Day By Day

There's a strong wind blowing as we park our bikes close to the beach - we being Billie Stormzy, my partner and me. As we descend the stairs and cross the boulevard towards our destination, Day by Day, I notice how busy it is at the seaside. People are strolling along the eateries and signs reminding everybody to keep 1,5 meter distance, and there is a nice buzz this Sunday. 

We pick a table beyond the terrace, on the sand, something I always try to do now, because I know Billie Stormzy will be happy to wander around the beach. A friendly waiter is quick to arrive, and I order a Westmalle Tripel, but my partner doesn't know what to order yet, so he promises to return soon. However, when he brings my beer we're still somewhat undecided, so again he says he'll be back. This is always a bit tricky: in my experience, if you don't order immediately it can take a long time before a waiter returns. Not at Day by Day, though. His second return to our table is perfectly times as we've just made our decision. I order a Club Classic (11,50) and my partner has a grilled cheese sandwich and an orange juice (the latter mostly to share with Billie Stormzy). 

The couch we're sitting on is not facing the beach, but the other way around, meaning I am looking at the impressive Kurhaus in front of me. There's huge clouds everywhere, and they're moving by quickly. Whenever there's sun, it's very agreeable: the sun is warm, but the breeze is cool. However, if the clouds moeve in front of the sun, the wind becomes chilly. Billie Stormzy is indeed very happy with the orange juice, drinking enthusiastically from it. Before the orange juice arrived, he was very disappointed he was not allowed to drink from my beer. As ever when he wants something and is not allowed to, he responds by wringing his hands, waving his arms around him and stamping his feet; you never quite know whether this will then turn to crying, or whether he will, in the end, resign to his fate (because resigning to his fate is what he will make it look like). Today, it's the latter, but he will keep trying to persuade me to share my beer with him, despite me telling him repeatedly it's yukky. I think the foam on the beer reminds him of the milky foam from his mother's latte macchiatios that he likes to scoop off when she's having one. 

Done with drinking the orange juice, Billie Stormzy starts to roam the beach. First towards a small playhouse that is standing somewhat to the left of us - belonging not to Day by Day, but to its Neighbour De Golfslag. The precise division here has always intrigued me: Day by Day and De Golfslag look very much alike (although I do notice they look less similar than they did a few years ago, when even the furniture was almost exactly the same) and it's difficult to tell where the one's terrace ends and the other's start. In fact, only the orange pillows on Day by Day's black furniture sets it somewhat apart from De Golfslag's black chairs and tables. There's nice, upbeat pop music on the soundsystem. Several songs by Years & Years (one of my favourite contemporary pop bands) drift by, and the rest of the songs are from the same mold: poppy songs with lush synthesizers, a cheerful house beat and wistful singing.  Whiffs of marijuana drift by - apparently someone on the beach, which is where the wind is coming from, is enjoying themselves. 

A German family with children of Billie Stormzy's age is sitting close to us, but he's ignoring them, preferring to play on his own. He's found some plastic shape with which he can scoop sand, and he's walking around, crouching here and there to create small piles. Soon, he's quite far away and I notice he's scooping sand from the beach on the terrace of Summertime next door, so I get up and walk towards him. "Shall we go back to mommy?" I tell him, and he enthusiastically drops the plastic shape and runs back to our table. When we arrive, the food is being brought.

My club sandwich is... okay, I guess. I notice there's no bacon, although this is announced on the menu, so it's more a ham-cheese sandwich with some egg, tomato, lettuce and cucumber added, than a "Club Classic".  A nice touch are the thick crisps with which it is served, that taste very nice. Billie Stormzy refuses any bit of the food that we offer to him, but he does enjoy sipping the orange juice, occasionally trying to get some of my beer - I have to make sure to keep it away from him, because he's quick to lay his hands on my glass. He sits between us on the couch and smiles contently from time to time, clearly enjoying this moment with his parents.  His sister is not with us because she's at a birthday party right now - we dropped her off before coming here. 

"Bird", Billie Stormzy says - a recent addition to his increasing vocabulary. He points at the small group of jackdaws and several seagulls that is gathering around us. One of the seagulls is getting too close for comfort, and I chase it away. When I have to get up a bit later, to retrieve a handkerchief that has been blown by the wind from our table, I'm only just in time to save my sandwich from the same seagull. They're cheeky animals!

When we've finished our food, I pay and we have a walk on the beach before returning to our bicycles. Before we came here, Billie Stormzy refused to have any lunch, and he didn't eat anything at the beach either, so I hope I'll be able to get him to eat something before I put him to bed. 

Also on Breakfast at the Beach: Jump back in time to when I visited this place with Rihanna Gaga in 2017