27 March 2008
By now it’s already way over a month since we’re back on the island and man, time flies by! We had so much stuff done already. As most of you know from the last update we took the first major hurdle, the car, already! We love it! We got it serviced by Laurence and now the car’s totally ready to go! Next step was to wait till the neighbours would leave the house. This happened already around the 6th instead of the expected 10th. We’re happy!
After about two short weeks of working our ass off, cleaning up, sanding, painting and who knows what else it slowly starts to fall into place. With some help of both Jose’s and Chris and Joke, the house is slowly turning into our house! The kitchen, dining room and the sofa’s in the living room are taken care off and they look beautiful! Of course the visitor’s bedroom was the first one finished off, so both Jose’s could sleep over and now we even have space for our next visitors!
In between all this hard work we even managed to go have a look at a kite contest at Suffisant. Awesome to take a look around here and you’re amazed about what all creations make it into the air. We’re also amazed by the size of some of the kites. Big pieced of wood nailed together, it all takes off! We also went snorkelling one day so we’re trying not only to work on the house! Bu now we’ve got the big closet build in the bed room, with a bureau and all and some nice shelves in the bathroom the whole thing is really becoming a cosy house! Almost as cool as the bus!
Our dive buddy’s Brenda and Bill are back on the island! Together we’ve been trough some exciting dive adventures again! We’ve seen lobsters, angel fish, a blue spotted eagle ray, scorpion fish and of course a sea horse! Awesome! We’ve also visited Jerry and the family. We’ve enjoyed dinner with them and Chris even managed to get a dive in at Porto Marie! Dear people, it was nice having all of you around again and hopefully till soon!!
Of course we’ve been taking tons of pictures, so have a look around and enjoy it all together with us!
Greets, Roos and Chris!
29 February 2008
Totally off this world we arrived after a 30 hour tiring and dark flight in the Netherlands. From the pickup at our hotel in Sydney till the moment we got in the car at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, about 35 hours have passed by. The strange part was that most of these hours were spent in the darkness, since we were flying westwards with the sun. It seemed like it was a never-ending night. Over and over again, after a few hours of “sleep” I opened up the window, but nothing. Still dark! When we reached London finally it started to get a little light again!
After a short stop in London and a nice hot chocolate of over 6 dollars (!!!) we made it quite fast to the Netherlands where we stayed with our friends Erik and Zuzanna. Together with Sophie (4 years old by now) we enjoyed a few nice days in Amsterdam. While we were strolling trough the park, shaking fro the cold weather, Sophie enjoyed a very nice and big ice cream. The cold didn’t seem to bother her!
After this we took of to the “big city” of Waalwijk. Roos’ her dad lives here together with Lijna. They made up the guest bedroom nicely so we both had a nice bed! The rest of the time spent in the Netherlands we got spoiled and everybody loaded us up with all kind of nice food. Awesome! We also took the time to try to sort out our pictures. It wasn’t easy!! Out of about 3000 pictures we decided to print only the 600 best ones. Still a lot, but come on. Much better than all of them??!!
A lot of the week was filled with “jet-lag moments” but also lots ‘a fun! Together with Ingrid, Stef and Nick we went to the zoo. We’ve seen camels doing tricks, been chased by prehistoric dinosaurs and I cycled for my life! (Long story) We had lunch in a pancake house and had some fun in the kids’ playground. It felt so good to be surrounded by even more nice people! Of course we passed by at Roderick’s place. This time not only to mess around with him, but also to meet Kim (his girlfriend). You can have a look cuz she’s on the pictures but we like here already!
The following days we visited all the grandparents. Of course they had to go trough all the pictures one by one. They enjoyed our stories and we enjoyed being around them again.And after a nice weekend spend in Domburg with Roos’ her dad and a cuddle and photo session with Aunt Karin it was time head towards Curacao!
Once arrived at our “dushi Korsou” we were surprised by a big welcome home committee of our parents and friends. Really nice to see all of you guys waiting for us with all the balloons and having fun! After quite some cuddling in front of the airport’s exit Rosie got pulled away by Margot like ‘I’ll never let you go again”, and we decided to meet at Chris’ parents place. After some very nice salads and rolls it didn’t take us to long to fall in a sound sleep.
The next coming days were all filled with a lot of stuff to do. Since we haven’t been around for about 8 months there was a load to do. Taxes had to be paid, bankcards reactivated and you could keep going on like that. The most important thing we took care of the very first Saturday. We bought a super cool pickup. They said it would be really hard to find a decent pickup, but with luck on our side we found this nice big red diesel! It just got sprayed bright red and it’s kind of high of the ground. We’re REALLY HAPPY with it!!
It was not only back to business, but also many fun things to do. Roos’ mom is here together with Jose, so we spend quite some time with them. Having nice dinners and catching up! Of course the same goes for Pamela and Margot. You really notice that in the last 8 months you couldn’t tell each other everything you really wanted to by phone. It feels good being able to go for an ice cream, a nice drive and catch up. With Dre, Jose, and Sjors who were on vacation we also had some iguana soup made up one day. Rosie and I decided to pass, but all the others liked it a lot! Good job papa Chris!!
So what’s next?! From next week we can move into the house Chris grew up in. There’s some “fixing up” and “making cozy” to be done. Curious about all what’s coming!
Dear people, this is it for the first update back from Curacao. Keep checking back on the site since we’ll keep you up to date with all our adventures here on Curacao. And who knows what the future is cooking up for us!
Big hug, greetings and till soon.
Rosie and Chris