Adventure Before Dementia: Painting at last.

Paint at last.........

The boat was moved into the large shed yesterday and after hours of sanding and last minute preparations we finally got the top coat on the hull.

No, not our boat, but a really old wooden Dutch boat
being lovingly restored by volunteer craftsmen.

What a feeling, to step back at the end of the days work and see the paint slowing drying without worrying about the rain.

We cannot sleep on board the boat because of the alarm system in the shed, so we have accepted the offer from a lovely lady here, called Riet, to stay in her apartment in Brielle.
She has become a really good friend and we will see her when she comes to NZ next year.
This is the life. Pure ultra modern luxury, with nothing that needs stripping and painting.

Tomorrow we hope to paint the entire cabin and decks, a huge job but with the help of the modern day Rembrandt, Hans, we just might pull it off.

The activity around our boat today could best be described as, frantic with an audience, or, Mr Bean goes Dutch.

Hans and I were going like nutters, Anna and our friend Lucy completely sanded the teak doors ready for varnish, while various people came and went enjoying the spectacle around the “mad kiwi” boat.

The word quickly spread around the boatyard that two crazy Kiwi’s were spending their holidays scraping and sanding an old Dutch boat and we often get people who come up to us just to check if it is true and then always ask, “Why??????”

“To try and catch a dream,” is our normal response, but most just shake their head and smile and don’t really get it.

When you have spent your whole life around the waterways of Europe, surrounded by history, it seems to have less of an attraction and they really don’t understand why two people from the other side of the world would want to put so much energy and sacrifice into doing something that they take for granted.

I guess I should examine the way I think about people who give up everything to live in New Zealand, for the countryside and beaches and easy lifestyle, the very things I take for granted.

Our daughter Sarah joins us from London on thursday and it would be a dream to have the boat in the water by then, but it will also be a gigantic effort as there is so much left to do.

We are still constantly aware that we are living in Holland, even though it now seems completely normal.

Some of their road signs are delightful, like “Let Op, Dremples.”

Which means, “Look out, speed bumps,” but dremples sound so much cuter, like little gnomes that dash out from the hedge rows to politely ask you to slow down.

The roads are all immaculate and so are the verges.
I am sure that whenever there is a gap in the traffic someone rushes out with a cloth and polishes the white lines down the middle of the road. The same person also hand clips each blade of grass along the edge of the roads and shapes each wild flower into the perfect random floral art display.

The trees and hedge rows are slowly turning from a blush of light green into a denser and more intense green that looks like it has been draped across the countryside by the old Dutch landscape painters.

The daytime temperatures are still only in the low teens and no promise of change, so we just have to make the most of what we are given, which is pretty fantastic!