Yesterday was a busy but fun day.  Oom Wim came to pick me up and take me to Hardenberg (thanks Oom Wim!)  On the way we stopped at the house where I was born in and lived for the first 4 years of my life and asked if we could look inside.  The owner was still the same person who bought it off Dad and Mum about 30 years ago!  Here are a couple of pictures  (the house has changed a lot - walls are painted white, many walls have been changed, some bits added on, sunken floors are gone).)



This is still the original fireplace.  Also the wooden mantel and door frame.
The tiles are still the same and Dad actually made them heated underneath
which was apparently quite innovative, the way he did it.



This well is still from when we owned the house.  It used
to have a cute roof but it was wrecked in a storm.



The stone table was also from when we lived there.
Obviously too heavy to take to Australia :)



When we got to Tante Bertha's, Maddi, Tante Bertha and I went to the markt (market)...

It was nice looking around and we also saw Oma Botter and Wiwik (they were in Hardenberg shopping for the day) and Tante Gerry. 

Tante Bertha and I had some Vietnamese Loempia's (spring rolls) which were really yummy.  We decided to take some gebakken vis (deep fried fish) home for our lunch and I just couldn't resist having another salted herring :

We had lunch with Oom Ben when we got back.  The gebakken vis was really yummy.  I also tried some bakleverworst (liverwurst that you have to fry first) on bread.  It was quite yummy, though a bit strong tasting (maybe because the slice was about 3cm thick!)

I put Maddi to bed (Oom Ben and Tante Bertha babysat) and rode my bike into the centre of Hardenberg to see my cousin Berdien Botter (from Oom Roel and Tante Geke) and where she lives.  She has a really nice flat really close to all the shops in Hardenberg.  It was nice seeing her again and her mum (Geke), Oma and Wiwik were also there for a bit.

When I got back I went to Oom Wim's house to choose some clogs which I'm allowed to take back to Australia.  His oldest son Freddy was just riding there, so I got to meet him too which was really nice.  That's one thing I'm finding difficult - I've got only 4 weeks to visit 2 sides of my family and see Holland.  As a result, I had to prioritise - who I have to (and want to and need to) see to who I would love to see but there simply isn't enough time.

Also (inevitably, with that many people) someone is bound to get forgotten or not seen "as much as the others".  With me, this is definantly not the intention, but I am human and make mistakes and forget things!!!  I was also worried a bit about my blog in that regards - that certain people would look at it and say "There's way more photos of so-and-so and hardly any of me", "She spent way more time with that side of the family than with this side", "She hardly wrote anything about my house and lots about someone else's".  I thought carefully about it and decided that : 

• I am a human being and I am allowed to make (accidental) mistakes,
• that the main intention of my blog is for Steve and the kids to know what I am doing and if other people enjoy reading it, that's a bonus,
• some days I have more time to make the blog than others
• In 4 weeks it is basically not humanely possible to see such a big extended family, especially if I have to see them all separately.

Anyway, back to yesterday.  Tante Bertha and I went for a (very) refreshing bikeride near her house (it was quite windy but also sunny).  She cooked stampot zuurkool (saurkraut) with pineapple and speckies (fried pork rind) in it and also a delicious rookworst (smoked sausage).  Very tasty.

That evening we looked through a fair bit of stuff.  Tante Bertha showed me a box where Oma Kuipers had kept all of our letters from Australia over the years.  There were heaps of my old ones in there too and it was interesting to read some and also see my handwriting change over the years.

There are 2 more things I want to tell you :

• A lot of people ask me if I'm homesick and miss Steve and the kids.  I've realised that a lot of people couldn't just leave their family for 4 weeks like I'm doing.  Of course I miss them but not to the point that I'm sad about it.  The main reasons for this are : first of all, I believe everything and everyone is in God's hands, secondly, the kids are with such great people (sisters and best friends of mine) and I know for certain they are well looked after, thirdly, I know that Steve is very capable of looking after himself and fourthly, I don't have time to get homesick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• I went to visit Opa and Oma Botter's old house on Polderweg, but it's nothing like what I remembered.  It used to be painted white, now the bricks are a brown colour, the roof used to have red tiles, now it has a ritten dak (straw roof?).  Arjan (my cousin) took me for a drive past it and he said that basically only the windows are the same.