far. The US ladies deserved to win.

Accident with the car

Rob was driving with Yinka to the office one morning when a Mo-Pol, a police car almost drove them off the road. Yinka could avoid a worse situation by stearing to the right. Nevertheless the damage was quite severe. You're not allowed to stop or get out of the car, at the office they examined the damage.

Free time

Many people are asking me "what are you doing in your free time"? And then adding "it must be very boring when Rob’s away the whole day and you're stuck at the compound". Well I’m very capable of filling my days so far. I like to play tennis in an international ladies group, and I play tennis with a coach, I have a personal trainer whom I see three to four times a week. This is all at the sports side, next to this I like to paint. This is something I started here in January and it gives me a lot of satisfaction. We have a teacher and the group is mostly between three or four ladies, sometimes less and very rarely more. I get to know my style a bit and I learned that I’m not a very patient painter. I thought I’m a very patient person though, but clearly not with painting. I don’t want to spend more than two lessons on a painting (6 hours in total). Otherwise it’s getting a project and I certainly don’t want that. 

Also silk painting is nice, but same story I don’t like the too beautiful drawn scarfs, I like the more messy ones. The trouble is, you do something but you absolutely have no clue what the outcome would be. Sometimes you're happy and sometimes you think; "nope, not good!”

Hopefully soon the Lekki School will start again. We do art and crafts with the children at a local school.

Zara and Ayo

This summer Hugo and I flew back to The Netherlands. We travelled together with Ayo. Just before we left Bella Vista Hugo went for a run with him to make him tired. Ayo chose the grass to run on, the result was he was full of little thistles. The whole way to the airport we were pulling this out of his fur. He was very sweet and behaved so well during the journey.

When we landed at Schiphol airport no one asked for his papers probably simply because no one saw him. He’s such a small dog, put in sort of a sports bag, so easy to smuggle him in and out a country. I called Jack because we had a strategy with Jack and Ailsa’s dog Zara, they should meet outside the house. Zara is a rescue dog from Rumania and she has, let’s call it, a little rug sack with shit that has happened to her in the past. So, at the bicycle lane behind our house we let the dogs meet, greet and play. Then we walked back in the house and everything was fine, a friendship was made. In the morning Ayo sat down in front of Jack and Ailsa’s room waiting patiently for Zara. Outside during the walks Zara was eager to hold Ayo’s leash. Zara could grab Ayo in his mouth and drag him along the living room. Ayo had no problems climbing the stairs but going down was a step too far or too high in this matter. You could hear a sad crying dog from upstairs if we forgot to carry him down.

They miss each other’s company. Unfortunately they have to wait another year before they will be together again. The last photo of Ayo; a bad hair day!

Rob’s 55th birthday party

On July 26th Morgan, Gus and Annie Zuill drove with their dog Rufus all the way from the UK to Zoeterwoude to be with us for the weekend. Also Rachel and Ian Bray and Gary, Shelley, Zoe and Rianne came from the UK on Friday. Biggest surprise was the early arrival of Robin and Armin. I thought they would arrive on Saturday, but out of nowhere they were suddenly in front of me. I shed a few tears when I hold my eldest daughter in my arms again. So all together we had a great time in our garden. After weeks of very hot and humid weather it changed over that weekend. I was a bit afraid we would have rain during the garden party on Saturday. Luckily it was one little shower of maybe 15 minutes around 9 pm. Shelley and Gary stayed a few days longer so on Monday we explored Rotterdam and Ailsa and Noa came along. We had lunch at Hotel New York, we visited the Markt Hall with a beautiful ceiling. We also went in in one of the "cube" houses, they are right in the centre and built in the eighties by Piet Blom. This was absolutely interesting to see. In the evening we ate in our garden and without realising new memories were made again.

The party was wonderful. Rob was spoiled and we were very happy to see so many friends who came from near and far. We’re very blessed with so many good friends. I always feel a bit guilty not being able to give every single person all the attention on such an evening. I think they understand, it’s more my feeling. Rachel played beer pong with the youngsters and they won! 01:00 the door bell rang, Hugo opened the door and called me saying the police was at the door. I thought he was making a joke, I was expecting a taxi for a couple of people. But it was indeed the police, apparently we made too much noice. The DJ was packing his music, I found it pretty quiet so did they. They saw the party was slowly ending and so they left.

Rob had to leave to Lagos the very next morning, this was a bit unfortunate. He flew back to The Netherlands again the evening before his birthday. It’s a night flight, he flew business class, when he woke up he got a few presents from KLM. A mug, a garlands and chocolate. Very nice. He came home, went to bed for a few hours and then we woke him up with the presents we bought for him. He's had a great birthday!

Oma’s birthday dinner August 1st

We celebrated Oma Willy’s 86th birthday at the van der Valk hotel in Voorschoten. This was the best location for us as we had to pack and leave very early (04:00) the next morning for our Tenerife holiday. The Kleinjan family was almost complete. Only Robin and our nieces, the daughters of Rob’s sister and brother in law were not there, they were in Greece together. Willy’s sister and brother in law Joke and Paul were there and also Loes. We had a lovely evening.  

Tenerife 

I won’t write about Tenerife because the children have already written something about it.

However I will share a few cool photo's of the jetski safari.

Noa and her friend Olivia

When we returned home from Tenerife, unfortunately with a huge delay due to the fact that again something electronically didn’t work at Schiphol Airport, there’s always lots to tidy up and washing to do. On Sunday Noa’s Canadian friend Olivia from Kamloops arrived for her first visit to Europe. They have been very busy sightseeing. They went to Amsterdam twice, to Leiden, Den Haag, Scheveningen, Rotterdam, Brussels and Paris. It was lovely having Olivia over. The weather was the only downside , it was very wet for the 11 days she was there.The very first photo is Noa's house in Canada.

Noa left

After five weeks in The Netherlands Noa left for Canada. To start working at the Marriott hotel again and to start with her last school year.

A quick goodbye cuddle for the dogs and off she went! Bon voyage and good luck Noa😘

Hugo in Bad Gleichenberg and Vienna

Hugo went to see Robin and Armin in Bad Gleichenberg in Austria. He flew to Vienna and took a flix bus to Graz, Robin picked him up from there. She works in Graz most of the time. They booked a hotel close to their house, because they don’t have so much space and they are early birds so they didn’t want him to sleep on the sofa. They had a great time together. The went to see a castle. At the castle was a bird show, with falcons eagles and hawks. This was very cool to see Hugo said. Hugo met Armin’s parents, he liked them a lot. After Bad Gleichenberg he went a few days to his friend Paul in Vienna and had a lovely Kirtag in Dobling.

A veranda at the Boterbloemlaan

In Zoeterwoude-dorp we have our house. This house was build by Hugo van der Geest in 1996, the year I was pregnant with Noa. Hugo is named after our friend Hugo and he’s born in this house. Slowly we are redecorating the house, painting it, breaking walls through, adding an extra shower room, a television room and now we’re adding some outdoor space, “We" are building a veranda and when this is finished we will renew our garden too. 

It’s a huge project, but so cool. Rob and I have been busy driving from one garden centre to another looking for a lounge set and outdoor dining table and more of this kind of things. 

Friends

In The Netherlands I’ve seen many friends, it’s always wonderful to catch up again. Unfortunately I haven't made photos with everyone I've seen. I have a friendsgroup with whom I go way back. We were together at kindergarten, elementary school, then middle and high school. Most of the time we meet in Voorschoten, 3 of the 5 live there, it’s my hometown.

From left to right you see Monique and Jet, me and Astrid and Milo, Rob and me and Jaqueline Schaap from Vienna years. 

Short visit at Vienna

Rob had a very sore elbow, hips and one ankle, therefore he made an appointment with my orthopedist in Vienna. Unfortunately Benno our doctor needed a bypass a few days before we planned our visit. But because Rob bought a return ticket Lagos-Amsterdam-Vienna, we had to go. We love the city, so we enjoyed ourselves. During the day we phoned Michiel and Annemiek to see if they wanted dinner with us and they were in town and had time. We ate at the restaurant Noa worked last year, our alien Kaisermuehlen. We had a great evening. Rob told about the appointment that was canceled so Michiel decided to call his ex wife who’s a GP. She made an appointment in a hospital in the middle of The Netherlands for the day we left. In Nigeria a doctor has put a needle in his elbow with the diagnosis gout (jicht for the Dutch readers). The doctor in the Netherlands told us that he certainly doesn’t have gout, this is a big relief. The things he has are three different things, but more an overpressure after maybe too much sports. So now he has to learn to find the balance and listen to his body when to stop. The first photo is Rob with our rose we got from Brau Union, it stands in the Volksgarten.

During the Monday in Vienna we used the electric scooters (steps for the Dutch readers). This is a fantastic way of going from A to B. We had a lot of fun. The last photo needs a bit of explanation; Rob saw a house with little holes in it, it sprayed a nice mist. He said I'm gonna ride through it and you film it, that will be fun. Well funny it was, he came out soaking wet!!!! The temperature was very warm, so he dried up very fast.

Back in Nigeria

We flew back to our other home on Saturday 31st of August with Ayo. We didn’t have all the stamps so I took him in his sport bag over my shoulder and walked out while rob was stopped with all the suitcases. They always want to open at least one suitcase or they want money. Rob refused to give money, he kept on say no, then he had to go to the next security guard and same story he wanted money, he said no again, and then he had to go the the next security guard, again he said that he won’t pay anything. Then they let him go. Back at home, Ayo run to get his toys, and played with it for a while.

The next morning we unpacked the suitcases and went to the Landmark beach to see our friends after a long summer. We had a barbecue there and chatted and drunk and had a fabulous time. Afterwards we went to the Heineken House there was a Star event with Manchester City. They brought all their prices with them. Rob and I were taken to a separate room to speak to a famous ex Manchester City player, don’t ask his name, I have no clue 😂.

That brings me back to where we are today.