January 10, a busy month of looking after 3 cats (between our apartment and another), trying to get Liam's visa sorted so he can come over (unsuccessful so far) and Jeroen completing 2014 work.
The streets became even crazier and several known 'incidents' in the city so most expats are cautious in their outings. The other day when helping carry some boxes into a shop, I noticed a man riding his motorbike on the footpath towards us (a common sight). Apparently this guy used his gun to get the money off a customer who was exiting the bank next door. Our driver saw everything while waiting for us.
Angolano's were out Christmas shopping on full energy. My favourite street vendor had his paintings for sale in a row on the side of the road. You could buy any of these paintings from him: Mary with baby Jesus, Fidel Castro or Bob Marley.
And this is the Christmas scene from our window, taken by friend Monika. Enlarge and Turn the sound up!
We enjoyed a nice Christmas lunch with Filipa, and family and in the evening, we had a potluck meal with the remaining residents in Torres Atlantico.
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| Filipa's eight desserts |
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| Filipa, Masterchef and Andy, Sous chef |
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| Foot monkeys |
New Years was very quiet but we saw 2015 in, watching Luanda celebrate from our balcony and outside pool area. Thousands of people, mostly dressed in white, ushered in the new year with traffic at a complete standstill from the port to the Ilha. Impressive fireworks and partying.
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| Feliz Ano Novo 2015 |
Petra (nurse I went on road trip to Lubango with) came and stayed a few nights and we enjoyed the company of family Koning also for a meal. Lots of Dutch, Portuguese and English spoken. Gezellig!
With Petra, I visited this little Bible Society store to purchase a bilingual Bible (Portuguese/English). It was very heartening to be in the humble little store with 20 or so other customers, waiting patiently to buy at least 50 Bibles in the 15 minutes I was there. I think I have only ever encountered one other person at a time in the Bible shop in NZ.
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| Holy Bible store |
An outing to the Historical Museum to see the Palanca Negra Gigante display.
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| Endangered species |
The museum was closed for renovations but I was directed to go there to use the toilets. I was amazed to be able to walk in to the eerily quiet and dark museum to find all of the exhibitions open to view. Dinosaur bones, enormous Portuguese paintings and display cases filled with exhibits covered in black plastic bags. What a strange experience to wander through there alone.
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| Eerie display cases in museum |
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| Clothing shop |
Time to head off to Holland on Wednesday. Still hoping Liam can join us...
Rest of January...a lovely trip to Rotterdam and Scheveningen, a beautiful coast town near Den Haag.
Scheveningen is difficult to say...during the 2nd world war, you could prove you were a true Hollander, and not German, by pronouncing Scheveningen.
We celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary at a little restaurant at the sea, including a glass of gluhwein, a warm mulled wine. Very very cold after the searing heat of Africa. Nice and refreshing.
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| Grand Hotel Kurhaus c 1884 |
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| Sheveningen pier |
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| Art on the dunes |
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| Eating Salted Herring, a traditional Dutch delicacy |
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| At the ice skating rink |
We visited Madurodam a city of scale models (1:25) depicting many Dutch buildings throughout The Netherlands.
A brilliant little place to spend time. My favourite was the St Johns Basilica.
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| Finger in the dyke |
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| Large Klompen |
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| St Johns Basilica |
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| Gigantic Jeroen |
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| Madurodam |
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| Schiphol airport |
On 24 January, Pap and Mam celebrated their 50th marriage anniversary. We joined with most of the family (sadly Liam, nor Oom Wim and a few others could not attend) for a celebration at a delightful garden centre.
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| family van Dijk |
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| Jeroen with Pap's brother, Oom Jap |
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| Celebration |
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| Pieter, Carina and Emmilie |
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| Tinka and Jelle |
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| selfie met Tinka |
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| Brother and sister |
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| Looking good at 50 years married! |
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| Cousins |
...and it snowed...
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| In the backyard at Pap and Mam's |
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| Beautiful berries |
We travelled back to Luanda, land of women carrying toilets on their heads across the road, babies sleeping in boxes on the street and another furry guest at home, Mojo.
Mojo's owners have gone off to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro - I just heard they made the summit.
The museum was closed for renovations but I was directed to go there to use the toilets. I was amazed to be able to walk in to the eerily quiet and dark museum to find all of the exhibitions open to view. Dinosaur bones, enormous Portuguese paintings and display cases filled with exhibits covered in black plastic bags. What a strange experience to wander through there alone.
