By admin , 8 December 2014

Sinterklaas duet

A few days ago Nora and I sang a few songs together, in Dutch.

Listen to it here.

Nora: Dat is het liedje.
Guus: Ja gaan we nog zingen.
Nora: Ja!
Nora: Nee nee!

Guus starts to sing.

Nora: Nee, niet nog zingen.
Guus: Nee, niet meer zingen?
Nora: Nee. Niet meer zingen!

Guus: Ken jij bijvoorbeeld het liedje, Sinterklaas Kapoentje?
Nora: Em, ik kan niet Sinterklaas Kapoentje.
Nora: Oh nee. Nora kan dat liedje niet.
Nora: Ik kan wel... 'en we zingen en we springen'.
Guus: Oh ja! Siiinterklaasje kom maar binnen.... etc

Nora: Oh, het is daar donker...

Guus: En kan jij ook wel het liedje 'Zie ginds komt de stoomboot'?

Nora: Eh ja!

Together:

Zie ginds komt de stoomboot
Uit Spanje weer aan.
Het brengt ons St Nicolaas
Ik zie 'm al staan.
Hoe... huppelt zijn paardje het dek op en neer
Hoe waaien de wimpels al heen en al weer.
Zijn knecht staat te lachen en roept reeds toe.
Wie zoet is krijgt lekkers
Wie stout is de roe
Oh lieve Sint Nicolaas kom ook eens bij mij
En rijdt toch niet stilletje ons huisje voorbij.

Topic
dailylife
By Guus , 6 December 2014

Sinterklaas in Washington

Today Saint Nicholas arrived at the Dutch Embassy. This year we've been reading Sinterklaas books for a few weeks so Nora knows Sinterklaas and his helpers well.

We arrived a little early so we had plenty of time to look around. The Pieten arrived soon and I guess they liked Nora because they came back every few minutes to make sure she still had pepernoten. The bigger kids would store the pepernoten in their bags -- but Nora took just one at the time.

Like last year, Sinterklaas arrived on the balcony of the central hall of the embassy. It was nice to sing the old songs.

The little kids were then invited in the big room and soon all the two-year olds were called forward. Nora was very brave -- much braver than I think I was at that age -- and comfortably sat next to Sint Nicholas on the sofa. She gave him a big hug too.

Sinterklaas knew "dat Nora heel goed Bulgaars spreekt" and even knew about Meneer Prascho. She got a big present from Piet; a box with play dough.

The event is very well organized and we had a magical time.

Topic
dailylife
By admin , 5 December 2014

Breaking a record

This morning I surpassed the mileage from 2013 -- I'm now at 443 miles and my 2013 number, a record by itself, was 438.

It was the first run in eight days, since the day before Thanksgiving. After 3 great days with the Zanes I came down with a cold. Yesterday evening was the first night I slept without cold medicine.

It's hard to predict what the future will bring, but it seems very likely that the 2015 mileage will be much lower than this year's. I hope I'll be able to keep that difference reasonable, though.