Millers Beach

Well, it's certainly been a while. I never meant to ignore this blog for such a long time, but it was such a busy time that it somehow slipped out of our list of regular activities. What have we been up to? Sometime after the last post that I wrote, we bought a house. Obviously, that was very time consuming. We had been looking around for a short while before that and were hoping that we could find an affordable place in Scheveningen - and we did! A lovely little fisherman's house even closer to the beach than where we used to live.

Then, in November, I had a conference in Finland and soon after that, we left for a month long holiday to Indonesia. That was great. My father is from Indonesia and I still have a lot of family there and it was a very special experience to introduce Rihanna Gaga to my aunts, uncles and cousins over there. She immediately hit it off with some of her younger distant cousins and after that, we had a lovely time in Bali, where we even spend some time with my girlfriend's parents and sister who also happened to be on that island. It was really quite amazing to see how Rihanna Gaga enjoyed her tropical holiday, how curious she was about Balinese culture and its stories, even managing to sit through an hour long wayang kulit performance - and really, how many children her age would be patient enough for that? I told her stories about Hindu heroes and gods and she took a great liking to them.

And then, during a stopover in Doha (Qatar), I opened my e-mail and found a message from a director of studies asking me whether I could take over some courses because a colleague had fallen ill. This was at a university where I used to teach and to my own surprise, I hardly hesitated, immediately embracing the chance to go back to academia one day a week. Whether this will turn out to be my academic swan song or the beginning of a new chapter still remains to be seen, but I must say I relished my return to the lecture room, conveying knowledge, being in close contact with students and teaching about subjects that really interest me. Considering that I had to go to Estonia for a week in January because I had to teach at a winter school there, and that these courses were on subjects I'd never taught before and that in between all of this, we also had to arrange our mortgage and move to our new house, you can imagine that there really wasn't any time left to work on this blog.

But now we're back. We're cycling through the southern dunes, on our way to Millers Beach, one of a series of more isolated beach clubs to the south of Scheveningen. Rihanna Gaga is in an excellent mood, despite an argument we had earlier today in which she threw a tantrum about not wanting to wear warm clothes. The weather isn't as w
arm as it was the last few days, when the sun was blasting in a clear blue sky. Indeed, it is decidedly chilly today, with a clouded sky. Rihanna Gaga and I admire the springtime nature together.

When we arrive at Millers Beach, I'm asked whether I've reserved today. I haven't, and ask whether I can still get breakfast. The answer is yes and we sit down. It's a buffet style breakfast with lots of things that Rihanna Gaga likes: salmon, croissants, scrambled eggs, French cheese and chocolate rolls. I've given myself a bowl of muesli and an English style breakfast with bacon and scrambled eggs. The breakfast comes with a glass of prosecco for me and orange juice for Rihanna Gaga and we toast after sitting down to eat. We chat about Rihanna Gaga's school and all the things she is learning there. After a rough start, Rihanna Gaga has really taken to school. She loves learning things and is very proud that sche can already read all numbers and is starting on letters. "Once you can read, you can read all the books in the world," I tell her and she is very excited by the prospect. To show she is already well on her way, she starts reading all the letters she can find around her, printed on napkins and the menu.

There is little striking about the way Millers Beach is decorated, although there are some fun tribal wooden statues and plants hanging from the ceiling. Soft, acoustic music is playing in the background and our fellow patrons are mostly families with either quite young children, or slighly older pre-teenagers. Rihanna Gaga regularly looks around to see if there's someone she can play with, but there is no one in her age category. The breakfast is fine, although nothing special and I am not sure whether I like the buffet concept very much. I prefer set breakfasts, which tend to be slightly cheaper while you never eat up getting your money's worth with buffets - unless you are the all-you-can-eat-type. The atmosphere is good, though and service is remarkably professional here.

Today is the last day of a two week holiday and Rihanna Gaga asks whether she can eat an icecream tomorrow - I'm not sure where this question comes from, but I tell her that's fine. We plan to put some lemonade in ice cream shapes in the fridge this evening, so that she can enjoy them after school tomorrow. After that, I read a little and Rihanna Gaga draws, first by herself and then she starts 'teaching' her doll how to draw.

After a while, Rihanna Gaga asks whether we can go home. I know what's on her mind - there's two girls living next door to our new house and between our houses, there's a small courtyard where they play as much as they can together. Within no time, the younger one of the girls next door and Rihanna have become best of friends. In fact, just as Rihanna Gaga asks whether we can go home, I receive a message from our neighbour asking whether she can come out and play. So it's time to go and pay, after which we cycle back home.