May 24th 2019
The weird thing about traveling and still not having left the country is that somehow ‘normal’ life gets interwoven with your journey and that -if necessary- you can travel back for things like the dentist last week. Today there was another event worth travelling back for. Jos de Haas from Jachtwerf de Haas was going to receive a Royal decoration today, but it’s quite an undertaking to get to the wharf by public transport from the marina in Edam. But our friend Job was so kind to come and collect us, so early in the morning we drove to The Hague together. The conspirators Paul, Henk and Willem who had recommended that Jos should be honored with a Royal decoration, had kept the whole ordeal secret, so Jos was oblivious to the fact that dozens of family members, friends, acquaintances and customers had gathered in the wharf to surprise him. It was heartwarming to see how many people have been touched by his kindness and were here to celebrate this moment with him and many had generously helped to organize the event, provide for food or drinks and music.
When the festivities were coming to an end we thought it was time to go back to Edam. But to our surprise the car had a flat tire. It had felt like we had hit a bump when we entered The Hague earlier, but when we arrived at the wharf it looked perfectly okay. But obviously it wasn’t.
Modern cars don’t have spare tires anymore, but they come equipped with a sort of foam that you have to inject in the tire. The foam expands inside the tire and should seal the hole, provided it isn’t too big. But the hole in this tire was way too big, more of a tear than a hole. When we pumped in the foam you heard the hissing sound of the air escaping again. The only thing left to do was to call roadside assistance. They had to go to the depot to get a new tire first, but after 2 hours a new tire was mounted and we were finally on our way back to Edam again.