Girls' night out ...

November 10th was my birthday. And it also happened to be the day that a world famous theater act came to Veldhoven. That could not be a coincidence, I figured. So, I invited my sister to come along and we went to see ... The Chippendales. A tattoo for my 40th birthday, now the Chippendales. What got into her, I can hear you think! Anyhow, we had fun :-)

They do look better from a distance than up close. Still, great bodies!

More swimming

Emma and Janne are doing fine in their new swim class. Emma received her 'over the line' certificate last week, which means she is now practicing in the deep end of the pool. Janne made nice progress as well, but she still needs to work on her coordination (and concentration) in general. Most important is that they still enjoy swimming and that they love to go to swim class.

Janne practicing swimming on her back

Janne's instructor with his class

Getting ready to jump in at the deep end

Emma in the deep end, swimming back stroke

Swimming and K3

Saturday was a very busy day. Not only did I had to go buy groceries and did Emma go to gymnastics, but I also had a swimming competition and we went to a concert.

The swimming went well. I competed in four distances and swam two personal records.
* 4x50m freestyle relay - 2:35.85
3 secs faster than our registered time; OK
* 200m freestyle - 2:50.11 (PR)
5.1 secs faster than last time; very happy
* 100m individual medley - 1:27.59
first time swimming, not bad
* 50m freestyly - 33.79 (PR and 1st place out of 6)
1.5 secs faster than last time; very happy


The concert we went to was of ... K3. I realize nobody outside of Belgium and Holland has ever heard of them, but they are world famous here. Especially among kindergarten kids! So Emma, Janne, Oma and me went to one of their concerts. It lasted a total of 65 minutes, but those were a very exciting 65 minutes. The girls had been looking forward to the concert for over three weeks and fortunately, it more than met their expectations! Thanks to seven days of rehearsing during our trip to France, Emma and Janne know most of the lyrics by heart (as do I ...) and they sang along with their idols during most of the concert. Great fun to see them have such a wonderful time.

Visits

When the girls have vacation, I like to take them to visit people whom we don't often get a chance to meet up with. So, Wednesday, we went to Brussels, to visit Florence and her three boys. Her oldest is the same age as Janne and he and our girls had a great time, playing all afternoon.
The only pic where they were not making faces

Today, we visited with my mom's cousin and his wife in Klaaswaal. They are both over eighty, have been married for more than sixty years and still live in the same house they moved into when they were just married.
At my mom's cousin's house, very traditional interior indeed

Photo exposition in Stein, Limburg

Yesterday, we visited motorcycle friends in Elsloo, Limburg. I've known Pierre and Jeannette for 15 years, ever since my (and their) first TransalpClub-weekend in the Ardennes. Pierre and I share another hobby, besides motorcycle touring; photography. So, we combined our visit to them with a visit to the exposition of the Fotokring Stein (photo-club) of which Pierre is a member and I showed Pierre our Australia album (which, by the way, turned out really good!).

Enjoying Pieter's home made rijstevlaai (it's a bit funny that we brought 'vlaai', as this is the pastry that the province of Limburg is famous for ...)

Boelie up-date

Boelie is growing like a dog ... When we got her, she weighed 2.5 kg, last Friday she weighed 4 kg. She's 9 weeks old now and eating more every week. She's very active, especially in the biting area! It's very hard to teach a collie (read sheep herding dog) to not bite ankles or trousers. After decades of breeding, biting ankles (sheep's ankles that is) is instinctive. We're trying hard to let her know we're not sheep and we don't need herding. She is learning, but slowly. There's a few commands she obeys, but still more that she doesn't (yet). It's a good thing puppy training will start soon :-)

Still a pro when it comes to posing!

Janne has lost most of her fear of Boelie; Emma is still jumping on chairs whenever Boelie comes too close ...

Lichtjesroute

Today, we did the Lichtjesroute (Tour of Lights) in Eindhoven. From 1945 until 1969, the city of Eindhoven commemorated its liberation after WW II by way of the Lichtjesroute. In the beginning it were just candles and light bulbs in windows, later there were light ornaments on houses, lamp posts and in parks. After 1969 the tradition died, but it was restored in 1984. Since then the Lichtjesroute is repeated every year, by making a 22 km route through Eindhoven, that is illuminated by lights ornaments and displays, using all modern illumination techniques.

Living in or near Eindhoven, doing the Lichtjesroute is a must. So this was the night for Emma and Janne. On weekends, you have to stand in line and the tour takes up to three hours, due to heavy traffic on the route. Now (Monday) it only took us one hour and ten minutes. Just about right for Emma and Janne on a school night. It felt a bit like lantern festival ...

They really loved all the light ornaments and displays and they were shouting the name of every new item they saw. When they're a bit bigger, we might try doing the tour by bike. For now, the car will do. Which was good today, because it rained :-)

Big display in the Hendrik de Keijzer pond

Cute animal display in the same pond

Another display, firetruck this time

Smurf ornament on a wall

For more pictures of the ornaments and displays, go to the Lichtjesroute website (see link above) and click on Beeldarchief