Safe and Sound

And we were thinking, life is quite normal nowadays. Nothing much to tell. Just the usual. And probably not very many people are reading this anyway. As you guys made clear, not at all! So for you, we’ll try to keep our efforts up.

Well, after again a journey of about two days, I arrived on Friday. Safe and sound, back in NZ. I have to say I, because Klaas came a day later.  Check in, Ms Merel was booked on the flight, but no Klaas to be found. Strange… a very helpful, friendly lady who unfortunately didn’t succumb to our charms. No Klaas, no flight. Of course we didn’t read the terms and conditions on our flight booking, which apparently said we could not fly back if we didn’t use the ticket on the way to the Netherlands. Which Klaas didn’t do, as most of you know. Apart from that Singapore Airlines is the way to go. Really nice chairs, legroom (also for tall people), great inflight system and not so bad food. Still, it is a hell of a journey. Not something you do for fun, but it was more than worth it!

In Singapore I had a stopover of 15 hours. More than enough time to explore this crazy little empire. When I tried I found the best matching words to describe Singa is: sterile and surreal. It looks like every effort is made to make everything look and work perfect. And that makes me feel like I’m walking on a movie set. That probably says more about me Top of the bill crazy was the newest iconic hotel with the spaceship on top. See pictures. Really, if you have some time to spare there, take the elevator in the 3rd tower to the 56th floor.

From the day we landed in NL until the we left we have been meeting up with people. Sometimes we even had three or four meetings a day. Breakfast here, coffee there, dinner at another place. As I told many people it was crazy, and at the same GREAT! Wonderful hours and days spend with family and friends, trying to remember every minute, making the most of the time. And still it was too short. There is no other way of doing it, other than just enjoying the ride. And we did. Thank you so much everyone for  company, beds, dinners, party’s organized, quality time. For making us feel like we haven’t left at all, for letting us know we have such amazing friends. Thank you, thank you!

At the end, we both longed to go back, like you long for you own bed and toilet seat after a long holiday.  Touching the soil in Auckland, a relaxed feeling came over me. Psychosomatic or not, I don’t care. This country has done something to me, and that is very apparent.  Quite some tension was build up during my visit, which made me very tired. Because of our fully packed schedule, and also because of the speed of life in NL.  We still feel a bit misplaced, as a friend here says: ‘ Your body travels by plane, but your soul on a horse.’ I see this adventure will make us split souls forever, but hey aren’t we all:)

Buys,
Klaas and Merel

ps More foto’s will follow on the flickr site. Will take some time though!

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