With Robin in Rotterdam

Today I went to Rotterdam with my son Robin. We had only three goals: having fun, eating and drinking something delicious and buying him a new acoustic guitar. We succeeded three times! I also wanted to take some pictures as part of the fun, but today was a wet and dreary day, so I switched my camera to sepia. The window of the music shop was decorated with old instruments (probably traded in by their former owners), so this was a nice addition to my nostalgic mood. It was a great day, no matter the weather. And Robin is very happy with his new Yamaha western guitar, of course.

Click pics to enlarge.

Happy 29th Birthday, Lydia!

We are celebrating Lydia's 29th birthday for the 14th time! Yes, she still looks young - must be because of our kids. Happy birthday Lydia - we all love you very, very much!

Robin has broken his upper arm

Last Monday our son Robin (15) broke his upper arm and dislocated his shoulder during a judo match. I took him to hospital for an x-ray and it turned out that he needed an operation the next day. I stayed with him during the night and he had to wait until Tuesday 20:30 PM for the operation (there were several emergencies in the hospital that needed attention first).
He is at home now, after three nights in hospital, and he is doing reasonably well - but still with a lot of pain in his arm and shoulder. Your prayers are appreciated.

Tallest people on Earth

“To a small man every greater is an exaggeration.”
~Henry David Thoreau

“Most of us are taller than our parents, who probably are taller than their parents. But in the Netherlands, the generational progression has reached new heights. In the last 150 years, the Dutch have become the tallest people on Earth - and experts say they're still getting bigger. It is a tale of a nation's health and wealth.” Source

Okay, okay, I know that I've been making too much of my Dutchness in recent posts. I'm sorry about that, dear blog friends – I'm really not that nationalistic. However... I just had to share this important piece of information with you and I also wanted to show the video below that I made yesterday on our beach to back up the claims about Dutch people being extremely tall. Have a look and judge for yourself!

According to the news paper article “prosperity propelled the collective growth spurt” in the Netherlands. But I know better - of course. This is my theory: as one of the most densely populated (392 people per km²), smallest (only 0.008% of the world's area), lowest and flattest countries on the planet we have so little space that we need to grow tall in order to get some fresh air. It's the evolution, stupid! The good thing about this is that we have the biggest skies in the world and more foreign territory than any other country (with the exception of Andorra) and we are tall enough to keep an eye on the rest of the planet from our modest point of view, which explains why Dutch people are excellent supervisors. And now you also know why the pope resides in Vatican City. But the pope is a German! Okay, let me explain... Unfortunately all the Dutch candidates were too tall and too heavy for the Holy See.

But I digress... So I went to the beach with my son Robin and daughter Sosha yesterday. You can see both of them from a distance at the end of the video. I needed this distance because they are real giants. Being on the beach with them was also great. As you can see it was a very calm sea and there were not that many people. You can't see it, but it was very chilly because of the East wind. I will upload some pics on my photo blog later today. Have a look!

And in case you're wondering why it's getting so dark in this world... I'm sorry to tell you that my daughter Sosha has swallowed the sun. So this is our last picture taken without flash light... © Robin

Robin joins X-Pact band

Today Robin played the electric guitar in the band of our youth church X-Pact. It was his debut and he did really well!

The flash light of my little camera wasn't strong enough, but as a proud father I still like to share this with all of you, of course...

Big son, brother & nephew!

Today we celebrate Robin's 15th birthday! Yesterday these three little girls posed for this picture, but they were already sitting there with their big nephew and friend... (Left to right: Stéphanie, Maaike and Daniek)