I actually wanted to combine my July and August entries. I don’t have too much to write about. But when my website suddenly got a lot of hits at the start of this month, I changed my mind. If I don’t, people will just get worried for no reason.
These days I care more about nighttime temperatures than those in daytime. As the mercury rises, my sleep diminishes. It leads to hours of rolling in bed and waking up in the middle of the night. 12 degrees Celsius is my ideal sleeping temperature. Even when it’s cold, Hein cracks a window so the warm air has a way of getting out. Luckily, this summer hasn’t been too sweltering. That being said, we don’t know what kind of temperatures August will bring.
Hindrance
Holidays serve to highlight how much of a hindrance I am to others, a like a ball chain.
- We can’t go camping, even though it used to be my favourite way to spend a holiday
- We can’t go hiking in the mountains. I saw pictures of Floor’s camp in Switzerland and I’ve never wanted to go hiking more.
- We can’t pick exotic destinations because I can’t handle long car rides
- We can’t go on a cycling holiday. Everything has to be accessible by car.
- We can’t go to fancy restaurants, because all I can realistically eat is mashed potatoes
Sometimes, I think about how much fun I’ve prevented my family from having. Not to mention the constant care I need in daily life. I’ll just cling to my conviction that “being” is more important than “doing”.
Zeewolde
Zeewolde is anything but a grand city. Our camping ground was close to a harbour, but we hadn’t thought to plan anything watersports-related last year, so the sea went unused in the end. The patio was too far removed from the water, so I didn’t even have a view of the sea. There was a beautiful and very accessible dyke path leading to Zeewolde. Then again, why would anyone want to visit Zeewolde?
Maybe it’s just part of being sixteen, but the kids didn’t want to do anything, except to go shopping, preferably in a larger better city. Maybe it’s that damn TV. Every single holiday cottage has one these days. In short: a lot of loafing around. They didn’t even go to the disco and movie night the camping had organised. They did play tennis and ping pong and, most surprisingly, scoubidou, as suggested by grandma.
The cottage was a bit shabby, as the kids put it. The height-adjustable bed had a mattress that felt like it was made out of concrete, but we got that sorted out in the end. The bathroom didn’t have a window. No, we were much better off at that campsite in Zeeland.
We visited everything there was to see in the area: Elburg (a beautiful town), Schokland (a former island in the Noordoostpolder), Bataviastad (where we sated our shopping needs, even though their collections were horribly outdated), Nijkerk (we visited a furniture boulevard where we finally bought a crystal chocolate box and a small sofa for Floor) and Garderen (where they advertised an big country fair, which turned out to be comprised of just ten market stalls).
All in all, I’d say this holiday was decent. On the only rainy day, we went to see Shrek 2 in Almere. We had a good time. A big thank you to Lieke, Lia and Hein.