Once was an opinion welcome

It's all about which way you look!

It's all about which way you look! I was attracted to a clipart/gif picture quite some years ago now and used it many a time in my other blog A day in the life of . I've stopped using that blog but the items will stay online. Lots of good reading there I may add. Anyway, in that blog I wrote about events which happened or about subjects which got my attention one way or another. I'm not fussed about whether people agree with my ramblings. Writing often helps put things into perspective. When I read back a few weeks later I sometimes see a shift in my thoughts and findings. That means I've grown, learnt more or visions have changed. If I still feel the same, then I acknowledge that. I am neither right or wrong. I'm me! So today I decided I'd take the plunge and write about something(s) which have 'hung around'  for a while and just won't let me go.

Before I start my ramble: the word OPINION is MY opinion, MY vision, MY perception My thoughts.  Not right- not wrong, or left or right. Just another way of looking at something.

Thought number 1!

Mary buys groceries which include snack items, fizzie drinks and not to forget the weekly 3 bottles of wine. She also needs to purchase vegetables, dairy products, meat and household items. Her purse is smaller than her wants ( NOTE: wants)

Me: Mary needs help to learn how to budget so she can on the special occasions purchase 'extras' and enjoy them exactly as that: EXTRAS. I was trying to reflect when chips/crisps, fizzie drink and wine became daily items instead of birthday and feast day fare. Nothing special about a bag of chips/crips now is there?

Now I've been blasted for this. That I don't understand her situation, that she should be able to make her own decisions etc etc etc. That I begrudge her her extras after all, she's in a bit of a bad way, hard times etc. 

Well, that's true, things have not gone well the past couple of years.  In the meantime Mary has applied for a special benefit and the food bank. This is where I then re-iterate: Mary needs a lesson/support in budgeting. The food bank is for those who can't even buy the basics, let alone the extras. This isn't helping Mary improve her situation. It isn't teaching her to fish, this is putting the ambulance under the cliff. I am not right nor wrong. I voiced an opinion. My thinking, my way of seeing how a problem could be solved. Not should be solved. It may just give Mary some prospect of a far better future and a feeling of self worth and respect. People react so aggressively that I now avoid becoming involved in discussions. I internally have a private chat and hope someone somewhere also sees a way to help Mary improve her situation before things get even harder for her.

Now the "Holy Grail" thought number 2 - Newcomers political or otherwise.

As per 2015 we have 200 nationalities in this country ( Netherlands). People obviously are attracted to the country for various reasons. As of the 31 January 2022 the total population was 17.597.607. The prospect is that in 2028 we will have a population of 18 million. Now if that was in Australia, Canada, America to name a few XXL sized countries outside of Europe I'd say- amazing. Wow. Great. Have you googled how small this country is? I wonder if the people who come here do that before they choose 'us'. We've just been to France - spacious, green - beautiful. Plenty of space to build another city as big as Paris and creating at the same time possibilities for housing, employment, education, health and welfare.

In 2020 we had 517 people per km2. Land mass 41.543 km². Germany's landmass is 357.588 km2 and has 232 population per km2. A heated discussion is happening here about the number of refugees who are having to sleep outdoors ( it is summer and sweltering hot) in the over full refugee camps. One thing needs to be said: Their plight is not to be sneezed at or minimalized. What they have gained is a safety net and distance between them and the danger they left behind. Cities, townships and smaller communities are being affected with housing problems ( we don't have enough even for the population already living here) and the world is on fire regarding climate change etc. Where are we to house these people? Yes, they are welcome, NO I am not a racist or anti whatever? I am genuinely concerned - FOR everyone and their safe, happy and healthy future.

Now don't twist this to say I want to 'get rid' of any particular group - it's the people volume that is the issue. It's the pressure of 'us' all living so squashed that we as a population are losing the space to breath. Which in turn doesn't bring out the best in many people. Like all living beings, space is an essential part of our psyche. A place to retreat to, to re-charge batteries, to have a moment of silence, privacy. The strain on all services are showing  signs of collapse. Cracks appearing in social formation and structure. If anything, COVID19 has proven once again that living like ants on an ant hill isn't the most healthy system at all.

The world has changed. The distance traveled in past centuries was restricted due to the inability (yet) to fly or drive. Boats brought more speed and distance. The explorer, the inquisitor wanted more. To see what was around the corner or over the horizon. New worlds were being discovered. Populated. Taken over. Confiscated even. The world has shrunk. We can replace ourselves into any country we chose. 

Now this overcrowding isn't only something here in the Netherlands. Somehow we humans have converged together seeking companionship and the communities grew. There was safety in numbers and hunting together was practical. Now we hunt for space to be alone. To have some autonomy. How can this problem be addressed in a way that personal wellbeing and protection of ethnic customs and practices are maintained. That languages and customs are honored and kept alive. How do we do that? How do we discuss these issues and really listen to each other without jumping all over each other with accusing finger pointing and yelling louder and louder? If we don't break this discussion open and be generous with our compassion, empathy and realism we won't solve anything for anyone. 

Just one more thought: Have you ever flown? Do you recall the flight attendant  say to the parents or those traveling with someone in their care, " Please put your life jacket/mask on FIRST"? I understand the residents who have been on waiting lists for years for a home be upset when newcomers are given priority. Not a good thing for the relationship between the groups involved. Just saying.....!

I am more concerned about our people problem than I am about whether the ice cap is melting. Because right now - why save a world we aren't even capable of sharing?

Be good       Be kind       Keep smiling

Welcome July 2022

 

I realised with great surprise that the first 6 months of the year have vanished, been used up, never to return. A few days ago I was editing the 6th episode of our French Road trip to post on YouTube when I saw it was exactly 2 months since we were on the road heading to Honfleur, our second destination. It made my head spin.

Looking back I had a replay in my mind about the months passed already in 2022 right up till that moment and can honestly say, I made ( almost) all those days count. Yes, there were a few "found it hard' to get off the couch moments. Days when at dusk I felt I could have achieved more, realising I would have had I had the energy.

Time: One can't keep a hold of it like one can of memories. They are there for the picking at will. Sometimes they surface at the most awkward or inconvenient times. Other times they act as a joyful gift reminding one of a wonderful experience, person or event which has settled somewhere between all those precious moments. That grey matter: Matters. The hard drive in our brain as a keeper of memories, secrets, wishes, hopes and dreams.

It is why we have diaries, photo albums, city records and in my case a YouTube channel. I don't commit everything to film or photo- I do commit all to my 'grey matter' though. Hopefully I'll be able to access it always. If not, well I'll not know will I?

Today is one of those days I seem to have the urge to ponder, to mull things over, good and sad. There are also plans to be made and domestic chores to be done. Lists to make and items to tick off.

The past weeks since our trip have been hectic, fun, but hectic. There was an unexpected invite to spend time with friends for 4 nights - 5 days. Then not long after a two night hotel stay with other friends which we had planned even before we went to France. We had visitors from Scotland. Not to mention all the normal daily routines, the dentist, hairdresser, dining out ( for a belated birthday) and other such frivolous ( just kidding) wonderful adventures that makes one smile just remembering. Oh and not to forget, this month started with me having a week home alone. My husband is away as part of a team who escort people with possibilities, on a week's holiday. So you see, our days are being put to good use so I shouldn't be surprised that the months are marching on by at such speed. 

My dream for this September is to be able to visit my children again finally since May 2019. It'll take a bit of organising but I am gearing up for it. A new grandchild on the way, catching up with everyone. For me 2022 is shaping up to be a WOW year. I hope yours is going well too.

Be good         Be Kind           keep smiling

If you want to see how our trip to Honfleur went: Check out this link.

Learning about the past

History all around you -

While traveling through France recently I learnt a lot ( didn't remember it all) about the places I visited and the people who made things happen there in times long gone. Internet at one's finger tips to discover why this particular person has been immortalized in a statue. Why a bridge carries a certain name. How the city flag or crest came into being. Quite mysterious then, how this was the topic in a message to me by my Australian grandson. 

- and that of the family kind

“Oma, does our ( meaning my) family have a family crest? Here I was, in a lovely restored French barn now a modern comfortable holiday let, a gîte, overlooking the Pyrenees when this message popped on my screen.

Now it isn’t that Max isn’t interested in his paternal family ( his granddad), but Max has been to the Netherlands. He has stood on the spot where the house once stood in which I was born. He has scaled the church tower from the Bonifatius in Leeuwarden, the one my father climbed when the Netherlands, and more precisely, the North, was liberated ending WWII.

I think, summize, that those experiences and the memories he gained has had a deeper impact on him and now, 4 years on years and their relevance has a deeper meaning.

Yes, there is a crest in the family on my mum’s side. Dating presumably since the 1600s. There is a description of the symbols but not a really clear explanation why those symbols were used. Obviously there are guesses, well thought out suppositions and stabs in the dark. 

I have translated and shared the findings, will pointed him to our genealogy website and promised to unearth ( I have a source 😇) information on my dad’s side. 

The question arose, is it an idea to create our own crest…one which embraces the Dutch/ Frysian/ New Zealand and Australian heritage to which he belongs? What would he/ we want this crest to say, to tell future generations about us, about Max and his digging into his roots? 

It got me thinking, as things do, and I realise those crests did have purpose. Why did ‘we’ stop creating or claiming them? Who has a right to the family crest designed by those so long ago with their story in mind? 

Being an OmaFArAway, I wanted something tangible and lasting to introduce myself and extended family to my grandchildren. I unearthed photos of my grandparents, aunts and uncles, my siblings, and their children. I created a mini genealogy album. To date I have made one for them all with one in the making. Yes, I am to become an OMA once more. Baby is due end of August early September. And YES, I am looking at my travel possibilities to return Down Under for the first time since leaving there mid May 2019 after a 3 month Oma visit. 

So thoughts to ponder on, ideas to develop and choices to be made. Who has and still uses the family crest for official or unofficial purposes. Letterheads maybe?

So back to the drawing board I go, researching more information for my video I am working on. I am grateful for those who spend time building all these information websites. Now there's a challenging task. 

Be good be kind and keep smiling.

 

Link to my YouTube channel: OmaFarAway

The route the wishes the possibilities

Welcome back, enjoy the read! 

If you like: Leave a comment, I'll be back each week with more. 

Well, we may have decided on the trip, the country and a timeline, we also need to define the route and make sure that some of the wishes really are fulfilled and we give ourselves extra opportunities and cover the weather conditions. Do we have enough places to visit if wet, cold, hot or otherwise? What is NOT to be missed? 

Like all good plans, as long as one stays flexible then everything is possible and disappointments minimal. Well that’s the theory. I am writing this sitting in the communal lounge-bar entrance area of the holiday village Madame Vacances in Trébas. Our 7th address to date. I can recommend this address as a place to stay. So far we have ticked off - the coast as I wished, mainly too because it contained areas of interest for me. I have nurtured a desire to visit Dunkirk and Normandy since a child- weird dream possibly but the history lessons I received made these places intriguing. The information must have triggered something in me that the seed was sown. I’ve watched movies like Churchill, Dunkirk and the like which only made the wish even stronger. Not unimportant too, was that we had spent many a summer holiday in France with the caravan…mainly inland, it was time for some coastal views. In 2019 we travelled south through the middle so that area too we had visited quite intensively ( links to the 2019 Playlist below). To follow the coast down to Souin, just before the Spanish border in the Pyrenees, was our main challenge to fill as far as the program was concerned. The holiday address Leen found for us there was about 20km out of Lourdes. Another wee back of my mind- please may I visit Lourdes at some stage of my life wish! We made this come true..

The Pyrenees was Leen’s wish. He just loves the mountains, the crevices, the gorges and the atmosphere this area brings. In 2019, the Alps featured as the ‘high in the sky’ part of the programme. So the Pyrenees was the distance as far down as we would travel. Any further and we’d be crossing the border into Spain. The slightly touching on the 2019 experience- our way up would be sort of through the middle. My dream to visit the Roquefort Cheese caves came to play.

Wine area, cheese, snow, Tour de France routes - you couldn’t get more French than that if you tried!

France here we come: Viva la France! 

Be good - be kind - keep smiling

The link to my YouTube channel

Re-Tour de France 2022

Time out: Where to go!

Welcome back!
It was coffee time. After breakfast, the morning paper, quickly glanced through these day as it’s all bad, we have our first coffee of the day, together generally unless, well you know, someone has an appointment or something.

Anyway, coffee time. Subject: where and when shall we go for a holiday. The COVID restrictions are easing everywhere. We have been extremely fortunate to have kept ourselves COVID free, or think we have. Staying home is no punishment. I can hibernate quite easily but my husband is more restless. He needs to ‘break out’ occasionally.

It is February. Still bitterly cold with dark mornings and evenings, though the change is in the air. Where and when to plan! Exciting stuff. I’ve got a long held dream. The French coast. It’s just we never really drove to the coast with the caravan, but went to the lavender fields or the vineyards in France. Even the Alps weren’t left out on our travels. That coast just never got a look in.

Right: the mood was set, a coastal road trip. We would go as far as, well my husband filled that in. “You have the coast I'd love the Pyrénées.” They form the French and Spanish border. We’d stay on the French side. The trip back would be roughly through the middle. Wow, within minutes we had the route in mind. Well, roughly. The timing would determine what we could explore and where. 

Now I’ve mentioned my likes, cooking and the kitchen and my Woman Cave where I write and edit my YouTube videos. He likes a challenge and enjoys the voyage of discovery, delving into websites on the internet and researching places to stay, to visit, to eat at. You name it, he’ll find it. And find them he did. After weeks of research, applications and making sure we had the appropriate cancellation options we had 10 places to lay our heads at and 5 weeks in which to do just that. 

How exciting. All that in a short period. During the planning war broke out in the Ukraine. How dreadfully dreadfully tragic. Here we were, the privilege of planning this trip meanwhile this atrocity happening right on our doorstep or on ‘our’ landmass so to speak. No huge oceans but roads, long ones I know but still. Here I was wanting to visit those places where thousands of lives were lost and here history was repeating itself.  Why? For heaven’s sake, WHY?

War refugees poured into neighbouring countries. Fleeing the atrocities of war, of death and destruction. This has certainly had an effect on our thinking and planning. Yet, as close as this was to us- so far away it appeared as well. A contradiction in terms.

Being aware all things could become unstuck, we tentatively kept our plans open with the thought in the back of our minds we may need to cancel. But we didn’t need to. We were free to move from place to place at will. This was one of those moments when you realise that life is fragile. That plans are only plans and not reality till you make them so. Our time to depart would go ahead as planned. Weird though! Very very weird.

Be good - be kind - keep smiling!

PS Keep an eye on my YouTube channel. Trip videos to be posted there soon.

Enjoy the 2019 French trip by clicking on the link below.

France 2019

or

OmaFarAway

Roaming the Gloaming

 Hello there, here I am again, good to see you back reading my blog! 

It’s funny how one thought leads to another, just as one event links itself to another. Cause and effect. Forget the butter at the supermarket then you can forget the baking plans you had at home. Some people are creative in that situation and manage to conjure up an alternative to the forgotten butter and overcome the hurdle. A new plan is made, adjustments all round and the cake tasted great. Who knew!

Bit of a simple example. There are many more, far more reaching and impacting but let’s keep it simple. At 6:40 am no one is expecting me to write a theses or are they? Just kidding. This cause and effect, or have an alternative plan, or thoughts chasing thoughts came to development due to a news item last week and it popped up again yesterday.

Monkeypox disease I believe it is called. It made me feel uncomfortable. A de ja vu feeling crept over me. Now in various parts of the world this viral disease is manifesting itself. Sort of out of nowhere, the land of origin is known, but lo and behold it is becoming wider spread than ever before. It has traveled! Just like you and I do when we decide to move from one place to another. Or when the wind blows and transferes pollen, seeds, odours. When storms bring Sahara sand from the Sahara to places far removed and reminds us there are dryer places in our world, closer than we realise. That sand storms happen.  

That de ja vu wasn’t surprising. Let’s face it, I will not be the only one who is caught out thinking, “No,  not another illness we can’t contain?” People travel. I’m doing that right now.  What am I leaving behind and/ or taking back? Am I even leaving anything behind other than my footsteps and impressions by those we’ve met? Am I taking more back than photos, impressions, memories and maybe a wine and cheese or two?

It was end of September to mid October 2019. For three weeks we were in France. We stayed in the Morvan for a week and two weeks in the Cévennes. ( I’ll put the link below) Wonderful holiday it was. We traveled there and traveled back. In June 2020 I had plans to travel to Cornwall and Devon with my friend, who lives in New Zealand by the way, so she had even more traveling to do than I, being just across the pond from the UK. Then round September I would go visit my children and grandchildren again. My last visit being early March to mid May 2019. Plans were forged. Travel, we humans travel. Some more than others I admit, but travel we do. Short and long distances. Not just for a holiday. Some travel for work. World wide.

What do we take and leave behind and what do we bring back? So there is my thought chasing a thought. To travel and learn, be enthralled at what one sees, experiences? Or do we stay in our own environment and not take anything with us or leave anything behind?

I’m an optimistic realist/ realistic optimist! We have choices to make based on not only our own needs but also for the ‘common good’. Now it is no use blaming Bill Gates and the micro chip ( sorry had to get in). We only have humanism to look at as far as responsibility is concerned. We make the choices. 

The world became populated because people traveled. In search of food, comfort, a space of their own. People mingled, groups were formed and split up…more movement. Diaspora, the dispersion or spread of any people from their original homeland. Our feet have been a mode of transport since time began. Are we able to not travel? What will that achieve? Like the butter, what could be our alternative? To still have the cake(travel) but no butter. I guess like we are experiencing now it is the use of vaccines. If you want to travel, then there will be the need to protect not only one’s self but vaccinate for the common good. Is that the answer or is it No More Travel?

Be good - be kind - keep smiling ( now there’s a thought!)

Talk about traveling: Check out this link to my channel OmaFarAway.

France 2019: 

Writing helps clear my head

Welcome back! 

In my 60th year, I started writing, digitally known as blogging. I put my thoughts of ‘paper’ and posted them online for anyone to read. It helped clear my head too I might add. Thoughts have a tendency to lead a life of their own. Having captured them and placed them ‘outside’ my head I sometimes felt a great relief, other times proud of what I’d written and I also experienced moments of delight when reading the comments or even for myself, knowing what I wrote pleased and/ or amused me.

I branched out. Started writing in English and Dutch, instigated a cooking blog and an oma blog. Yep, I managed it all - till it became too much of a ‘have to’ instead of a want to. I also started a channel on YouTube in 2018 called OmaFArAway ( link below). The reason being the impending visit of my grandson Max from Australia. He was coming  to spend two months with me, his oma. What better way to document and share his experiences than with a visual record. I ran out of time. My blogs lay deserted and ignored. 

Then COVID hit the world and had us on our knees. I made an attempt to pick up writing again. Unfortunately, it stayed with the attempt. So here goes. A new start. A combination of blogs and vlogs. Not a separate series though. All in English and a mixed bag of kitchen ideas and thinking thoughts. I won’t remove the other blogs, ( the link to the biggest blog - A day in the life is also listed below) but the new lease of life will only be on the one blog- OmaFarAway shares stories. For those who find English bit difficult, transfer the text into Google translate! Although not perfect it will certainly give the gist of the contents with photos to support the story. I will also post links to relevant videos..or even all the video for that matter.

So bear with me, humour me and just like the YouTube channel, leave a message, comment, note letting me know you’ve been visiting. Much appreciated.

Be good - be kind - keep smiling!

A Day in the life: http://mythoughtsinadayinthelifeof.blogspot.com/

OmaFarAway video channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt48t5MJBQnXZFDLptJwCyg

OmaFarAway video channel : Holiday with grandson playlist:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJwwv-q4OH0ljYjj0NKMVyvtZ-97nrXRg

An ode to my mum.

 Mum’s and their stories: This is mine about my mum

It is the 1st of May. Labour Day in some parts of the world. It is also the anniversary of my mother’s birth. She was born 99 years ago today in the Netherlands. It is Labour Day there too, just like here in France, where I am at the time of writing this story.

The sun is just warm enough to feel like a smooth caress on my skin. The breeze brushes over my arms and face, ensuring I don’t over heat. I do have to squint a little as I’m not wearing my sunhat. I left it at home. Silly me. I love that hat. I remember buying it as if it were yesterday. In Workum it was, in the Netherlands. To be really precise, it was in the province Fryslân and along the main street. The shop sold all sorts of holiday necessities. Fishing gear, gumboots, sun hats of all description and lots of bits and bobs tourists go for in wee places like this.

I was with Annette at the time. Annette and I were just playing tourist, well she was for real, being a kiwi holidaying abroad, and me, well I belong to the Frysian landscape. It’s in my blood. We were both just having a few days sightseeing in this part of the Netherlands before sailing across the water and heading into Wales. Two ‘besties’ needing a sunhat each during the summer of 2018. But I digress.

The 1st of May 1923. My mother was to be the last baby my grandmother would bear. The doctor was quite adamant about that. My mum was baby number 9 of which 7 saw adulthood. Four boys and three girls. From tales which I can recall was that mum had a worry free childhood. She became an aunt at 11 years of age. Her eldest sister married and started her family. They lived at walking distance and as the family additions arrived, mum was often engaged in helping out with nappies, washing and other tasks to help complete those mundane chores for the busy young mother.

War broke out. My mum was a teenager. Brothers went to war breaking my grandmother’s heart. Yes, they returned home, but not unscathed. The experiences they had coloured their lives. 

Mum’s scholing and subsequent career choice, she trained as a kindergarten teacher, was marred in many ways as a result of that war. 

Mum was very close to her 2 year older sister, Evelien ( Eef or Eefie to those who knew and loved her) and as young women they were often in each other’s company. 

Marriages happened.

My parents met in 1946, and married 6 weeks later. A whirl wind courtship, again as a result of war. Tongues did wag mum told me. Even then, and maybe especially then, people were suspicious and judgemental.

My dad was due to be sent out to Indonesia and he would be away 3+ years at best. As a married soldier, he earned more, and mum could stay living at home with her parents. A shortage of housing was also prevalent. Many married couples and the birth of children were events that took place in parental homes of either partner. In this case, my eldest brother, sister and I were born in my mum’s family home. 

Finally in 1953, my parents were allocated a home of their own. We moved to a ( then) wee place called Dieren in Gelderland. Dad was back at the railway and to help make ends meet, mum sewed plastic items. At home, for a company which utilised home workers. That was ideal for a family like ours with four children and a husband who worked shifts.

I recall it a fine time. Though there were the odd hiccups. After mum had my brother she needed some time out. Also there appeared to be an arthritic situation whereby mum received painful injections from the district nurse. I so remember having to ‘go play outside’ while mum was treated. Apparently the injections were extremely painful. Later she told me, she was scared of frightening us in case she yelled out in pain. Poor mum.

 I have always had the idea mum missed being closer to her family as a car in that time wasn’t even a thinkable possibility. So the bonus of dad working for the railway was a gift. We had free travel. And visit family we did. Aunts and uncles, grandparents. It was during those visits we children got to meet our cousins. 

A new prospect for a future arose. We were to immigrate to a country so far away it was hard to imagine how one would even get there. Reality also being, once there, there would be no going back. It was 1961. We all needed to learn to speak English, children and adults alike. We had to pack up, de-clutter and farewell all we knew and loved. My parents set us off on a great life changing journey. For my mum, the distance now being created between her and those she loved, must have been heartbreaking. How she kept up her spirits up is a mystery. It must have hurt lots. 

The new life was soon not that new. We fitted in. Mum went to work in a factory sewing bras, yes indeed. Dad spent 5 minutes with the NZ railway but that wasn’t a success so he changed jobs a few times before he found his feet. Then, lo and behold, another baby arrived. Mum was 43 at this stage. More drastic changes were afoot in 1966.

We arrived back in the Netherlands for an indefinite time. My baby brother needed health care. Mum left her eldest son behind on the wharf in Auckland. The parting wasn’t to be forever but we didn’t know that then. After a space of 5 years and many ups and downs, we returned to New Zealand in 1971. 

Dad died on 4th November 1999 and mum spent quite some time missing her husband of 53.5 years. She died in 2011, just after midnight on the 1st of January. Their ashes are both interred at the cemetery just outside Hamilton, New Zealand. 

As I am writing this, hearing birds chirping in the background, the breeze is less, the heat of the sun more felt, I am in awe of all my mum endured. I am sure she was happy - while the aches and sadness must have played a big part in her life too! I do know the immigration was dad’s dream and she helped him realise it. That it didn’t all go to plan I know dad’s philosophy was, “ that’s life”. And another one of his wisdoms was, Life, is another name for The school of hard knocks”! Yet he was a very optimistic person. What mum thought, she didn’t often say, but sometimes she’d nod and say, “just like dad says, that’s life”! 

Mum wasn’t spared joys or sorrows, health or sickness. Nor did she breeze through life’s challenges or avoid the struggles. Mum just faced, accepted and took on board all which came her way - in her own way. 

And me, I am back in the Netherlands. Somehow being in the country of  my parents and my birth is where I need to be. Yet I call New Zealand my home. 

Be good - be kind - keep smiling!

Link to: buying the hat

Gladys and Aneira on tour