Visitor

Good morning all. Open the curtains to reveal the mood of the day. There was a light easterly wind blowing and the sea was no longer that calm and flat, just a bit bumpy. Pretty much no longer like an ironed shirt, but a crinkled one. The sun was coming up and the coffee was going down.

My yoga teacher tried to fold me in knots to loosen up the upper back which was doing some tightening up due to the session on  Nameless yesterday. I caught some nice waves! Yoga teacher seems to know what she is doing and I felt a little lighter and more supple after the lesson. I think I might ask the yoga teacher to go out on a date with me.

We are expecting couzin G today and had a quick think about what we might need from the shops. Not too much on the list as we still generally shop day to day. Dusty had to stop and chat with our new friends A & co. who were also heading into town in thier car. They were going to the market and we followed to the parking lot where the market was. It was buuussssyyyy! Cars were parked up on the berm along the street and squeezed in here and there. What a pleasure that there was no government official handing out tickets for not parking in allocated spots etc.

One gets the feeling that in Holland the government officials and parking wardens have a meeting and discuss what is happening in town on a particular day/weekend and use the fact that some people do not adhere strictly to the rules to PUNISH the people for daring to have a good time. Here it seems like the governent people have the same meeting and then say, let's have some dougnuts (donuts in american) and let the people do their thing. It is only for a day. Long live fun in the sun! At least that is how it feels to me. A lttle organised chaos, but that feeling of freedom is so important I think. 

We did not join A & co for the market walk and went to the shops to get what we had on oour list. There is another market next month again. We came home for breakfast Avo on toast! I apped with my couzin G who was going to come over for the night and he would arrive around 14h30. Just in time to catch the KOK (King of the Kromme paddling race). KOK is either 10km or 20km and I was still in dubio as to whether I wanted to take part. The wind was picking up to a strong south easterly which would mean that the 1st half of the race up the Kromme river (Hence KOK) would be with the wind and tide, but after the turn it would be an 'uphill' slog into the wind and tide.

I am fit enough to complete the course, but the wind was too strong to put my surfski on Dusty and I was not going to chance having it being blown off the roof. I guess that my heart was not really into it, so I made mayself the excuse and doubled up that couzin G was coming to visit, so I could not have him arrive and then leave to 3 hours. Maybe next year!

I had wanted to catch the start and say hi to Chloe, but couzin G arrived just too late so we had a cup of tea and a quick how you doing chat and then he and I went down to the start to watch the short course finishers coming over the finish line. When we got there I saw a man and son (and grandson) whom I know from long ago when I did lifesaving. Couzin G also knew them and we stood next to them and waited. The first finishers were really struggling against the wind and one could see the tired strokes and the water being flung up into the air behing the paddle as it exited the water. Good decision Glen.  Hats off to these people for putting themselves out there. 

By now it was late afternoon and we drove back to the Village bottle store as I wanted a bottle of Jagermeister and Ingrid wanted some Heineken 0.0% beer. What a treat, both of my purchases were on special! Back at Jackpot we ditched our plan to go and have a late afternoon dip and opened a beer and some chips. Chat, drink, chat, eat, drink, chat etc... You know how it goes.

I was happy that couzin G liked fish and the rest of the Mackrel went into the pan. Ingrid warmed up the leftover pasta from last night and added a side salad. G and G had fish and salad for dinner with a glass of wine. Eat, chat, drink (someone make a movie with this title). With couzin G we generally talked about the family and who was doing what and where. We do not all get every update as to the comings and goings, but seems like we have been upgraded to Family Knowledge 3.5. 

A topic that did reign a bit heavy on all of us was the ripping apart of our kids lives and dreams by the Covid narrative that had been shoved down our throats and imposed on us, and affected mostly kids in the late teens. That poor generation really got a kick in the teeth and we are thankful that the kids (at least our kids) seem to have gotten a grip on life and are able to move forward and upwards. I have very strong opinions about it  but will avoid the discussion because we have been able to move forward and learned lessons.

Off to bed and tomorrow is another day. We are hopiing that tomorrow the helicopter resumes it's work lifting picees of the wreck off and transporting it to the local airfield (grass field for small planes). We spent a good part of the morning behind the binoculars watching it hover above the wreck and lift off with a piece hanging underneath. We think that the pilot might be pretty good at flying that thing as he was doing it in a pretty stiff easterly wind. 

Just a little bit of a laugh last night. Ingrid has the 0.0% Heineken beer and there is a warning on the label, "Alcohol abuse is dangerous to your health"! LOL, that is pertinent to put on an alcohol free beer.