Marcus; eater of trees

last week saw the family and i visit holland. i had been in holland in 1990 for the famous fred goes mad tour which included england as well.

i must say that family is in some ways a new concept to me. by that i mean extended family, those members beyond the mother father brother sister stuff. in australia i have those and an aunt (tante) and her children who i haven't met since the 1970's. i have met tante Ghon several times more recently and treasure those meetings... she is a lovely woman.

my time in darwin oveer the last 32 years has led me to question the "blood is thicker than water" adage, as i have made so many dear friends during this time. i suppose every one does question it where ever they end up but i wonder how the lack of extended family effects the significance of friends compared to family. i took the hand of friends over family for quite some time for various reasons. any path is valid as long as there is no pain dealt out. i hope that is the case for me.

and so to the holland visit!

our first catch up was with the amazing malou noseman with whom i stayed briefly in amsterdam in 1990. she is still in the same digs as she was back then so it was easy to find. flowers from the flower market and a bottle of dry rose and we are in the door.

the catch up was great, we talked a bit about lhe last visit whth memories from both brains resurfacing. after lunch we took of for a mini tour of inner amsterdam led by malou. she can walk the legs off an emu can malou, but was mindful of my infirmity. we went to several places she had shown me back in 90, the most awesome was the Begijnhof, a square inhabited by women who wish to serve others without joining a religious order. there is a large protestant church there and a smaller (secret) catholic one in the square. there's a lot of history in there and not enough space in this blog to do it justice.

we did a bit more exploring with the joy of going to the cafe tim winton had the book launch in holland of 'the riders'. i had helped malou back in 90 with an australian writers evening with the kind hearted tim and 4 other aussie writers (glenda adams, peter carey, david malouf and rodney hall). he was in the throes of writing 'the riders' at the time and so the cafe was a sort of end point for that piece of my life. nice one!

our next stop was rotterdam which is where a large slab of the family vant sand can be found (i think that is fair to say because it is papa's home town and his brother fred, who i am named after, still lives there). we get off the train at rotterdam blaak and walk through an architectural wonderland on our way to our digs!

WOW is an understatement... there is much to be said about the 'lego block approach to design and it is being said right here in rotterdam!! nice work dudes!

this pic is from the inside of the Markethal. it's awesome and has accomodation all the way up to the roof!! "the pencil" is to be seen as well, you can guess which one it is!

rotterdam is the home of the museum Buijmans which i have been hanging out to return to for 27 years, it's awesome and you can take pictures as long as you don't use a flash.

i refer to this as the 'mad priest' painting. bernardo strozzi who painted it between 1610 and 1615 calls it 'st francis'. i figure he is looking so 'mad' because someone is de-winging a butterfly somewhere and he just doesn't know where!!! that would send me off if i was the patron saint of animals too!

it's thursday the 29th of june and the friends and family stuff is about to start again.

today it's my old school friend bart treuren and dieneke's boy friend bernard. it will be a big travelling day as far as holland goes so we will finish with a litle bit of ansterdam to mellow it out.

first stop Hoorn! i met bart at a school reunion 2 years ago. it was a strange event with some dissapointment and some joy. bart was one of the joys. here are 2 pics from his home town for many years hoorn.

it would seem from these pictures that hoorn is a port city and that is correct. it is one of the original 6 (or so) major ports of holland. bart toured us around the nicer parts of hoorn (which included a comic shop! much to the dicgust of the girls we had stopped to look at something else and there it was just across the street) and then we had lunch at his place. he had nice digs and we talked like it was 'yesterday'. 'twas a fantastic catch up and great to see where he went to after he left cooma. good work bart!

next stop is beverwijk to meet bernard. din got back in contact with him a few years ago and things changed in both their lives... for the better in the long run.

bernard was understandably nervous at the thought of hes girlfriends brother visiting and i know that feeling only too well! we got there mid afternoon and it was great to meet him in the flesh. his friend frank was there so we got to hear a lot about the music they had played together and what they had done over the years. we had a bit of a singalong with guitar accompanyment and i sang my version of mercedes benz as well. a good time was most certainly had! here's a picture of us as proof!!

after all this activity. we headed home via amsterdam. an exciting day is over!

this brings us to the big van't Sand family get together!

it's friday 30 june and in some ways i think i am as nervous as bernard was yesterday. this has never happened before and it is both exciting and something else i can't put my finger on. off we go taking a stroll via rotterdam centraal to Weena where cousin Ankie lives. she has kindly offered to host the get together which is much appreciated. till now i have only seen her picture on facebook. the same applies to cousin Edwin. edwin has been doing masses of research into the family history so there will be much to learn from him. he is also the son of Fred van't Sand. not the one i'm named after bit ANOTHER ONE!!! there are THREE of us!! sadly my uncle (oom Fred) couldn't be there due to dementia problems but i see this as similar to all the royal family never flying on the same plane.

WOW this is the biggest gathering of dutch and australian van't Sand's ever!! what can i say... sometimes things that are quite personal can leave you speechless. this is a bit the case about this meeting. there was a big chance to speak a lot of dutch with people who would help when i didn't know the words (or point out when i used german or english words [my own sort of esperanto]). i got to know my mums bestie tante Roulie, who quite rightly commanded the room whenever she had something to say and also the other Fred van't Sand!! he is a kind and unassuming man (two qualities i highly admire a person) and it was a delight to meet with him finally after he first made email contact a few years ago. ankie is a 'full on' kinda lady! you gotta like that!

from left to right; cousin Ron, tante Roulie, cousin Edwin, Fred van't Sand (the elder), cousin Ankie, fred (the younger), daughter Lucy and daughter Holly.

the delight of finally eating hollanse fresh herrings was delightful even if the girls wouldn't eat any. jane was surprised at their softness and enjoyed the onion that came with it. so different  from the texture of her usual sushi raw fish experience. i found a little treasure among the desserty things. it was a crean filled profiterole pastry thing with banana flavoured icing... i ate about 8 i think (i lost count really) and holly had about 4. YUM!!

it's hard to know what extended family are supposed to mean to you when you have no experience with the matter as a reality. i have memories from childhood of receiving 'mercy' parcels at christmas with gefuulte spekulaas and other treats in them and many birthday cards which taught me how to say happy birthday in dutch but there was no physical contact to cement things, to make them feel real not just something far away and just a bit hazy. the visit back in 90 was a start but i had no family of my own back then so it was good but not an exchange of the sort this visit has been. back then i was a youth on the prowl in most senses. i was appreciative of the kindness given to me but not to the extent i might have been. this time i have an achievement to show... my family of whom i am very proud.

i thank my wonderful cousins edwin and ankie for making this happen and showing me the real touch of family. it is things like this that help to make a person whole in so many senses. you are both such wonderful people, i am so happy to have met you both in the flesh. als to to have met your friend peit ankie and to have met cousin ron again. then there is the magesterial tante Roulie. i can understand why you were my mothers bestie!

this visit to holland was a joy and one i will surely make happen again!!

LEIVE TOT ALLES!! OOOXXX!!

thats all for now sports fans, may you all have a sporting chance!