Chapter 37 - Man doesn't live by bread alone.
'Oh, come on Martin, I was only joking', Louisa replied to his scowl. She swung the door wide open and let her husband and his precious package enter the cottage.
'What's that delicious smell?', she added, taking over James from Martin's arms, allowing him to take off his shoes.
'Ehm, it must be the bread. I wanted to prepare you a typical Dutch breakfast, but our shopping took a bit longer than expected. Some local moron decided to take swim and was surprised by the reaction of her muscles to the freezing water... She got muscular cramps and nearly drowned. This hairball actually saved her life...', Martin answered.
'Oh Martin, What a start of your day!', Louisa exclaimed. 'But you must be very cold as well. Go and have a hot shower. In the meantime, I will brew you an espresso and prepare a breakfast for James. And maybe something for this K9, the rescue dog as well', she added.
'Please don't let him into the house, Louisa, he is full of germs!'
'I will make him a provisory place to stay in the garage then', Louisa suggested.
'If you must', Martin grumbled and turned around to go upstairs. Louisa just caught a glimpse of his softened eyes and smiled. Halfway the stairs Martin turned around and said softly,
'Don't expect James to eat too much. He already has shared a complete package of crackers with the dog'.
Louisa looked more closely at her son and discovered the remains of his earlier treat. She took a washcloth and cleaned him before installing him in the new highchair Morwenna had given them.
Then she put the kettle on for tea for herself and prepared the coffeemachine for Martin's espresso. When she heared him coming down about ten minutes later, she could hand him the hot beverage immediately. Louisa knew that Martin loved to take his first coffee standing in front of the surgery, so she now led him to the sunny terrace of the cottage from where he could enjoy the countryside with the high dunes.
He appreciated her gesture and enjoyed the relaxing moment. He took the last sip and joined his family in the kitchen. James was playing with his food rather than eating it, but contrary to his usual habit to lecture both his son and his wife that food wasn't a toy, but meant to be eaten, he now ignored it and unpacked the things he had bought at the bakery. Just like in any small village, wheather it was in the UK, in France or in the Netherlands, the small local bakery shop didn't just sell bread, but also anything you needed for a basic meal.
Martin had bought several different sorts of whole grain bread, multigrain bread, Dutch rye bread and a couple of "krentenbollen", which where small raisin breads. He had also bought some fresh milk, various sorts of cheese, like Old Amsterdam, Edam and The very special cheese from Leiden which is spiced with cumin. As he has bought small portions of each of them, the shop had already sliced the cheese.
'Dutch people buy the cheese by the kilo*) and they have their own slicer and slice it freshly from the hunk of cheese during the meal', he explained. He opened some of the drawers in the kitchen and triomphantly found what he was looking for. He held it in the air and said
'It looks like this! It is in fact a Norwegian invention, but you can find it in almost every household in this country too. They are specially made for the harder cheeses produced here'.
'So the Dutch don't eat cereals at breakfast?', Louisa asked.
'Originally not, but I suppose this country has undergone some influence from abroad as well. Small children of James's age most certainly eat porridge in the winter months, but start the day with small dices of bread with young cheese in the warmer months.'
'No full English for the adults either, I suppose?'
'They eat eggs in the morning, but only when they have time for a big breakfast, so in the weekends mostly. I was told that a medium hard egg on a raisin bread is considered as a real treat in some Dutch families. They hardly ever eat it with soldiers like we do.'
While speaking, Martin had boiled some water and was about to put a couple of eggs in it.
'I'd like to try the Dutch treat', Louisa announced, so Martin boiled the eggs longer than he usually did.
They layed the table and Martin picked two other items from the shopping bag. The first thing was a pot with strawberry jam and a package of "Venz pure hagelslag".
'Chocolate, Martin? What about the empty calories?' Her voice sounded strange to him. Most of the time, he still had no clue at all of what she meant.
Martin's eartips reddened. He had wished to surprise his beautiful wife with this treat, but suddenly he wasn't so sure of that anymore. Would she appreciate it, or was she making fun of him. It felt a bit like the rare moments he had surprised his mother with a drawing or a bunch of self picked flowers. His mother systematically pushed his gifts away either with a sarcastic "you don't have any talent" or a "don't you dare to make stains on my new dress". Feeling embarassed and not lnowing how to react, he did what he usually did and started a detailed explanations of the benefits of chocolate, when the intake of it was moderate and in combination with healthy bread or fruit.
'Although I read it an article in a December issue of the BMJ, which is generally less serious than the other ones, most likely something is true about the healthiness of chocolate. The strength of chocolate is probably the polyphenols, naturally present in cocoa. Polyphenols are also found in wine, olive oil, berries, tea, coffee, walnuts and vegetables. Polyphenols are antioxidants, substances that protect the body, such as radiation from sunlight or harmful substances that can occur in metabolism. It is thought that they reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack by preventing arteriosclerosis and inflammation. How that works exactly is not known. Possible anti-oxidants also have a beneficial effect on the quality of the vascular wall, so that it becomes stronger.
The darker the chocolate, the more cocoa, and so the more polyphenols. If you want to take full advantage of the healthy effects, use the darkest chocolate you can get. Of course there is also an unhealthy side to chocolate. Besides the healthy polyphenols it contains a lot of saturated fats and sugars and calories. A chocolate bar of 100 grams delivers quickly over 500 calories!
Do not take white chocolate, because it only contains the fat and no polyphenols. Even milk choc..'
Louisa pressed her lips on Martin's and prevented him of rambling on. She took his face between her hands, and stroked his cheeks with her thumbs. Then she said,
'Martin, stop talking! I was joking again, a bad joke actually... I am sorry! Let's have breakfast, I am starving'. She picked up the package with hagelslag and listened to the rattling sound.
'While we eat, why don't you tell me all about this special product, Martin. I am also curious to know where you learnt all about these habits. Was it during your biking tour?
Martin looked at his watch and stated that the eggs were done. He took them out of the water and served them in the egg-cups he found in the cupboard.
They started to eat and Louisa found the different sorts of bread and cheese delicious. She agreed with the Dutch tradition, that raisin bread with boiled egg was a very good combination.
'Indeed, I learnt about all these habits during my biking tour. I mostly stayed in a small B&B or sometimes even at Dutch families who offered me a place to stay. You know, in harvest time, every farmer can use an extra pair of hands. I sometimes offered to help.. It made me remember the summers I stayed with auntie Joan and uncle Phil. Most of the time the families offer me a place to stay for the night. Quite interesting and eh... less lonely than staying in a hotel'.
'Oh Martin!',
Louisa grabbed his hand and squeezed it, to show her understanding. Martin touched his ear, scraped his throat. He picked up the hagelslag and put the package next to her plate and said matter of factly
'Here have some hagelslag'.
Louisa finished her meal with a slice of bread, thinly spread with butter and topped with the famous hagelslag. Hagelslag appeared to be grains of dark chocolate. By means of a special opening, you could sprinkle them on your bread.
'Hagelslag literally means sprinkles of hail. They were invented in the early 1900 by a company called Venco, a manufactory of sweets and liquorice. The manager wanted to invent a sweet product the Dutch could put on their beloved bread. One day, he was experimenting with the seeds of anise when hail was ticking om the roof of his factory. It gave him the idea to create the sugary anise grains to sprinkle on bread. He called that hagelslag. About twenty years later, a chocolatier called Venz created these sprinkles of chocolate. Nowadays, the chocolate version, that we can find in our shops as cake decoration, is the most popular and when a Dutch family speaks about hagelslag, they always refer to this chocolate variety, although they are not allowed to call it that way, because Venco has the rights. Even though they don't produce it anymore'.
'Mmm, whatever it's called, it's just delicious!', Louisa confirmed.
After the copious breakfast they both wanted to make a long walk along the beach and eventually try to hand over the dog to his owner or her relatives. The only problem was that walking on a sandy beach with a stroller isn't a good idea, which was the reason why everybody always left the strollers on the plat. But carrying James all the way wasn't an option either. The couple hesitated and decided that it might be wiser to take the bikes, but they didn't really feel like it, because they would need to stay on the biking tracks and wouldn't be able to explore the long Dutch beaches.
'Maybe we should just walk to the village then?', Louisa suggested. Martin could hear the dissapointment in her voice.
'Mmm yes...' He didn't have a solution either.
Louisa went to get the dog from the garage. Maatje greeted her by wagging his tail enthusiastically . Louisa looked around in the garage and suddenly her eyes fell on a solid wooden beach wagon with large wheels and rubber tires. The perfect thing for a stroll on the beach!
When she showed it to Martin, he hesitated, but when Louisa partially filled it with a pillow and some blankets, she had turned it into a perfect beach stroller for their son. James, who seemed to love the idea of going out again with both mummy and daddy, squealed and kicked his feet and didn't even protest when his parents dressed him once again in the warm snowsuit.
'Young man, please remain seated and keep your seatbelt fastened', Louisa joked. The owners of the house had attached special straps to the wagon permitting to secure an infant and preventing the child to fall. Martin ajusted then to the size needed for James' little body, klicked the open ends into the buckle and checked if they were firmly closed. The wagon had enough place for the nappy bag that they always brought with them, no matter where.
The little family, closely followed by the dog, headed for the beach. Without much difficulty, Martin pulled the beach wagon over the sandy dune path and through the dry sand at the higher part of the beach. When they arrived at the place where Martin and James had found the unconscious Julia van Doorn, Maatje started to whimper, as if he remembered that this was the place he last saw his owner. Then he saw a person coming towards them. It was a teenaged boy and Martin and Louisa immediately understood that the boy knew the dog very well.
Maatje accelerated and made a sprint towards the boy, wagging his tail, jumping up against him, barking and trying to lick himin the face.
'Maatje ga af! Rustig ouwe jongen, ja je mag met me mee**)'
The boy walked towards Martin and Louisa and introduced himself.
'You must be the English doctor that saved my aunt's live. I thought that Maatje was left behind at the beach, that's why I came here. Thank you for looking after him. I am Thomas van Doorn and I stay with my aunt for a few days. To keep her dog company until she gets out of hospital and to keep an eye on auntie Julia while she recovers'.
Thomas shook hands with Martin and Louisa. Martin grumbled 'Good idea' and Louisa made a small social conversation with the boy. It seemed to reassure the young man who thanked them again and then went away with the dog. James waved at them babbling 'bubye' and smiled.
Martin looked down at his wife, wondering how she did that, talking with someone she had never seen as if she knew him for years. One of the things he'd never understand.
They continued their long walk, occasionally bending down to explore a beautiful shell or a stranded jellyfish. In the beginning, Martin walked at at least a meter away from her, but after a while he got closer and even took her small hand in his free one. With the other he pulled the beach wagon. They didn't speak much, but it wasn't necessary. An occasional and mutual squeeze of their hands expressesd more than spoken words. Either of them looked back from time to time to see if James was still happy and at a certain moment they saw he was nearly falling asleep, so they made him lie down in the beach wagon, gave him his little elephant to hug and soon the rythmic sound of the waves lulled him asleep.
Martin thoughts went to this little creature, their son and to the pleasant feeling that caring for his son -and for his mother - gave him. He would never have imagined that someone would become so special for him. He would never be able to bear to live without those two. He sometimes still wondered why Louisa had fallen in love with him! After all, he had always been a person no one loved and everybody bullied. His own mother had said that he had spoiled her life... So why would a beautiful, intelligent woman like Louisa choose him, a difficult grumpy, blunt haemophobic fool? He'd probably never fully understand that either, but here, on this sandy beach, looking down to her lovely face, he decided to just enjoy her lovely presence and to use Bert's credo.. Go with the flow...
Impulsively, he stood still on the wide deserted beach of Noord-Holland, pulled Louisa in his arms and kissed her deeply.
'I love you Louisa'
To be continued
*) In my household of 4, with two teenagers, we eat about 1250 gram of cheese every week. Cheese sandwiches are the main part of our daily lunch.
**)Down, Maatje, calm old boy, yes, yes you can com home with me!
Dear readers, thank you all for your patience. I finally found the time to pick up the writing egain. I hope you liked it.
Boots1980 I hope this chapter answers your question?