Queen's Day

The Dutch national day is Queen's Day, the celebration of the birthday of our monarch. Unlike other countries, it is not a openly nationalistic happening. No military parades, no prime-minister with boring speeches or the excessive waving of flags. As a historian recently said on tv, it is a celebration of togetherness and not nationalism. In fact, it is even more a celebration of free trade as the so called 'free market', where everybody is allowed to sell stuff in the street without a permit, is hugely popular.

The togetherness was quite obvious whilst walking to the centre of town. Burqa and headscarf wearing ladies with orange accessories, Somalis with blow-up orange crowns, girls with tiaras being Queen for a day and gays extravagantly dressed in orange being the queens they always are. 

Busting a move

 

Boaz looks to become quite a dancer....

Staying at Uncle Ben

 

Boaz was an excited boy this weekend as he was staying at his Uncle Ben's place for the first time. Dropped off by mum, he enjoyed an evening watching some Postman Pat after some famous Uncle Ben pasta and an ice cream for dessert. After that, off to bed.

Happy Birthday Luca!

My nephew Luca has his third birthday today, but the family celebrated it in style yesterday with birthday cake, delicious food and, of course, many exciting presents. The best present was the one from his dad: a big red tractor!!

Proud dad

Martijn the proud father and his adorable sons, my nephews Luca and Matthies, in Bristol during our Easter holiday.

Visiting Nana

My grandmother did not know I was coming to Bristol with the rest of the family, so she was quite surprised to see me. Luca being there was an even more pleasant surprise as she had not seem him for an even longer time. Luca was a bit standoffish at first, but soon warmed to his great-nana!