For all three kids I took the same photo every week for the first year of their lives and had them laid out in a large format design. Felix’s one was completed only a week or two before we left Scotland so has never actually hung on the wall. Reubens one had a pretty ugly frame, and it didn’t match the frames for Ariana or Felix, so that was re-reframed at the same time as Felix’s was being built.
Now at last, after 7 years’ work, they are all up on walls together. I’d never have guessed the works would be hung in a Dutch house when I started doing Reubens photos back in the Glasgow West End flat (nor that there would be three works!)
We don’t drive in NL. Our UK driving licences are valid here for 6 months, and as part of the Dertig Procent Regeling [en:30% ruling] we are entitled to a very easy process to convert our UK licences into Dutch ones (as well as a 30% tax break for 5 years, hence ‘30% ruling’ – thankyoooou Netherlands!) We simply don’t want to have a car if we can avoid it. We don’t object to having a car, but we believe most things in life don’t require a car here, and running a car is an expensive affair. Additionally, since being here without a car I’ve realised how much of a liability a car can be. Not just financially but also in the constant concern of cleaning it, getting a flat, kids abusing it, worrying about knocks or bumps, fluctatuing petrol costs, getting snowed into the road we lived on, finding parking etc. etc. I never considered these things as an additional tax on the owner of a car, but now that I don’t have them I really feel the benefit of it.
To be clear – there is every possibility that we will get a car at some point. I’m not saying that we’re set against the idea, what i’m saying is that we love not having one just now and will aim to stay car-free for as long as is practical.
In NL though, that leaves you with public transport or bikes. Public transport is great, but it has it’s limitations. It’s always going to require more waiting, and it’s never going to take me to exactly where I want to be (also the drivers strike A LOT). Taxi travel works for real pinches, but taxi’s are very expensive here – based on the two times we’ve used a taxi since being here I’d estimate it costs 3x as much as in Glasgow! So we’re left with push power – de fiets [en:the bicycle]. It’s a great way to get around but longer distances are a challenge with three small kids; Reuben is not particularly quick, and the further you travel the slower he eventually goes. Ariana and Felix both need to sit on the back of one of El or my bike, which makes the journey far harder work and makes it harder to carry additional items like shopping.
If only there were some middle ground between a car and a bike.
ENTER, THE BAKFIETS!
Our Babboe Electric Bakfiets is the new addition to the household.
It’s quite something.
It was delivered to our house on Wednesday by a huge truck. We had be forewarned that we were to throughly check the bike over and test ride it to ensure it was up to expected standards before signing for and accepting the delivery. Any issues discovered after having signed would cause us to potentially incur some steep costs (I think because the thing is quite hard to deliver due to is size and shape). We were given the delivery date of the Wednesday about a week ago so I booked the day to work from home. I had various meetings booked for Wednesday but none so important as one I had booked from 0900 to 0945. Should be fine, I thought. On Tuesday I received an update that the delivery would happen between 0900 and 1000.. ha, that’s life. As it happens he arrived at 0940 so it wasn’t so bad.
It was however, snowing heavily. I have never ridden a Bakfiets, I’ve never ridden an electric bike, and it was in the snow, so I have now clue how I was supposed to know if everything was in normal working order. Still it seemed to work alright so I signed for the delivery and the Bakfiets is now ours.
Reuben was tickled that ‘The Bakfiets’ has an assonance with ‘The Butt-cheeks’, so now the vehicle is referred to by all by this new moniker.
The first proper journey was on the afternoon of the same day, with Reuben and Ariana, into the city hall in central Eindhoven to collect their Residents Permit cards. Both kids needed to be present in person to collect these because they get their fingerprints matched with the ones registered with their identities a few weeks prior. As the Ex-Pat office is only open from 0900 to 1600, the only day the kids can get there in a reasonable time is on a Wednesday, where school finishes for the day at 12:30.
It is a pretty big journey (see below), the kids were very excitable (and tired from school so fussy too), and I was just trying to get used to using the bakfiets (quite an adjustment really – when you take a hard turn the handlebars are so wide that you have to let go of the far side handle or it will pull you straight off the seat. Also there is quite some momentum once you get moving so if a kid throws their weight in the bak at the front, you really have to adjust for it)
When we got to the office and into the consultation room the lady looked concerned as she searched for Ariana’s Residents Permit Card. According to her, someone at somepoint in the process had not done something correctly and as a result her card was still weeks from being completed, we would not be able to collect it this day. Why would they not have checked that before I made the effort to come in, I don’t know. The one consolation for this frustration was that the picture they took for Reubens card was probably one of the best photos I’ve ever seen of him. Isn’t he handsome.
The journey home was good fun. I’d also started to get the hang of it so I was feeling pretty great.
Felix got to experience the Bakfiets a few days later. On Friday, whilst the bigger kids were in school, El and I took Felix with us to register at our new GP. It was a very nice practice about 10 minutes from us in Veldhoven. Because healthcare is privately funded here the customer experience is really very notably different from in the UK. Nothing bad to say about the NHS, but there is simply more money in the system here, so things are able to operate at a higher level.
El had another appointment to get to nearby in Veldhoven straight after the GP registration, and I needed to drop into the office to drop something off so I took the wee man in with me.
Left : Felix in the bike ‘car-park’ (stores up to 3000 bikes I think)
Right : Felix staring at the staff. He’s actually dressed pretty much just like every man who works there.
The same joke was said to me about seven times, both in Dutch and in English. Some variation of ‘These new hires are getting younger every day’.
Finally, on Saturday El got a chance to ride the Bakfiets, and the kids got to go in all together. We cycled across to the opposite corner of Eindhoven to go visit a wood / forested area for a walk. It was a very cold cycle, but pretty conditions otherwise. It was a round trip of around 22km so the kids were pretty fed up of each other by the end of it, ha.
On the way toward the destination, Google Maps took us the most direct route which was through the city centre. This was not ideal for El who was still getting used to the bakfiets. She did very well, and kept her cool. She’s an impressive person, really. What ended up being nice about the route however was that coincidentally it took us directly through the neighbourhood where we temporarily lived when we first arrived. It was funny to think how far we’ve come in just 6 weeks! Neither El or I can really fathom how so much life has been done in so little a time. It’s actually hard to reconcile time passed with experiences gained.
I’ll leave you with a dance show in the woods from Ariana.
Wat een leuke multifunctionele bakfiets! Een mooie afsluiting van cute Ariana 😍. Good to read that all is going well with you guys!
Lots of love.
Ben
You can sit in the Bak and i’ll drive you to Albert Heijn for a gebakje
The Bakfiets looks great. I really liked Arianas dance at the end. A lot seems to have happened in a short time x
She’s developing so fast. Different girl from even 3 months ago I think
Hartstikke leuk zo’n bakfiets maar lijkt me wel even wennen. 😅
👏 Ariana voor deze prachtige dans😍
Zo fijn te lezen dat t jullie goed gaat.
Veel liefs, Mam
de fiets is echt geweldig
Ariana’s dancing is the best! So great hearing all about what’s going on. Thinking of you guys!!!
Thanks for reading along Fee – recently she has really started to develop a little school girl personality. Her mannerisms are fast changing. It’s cute.