Beachclub Bora Bora

It's a pleasant summer morning and the Scheveningen Boulevard is slowly coming alive as Rihanna Gaga and I make our way to the part where most of the beach clubs are located. Rihanna Gaga is looking forward to our brunch today, because she expects there to be many girls in the beach club that we're headed for. This is a big thing for her now: to make friends wherever we go. She's noticed that this is much easier in the Netherlands. First of all, kids speak her language. And then it also just seems easier to get into contact with people here. In Tunisia, a large part of the friendships and social activities people partake in, take place within the context of the larger family and it is my theory that because this is not the case in the Netherlands, it becomes easier to make friends here, both for adults and for children.

However, when we get to Beachclub Bora Bora, which is where we're going to have breakfast today, there are only a few people seated on its terrace and no children. Rihanna Gaga, however, remains optimistic and tells me the 'girl is about to come any minute now'. We sit down in a secluded spot, with couches around a low table. When the waitress comes to our table, she first asks Rihanna Gaga what she wants - a good strategy, although I'm not sure all parents would be happy with this; Rihanna Gaga, however, is modest and only asks for an apple juice. I order the set breakfast.

It doesn't take long before Rihanna Gaga needs a nappy change. She's pretty much potty trained by now, but she still poos in her diapers and at times she just prefers to wear diapers, especially when we go out. Not wanting to change her nappy at the terrace, we walk to the beach where there are some empty chairs where she can lay down. Afterwards, she decides to stay on the beach, playing with her duplo toys in the sand. Since the terrace of Bora Bora borders on the beach, I decide to relocate.

Rihanna Gaga is humming to herself while she plays with the little duplo dolls and cars. I look around the Bora Bora terrace. I seem to remember I came her quite regularly during the spring and summer of 2013, when Rihanna Gaga wasn't born yet, to prepare my lectures, read, and grade exams and papers. The reason why we're back here is that we are spending a week in our old apartment. The current renters are gone for the week and this made it possible for us to move in again temporarily. It's strange to be back. We never lived that long in Scheveningen - two years and 10 months in total - but it really feels so much like home. We very easily slipped back into an old daily routine that feels very comfortable.

Bora Bora seems to have difficulties making up its mind about the style it wants its decoration to be in. There are large wooden ethnic statues, but then there is also a yellow American school bus for the outdoors kitchen. About fifty percent of the furniture and decoration is in soft colours - grey, wooden, whitewashed - but then the other half shouts out with in-your-face colours like purple, orange and red (very much in the style of next door Cocomo). The music is chilled house beats, much like one would expect in a place like this.

The breakfast takes its time, but is very good once it arrives: yoghurt with fresh fruits, bread, croissant, cheese, fried eggs, ham, orange juise and a tea, which isn't priced too high at 13,50, if one considers the location. It all tastes fresh and good.  Rihanna Gaga shares the croissant with me, but is a bit too busy to really become interested in the breakfast. A couple of young boys walking the beach with their grandparents have sat down for a rest and Rihanna Gaga has engaged them in a shell hunt. However, once the grandparents realise that where they are sitting is part of the terrace of a beach club - the realisation hits them when the waitress asks them what they want to drink - they are quick to leave. Rihanna Gaga is a bit taken aback by this, asking me where the boys went. I tell them they went home and so should we. I pay and we leave.