Fathers Day in Alblasserdam

On Sunday, we celebrated Fathers Day together with Pieter daughter Charlotte and her family. Of course, Emma, Janne and me first brought Pieter breakfast and gifts in bed. The enthousiasm with which Emma and Janne handed over their hand-made gifts to their dad was very funny and very sweet. Both the school and pre-school put a lot of creative thinking and effort in making those gifts together with the kids.

Mills of Kinderdijk in the background (yes, I know I have to loose weight ...)

The weather was a bit cool, but we were fortunate enough that it didn't rain when we were in Alblasserdam, so we could take a walk to see the famous mills of Kinderdijk, which are almost in Charlotte's back yard. The mills at Kinderdijk are on the Unesco list of World Heritage Sites and is briefly described as follows: The outstanding contribution made by the people of the Netherlands to the technology of handling water is admirably demonstrated by the installations in the Kinderdijk-Elshout area. Construction of hydraulic works for the drainage of land for agriculture and settlement began in the Middle Ages and have continued uninterruptedly to the present day. The site illustrates all the typical features associated with this technology – dykes, reservoirs, pumping stations, administrative buildings and a series of beautifully preserved windmills.

The 'polder' is a good place to fly a kite

We also had a look at Charlotte's latest project; a health center which, when finished, will house a pharmacy, a psychologist, several family doctors and physical therapists. Charlotte is one of the four initiators (and owners) of the center. Needless to say that Pieter is very proud of his oldest daughter!

We are also very proud of our two little girls. Today, they had their first swimming lesson. I had hoped that it would be more of a fun-and-play type lesson, but it was really a swimming lesson. For 30 minutes, Emma and Janne, together with 7 other kids, swam back and forth in a 15 meter pool. It looked a little boring and not much fun to me, but Emma and Janne were very enthousiastic, so we'll give it a few weeks of months. If they start complaining, that's early enough to go look for another place.
Janne doing her best

Emma already had swimming lessons in Hsinchu (through school), but there they with freestyle. Here, kids first learn breastroke. (Which, by the way, makes much more sense from a practical point of view. Breast stroke allows you to keep your head above water, which helps enormously if you're trying to escape from water you've fallen into. And we live in a country with a lot of water after all ...). Emma did well, arm and belly floaties and all; she even managed to do a few correct strokes. Janne didn't do much more than splash back and forth. Most important though, they had fun!!

Emma having fun in the pool

The latest finish date for the new house is now mid July and the move is scheduled for the last two weeks of that month. Hopefully we'll be fully moved by the time school starts in mid August ... Yesterday, we also welcomed a few of Holland's modern foreign workers in our house, painters in this case. Where Asia has Philippino and Thai workers, the Netherlands nowadays have Polish workers. Pieter already experienced that it is very difficult to get workers for the TPV factory in Gorsow, Poland. Now we know why; they're all in the Netherlands, making a lot more money than they would make at home. Just as in Asia, there are job agencies specialized in intermediating for and hiring Polish workers and the number of Polish cars driving around in Holland is amazing. The two painters in our house are doing a fine job, for less money and they work longer hours, so we're happy to have them

Two Polish painters supervised by Pieter :-)