Klootschieten

The sunlight slowly filled the bedroom and the birds began to chirp...softly at first, then becoming louder and louder. I rolled over onto my other side away from the clock and had that little argument with myself; you know the one--shall I get up or just doozel for a short time longer.
My conscience won out and I opened first one eye ever so briefly, blinking twice to make it not so itchy. I closed it and repeated the exercise with the other one, closing it as well.
----"are you awake"?, came a voice from the other side of the bed.
----"Mmm-humm".
----"You have your eyes closed, don't you"?, she persisted.
----"I'm checking my eyelids for pinholes", I weakly countered.

By this time, the morning chorus-with-light-alarm-clock was almost deafening and it was lighter inside the bedroom than it was outside.
I gave up and rolled out.

Within an hour we had bathed, dressed and had a cup of tea with a sweetroll. As we were slipping on our jackets, the doorbell went--it was the in-laws there to pick is up.

Background: Neven en Nichtendag, which means basically, "Cousins' Day". It's something that we do every year. We all meet up and one branch or the other has planned the day's activities.
So we were going to that, but first, we had asked if we could make a little detour. We did not say what for--it was to pick up a birthday prezzy for my S-i-L.
She and her man had come to visit us once when we were in Oz and they spent six weeks with us travelling around.
Our travels took us to some interesting places and we we had bought a camper and they had a tent.
One always sees interesting things on campgrounds, but one beast that they took a liking to was the Wombat.
My S-i-L had seen a wood carving in a souvenir shop in Glenrowan and had not bought it. She never saw another one and had been looking for one since, with no luck at all.
Well, we had found a retired wood carver living up in Drenthe and he had agreed to take the challenge.
When we arrived at the man's house, my partner and I first went in and got the carving, placed it unceremoniously in a large plastic bag and brought it back down to the car to present it.
She was speechless and very pleased.
Here is a real wombat:


...and here is the carving right before the stain and varnish had been applied.

After a little chat with the carver's daughter we went on out way to the home of this years' host for the Cousins' day.

We turned the Tom-Tom on again and headed off to Beilen also in the Province of Drenthe.

When we arrived there was the mandatory handshake and kiss(es), then we took a place and had hot tea and pie, then some fresh drinks and went off to discover the mystery "activity".

It was to be Klootschieten.
Never mind the translation, it is a very old and traditional dutch game that is played with a stone ball.
The basic idea is that you divide up into teams , then two teams play against each other.
The way the game goes is that one team throws the ball (underhanded) as far as they can; then the next team throws it as far as they can. If they do not throw it as far as the first team, then they have to throw it again until they surpass the first team's ball...and so it goes until all the teams have crossed the finish line.
Then the number of times that each team has thrown the ball are tallied-up and the winner is the team that reached the finish line having thrown the ball the fewest number of times--clear?

Ok then, off we go.....

The balls--


The fanatics:




The traject was about 2,5 Km and it took us through the countryside and fields.
The whole thing took about 1½ hours.

Here is a new member to the club--the girlfriend of one of the cousins.


A ball just cannot be trusted--they kept rolling off the paths and into the ditches or little canals. That's what the sticks with a scoop on the end were for.


Sometimes the traject made 90º turns which called for some calculations and skill.


The new girl gets advice from a team menber on the bike path leg of the traject.


Then an opponent offers advice...but she could have better not listened.


She's ready...she launches!


...and.....it's in the weeds!


Ahhhh, better luck next time.
The other two teams spent half their time searching for their balls, and when they weren't doing that, they stood around and looked at eachother and smoked. Oh well, time was not of the essence.


Well, of course I would be remiss if I did not tell you who won the contest. It was our team. :-D --with 35 throws.
The team that we played against directly, took second place and the other two teams including my partner came in 3rd and 4th.

After the glory, we had some refreshments whilst chatting about the contest. There was alot of laughing and a protest here and there--I just chalked this up to sour grapes.
Soon we were called to come inside and were sat down to a long table for the buffet meal.--Spare ribs and BBQ'd chicken with all the trimmings.

I can tell you that I was well full after that meal, which helped repair the damage done. You see, competing in such sports is not without it's dangers.

There was a point where i needed to flip that ball a great distance and in so doing, the momentum of flinging that ball made me spin and fall to the earth(a bicycle path), banging my left wrist onto the pavement and rolling, feet first into electrical fence wires which were surrounding a paddock right next to the bike path.

Well, the next day, it seemed like everything hurt: wrist, shoulders, knee, ankle, muscles, etc.; but to be honest--nothing hurt quite as badly as my pride.
I am glad that I had not given my camera to anyone so that it was not recorded. I am sure that it would have been shown at each new N&N-day henceforth.

 

Sounds like alot of fun was had by all. thats what getting together is all about-catching up on times and having fun. And of course lets not forget the eating part, spare ribs and BBQ chicken, oh I wish I was there for that, sounds so delicious. I could almost smell it. Spare Ribs has got to be up there with my favorites.

 

Oh, I can see you in my mind's eye, rolling about on the ground, trying to get the fencing off your feet. The poor animals must have thought they were being invaded.

Sorry...

That looks like a very good day out, I must say. The fun of throwing stones all over Holland and then a good meal to top it off. I think you should do that every year.

The wombat carving looks lovely. I hope your S-i-L was pleased.

 

Petunia--it really was alot of fun and there was alot of laughing and teasing.
Those ribs were delicious. I like them too--if they are good ones.

Droopy--yeah, leave it ti you to dwell on my predicament...and laugh.(( :-? )) what are you like.
Well, you thought that we should do this every year, but we do. Well similar things that is. Every year, the third sunday in sept. there is a get-together and next year we will host the 'do'.
The sis in law was over the moon with the wombat.

I am surprised that these games made it onto your Public Television...but the world is getting smaller, in a manner of speaking.
The aches are beginning to fade now, thanks. There is no time for aches now--because those lotties have to be made winter-ready. Tomorrow we shall make a small start, but in oktober I shall take time off and begin in earnest.

 

Oh Sjoerd, you have such a way with words, I enjoyed reading your account of your day out. The wood carving is brilliant, no wonder your S-i-L was pleased with it. Such a shame it had to end with you falling, I do hope you are feeling much better now.

 

Looks like a wonderful time, and thanks for sharing. Who needs the television? :-D :-D :-D

 

Hahaha Thanks for the kind words, Gardengirl. I'm alright--no problems, and the achiness is long gone; however, my pride is still smarting a bit. heh heh heh. We're a hardy breed here and a little tumble like that just sort of gets shrugged-off. I was more worried that I might have damaged my colbert. .

KL--I'm glad that you liked the account of the day. Those get-togethers are always fun.

 

I will repeat what someone else said...You have a way with words...I love hearing about things from you...glad you are doing alright now...and I love the fact that the relatives get together.....it is so nice to know your family..

 

Thanks Sherry. Yes, it's nice to share a day once a year and catch-up on things. The cousins are a varied lot and can be quite entertaining sometimes. There is always alot of laughing.

 

wow sjoerd! a great story and pics to boot!

i was scratching my head in the beginning of your post sjoerd, after reading the title, but after the first paragraph, i was smiling and laughing, and felt like i was there!

btw, what's a 'colbert'? :?:

 

Oh...sorry Bunkie--a colbert is a sports jacket or sports coat, I think it's called there. It's like the coat in a three-piece suit, except there are no other pieces. hahaha. Another term might be, "blazer".
Sorry about that, I had a block at the time I wrote the piece and forgot to go back and think harder.

 

What a wonderful "Cousin's Day" you experienced. Family, friends, food, and fun! All the ingredients for a great day. You do have a way with words and photos. Thank you so much for sharing.

 

Sounds like such a lovely way to spend a day...

 

I started reading and already smiling.I knew I would be laughing out loud before I finished.I loved your outing with the cousins.
I loved the Wombat carving .The carver did a great job on it.I'm sure your S-I-L was happy to get it.