Some recent family pictures - by special request

Sieta on her 32nd birthday [September 15 2005] . Sieta is still enjoying herself in her function as Hub Control Information Officer at Schiphol Airport. The above picture shows part of the family after an excellent meal in Restaurant Summum in Amsterdam, served by Stefanie as maitre d'. [Picture taken by Stefanie] Below a picture of Stefanie taken on the same occasion. Stefanie is in the last phase [Communication, Languages] at the Free University in Amsterdam and currently working on her final thesis. Graduation due within two months.

Part of the family in Norma's Famous Kitchen.

[Picture taken by Sieta]

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Anneke in party-dress.

She lives in Utrecht.

Currently in-between jobs and being very useful by taking care of an aging pre-Alzheimer Aunt.

Anneke is a graduate in Publishing.

Two generations: Ivan and Simon

Ivan

Picture taken by Sieta, Summer 2005, at the 'Boksewei' in Enkhuizen. Presently Ivan is in the final stages of his MBA-thesis, [also] at the Free University of Amsterdam. Graduation due within two months.

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The new San Diego Californa Generation: Carra [above] and Kendra [below]

Irina & Eric's charming and bright daughters.

Pictures sent to us by the proud "Oma Sieta" [also residing near San Diego, California]

Through the intermediary services of our Californian Sieta we also received the picture below.

Of course, we have a large familiy, all scattered over the globe, and details are sometimes hard to get but here we have results.

Who is Robert Nijenhuis?

Robert is the son of Gre [now Margarita], originally Kooiman, once married and divorced as Mr. Nijenhuis. Robert was born in Enschede in the Netherlands.

Who is mother Margarita?

Gre [Margarita] is the eldest daughter of Pieter and Zwaantje Kooiman and born in Enkhuizen. In the sixties she and her young family traded the Netherlands for Canada and later settled in the USA. In this proces we eventually completely lost her out of sight.

Somehow Sieta the Communicator is tying some knots together and as a result we have the face of - and contact with - a 'lost' family member.

Robert reportedly lives in Lake Mary, Florida. Mother Magarite lives near San Diego, California.

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Fire Fighter

Always wanted to meet a fire-fighter who has been working in the rubble at Ground Zero New York and in the middle of the giant fires in California? Meet Bill, the friend of Sieta [Sr.] with Ian [with cap] as 'witness'.

Harddraverijdag 2005

September the 15th was not only Sieta's birthday but it also happened to be the third Thursday in September and this means

HARDDRAVERIJDAG

[horse racing] in Enkhuizen. The day includes street [sulky] racing as well as a demonstration of traditional Westfrisian horse-drawn carriages and a competition around the horse-handling skills. Of course ... the real happening is in the peripheral area, as is demonstrated by these pictures [taken in 2001].

PARIS 2003 - Ivan at INSEEC

As part of his MBA program, Ivan took classes in Paris (2003) at INSEEC (Inst. des Hautes Etudes des Economiques et de Commerce). On the occasion of a "reunion" of the hard core in Stockholm (September 2005), some pictures from Memory Lane as warming-up and as a reminder that it was al hard work and no play. ... Picnic at Tour Eiffel ... ... private language course ???? .... ... inauguration of the apartment, all due to the good services of the incredible and very understanding Madame ROSS ... ... self-explanatory ...

The lady in green happens to be Trond's mother,

as caught during a short visit to her boy in Paris,

but apart from that

Somehow the female contingent at this economics course

seemed to exceed the national average by far.

ROB BOUWHUIS

On August 30 [2005]

we memorized the sad fact that it is already three years

since we had to part definitely from our friend Rob.

The pictures below - taken shortly before his problems started - show Rob as we remember him best: socializing with friends ....

.... at his 'second home': the famous BOK Bar in Enkhuizen ....

.... and as a very frequent and favorite guest in the almost equally famous Norma's Kitchen.

ROB BOUWHUIS: Out of our midst but not out of our minds ...

"Discovery" in Blokker

On August 30, 2005, during a bicycle ride through Westfriesland, Stefanie 'discovered' the 'Beatles Monument' in the small rural village of BLOKKER.

This monument preserves the memory of the only concert ever given by The Beatles in the Netherlands, somewhere in the 1960's.

Blokker does not have a concert hall, but outside of the vegetable season a local building - normally used for the auctioning of locally produced vegetables - was converted once a year for a weekend to house a 'giant party'.

These parties, organized by a few 'local boys', not only included performances by The Beatles, but also by other great - specially flown-in - international performers, such as - for example - Louis Armstrong and his All Stars, the Benny Goodman Orchestra.

The level of the concerts was so high that artist such as Jacques Brell, Nana Mouskouri and many others also performed during those weekends, but -remarkably - just for the warming-up sessions and not as the main attraction.

The once-a-year weekend parties ended after about five years when the local boys grew up and left the village.

The story goes that Louis Armstrong was so impressed that he later sent a Hollywood crew to Blokker to register the village and the hall. This later reportedly became one of his party-pieces because nobody back home believed his story about his performance in a 'vegetable hall' in a small Dutch village. Indeed hard to believe for a man who normally played in famous places like Carnegie Hall in NewYork and l'Olympia in Paris.

A few locals [see picture above] , sitting in front of the monument and enjoying their case of beer in the sunshine, were more than happy to give us the background concerning the monument and to share their [real or perceived] 'memories' with us.

"The first right to buy the tickets for the Beatles Concert"

Curiously, the invitation for the Beatles Concert [see picture, taken from the back of the monument] states that ticket holders for the concert by Cliff Richard [also one of the performers during the same weekend in Blokker, of course] have the first right to buy the tickets for the Beatles Concert.