Fonk Beach

Fonk beach has a very nice beachcombing aesthetic. That means furniture made of solid, unfinished wood and rusty metal decoration (including, among other things, an amazing large circular fragmented mirror). And while the colour scheme is one you find a lot among Scheveningen's beach clubs (whitewashed wood, grey, brown and bright white, grey and blue pillows), it is punctuated in a pleasant way by the bright white and yellow of Fonk's logo. Another nice touch are the Arab lamps hanging from the ceiling.

The weather can only be called dreary today. It's windy and rainy after days of tropical heat. After last week's visit to the east of the Netherlands and the dollhouse building of the weeks before that, we're having a very lazy weekend. It's Saturday morning and our visit to this beach club is the first action we've undertaken - and will also prove to be the last. For the rest, it'll be just chilling and lounging around.

Much to Rihanna Gaga's delight, Fonk Beach has a large collection of toys - as well as two playgrounds on its terrace. She tries out the playgrounds first, but decides it's too windy and soon returns back inside. She picks up some random toys, a wooden train, some blocks and Chinese boxes. Much to my surprise, she becomes completely captivated by the latter, and for a long time she is content with taking the boxes apart and putting them back together again - and again, and again, and again.

In the meantime, our drinks are brought: an apple juice for Rihanna Gaga and an orange juice and tea for me. Those actually belong to the set breakfast I've ordered and we enjoy them waiting for the rest. When it's brought, it's massive: a large crispy bun with a poached egg, bacon and salad (with just a bit too much salad dressing), a large bowl of muesli with seeds and dried fruits, a jar filled with fresh fruit, a croissant and jam and two thick slices of bread with ham and cheese. It's a nicely thought-out breakfast that's quite ahead of much of the competition at the beach.

Rihanna Gaga, meanwhile, has tired of playing with the Chinese boxes. She munches on a bit of the croissant, but loses interest quickly. She wants me to come along with her to go and look for books at the place where the toys are - but there are no books there. I spot some colouring pencils and crayons close to where our table is and I suggest her to make a drawing. She responds enthusiastically, so we return to our table and I place paper and colouring materials in front of her. While I continue my breakfast, she's soon very busy drawing, telling me what she's creating as she draws. "This is a baby," she says, and she draws a small face. "Is it happy or sad?" I as, but as she's already drawing tears, I can tell already. "She's crying," Rihanna Gaga tells me, but then she draws some toys for the baby and adds: "Now she's happy again! Very cute, isn't it?" The drawing is for our cat, she tells me. The cat is quite often the recipient of her artwork. The little corner in our living room where we put the bowls of cat food for her, has quite a few drawings stuck to the wall. Rihanna Gaga does this herself. Why exactly our cat has been given the drawings is not very clear to me. Although Rihanna Gaga likes the cat, they do have a lot of misunderstandings among them. The cat isn't very sweet towards her - she isn't sweet towards any human being, as she tolerates them more than she likes them, mainly - it seems - because humans never seem to do exactly what she wants them to do. But whenever the cat does acknowledge her existence, Rihanna Gaga seems extremely happy and proud about that. The other way around, the cat tends to try and comfort Rihanna Gaga whenever she is crying - although those are exactly the moments Rihanna Gaga doesn't want her to.

Rihanna Gaga says she wants to go and get some toys. That's okay, I say to her, but first clean up your drawing stuff. She looks at me, hesitantly. "But you were the one who got them," she objects. "Well, yes," I tell her, "but you were the one who used them." She thinks about this, nods and returns the drawing stuff to its place. Then, she picks up a puzzle and starts puzzling. It's one of her favourite activities: making puzzles. And she's good at it too. The puzzle she's found here - Disney's Snow White - is very complicated, but she manages quite well.  However, she loses interest before she's finished, gets up again, and picks up beach gear from the toy box. "Let's go outside," she says. I tell her I want to finish my coffee first, but then I pay and we go outside with the plastic shovels and other stuff she found in the toy box. Together, we create a mountain, but then the sand starts getting in her eyes too much because of the wind and we decide it's time to go home.