Snow!

I admit, it's not much, but it's snow. We woke up this morning, to see a (very) thin layer of white on the grass, rooftops, cars and playground. We quickly got dressed and raced outside, before the snow would disappear. We threw (a few) snowballs and even made a (very little) snowman!
Our first month back and we've seen snow, how's that? Actually, according to the newspapers, this is the coldest Easter in 40 years. And that's the month we had to choose to return to the Netherlands ...

Easter again

So far, no snow, so no white Easter. We still have Easter Monday, so you never know. This morning, Emma and Janne went Easter egg hunting in our tiny backyard. The chocolate eggs were easily found, but with great fun :-) In the pic above, also note the poor tulips, which are trying to remember better and warmer days. They might still make it, if it doesn't freeze again. Later today, Emma and Janne also found some chocolate (Easter Bunnies) at grandma's house. Lots of unhealthy snacks where eaten today, as you may understand.

At grandma's we also found something else; an old picture of me, at the age of 6. Trying to think the chocolate away, what do you think, does Emma or Janne look more like me?

White Easter

I'm dreaming of a white ... Easter. Temperatures went as low as -4 degrees C last night and snow is predicted for today or the tonight! I remember seeing snow in Holland in April once, but I didn't expect this would be another year like that :-) On the other hand, wouldn't it be great for Emma and Janne, to see snow during their first month in the Netherlands? At the moment (8 am), there is not a cloud in the sky and it looks like a wonderful (winter) day.

Emma, Janne and me all have a cold, only Pieter has a escaped until now. Not for long probably, with the three of us wheezing and sneezing around him. I went to the doctor with Janne earlier this week, because she has a little eye infection. When I called the doctor, the first reaction was that I should wash her eyes and if it was still not ok the next day, I could call again to make an appointment. Difference #1 with Taiwan. I asked the docter if there is anything I can give Janne for her cold. 'No, there isn't anything for a cold, it's best if she gets over it by herself'. Difference #2. If one of them had a cold in Hsinchu, the doctor imediately prescribed a nice mix of medication; one for cough, one for sore throat and one for runny nose. And if the runny nose turned yellow or green, antibiotics where definitely required. Medical care in Taiwan was fast, efficient, cheap and extremely service oriented. They were also very easy with medication, which is not always necessary.

Yesterday, we did our first weekly grocery shopping. It wasn't too bad. Cost of a cartload of items was about the same as in Hsinchu, which is what we expected. We were pre-warned, that it would not be cheaper and might even be more expensive here. First experience is that is seems to be about the same. I wonder if this means that the COLA (cost of living adjustment) index will go down even more for ex-pats in Taiwan?

Congratulations to Ma Ying-Jou (my Sun Moon Lake swim-buddy) and the KMT. They won the presidential elections in Taiwan yesterday. After 8 years of democratic party rule, the country is back in the hands of the nationalist party. Eveybody is interested to see if/how this will change the Cross Strait Relations (with China).
I added a picture of our temporary house in Veldhoven this time,because it is such a very typical Dutch house. The one us Lowlanders apparantly are famous for; the so called 'doorzon-woning'. These houses have a living room that runs from the front straight to the back of the house, so the sun can shine through the house. This means that anyone walking by, can look through the house as well ...

The wonderful sunny, albeit very cold, morning means that Emma and Janne are going to look for easter eggs in an hour or so. Maybe we can even go for an Easter walk.

Happy Easter!

Yaya mama

It's freezing. Literally! It's not just a little bit colder than in Taiwan, but they're actually predicting 1 degree C temperatures at night! The good thing is that it is very warm and cozy inside, also at school. This means you only need the really warm stuff for outside. Downside is that that's exactly what the kids don't have. Back to the shops then, to try to find some cardigans, sweaters or such for them to wear under their windbreakers. We're thinking back to the warm evenings at Starbucks and we're wondering why we wanted to go back to Holland ...

Fortunately, it's not really all that bad :-) The family survived the first week of yaya mama. No cooking incidents yet, laundry gets done and this morning I even did the ultimate Dutch thing; I brought Emma and Janne to school by bicycle! We borrowed the bicycle cart from Michiel and with the girls behind the bike, I pedalled them to kindergarten and playschool. It's a 15 minute ride to Emma's school, then another 5 to Janne's. Then back home, making it a 30 minute outdoor exercise. And this four times per day. Who needs a gym?

When we live in our own house, we'll be much closer to the school, but for now, the 'commuting' between the school and the house takes a lot of time. Which doesn't leave me very much time to do other things. Yesterday, we managed to go to the week market, which I really enjoyed. All the fresh produce, at very good prices! Today, Pieter took the car to Rotterdam, with my wallet in it. I'll have to go borrow money from some friendly neighbour :-) Most likely this will be a Aylene, a friend who also lived in Taiwan for several years and now lives in Veldhoven.

I'm far from being organized, but at least we got the girls started on their routine, we have food on the table and (not enough) clean clothes to wear. Not bad for a new stay-at-home-mom, eh?

Family visits

The first family visits are behind us. It is really great fun to be able to get into the car and simply drive to Arnhem or Hoogerheide to visit family. We already visited my mom in Hoogerheide twice. We had to pick up our 11 boxes of clothes, toys and other items, so we had a good reason to go there. Her little senior-citizen-house is not really big enough for two over-active little girls, but we all enjoyed the visits. Emma and Janne got to play with some of my old toys, which my mom kept all these years!
We also went to see Pieter's son Michiel, his wife Marielle and their three children in Arnhem. Charlotte, Pieter oldest daughter, surprised us by comming all the way from Alblasserdam with her two boys as well. We took a short walk, to a nearby field with horses. Emma and Janne rode bicycle with their nephews and niece (!). It was a fun, noisy, wild afternoon, with six kids aged three to eight and one baby. Dutch kids are definitely more vocal than Taiwanese. Our own 'Taiwanese' girls adapted quite quickly :-) And for dinner, we ordered Chinese ...

Still in Veldhoven :-)

Today was a day, as it should have been when we arrived. In the afternoon, the sun came out and we had a nice walk to the shopping center to buy (yet) a few more items. This is one of the (few) things I missed when we lived in Taiwan; just going out the front door to walk to the shops, on a nice, even, scooter-free sidewalk. We also thoroughly enjoyed our first grocery shopping. All the delicious bread, sandwich meats, sandwich spreads, cheeses, desserts, made us feel like we were in Wonderland :-)

I feel kind of silly on the clothes front. Of course I knew that it would still be cold in NL in March. I really didn't realize that it would be vertually impossible to buy any warm clothes anymore in March though. Funny thing is that when we left Taiwan, you could still buy plenty warm clothes there. Now that all the boxes, which we sent ahead by mail, are unpacked, it looks like the girls will have something to wear to school next week after all. I even managed to find some fleece-lined windbreakers for Emma and Janne to wear as jackets.

We have two more days of relative quiet to go, before the 'normal' routine kicks in. Monday, Emma will start school and Tuesday, Pieter will have his first business meeting. That same day, Janne will go to playgroup for the first time. Yaya mama will get her first taste of being a mom in the Netherlands, including bringing kids to school and picking them up, cooking dinner, cleaning the house etc. On the cooking front, I can proudly let you know that I already cooked dinner twice and without major accidents.

In Veldhoven

We arrived. In Veldhoven, the Netherlands. At the airport, my mom and sister were welcoming us with flowers, balloons and even a banner! We actually felt as if we returned home after a long time. That only lasted for about half a day, because by then we were all chilled to the bone. At the moment, it's only 5 degrees C in Holland and for us, that is VERY COLD! We had to go buy winter jackets for Emma and Janne right away, but of course, in March, you cannot buy winter clothes in Holland anymore. At least, not in Veldhoven. All the shops at the City Center shopping mall already had their new summer collection out ... Five degrees outside, and they are selling summer clothes! Okay, culture shock number 1. So, we ended up buying two cardigans. Very cute ones, I must admit, but still, only cardigans.

I realized today, that Emma and Janne probably don't even have proper (and warm) clothes to go to school next week. What's good enough for Hsinchu, is not necessarily good enough for Holland ... I've got a lot of shopping to do this weekend!
This will be a kitchen someday

After the first emergency shopping, we went to see how the construction on the new house was going. Shock number 2; it was a mess! Mainly because all the demolition work has been done, but not much of the construction work. We are still in good hopes that all will turn out okay by end of May, but now it's not much of a home :-)
Our living room to be
Emma showing off her room

Last day in Taiwan ...

After counting down to our temporary departure from Taiwan, now it's time for the real thing. Tonight, at 11 pm, our EVA flight will leave from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. Tomorrow at 9.40 am we will be in Amsterdam.

We spent our last two days in Taiwan saying goodbye to quite a few people (and places). Breakfast Monday was at Brunch Bagels with Susan and Sarah (and Niamh and Philip), lunch at Starbucks, dinner in ZhongHe, with TPV.
Breakfast Tuesday was in Chungli, with Pieter's former Philips group. This was an especially heartwarming goodbye, with lots of thank-you's, gifts, speeches, pictures and cake.
Lunch today we had at Pieter's favorite Italian restaurant, Turin Ristorante, also in Chungli. Tyron, the owner, made us a delicious calzone, just to make sure Pieter would really miss his great pizza's :-) Finally, this afternoon, I picked up the last skirt YuJu has been making for me (I almost forgot). And the very last thing we'll do here is go to a playground one last time and then have dinner at the hotel. The car has been picked up already and the taxi will be here at 8 pm.

Next post will be from the Netherlands.

Chips on a stick

Last night, we had our last dinner at Outback Steakhouse (snif, snif), with Sarah and Oliver. We had a great time and it was way past Emma and Janne's bedtime when we got back to the hotel. This morning, we had to wake Janne up at 9.15 am, so as not to miss breakfast.
We made it just in time and right after that left for Taipei. We spent a very nice afternoon in Danshui with the Els, John and their three children. Danshui on a Sunday is always a very Taiwanese experience, with lots of food, lots of people and lots of noice. We had lunch at Fort Antonio and icecream for desert at BigTom. And, we had chips-on-a-stick; very nice! All in all, a fitting way to say goodbye to Taipei.

Back in Hsinchu

Well, we're back. In Hsinchu, Taiwan, that is. Even though we are in a hotel, it does feel like being back. It does also feel a bit strange, to live in a hotel in your own town.

We're quite lucky, as the weather is very nice. During the day, it's over 20 degrees C, in the morning and evening a bit cooler. Nice transition towards the still wintery weather in Holland.

Today, we spent almost all day getting all docs and and info together to file our 2007 taxes. Monday, we'll file our 2008 taxes and then we are good to go. Pieter went to the foreign police, to get some kind of statement/evidence of us living in Taiwan for the past 7 years. What he ended up getting is a LONG list of entries and exits in and out of Taiwan. Dating all the way back to 1987, when he first visited Taiwan, and including our most recent entry, yesterday.

Tomorrow, we'll do some vacation laundry and send the last 2 or 3 boxes to Holland. This time, we'll send them to our own (temporary) house in Veldhoven, instead of to oma Rommers in Hoogerheide. We already sent 10 boxes to her house, so her spare bedroom now probably looks like a storage facility.

A little something about sending these boxes to Holland here. The boxes we use are regular moving boxes (medium size) and they weigh about 10 kg each. For the amount of about 35 EUR, they are shipped to the Netherlands in only 7 days! This amazes us so much, because packages from Holland usually take 2 weeks or more to get to Taiwan and it's much more expensive. But, we're not complaining. So far, all our boxes arrived safely in Hoogerheide, so we'll have our winter clothes and toys when we get there.

The next few days, we plan to eat at as many as possible of our favorite restaurants one last time. Tomorrow, we go to Squares for lunch and to Outback Stakehouse for dinner, with Sarah and Oliver. Sunday, we go to Taipei one last time, to Danshui, with ASML colleague John and his family. Monday, we'll have lunch at Brunch Bagels and dinner in ZhongHe, with Pieter's boss. Tuesday, we'll have a goodbye breakfast in Chungli, with some TPV people there (Pieter's old Philips group) and maybe we can squeeze in a dinner at Friendy's Pizza. Or even better, at the Shrimp House ...

Singapore (2)

Despite the cloudy/rainy weather, we are thouroughly enjoying our time in Singapore. Especially since this is our last visit for a loooong time. We've always liked going to Singapore, from Taiwan, because it's like going to Europe without having to fly 12 hours or more :-)


Yesterday, we went to the Jurong Bird Park, which we've never visited before. The park houses an amazing collection of birds and it is very well laid out. There are several opportunities to interact with the birds, which we could all enjoy, because it was a week day and there were not many people in the park.
Today, we went to the West Coast Park, because we had heard that there was a very nice playground. And a very nice playground it was. Or actually, a series of playgrounds, for all ages. Even Karin and Pieter had a go on the climbing equipment!
Finally, no visit to Singapore would not be complete without going to Borders, Karin's favorite bookstore. It looks like Emma and Janne like it as well.

This is the last day of our vacation; tomorrow, we're off to Taiwan for a couple of days. Pieter has already been preparing a lot of things during our days in Singapore. He has been e-mailing every day, to TPV, to Crown (the movers), even to the Dutch Customs. It's quite different to return to Holland as an employee of a Dutch company, as compared to doing the same thing working for a Taiwanese company ... Hopefully we can get all the tax/bank/other things completed in the next week, so we can catch our plane to Amsterdam next Tuesday!

Singapore

After an 8 hour day flight, we arrived safely, but very tired in Singapore. Emma and Janne slept very well from Broome to Perth and from Perth to Melbourne, but of course not at all from Melbourne to Singapore. They even slept very well at Melbourne airport, where we had to wait almost 5 hours for our next flight.
In Singapore it is cloudy and rainy, but still about 26 degrees. Actually, a perfect day to visit the Singapore Zoo. Especially as it only rained when we were having lunch and when we were at the elephant show.

Melbourne Airport

After a 3,5 hour night-time flight (!) from Perth to Melbourne, during which Emma and Janne fortuhnately slept the whole time, we are now waiting at Melbourne International Airport for our flight to Singapore. At Melbourne airport, they have another type of public internet kiosk, much more user friendly. It doesn't only have a normal functioning keyboard, but even a CD player and USB port. Hence, some pics have been added to earlier posts. Croc pics will follow later :-)

Broome

The day before yesterday, we arrived in Broome, after only a 360 km drive from 80 Mile Beach. Broome is very hot and extremely humid. The first night we spent in the tent, the second in a comfortable, so called 'fully contained appartment'. The first night in Broome, we did the world famous sunset camel ride, which Emma and Janne LOVED. Karin got some nice sunset pics, so was quite happy too :-)
Next day, we went to the Malcolm Douglas Wilderness Park, where we saw alligators, crocodiles, dingo's, kangaroos and various other Aussie animals. Emma and Janne were allowed to hold a joey (baby kangaroo) and Pieter and Karin a baby crocodile! The feeding of the crocs is a very impressive experience.


Now it's 23.20 on Sat Mar 2 and we are at Perth Airport, waiting for our flight to Melbourne. Emma and Janne are fast asleep, which made it a bit difficult to get them off the plane (from Broome) and over to the departure lounge. But we're here. Tomorrow, we'll be in Singapore.