Westewind

Almost exactly five years ago, my girlfriend and I moved to Scheveningen. It was decided a bit on a whim: housing was cheap and who could argue against living so close to the sea? Only when we lived there, we realised it was a return to our roots of some sorts: my girlfriend's grandparents had lived just around the corner from where we lived, and my grandparents lived just a few blocks away. So both my girlfriend's mother and my father lived here for a part of their childhood. I remember how, when we just moved in, we decided to have a walk to the Scheveningen boulevard - still under reconstruction at the time - and ended up for a drink at Restaurant Westewind, right underneath the Kurhaus where there are several restaurants. It was the first time we enjoyed one of the many wining and dining opportunities around here and I immediately fell in love with how Scheveningen combined a small town feel with such a vibrant scene of eateries and cafés.

Today, Rihanna Gaga and I are headed for Westewind again - and it might be the first time since five years that I'm headed here once more, because once the beach clubs are up one tends to completely neglect the restaurants on the boulevard. Also for the first time since we're back in Scheveningen, we're going to have a real breakfast on the beach again. It's very early in the morning and a thin layer of frost lies over the grass and the few leaves that are still on the trees. Rihanna Gaga loves the frost and asks when the snow will arrive. I've heard that the temperatures will go up soon, so I tell her I don't think that will be anytime soon. The sky is mostly completely blue, with a few long, thin clouds stretching across and the sea is a pale blue, which, together with the pale yellow of the beach and the blue of the sky is very typical of Scheveningen on a beatifyl winter's day.

At Westewind, there are few other guests - two elderly couples, that's it. Rihanna Gaga tells the waitress she wants a chocolate and I order a cold one for her and a hot one for myself. The waitress brings them, together with a colouring plate for Rihanna Gaga. One thing that strikes me about the Netherlands, after having spent some time abroad, is how child friendly the country is. Almost everywhere we go, there are corners with toys, or the waiters bring colouring plates and crayons without asking. Rihanna Gaga sets to colouring the plate almost immediately, and I do some reading. We're sitting right next to the window overlooking the boulevard and the beach beyond. Westewind is decorated in brown and beige teints, with designer-ish lamps and fireplaces all around. We're sitting right under an electrical heater, so we're quite comfy, although the cold leaks into the restaurant in small droughts and the waitress is positively freezing in her shirt. Apparently, she's only allowed to wear an official Westewind sweater but those are all gone and if she puts on her own sweater, the boss, monitoring her via cctv will reprimand her - I'm slightly annoyed, both by the idea of a boss monitoring his employees via cctv (I mean, if you're going to do that, why not just sit in the restaurant itself), and by the idea that he thinks it's okay to let your employees be cold like that.

We've ordered the Westewind breakfast for €9,-. It's a no frills affair of small breadrolls, ham, cheese, scrambled eggs with bacon and some salad. Nothing to get excited about, but nothing to be disappointed about either. Rihanna Gaga soon tires of the food, although she did start eating bread with cheese and the scrambled eggs enthusiastically. Now, she plays with her baby doll and toy tiger instead, making up an elaborate story about the baby having to go to the hospital and the ambulance coming for her. She's completely absorbed in her fantasy, until she notices a woman at the restaurant next door who is making up the terrace. Curiously, she watches every move and asks me what that woman is doing whenever she starts doing something new: putting candles on the tables, distributing menus and putting pillows on the chairs. To Rihanna Gaga, it is about as entertaining as going to the circus, and she is completely fascinated. I just wonder who on earth would sit on a terrace in these temperatures - even with heat blowers overhead.

The elderly couple - they are Irish - leave and the man tells me he enjoyed Rihanna Gaga's singing. And only then, I realise that, indeed, she's been humming and singing most of the time. She does so continuously, to the extent that I hardly notice it anymore, although sometimes she'll demand that I sing along with her. She has an impressive repertoir of both Dutch songs and French songs that she picked up at daycare in Tunisia.

When I'm done with the breakfast, I order a tea, but Rihanna Gaga is bored and wants to go outside. That's fine, I tell her, as long as she remains in sight. I put on her coat, scarfe and shoes and off she goes. She doesn't go far and is mostly content with pulling faces in front of the window behind which I'm sitting.  Then she comes back in to go to the toiled. After that, it's time for us to go. She wants to go to the beach, she tells me, and after that to the playground.