Swimming

If Esther keeps up her competitive swimming career (I completely forgot to post that she won her first individual medal a couple of weeks ago - a bronze in the 25-meter breaststroke. it felt like a world title to her proud parents) I may get used to the stench of chlorine, but here at the European swimming championships in Eindhoven I'm struggling.
The Days start at 8.30 a.m. and finish at 9.30ish p.m. and I'm stuck way at the top of the stands where all the chlorinated hot air gathers.
I'm feeling pretty flabby looking at all the incredibly buff swimmers - I must have as much if not more body fat than the hundreds of swimmers competing here combined. However, I have a week to go and with very little opportunity to eat and non-stop profuse sweating, I'm hopeful my BMI will sink faster than a Ukranian who just leapt off the 10-meter diving platform.

Spring in the air

It's the first day of spring here and we celebrated by welcoming this parrot into our garden.

I have a feeling these things aren't indigenous to the Netherlands, but they fly around here and The Hague in pretty significant numbers and don't seem to worry to much about cold winters. They're not rainbow lorikeets, crimson rosellas or king parrots, but I guess they're the next best thing.