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Juliana is in year 5 at Manly Village Public School. We have always liked the school and dread the moment our last child will leave it, when we will have been connected to the school for 13 years. For one of them, all three kids went together (primary school in NSW starts with a Kinder year, equivalent to groep 2 in the Netherlands). Jan especially likes helping out for the mothers day breakfast. But being served for fathers day comes close. We rocked up at half eight, when a queue had formed outside the school gate. Jan met various scouts and cubs and their parents in the queue. Sadly, Juliana is not an outdoor person and has never joined cubs. Emma did cubs only, while Piet did cubs, scouts and now venturers.
Fortunately, Juliana was active this winter, playing football with her team. The season ends in September, when the playing fields are vacated for summer sports, like cricket and baseball. To mark the season's end, all players received a medal
Family pictures
As Emma had a school trip planned to Rome and Germany (for ancient and modern history) and travelling with the family is complicated with Piet in year 11 being very close to this exams (schoolonderzoeken) and also very costly, we decided in the end that Jan would travel to Europe by himself, to visit his mum, pick up Emma in Muenich and spend a short week with her in Barcelona. Before leaving, we took a
family picture to print and frame for oma (prints were a bit dark, so we made another picture
on North head on 27th October; it is only a better picture in some aspects, as only Juliana has visible eyes).
To Eindhoven
On the last Wednesday in September, Jan took his luggage on the
bus to work. Normally he cycles 10 minutes to the ferry to get a tiny bit of exercise and walks on the other end, only taking the bus on days it rains in the morning. He normally heads off just after seven, when queues tend to be shorter. On Wednesday evening, Jan went straight to the airport and flew out on Emirates, which allowed him to share the same flight back from Barcelona with Emma. Jan landed on Thursday afternoon with delay, but managed to see his
cousin Jan Anne, who was travelling himself shortly afterwards, and his aunt Aleid and uncle Volkert at Utrecht Central Station before continuing his train journey to Eindhoven.
Annigje's birthday
Seeing his mum again
after 21 months was wonderful. Bep had ordered micro-wave meals (through Uitgekookt) so did not need to worry about cooking. Jan would work remotely half days for most days and covered the remainder with holiday and carers leave. On the Monday, Annigje celebrated her 50th birthday with
creative skits in family tradition organized by uncle Gerson. The Sydney home front also made a
wonderful submission. In accordance with Dutch tradition for 5o
Walks
Bep used to do short walks near Eindhoven from the time she restarted working as a teacher. Jan loved to join her when on leave. It is of course much harder now with a wheely walker, but we still managed one loop walk, as Jan could carry the wheely walker and Bep managed to navigate the mud (just). However, for our other walks,we would
head off together, then after a short stretch Bep would rest for a while on her wheely walker, while Jan would be sent to continue the walk for a bit and make a picture to show
the views he had enjoyed to Bep. We went to the
watermill in Hooijdonk, which has been painted by Van Gogh, who lived nearby in Nuenen, and had
great weather on some days.
Amersfoort
Oma grew up in Amersfoort, where her parents lived all their life. It is now too much of a hassle by train and also hard for her daughters by car, as they live nearly 2 hours away. But as Jan had his rental car in Eindhoven, it was very do-able hour by car for him on a Sunday (traffic jams make it unpredictable during the week). We started with a visit to her
parents grave, where her sister is buried as well. We stopped at Hogeweg 88, where she used to live and Jan remembers visiting his grandmother, and at the Schuilenburg, where his grandmother lived after downsizing. But oma Bep also took Jan to the butcher shop on De Lange straat, which is now in the middle of the central shopping district and occupied by a clothing shop as no butcher would be able to afford the rent. However, their neighbour's shop run by mevrouw Mur, who sells
knitting wares is still there. My mum recently popped in when it was open (only a few days per week) and was pleased that mrs Mur remembered her family. Her dad grew up here, sleeping above the butcher shop. We had lunch and concluded with a visit to
Soesterweg 141, where her maternal grandparents ran (literally) a cornershop. My mum always tells the story how relieved her grandparents were when 6pm was prescribed as a closing time for shops countrywide during the war, as this meant they could enjoy their evenings more.
Pictures
The rest of the time, we looked at
loose photos, photo books and old versions of this website (which Jan has on a memory stick). One night, cousin Bento came over for dinner. As the dinner supplier has no vegan offering, oma cooked him a
sweet potato in peanut tomato sauce dish. It was lovely. Jan later tried cooking it at home in Sydney (also to get his kids acquainted with the concept of vegetarian food foreign to Australian culture), but needs a bit more practice until he can match his mum's quality.
Updated 4th January 2025
