Surgery, injury and the big friendly giant

Again a lot has happened the last few weeks. Mary has been suffering from her left leg since early December. Starting off as a common sports injury the trajectory of muscle relaxants, followed by physiotherapy, didn’t result in any improvement, it was just getting worse. The next step was a suspected slipped disk or hernia, and she was sent to the hospital for an MRI scan. The result was unambiguous: a little bulge between two of her lower vertebrae. The only solution was surgery, but for every step you have to wait, and wait again. By this time Mary had been struggling for 3 months, stopped horse riding; and the last few weeks sleeping poorly due to the pain and shuffling around the house like a 90-year old. Fortunately through a waiting list consultant of our health insurance Mary managed to speed up the process significantly, and she was offered a place in a clinic near Arnhem, on the other side of the country. This was eagerly accepted and she has been in surgery this week. She went down there by train, stayed overnight after a successful operation and was picked up by Piet, using our car as a converted ambulance. Now the pain is gone, but a boring and long road of recovery has started. The first 2 weeks she has to lay down most of the day, with only minimal walking, and certainly no sitting. She is going to be sick and tired of daytime television! An additional complication is that Piet is in charge of the household now, and has been promoted to master chef…

The second patient is Smook, our timeshare horse. He has been diagnosed with an inflamed tendon injury, and has been put on a 6-week rehabilitation program. No riding, and just 3 short walks in the park every day, shared between the owner’s family, Paula and Dorien. The obvious nurse is recovering herself… The rest of the day Smook is confined to his stable. His diet has been adjusted as well; he now has to survive on wet straw (!), because his regular food is too rich when he isn’t doing anything.

Paula’s continued presence in the stable and good riding and calm handling skills of horses resulted in another family addition. One of the ladies has asked her to become the additional rider for her horse Zidane. This is a truly giant horse, the largest of the stable, and a bit intimidating at first sight. However, he is very gentle, and Paula has been riding him during lessons and doing lounging exercises. For laymen: lounging is letting the horse run around in circles on a long rope, and teaching him to listen to commands of walk, trot and canter. It is an ideal way to practice obedience, and to keep horses fit. As Zidane is one of Smook’s friends the ultimate goal is a race on the beach between them (with Mary and Paula as jockey’s), but that is still months away, also because the beach will be closed for horses imminently (and Mary will not be allowed near a horse the next 6 weeks!).

Mary is recovering after her surgery

Paula and Smook on a rehabilitation walk in the park

Paula and Zidane, "the big friendly giant"

Champagne!

One of the advantages of being back in The Netherlands is that Piet regularly sees his old friends from his hometown Utrecht again. During Piet’s long stay abroad they developed a new passion: wine. They have their own, loosely organised wine tasting and purchasing group “Het Derde Glas”. They make a yearly trip to the Champagne area in north-eastern France, to taste, and, if it pleases their taste buds, to buy some bottles. This time they asked Piet to come along as well.

So on Wednesday after work he reported in Utrecht, and with a minibus and a car they drove to St. Quentin and stayed overnight. The next morning we started just west of Reims, with the first independent winemaker. The pattern was generally the same: we tasted the 3, 4 or 5 different champagnes that are produced (lot’s of spitting to keep our sanity throughout the day), the taste is discussed (yoghurt, nuts, strawberries, dry bread, a discussion far above Piet’s abilities) and a widely varying purchase is made. A large spreadsheet was kept to register everybody’s bottle counts, and to help splitting the bounty at the end.

Throughout 2 days we slowly descended to Troyes, and in the end visited 12 wineries in the region. It was very early in the season, and the farmers were just finishing the pruning of the grapevines, so the landscape was still lacking some green. That this industry is doing well was demonstrated by the small town of Epernay, where the Avenue de Champagne is lined with stately mansions, all owned by the large champagne houses. Piet also gained some background info on making champagne through 2 tours of the cellars, guided by the proud owners of the grapes, the process and the ultimate bottles.

In the end we had a lot of fun, and we bought quite a lot of bottles, which should last until the next trip. On Saturday morning the group split, Piet drove back with the treasure in the minibus, and the car continued to Chablis and Bourgogne for a day of some "real" wine. Everything was left in a spare room hidden underneath a sheet, at a secret location in Utrecht, to be split and sorted by a trustworthy member of the party….

Bare hillsides, waiting for the grapevines to start growing

Tasting and discussing the different champagnes at Huot et Fils

One of the winemakers that we honoured with a visit

Bethon, one of the many typical villages in the Champagne area

The City-Pier-City Run

This weekend the City-Pier-City Run was held, the largest sport event of The Hague. Originally this was a half marathon, but nowadays it is a whole day with different runs, and tens of thousands of participants. Through the school all 4 of us registered, and Piet did quite a lot of running the last few months, slowly building up after 5 years of abstinence due to his "Borneo Ballbreaker" knee injury.

On the day it was different though; Piet and Mary were both injured! Piet strained a calf muscle a few days before, and Mary has already been struggling for months with (what recently turned out to be) a slipped disk. So no 10 km for them. The weather was great, it was the first weekend of spring, and everybody was out on the bike. Paula and Dorien did the 5 km run, starting off with some of their friends (and 5000 other people), and finishing together. No problem for both of them!

In the afternoon we also watched the real race, passing close by the house. All the athletes were either Kenyan or Ethiopian, and were running their half marathon like it was a sprint. Just legs and lungs, impressive!

Paula and Dorien finishing their 5 km run

After the race

Piet's new bike

A lot of the blog entries are about our passion for horse riding, but that is really for the ladies. Piet is often at the stable to watch, but is never riding. He is following is own passion, riding on his "iron horse". Every weekend he goes for a ride on either his mountain or road bike. Even the last few months he managed 1-2 hours rides, with warm clothes, skiing gloves and shoe covers.

His 15 year old Norwegian DBS ("Den Beste Sykkel") road bike, was due for replacement, and after some investigation he found a good offer for a Dutch Be One bike, which he eventually picked up in November. This happened to be the first winter weekend in Holland, with snow... Ever since he has been waiting for an opportunity to ride it: no snow or ice, dry roads, little wind. And this weekend he couldn't wait any longer, despite the low temperatures and light snowfall in the morning. But the roads were dry in the afternoon, so he took his Black Pearl for a stroll. It is riding like a dream, but everything still needs to be a little bit adjusted to Piet's posture. With a slightly higher saddle it turned out to be a good start!

Piet with his Black Pearl

Walking the horse

There are lot's of dogs in our neighbourhood, and in the weekend many people are walking these dogs in the parks and dunes. A horse needs exercise as well, so on a cold, sunny Saturday afternoon Mary took her timeshare horse, Smook, for a walk. He had been standing in his stable the whole day, as owner Hanneke was busy with party preparations.

During these walks Mary takes the opportunity to teach Smook to be obedient: to walk just behind her, to stop on command, and to turn in circles, all for the main goal: to make him a perfect horse for long rides on the beach, in the dunes and anywhere else in the Dutch outdoors.

Mary is preparing Smook for his walk

Leaving the stable, Smook gets attention from some of the girls

Walking in the "Bosjes van Pex", the park near our house

Skiing in France

During our Christmas holiday we went to our house in France, for a week of skiing, like we did last year as well. We left The Hague, covered in 20 cm of snow, and we were dreading the drive though wintery Western Europe. It had been mayhem on the roads, airports and railways the weeks before, so we decided to take an alternative route, avoiding the hilly Belgian Ardennes. This was probably a good move, as we were treated to sleet in Northern France, turning into heavy rain further south. In our village there was no snow left due to mild weather and rain, but it turned around on our arrival and temperatures stayed below zero during our stay.

Arriving late afternoon at the house we found out that the heating was not working, and it was bitterly cold inside. With the help of our neighbour Jean, and in the end Philippe the plumber (who had to replace a part) it was fixed late in the evening. We spend the first night shivering in our beds, waiting for the house to warm up, and next morning it was already comfortable. We were ready for the holidays!

A thin layer of snow had fallen during the night (the only snow during our 10 day stay), which was just enough for some cross country skiing around the village, and Paula and Dorien had a go. The next day we went up to Alpe d'Huez for our first day of skiing. The following days had our usual routine: get up at 7.15, breakfast, coffee, gather our gear, drive up to Alpe d'Huez, put the ski gear on and go to the lesson area, for a 9.15 start. Paula and Dorien had lessons every morning, as we are mediocre skiers and can't teach them anything anymore. As part of the lessons they have a number of races, during which they can qualify for higher levels. Due to the lack of fresh snow the pistes were quite hard and icy, and it was difficult for them to ski fast; only Dorien managed to pass one of the levels. In the afternoons we skied together throughout the whole area, only the mythic "Tunnel" descent is missing from our list (as it is very steep, and not groomed). The weather, especially the second half of the week, was very good: sunshine, little wind and just below zero temperatures.

New Year's Eve was as usual: no activity whatsoever in the village. Lights are out early as almost everybody is working in the ski resorts. We lasted to midnight....

On the last day we cleaned our gear and the house, and Paula and Dorien had a visit by their friend Pauline from Bourg. We drove back through the Ardennes this time, but we got stuck in a long traffic jam, as that road had not fully recovered and was reduced to one lane for a stretch. It was a long day in the car... And now back to our regular lives again: work, school and horse riding!

Paula and Dorien are ready for their cross country run, Swallow is looking on

Cross country skiing along the Romanche

Dorien's ski class is ready to start

Paula and Piet on the black Sarenne descent, claimed to be the longest in Europe

Paula and Piet on the Chalvet run, overlooking Alpe d'Huez

Mary and Dorien on Lievre Blanc, above the clouds

More winter

Last night a new layer of snow fell, and although the weather was very grey we went out for some sledging, to check out the beach, and to take some pictures. It is a shame most of our winter gear (cross country skis!) is still in France.

Strandslag 7, the dune crossing to the beach

Paula and Dorien on the beach

In the dunes, overlooking The Hague

Dorien is sledging down one of the paths in the dunes