Blogs from Gaanderen, Gelderland, Netherlands, Europe

Another long interval has passed since my last blog. Some of you might have thought I had stopped blogging, or, god forbid, stopped travelling. Neither is the case. It's more that I have yet to return to my old travel schedule. The pre-Covid one. I was travelling more then. It's taking some time to get back to that. But I haven't been idle. Since Saudi Arabia there was a Christmas and New Year spent with Jenni in Hagen, several visits from one of my best friends who lives in Australia, quite a few stints in the clinic, celebrating the unofficial Dutch national day, King's Day, in Utrecht with Jenni (her first), followed by one of the most Dutch of Dutch clichés, cycling through the blooming tulip fields of the Noordoostpolder, once the bottom of an inland ... read more

I just discovered it's been slightly more then a year (2 days to be exact), that I wrote my last blog. Embarrassing! It also means I haven't really travelled for two years, not counting my visits to Germany. And that Covid-19 is still a thing. So this is another Intermezzo blog, which is strange. An Intermezzo blog, following on a year old Intermezzo blog! But these are weird times we are living in. On the up side, my carbon footprint is probably the lowest it's been in years. No flying to far flung destinations, a few train trips with trains running on green energy (so they claim), and there you go. My contribution to COP26! During this year a lot has happened. A Christmas and New Year in Switzerland with my sister, a surprising late snow-stormy ... read more

My dad died. He died on Tuesday the 10th of December 2013 from lung cancer that had metastasized to the brain. This blog is about that event, but mostly it is about my father and it is dedicated to him and his life. For most people he was a friendly man, or a good colleague and friend, but to me he was papa. This simple word conveys everything that he was and still is for me. Final moments He wasn't alone when he died, my mum and I were with him. We told him we were there, not to be afraid and, most importantly, that we loved him. My mum kissed him. He reacted to us in those final moments, so we know that he was aware of us being there. He died at home, ... read more