Peukie Beachclub

If you like Buddha statues, you'll probably think you've died and gone to heaven when you enter Peukie Beach Club. There's Buddhas everywhere, executed in an eclectic mix of styles. There's plastic blue Buddhas, porslain Chinese Buddhas, huge stone Thai Buddhas, a bowl of tiny Buddha statuettes next to the cash counter - there are even paintings of Buddha on the wall.

The Buddhas are set in a rather
tasteful decor of shiny white, wood colours and aquamarine, together with huge vases and large flower arangements. Positioned right in front of the famous Kurhaus, the top location at the boulevard, Peukie is easily one of the most popular beach bars around here. It is clearly geared towards a party-minded, hedonistic crowd of white trousers-wearing, champagne-drinking lovers of the good life. Not the kind of people who are out and about on a rainy Monday morning, ten o'clock - and it is thus no surprise that we are the first and only customers during our visit. Apart from us, there is only the manager who is 'taking care of business' on the telephone, and the waitress, who is routinely setting up the beach club for the rest of the day, putting flower pots on tables and lighting the gas fires that almost all beach clubs have inside and outside their buildings. Later on, the manager and the waitress are gossiping about other beach clubs and restaurants around Scheveningen, giving me some interesting insights in the local scene.

I'll be honest: this is the first time I visit this beach club, as I have always been slightly put off by its name: Peukie, meaning the butt of a cigarette or cigar. Why on earth would you give your club a name that reminds people of ashtrays or rubbish on the beach? It turns out that this name has been chosen in honour of the original owner of this beach club, who was always walking around with a cigar butt in his mouth and was therefore given the nickname Peukie. The man is, apparently, legendary and even when I visited, the manager was talking with the waitress about 'old Peukie' - a difficult man, according to the conversation I overheard.

The history of this club goes way back and the management is clearly proud of the club's age and its local reputation, devoting an entire section of their website to it. Started in 1974, it is now 40 years old, something that will be celebrated with large festivities this summer, as several around the beach club anounce.

Prices are above average here, but this was only to be expected, considering Peukie's location and the crowd that is its target group. I order the Beach Breakfast (€11,50). When it is brought, I at first think a mistake is made: several plates are spread out before me, rather than just the one breakfast plate I was expecting. But this is no mistake: the large plate containing several kinds of meat, cheese and fish, the smaller plate with stir fried egg, the basket containing an assortiment of toasts and bread rolls and the bowl with different packages of bread spreads, it all belongs to the breakfast. This is excellent value for money and indeed - one of the best breakfasts I've had at the beach so far. In fact, it is probably the best.

Meanwhile, Rihanna Gaga is having the time of her life. She is extremely active today, going here and there and everywhere on the large couch on which we've settled. There are several close saves when I manage to pull her back on the couch just before she falls to the ground, but she will not sit quietly on my lap: she has to move. Then the music is turned on: already quite happy, her face lits up. One of the Buddha Bar albums or a similar compilation comes streaming out of the speakers and she starts to move enthusiastically. When bongos begin to play along with the tranquil rythm, she claps her hands, looking at me. Her eyes demand that I join in - in fact, she makes it clear that not to do so is no option, so I also start clapping my hands. She laughs and turns around to stand up, holding the backside of the couch: its size is perfect for her to do so and when she has positioned herself upright, she continues to move to the music, which by now is a steady four-to-the-floor groove. I'm enjoying her company as much as possible. This week, I will be again gone for several days because I have a conference in Lisbon. Can I just say that I really, really don't like to be away from my daughter for such a long time? As much as I am looking forward to the conference and the visit to Lisbon, this just depresses me.

Outside, the weather is much worse than the last few weeks: in fact, it is stormy today. The Scheveningen boulevard was all but deserted when we walked here. Most people we did meet, were clearly only out because they had a job to do - like the four men with shovels collecting the sand that the storms of the last few days had blown all over the boulevard. I had never realised how much trouble the sand was, until I started to come here on early Monday mornings, apparently the time when it is being removed. I guess if nobody would do so, the boulevard would be covered in sand in no time. We are lucky that there's almost no rain during the twenty minutes it takes to walk from our home to Peukie. Once we have arrived, it starts pouring down again. Rain streams down Peukie's plastic windows - the part of the beach club where we are sitting is an actual tent - and the very few people who are walking along the sea today must struggle against the strong winds. The waves are quite high and the beach is covered in sea foam. Rihanna Gaga cares not: right here and now is her place to be, as she continues to enjoy the place and the music.

It takes me some time to finish the humongous breakfast and I am starting to enjoy the contrast between the summer holiday atmosphere inside, with its strong Ibiza/Thailand beach club vibes, and the Dutch rainy dreariness outside. When we finally do leave, we are again lucky: the rain has stopped. We'll be back at the beach later that day, however, as we are having lunch with Rihanna Gaga's grandmother - my mother. I wonder if we're doing Rihanna Gaga a favour by having her grow up here. This is something I have heard a lot from people who spend their childhood close to the sea: on the one hand, it is great to be a child living at the seaside - on the other hand, it remains difficult later in life to live anywhere else than on the seaside.