My birthday

Today is my 49th birthday and I'm telling everyone already that next year I'll turn 50. Fifty, it sounds so old and it is not at all how I feel. But I'm way ahead, this day I turned 49 and I went to my friend Tosca in The Hague to celebrate it a little. I didn't want to throw a party, because I'm planning to do that next year.

Tosca lives in a three story-house pretty close to Scheveningen, a Dutch beach town. She lives in a real house, not in a group accommodation like me and her house is like a big surprise house to me: everywhere I look I see beautiful things: lovely china, pretty flowers, old ornaments and lots of light in the afternoon. She also has a small pond in her back yard with goldfish and a water lily.

 

We hadn't seen in each other in ages so we had a lot to catch up and because the weather was so good we decided we'd go to the beach at Kijkduin. We took a long walk and I talked about my splitting-up with H. and she kindly listened and made comments about how she had witnessed the relationship over the past years. She could understand my anger and grief over the break-up.

We sat down for a while and watched the tide coming in as she talked about her health, the holidays with her mother in the USA and her work situation. This is the good thing about being friends: even if you don't see each other a lot, you just hook on where you left off and immediately the months fall away. You know what I mean?

I have enjoyed this day tremendously. Who needs to go far away if one can simply go to the beach in one's own country? I felt like I was on a holiday, bought us an ice-cream and loved every minute of the sun, sounds of the sea, friendly company and the people around us.

We finished our day with a lovely meal at one of the beach pavilions with a platter of fish and chips and a plate of selected cheeses. Fantastic, I'm loving this staycation so far!