Thieves!!

Last week I went to clean the boat before we would sail during the wekend and discovered that thieves had stolen our brand new furling genoa... (that is the sail up front)

Luckily we have insurance for that but nevertheless I hate it when someone has been on your property... Even more that it was probably someone who could afford to buy a sail but stole it anyway. (If you can own a boat than you can afford a sail too)

We did not let this get in the way of having a geat weekend with the kids starting friday night when we arrived at the marina. That evening it started to rain and I had to get out and get clothes and stuff. Later it started to thunder and lighting and twice the lighting and thunder was so near we thought we were hit! That morning we heared two people complaing about radio's and electrical wiring being destroyed.. Luckily we don't have all that (apart from the wiring for the lighting ofcourse) so we were not interesting enough for Thor.?

Saturday morning we set sail and went through the volkerak locks. We then sailed around the "Hollands diep", put out the anchor to go for swim. Nils went for a swim in his life jacket and although it was a little scary, we managed to go for a swim around the boat.

Later in the afternoon we arrived in Willemstad where we were given a birth very near the old city centre.

There we did some shopping and ate a simple but excllent meal onboard.

The kids had a little trouble getting to sleep because it was all so exciting!!!

Sunday morning we decided that we were going back because the weather was going to be worse and this morning there was not wind at all.

So we motored back through the locks, layed up the baot and went home. At home we had lunch and after that went for a swim in the "afgedamde maas".

As a treat we had a small BBQ which Lisette won with a guess the brake distance at a company day out. Made in America so it worked as we expected!

After dinner, the kids had a bath and went to sleep.

We carried on cleaning and putting back all the toys and clothes that were laying around...

And now we are finally free..

No to road renewal!!

The council s planning to renew the road in front of our house. To do that they need a chunk of what we thought was our land.

Together with our neighbours we measured the length of our property and compared it with the measurements the council had done earlier. Without notice, the council sent men to determine the exact border of which the council claims is theirs.

Our other neighbour who lived here all his life never heared that a big chunk of our land actually belongs to the council... as they claim.

See the pictures to see the difference between what the council claims (neighbour Cor) and what we measured quite accurately. (where Lisette is standing)

We even did not get a letter or something that "Kadaster" people would be coming in our garden to plant a wooden stick and a metal pin of 50 cm long. Therefor we removed the parts that were left in our garden.

To be continued but not on this blog, I think I will put up a website for the residents in our street to fight against these unwanted and unsollicited actions from our council.

Something like http://www.aelinactie.nl/??

Sunday Let's go see the Struyk's day

Today we went to see Lisette's parents because it was already 2 months or so since we've last seen them.

Luckily Lisette's brother also came over with his wife and children. Thijmen, son of Lisette's brother hashad his birthday while we were on holiday in France and we still had to give him his birthday present.

The weather was nice at times and we all enjoyed the few rays of sunshine in the garden.

Saturday 19th july rainand rail day

Saturday was a rainy day and so we took the old train set which dad played with when he was young, and set it up on the dinner table.

Wende was very surprised when the train suddenly started moving in front of her and stayed staring at it for at least 20 minutes.

We also found some steam engine sounds on the internet and played them while our train made it's laps.

Nils's first day at school

Today Nils went to school for the very first time. It was not a regular school day but a morning as an introduction.

There were lotst of activities due to the ending of the school year;

Group 8 gave treats to the children and Nils returned home with a bag full of candy.

He even reserved a nice piece of candy for daddy.

The local gym club also gave a presentation in the playground and Nils participated in a dance.

More pictures of our holiday

We also wen to see my old friend Arthur and his wife and kids.

It was almost a year ago since we've been there and this time they were there for good.

We had a great time although the weather was not what we hoped for. It was great seeing them again and we hope to see them again at the end of the summer. At least they are not 1000's of km's away anymore..

We pitched our tent and had a great dinner with chicken and chips and rice. The next day it rained and we stayed indoors and passed time with filling each other in on what happened the previous year.

In the afternoon the rain stopped and we spent time outside in the marvelous garden.

In the afternoon we went to see a couple of great Ducati's. A family member of Arthur had at least 5 or 6 Ducati's in his garage, 4 of them for sale!!!

Unfortunately I was out of space in our garage otherwise......

After that we went to see a small but very nice place called Langesse.

Arthur was looking for a new (second hand car) in style with the country he now lives in:

Holiday 2008 Part 2

Our next camp site was a bit north of Montpellier in the mountains of France.

The camp site "mas de la cam" was near St. Jean du Gard a little town near Anduze.

We arrived during lunch and it was blistering hot! We picked ourselves a nice spot (#23) and we went for a swim before we put up the tent.

By shear coincidense we were opposite of a family of which the father cooked and next to them there was another father cooking the dinners!!

A bit further on there was a typical dutch old style family where the father slumbered in his chair when the wife was cooking and cleaning..

Nils quickly made some friends but Liselotte was the first thing he looked for in the morning and played with her the whole day.

Fun in the playground of the camp site

Serignan Plage

We visited Bezier were Nils took a ride in the Carousell.

Holiday 2008 part 1

The first part of our holiday was spent in Serignan plage in the south of France,

After a two day drive we arrived at the camp site some 400 meters from the beach.

It was warm so we went to the beach in the morning, stayed in the shade during lunch and went to the swimming pool in the afternoon.

Nils and Wende enjoyed themselves in the water and especially the waves in the sea.

We also went to see the locks at Bezier where you have to go through 9 locks after eachother

Holiday 2008

We've been to France again this year and had a great 3 weeks with the kids and went to the south of France.
We even visited my old friend Arthur again near Paris, Here's an example video of Wende singing with us slaap kindje slaap a "go to sleep" song in dutch, more will follow soon (I need to sort 2,5 GB of photo's and short movies).