Weekend update

[raxacorricofallapatorius]

Spent Saturday morning watching Lukas play football - his team got creamed with a final score of 10-0. It was the first match of the season, and the boys really haven't learned how to play as a team yet, so it's pretty frustrating to watch them all glom on the ball, leaving the poor keeper defenseless as goal after goal is kicked by the more organized team. Fred was talking to some of the other parents, and we all pretty much agreed that 1 hour a week isn't sufficient practice time, but in order to do more we'd have to find another place to play, since the fields are pretty much booked solidly throughout the week with various practice times for various groups. So we'll have to come up with something. As usual, Fred seems to be the only one willing to actually *do* instead of *talk*, but I'm hoping I can help him motivate some of the other parents. :cP

Then we hopped in the camper and headed off to the in-law's in Leimuiden, where we farted around for a couple of hours, ordered Chinese for dinner, and then took their boat out for something called the Gondelvaart on the Braassemermeer, which is one of the lakes near where they live. The Gondelvaart is kind of a cool celebration where people decorate their boats with special lights and effects, and then parade up and down on the canals from sunset until about 11 p.m.. We elected to park on the lake itself, which is where the firework boat was anchored, instead of along the canal. There are some gorgeous (EXPENSIVE) houses along there, and almost all of them were decorated with lights and had parties going in full swing on their private docks. On the other (public) side of the canal there were lots of beer tents and seating for people to watch from the street. It was quite a show in itself.

The canal was FULL of people in boats cruising up and down, and even though we weren't right on top of them, we could still see enough from our position. The lake was also very crowded with people partying like mad, dancing and drinking. They even have something called "party boats" which are long flat boats that have chairs and tables, beer, and VERY loud music. The boats just sort of aimlessly tottle around the lake, so at any given time, you can be assaulted with bad 80's disco, bad 80's metal, or bad 80's Dutch cabaret, all at top volume. It's....interesting. :c)

While waiting for it to get dark, the kids, Fred, and Oma went for a quick dip in the lake, but it was a little too cold for a leisurely swim. The kids also had a great time climbing all over the boat, making me nervous every time they slid along the narrow sides to go sit on the bow. Truth is they were steadier than I was!

Eventually the kids passed out below decks, so we woke them for the fireworks at around 11:00. Alas, although they were lovely to look at, the show only lasted about 15-20 minutes, which pretty much brassed off an entire lake full of boats who'd been expecting something a little more...MORE. Ah well. We had a good time. And piloting the boat back home in the dark, with hundreds of drunken revelers also headed for home, was also fun. :c)

This morning when I woke up, however, I could *still* feel myself bobbing around, and I have felt dizzy and off-kilter all day. I had nothing at all to drink except orange soda, but it feels very much like I have a bad hangover. Weird. Not my first time on a boat, either, so not sure what the deal it, but I'm hoping by tomorrow it's all over.

So that was our exciting weekend. How was everyone else's?

Comments

[rickfan37.livejournal.com]

I've never heard of anything like that before, it sounds like great fun!