Haircut

After countless teary eye mornings, Emma and I decided it was time for her to have a serious haircut. We all think she looks lovely with her new 'do' and she's very happy with it herself as well :-)
Presenting the new Emma!

Carnival

It's that time of the year. Time for carnival. Yet another tradition which has its origins in the Catholic Church. Nowadays, as with many of those traditions, there's no real connection anymore with its religious roots. Maybe the only link is that it's still held 40 days before Easter, at the start of Lent. As the south of Holland has always been Catholic (although through the ages not always openly) and the north Protestant, Carnival is a feast of the south.

For adults, Carnival is about partying, singing silly songs, making silly music, jigging and jogging and drinking. For kids, it's about dressing up. From the start of the year, they talk about 'what they will be' during Carnival. Even though I'm from the south, I'm not really into Carnival. Pieter on the other hand is. Very much so. He's a member of a Carnival Brass Band and he celebrates Carnival for the full four days.
Carnival brass band member Pieter :-)

Friday, Emma and Janne had Carnival at school, so they were allowed to wear their costumes to school. Some mothers are really into making the kids' outfits themselves. This year, I was not one of them (maybe next year). I took Emma and Janne to the shop and they could pick the costume of their choice. I was very happy with their choices, because neither of them chose a princess costume :-)
Pirate girl Janne

Disco girl Emma

That Friday morning, there also was a school Carnival parade, in which all groups participated. The older students had to come up with a theme, matching costumes and preferably also a little act. The little ones simply walked along with the parade. It was great to see all the children having so much fun!
Janne with her buddy Stan

Emma with her teacher, who looks fantastic in her Mega Mindy outfit

Prince Carnival and his counsel enjoying the school's parade

Today, the Veldhoven Carnival parade was held. Emma and Janne enjoyed watching it very much. Me too, since it was not too long (45 min. or so), there were very nice floats and groups, and there were only a few advertising vehicles (which are very boring).
One of the nice floats/groups of the parade

Afterwards, the confetti was even more fun than the parade!

Swimming

This time, it's not about Emma and Janne swimming, but about me swimming. Yesterday, I had my first swimming competition in 28 years and it was GREAT FUN! I was nervous as could be, but fortunately that didn't really influence my performance (I think). I swam three short distances: 50m freestyle, 50m breaststroke and 25m butterfly. As a bonus I was also asked to join the PSV 4x25m relay medley team as last swimmer (freestyle). Nervous and happy to swim competition again

All in all, I was very happy with the results. I was not disqualified on any of my distances and my times were all faster than I had hoped for. For anyone interested here are my times:
50m freestyle - 35.21 - 2nd place (of 6)
25m butterfly - 19.10 - 3rd place (of 4)
50m breast stroke - 46.16 - 1st place (of 3)
4x25 medley relay - 1:11.12 - 2nd place (of 2 - only 1 second after 1st place)
Getting ready for the 50m freestyle

I chose this specific competition to be my first, because it was held in Hoogerheide, my home town. This meant that my mom and sister could also come and watch. It also meant that Emma and Janne could join, because it would allow them to go home with oma if they got tired of sitting around the pool. Which is exactly what happened; after about an hour and a half, my mom left with Emma and Janne, while my sister and Pieter stayed for my last two distances.
My fans did an excellent job cheering me on

Cyclo-cross world championships

Cyclo-cross world championships in my home town!

Two weeks ago, the cyclo-cross world championships were held in Hoogerheide, the Netherlands. I'm not really into cyclo-crossing, but when the world championships are held in my home town, I get a little interested. Main (only) reason for the world championships to be held in Hoogerheide (not exactly the centre of the world), is that it's also the home town of Adri van de Poel, a former cyclo-cross world champion. And we were there. Well, kind of. We didn't really see the race, as it cost 25 EUR p.p. to watch it, but we did go to have a look at the after-cross festivities. Those in themselves were quite interesting to witness. Especially since the reigning Dutch world champion (Lars van der Boom) was dethroned by the very young Belgian Niels Albert. With the ever ongoing rivalry between Belgium and Holland, this made Niels' victory double fun for our southern neighbors.
Belgians partying while the world champion is being interviewed in the sky-box. The flags are the regional flags of Flanders, showing the Lion of Flanders.

Some more Lions of Flanders and the Belgian national flag