Life

I haven't been very active on this blog. In fact, I haven't written any posts since August. It is not like nothing has happened since then, it is just that I am not sure it is worth writing about.

I could fill this blog with lots of photos of our cute puppy, but that would probably be quite boring. OK, just one ;-)

Life is back to 'normal' now and we have all settled in and found a routine in our daily lives. School, university and work are all going well for my men. We are very happy with the choices we made for our boys' education. Simon is getting a lot of support from the counseling department and the special needs department and the school even has a weekly "Spectrum Lunch Group" for the children that are on the Autism spectrum. Simon loves it, he really likes spending time with peers that think alike. To feel normal and not the odd one out is doing him a world of good.

It has taken me more time to settle. I love having our puppy around, she keeps me company and all the walks we take keep me fit. I still miss the expat life, but I enjoy being closer to our family.

Yesterday I went to Naarden Vesting with my parents and my sister. It is a beautiful town and we walked all around it over the fortified walls. The weather was good so it was a lovely fall day.

Our puppy: Maya

Finally! That's what our boys said yesterday when we drove home with our puppy on their laps. We had promised them we would get a dog when we would move back to NL to stay.

I found an organisation via Facebook, ALAS Rescue Team, that brings dogs to NL from shelters in Spain. Those dogs would otherwise be euthanised. If you live in NL/Belgium/Germany and are looking for a dog, please check their web site or Facebook page!

So last night we picked up our 4.5 month old puppy from Rotterdam airport and I can assure you that she is the most adorable and cute puppy you have ever seen!!! ;-)

We named her Maya.

Straight from the travel crate into our arms

Finally!

When we arrived home, she didn't want to enter the house at first, but preferred to lay under the shrubs at our front door  

Early morning walk

Tired after walking and playing



She took all her toys outside to play

How a lovely afternoon at a scout's camp ended up in 4 hours at the ER

Our good friend Benjamin is at a scout's camp in the Netherlands at the moment and today was visitors day. Since Ben in from Ireland, his parents couldn't come to visit, so we did.

It was great to see Ben again and he was proud to show us around.

We had tea and potato cakes at the County Mayo camp site before we went to the obstacle course.

This is where things went wrong

Traction to pull bones in place

Chinese finger traps

He is smiling in the last photo, thanks to the morphine, but I can tell you it was very painful to have weights pulling at his broken wrist and then 3 doctors pulling as hard as they could to reposition the bone.
I guess it is safe to say he won't be eager to get into a bouncy castle any time soon again.

The Betuwe

Yesterday I visited a friend who lives in a beautiful part of the Netherlands, called De Betuwe. The area is famous for it's fruit. We had a great time. Thank you Nicole!

Canons to defend the old city of Buren.

Storks

With my friend Nicole

Lovely Cherries

"Bee-hotel, rooms available"

Raspberries

He was running the roost

Strawberries

We are back!

Three weeks ago we arrived back in the Netherlands, my boys and I. It wasn't easy to leave India, we had a hard time saying goodbye (to be honest, I tried to avoid goodbyes as much as possible and we didn't have a huge farewell party).
So we arrived "home" and kept reminding ourselves that we are here to stay. Little did we know that a welcome committee was waiting for us in the form of a nasty virus, and a warm welcome it gave us...we all started with the sniffles and some coughs and quickly progressed to full blown colds and fever. Ruben even got upgraded to pneumonia and got really, really ill.

Three weeks and a large dose of antibiotics later we are all feeling a lot better and Adriaan has arrived home just in time for father's day.

It feels like we are only really starting now after hibernating for 3 weeks. We will make plans again and are looking forward to Adriaan's holiday (whole month of July if things go as planned).

Now I'll have to think of what to write about on this blog, somehow life here doesn't feel as much like an adventure as it does when living abroad.

Mixed feelings

Three week to go...I am still sad and happy at the same time. I have been taking photos at the summer school in the Janakiram Layout this week and these two pics sort of sum up my feelings at the moment:

Trying to see over the wall

There is so much to do to get ready for our move. I feel like this boy, trying to see over the wall to find out what is happening on the other side. Wishing I was there already. Wishing the paperwork, the sorting and the packing was done. Wishing the farewells were over and the "welcome back home" will sound.  At the same time I would love to stay a bit longer, to have more time with my friends and with 'my girls' in the slum.

In the middle of all the stress and chaos there is always faith. Faith that we made the right decision and things will work out fine. Faith that things happen for a reason.

I had just posted the link to this blog on my Facebook page, when I saw this. It sums up my feelings quite nicely:

Along the road today

I always carry my camera with me and snap quite some photos while I am driving around Bangalore (in the back seat, with my driver at the wheel, just in case you were wondering). Most of the photos I take from the car get deleted, because they didn't work out. It is not easy to take a good photo from a moving car, getting the window down in time and everything in focus. It happens many times that I see a perfect photo opportunity, when right at that moment there's a pot hole/speed bump in the road, a bus gets in the way of a good shot or something else happens to completely ruin the pretty picture I had in mind.

Today a friend and I drove through an area where they had celebrated a festival last night and the floats were still standing in the street. We go out and took some nice photos.

Decorated tractor

A huge structure completely decorated with flowers

All those little flowers were tied to small strips of wood

Remnants of the party

Colours

Another master piece

Cleaning the pots and pans at the temple 

Garlands 

Colourful roses

Scary dolls

Merry go round, not so merry