Oom Its’s birthday celebration was on Saturday 2nd July – and we were invited. We needed to accompany Jo’s mum which involved a combination of tram, train, bus to Amstelveen. Phew. We turned up at 2:30 to see Oma standing on the pavement waiting for us. No pressure!

The trip up went ok. Not much waiting between connections – Dutch public transport really is efficient. If the bus says it will turn up at 3:35 – then if you are there at 3:36 you can wave it goodbye.

We arrived in Amstelveen to be greeted by sun and the table set up in the garden. After a few cloudy days it was great to sit in the sun sipping bubbly – wehay. Lizette and Johan turned up followed by Frits’s sister Els.

Was getting reasonably well settled in but just managed the five minute walk down to the Molen – a poncy as restaurant set in a windmill dating back to the seventeenth century. I have to admit I quite like white shirted waiters and waitresses fawning over me – the meal was pretty damn good – lots of smaller courses served one after the other and plenty of vino. Danielle had her drinking boots on. Even little Viv got a couple of glasses of wine down her, that devil.

The trip home was eventful to say the least. We had the great idea (or it least it seemed ike a great idea at the time) of arranging an Uber home for Oma who would be accompanied by Viv and Jo. Danielle, the trooper, offered to accompany me on the public transport option. After a lovely few hours sitting on our chuff eating and drinking, the hard out sprint to the Amstelveen bus station was interesting to say the least. We made it – and arrived at Schipol in time for the train to Den Haag HS – so much in time I thought I could buy a bottle of water – and to then make a long story short, Danielle got the instructions wrong which made us miss the train. Danielle says she has a different version but this is my blog so this is now the officially sanctioned story. waited half an hour for the next train. Arrived at Den Haag too late to catch the last tram home. Got a taxi ride from Lewis Hamilton’s cousin -hence arrived back at the Jagersmast prerrty damn late.

Well we thought we had the best story . . . nah. Oma apparently was displeased King Richard wasnt sharing the uber cab with her. Danielle was apparently partially missed – but it was pretty much my fault for the whole trip to Den Haag. The taxi driver must have had an interesting time.

Basically 12 hours (from leaving to arriving back) to have dinner. Worth it I reckon – experiences like that are priceless . . !