There was Jannie on the mail. Asking if we have a spot to camp. Yes, of course, it isn’t busy – it’s never busy here – and the grass is freshly mowed. It is basic, simple, but everything you need is there, and it’s clean.
Come on over for a nice camping experience
They have three little dogs with them, very small ones. “One of them is a hairless dog, you see?” says Jannie, when I drop by to ask if everything is to my liking. But no, I don’t see it, because the hairless dog is dressed. “She is already 16, and we wanted to come here because we are right near the beach. She is absolutely crazy about it. And we wanted a bit of peace and privacy, not crammed together, like you so often find at campings.”
No, in that respect, you’re much better off here. Speaking of privacy – they have the entire field to themselves, and the Toiletbuilding too. Just park wherever you want, plug in your extension cord if you need it, and go camping!
“The previous campsite was a disaster,” says her husband, “we weren’t allowed to bring the van, and it was an incredibly long walk to the parking lot. We use the van for all sorts of things; all the food and stuff for the dogs is in the van… just to keep the caravan a bit light, you know?”
I see “Upholstery” written on the van and am curious: “That seems like a nice but difficult profession,” I say casually, not knowing that I’m opening a surprise box full of stories. He is a cheerful conversationalist anyway, and one story after another comes out. “I am retired now, but I still do some work. We don’t live that far from the media park, so I have a TV gig about once or twice a month. I enjoy it, and it keeps you active. I’m not someone who sits still.” I nod and hum in agreement.
“You certainly have things to deal with every now and then!” he says, half-laughing, “I made a magnificent velvet curtain for Máxima’s 50th birthday, for Carré (1).” “One hundred and sixty linear meters, 6 meters high; that’s a whole lot of fabric, you know!!” I can’t help but agree with that; that is a huge mountain of thick fabric. And for Máxima, it must have been top-quality as well.
“The next day the cleaners come, and then it just gets ripped off the wall and thrown away.” Whaaat? That really impresses me. “Can’t they…?” I ask, but “No, no, storing it is more expensive than throwing it away, and they don’t sell it. Yes, incomprehensible, but when I work for commercial TV channels, things get even rougher there, you know.”
Fortunately, he stands there laughing, and continues: “Wendy van Dijk and Chantal Janssen have a show together; I made a black sofa for it, then John de Mol comes along and says: ‘That’s not possible, because they have to wear black suits.’ (2) So that sofa has to be white. There went that black sofa. But it gets even crazier: for the Eurovision Song Contest in Ukraine – years ago now, because it was before the war – sofas had to be made; the import duties are so high that it comes back to the Netherlands, and there it gets thrown away.
I made a sofa for a music program… it was supposed to look like a piano, so I just bought 15 meters of black faux leather, and John de Mol says it shouldn’t be black and white but orange and blue. Better for TV. “Just throw that black away, put it on the bill,” he says, but yeah, of course I just put it in the closet for another occasion.
Within the Talpa group, things do get passed around sometimes, but the commercial broadcasters, in particular, don’t grant each other anything. It just gets thrown away. You know, I don’t talk anymore, I just do it because it’s a hopeless task.”
The only reaction I can give is a “ahuh” and a nod, because the stories keep on flowing. A good story teller.
I never knew this. You learn something new every day.
The next day is a drama. The hairless dog is very sick and needs to go to the vet. He asks if I know one. Certainly, there is a very sweet couple of veterinarians in Soure. Jannie is very sad but relieved to hear that they can come immediately. “It’s lunch at one o’clock, so I’d go right now if I were you,” I say.
Unfortunately it’s is and remains a drama
She gets injections, syringe food, she needs an IV, and she is supposed to stay. They don’t want that; they were already on their way to the Netherlands anyway, so they are just moving on a bit earlier and faster.
“Such a shame,” says Jannie, when she comes to deliver the bad news, “I was having a great time here, we wanted to stay a little longer.”
And yes, a whole little fence had been set up for the dogs, the garden chairs and everything had been unpacked – it can all go back in. “Better luck next time,” we say to each other, “we know where it is now, and we’ll just come back next year.”
(1) Máxima is the dutch queen, married to Willem-Alexander, and Carré is a big famous theatre in Amsterdam. (2) Wendy van Dijk en Chantal Janssen are celebrities, John de Mol is a well-known TV-producer., and Talpa is the name of his enterprise.
.
(Disclaimer: I’m a bit tired of the keyword stuff and Google’s dictatorship. So here they are, and I’m also hoping for the cleverness of AI in this matter that it will still be found and read, but that I don’t have to force myself to use the right terms in the title and headings. #drama #vet #WillemAlexanderMáxima )
We moved here in 2000 from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to the Termas-da-Azenha, Portugal. We started to rebuild one of portugals cultural heirlooms: Termas-da-Azenha, an old spa.You’ll find mosaics and paintings everywhere. Since Covid we rent the houses for a longer period of time, not as holiday houses anymore.
Each week a little blog about what is happening around us. An easy read. A few minutes in another world. A little about what it going on in Portugal. If you plan your holiday to Portugal, it might be a nice preparation.
In the weekend we publish it on Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.