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Soongies' Great Adventure
Being a Monday, we decided it was time to go to work while Tim headed off to explore Amsterdam on his own. Our job today was to give our car a little bit of love after taking us around Europe for two and half months! Eva had called up a tyre place in the morning and found a place where we could get our winter tyres off and our summer tyres back on. It was in Utrecht so not too far from where we were staying. We were hoping they would also buy the winter tyres off us so we wouldn't have to try and sell them somewhere else. We drove to the tyre place and they changed our tyres over for €60. Unfortunately, they don't buy tyres back. Probably a good thing as two of our tyres (the front ones) were practically bald and probably illegal to drive with! 15500 km on relatively warm roads in Europe will probably wear them thin! We decided to leave all the tyres there rather than try and sell the two remaining ones which probably wouldn't have lasted much longer. We had to get some cash out from the nearby shops so we also treated ourselves to some savoury pastries from the bakery. Next stop was the car wash. The nearest petrol station had an automatic car wash for €12 for the deluxe wash. Our car definitely needed it as it was more of a dusty brown than its original shiny black colour. This was its first bath since we picked it up in Lyon on the 28th of January. Then we used the vacuum to clean and de-hair (Kate seemed to have malted quite a bit over the course of our travels) the interior. Pretty much brand new! It was about lunch time so we headed back home via the shops to get some groceries for a feed (bread and cheese, cucumber and tomato, and vegetarian mushroom schnitzels). Joep was home (he has days off on Mondays) cleaning up the house. We had a good chat over lunch and Calvin got a recommendation from him for a hair salon for a cut as Calvin was looking a little boofy on the top. The hair salon was in Lombok town centre (Lombok is very multicultural) and Calvin had to explain in English how he wanted his hair cut to one person who then told he barber. Turned out well! We then headed off to Utrecht Intratuin to find some presents for our Dutch friends. The garden centre was like a cross between IKEA and a Bunnings - except for the fact that there were 3 live flamingos and 3 exotic parrots in the store on exhibition. Strange but sad for the birds. Then it was time to head home with our gifts. Tim was also home from the capital. Eva came home from work shortly and the idea was to cycle to dinner in Utrecht at a Thai restaurant where we would meet Jeroen and Rianne. Eva had rented a bike from the station so we had three bicycles altogether - Eva's, Joel's and the rental - which meant someone had to ride shotgun. The original decision was for Eva to ride her road race bike, Tim to ride Joel's bike and Calvin to ride the rental with Kate riding shotgun on the back. There were a few problems - Tim struggled to get on Joep's bike as it was too high for him and Calvin struggled to cycle with Kate on the back! So a bit of a switch around - Tim rode Eva's road bike, Cavin rode on Joep's bike and Eva rode the rental with Kate on the back. Eventually got there! Dinner was delicious - we had a banquet meal with lots of different dishes and rice. Then we headed to a cafe BROEI for a hot drink. It was a fun night! The cycle home was funny. Kate was quite scared on the back of the bike but managed to stay on. Eva thought it was hilarious and giggled the whole way! Tim had bought us Sushi Go, a card game, from Amsterdam so we had a few rounds before retiring to bed.
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Amanda Glad to hear you hair cut is ok Calvin