1 February
Come and join us at our annual Australia & Waitangi Day celebrations, on Saturday 1 February. We will be serving traditional Antipodean fare (though never fear, vegetarian options are available). Good company and comforting food guaranteed! If you wish to join in, please RSVP and let us know of any dietary requirements. We hope to see you there.
11 January, Schiedam
What a wonderful start to the new year! A group of us visited the quaint town of Schiedam, famous for their jenever (gin), sold all over the world. We started at the museum’s windmill for a coffee and a climb, which gave a beautiful view over the town from the windmill balcony. Our English speaking guide gave an elaborate tour of the museum and told us much about the genever industry and its history.
One of the things we learned was that the export of jenever to Australia and New Zealand started relatively late, the jenever export began to flourish after the British had started to establish themselves in Aus and NZ in the second half of the 19th century. A fun fact is that labels of jenever bottles found in New Zealand show that a former pharmacy there sold jenever as a medicine, allegedly someone had been cured of their rheumatism after drinking jenever…
We had a lovely lunch together, after which the chocolate lovers among us visited a glorious chocolate shop to buy some exquisite chocolates to take home.