A Letter from Flat Stanley

Dear Molly,
I've been in Monnickendam for a month now and its about time I wrote to let you know what has been happening.
When I got here Jolanda was sick, with flu, so we stayed at home for a few days, and I made her lots of warm drinks. mostly we lay on the sofa and watched television.
When she got better she took me to see her pony, Ulo.

Ulo is very big, so I went to see Bontfire, who was a bit more my size.

Then we played on the climbing frame

and I got to slide down the slide

The best bit was when I got to go on a tractor! Being a boy, I like tractors better then horses really.

We had to do some chores around the house, so I got to help pump out the boat before it sank from all the rain. Its really nice that the boat is right in front of the house.

you can see here how the water in the boat is going down.

Jolanda does not use the boat in the winter because its too cold so I could not get out in it myself - which is a shame.
Last weekend we went to Jumping Amsterdam, which is an international horse show, and saw some of the worlds top dressage and jumping competitors. The jumps were 1.60m high!


We did get out and saw some very dutch things, like clogs, windmills and tulips (the tulips were in the shops, because its winter and the ones in the fields are still asleep.)



Jolanda had a competition one weekend so I went to see her. This photo was taken when she was getting ready to compete.


I have had a good time here in Monnickendam, but its been a month now, and I really miss England, so I'm coming home this week.

Lots of love
Flat Stanley

recycling - how hard can it get!

The Christmas decorations were packed away yesterday, and today it was time to get rid of all the junk that has accumulated over the holiday period. I loaded a box of paper into my car, and a big bag of glass bottles, as well as two sacks of plastic waste.

The paper and cardboard comes from packing from presents and household goods, but because John runs his business from home, he also generates a lot of paper and carton waste and I make regular trips to get rid of that.

The bottles usually go to the bottle bank along the street, but the snow and bad weather meant that the volume was greater than I could carry, so thats why that was going in the car.

The plastic - thats another story. At the beginning of 2010 the Netherlands invented Plastic Heroes, to encourage recycling of plastic. there were TV adverts, and leaflets from the council. I was pleased to recycle, and began to collect plastic enthusiastically. The council provided us all with special plastic sacks for the waste, and a schedule of pickups - one a month on a tuesday! We soon found that once a month was not often enough, as a household we generate at least three sacks a month. but the first month I happily put my sacks out on the appointed tuesday, along with the other householders in the street. The sacks stayed outside our houses for a very long time, being blown around by the wind and attacked by the ever present crow colony, who scavenge anything that does not move. eventually a little truck came round and picked up the bags, and we began our recycling cycle once again.

Each month was the same, householders hopefully put out their bags of plastic on the designated tuesday, and around 2 days later they are picked up. Its got to the point where, if you see a plastic sack on the street, you put yours out in the hope that something will happen, a sort of collective optimism which is always dashed. Thats why the bags were in my car today.

I drove off to the council tip, and joined the many other women doing the same thing. We were helped by the council workers who helpfully pointed out where different items had to go, (they very rarely help physically, if they do, they unerringly pick up the lightest item in the car, and leave you to struggle with the old matrass or kitchen sink that needs to be ditched)

So I trotted around, climbing the ladder to put the plastic in a huge dumpster, and hoisting the paper above my head into the crusher. The bottles I carried over to the bottle bank to find that it was full. there being no other place to dump them, I loaded them back into my car, and drove to the supermarket to use the bottle bank there. Then I drove to the council offices to pick up more bags for the plastic recycling.

Getting home, I found that John had received another delivery of computer components, and the empty box and all the packing material were neatly stacked in the corner of the living room.

tomorrow I'll tell you how I get to return all the faulty modems to the supplier after John has installed new ones! or maybe not :)

Damstede skating day

The Jaap Eden Baan is Amsterdams big outdoor skating arena, It is open all winter. Serious skaters come every day to train in the hope that they will be fit enough to take part in the "elf steden tocht" a grueling race through eleven cities in Friesland which can only be held when natural ice has formed throughout the whole of the netherlands.

Last friday the peace of their training schedule was ruined by the kids of Damstede, who arrived for their annual skating day.

Jolanda and her friend Rosa were there too!

The teachers settled down to their own form of training!

School disco

I've not had the camera with me for a few weeks, and blogging has been pushed on the back burner due to other projects I've been working on - I may blog about that later!
Just before the half term holidays, Jolanda went to the school disco.
I found the photos on the school website, and liked the progression from wall flower to party animal!

the waiting is over!

There was a still expectancy in the air over the last weeks, as the Netherlands team prepared for the world cup - the supermarkets were giving away flags with every 10 euro of shopping, and you could buy orange trumpets on every street corner.
The first match was on a monday, in the afternoon. Schools rearranged their timetables so children were out early to get home and watch; big screens were set up in offices, bars stocked up with beer, people took the day off work! Around half an hour before kick off there was a mass movement of orange clad and painted people throughout the netherlands, all homing in on TV screens.
And then the hush descended.
If you were not interested in football, you enjoyed a serene and traffic free afternoon, if you were engrossed in the match, you were treated to two goals and a display of Dutch football skills which has put them at the top of their group.
Today there is a feeling of quiet confidence, and arrangements for the next match on the 19th against Japan are in full swing. I love how the Dutch embrace this competition!

Duinrit in Egmond aam de Hoef

We decided to treat ourselves this week, inspite of the horrible weather, and booked a hack at a manege I had heard about from another mother at our manege.

This manege specialises in hacking in the Noord Hollands dune nature reserve, and is about a half hour drive away. We got there, and found a very clean, well managed, professional and welcoming manege which immediately put me at ease, as its often a problem if you have to organise two kids and yourself with tack, mounting etc.

We had loads of help - and I was even provided with a mounting block (thank god) to get onto my very large pony. Once mounted, we were sorted into order in the paddock, and a string of 13 of us went out onto the hack. We only had to cross the road, and we were immediately on a side road heading for the dune area two minutes away.

We negotiated a gate and after that it was all bridle paths, through a varied landscape of wooded areas, and open places with gorse and shrubs. The dunes are the only areas in the Netherlands which are not flat, so it was a treat to negotiate hummocks, and slopes, and not be able to see the whole area at one time, but rather have it revealed in stages, as we rounded corners, or emerged from the trees.

We got in a few good canters, and the horses were very fresh, so it had its exciting moments. I was riding behind Jolanda's friend Eva, so had a few anxious moments stopping my Dalfy from flattening her much smaller Twiggy. Jolanda was riding a horse called Ukkie (which means small in Dutch) but it did not look like a small horse to me! Here's Ukkie back in her stall!

We arrived back after two hours, and were able to get a coffee and sandwich in the really nice cantine, as well as use the spotless toilets before driving back in the rain which had held off until we dismounted!

B.T.W. the first photo is from the website of the manege, I did take one, but its out of focus, and just as I got ready to take the second, we went into a canter, and I had to switch the camera off, put it back into my pocket, and make sure my pony didn't run unto the kids in front of me!

Tweede Kerstdag

Its traditional to go out for a breath of fresh air on Boxing day, to walk off the excesses of the day before and feel as if the holiday was not totally wasted by us being totally wasted!

My family were dressed and ready to go by 1.15 p.m. - a personal record, and we set of for the coast, in full sunshine and full of hope for the easy trip ahead.

First problem: Satnav was not working, but no matter, I know the way!

Second problem: left hand indicator was not working, no matter, just a new bulb needed, as a fuse was out!

Third problem: the Alkmaar Ring....... Its beaten us more times than we care to remember, and this time was no exception. We wanted to go west, but only ring north was open - so no problem, we go round east and north and we will get to the coast in the end!

25km later and there was a glimmer of hope that we would be able to turn west - but we were much further up the coast than our original plan. No problem - we could go to Schoorl!

We joined the other hundreds of cars similarly diverted, and sat in the traffic for another 20 mins.

Tempers were beginning to fray, to say the least, as we finally made it into Schoorl Centrum, found a car park and paid the parking with John muttering we would need LPG before we tried to go back home.

We walked the 100meters into the centrum to be confronted with the main atraction - A HILL.

Only in Holland would you make a hill into an attraction - cafes clustered at the bottom of the 51meter high sand duin, their teraces were full of parents watching offspring struggle up the incline, and abandoned grandparents stood lonely at the bottom as the rest of the family streaked ahead.

We braved the slope, and it was a challenge after years on the flat, but I was not about to be outdone by buxom blonde amsterdammers in high heeled boots and leather trousers, or four year olds little girls powering up it pushing pink babyborn buggies, so, stopping frequently to admire the view, we reached the top, and had a lovely walk in the dunes and pine woods beyond.

We reached a popular outlook point and glimsed the sea in the distance, but any vague idea we had of actually reaching the beach was nonsense; A map of the area would have been essential, as well as emergency rations, and one of those tents Ray Mears seems to be able to knock up in an instant in any sort of terrain!

We felt quite proud of ourselves, as we found our way back though Schoorl and found the car. It was a relief that we found the satnav worked now, and set it to guide us to a garage selling LPG and through the maze of Alkmaar. The first objective was sucessful, but the Alkmaar ring defeated even TomTom, and we ended up in a garden centre Car Park.....