Oase Beach Club

Don't let the loud colours outside Oase Beach Club fool you: the bright green and blue pillows outside are nowhere to be found inside. There, it's tones of grey, white and black and an atmosphere that's best described as a cross between a living room and a lounge. Accoustic rock is playing on the sound system and the fireplace is burning. When we arrived, a very jolly waiter in pullover with a shirt underneath, looking more like someone who's just finished a round on the golf course than someone who's going to bring you your breakfast, came out when he saw us looking around and told us we should come inside because they were open and the fire was burning. Before we sat down, he'd already taken our order: a latte macchiato and a chocolate milk.

It's empty inside, outside two elderly ladies sit and chat. We sit next to the window and before her chocolate milk is brought, Rihanna Gaga has spotted the playground in front of the beach club and has gone off to run around in it. Last weekend was unusually sunny, but this Monday morning the sky is grey and dull. Oase Beach club is at the Northern beach. When we cycled here, Rihanna Gaga asked me if it was okay to make noise - she takes it very seriously that there are places where you're allowed to make noise (outside, always; at home, sometimes) and where you're not (in restaurants, for example). After I said it's okay, she started singing loudly and screaming. I like it that she likes to be loud. Now, she's chatting to the ladies. From her gestures, I see that she's explaining something, and the women look amused and interested. She's found an eager audience!

While Rihanna Gaga is outside, I order a set breakfast and read a little while waiting for it. When the breakfast is brought, I ask Rihanna Gaga if she wants to come inside and have some croissant. She follows me inside and eats a little, and drinks her chocolate milk and some of the orange juice that came with the breakfast. Apart from that, there's two thick slices of bread, some smaller bread rolls and different cheeses and meats to put on the bread, as well as scrambled eggs, bacon and a wee bit of salad. There's also tea or coffee and since I've already had a latte macchiato, I choose tea. All in all, the breakfast is satisfactory, hearty enough for a chilly Monday morning.

Last week, there was no Monday brunch because we were visiting family in Sweden. Rihanna Gaga is still talking about that visit and my dear aunt who lives there (whom she calls granny). We both enjoyed our visit very much. I because I saw lots of family members I don't meet too often and Rihanna Gaga because there are so many playgrounds in Sweden. She also came up with an elaborate story about a baby dragon, that's still ongoing. When we visited a small island in front of the southern coast of Sweden, she picked up some sticks that were her, as she said, 'swords'. She needed it to fight the terrible 'snot dragons' which seemed to be all around the small island, because about every hundred meter walking, she'd point to the sky and shout: there's another one. Together we fought them and she'd lock them all up in stones, an idea she'd invented herself (interestingly enough, because a persistent folk belief all around Scandinvia is that supernatural beings live in large stones). Towards the end of our visit to the island, she told us there was a baby dragon, not big and terrifying like the other ones, but sweet and small. It came with us back from the island, and then back to the Netherlands. And, apparently, it's with us here at the beach this morning as well.

The ladies have left and Rihanna Gaga is a bit disappointed. She'd like there to be other children to play with and seems to want me to take care of that. I tell her that, unfortunately, I can't make children appear out of thin air, and disappointed, she doesn't want to go back to the playground. Instead she draws a little: a little kid that's bumped her head and is crying - she draws the bump on the head, the tears running down from the eyes and the face as she's describing it. I like her art work - it has a gritty, graffiti-like quality to it, with clearly recognisable humanoid figures.

When it's time to go, Rihanna Gaga rediscovers the playground and it takes quite a while before I can convince her to come along with me, back to the bicycle.