Timing is everything- sometimes!

 

I'm not normally that focussed on the time issue ( except when it comes to appointments that is) It is just that lately we have been so busy doing so many things that I wonder how we manage it all. I seem to be getting lots more done and yet my pile of things to do isn't reducing at all. The more I do the more there is to do. Does that make sense at all? Probably not! Just a ramble that is running through my mind at the moment.

Good morning/afternoon/evening, where ever you are at, at the time of reading this ramble. I'm working my way through a few chores at the moment and they are taking longer than I anticipated. How do you cope with issues like this? I am also easily distracted for some obscure reason. Maybe I need a holiday 😂! Just kidding or am I? 

Talking about holidays, I have managed to post 7 videos so far of our Re-tour de France road trip on my YouTube channel. Such fun and good memories. Number 8 is in the pipeline- almost done. Why did we give it that title? Well because we started in the Netherlands, 'at the top' so to speak, and made a round trip returning to the same spot on the highway where we left. So we thought this quite an appropriate and fun title.

Five weeks on the road. Ten different places to lay one's head at night. All of them on my own pillow I might add. I take it everywhere. Can't sleep properly on someone else's pillow. Which brings to mind a trip to Australia I had many years ago. Yes even Down Under has seen me place my head on my own pillow. Till it became harder to get it into my overfull suitcase. 

My then wee grandson of 4 decided he wanted to keep me close each night so he confiscated my pillow and kept it for many a year on his bed. So lovely and heart warming.

Which brings me to the next subject: Where will my pillow take me to next? My last trip to visit my children was in 2019 with the intention of being back there at the end of 2020. We all know why that didn't happen. Less said the better. So it has been a struggle coping with the loss of physical contact over a much longer period of time that I ever have had away from my children. I am fully aware that there were harder, sadder and more gut wrenching struggles for many. It isn't that I want sympathy or am presenting myself as a victim. Just stating a fact. Yes, there is internet- yes there is light at the end of this long and dark tunnel. So I am now actively planning a trip to my other homeland, the one where I bore my children, where my parents are laid to rest and where a huge part of my life tells its story. 

This week will see me having a conversation with a travel agent, I am not prepared to book my own trip like I have done in the past. Too risky. It will see me blow off the dust of my pasport and relocate my NZ driver's license. It will see my bank balance shrink horrifically. It will also add another list of chores. But most of all, it will cause those pre-trip butterflies to return, those emotions of reconnecting with my own upsurge and take hold. It will most likely also cause disruption to my sleep despite my head being on my own pillow, due to the anticipation of what lies ahead. 

I guess that might just be why, I am easily distracted, can't get through all the lists like I am used to and already causing the fluttering in my being even though the ticket hasn't even been booked yet. So I am trying to keep occupied, to keep my mind on things to distract me. The editing I need to still do will be part of my therapy to keep my wits about me. The two children's books I want to complete before I leave need attention too. Plenty to do - now I must get on with them. No more rambling. Till next time.

In the meantime, enjoy the videos. It was a fantastic trip and we saw such beauty all around us. I am pleased to be able to share that with you. 

Be good    Be kind    Keep smiling

This is the link to my YT channel 

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

Fulfilling a schoolgirl's wish: Part 2: Where the fallen rest

Ingredients for a better world

Pray for peace, act in kindness for peace, mend relationships, extend a hand in friendship, listen, forgive, accept, be welcoming, share, explore, understand, embrace, light a candle, send a card, make that phone call, share a meal, mend that fence!

In today's world still as relevant now as it was then. I think the author had no idea that his words would still be so relevant today as it was then. How his heart would still ache.

Read Robert's story.

For the Fallen 

Robert Laurence Binyon,

Poem by Robert Laurence Binyon (1869-1943), published in The Times newspaper on 21 September 1914.

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

About the author

Laurence Binyon composed his best known poem while sitting on the cliff-top looking out to sea from the dramatic scenery of the north Cornish coastline. A plaque marks the location at Pentire Point, north of Polzeath. However, there is also a small plaque on the East Cliff north of Portreath, further south on the same north Cornwall coast, which also claims to be the place where the poem was written.

The poem was written in mid September 1914, a few weeks after the outbreak of the First World War. During these weeks the British Expeditionary Force had suffered casualties following its first encounter with the Imperial German Army at the Battle of Mons on 23 August, its rearguard action during the retreat from Mons in late August and the Battle of Le Cateau on 26 August, and its participation with the French Army in holding up the Imperial German Army at the First Battle of the Marne between 5 and 9 September 1914.

Laurence said in 1939 that the four lines of the fourth stanza came to him first. These words of the fourth stanza have become especially familiar and famous, having been adopted by the Royal British Legion as an Exhortation for ceremonies of Remembrance to commemorate fallen Servicemen and women.

Laurence Binyon was too old to enlist in the military forces but he went to work for the Red Cross as a medical orderly in 1916. He lost several close friends and his brother-in-law in the war.

Source: 

http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/laurence-binyon-for-the-fallen.htm

Link to the YouTube channel: Re -Tour de France

Fulfilling a schoolgirl's wish: part 1.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

My primary school years, well most of them, were in New Zealand. The war history lessons contained, for obvious reasons, references from an English perspective. New Zealand is part of the British Commonwealth. On April the 25th the ANZAC ( Australian- New Zealand- Army- Corps) commemoration ceremonies are held. To embrace one’s new homeland, it was deemed important to absorb this history as one’s own. In the early ‘60s right up to the ‘70s we immigrants were encouraged to speak English even at home. It would help us become part of the community, people and culture. My parents were expressly asked to not speak Dutch with us as it would harm our integration process. Best we ‘left that behind us’!

I conquered the ‘th’ pretty quickly and worked hard at sounding just like my classmates. Believe me when I say bullying isn’t a new phenomena. It isn’t! Kids were cruel then and are still cruel today. I feel for new settlers for whatever reason they need to leave their homeland. It’s a harder road to hoe than one anticipates, becoming part of a new culture while not denying one’s own.

Anyway, moving on. 

In Europe, one can be confronted with war memorials almost anywhere. Places which were heavily under attack, damaged or even destroyed. In New Zealand the war was fought overseas. Their men and women travelled to where they were needed. There are no buildings, areas or places bombed and destroyed. So all one learnt about the war was abstract. We read Anna Frank’s diary. I recall feeling a sense of pride. She was one of us ( the Dutch girl in
me) ! We saw film footage of Dunkirk. I recall a movie I saw as a child and I am sure it was called something like The Albatros, or featured an albatros featuring a recluse on a beach, the boats, the panic, the rallying of fishermen etc to save as many of the military from a sure death. This was something so real, so fascinating, and as I said, so abstract that it stayed with me to this day.

I needed to visit Dunkirk, Normandy and places from the history books and stories. I needed to see the poppy fields. It was number one on my list. I am grateful Leen, my husband, understood. 

I felt the history! I wasn’t alone I didn’t imagine it. Another couple who walked where I walked, said the same. They had goosebumps on their arms to prove it. 

I was in contact with a lady In New Zealand who I knew through a FB group I belong to. Her mother had served as a nurse overseas, including Dunkirk. I shared some of the images and my experience with her. It helped her ( her words) understand her mother’s story more. 

The world has moved on. The area where so much bloodshed happened has too. A whole boulevard has been realised. Apartments, shops, a beach to use recreationally. Quite a statement. I am actually quite pleased in the sense that we are now free to enjoy this part of the world in that freedom for which so many died. 

Freedom and war:  is still abstract. The senselessness of war! The killing, the destroying. A big SIGH filled with sadness escaped me as I wrote this just now. Smile at a stranger and you'll change the world.

Be good - be kind - keep smiling

Link to the YouTube channel: Re -Tour de France: Dunkirk

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