Rotterdam: City of Statues

This coming Sunday, 25th of March, it will be a year since we arrived in Rotterdam after our epic travels through Europe. How did that happen?! A whole year since our travels and a year of being Rotterdamers. To celebrate here is the second in the series of Life in Rotterdam, Rotterdam: City of Statues.

Walking around Rotterdam you cannot miss seeing a statue or art of some form. There are statues everywhere! They vary in shape, size, material and subject. There are many dedicated to the Second World War but also many other simply random ones.

Today dawned bright and clear, a wonderful opportunity to head out into the city and snap some pics. It may be sunny, but it was still pretty cold! I took pics of all the statues I saw in about two hours, I am sure there are many I missed. We hope you enjoy a walk around our city with us =)

In other news we booked our flights to the States in September last week! Woohoo! NYC here we come =) We are flying with Iceland air and decided to have a stop-over in Reykjavik for a few days. Looking forward to soaking in the hot springs! Then we fly to Boston and return three weeks later. We still need to finalise our arrangements but plans include staying with Justin’s aunt in Boston, then moving on to New York City, Washington, staying with Justin’s uncle in Maryland, and hopefully there will be time to squeeze in Chicago before heading back to Boston. Let the visa applications begin!

And this Sunday is also the switch to Daylight Saving Time, woohoo! Officially Spring time  =) We are looking forward to cycling through tulip fields soon =) Spring time plans include a visit from our dear Chilean friends, Joan and Mayira, in early-May and a trip to Venice mid-May.

But tonight we are off to see Bryan Adams live! Yay! We are real children of the 80s =)

Have a good week!

x

'Fikkie'

One of our favourite statues is this one of Fikkie the dog. One day Justin saw a little puppy barking at this statue dog! Too cute. 

The above three statues are in a row on the Coolsingel (the main road through the main shopping area of the city). 

Musician on Meent Street

Father Christmas at Eendrachtsplein

A random one that looks like overflowing paint jars and also Bart Simpson heads

Figure on the side of a building

Regulatory dudes with lace collars outside the Stadhuis (City Hall).

Keeping watch at the World Trade Center, right next to the Occupy tents, lol.

Untitled outside de Bijenkorf (the beehive, think Stuttafords type shop) on the Coolsingel. 

De Verwoeste Stad (The Devastated City)

Remembering the bombings that flattened the city during the Second World War 

Triomf (Triumph) 

Celebrating 50 years since the rebuilding of the city of Rotterdam, a new favourite of mine

Ongebroken Verzet (Unbroken Resistance)

This is my favourite statue in Rotterdam. It is near central station and we pass it everyday on the tram. I like it because he always looks happy and peaceful, it doesn't matter if it is raining or if the sun is shining. It helps to remind me that my troubles are not as big or troublesome as I think they are. 

Sterker door Strijd (Stronger through struggle)

Remembering the War and rebuilding the city

Monument to the seamen and sea going merchants of the Netherlands during the Second World War situated on the Maas River near the Erasmus Bridge. There is another WWII memorial along the water but I couldn't find it this morning. 

View of the Erasmus Bridge along the River Maas

Rotterdam's own Walk of Fame.

The only two I recognised! lol. 

Some random untitled ones on Weena Street

I suspect this is another WWII memorial although I couldn't find a plaque with a name or description on. At first it looks a bit random...

THAT time of year

Last week one of Justin’s work colleagues said in passing, ‘you do know that tax returns are due on the first of April hey?’ ‘Uhm, no.’

Oh yay,  tax returns, my favourite time of year. NOT.

Much of last week was spent establishing what we have to do for tax this year. So we thought first place to look for help: the trusty internet! However, there is only about a quarter of the Dutch information translated into English on the Dutch tax website. The only forms I could find were for people who had lived in the Netherlands but are now living elsewhere. Apparently if you speak English you cannot actually be living IN the Netherlands.

Second option: phone the Dutch tax service (belastingdienst) helpline number. However, when you phone no one will actually talk to you as it is illegal for you to speak English to them or for them to speak to you in English. The reasoning being that what they say is legally binding and if something is lost in translation then there is a bit of a problem.

Third and final option: We were finally put through to the English version of the helpline where you can actually get help in English. What an exercise!

So apparently even though we live here and pay tax like normal Dutch people we don’t do tax returns like a normal Dutch person. We have to order and fill-in an M-form which will be used calculate how much tax we have paid over the last year and if we should get anything back. It sounded like a first-time form for foreigners to get all our info and then next year we can do ‘normal’ tax online. And then we heard that we always have to do an M-form (as opposed to an online return) and we have to do one when we leave the country again. But then we were told that no, we don’t actually have to do a tax return unless we are requested by the tax office but we can choose to do one. It’s all a bit confusing and we get a different story from every person we speak to at the helpline. Hopefully it will become clearer as we go along.

As for the M-form, I have heard it is long and quite a beast to fill out, is only available in Dutch as is the instruction manual for filling it in, and cannot be done online! Fun times ahead. We are still waiting for the forms to arrive (apparently it takes 8 weeks but I suspect it will be shorter than that) but we will apparently have until well after the first of April to fill them in. But we have had many offers of help to fill in the beastly forms from Justin's and my colleagues. Thanks guys! We will probably take you up on the offer! lol. More on this subject to follow in subsequent blogs I am sure.

So. Think again before you complain about how easy SARS has made it to do your tax return online!!

In other news Spring weather is finally here!! =) Over the last week snow-drops, daffodils and other bulbs have been sprouting forth and starting to bloom. No tulips in the fields yet but by the end of the month they should be starting. You can however get early hothouse tulips at the market. The days are also much longer now, so nice! And are slowly becoming more sunny. We had a really beautiful warm (~15ºC, lol) day yesterday and today. We took the opportunity of a sunny afternoon and had the first long cycle of the year =) We followed the canal that runs behind the house and back for about an hour. Was so nice to be outside in the fresh air again!

Well done to everyone who rode in the Argus yesterday! Heard it was extremely hot and that there were many crashes.

Have a good week!

x 


PS: Thanks for 7400 + blog views! =)

DISNEY

Ten days ago I lost a faithful friend. My precious cat Disney passed away from stomach cancer at just 16 human years old.

We rescued Disney from the SPCA when he was just a kitten. He was super tiny! He was always a bit wild and we suspected that he came from a wild background and that he got separated from his Mommy too young. Despite that he grew big and strong on good IAMS food. He used to suck on my ear as a kitten but slowly grew out of this habit reserving it for occasions when extreme soothing was required, such as a visit to the vet.

Disney was pitch black with a single small patch of white fur on his chest. I liked to call him my panther. Later on he had many ‘grey hairs’ peppering his sleek black coat.

I loved the differences between my cat Disney and Michelle’s cat Billy Bob. Bobby is quite the clown and loves lots of attention but he can also be quite moody. Whereas Disney remained aloof and preferred his own company. He didn’t like strangers in his home and would take off if there were too many people around. And he didn’t really like men, even my brothers couldn’t hold him! But he always knew I was his mommy and I could hold him anytime. As he grew older he mellowed out a lot. He would let guys pick him up and when I moved to Cape Town he became very attached to my Dad. In later years I would be the stranger to him.

I have many fond memories of Disney such as the time he got stuck up a tree as a kitten (true story, his first week at his new home!), the time he went walkabout as a young cat and disappeared for two weeks before finally returning home extremely thin, the feathers and bones love presents he left for me on my bedroom after a night on the prowl, the time he meowed like crazy outside the shower door after I had stayed out one night and left him at home, the swipe he gave on our dog Benji’s nose the first 5 minutes of being in his new home and forever altering the pecking order of pets in our household, and many many more.

In about October last year my Dad called to say that Disney was not well, he is throwing up and losing weight and he is taking him to the vet. After a few days in the hospital at the vet Dis came home a new kitty. But in January he started again and wouldn’t stop. We had him at the vet several times and had blood tests done and everything came back clean every time. The most recent and last visit to the vet he did a sonar scan of Disney and found that he had stomach cancer. The cancer was too advanced and because of Disney’s age it was not a good idea to operate. To save him he basically needed a stomach transplant which is impossible. We had no choice but to let him go, it wasn’t fair to let him to suffer anymore.

Disney, you were an amazing cat and a faithful loving friend. I am extremely sad to have to let you go. It was the most terrible choice to have to make but I know it was the right one for you. I am glad you are not suffering anymore. A friend told me you have only left your earth suit and gone to a better place. Thank you for spending your time on earth with me and my family. I love you very much! You will always be in my heart.

It was only when I was looking for pictures of Disney for this blog did I realize how few pictures I have of him. Most of them, including when he was a kitten, are on film from back in the day when that was all we had. Epic fail!

In other sad news, Justin’s previous boss at PRDW, Jo Dresner passed away two weeks ago. He had been fighting brain cancer for 3 years now. Jo was an amazing person and will be sorely missed. Why do bad things happen to good people? We are thinking of you Heather and family!

In happier news, we recently booked a long weekend trip to Venice in May! YAY! We get so few public holidays here compared to SA and they are all clustered around Easter. We really want to try and make the most of them this year! And we are busy finalising our USA trip plans with Justin’s parents for September. Watch this space!!

Hope you are well and having a good week!

x 

Disney shnoozing

Disney and Bobby shnoozing. They would often curl up together and snuggle (Oct 2010)

What a big cat! (Oct 2010)

An early morning snuggle (~2002/2003)

His favourite place, on Dad's lap, but where he still has a good view of everything around him (Dec 2009)

One of the rare times he came to sit by me on his own accord (Dec 2009)