Columbus

It's a sunny Friday morning as we cycle down the Scheveningen Boulevard. Rihanna Gaga is impressed by the work in progress on the beach: the beach clubs are being built. These are all restaurants they're building, I tell her. She wants me to cycle all along the beach to see as much as possible of the building activities.

Then, we pick a restaurant to have breakfast: Columbus. We're having our weekly breakfast on Friday because last Monday we went to Amsterdam, to visit a friend of mine. On the way there, we managed to loose her favourite pluche toy, a pink sheep with a music box inside. She can't sleep without it, so that was quite a disaster. A few years ago, precisely because of her attachment to the sheep, we bought another one, but somehow she got hold of this emergency replacement and since then, she had two: the new one became the favourite, the earlier one had to always be there as well.

Frantic calls to the railways and visits to the lost and found department at several railway stations yielded nothing, so we ordered a new one, telling her that her toy has gone to the hospital to get new fur. Children are good at magical thinking and none does that so well as Rihanna Gaga, so she accepted this explanation. Sometimes I think she's smart enough to realise that it isn't really true, but still preferable to the grim reality of actually having lost her favourite toy, so that she therefore decided to play along. But who knows what goes on in the head of a child, really? Crazily creative, surprising and stubborn, they're always one step ahead of you - or behind, or beside, or on top or below or in some other dimension where everything is the same but still completely different (or vice versa). It's actually very refreshing to spend a lot of time with a three year old. They're masters of the contrariwise.

Columbus is decidedly grotty. Wooden, worn furniture and a ceiling that has a very industrial feel to it and looks as if it hasn't been cleaned since smoking was banned in Dutch cafés and restaurants. The very friendly waiter welcomes us, despite the fact that he doesn't open until ten and it's still a quarter to. I order a tea and Rihanna Gaga has an apple juice. Then, we have breakfast: Rihanna Gaga has a pancake (6,75) and I take a set breakfast (€6,95) - not the deluxe one, since Rihanan Gaga has her own meal this time, so we don't have to share.

While we wait for our breakfast, Rihanna Gaga plays with her doll and I read a little. Every once in a while, Rihanna Gaga comments on the building activities that are taking place right in front of our restaurant. She says she thinks that this particular restaurant does not need to be build today, because it's always there. I tell her she's right. A few more curtomers arrive, and breakfast is brought. Rihanna Gaga says she wants some of my plate, too and I say that in that case, I'd like to have some of her pancake. So we swap. She takes some egg, a bit of my croissant and cream cheese. Apart from that, the breakfast also includes some jam, ham and cheese, a bagel and some small bread rolls. All in all, it's pretty good value for money.



When we're finished, we need to get on our way. We're going to visit my niece, Rihanna Gaga's cousin, whom she really likes, so it isn't to difficult to convince her to get going. Ten hours later we're back: on our way to my brother and his children, we discovered that Rihanna Gaga's doll was missing. So here we are to pick him up. On our way back home, we see that many of the beach clubs are nearing completion. One of them, Bora Bora, is already open, with people sitting around the open fire on its terrace. Spring is coming!