'Boomkes' back to NL

Jos and Henk Vandenboom (and Henk's wife Toos) flew back to Holland yesterday after a few weeks vacation in Canada. They are two of the three sons of an older brother of Opa Vandenboom. They stayed a few days with Joe & Marcy in Sarnia + a few days with Sue, Ralph, Mary and me in Fonthill. Last Sunday Sue & Ralph organized a picknick along the Niagara River.

They played one afternoon a few games of Rummikub, Opa's favorite game. Lots of laughter and jokes in the dialect of Brabant, the province where the Vandenbooms have lived for generations. The nickname of 'Boomkes' is also in the Brabant dialect. The profile photo below shows that they come from the same gene-pool. It was fun to have them here for a few days.

Fathers Day in the park

Today was the annual national Fathers Day in Canada and we had three visitors from Holland: two sons Henk and Jos from Joe (Jos) Vandenboom's older brother Jas (+ Toos, the wife of Henk). Sue and Ralph organized a picknick lunch in the park along the Niagara Parkway near Niagara-on-the-Lake. So we had three Jos-persons there today.....

The Parkway is a 40 kilometer stretch of national park grounds along the Niagara River from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. A popular place for families to hang out together during weekends. This was the first time we did it with the - extended - Vandenboom clan. Behind the tree line is the river and across from there you can see New York State.

Wil had his first experience to barbeque on coals, supervised by Joe and Mark (for whom this was a first as well). In the background the rest of the gang around the picknick table with food. Afterwards we enjoyed some exhibition 'spike-ball' games by Joe, Spencer, Wil and Mark. Kudos to Joe to keep up with the young dogs.....

The Dutch visitors - after a ten day tour through parts of BC - spent a few days with Joe & Marcy in Sarnia, where Henk competed with Joe in making the best Dutch style 'pannekoeken' (pancakes).

During the past weeks Mary has been recovering from her knee operation and one day she ventured with her Dad on two scooters (Mary on an old one we have stored in our garage). Too funny a sight..

Getting older stuff

Mary's first step towards being a bionic woman. Her knees and hips have not been good the past few years. This week she had her left knee replaced. The other knee will likely follow and maybe also her hips, but one step at a time. Recovering for one night in the Welland hospital, a sudden surprise visitor walked in her room next morning. Hilary came over for a week!

Later that day, I had the pleasure to pick up Mary for the six weeks recovery period at home. She was dressed and ready to go about six hours before the hospital staff could let her go...

Next to it always being nice to have Hilary over for a visit, it is also convenient that she has her nursing experience. Even more so, because I ended up in the ER of the Welland Hospital the next day after a tough night during which my enlarged prostate was having a dispute with my bladder. Also excellent assistance of the hospital staff and what a relief when they relieved my bladder. Now walking around with a "baggie" for a bit till my urologist can look at what happened. Nevertheless, that evening I did attend a Welland Rotary Paul Harris Awards event at the Flatwater Center. It was nice to see a variety of people being recognized for their amazing community volunteer activities. I decided to "retire" from the Rotary club, district and foundation work after 27 years of active membership in July this year.

A day at NC

The international projects team at Niagara College hosted a group of colleagues from the Caribbean region (Jamaica, Dominica and Guyana) and invited me to attend. They manage this project - funded by the Canadian government through Colleges and Institutes Canada - together with the projects team of Seneca College. So I got to see both my previous teams in action. Holly led a good session on inclusion and curriculum development.

The focus of the project is on eco-tourism program delivery. Two of the NC teachers explained how they developed new curriculum for "learn to camp". I was happily surprised how innovative and creative the teachers are with their new course delivery. The students - more than half of them coming from around the world where camping in many places is not very common - get real hands-on experience and need to make one minute Instagram videos of their work. The tents and camping materials are stored in the college's "sustainability office". So many new positive developments!

After lunch, Sean had to show me his new car. Something that was twenty something years on his bucket list. Afterwards I joined the group on a walk through the NC wetlands, a living laboratory for students. The Daniel J. Patterson campus is a unique place in a beautiful setting.

It was a very nice day for me. Sweet memories, fun to participate in some of the conversations again, learning about a small country such as Dominica (population 70,000), great to see some of the former colleagues again and nice weather for the cycling back home afterwards. 

Winter...summer...spring....

One moment it is winter, then suddenly summer, just to go back to colder and very wet spring days. But the tulips come out as always, here at my old stomping grounds of the Welland campus of Niagara College. Always a nice thing to see.....

And the great falls in Niagara keeps on flowing. Also always a very nice thing to see....

 

Rolling along

A week ago it looked like we went straight from winter weather into summer with a few days of blue skies and temperatures of above 25 Celcius. Then a week of colder weather followed and today we are in the twenties again. I love baking in the sun whenever I can....

I seldom come out of my bed before 9:00 - 9:30 AM, but my former colleague Pat had me rise early to have a coffee with her in Niagara Falls. We did international project work together in Tanzania, Mozambique and the Caribbean. She is currently based in St Lucia overseeing a program with several Canadian colleges in the Caribbean island states. 

For the first time in probably 20-25 years did I hit the 200 pounds mark again. During the past three years I have lost a good 30 pounds by eating a lot less and intermittent fasting (no eating anymore after 6 PM and not before 9-10 AM). Also almost every day either walking, swimming or some modest stretching and rowing in our basement. Feels good.

Yesterday I was a few hours on the road (11,000 steps) picking up a few bags of garbage. Stiff later in the afternoon, but next day already recovered. Can't complain about the fitness at age 67. Love the fact that we are passed the winter period again!
 

April updates

Walks and reading are the two main activities these weeks. After doing one of the walks with the local hills (5 km, 9.000 steps and equivalent of 12 stairs), I treated myself with a nice oat milk latte in one of the local coffee places. Another day was an hour window washing, on the bike to the pool and there a kilometer swim. Feels good to be able to stay fit that way. During one of the walks I passed the local CIBC bank where Opa Vandenboom just parked his scooter. He still keeps a close eye on the money...

And this weekend he was out on the scooter again when the Sarnia gang came over to Fonthill for an Easter dinner hosted once again by Susan & Ralph (with culinary assistance from Mary).