The Exiles' Return...

Following a good talk with our daughter and son-in-law, on whose hospitality we have been joyfully floating for almost three months (!!), we reached the decision to fly back to Amsterdam when flights resume direct from Norway to our home city.

So we've booked for June the First, to be met at Schiphol by our son Daniel; and will arrive hopefully on a sunny afternoon.

The world remains surreal ... friends and neighbours in Amsterdam send me photos and videos of a city that looks calm and tranquil. But one knows that death lurks unseen ... that is not being melodramatic, just how it is.

My older friends (the over 70s) remain inside and I guess that's what we'll need to do in the beginning. Hard to realize, though, that apparently covid-19 will remain with us many months, and probably forever. So many activities have to be readjusted ... So I'll just have to explore all the opportunities presented by lockdown: and delight in my back garden (lucky to have one). And discover new recipes...

There's going to be a great deal of acquiring information via the internet.

Well, we have prepared our nose-masks (!) and plenty of hand-sanitizer, and take home a wealth of stunning photos and sufficient memorable conversations to last us many months.

One of my favourite lines was coined by Christiaan, when we were enacting the early years of Hedy Lamarr, during her marriage to an Austrian industrialist. The famous line, to be spoken with German accent, and thereafter quoted frequently by some of the Van der Eijk family, was:

Hedwig, vy haf you not ironed my lederhosen? Followed by: Hedwig: Vair is mein sauerkraut vor supper?

This produced great hilarity. Hedy was one of the Women Inventors in a book I'd given Rachel at Christmas. Next favourite was Rachel Carson. Described as, "Perhaps the finest nature writer of the Twentieth Century (1907-1964)"; our Rachel liked the fact that this great lady bore the same name as her. But was also fascinated by her work. Very discriminating granddaughter!

And now, back to knitting a pixie-hood for Rachel, following her precise instructions, colour pink...

Below: although taken a few years ago, this is still how we are: travelling on!!