Beau

This is the first of, no doubt, many posts. Beau has been with us for a week now, and slowly getting used to his new life at the stable. Every day he has done a bit of exercise, ranging from short walks in the park to longing and even a regular lesson with Paula. All three have ridden him now, and he is very pleasant, and obviously well-trained. Today we took him for his first walk outside, into the dunes and a short stretch on the beach, to get him used to his new environment and take away his fear for the unknown, in preparation for rides in our surroundings. He was a bit nervous at first, especially for a large orange surf-kite, but helped by the calm attitude of the girls he was fine in the end. And definitely a bit more interesting than looking at the same stable horses all day!

Dorien is taking Beau for a walk

Beau is posing with Dorien and Piet

Rio

Piet recently started working on a project in Tanzania, where he and a large team of people are evaluating the potential for new offshore oil and gas fields. Because drilling wells in this setting is extremely expensive Shell teamed up with Petrobras, the Brazilian state oil company, to share costs and risks. In order to align the work of both companies a meeting was convened in Rio de Janeiro, and Piet was invited along. So he flew over to Rio de Janeiro with his boss and spend 2 days in meetings, in a windowless room. On the last day the meeting finished early and they had to wait several hours before returning to the airport, so they took the opportunity for a blitz visit to the most famous site: Christo Redentor, the statue of Jesus on top of Corcovado mountain. Corcovado is a granite hill, located in the middle of the city, with a height of some 700 m. The statue was constructed in 1922-1931, and adds another 40 meters. It was a very nice day and the views over the city were stunning: a good ending of a short trip, and an appetiser for more!

Ipanema Beach in the early morning

Christo Redentor is the most popular tourist site in Rio

View over Rio, with Sugarloaf Mountain in the distance

Finally!

Finally it has happened: Mary bought a horse!. After a serious search of some 6 months, starting with Real in France this summer, and many horses on internet and several inspections she ended up in Dordrecht and found Beau, a brown gelding of 10 years old. As she learned from bad experiences of some of her friends Mary insisted on a thorough veterinary examination before a final decision. Two weeks ago this examination was stopped by the vet as Beau probably made a misstep getting in or out of the trailer, and was limping. After 2 weeks of rest Beau passed the vet test with flying colours on Friday and today his owner brought him to The Hague. In "our" stable De Wildhoef there was a free box, and he is now living 300 m from our house. The girls are very happy, and homework is looking less important at the moment!

The girls are very, very happy with Beau

The advertisement picture: Beau in competition mode

Rabo Beach Challenge 2011

Piet signed up for the Rabo Beach Challenge 2011 again, despite his "freezing" experience of last year (post of 30th November 2010). His cycling mate Renaat passed for this one, in order to spare his bike (sea water and sand!) for further degeneration. It should be clear: bikes are really suffering and you can hear them creaking badly during the race.

Anyway, Piet lined up with some 1000 other cyclists for a 38 km ride from Scheveningen to Noordwijk and back. Unfortunately it was high tide, the sand was very soft, and there was only a very narrow strip fit for cycling, just along the waterline. It was a very tough ride towards Noordwijk, with many crossings through water, some even knee deep! After the turning point there was a short stretch along a cycle path in the dunes, and back on the beach. Luckily the sea had withdrawn a bit, and the cycling was a lot better. Soon the silhouette of Scheveningen Pier was visible, and Piet finished after 1 hr 52 minutes, somewhere in the middle of the pack. The weather was quite pleasant, some 8 degrees and little wind, and even though Piet was soaking wet, his fingers and toes were doing fine......and back home a very thorough bike cleaning job was waiting!

An impression of the 2011 Rabo Beach Challenge, 19th November 2011

Voluntary work

Every Saturday morning our alarm goes off at 7 o'clock, and Mary, Paula and Dorien get up to go to the Madurodam Stable. This stable offers lessons and rides for handicapped children and adults, and only manages to run with help of numerous volunteers. For us this all started by the requirement from school to put in a few hours of community service each term, and driven by their passion for horses, and the closeness of this stable, the girls ended up there soon after we arrived in The Netherlands. The day starts at 8, when the stables are cleaned out and the horses are groomed. Then a few of the experienced riders among the volunteers (and the 3 Lambregts ladies are definitely qualified!) take the horses for a ride in the dunes and, when allowed, on the beach. This way the horses can loose some of their excess energy before their lessons start. At 10 the first riders arrive, which have a widely varying degree of mental and/or physical handicaps. Dependent on their ability the volunteers help them with the horse, guide the horse, or even hold the rider while doing their lesson or ride. Mary, Paula and Dorien have build up good relationships with a number of riders, and for most of them it is clearly the highlight of the week. The work is normally done at 1 pm, when we have lunch at home together.

Piet usually goes for his weekly bike ride during this time, but today that was postponed to the afternoon. He took the opportunity to follow them on their ride and to take some pictures.

Crossing the main road between the stable and the dunes

Riding on the beach, along the waterline

Returning back to the dunes

Leaving the beach

Dorien riding Billy in the dunes

Autumn break in Belgium and France

For the autumn break we planned to go to our house in France again, to get everything ready for winter and to take a break after the hectic weeks with the funeral and the seemingly never ending renovation upstairs. A few months earlier Piet proposed a change to the regular schedule: a long weekend stopover in the Ardennes on the way down. He found a very nice 4-person room in a renovated 17th century farmhouse, in the beautiful village of Furfooz, a few minutes’ drive east of Dinant. The weather was great, and we did some of the classics…

The first day we went to Dinant and climbed the citadel, located some 100 m above the town, and with a great view over the Meuse river. We enjoyed the guided tour by an old, tri-lingual Belgian man, especially his English translations. In the afternoon we did a walk from Furfooz, past Chateau de Vêves, another Ardennes classic, and ending up at the Lesse river. The next day we drove to Han, to visit the caves, which is one of the oldest tourist destinations in Europe. Despite going in with a lot of people the 2 km underground walk was very impressive and enjoyable. In the afternoon we did a hike around Han. The 3rd day we walked to Parc de Furfooz, a small archeological area next to the village, with some Roman remain and pre-historic caves. After lunch we did a trip along Mary’s memory lane: the climbing rocks of Freyr, at the Meuse river, just south of Dinant. During her university days she used to come here a few times a month to go rock climbing with fellow daredevils, and it was impressive for us to see these near-vertical, 100 m high walls she used to tackle. We descended to the river and walked along it to the Lesse, and back up again. Unfortunately their old hangout “Chamonix”, where they used to eat chips after a hard day of climbing, was closed for the day.

The next morning we drove to Bassey (Paula turned 16 this day!), and we arrived late in the afternoon. We had a few presents and dinner in the local pizzeria to celebrate. The next day it rained, so we did some shopping, and pottered around the house. This was followed by 3 glorious days of sunshine, and work in the garden. Mary finally managed to convince the rest to dig up the drainpipe, which has been blocked for some time, and was overflowing during rain showers. It looked like a daunting task, but with the 4 of us we managed fine. We replaced the pipe along the house and in the garden, dug a drain hole at the end, and filled it with gravel from our local river Sarenne, and then buried the whole thing again. Now we have to wait for a heavy rain storm to see if it all works.

We also had some time for our favorite pastimes: Piet did two bike rides, freezing his body parts on the descends, Paula and Dorien went twice to Cecile to do some horse riding, and Mary used the chainsaw to prune the old apple trees in the garden. The girls also picked a lot of apples to make apple crumble and compote, and there were plenty left to take home for some more batches. It was all finished off with a record drive back to The Hague, ready for the winter.

The next morning we found out that the contractor doing the renovation had gone belly up...

Dinant and the river Meuse

Walking near Furfooz

In the caves of Han sur Lesse

The climbing walls at Freyr are rising straight up from the river Meuse

Digging up the drainpipe in our garden

Family matters

We have had an emotional week, as Piet's mother has suddenly, but not unexpectedly, passed away peacefully in her own house. Her health had been deteriorating the past few years, and her body had just given up. Piet, Mary, his two sisters, his brother and their partners have spent the whole week at the parental house planning the funeral, starting organising some of the household and paperwork, and mainly being together to support each other and share memories. Piet's mother was a very warm and caring person, who has supported us through our years abroad, and she also had a very close bond with Paula and Dorien. Her passing is a great loss for us.

The week ended with a funeral service in the church nearby, and afterwards she was placed in the graveyard, next to Piet's father. This was followed by a reception in a nearby restaurant, where we met a lot of family and friends that we hadn't seen in a long time. Everyone had the same positive stories and memories, and it was a very satisfying ending of a hectic week.

Piet's mother with Paula and Dorien in the desert near Cairo, December 2007