The Blessies

Dutch Remembrance Day 2009 / Friends visit

2009-05-05T10:57:00.016+08:00

Last Sunday (May 2nd) the Dutch club in Perth (Neerlandia) organised the Dutch Remembrance Day. This is in effect the Perth version of the 'dodenherdenking' in the Netherlands which takes place every year on the 4th of May.

The Australian War Cemetery (in Karakatta/Nedlands) has a Dutch Annex were 28 (Dutch) victims have been buried. These 28 people were refugees that fled the Japanese army from Indonesia to Broome (in the North of WA) only to be killed in the air raid on Broome.
(the Dutch Annex at the Australian War Cemetery in Nedlands, WA):

This is the story as per a government website:
In February 1942, Broome in Western Australia was used as the Australian end of an air shuttle service from Java. Hundreds of evacuees were ferried to Broome in Dutch, American and Australian military and civil aircraft, including flying boats of Qantas Empire Airways.

By the end of that month, the town was overflowing with military personnel and refugees. People slept wherever they could while waiting for a flight to continue their journey south. During the last weeks of February 1942 over 7000 people, including the former commander of the 8th Australian Division, Major-General H Gordon Bennett, who had escaped from Singapore, passed through Broome. On one single day, 57 aircraft landed there.

On 3 March 1942, without warning, Japanese fighters attacked. The attack lasted no more than 20 minutes, during which time 25 Allied aircraft were destroyed and dozens of people were killed or wounded. Many victims were Dutch women and children packed into flying boats on the harbour either waiting to be unloaded and ferried ashore or waiting to depart for the southern states. Another 30 crew and passengers, mostly military personnel, were lost when an American Liberator bomber was shot down shortly after taking off. Precisely how many people died in the raid, and who they were, will never be known.

Correspondence, coins and trinkets that were recovered from the wreckage of the sunken flying boats can be seen in the Broome museum. Dozens of people lost their lives during the attack on Broome on 3 March 1942. Many of the Dutch women and children were trapped in flying boats in the harbour. Others were incinerated, drowned or taken by sharks as they attempted to swim ashore. The Dutch bodies recovered were first buried in the Broome War Cemetery but were later removed and reburied in a special area in the Karrakatta cemetery in Perth. Many were not identified and they lie in unmarked graves.

Although it felt a bit uneasy (for me as photographer) to take photos, I have done so and I believe it is actually good to make (more) people aware of this.

For more photos have a look here

On a bit lighter note:
After the ceremony Neerlandia had opened their clubhouse for coffee and lunch. We enjoyed that so much that we actually decided to keep our membership of Neerlandia going (we had just send an email the week before to cancel ours!!)

Then at the Easter weekend we had (Dutch) friends over who are living in Sydney. They have family in Perth and stayed a few days at our place as well. They have a weblog of their own, feel free to have a look there to see how they liked their stay (please note, their website is published in Dutch!)

Dancing: Metropolitan Championship (part 2)

2009-04-20T15:31:00.005+08:00

Ok, the videos have been uploaded by Martin (Thanks again Martin!!). The specific videos where we have 'performed' (;-) are the ons embedded below. If you are interested in ALL videos of the championship have a look at the link under 'Dancing in WA' at the left of this blog....

Also inetrestign was the fact that one of the guest judges at this competition was none other than the Director of the Australian Dancing with the Stars shows, Paul Green. He also presented some of the trophies to winners, and yes, one of them to us too ;-). In case you are not sure who paul Green is, look at this page. He is the guy with the nice suit and the big smile!

Meanwhile we are preparing for our next competition where we plan to enter all dances and all levels again...

Dancing: Metropolitan Championship

2009-04-06T20:08:00.008+08:00

Well, we have done it again. We competed in another dancing competition, the Metropolitan Championship. Again it was very successful for us ;-). On our own level (L1) we won all three styles (Standard, Latin and New Vogue). Winning the standard and latin is not too surprising (since we have done some competition back in the Netherlands as well and should not be called beginners really, but everyone needs to start at the first step anyway). Winning the New Vogue competition was something we were very happy with! Do not forget that we are definitely beginners in regards to that style, last year August was the first time that we actually did our first New Vogue step anyway...
We also competed in the standard and latin competition in level 2 (the level above ours) and got second places there as well).

The same guy (Martin van der Poel) that took some videos last time was there again this time (with his new camera, good on ya, Martin!!). We have not seen any uploads of his videos yet, but we are giving him some time, after all it is all just voluntary work by him ;-) ;-).

When winning a style in your own level you get a 'perpetual' trophy that you can keep for about a year at your home. If you like you can have your name(s) engraved on that, you just need to organize that yourself. Besides those trophies you also get something for keeps. At the Blue Riband competition (by AID) this was a certificate, at this competition it were medals (gold, silver,...).

We have created an online display cabinet so not only we can show off (.... ;-) to everyone, but also these perpetual trophies will be kept in this cabinet even after bringing them back!. (see the link under Dancing in WA on the left)

Now before showing off all these trophies and medalds for this competition, please be aware that there were (as usual) not too many competitors. In two of the styles we were competing against one other couple, in all other ones against two other couples. So, do not be too impressed with all the shine and glitz and glamour ...... ;-) ;-)

Also this (few number of competitiors) means we should now think of ways to get more people (in our age-group!) involved in competition dancing, because the rule is you only get elevation points (for promotion to the next leve) if you win a final with AT LEAST 4 couples. Hence our little 'wanted' call at the start ;-)

Oh, and when the video's are available, we will of course put them on this weblog as well.

Right, if you look here you will find all the medals and trophies that we won this time ...

My old piano....

2009-03-28T17:13:00.002+09:00

About 11 years ago, while still living in The Netherlands, an old wish came through. I bought an electrical baby Grand Piano and started to take piano lessons. We found a piano teacher with the same love for music as we did and Peter and I had a lot of fun during our piano lessons for about a year. But then her father suddenly and unexpectedly died and we never saw her again!
A replacement teacher took over, but she was like a school teacher for juniors and treated us that way! A second replacement teacher (Peter already had stopped playing) expected far too much, so the piano lesson became a stressful event and the fun was completely gone. So I stopped as well.
Meanwhile our life was busy and without us noticing it, the years flew by without touching the piano.

Before we migrated to Australia I still wanted the piano to join us, because you would never know, I might want to start taking lessons again? So, it migrated with us and took the long journey in the sea container.
We are in Australia for 3 years now and we noticed a music tuition school about 1.5 year ago and gathered some information. Again we were very busy and still I took no action to actually start taking lessons.

But then we rearranged part of our home which triggered the move of the piano. Again the question popped up…………. should I sell it?
In the same period we had visitors who saw the piano and they asked how it sounded. Peter showed a demo song played by the piano (it is electrical) and I was completely hooked again. No, of course I should not sell the piano, but in stead I should start taking piano lessons!
So ………three weeks ago (it was about time!) I started taking piano lessons and really enjoy it. They are using here the same type of learning books as we did in Europe and I am actually using my old Dutch piano book again to catch up the lost knowledge. It is amazing how much your hands still seem to remember after so many years!

Dancing: Blue Riband Championship

2009-03-13T16:51:00.015+09:00

"Well, well, well, there is life after all ..." some of you might think. And you would be sort of right as well. It has actually been more than half a year since our last post. Now that does not mean nothing happened of course, but from our perspective it was all probably not worth while [considering the time involved] mentioning here. But now that I am also not working at the moment (hmmm, one thing worth mentioning is it not? ;-)) one should say I have enough time now.

So, to basically just continue with our most recent 'new' item: we have entered our first dancing competition here in WA, the Blue Riband Championships which is a yearly event (organised by the Australian Institue of Dancing, AID). Because this was our first competition over here we had to start (as anyone else) at the bottom. We were happy with that since we think that the competition here seems to be a bit more serious than what we were used to back in the Netherlands.

Now with the (current) system here you dance 1 dance in each type (Standard, Latin and/or New Vogue) in Level 1, 2 dances in level 2, up till the highest level (Open) where you dance all 5 standard, all 5 latin en usually 5 (out of 15 accepted!) New Vogue dances. Now you can compete in your own level but are also allowed to compete in one level up.
(Getting bored already? Hang in there, almost ready for the viewing stuff ;-))

So all of this together, we decided to enter not only in level 1 (which was our own level) but also in level 2 because otherwise we would only have 3 dances for the whole day. Oh yeah, one more thing: in our age group called Masters (as in: above 35) there are usually not too many competitors. So most of the competitions are straight finals. Hence our choice to compete one level up as well.

Now at these dancing competitions there is (luckily) a guy called Martin van der Poel who (besides competing himself ;-)) records the majority of the dances as well. So therefore we can now give you a very good impression of our (first) dancing competition.

So to start with an example (and I will start with the best examples to keep your attention up ;-)) have a look at the following highest level (open). Please note, if you can try to watch the videos in High Quality)
Standard:

Latin:

New Vogue:

Hope you're enjoying that!!
Now before (for those of you that are interested ;-) specifically showing the videos where we are to be seen in, some start competition dancing at a very young age, this girl would have been 4 at the most:

Now, 4 of the dances we competed in were video-ed as well:

Level 1 Latin:

Level 1 New Vogue:

Level 2 Standard:

Level 2 New Vogue:

Did you see that at level 2 all our competitors were actually wearing full suits and dresses? We are not there yet ;-).

Oh yes, and of course our results:
L1 Standard => 1st of 2
L1 Latin => 1st of 3
L1 New Vogue => 5th of 5
L2 Standard => 2nd of 5
L2 Latin => 3rd of 4
L2 New Vogue => 5th of 5

Then finally, if you are interested in even more movies of this competition, have a look under 'Dancing in WA' ;-)

Ellen's column took off ..

2008-07-20T20:51:00.003+08:00

The first post on Ellen's column has been published... Let us know what you think!!!

4WD in Wilbinga

2008-07-16T18:34:00.006+08:00

Ja, Ineke en Luus: het is inderdaad stil rondom de Blessies... Geen bijzondere reden voor hoor. Gewoon het dagelijkse leven dat lekker doorgaat. De dagen schieten voorbij.... :-)

Oh en Lucia, of course we did not trade Ellen's car in.. That is our work horse

Ok, a few weeks ago we have been invited by XPditer Wilco to go along on a little 4WD trip. We have been asking around a couple of times for opportunities to come along on one of these trips. Wilco actually organized one more or less especially for us, let's call it a introduction to 4WD trip. The location we went to was Wilbinga, an area just north of Perth (about the height of Yanchep Park), and then adjacent to the ocean. This means that you can get to a few very nice 'remote' beaches that you will not be able to reach with a regular car... Of course we were not alone, Frank and Menno (with their respective cars) joined as well, because any smart 4WD-er will never go out on his/her own!!.

To get there took about an hour from Wilco's place (probably it would take us an hour and a hal to get to the entrance road. The entrance road by itself is just a gravle road, not too bad just a bit bumpy. After about 15 minutes drive we were at the end of the entrance road and about to get on the soft sand roads. This means the tyre pressure has to be decreased (from 40 to 20 psi). That way the tyres are reasonably soft and will be giving beter grip on the sand roads.

This is of course a matter of simply pressing the tyre-valves untill the right pressure level has been reached. Then we were ready to get on the sand roads:

And no it what not all just flat sandy tracks:

The final destination (although of course it is not so much about the destination as it is about the road there :-))... Can you spot Ellen?:

After this trip when we were driving home we agreed that it was a very exciting activity. Would we not have 2 cars already, we may have been tempted to look for an (older) 4WD car ... (un?)fortunately we have the two so that is something for later..
Feel free to have a good look around at some more photos here.

C-Day

2008-04-14T18:34:00.005+08:00

Well, well, just in time to prevent a full 3 months gap between the posts.. Time really is flying when you're having fun!

Anyway, now that we are back (sort of ;-) I (Pete) need to tell you about C-Day. Although it may sound a bit like another one of those Ozzie holidays (like Anzac-day or Labour day) it is not. In a way it is a much more interesting day. The exact day of C-Day is Friday, April the 4th. Almost exactly 3 years ago we were in Canada visiting my dad. During that day I actually fell in love with ... C. C actually being his last name. First name 300.... Can you guess by now? No?

Ok, the family name is Chrysler. In that family there are a few members with a normal heart (3 and 3.5 liter and 6 'chambers') and two with a big heart. The biggest heart (6.1 liter, 8 chambers) is a real race monster. The one just below that one is the one that I actually started a relationship with... His name: Chrysler 300C Hemi... Hence the C-Day, the day our relationship started!

Now, just in case you still do not have the picture, HERE is a picture of his face:

Memory lane ;-)

2008-01-16T18:55:00.000+09:00

Last week we were cleaning up the harddisk of our desktop. We more or less stumbled into the holiday reports that we had made during our (3) holidays to Australia. It reminded us a bit of the ´prequel´ fashion that goes on in the film industrie, when they bring out movies for succesfull series about how it all began (Star Wars, Batman begins, etc). So, we thought it was a good idea to bring out our own prequel.

Now, unfortunately for some of you, these holiday reports were all written in Dutch. We have decided not to start translating them because that would really take too much time. So, if you do not read Dutch, you may consider skipping the next part (although some photos are there as well...).

Dus ga ik nu in het Hollands verder. We hebben voor onze prequel gewoon een 2e blogje gemaakt. Als je het leuk vind om dat eens door te lezen (hoe ervaarden wij Australie voordat wij er woonden), neem dan de tijd (of deel het in stukken) en begin te lezen bij het verlsag van de 1e vakantie.... Deze prequel is te vinden op: http://www.blessiesprequel.blogspot.com/. Mocht je comments willen plaatsen dan kan dat daar ook gewoon.....

HOT-HOT-HOT Boxing day

2007-12-26T11:28:00.000+09:00

In case you had not noticed it, this year's boxing day looks to become a hot one ... We will probably stay indoors today :-).

Currently at 11am it was almost 40 degrees already..

We still think this is better than being out there on the ice (brrrr ... ;-).

Christmas present ;-)

2007-12-18T21:12:00.000+09:00

Hoi Adri, ook heel leuk om reactie(s) te krijgen van (tot op heden) onbekende mensen. Stuur gerust een mailtje naar... als je wat meer wilt vertellen (is er een kans dat we je dochter kennen, of iemand die haar kent, etc, etc ..). Ben je via haar op onze site terecht gekomen? Alvast veel plezier met het voorbereiden van de bruiloft!!

Hi All, we can not believe another month has gone by again... Did anything interesting happen? Not really. The pool is now completed with the installation of the solar heating two weeks ago. The weather in the last few days is a bit non-typical for Perth (grey skies and a bit of rain). But the forecast for the next days) including Christmas are looking just fine... Have a look at the weather link on the left side.

Regarding the present: Most of you will be aware that we are not very X-mas spirited people (that is trying not to get trapped in the yearly commercial frenzy ;-). But we did get a (sort of) very nice Christmas present. As of yesterday Ellen started her first day as a permanent employee (working as project manager) in Australia.

The process to get Peter's contract converted to a permanent position has been intiated as well, so if the people in the US are not being stupid (;-) he should be starting his first day as permanent employee somewhere in January as well...

Anyway, that is it for now. If we do not speak or mail to you before, then a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all of you!!

Red Bull Air Race 2007

2007-11-19T17:35:00.000+09:00

Frank: Dank je wel!! Even voor de zekerheid... welke Frank, we kennen er nl een paar ... ;-)
Ineke: Of we een echte pool party gaan organiseren is niet zeker, maar laat maar horen wanneer je een keer wilt komen zwemmen...

A good two weeks ago the Red Bull Air Race event was back in Perth. The November walk was planned for that weekend, so we all (well, the few that were interested ;-) gathered at an elevated location in Kings Park. From there we had a nice view on the whole show, allbeit maybe a bit too far away. For me as photographer it definitely was a bit too far (but then they will be back next year, so will go to a different spot then).

An impression (all photos can be found here or on the left side of the weblog under perth walks, 200711):

New on our weblog

2007-11-14T18:42:00.000+09:00

Now that our pool starts to be functional we are of course always very interested in the weather forecast. A site that seems to be pretty good is weatherzone. We have added a link to that site, if you are interested in our weather as well, see under 'worthwhile links'.

Swimming Pool - Update 11

2007-11-14T08:59:00.000+09:00

The machine that regulates the chlorine level in our pool (Chemigem) is now installed so finally the moment is there for the first dive :-). It is still a little bit cold, because the solarheating needs to be installed. But knowing how a pool of about 20 degrees will feel (outdoor pools in The Netherlands are like that) Ellen could not wait any longer to jump in.....

Yes, it feels good on a hot day like today (36 degrees)!

Here is the overview of the pool. We have placed some plants already on the border to give the pool a bit more colour. As soon as the patio arrives in January (the pool will be covered to protect the house and the pool against the hot sun)we can add some hanging baskets as well.

Swimming Pool - Update 10

2007-11-06T20:10:00.000+09:00

Ewald: geen probleem, buurt heeft nog volop druk gehad. Althans we hebben geen klachten gehoord. Maar misschien is dat omdat ze allemaal nog een keer willen komen zwemmen ;-)
David: Misschien kun je de volgende keer dat je die vader die Didde kent vragen om ons weblog-adres aan hem doorgeven. Uiteindelijk wonen we nu een stukkie dichter bij LOTR grounds!! (Nou ja, nog 8 uur vliegen van hier, maar toch een stuk dichter dan vroeger ;-)
Ineke: Dank je! Was leuk, alhoewel geen wandeling. Alleen maar een flink aantal uren zitten en hangen in Kings Park met af en toe wat vliegtuigen.. Volgende wandeling wordt als het goed is weer meer een echt (Coogee, georganiseerd door Hinke)

Last Sunday night at 19:00 after 50 hours we finally could close the tap. The water level was just over the middle of the top line tiles (about 1.45m). Can we now swim? No, not yet. Now the pool company needs to organize the 'handover' of the pool (today Ellen called and they were going to arrange that). This handover is the final setup of the pump and chemicals, test everything, and tell us (teach us ;-) how to clean and maintain the pool. Then the solar heating company also needs to be arranged to get the solar heating organized (needs to be measured first then installed).

We are now hoping to be able to swim in maybe 2 weeks or so, albeit in water what will probably be pretty cold... ;-)

SATURDAY, 13:00

SUNDAY, 08:30

SUNDAY, 19:00 Destination reached, tap closed ;-)

The Dutch Tax –return, a never ending story……..

2007-11-06T13:48:00.000+09:00

Didn’t we tell you before that the Australian tax office is very quick (money paid on your account within 2 weeks after sending the tax return through internet!)?

Well, the Dutch tax office is a very different story. So, for all the guys who still are planning to migrate, make sure you owe the tax office money and not the other way around :-)!

We are (unluckily) in the position that the tax office owes us and we will never know when we will get it. From other migrants we heard many of them also are waiting for the final tax return, some even already a couple of years!!!

We sent our M- form (2006) to the tax office in February 2007 and called several times -since August- asking when we could expect any response. Finally two weeks ago we were called back by the tax- office in Tilburg. It seemed that our forms were split up in two parts, during scanning and now it was not possible to make a judgement about the tax return? I asked where the originals were. Is it not possible to scan them again? The guy from the helpdesk answered that this might be possible, but it might take months before the forms would be taken out of the archive from Apeldoorn and available for scanning again………………..What are they doing the whole day????
He was so kind to ask another department to send us the new forms again. No, sending a copy was not allowed. I was only possible to write everything down again on the original form. Can you believe it? This is red tape all over the place!
But, what can you do, when you are on the other side of the planet…. Nothing at all.
So we just had a big laugh about it, thanked the guy for his help and drank our wine and cola and switched on the patient button.
This is now 1,5 week ago, and we are still waiting for these forms to come…..

The Big Walk.

2007-11-06T13:32:00.000+09:00

Once a year The big walk is organised by a sponsor (this year John Hughes, a large car dealer). With this activity they are trying to collect money for young cancer patients. The walk is not as big as the name would suggest. It is a walk of about 18 km.
We started from the North shore of the Swan river in Perth CBD and walked from there to Fremantle. I (Ellen) planned to do the walk together with Hinke (one of our friends from the Dutch walking group) but a couple of days before the big day, Eric (my cousin) called us to say that he would be happy to join us :-).
The weather was very good. It was a bit cloudy and sometimes even a little bit fresh, but that is very good when you are walking. So at least we had the chance to cool down a bit.
Here you will see some of the pictures taken during the walk.

Here at the start with Eric:

And some impressions during the walk.

Along the Swan river.

Isn't he sweet? While his boss was waiting for the red traffic light, I was just able to take his picture :-). He was sitting at the back of a little pick up truck.

Of course also one of the finish to prove we made it! Here together with Hinke.

At the end we took our well deserved food. Eric could not resist the sizzling sausages with onions. Sauces enough to choose from. I must say, the sausages smelled terrific!

We did the walk in about 3 hours. Peter would pick us up at the end and while Peter was driving to Fremantle, Eric and I tried the Little Creatures brewery :-).

Canoeing at Point Perron.

2007-11-06T13:15:00.000+09:00

A couple of weeks ago it sure was time for me (Ellen) to do some canoeing again. This time Eric (my cousin) took me to Point Perron near Rockingham (about 38 km South of Perth).
It was beautiful again. It was a pity we did not encounter the dolphins that are living in these waters. Next time we probably will try the Swan river from Fremantle to Point Walter.
Here are some photo's.

All ready to go....

Eric took the lead:

Beautiful rockformations:

Swimming Pool - Update 9

2007-11-03T11:45:00.000+09:00

Finally we are getting somewhere. Last Wednesday morning two ladies rang the doorbell. They were here to clean the pool as a preparation for the plastering. Although we were not informed, we had no objections of course. On the question what they would have done if no one would have been home (Ellen was, luckily), they said they just would have gone to the next pool... That's the way it works here in WA ;-).

The pool company had told us last week (after we called them to ask!) that the plastering was planned for next Friday, weather permitting. We asked if they could confirm (like the day before) so we would be prepared....
Law and behold: Friday morning at 5.50 am Peter's alarm clock went off AND the doorbell rang, exactly at the same time... The plastering guys were there.
Asked why they were this early, they said they always need to be on location before sunrise (later we learned that could not have been true, since from next week they would be doing 2 pools a day in stead of one ;-):

And then finally, Friday at 17:00 we could start filling the pool. They told us that once starting, the tap should NOT be closed till the water is at the top-level-tiles to prevent markings on the side of the pool. Here is an impression of how fast (slow!) you can fill up a pool:

FRIDAY, 17:07

FRIDAY, 18:00

FRIDAY, 19:00

SATURDAY, 09:00 (28 hours to fill up to about 50 cm)

Our current estimation is that the pool should be filled by Sunday afternoon....

New on our weblog

2007-10-21T11:39:00.000+08:00

As of today there will be a new 'item' on our weblog (left side, under "Perth walks"). As most of you will know, we have a sort of walking group (started with some co-Xpditers) doing a walk once a month in or around Perth. Usually I do take my camera and make some shots.

Have a look and let us know what you think .....

Swimming Pool - Update 8

2007-10-20T19:50:00.000+08:00

Erna / Ineke: Inderdaad, langzaam maar zeker komt er voortgang. De laatste weken gaat het eindelijk vrij snel. Het zwembadhek, de schutting (einde uitzicht ;-), de bestrating om de pool heen etc... Je ziet het wel aan de fotos hieronder ;-)
Kathleen: Dank je! Jullie gaan toch ook nog wel een weblog opzetten, zodat we ook jullie ervaringen kunnen volgen daar in het oosten des lands...

The progress on the pool is good, the pool fence, the colorbond fence (end of the view :-( ), the pump and the paving have al been done. The council has been around to inspect the fencing. Also they have put some screws in some windows that would open up into the pool area. They can no no longer be opened further than 10 cm. Two more things to do: The plastering of the inside of the pool and the solar heating. Sometime yesterday or the day before 2 pallets of cement have been dropped of in our front garden. We would think that means the plastering might be planned coming week ..... Our hopes are still up to swim by Christmas time...

Some photos:

Swimming Pool - Update 7 - and TAX

2007-10-07T10:03:00.000+08:00

Time flies when you're having fun is what they say ... So we must have lots and lots of fun then, since the last post is more than 2 months ago. Was it all fun then?? Hmmm, no.. definitely a lot of very, very busy times at work as well ;-).

One of the things we have done in the last months is the Tax return. Like in Holland, through a downloadable program. One of the features is that a lot of information (like interest on you bankaccounts, medicare expenses, etc) can be downloaded through that program as well. That saves a lot of time in looking through all your papers, adding numbers etc ;-).

Another great thing about the tax office is that your receive your tax-return money in your bankaccount in only two weeks!

Also we have been calling the Dutch tax office as well. We have completed and sent in the 'M'-form (migration tax form) on paper (unfortunately, that can not be done electronically) back in February.

So, as instructed on all tax-documents we called the 'abroad tax department' in Heerlen. Asking about the status of our returns the officer had to check some things and came back telling that since it is about the time we were still living in Holland, it is not their department looking after it but the national department. He was able to connect us through. So the next officer got the same story by us. She had to look some things up as well. She told us that the forms had been received, but had not been processed. She made a remark that if that would stay like that too long, they might 'fell off the system' and we would have a risk of having to fill in new forms from scratch..... (can you believe that?). She also told that the local tax office in Den Bosch are the ones that would need to be handling this. She was going to organize for colleagues in the Den Bosch office to call us the next day .......

Now, almost two months later... still no news. So, of course we will have to try again to get in contact with the right people.... to be continued.

Well, back to our pool project. Here are a few more recent photos:

Swimming Pool - Update 6 & another winner

2007-07-25T19:38:00.000+08:00

[Newsflash: My Blue Eyed photo (see previous post) has won the (Flickr online) 2nd half of July Australian Photographers, WA competition]

For anyone (besides mom :-) wondering if they do bull fighting in Perth: They don't. The bull shot was taken at a Rodeo at El caballo, half an hour drive east of Perth.

The backfilling has taken place and also the pencil compacting (compacting the 15 cm of sand directly around the pool) has been done. We are now waiting till the fence will be put back. Some photos (we are then up to date till today, July 25th :-):

NEPG July Competition

2007-07-13T21:05:00.000+08:00

After skipping the last two competitions (too busy, too busy :-( ) I finally entered some entries in the July one again. Two prints did not win a price (in Prints, Subject 'Creative Nature'), but the entry in the slide got 1st price!

The entries that did not win anything (but, I think, are still nice photos ;-) are:

Blue Eyed:

Melting Bird:

And the winner is:

Swimming Pool - Update 5

2007-06-23T12:10:00.000+08:00

We love all the comments from you guys. Please keep them coming. From now on we will try to respond to them if we think that is appropiate / needed / ... ;-)

Ewald: Ondertussen hebben we hier ook aardig wat regen. Zij het dan in de verste verte niet in NSW-hoeveelheden! Wel een klein beetje reden tot zorg, zolang de 'backfill' van het zand nog niet gedaan is.
Anonymous (van het Toetanchamon comment): Wie ben je ???
Eutrice:Dank je wel. Wij zijn ook aardig benieuwd. Het is wel een periode van laat ik maar zeggen 'gematigde zorg' tot in ieder geval de grond weer dicht is...
Ineke: Ongeveer 11 bij 2.8m, maar eerst maar eens zien wanneer het allemaal af is ;-)

The concrete has been sprayed last Wednesday. Some photos (this time a bit smaller size, click on them if you want to see the medium sizes ;-)