Pier 32

Pier 32  is one of the beach clubs along the southern beaches, which can only be reached through the beautiful dunes down from where we live. It is about a 20 minutes bicycle ride from our home. The beach club itself is not very big, but surrounded by a large, sprawling terrace. The walls and furniture are all white and unpainted wood, with brown pillows and bean bags. A nice touch is that the flat roof of the kitchen area and toilet blocks is covered by a roof garden. All in all, the beach club has a very nice, down to earth feel to it. 

When we arrive at the beach club, the waitress apologises because they're still getting the terrace in order. I'm not sure if the apologies are necessary - I don't think I would have noticed otherwise. We sit down in an area behind the main terrace. Here, a large trampoline, surrounded by some toys, is the center of a smaller terrace with chairs - an ideal spot for parents with cildren. Once we're settled, I realise we cannot stay long, because the sun is quite strong and we did not bring any sunscreen. I didn't think of bringing one, because - despite it being 23 June, two days after the official start of the summer - the last few days have been decidedly chilly. When we left, the sky was still filled with large clouds, but when we arrive at Pier 32, there is hardly any wind anymore. A dramatic sky hangs over the sea, with long, narrow clouds painted over the blue heavens. While cycling here, Rihanna Gaga was singing non-stop, mostly in a made-up language that she claims is English. "It's a song I made up myself" she tells me when I asked her what it is. "You can sing it in Dutch, English or French."
"It's very nice," I told her, "what is it about?"
"It's about everything. Everything in the world. And about Elsa, too." Elsa is the main character from her favourite movie (hers and basically every other girl she knows), Frozen.

I order a veggie burger and mint tea for myself and croquettes and chocolate milk for Rihanna Gaga. It's lunchtime (which is a pity, because the breakfasts here looks delicious). We've already done quite a lot. This morning, we played with lego - Rihanna Gaga got a large collection from her grandparents and she likes building things. Then, it was time for her swimming lessons, which we do every Saturday morning. It's in a small swimming pool in Scheveningen, with tiny groups of 6 children. At four, Rihanna Gaga is not allowed to partake in regular swimming classes yet, but here she is making slow, but steady progress. Today, she dived for the first time, going completely under water without any floating devices - but while holding the hand of the instructor tightly. She's proud of her accomplishemt. Then, she played with some girls in the neighbourhood. Not one of the girls next door, who is her best friend nowadays and whom she plays with on an almost daily basis, but some girls further down the street who go to the same school as her. She's getting to know the whole neighbourhood step by step, exploring bits of our street whenever she has a moment to spare, often observing other children for a long time before making contact.

Now, she watches three kids attentively, as they jump on the trampoline and play with each other - they're siblings, one boy and two girls, and quite a bit older than Rihanna Gaga. She's not interested in making contact, she just watches and then joins them on the trampoline. I read a bit, and when the food arrives, she climbs on my lap and we eat and drink. The veggie burger is nice - it has a good bite and tastes a bit like falafel. It's better than most vegetarian burgers and comes with nachos, which I dip in the mustard that came with Rihanna Gaga's croquettes, rather than the Thai sweet and sour sauce that came with my burger. Rihanna Gaga eats the croquettes almost entirely, as well as the cucumber that comes as a side dish with her order, and some tomatoes. She ignores the thick brown slices of bread on her plate, however, as well as the rest of the salad. I have one last piece of croquette because she doesn't want it anymore - it tastes much better than these things normally do. As per usual, Rihanna Gaga starts eating my mint leaves and then she's off to play again.

She collects several plastic toys for digging and containing sand and shows them triumphantly to me. Then she starts playing with them. Two boys arrive and start bragging about the brand of their clothes and which tricks they can do on the trampoline. A little while later, the three kids who played here earlier return - they went off to swim in the sea, which considering how chilly it still is, and how cold the sea must bea, is rather amazing. The boys turn out much nicer than they seemed at first: before long, the five kids are playing together, showing each other tricks on the trampoline and then playing hide and seek. Rihanna Gaga remains unfazed by it all. She just digs in the sand and sings to herself. I understand why: the kids really are much older than she is. I tell her it's time to go, but she says she wants to go on playing in the sand for a little while. "It's very nice here," she adds.

I go inside, pay and then walk towards her. She's dug quite a large hole and has filled most of the plastic forms she found scattered around. Now, she's filling up a red bucket. "Shall we leave when that one is filled entirely?" I ask. She nods and continues. I lay down beside here, gazing at the white and blue of the sky above us. There's the wind rustling through the dunes, the sea in the distance and the sounds of two men who are shovelling away the sand that the storms of the last three days have blown on the terrace. Around us, the five excited kids are still playing hide and seek.

Then, the bucket is full and we get up to collect our stuff. On the way back, Rihanna Gaga is again singing her song in many languages about everything in the world. Everything in the world - and Elsa.