DAY HUNDRED FIFTY THREE - water park, then hit the skies running

Today had the opportunity of spending holiday time with the extended Wardy family (first chance to meet Martin’s father, John – also included were his dad’s brother and his wife and two grandchildren, plus Martin’s brother, Matt, wife, Trudy, and their two younger kids, Tegan and Finley) as I was invited to join in with what has become an annual holiday event for them:  going to Kingsbury Water Park – not a water park as you might expect, but so called, OBVIOUSLY, because it takes place in a park (woodland) with a goodly number of small bodies of water (lakes, pools, etc.). Our main intent in travelling to the park today was to have our turn at visiting Father Christmas. (Once again it’s that odd juxtaposition where you visit Santa’s Grotto in order to see Father Christmas!) Your pre-booked visit has been specially timed so that Father Christmas can present his ‘well-thought out’ gift to each individual child, according to gender and age. Because the children are wearing a name tag, he is able to call them by name as he hands over the goods. (Between the ‘Santa Claus has a very merry video for so&so’ thing* and now this, how could a kid NOT believe?!) After the actual visit (confession), you follow further down into the gloaming where everyone gets mini mincemeat pies and mulled wine (or packaged juice drinks for wimps like us), where we all sit around in the darkened grotto and sing carols with senior volunteers, all arrayed in festive garb. The ring leader took an especial shine to me and I was selected to sit beside him as he led the group in singing, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus. I obliged him with a kiss on the cheek at the end and that seemed to please him a good deal!

[*Check out  http://www.portablenorthpole.com/home. (I tell Leah and Martin, this is bordering on criminal intent – aka, blackmail!!]

 One of the especially cool things about our visit to the Water Park is that you get to ride on top of an authentic, miniature to-scale steam engine to arrive at Santa’s Grotto. There were a number of different specimens – each very beautiful and clever, all created by train aficionados, middle-aged men with a passion, who have built them up from scratch, and maintain them as well. The trains, from an adult’s perspective, were probably the most impressive part of the whole excursion. Towards the end of our park visit, in the obligatory playground area (once again built to accommodate the size and strength of the heftiest of men– gotta love that!) I got a little too close to Katya and cousin on a really fun technologically-advanced seesaw riding apparatus and got knocked solidly, resulting in me losing my  balance and falling over backwards onto the soggy ground, banging my tailbone good and hard in the action. Pretty dumb – just had no idea what power and mobility that thing had! Left me nice and messy, and a bit pained for walking. (Not what I needed for what was included in my agenda for the next few days.)  Following the park, we drove down a beautiful country lane to the nice cozy pub, the Dog and Doublet (the name as much a mystery to me as it is to you!), where we had some lovely pub grub. (I did learn that in a proper country pub, having been out on a brisk walk with your dog, it is perfectly acceptable for you to being him inside with you whilst you enjoy your favorite ale. I dunno – maybe there’s a connection!)

 As we were leaving, Trudy and Matt offered to drop me by the airport as it is closer to their home than Leah’s. Soon after Martin and Leah had picked me up that morning (it having been necessary for me to bring along EVERYTHING I needed for my trip to Amsterdam as we would not be returning home prior to heading for the airport), I discovered that in the rush to get out the door, I had forgotten to grab the nice, warm coat I had intended on bringing . . . AND would need desperately! With my suggestion of picking up a substitute – any old, WARM substitute – at a charity shop, Trudy said, I know just the one! We popped in and I headed right to the boy’s rack where I instantaneously came upon the perfect tamarack, (H&M, no doubt!). Perfect! it was JUST what I needed. Worked wonders – I was NEVER cold the entire time while visiting in Amsterdam!

 Here's a funny incident to start off the second leg of my day with (you can see from this spelling I am getting us into the Dutch thing right away): Myfanwy had told me that her son, Fergus, who had been in town for the last couple of nights, was travelling through Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport (on the way to Nairobi where he lives), the same day as me, and thought probably he was leaving sometime in the afternoon or evening. In my mind, I thought, ‘well, naturally, Murphy's Law says we will end up on the same flight’ – which, of course, we did! Talked to him before . . . and after the flight; he was a good resource! Happened like this: I had requested at the gate that I be permitted to board close to the beginning (the way they let parents with little kids get on early to get good and settled before the rush begins), as I explained to them about my fall and that I was feeling pretty bunged (by the way, I am thankfully going to be just fine - just pulled some ligaments slightly, I guess. Whew!). The KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) manager had told me to just go down by the middle section where people board – nothing more, nor less. And, following his advice, that's where I came upon Fergus!

Very soon this same porter guy came to the spot where we were chatting, and called out, 'Platinum and gold members may now board.’  Fergus takes off. I look at the guy with a question on my face, like 'well, that's obviously not me.' He made a little nod of his head, and an almost imperceptible indication with his hand, making eye contact with the group of potential boarders in front of him and not me, so down the corridor I went, right behind Fergus. Second on the plane – nice! Sat between a polite young student, just Daniel’s age, whose parents had sent him to school in England – living in The Netherlands, but originally from Tanzania – as well as the most pleasant, lovely young black woman with cute little son, Jason, about Ella's age, who had been visiting her sister in Coventry. (Saw for the first time a security belt attachment that fits through your seatbelt and secures the infant sitting on your lap – seems like a good innovation.) She was headed to Den Hague (I place I have heard about my whole life! Wow, I’m actually headed for Holland - where my brother served his mission!! How crazy is that!), only a matter of minutes from the airport by car, she informed me. She also was a tremendous resource, as I felt comfortable enough to ask her any questions I had. (I thought it was very clever that as you made your way beyond the immigration check, you are funneled right through a glitzy area called WorldDutyFree – liquor, designer handbags, colognes, to name a few – with no other possible route, on your way to entering the departure-gate area of the terminal. I guess the government/port authorities  know people’s weaknesses pretty well. Spend money to save money. Yes – always makes sense to me!) My new friend remarked that we would be having an especially full flight, as the day previously all flights going in and out of Schiphol had been cancelled due to inclement weather. I guess God was watching out for me, and I didn’t even realize it, because trustingly (naively?) I never even thought to inquire on the dare of my flight to see if there might have been any reasons for delay.

From the moment the other Ward family had dropped me off at the airport, everything had run as smooth as smooth. (I say this because, I don’t know about you, but new things can be kind of {meaning REALLY} intimating to me, so that helped a lot!) Hurried as quickly as I could to the place Andrew and I had agreed to meet – arriving there about exactly the time I had guesstimated it would take me for to get there after passing through customs. Waited and waited, just as we had agreed, and then those doubts began to creep in – you know the ones. Strange place, strange language, no means of contact – having no idea where you are in relation to the one person you do know. No sooner had I found the place where they could loud-speaker through the airport, ‘Andrew Beck, please report to the information booth,’ and returned back to our meeting point, then there came Andrew. Whew! He had taken the train for the first time and mistook how quickly it would take to travel to the airport, so had overshot his destination. Was he a sight for sore eyes?! An hour later than we had planned, but at that point, who cared! At least he was there, and everything was blue skies from then on (a little adventure finding our way back to his place – but ‘many inquiries of strangers’ later, we finally came upon familiar territory!

Photos_

  1- Kingsbury Water Park

  2- Rudolph’s tiny mate

  3-6 at the playground

     swings for little people and other challenged ‘children’ (remember what I said about large enough for the likes of full-grown men?!)

     Katya & Tegan

     tree-high cousins

     topsy-turvy Tegan

  7- first and second cousins by the station (Oliver having already lost concentration to consideration of the impending approach of the train)

  8- train ticket takers – they’ve got a list and they’re checking it twice

  9- who needs 'miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer' when you can ride on top of the replica of a steam engine

10- on track to Santa’s Grotto

11- Father Christmas’ fairy angel assistant (she looks very much Dutch! man, do I have that on the brain now or what?!)
12- what today was all about - a boy with a mom, in a boy's coat!