It's is turning out to be a proper Dutch winter, the one most Dutch dream about, in which we can skate on lakes and open water, in which we might even get our beloved Elfstedentocht again which last took place when I was a teenager. The Elfstedentocht is just so typically Dutch, that I could not possibly think of anything more Dutch than that. It is a skating tour which passes 11 towns in the north of the country. Needless to say that you need to have had a lot of frost to achieve that and so it is a rare thing to happen these days with the past winters that felt like spring, even to the flowers in the garden.
There are now talks that it might happen this year, how exciting! Why it is so typically Dutch? Well, we have all been brought up with skating, this is a big thing to us. I think it has something to do with our battle against water and of course our mentality which seems to include having to go through all sorts of hardships and act as if that is how it is supposed to be. Why else would doctors in the Netherlands otherwise keep insisting of having women deliver babies without epidurals? Why else would Dutch women bring their children to school on a bicycle when it is raining and cold with one child in a seat on the back and one on the front...I honestly can't say I think I am all too fond of that sort of stuff. I like the comfortable life way too much to be seen on a bike struggling against the wind on a dyke...eeeek...But skating I do understand. It's in my blood. No skating though this year. Shingles mean you are very sensitive to cold and heat alike, so I have to sit at home and watch others skate. Still I have quite a view from my home, don't you think?
And here's proof that there is indeed something that makes Caya trying to break down our fence every time she is outside....This is not her paw print and so she might just be right :o) The way she is going on, you would think a giant puma had entered her territory, but I think it might be a more common kind of creature...one with very warm paws by the way to melt through ice on a day that it is minus 10 degrees Celsius...brrrrr...
There are now talks that it might happen this year, how exciting! Why it is so typically Dutch? Well, we have all been brought up with skating, this is a big thing to us. I think it has something to do with our battle against water and of course our mentality which seems to include having to go through all sorts of hardships and act as if that is how it is supposed to be. Why else would doctors in the Netherlands otherwise keep insisting of having women deliver babies without epidurals? Why else would Dutch women bring their children to school on a bicycle when it is raining and cold with one child in a seat on the back and one on the front...I honestly can't say I think I am all too fond of that sort of stuff. I like the comfortable life way too much to be seen on a bike struggling against the wind on a dyke...eeeek...But skating I do understand. It's in my blood. No skating though this year. Shingles mean you are very sensitive to cold and heat alike, so I have to sit at home and watch others skate. Still I have quite a view from my home, don't you think?
And here's proof that there is indeed something that makes Caya trying to break down our fence every time she is outside....This is not her paw print and so she might just be right :o) The way she is going on, you would think a giant puma had entered her territory, but I think it might be a more common kind of creature...one with very warm paws by the way to melt through ice on a day that it is minus 10 degrees Celsius...brrrrr...
2008 Golden Teddy Award Nomination for Aviva
2007 TITA Award for Salo
