February

The beginning of this month we actually managed to sneak out for a lazy day in the sauna. The babysitter clocked in at two o'clock and we went and sweated out all our troubles, it was a real day out. We went wild and both had massages, which I still have some difficulty with (being patted all over by a guy is still weird for me) but it makes us both wonderfully relaxed. We could not get a spot in our usual sauna, so we went to one at Ridderrode, which is close by.

Next weekend it was Pharos camp again, and Daniel could join in for the first time, because he turned six this year. He had been looking forward to it for ages and had a wonderful time- not all of it with Matthijs – he found his own friends.

We also popped down to Brussels for a weekend with my mother. We missed them at Christmas because they spent the holidays in Cornwall, so this was our first visit in a while. They tend to keep the house very warm and closed up and the next Monday both Marjolein and I were sick as dogs: headaches, joint-pains and fever for two days each. We alternated crawling out of bed to look after the kids.... argggh...

That Tuesday Marjolein had an appointment to scatter he mother's ashes, so she dragged herself out of the house with a big dose of painkillers and coffee. She and her sister and step-father took the ashes down to Noordwijk and scattered them on her Mother's favourite beach. The weather was kind: it was the only dry couple of hours of all the time we were ill. On the beach they saw a huge hang-glider that Marjolein's sister decided was an angel in attendance. That, with some gulls and curious crows was a fitting audience. Naturally the can of ashes proved to be very, very tightly sealed. Marjolein's tip for scatterers: keep a screwdrive in your handbag, like she does. The ashes proved to be a very fine powder that floated off into the wind and the sea, so all three elements came into play. Marjolein enjoyed the feeling of closure but remains very pragmatic: she herself does not care what happens after she is dead. We can decide that apparently, so I shall have her stuffed in a characteristic “blogging” pose, for company in my declining years....

As the week wore on we gradually threw off the lurgi, just in time for the school disco party. The infants (Daniel and Falco) go to go in fancy-dress and Matthijs did not have to (he is too old and cool for that). For cool dudes like him the school had made it into a cool “club” party and I was placed by the front door as a “ bouncer”, sporting my largest leather jacket, permanent scowl, a huge greasepaint scar and reflecting sunglasses. The effect was completed by some ingenious parent who had made a fake “metal detector” which made a loud beep whenever you pressed a button. We had lots of fun with that, patting down innocent children and claiming that they were carrying all kinds of weaponry in their shoes or hats. Matthijs was delighted to have his dad looking tough and macho for a change.

The little ones had a fine time too and Daniel won first prize for his pirate outfit. Falco (who Marjolein had made up very beautifully as a tiger) was very disappointed until his kind older brother gave him his rosette and said that he thought that Falco looked the nicest.

The next Saturday Marjolein went out dancing ourselves at the “golden oldies” type disco at the (yes really) Haarlem railway station. We had a whale of a time, danced for about three hours solid, drank beers and finished the evening with a Shoarma, just like old times. We must do that more often, when our muscles have healed of course...

The next weekend we heard that Daniel had passed his Cito test with flying colours, after all that fuss they made....grrrr. Now we await the observation-report, which should turn up after the spring holiday break.