Doesburg

On Wednesday of this week I joined several women from the AWC on a tour of Doesburg (20 miles from Anhem, a bit more than a two-hour bus ride from Den Haag). Doesburg has been designated as an historic town, and is the home of the Martinikerk with a 94-meter-tall tower. The church is massive.

We lunched at De Waag, supposedly the oldest public place in the Netherlands. Doesburg is famous for mustard making so I brought home a jar of their finest for Alex, my mustard connaisseur. It was a lovely day, sunny but cold, and a nice way to spend the day.

Goodbye Pat!

Last week we had our last farewell to Pat Fennell, an excellent brunch hosted by Kathy Anderson. It wasn't as raucous as the dinner at Impero Romano...but a lovely morning and a fun group.

Here are a few pics from the brunch.

A Visit from Friends

On the 18th of October we welcomed our friends, Trevor and Jo, and their children, Niamh and Owen for a very nice visit. Trevor, by the way, was the best man at our wedding. It is ALWAYS a blast to spend time with the Arthur-Bevans clan, and this visit was no different.

We had an excellent visit, the highlights of which included a visits to Madurodam and Amsterdam and more than one visit to a local pannenkeukenhuis. We travelled by bus, tram and train (and a canal boat tour) which the kids really enjoyed. You'll see in some of the photos a small bear...this is Star Bear which belongs to Niamh, and Jo likes to photograph Star in all of his adventures :)

We played several games of Star Wars Trivial Pursuit - Alex teamed with Jo and I with Trevor. Alex and Jo won the first evening, and Trev and I came in strong the next night for the win.

Alex had 'won' a pair of tickets for a UEFA Champions League football game in Eindhoven at the silent auction at the Pink Ribbon Gala, so Jo and I sent our men to the game on the Wednesday evening while we made a delicious meal of slow roasted lamb and played a game of Finish Lines - also quite a bit of fun.

Niamh (6) and Owen (3) are two of the most well-behaved and charming children I know. Even when we went to Amsterdam to explore the Van Gogh museum they never whined or complained - they are simply delightful. I will say that Owen's pronunciation of my name "Lez-a-lee" and his desire to hold my hand and skip everywhere we went gave me warm fuzzies. I taught the kids to say "how you doin'" in the style of Joey Tribiani...Really it is a laugh to hear two children with British accents mimicking this famous line from Friends. Very, very funny.

It was such fun to have our dear friends visit (although the visit was simply too short) and we look forward to their return perhaps next year.

Tot Ziens to Pat Fennell

Last week a small group of AWC Board Members had a dinner party at Imperio Romano in Den Haag to say farewell to our current First VP, Pat Fennell, who is moving back to the States to Virginia Beach at the end of October.

I have really been blessed with the good friends I have made here in the Netherlands - and this group is quite a bit of fun. We had quite the party, really - and felt compelled to buy drinks for several other patrons who tolerated our singing and dancing....Pat says that if more Members knew how much fun Board Members can be, we'd have a lot more volunteers for the posts!

I think the film says it all.

I wish Pat and her husband, Greg, (and her two doggies, Jack and Caylee) all the best, and I hope our paths cross again.

Another Day in Delft

As part of the process of improving my photojournalism skills, encouraged very much by my husband, my Aunt/Mom Nancy, my uncle Denis and my sister Lisa, I am looking for ways to improve my newly-discovered talents. Yesterday I participated in yet another AWC activity and met some of my new friends in Delft for a "photo safari" led by one of our Members who is a professional photographer. Although I've been to Delft several times and taken lots of photos, I learned quite a bit.

Here are a few of, what I think, are some decent shots (except one, which I've posted so that you can see that, like in America, boys here will be boys!). I've also compiled a brief film for those of you who have enjoy my little movies.

Another note of interest (well, at least to me) - the Dutch don't accommodate picture taking, certainly not for tourists, but not even for a bride and groom. Weddings take place in Delft (as in may cities) at the Geemente (city hall) and on a Friday, there are quite a few. And when it is sunny, they often walk through the city in their wedding attire and have photos taken. The Dutch walk or cycle by (often right between the photographer and his subjects) without any apology. It is just the way it is!

Pink Ribbon Gala

On October 4th, Alex and I attended the AWC's annual fundraiser, the Pink Ribbon Gala, held at the prestigious Nieuwe of Littéraire Sociëteit De Witte (founded in October 1802). De Witte is housed in a monumental building on the ‘Plein’ in the exclusive inner court of the town next to the parliamentary heart of the country.

This is the sixth year that the AWC has held the event, and on this particular evening, we raised over €300,000 for breast cancer research and patient advocacy in the Netherlands, making our cumulative total since the first Gala more than €1,000,000. In speaking with lots of people who have been here for several years, I learned that prior to the Pink Ribbon organization becoming active here just a few, short years ago, there was little support for breast cancer patients here in the Netherlands, and as a direct result of this effort, research, treatment and advocacy has improved significantly.

It was a very formal affair, attended by a number of dignitaries, including the British Ambassador to the Netherlands Lyn Parker, and his wife, Jane-Walker Parker, the US Ambassador to the Netherland James Culbertson and his wife Germaine Culbertson, the U.S. Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament, Ambassador Eric Javitz and his wife, Dr. Margaretha Espersson, and the Mayor of Wassenaar, Jan Hoekema. The Emcee for the evening is a well-known Dutch model, Frederique van der Wal, best known for her appearances in Sports Illustrated, Cosmopolitan, and Victoria's Secret.

It was more than cool to be part of such a wonderful event, and we look forward to attending each year we are here.

Random Stuff

Recently I've done a couple of interesting things but have no photos because I wasn't allowed to use my camera at either.

My friend Lisa invited me to participate in the studio audience for the pilot of a new television show. The show is in English so they needed English-speaking audience members to help them gauge how well it will be received.

The premise of the show is that a contestant has agreed to be hypnotized and is brought on the show subsequently to guess what he did on the day he was 'put under'. He couldn't remember anything, but given some scenarios he was to guess what he did. For instance, he was told that he had an audition with Andrew Lloyd Weber and asked to guess which outfit he'd chosen for the meeting. It was silly, but funny. Andrew Lloyd Weber, by the way, was actually the hypnotist himself, but the contestant though he was Sir Weber. He subsequently sings in the 'audition' after which he has an interview with two British Airways execs (actors) because he has a dream of one day becoming an airline pilot, and during the interview he is under the impression that whenever the woman exec takes her glasses off, that she is naked. He drives a London taxi (not really) and picks up Mel Gibson as a passenger (again, not really - but because he is hypnotized he thinks it is him). The whole thing is a bit tricky to explain, and I really shouldn't tell this much as I signed some kind of non-disclosure...

The BEST part of the whole thing was that I am a big fan of the host (and didn't know he would be part of the show until I sat in the audience) -- Patrick Kielty, a Northern Irish comedian whose performances I've watched many times on television. I didn't get to meet him, but he was great fun (moreso than the contestant, who was a pretty boring dude...)

Here's a quick clip of one of Kielty's performances http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIixrUh9tAQ

Another recent trip was to the Kasteel Duinevoord in nearby Voorschoten. Once a year they offer candlelight tours of the castle in the evening (so even if I'd been able to take photos, it would have been tricky to get decent shots in a totally candlelit castle). The place was really spectacular, and the candlelight made it even more special. I didn't take this particular photo, but give you an idea of what the castle looks like. Imagine it in the dark full of candles - quite something.

This past Saturday we attended the AWC's annual Pink Gala, a black tie affair (with about 400 attendees) raising money for breast cancer research here in the Nederlands. This will be a separate entry soon.

The castle is remarkable in that it was never sold; it was inherited by several different noble houses, sometimes through marriage, something that can be said of very few Dutch castles. For the first five centuries of its history, the castle was owned by one and the same family, namely the Van Duivenvoordes, who gave their name - at that time, van Duvenvoirde - to the castle. Though the castle was named thus, the van Duvenvoirdes properly formed part of the House of Wassenaer, an ancient noble family that has played an important role in Dutch history. Toward the end of the 17th century an owner of Kasteel Duivenvoorde, Johan, retook the name of van Wassenaar. Though the same family remained to live in the House, this was now under a different name.

Original decoration and furnishings have been preserved (family portraits, Delft ware, Chinese and European porcelain, silver).