Believe

Amerigo (the horse), a Black Peter with the big book and
of course: Sinterklaas himself!

The thing to do in this period in the Netherlands is put out your shoe. Any shoe will do, as long as you put some hay or a carrot or some sugar lumps in it and you sing a song. Then you go to bed. And the next morning, Sinterklaas will have had one of his Black Peters put a little present in the shoe. Of course the hay, carrot or sugar is gone: given to Amerigo, Sinterklaas' faithful white horse.

I didn't sing on Saturday night, nor did I put my shoe out. I don't have any hay, carrots or sugar lumps in the house either. But on Sunday morning I found 4 chocolate letters in my shoes!! One of the letters was of an M, my initial and there was another one starting with a J, my last name's initial. But there were also two letters that had nothing to do with my name!

And I started thinking. Perhaps one of the Black Peters mistook my home for somebody else's! Possibly my brother's house. Because I knew for a fact that all the letters I had in my shoes were initials of my nephew and nieces! So I thought: why not take them to them! Which I did. 

Well, I was told by the girls that I shouldn't sing that night to say thank you: I might get more presents that weren't meant for me! Which was clever thinking I must say. It's just: this morning four more letters appeared! None of which fit my name!! I had better get my thinking cap on again...

Oh bother!

I am the proud owner of two alarm clocks. One on the left side of my king size bed and the other one on the right side. One is set to radio, the other one to the annoying beep beep beep. The radio helps me wake up easy and slowly. The annoying one just wakes me up. This week I sleep on the beep side. 

I set both alarms for 4am this morning and sure enough, at 4am, the radio started. And a minute later the beeping as well. I knocked the beeping and calmed down the radio (right before the 4am news) and went back to sleep. Another ten minutes would be nice and I could still make it into work easily.

I woke up at 5am! Apparently I had turned the beep alarm off and the radio doesn't really wake me up that well, especially not at 4am! Now, I needed to be on my bike at 5, so I jumped out of bed, threw on some clothes, brushed my hair, grabbed some bread rolls and made it out the door in about 8 minutes. I thought I might use the car, since that would be the quickest, until I realised I didn't have something to de-ice the windshield with, nor did I have a husband who does it for me!

Bike it was. I made it to work on time and was able to start on time as well. But it sure wasn't the best way to start the day!!

Melt down

At Pepperfly's

Pepperfly was here around 10.30am and she was willing to help me take some stuff to the second hand shop. Well, her own private second hand shop that is, since a friend of hers was involved in a church organised jumble sale! Well, giving it away to a shop that only fills its own pockets or to a church organisation that might do some good with it, I chose the latter. So, the books are all gone, the dvd's and some other stuff is gone as well, including a little cupboard (finally!). 

Then it was time to load everything up and first of course we needed to cage the two monsters, otherwise we would loose them! We caged them, and then started loading her car up. The last thing to go in were to be the cats. And I broke down and cried. Pepperfly cried along with me and we stood and hugged for a while. After I waved them off I went back in the house to get some work done. 

I went upstairs and wrote the post for yesterday, still with tears running down my cheeks. I then started one of those addictive games, but I couldn't play it. I went downstairs to find the phone and ring my parents. And I had a complete meltdown. I lost it, dropped the phone and cried like I haven't cried for years. My dad asked whether they should come over and I agreed.

A bit later as I was packing again, my phone rang: it was Pepperfly. They had enough cars, so why not have me use one for the week! They could take it over to me during the afternoon/evening and pick it up again next Saturday. Well, since my parents were coming, they could drop me off at my friends' place and then I could drive home. After having seen how the monsters were of course!!!

Mickey

Later that afternoon my parents did drop me off at Pepperfly's and I was able to see how they were doing: Linette cowering under the radiator (she did that at my place for a long time as well), Wuppie under a bed somewhere. He did come out though to see me. It will take some getting used to for them, since there is also another cat in the house: a young stud called Mickey. But no fighting yet, so that was good.

Coming home last night was awful though: the house was empty. No Linette sleeping on my shoulder, no Wuppie complaining about not being allowed to go outside. But I know where they are and have a key and a car to go visit them again sometime this week.

Leaving part 2

I always knew there was a chance I wouldn't be able to take my cats with me to Norway. If one of them had failed the rabies test for example. My friend Pepperfly then said that I needn't worry: there would always be a home for them at her place. Fortunately I found out that there was no need for a rabies test anymore and both of them could come. 

Fast forward a few months and I had a job offer. Starting on December 3rd, moving a week before that. So, I phoned to ask about the procedure and was told that 'unfortunately no animals are allowed to fly to that destination from November until March'. The reason is the small plane and the non-heated hold which might result in the freezing of two loved cats! So, Pepperfly it was!

Today she came to get them. We both cried (I still am) and now they are on their way to their new (hopefully temporary) home. I know they will have the best home they could possibly get apart from my own, but still! 

I miss them!

Leaving part 1

Since I am moving to Norway I had thought to give a small leaving party for my colleagues. Normally I would have organised the drinks and the food myself, but this time I thought I would ask a colleague who has some experience in catering. That way I didn't have to worry about how much food or how much drink, I could just let go and enjoy myself. 

And I did! There were colleagues I have worked with for years, former colleagues, new colleagues and the partners of my closest colleagues. We had a few drinks (there were designated drivers), we had some food, we had laughs and I stood and chatted with everyone I think. Everybody wished me luck and asked me about the wheres, whats and hows. We reminisced about the good old days, drank a few more drinks (only cyclists left by then) and finished close to midnight.

I will miss my colleagues for their friendship and their support. 

School

Me, aged 13/14

I still remember the very first school run I did over 13 years ago. The children were horrified I wore trousers instead of a skirt. They even said it was 'ungodly'! They knew what my name meant (Bitter(ness)), but couldn't name the two bible books it came from (Exodus and the Book of Ruth). They were generally awful. 

The first two seasons I had a set group. I knew who was to be on board and who wasn't. I knew where they sat on the bus. I knew who left the dirty hankies at the side of the seat (I gave him a talking to I can tell you!). They were a great bunch of children. That was only in the mornings though. In the afternoon it was a free for all and I had some severe troubles then. I once even phoned the police, who then told me I needed to be doubly strict to get even half the result my male colleagues got! Great...

Over the years there have been ups and downs. A lovely chat with a boy who happened to catch me as I was leaving the school grounds. A girl who told me she loved being on my bus because 'it was so calm'. Returning to school within 2 minutes because they were doing I don't even recall what. The unending mess and occasional vandalism.

The last few years have been okay. The coaches are a thing of the past and we now use cattle trucks old articulated buses. I have aged a bit and as a result they seem to respect me a bit more, even if I am very strict. This morning a boy even came up to me and wished me 'good luck in Norway'. I don't know who he was, I don't know where he learned I was moving to Norway, I don't even know whether he was sincere, but it was nice nonetheless. He was also the only one, because the relationship I have with those children is not such that we would exchange things like that. 

It was my last school run today. 

R is for...

Le Relais de la Fôret, Normandie, France (March)

Room

Bickley Manor, London, England

When I first started this job as an international busdriver, a friend of mine told me it was 'nice to stay in a hotel'. 

Ferry Newcastle-IJmuiden (Amsterdam)

Well, okay, if it's not usual, I guess it probably is. 

Best Western Bondeheimen, Oslo, Norway

But for me, it's pretty usual and in the end all the rooms start to look alike. 

Lifjell hytte, Lifjell, Norway

And in order to show you how alike, I have taken photos of every single hotel room I stayed in this year! 

Van der Valk, Eindhoven, Netherlands

Most specifically of the beds. 

Der Wilder Mann, Aschaffenburg, Germany

So you can see how not special it is to stay in yet another hotel!

PC Goussainville, near Paris, France

The rooms start to merge into one.

Étap Chevilly Larue, Paris, France

Bedcovering for one (Norway, Germany) or two (France, UK)

Hotel Seeblick, Klietz, Germany

Out in the country or in the middle of the city.

Quellenhof, Bad Helmstedt, Germany

Cheap or expensive.

Best Western Hordaheimen, Bergen, Norway

Small rooms or big rooms.

Gersfelder Hof, Gersfeld, Germany

This is the letter R for ABC Wednesday. 

Hotel Kaiser, Hammelburg, Germany

Why not join?

I remember

I was a bit older than this though!

It's strange how a memory from someone who lives on the other side of the pond brings back memories to me, but that is what happened this morning as I read Ginny Marie's blog. It wasn't as if her memories mirrored mine a great deal. As a matter of fact, there is not much similarity between them. 

When I was young and we were visiting my maternal grandparents, my brother and I would on occasion take a tour of the nearby town. My grandparents lived near the river Lek and adjacent to the village in which they lived was a small town called Nieuwpoort (not to be confused with the 'Battle of Nieuwpoort' of 1600, that one was in what is now Belgium). Nieuwpoort was and still is a small fortress town with bastions in a sort of star shape around the center of the town.

The tour we would take would lead us all around, since we would follow the fortifications and bastions all around. You could walk on top of them and then had a nice view over the town and its surroundings. After a few hours we would make our way back to my grandparents' house. 

It's not a big memory, it's not something that really stands out as very important, but it was of a time when I was young and me and my brother would do more together.

The big wait

The sliding doors through which the passengers would come out

I was due to meet my Canadian friend Kay and her husband Dick today again, since they were going to take another river cruise starting from the Netherlands. I asked for time off, which I got; I wanted to loan my dad's car, which I got; and I made my way to Amsterdam.

I was at the airport bright and early. In fact so early their plane hadn't even left London yet (not helped by the fact it was delayed because of fog in Paris). Not only was I going to meet them, a fellow Dutch blogger would be there as well. And Kay had kindly shown photos of the both of us on her blog. Of course neither of us had bothered actually contacting each other and then making arrangements about meeting, so even though we were both early, we didn't see each other until we were both at the gate. And then we didn't even recognize each other!!

Anyway, as I mentioned the plane had left London late and therefore arrived in Amsterdam late. And then it took ages for the people to leave the plane, the luggage to leave the plane and the people to be reunited with their luggage. In the mean time Will and I waited and waited. We could see them both, even waved at them, but to no avail: they didn't see us! And we waited and waited. Turned out: their luggage was still in London! So, it took a bit longer before they finally came through the kissing doors (see photo) and we were able to greet them.

After that we escorted them to the train and from there to Central Amsterdam where their cruise ship was. We were allowed on board as well, but unfortunately all the delays had robbed us somewhat of time to spend together. Will had a bucket load of trains planes and automobiles and buses to catch and I had to make sure I got back before the last bus left for home, so we both left early. It was a shame, but we had a nice time anyway.

Beep beep

As I was sitting behind my computer and playing a game, all of sudden I heard 'beep beep'. A strange beep beep at that, since my computer doesn't make those kind of beep beep noises. It has lots of other beep beep noises, but not the one I heard. And then about 5 minutes later I heard it again: 'beep beep'. As I was still playing that game, I thought it was perhaps a new sound of that game.

Well, I finished the game and again I heard 'beep beep'. And it didn't really come from the computer either. It came from beneath all my papers still waiting to be filed/thrown out. But papers don't beep beep. At least, not as far as I am aware of! Again I heard the 'beep beep' and this time I dug around a bit better.

It was my cell phone. The battery is nearly empty. 'Beep beep'!