Wedding Fair, Broken Bone and A Big Decision

Viv & Rob Kleinjan
Mar 5
12 min read

Updated: Mar 6

I will start this blog on a serious note. This is the story of a young woman who's a cancer survivor, her name's Carmen Dörwald. She's Robin's friend from summer school (2011) at St Andrews Scotland. She was born and raised as a third culture child in China, England and Germany. She led a vibrant life, thriving in her career as a tech recruiter, loved travelling, and loved recording youtube covers. Shortly after her 26th birthday her world took a devastating turn in August 2020. She was diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, Non-Hodgekin cancer, advanced stage 3. I didn't know Carmen, only from stories from Robin, but we met over the phone and had some nice conversations in these difficult times, it was in the middle of Covid pandemic. We spoke about cancer, the phases she went through, what to do and not to do. But why do I mention Carmen? This young brave woman wrote a book about her journey through this ordeal. It's called Navigating Survival: Redefining Cancer & Breaking Borders. Please read it, it's designed to support and inspire others facing similar challenges. Blending her personal narrative with practical advice for survivors and caregivers.

Rob left on January 5th, back to Edinburgh, he had to work again. I stayed with Hugo and Zara and Ayo at Don Papa. Our rhythm was as follows: Hugo organised himself always a heavy breakfast, often warm meal from the night before. He then would pack more for lunch break, skiing all day makes hungry. I drove him around 08:00 to Bad Kleinkirchheim, 8 minutes’ drive, there we walked the dogs around the ski school. One day we would go left, the other day right and sometimes we took the path at the small car park, just to give it a bit of variety. At the end of the day Hugo would call me to tell what time he was ready with his classes. Sometimes around 1pm and sometimes 4pm-ish. I would drive down with the dogs and then we would walk them again. You need to know that Zara is afraid of passing cars, she barks then and pulls and some dogs she likes and some dogs she doesn’t like, and this also results in pulling and loud barking. Zara was happy to help a bit with holding Ayo's leash. Ayo has the same latter habit, but he’s 6 kilograms, so easy to correct him. Often Hugo would take a bath after we arrived home, or we played a few games. After dinner we played again a few games and then Hugo would prepare for his EU exams.

On January 10th Jack and Ailsa returned from their journey through India. I took both dogs to collect the world travelers but took Zara out of the car when I saw them coming, finally they were reunited. Everyone happy. They shared lots of stories about the desert, the fact that they were the attraction often, the wedding in Bangalore, and their chill time at the west coast.

They stayed one day, the day that I could sneak out to go to Graz to a wedding fair with Robin and her mother-in-law Edith. We arrived at the same time at the car park Robin mentioned. We took the tram to the congress hall. When we arrived, we noticed that it was very quiet……Robin went inside to check what happened. Apparently, we were at the wrong place. We had to go back to the car, drive through the north part of the city and there it was. It was a small fair, but we’ve seen some nice things. One stood out; the DJ, in the meantime they have booked them! We had a lovely afternoon.

Robin Edith, Armin and Fritz stayed in Graz, I drove 2 hours back to our house. It was Jack and Ailsa’s last evening, so I wanted to eat with them. Arrival time was going to be18:30……but then on my way back our car could not accelerate anymore. It went slower and slower, I decided to leave the autobahn and parked my car at a dark street and called Robin. She called the ÖAMTC (Dutch ANWB) I waited maybe half an hour, while the temperature dropped rapidly. Happy to see someone from ÖAMTC coming. He had no idea what was wrong. He drove a few times on the roads nearby with high speed, but he couldn’t find what was wrong. He decided to follow me to a carpark at the autobahn, 15 minutes’ drive. It felt safe, that he was following me. I called Jack if he could come in my direction. The technician from OAMTC couldn’t find what was wrong. We stopped two more times at different carparks/petrol stations. He told me, I could go home but had to drive slowly. Halfway home, Jack was driving behind me. We were on the phone the whole time, like we were sitting next to each other. The next day I brought the car to a garage in Radenthein. The car was fixed in a day, I was very relieved. In the mountains you simply need a car. But a week later two more signals lights went on on my dashboard. Now what?! Again? I drove to the garage again and they had to order something. This time I could get a substitute car, it took 4 days and the bill was 670euro. With the first one added this car cost us almost 1000 euros. And it already had a major overhaul done by Robin and Armin end of November. We think it is probably time for a ‘new’ car.

Jack, Ailsa and Zara left on Sunday January12th, I waved them good bye as they drove off. I went back inside the house and saw a whole pile of stuff on the floor next to the frontdoor.

First I thought they want that I take that home for them, but it was a lot, so I called them and said that there was so muh stuff in the hallway, what they wanted me to do with it? Turned out that they simply forgot to put it in the car......They turned around, put it in the car and left for the second time.

Anna, Hugo’s girlfriend came for a week, with her brother David and his girlfriend Merle. They arrived the day after my birthday and gave me two nice two games. This winters’ game is Wizard for us. But you need to be with 3 or more people, Wizard has also an extension, wizard extreme which is also fun! Hugo had to work but also organized a bit of free time so he could teach Anna Merle and David. Anna made this winter such a progress, I’m impressed. My birthday was unusual since Rob was not there and after last year big celebrations it felt small. We did a family call with singing birthday songs and me opening birthday gifts.

This winter they’ve started with replacing the final two bathrooms. They’ve demolished first the bathroom at the attic and then nothing happened…….then they’ve demolished the bath room en-suit at our bedroom. I hope they continue, because sticking to planning is not the strongest point. In the Netherlands you go to a store which sells bathrooms, and they do everything from electrician to plumber and tiles etc. In our village you go to the local carpenter, local electrician, plumber and someone for the tiles. And hopefully someone organizes this with each other. We will wait and see what the result will be. Looking at the costs it has to become very good.

On Wednesday 22nd of January I went to see Robin, she was going to take care of Ayo a few days as I was going to see Noa in Prague.

I slept at Robin’s; we cooked together and chilled afterwards on the sofa. Robin was so sweet to give her car because I was terrified to get engine problems again with our car.

On my way to Prague, still near Robin I saw these beautiful white trees with frost.

Thursday afternoon I arrived at the Hilton Hotel Prague. We already agreed to eat at Noa’s place and park the car there. Noa and Mahdi have a tiny studio, brand new cute but small. Mahdi was away visiting his family in Tunisia. Around 10pm Rob landed, so I went back with the underground and waited for him at the hotel.

Rob had to work on Friday therefore Noa and I went for a stroll through the old town of Prague. It’s such a beautiful city. One of the photos tells you the hight of the flooding in the different years. Last huge flooding, the biggest in Prague's history was August 14th 2002.

It looks like Prague has also a history with the Beatles, there's a John Lennon Wall, and nearby a yellow submarine restaurant.

We found a nice gift for Robin. We had lunch at the hotel, this way Noa could try her own restaurant and experience if it was good or not.

Later Rob joined us and off we went again back into town.

We booked for Saturday from 8-9pm a massage at the hotel, a combination of classic Swedish and a Thai massage.

On Saturday we had a wonderful day again. We wanted to eat early because we had to be back on time at the hotel for our massage. We found an Asian restaurant/ lounge bar, called Asian Temple. It was just brilliant!

The massage was a very special experience. We all had our own room and lady. She used the towel and pressure to relax, and she was sitting on top of me. I thought oops not sure my osteoporosis back can handle this, but I let her carry on. My favourite part was the normal Swedish part with oil and hand to skin massage. Very Zen we dove into our bed, it was so good.

The next day we went to Noa and with Noa we decided to go to Ikea to get her a Pax closet, this is easier with a car. Noa and Rob assembled it together. I left them and at 3pm I drove back to Austria. I stayed in Vienna as the next day I had my yearly checkups. They were all good! Monday evening, I was back at Robin’s, she had made a nice lasagna.

On Tuesday, I drove back to Don Papa and the closer I got to Patergassen the worse the weather got. It rained cats and dogs when I arrived back home. So depressing. Anna, David and Merle had left, Marius and Marit (friends of Hugo) were there now. I could just say hi, and bye because they were leaving, a few days earlier, this had of course all to do with the bad weather.

On Thursday January 30th it was Jack’s 30th birthday and Hugo and I decided to go out for a schnitzel and pommes at the Einkehr restaurant, to celebrate his birthday. A singer was singing Country Roads from John Denver when we came in. It always reminds me of the Oktoberfest parties! It made me smile.

Friday 31st of January Louise and Ard arrived around lunch time.

They had Luna with them, a sweet, very well behaved and trained labrador. After dinner I drove to Wiener Neustadt where I would pick up Rob from the station. We slept in Wiener Neustadt and drove to Bad Gleichenberg the next morning to see Robin and Edith and Robin's friend Wilma. It was time for wedding dress shopping. Has she said yes to the dress? No, not yet, to be continued…

She tried on many dresses, a few were really beautiful but for Robin it didn’t have a wow factor and she decided to look further.

In the evening, we were back home and Ard had cooked a wonderful dinner.

We skied every morning but on Wednesday we wanted to go to the Weissensee.

This is a lake on a high altitude where a lot of Dutch iceskate the alternative Elfstedentocht. Winters in the Netherlands are over the last 20 years too mild and a big event of 200km ice-skating on natural ice from village to village (11 villages) in Friesland is simply impossible, therefore they go to Weissensee, an hour drive from our house. It was a beautiful day, very sunny, all winter was sunny that’s why we decided to have a look at the Weissensee.

The photos will tell it all. Unfortunately there was nowhere a nice restaurant where we could have lunch….very strange. We ended up at Zum Sepp in Bad Kleinkirchheim, near Hugo’s work.

On Thursday Louise and Ard drove back home with a little stop at Fleur in Germany.

Rob and I left on Sunday, we drove to Graz Hauptbahnhof, Robin came there by train and drove back with our car, and we jumped on the train to Vienna airport.

Rob flew back to Edinburgh, and I spent one night in Zoeterwoude. Jack dropped me off at the DFDS Ferry to Newcastle. I arrived at the terminal in IJmuiden around 3pm. I walked Ayo a bit outside before I went to my hut. The beds in the hut were tiny, luckily, I’m not big, but still even for me it was very narrow. We left 25 minutes prior departure time, this doesn’t mean we will arrive earlier, he will sail slower and reduce costs this way. 7pm I went for dinner, it was okay, not spectacular, but the sea was rough, we were rolling from left to right. It was a challenge to walk.

After dinner I felt a bit sick, seasick. I went to bed, what else could I do and tried to sleep a bit. Every now and then I heard loud bangs, like the cars were rolling over from left to right and back. Long story short, I made it to the other side, Newcastle but it was not a pleasant journey. Then 30 minutes bus ride and 1,5 hours with a train to Waverly station in Edinburgh. Here I decided to walk home, this way Ayo had a good walk, he deserved it after this long journey and I had also a bit of fresh air.

Finally I was home, safe and sound after two months Austria.

The day before Geraldine and Gerrit came, Wednesday February 12th I got a call from Hugo, he calls often therefore I wasn’t worried. Unfortunately, he had no good news. He hit an iron pole with his butt when he was sledding with the children of his ski group. He was in a lot of pain. Luckily Robin was working from Don Papa, she fetched Hugo and took him to the doctor in our little village. They all have x-ray machines, the doctor told Hugo that his tailbone was broken, luckily in a good way, but the only option is taking painkillers and not to sit. He had an EU exam on Monday 17th, which was soon after the injury. He did it, but it wasn't pleasant sitting for 2 hours with no painkillers.

Robin left on Thursday 20th of February, luckily two friends of Hugo from Brussels arrived that same day in Don Papa. They knew that they had to do more chores in the house, because Hugo wasn't able to do it. Hugo decided to fly back with them from Ljubljana to Brussels.

Take off and landing were a challenge for Hugo but he brought himself home and had a week 'rest' before he will start an internship at NATO.

Geraldine and Gerrit arrived in Edinburgh Thursday morning 08:30 (13th of February).

I fetched them from the tram together with Ayo and a few days of fun could start! Thursday morning our rug would be delivered after waiting for it for two months.

Rob had a little issue with his golf trolley, he couldn’t get it folded, it was standing in our living room for weeks. Geraldine gave it a good look and she folded it in one go! Hahaha, this is so Rob. Now he knows and he’s grateful to Geraldine.

Gerrit went to bed for a little nap. A year ago, he was battling pancreas cancer and had many chemo rounds. As a side effect he needs to balance his energy. In the afternoon we went into the city center and made a nice walk around the castle, Grassmarket and Victoria Street, we found Bobby, a little statue of a dog he stayed 14 years at his owner’s grave. In the evening, we started eating a bit before Rob came home. He came back from London and was, as often delayed.

The next day we took another stroll and walked via Dean Village to Stockbridge, had a coffee and cake in a lovely pub. Afterwards we took the bus back home. When we came home, we took the car and drove to the seaside. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a good parking spot and it started to rain, so we turned around. The first round-about I needed to take, both Geraldine and Gerrit had something like "oh shoot this goes wrong!!!" Welcome to left side driving. Rob and I don’t really have a problem with it.

In the evening, we planned to have dinner at Mowgli an Indian street food restaurant at Hanover street, Geraldine heard 'Hangover' street, this is how we call it from now on. Ayo is allowed inside; therefore, we took him along. Our waitress was in love with him. On Saturday we, Rob, and I went to the golf for an hour. Gerrit and Geraldine found their way to the center of Edinburgh and looked for a few gifts for Gerrit’s mum. Before Geraldine and Gerrit flew back home we had lunch in a pub in Stockbridge.

On Sunday Rob and I played 7 holes at our golf course, it was freaking cold, but good fun. Our golf teacher in Austria already warned me, he said, “Viv, playing golf in Scotland is brutal”!

Speaking of cold: one of the fun facts we noticed since we have lived in Edinburgh is the choice of clothing of the men and women living here. They, a few of them, think it’s summer when it’s just above zero degrees. Every day I see a few people, male or female, boys or girls, in t-shirts, tank tops or shorts, we find this interesting! It feels a bit like when we lived in Helsinki/Finland, they could easily do the same.

On Monday February 17th I had an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon, dr Isaac Ahmed. Last week I had an MRI scan and next week we will discuss it over the phone. I’m already booked for my knee replacement on April 25th. Scary but necessary, and glad that I finally made this decision. Meanwhile I’m training my quadriceps and stretches my calf muscles. The physiotherapist my doctor recommended was/is located at our golf club, brilliant.

In the meantime, in Don Papa lots of people are working there on our two bathrooms. We are so excited, can’t wait to see it. This will be in April when we have a Kleinjan family weekend with Rob’s sister, her husband and our nieces and their partners. It’s gonna be full house, but we love that.

I hereby end this blog on Ayo’s 8th birthday!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it.

Stay safe everyone!

I'll end the blog with a few snowdrops and crocuses in our park.The park is blossoming and every day I make a few photos, but every day is a bit nicer than the day before.