Local Lawnmowers

Although we live in a city, it often feels more like a town - or even farmland!
Especially on a day like today when I just happened to pass a flock of sheep, right in our neighbourhood!

My husband was the first to spot them in the area while he was running errands. The flock is the local lawnmowers from a nearby town, who visits our city three times per year to maintain the overgrown public areas. A temporary fence is setup where they then freely roam around to snack on the long grass, until they are moved to the next area.

This is one of many unexpected and clever innovations which we have observed in random places over the past months. 

More to follow soon...

Bags and Flags

This past week, we had noticed several school bags and flags, some decorated with the words "geslaagd", being displayed outside the houses of our neighbourhood.

This is a Dutch tradition to indicate that children have passed their "middelbare" school exams - similar to the passing of Matric at the end of high school in South Africa.

Normally the flags would appear once the final examinations have been completed and the individual results have been announced, but this year the exams had been cancelled due to the closure of schools. 

For children of all ages, this school year must have ended on an anticlimactic note, but especially for "middelbare" school children, since the end of the year is often accompanied by school concerts, dances and school trips to other European countries. (The image of hopping across to Paris for a weekend of "pain au chocolat" with your school friends, somehow seems very far removed from the Plett Rage a.k.a. the 'Margate Matric holiday' prior to 2005.)

It is nice though, to see that throughout all the changes and disruptions of 2020, some traditions and excitement still remain.

Cherry Blossoms

It is 9 pm at night and I'm gazing out of our apartment window to the clear blue sky, dotted with light clouds. It has been another amazing spring (summers!) day. And a holiday. AND the Horeca industry (hotels, restaurants, cafés) reopened after a 3-month closure due to Covid-19. Therefore truly a magical day with people lining the parks, streets and "terrassen" to soak up the sun... albeit in small groups, keeping the "anderhalve meter" distance.

And this day will continue for at least another hour before the sun will slowly start setting.

The only downside to a day like this is convincing a toddler that it really is bedtime, when the sun is still shining with all it's might.

Due to the amazing weather over the past months, we have spent many a day cycling. We have bought another bicycle soon after the first one, when we realised that:
 1) You can cycle everywhere on dedicated cycling routes,
 2) If the routes are not dedicated, cyclists mostly have right of way, and
 3) Chances of getting a parking/driving/speeding/licensing/<add random reason here> fine is smaller.

During March and April, we encountered the most beautiful pink and white cherry blossom trees around every corner - inside the city and throughout the countryside. Whenever we went cycling during those months, I would constantly shout to my husband and toddler, who were cycling up ahead, to "look at those amazing cherry blossom trees! Look, a white one! And a pink one! There! On your left."

Toddler: Looking in the opposite direction, right on cue.
Husband: Staring straight ahead, not hearing (or pretending not to hear) my shouting.

At least I had managed to take a few pictures along the way (accompanied by moans and groans of having to stop for yet another cherry blossom tree - and this after they had missed the other twenty we passed on route!)

Netherlands: Woningsdag

Koningdag in the Netherlands is celebrated on 27 April each year, and marks the birthday of King Willem-Alexander. In 2013, the last Queens Day was celebrated, but after the abdication of Queen Beatrix, the day was changed to Kings Day. I vividly remember the last Koninginnedag seven years ago: A festive holiday with orange-cladded crowds singing and dancing in the streets, and all radio stations playing songs dedicated to the Queen.

This year, Koningsdag became Woningsdag... Roughly translated as "staying at home" day.
Therefore, every day since mid-March 2020 has technically been Woningsdag. Not only in the Netherlands, but worldwide.

For Woningsdag, the plan was for the whole country to sing the National anthem from their balconies at 10:00, followed by virtual markets (since selling second-hand items are a big part of Koningsdag), playing old Dutch games in the park (children only, since the social-distancing rules don't apply to the youth), eating orange tompouchen, a message from the King in the afternoon, and news coverage of how the aforementioned activities are being performed in each province.

Alas, our neighbourhood must not be musically inclined, because 10:00 came and went without a single sound or false note.
Right, not a very festive start to the day, but not to fear and onward to the next activity!

And then, we of course realised that we had no wifi. Therefore, no internet or tv and no chance of getting it fixed until after Woningsdag, once everyone returned to work. So we skipped 90% of the planned activities and quickly progressed to the baking (and eating) part of the day.

We made caramel brownies, because tompouche is either not a recognised dessert in our parts of the country, or it is so popular that it was sold out days before Woningsdag.

The Plan vs. Reality

We did go for a walk to enjoy the sunshine, since this Koningsdag was reported as the warmest and sunniest ever with temperatures of up to 20 °C. And I am happy to confirm that there were kids playing games in the park... like any other day. Whether the games were "old Dutch games" like they were supposed to be, I have no idea. But there was a ball and the children were Dutch, so I guess that's close enough.

If it weren't for the Dutch flags displayed in most gardens, it would have honestly felt just like any other (wonings) day since mid-March.

Woningsdag 2020 was a nice, albeit normal day in the Netherlands.
But let's hope Koningsdag and the orange festivities will return next year!

Netherlands: Mini Bieb

There is a mini library in our neighbourhood where children can borrow and share books. When I first noticed it, I was beyond excited, because:

1. The actual library in our town temporarily closed its doors, like all other institutions.
2. It could be an easy way to expand our family's Dutch.
3. It was there! And filled with books! Without being locked or chained to anything!! And day after day, the books and the box remained there, without disappearing into thin air. Amazing.

Before we started reading, the books obviously went though a hefty decontamination and sanitation process, but it was well worth the effort. Even more so, since the only exposure my toddler was getting to the local language, was via Dutch programs and movies. And the odd radio / TV background noises when my husband and I were trying to get the latest on the "mondkapje tekorten" and other related corona crises.

At first, I tried to pronounce the words from the books in the proper Dutch manner: "Ik ben ook groot" was pronounced as

".. ouk grout", but after each sentence a confused look would cross my toddler's face and he would ask: "Wat is grout? Wat is ouk?"

So I rapidly dropped (what I perceived to be) the correct Dutch pronunciation and switched to a proper Nederkaans / Afri-dutch articulation: "Ik ben" (Dutch) "ook groot" (Afrikaans), à la the Dutch variation of Eliza Doolittle.

The word "nu" (now) created confusion from the start, because it sounded exactly like "nie" in Afrikaans, which means "not".

Confused? You're not the only one.

"Ik ben nu groot" therefore sounded like "I am not big" to an Afrikaans toddler, instead of "I am NOW big".

There was therefore a definite possibility that my toddler understood whatever story plot we had read, to be the opposite of what had actually happened. A big pirate could have easily been mistaken for a pirate which was, well, not big. I therefore patiently explained that not big is "niet groot" but now big is "nu groot".

The pirate was in fact big. "Nu groot".

The frown on his brow deepened and a few perplexed seconds passed.

"Wat is nie?"

I have heard before that Dutch is a mix of German and English, and I'm starting to understand why: Words with beautiful descriptive names in Afrikaans, simply become the English version in Dutch.

Pirates, giraffes and penguins are "piraten", "giraffes" and "pinguïns" in Dutch.

Easy perhaps, except that my toddler knows these words as "seerowers", "kameelperde" and "pikkewyne".

I therefore try to, perhaps more for my own understanding, explain the Dutch words in Afrikaans by referring to the English words.

As you can now clearly comprehend, a simple sentence like "Ik ben nu een grote piraat" can take a very, very long time to explain.

But it's wonderful and fun to read in Dutch, and we're loving it.

Now that we had clarified and agreed on the book's title, we will be starting on the first sentence tomorrow.

Netherlands: Snowflakes

When we decided to break the news to our toddler that we will be moving to the Netherlands, we showed him pictures and videos of the place which will become our new home. We told him about colourful tulip fields, windmills and big rounds of yellow cheese. Rivers, canals and bicycles with baskets. The fact that his friends at playschool will no longer be able to whisper in awe that "your mom is the tallEST!" because in the Netherlands, I will just be one of the many tall moms in his class.

And somewhere in-between we might have mentioned that during very cold winters there is a small likelihood that it could possibly snow, although this year we will miss the coldest winter period and will therefore only encounter snow in a year's time, if we're lucky.

Of course, the only thing he remembered was: Netherlands = Snow!
As soon as he set foot in the country, he started asking about the snow: Where is it? When will we see it? What does it look like? Where is it!!? This, while we were still inside Schipol airport.
And as we neared the airport parking lot: Is it outside? Is is white? I can feel it is very cold here! Where is the snow!!!

He even woke up the first two mornings here, claiming that he dreamt about the snow and running to the window to see if he could catch a glimpse of anything white. Alas, at a chilly 7 degrees Celsius it was much too warm for snow in March.

But! This past weekend we encountered an exceptionally chilly day, compared to the sunny ones of the preceding weeks. The real feel temperature was -2 °C and, as we stepped outside for a walk, we came to the sudden realisation that we were the only people on the street. For a brief second we panicked, wondering if we had missed the new corona rules and were no longer allowed our daily “frisse neus”. But just then a group of toddlers skipped past us for playtime in the park and we breathed a sigh of relief at having avoided a(nother) potential fine.

As I looked at the group of children, I couldn’t decide which I found more surprising:
The fact that the social distancing rules don’t (yet) apply to children here. Or the fact the group of 4-year olds are not partaking in said social distancing, seemingly unsupervised. It seemed like they had just stumbled out of the bushes lining the park and were now running around freely. Once I get the opportunity to go out and actually meet other moms, I would love to ask them about their playtime rules. From what I have observed, it might be a short conversation.

Luckily my toddler was oblivious to my thoughts and stares that day in the park and still follow our (very long list of) rules when in public (which have become even longer due to the current virus situation).

And then it happened. It started snowing!

Ok, technically it was raining lightly and the wind kind of turned the bigger droplets into whitish icicles. But to us, being South African and having experienced 35 °C weather only weeks before, it definitely counted as snow. And so, my husband and I started cheering excitedly and pointed out the individual snow / ice flakes to our toddler. Which he of course missed completely, because frustratingly it would melt before he could see it. But that didn’t dampen our moods as we hurried home to phone the whole family back in South Africa. Because it was snowing!

As with a proper snow day, we stayed inside, watched movies, baked cookies, sent "snow" videos to our family and got all excited about the gusts of snowflakes blowing past our window. With "we" I mean my husband and I. My toddler had long since lost interest in the apparent snow which he could not see.

Here’s my best snowflake picture:

Do you see the white spec in the top right-hand corner?

No?
Neither could my toddler.

Netherlands: Cycling

"You are becoming Dutch!"
The reply of a colleague when I told him about our new means of transportation:

However, I believe you can only claim the title of being Dutch once you can balance the following on your bicycle - and do it with a smile and without breaking a sweat:

(Pictures from Stuff Dutch People Like)

We are still allowed to leave our houses in the Netherlands because "een frisse neus halen kan" (you are still allowed to get a breath of fresh air). Therefore my husband and toddler go for a cycle most weekday mornings while I work from home. They return with stories of beautiful views and interesting sightings (my husband) and tales of freezing fingers and disappearing "padkos" (my toddler). Food, which of course, we never packed in the first place out of fear of corona contamination.

Dedicated cycling routes cover the whole country and, as a bonus, the Netherlands is (mostly) flat! You therefore have numerous, safe cycling options to explore every nook and cranny of this country - and neighbouring countries too. There are so many websites where you can plan or follow a pre-planned cycling routes: Route.nl, Fietsersbond Roeteplanner, Nederland Fietsland, and Bikemap, just to name a few.

Now that the days are getting longer and sunnier (the sun is already setting noticeably later than 3 weeks ago when we arrived), and cycling routes and quaint neighbouring towns are beckoning, the following words are quite apt in light of our current quarantined state and Daylight Saving Time starting this weekend:

(This weekend the clock moves forward. I don't know exactly by how much, but I hope by two months). 

Food for thought: Either my translation skills are not adequate, or this is simply funnier in Dutch :) 

Am I starting to understand Dutch jokes?!!