The Alkmaar visit

(Click to enlarge)
So today was supposed to be the end of the world once again. But once again it wasn't. This postcard from 1910 explains how it would probably be a good idea to all go to the moon in a zeppelin incase the earth is about to magically end it's existence...

(Click to enlarge)
My dad's collectors club had it's 75th anniversary today and he and some other made a few displays for this. My dad's been collecting stamps since childhood.

There was also an area to swap or buy.

Marjolein came with me today (made first contact with the family which went very well! ;-). My mom dropped us of in the city of Alkmaar where we both hadn't been for ages. It was close to my old primary school so I went to have a look.

I was in those class rooms when I was a little boy.

I knocked a girls' tooth out here once. Can't remember why but I do remember her name was Danielle and she was 2 years older than me.

Bye, little old school!

(Click to enlarge)
We crossed the old bridge in to the old part of town.

And then had ice cream from ijssalon Laan. It's the best ice cream in The NL that I know of.

In the evening, Marjolein and I were very lucky to get a table at the Scottish Hielander restaurant in Alkmaar.

They have 700!!! whiskeys in stock. That takes up a lot of room so they're spread all over the restaurant.

(Click to enlarge)
Yours truly and Marjolein at our little table.

(Click to enlarge)
We trained back to Amsterdam to go to Mulligans where we had 1 drink and then left because it was too warm, too noisy and too crowded. So we had a walk through town instead and sat for a moment at my favourite fountain.

The new neighbours

We had a busy day today, too busy for my liking. My mom and dad skyped us just before they were going to bed and we were going out the door.

We headed out for another visit to the Volkswagen dealer to discuss the price. Nine AM. You see, we have very good reason to think that their price is about 4000 dollar (about 1800 euro) too high. So we explained this. And he offered a lower price but not as low as we wanted. However, we think we might be able to strike a deal this week with a new offer and we are hoping to order the car next Sunday. We still don't know which colour to go for though. We know that a black one will take 3 to 5 months and we are doubting to get a red Beetle if that is faster.

If any of you guys happen to come across a red new Beetle and you're carrying a camera, please make a picture of it for us because every picture that you see online looks different and we have no real examples here.

Then at 10AM the house next door was auctioned and bought by Karin and Gavin who will become our new neighbours! It's a long time wish of Karin to live next door so she's very pleased with it.

I played with Mason a bit while his mom and dad were next door. He could hear them, and naturally wants to be with them (that's what dogs live for) but couldn't. So he was constantly crying. You can distract him from anything by showing him a ball so that helped.

Then, at one PM we had a dinner date with some of Nicole colleagues at the Uleybury winery which was a pleasant happening. From right to left: Rob, Nicole, Jenni and Maggie. There were a few more but they didn't make it on to my camera...

After this we went to the Croatian club where the Croatian food and wine festival was being held. A massive amount of people showed up.

There were a few big tents with lots of... food and wine.

There was a dance group from Melbourne.

With a bit of a band from Melbourne.

There was soft-serve ice cream.

And Vicky's dance group was performing too.

These are some of the dancers. They looked quite good.

They had to wait for the public to get off the dance floor though. They were dancing on the hypnotizing Croatian music.

The letters

I wrote three letters today. One for Prime Minister Rudd, one for my Member of Parliament Ms. Ellis (who is also a minister) and one for Minister Conroy who thinks he has the right to filter my and other people's internet.

Back to more earthly matters. We needed to do a washing.

The two little birdies are still flapping around our garden.

In the afternoon we went to the Rundle street market to get some poffertjes. Boy they tasted good!

On our way home we stopped at Cibo where I had banana and Ace.