Holiday 2011

   

It has been ages since I've been on the web to up-date my blog or send a mail message around to inform you all about my, our, status. Now there is this little boy running around the house, time seems to be completely consumed by him. Since I know I gained weight drastically, I started to work out at a fitness club nearby, but even that is sometimes difficult to accomplish.

However, we had a great summer holiday, and that is what I want to tell you about. We had a great time, leaving around the beginning of October to visit my mother in The Netherlands. We stayed at her house for some days which was really nice as autumn had come with nice weather. The walnut tree in her garden was dropping its lovely fruits in great numbers, so we spent several hours to gather the delicious fruits. Alief Jan crawled around the house and seemed to enjoy the cold weather (compared to Indonesia) as well. We played golf, went for some short walks and just relaxed after a year of hard work back home in Bogor and Jakarta.

  

After a week we went to visit friends and relatives on a boat on the Rhine and in Cologne (both Germany) and near Nijmegen in The Netherlands. It was very nice to be able to see a lot of people in a short time! After this short travel we had to head back for Hellendoorn in order to prepare for a bit bigger journey. We had to pack for Africa! We went to visit Arnoud and his wife Janeffer and son Arjan in Kenya. That was a superb experience. It was lovely to see them and have a nice time with them. We could even manage to do a small hiking safari near Lake Naivasha. We saw Wildebeast, Giraffe, Fish Eagle, Blacksmith Plover, Zebra, Thomson's Gazelle, Water Bock and we even heard the Hippo's in the Lake! Back home Alief Jan did his first steps without holding on to something and we went to a Giraffe Centre where we could even feed the huge animals by putting treats on their huge tongues.

      

Back to The Netherlands, meeting Igor (the husband-to-be of my sister, who arranged a fantastic Bed-and-Breakfast for us very quite and close to the city centre of Amsterdam!) and meeting up with my mother and Lourens for a last time before heading back home to Indonesia.