Beau on the beach

Part of Beau's rehabilitation consists of long walks on a leash. Luckily there is a large dune area close to our house, with a network of horse riding trails and walking paths that can be used for this purpose. This area has been completely renovated last winter, with all the non-native plants and trees being removed, and the roots sieved out of the dune sand, resulting in a sandy desert landscape. Part of the area has now been fenced off and it is planned to release some Highland cattle for natural maintenance. The horse trails go in and out of this cattle area and fences, that should be opened whilst sitting on a horse, have been placed there. Some practice is still required....

Anyway, Beau (and all of us) went for a 10 km walk today, including a stretch on the beach. And even better: yesterday Paula took him for a ride (just walking) with one of his friends, Ceasar, that also included the beach. A first seaside ride after some 5 months! Obviously the ladies were very pleased, also because his injured leg is getting better quickly.

Ceasar and Beau are walking on the beach

The ladies are "walking the horse"

On the beach, Kijkduin in the distance

The Ronde van Vlaanderen

Last weekend Piet fulfilled one of his long standing wishes: cycling on the roads of the legendary Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders), the highlight of the Belgian cycling season, and one of the most important days in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium.

Piet's cycling mate Renaat happens to be Belgian, and he has a family house in the area of Oudenaarde, which is the centre of this race. So it was decided several months ago to spend a weekend there: to cycle the organised tour on Saturday and watch the professionals on Sunday. They left on Friday after work, for an early start next morning, in grey, cold, but dry weather. The tour they did (with another 15,000 cycling enthusiasts) was 135 km long, passing most of the famous roads in the area. The last stretch was the same as the pro race, with the Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg as main obstacles. These are short, but very steep climbs, on cobblestone roads, and for a lot of people it is difficult to cycle up. For Piet the ride went fine, he managed to stay on the bike, and only struggled to keep up with the very strong Renaat.

In the mean time Renaat's family had arrived, and the rest of the day was leasured away in recovery mode. Next morning the sun was out in full force, and most of the day could be spent outside. In the afternoon the pro's passed nearby on their 3 final loops of the race, and they saw them twice, the third time (and the finish) was watched on television. National hero Tom Boonen won the Tour of Flanders, so everybody was happy. A long drive home followed, for school and work early next day.

And some news on Beau: after his stint in horse hospital he had a minor relapse, and is back on the road to recovery again. Mary and the girls are very active with him, and will start riding again soon. The main focus in the next months is trailer training, as they really want to take him along to France this summer!

An impression of the organised tour on the Paterberg

The first pro's passing the top of the Oude Kwaremont

Belgian champion Philippe Gilbert leading a group over the Oude Kwaremont

One of the groups descending towards the Paterberg

Rome

Piet had another short business trip, this time Rome was his destination. For 2 days he and his colleagues were working away in an office close to the Vatican, but luckily for him his hotel was on the other side of the town centre. In the mornings and afternoons he had a 30 minute commute on foot, past some of the famous landmarks. And on the last afternoon they had to pass some time to wait for a data package, and thus had a quick visit to the Vatican. No time for the Sistine Chapel, but only for a stroll inside St. Peter's Basilica: a very impressive building (and obviously there is still lots of money in the church). These little trips are definitely one of the advantages of working for a large international company!

The Trevi fountain

Castel Sant'Angelo

St. Peter's Basilica

Ice skating

This winter temperatures in The Netherlands dropped to a 15-year low, which allowed the Dutch people one of their favourite pastimes: ice skating. They were even close organising the most famous race of all: "De Elfstedentocht" (11 cities tour), a 220 km race in the north of the country. The race was held last in 1997, as thick ice is needed across the whole route. Only 16.000 participants are allowed, but there are probably a million people who want to join. A complicated membership-lottery combination is used to select the happy few. Anyway, the race was cancelled due to limited ice thickness and approaching warmer weather.

For the girls it was their first opportunity to have a go at it themselves, as growing up in Malaysia and Egypt didn't include ice skating... Mary still had a pair of skates, and Paula went out a few times with her friends, and enjoyed it a lot. One day after school Paula and Dorien joined forces at a nearby canal, swopping skates and making pictures.

And on the horse front: Beau is in a horse clinic at the moment to get his hoof fixed, and now needs 10 days of absolute rest. Visiting is only allowed on weekdays, so Mary had a long weekend...

Paula skating near our house

Dorien on the ice at sunset

Rio (II) and horse matters

Piet had another short trip to Rio de Janeiro for the project he is working on in the office (see post of Nov. 26^th 2011). The pattern was very similar: after one and a half day of meetings in a windowless room there was some time for sightseeing before taking the plane back. This time Piet and his two colleagues went to Pao de Açucar (Sugerloaf Mountain), the famous rock in the bay of Rio, also well known from James Bond’s Moonraker movie. The weather was great (it is summer in Brazil), and they enjoyed the views over the town and the beer afterwards on Copacabana Beach. When the plane landed next morning there was a minor snowstorm, with an almost 40 degrees C drop in temperature! No sympathy for Piet though, especially after he mentioned a morning swim in the Atlantic Ocean…….

Beau is having a bad time, not because of the weather, but due to an injury. Mary started a horse sports massage course and she wanted to take Beau along for one of the lessons. He has always been very good in trailers, so we didn’t expect any problems. He stepped into our trailer easily, but when Mary drove off he panicked almost immediately. Mary stopped, called the girls and had to unload him and leave him back in his stable. What apparently happened is that he got one of his hooves stuck below a divider we build ourselves (to allow some storage space for boxes with food and equipment), and his skin was stripped off just above. The vet was called because it looked quite nasty, and the injury was cleaned and bandaged. To allow quicker healing he cannot do any exercise, and Beau has been confined to his 3x3 m box for 10 days now. Twice a day he gets out to walk for 10 minutes, which is more a mental than a physical exercise. And for the rest the ladies keep him company as much as possible, because Beau is obviously very bored. To be continued……

Early morning exercise class on Ipanema Beach

Sugerloaf Mountain, from the middle cable car station

View over Copacabana Beach, from Sugerloaf Mountain

Beau's bandaged rear leg

Mochi and Maru are back

The siamese cats Mochi and Maru (see post of Nov 14th 2010) are back again. Their owner is out of the country for 5 weeks, and she was looking for a place to stay for her babies. We took them in and they settled in quickly, being much more at ease and sociable than last year. Going outside is still a huge adventure for them, but they have dog collars and leashes now, making it at least easier for us. In any case they seem to sleep 23 hours a day, lying on top of each other, making no noise and pretending they don't exist.

Beau is doing fine as well, we are extending his walks onto the beach to get him used to waves, wind and sand, all in preparation for long rides along the waterline.

Mochi and Maru in their favourite position

Walking Beau on the beach

In the dunes

Even Piet can hold Beau (or is he distracted by the grass?)

Lots of snow

This year we planned our skiing holiday after Christmas and we left for France on the 29^th. When we arrived in Bassey there was only a bit of winter, with just a thin snow cover. However, when we woke up next morning a fresh layer of some 30 cm of snow covered the village. We took the opportunity to do some cross-country skiing, and to build a huge snowman in our garden. We also sorted out our downhill skiing gear. The next day we followed the usual pattern: get up early, have breakfast, drive up to Alpe d’Huez, and dropping the girls off for their “competition” skiing lesson. Then we get ready ourselves for a few hours on the slopes, until we all meet up for lunch. After lunch we go back out again to carry on as a family, but only the girls last the whole afternoon. Skiing a whole day is pretty intense!

The weather was quite variable, and it snowed a lot. We got a record number of snow chain changes and had some tricky drives on the windy steep road between the resort and our village. Even the school bus had problems, and it slid off the narrow Bassey road into a ditch, blocking access to the village for a morning. But we thoroughly enjoyed the 2 days of sunshine, and had our best skiing ever in the Auris area.

On New Year’s Eve we stayed at home, and then the electricity in the whole village cut out at 22.30 hrs. We sat around for half an hour by candlelight, finished our champagne and then decided to go to bed. We passed into 2012 in our sleep….

We drove back on Sunday, and when we arrived home the car was unloaded in a few minutes, then the ladies ran off to the stable to check our missing son: Beau. He had been well taken care of by two other ladies, and was in fine shape. Mary did have intensive SMS correspondence during the week but still….they wanted to see for themselves!

Dorien and our snowman

Cross-country skiing in Bassey

Dorien arriving in the Gorges du Sarenne

The ladies on Lievre Blanc