Starting to say goodbye

Yesterday we went to visit Mini Europe in Brussels, a park with about 90 maquettes of famous buildings in the European Union. The London Houses of Parliament with Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower of Paris, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Acropolis of Athens, but also lesser known buildings - you can all see them there in a scale of 1:25. Very instructive and entertaining.

The Eiffel Tower amidst other monuments

El Escorial, near Madrid, Spain, a convent residence built by Philip II as a remembrance of his victory over French troops in 1577

The Grote Markt (Grand Place) in Brussels

It also felt as if we were starting to say goodbye. It ocurred to me that as a result of its long and eventful history, Europe is blessed with an incredible amount of invaluable treasures. I was a little saddened by the idea that in New Zealand we won't have the opportunity to visit places with such historic dimensions. On the other hand, what good does it do when we rarely visit them and spend our time stressing ourselves in unhealthy office buildings where the deadlines are mostly set on "yesterday"?

New Zealand is blessed with its magnificent nature, something that I can also deeply appreciate. Hopefully we will make time to savour it.

Hoe schoon de zomer hier kan zijn

How beautiful the Summer can be here, or so the song (Hoe schoon de zomer hier kan zijn) goes. Summer can indeed be pleasant here: skies can be bright blue and cloudless, a gentle and fresh breeze can blow and the sun can wrap us in an warm embrace.

Summer holidays are over for us. We have spent two weeks busy at home sorting old and small kid's clothes, old papers, cleaning rusty gardening tools, pickling, waxing, painting wood furniture, covering chairs with new fabric, repainting an old rusty drier – some elbow grease used ;-) but rather a bit of work than contributing to dirty up the environment. Sorting old papers was sometimes almost like a revelation, opening a magic box and recollecting past remembrances of your life in front of you. Curious how past life can sometimes look like another completely different life. We must be getting old...

Meanwhile, Oma (Grandma) stayed with us for a few days and we took the opportunity to visit a house where she lived with her family when she was young during World War II. She was happy to see that house again. Guy took a photo of the house and it is published below.


We have received an offer from two movers. We know we will need a 40ft container to take all our possessions down under. For the rest, we are both not sleeping well: it must certainly be some sort of anticipation and anxiety at what is about to come or our future Down Under.

Faster, Higher, Stronger

Did you see the Olympic Opening Ceremony in Beijing? We're having our holidays right now, and amidst all the preparation for our move I took some time out and saw it completely.

While being very impressive and grandiose, I was probably not the only one wondering if these ceremonies are moving in the right direction. The Olympic motto of Citius, Altius, Fortius (Faster, Higher, Stronger) should be reserved for the athletes and the sports they perform, not for extravagant ceremonies.

The part I liked the best is the entry of the athletes. Many people find this the most boring part - not I. I really like to see all those men and women in various outfits walking round the stadium. They have come from the four corners of the world to represent their countries in the greatest sporting event on earth. An idealistic idea, but one that survived for over one hundred years.

Now what has all this to do with New Zealand, you might ask. May I ask for just a little more patience?

Apparently Mandarin does not know an alphabetical ordering of words. That is why the delegations entered the stadium in a seemingly random way (which isn't true: a country's place was determined by the complexity of the first characters of its name). If you don't know Mandarin - I don't either - you had no clue when a particular country would enter the stage.

It was a bit strange to see my compatriots walking in behind Jamaica and before Vanuatu. But when I spotted our flag, I thought: "there they are!" My feelings toward my country in day-to-day life cannot be called patriotic, but seeing this kind of events do heighten them a little.

It was a long wait to see New Zealand entering - they were 189th on a total of 205 countries. But when they did enter I had the same feeling - and I suspect it may even have been a little stronger! Especially when the commentator said that New Zealand had grabbed the gold away from us a few times in the past. He mentioned Ivo Van Damme finishing second after John Walker in the 1500 m in Montreal (1976) and Roger Moens who was beaten by Peter Snell in the 800 m in Rome (1960). The tone of his comments was rather negative towards the New Zealanders, instead of praising them for their victories. Believe it or not, I was somewhat offended and thought "New Zealand has every right to be there too!"

During the current Games we will meet New Zealand again. In the football tournament we play in the same group. I wonder how I will feel about the result of that match... I do hope it won't be a draw.