20060423 Holland

Het hallo

Gwyn and I are back from our Easter trip to Holland which was totally awesome. We managed to see all the sites on our hit list and really got to enjoy some of the Dutch culture. But before I get into that I need to tell you about my adventure to the health spa (www.Champneys.com). The team I work with at Unilever went on an away-day last Wednesday to get pampered, and I had a Swedish Massage! Anyway we arrived at the resort to be greeted by some weird people dressed in white robes, odd, but it got worse. We were shown to our rooms and then told to change into our own robe in preparation for the treatment, so just imagine Lawrence climbing into a white bathrobe, 2 sizes too small with his little white slippers and then taken down to the beauty parlour to get a massage, sweet! I was quite nervous about the massage, expecting some sexy Swedish chick to rub herself all over me, but it did not work out quite as expected… A short little Korean sumo wrestler, who could pull down a lion in her sleep awaited me and sent me through the roof when she insisted on massaging the bottom of my feet, a rather painful experience, so guys, leave the Swedish massage for the woman to enjoy. The stay at the health spa had rather interesting meals, tiny portions of nuts, celery sticks, etc were served. Alcohol, fats, red meat and salt where banned and you had to go to the restaurant in a robe…. Anyway enough of that, back to our trip to Amsterdam.

We arrived in Schiphol at 23h30 on Thursday night, caught a train into Amsterdam and walked through the centre of the city to our hotel in the middle of the night, feeling totally safe, quite a change from the SA life style. The next day we took a tour to a small coastal town called Volendam, on the way we stopped of at a monster windmill which we went into to see how the thing works, quite amazing. This was followed by a clog factory and an irresistible cheese farm. From Volendam we took a boat trip across to Marken. Interesting thing is that Marken used to be an island and now, due to land reclamation, looks like a peninsular. The most striking thing I picked up on the trip are how water logged and flat the country is and the number of bicycles. In Amsterdam we got to see most of the sights with the highlights being a canal cruise around the city, seeing all the romantic bridges (I preferred the canals in Amsterdam to those in Venice which are very cramped). The red light district was quite an eye opener - actually seeing the prostitutes selling themselves so openly and then people making use of the service! Hectic Stuff. We spent a lot of time in restaurants sampling the local food, excellent I might add, and drinking good old beer. Then on the Saturday we caught a train up to Castricum, a little sea-side town where Isabel (my moms school friend) & Wijnand live. They were wonderful, pulling out all the stops to make our stay pleasurable. We took a couple bike rides across the dunes landscape to the sea together, the sea is about 30min away by bike and for Gwyn and I quite a novelty to be back on a bike again, my rear end however was not that eager and had to get used to the saddle. Wijnand is quite a winey and pulled out some fabulous wines for us to taste, Isabel is a master chef who showed us what proper Dutch cooking is all about. Thank you for everything guys! From Castricum we went to Keukenhof (the world famous flower show) for the day and marvelled at the most amazing flower, tulips so big that I could not get my hands around them in every colour under the sun, fields of daffodils, perfectly manicured gardens, along with all the usual Dutch food. But all things need to come to an end and before we knew it we were back in London….

Gwyn’s mom is visiting us this weekend and we are now going to the Flora (a Unilever Product) London marathon….

Keep well and all our love

Lol & Gwyn

20060410 Viva Afrika

Hi Guys

It has been a rather hectic 2 months for us with no updates on Bowenz.com, but at least we have a lot of news and photos for all of you. Let’s begin a week before we left for South Africa….

Lawrence started at Unilever at the end of February and could not be happier. His team is split between London and Rotterdam and everyone is from different cultures and backgrounds. This seems to be a ‘London’ thing where you can start playing ‘find the brit’ in the work environment, because there seems to be so many people from other countries here. It takes some getting used to but makes for interesting lunch time conversation. You would not believe how much you can debate about the type of jam in a jam donut (apricot for SA, but strawberry here).

I was asked to deliver 2 days training in Geneva, which is the only European country for which we South Africans do not require visa’s. It was great to be able to go for 2 nights, and an interesting work experience. I could train everybody in English, but their home languages were either French, German or Dutch. This was challenging when the students were able to work on their own…I could not always hear when they had a problem. I think that I coped quite well just through observing body language.

Then we were off to SA for the weddings. We landed 2 days before Nic and Michelle got married and we hope that we were able to help with some of the last minute arrangements. After a bit of rally driving on Lawrence’s part (best man tasks on the day), the wedding went off smoothly and everything was just perfect. We took some great photos if you want to have a look.

Jet setters that we are, we were not satisfied to hang around Pretoria for 2 weeks, so off we went to the Kruger Park with Lawrence’s parents. It rained quite a lot while we were there, so the bush was green and the grass long, but we still managed to see elephant, lions, giraffe and lots of biltong/impala. Staying in the park was a great way to unwind, there is nothing like the absolute quiet under the stars.

On the day that we got back from the Park, I attending the best ‘kitchen tea’ for Carin (my brothers new wife). We had an x-stripper teach the ladies how to do lap and pole dancing. What a laugh! We had a great time, Lawrence keeps asking for a demonstration but the imagination may be better than the reality in this case.

The week was filled with friends and family, but we still did not get to spend enough time with everyone! Luckily we live in the age of technology so we can still keep in touch. And then, off to Magoebaskloof for Thomas and Carins wedding. We arrived at the hotel with a couple of hours to spare before the wedding, and we wish that we had arrived the day before in order to appreciate the area. This is a fly fishers paradise (Jonny and Russell pay attention). Water, water everywhere and gorgeous scenery. Just mountains and forests where you look. T and C really picked the spot for their vows. The wedding went off so well, and the receptions was so relaxed, it was a great way to spend our last night in South Africa. More photos…. What else do you expect from Lawrence

The day after the wedding, we woke up with a monkey in our room (not Lawrence), enjoyed a breakfast over looking the Magoebaskloef valley and then shot off back to Pretoria for a couple hours before hopping onto a plane bound for London. We thought that 2 and a bit weeks would be ample for the holiday, but we could have done with a lot more.

It was great to see everyone again, and we are happy to know that you are all doing well.

All our love

L&G

PS: We are off to Amsterdam and Castricum this Easter Weekend…so watch out for the next round of photos from happy snapper Lawrence.