In other words: merry Christmas and a happy new year!

I know, I know, it has been quite a while since I last posted a message, and of course posted some pictures. It is not like I didn’t have anything to tell, but the new thing (about me moving here) is a bit gone and to post things double is a bit odd too. We don’t go out too much lately, also because of the H1N1 (mostly becasue it is a huge risk for Isabella), so we miss a large part of things to tell already.

But ok, the end of the year 2009 is getting closer, so it seemed like a plan to write a new post before the year would be over again (plus I received lots of questions of people as they wanted to see new pictures and such of our little Isabella haha, so yeah, that also had something to do with it).

Isabella is doing well, by the way. She is still a very sweet baby, with the hours between 5PM and 8PM as exception.. I think she doesn’t like the transition from day to night that much, because she can cry quite a bit in those hours. Officially she is a bit colicky (a baby has to cry for at least 3 hours 3 days per week, and 3 months to be classified as a colic baby), which was something we could expect as she was so early (it seems to be one of the complications) but fortunately it is not as bad as you hear sometimes about, it is usually not more than three to four hours and it doesn’t happen every day.. oh well, if that is everything, then it isn’t as bad as it could’ve been

Isabella now weighs a bit more than 10 pounds (over 4.5 kilos), so she gained quite a bit. Thankfully she is healthy, and I have to say that sometimes I was a bit afraid as they say that an early baby, such as Isabella, can easily end up in the hospital during the first year due to all kinds of complications. So we can say that we were very lucky so far

My family can call themselves a bit less lucky, though. At first we would go to the Netherlands during the holidays, because I haven’t been in the Netherlands since I moved here over a year ago, and also because none of them has seen Isabella in real life so far. But the H1N1 has made us decide to delay it until it would be a bit less bad, if Isabella would get infected with that flu, it would be very deadly for her as she is still so young and, well, you don’t want to risk the life of such a young baby.

But ok, enough talk for now, I should post some new photo’s of the little Isabella..

In November we went back to Waimea Falls again, mostly because it rained a few days earlier and we could expect a nice waterfall:

91 years age difference:

Recently I noticed that Isabella was sucking on her thumb for the first time.. I wanted to make a picture of it but unfortunately it never goes the way you want it.. oh well, still made the following photo’s:

And then the last few pictures.. A few days ago an uncle of Michelle came to visit Hawaii. They had not seen him for about 12 years (and then I complain about my one year haha), and of course we made some photo’s:

And that was all again for now. I don’t dare to make a promise about me posting a new message before the end of the year, you’ll always see that something comes up so you can’t do it haha.. It will come.

From a sunny, and warm Hawaii (it is still 85-90 degrees during the day, it is a dry and warm winter) we wish you a Mele Kalikimaka me ka Hau’oli Makahiki Hou!

The best wishes to everyone for the new year!! I have just celebrated my first New Year in Hawaii and that was, like expected, a bit different than they celebrate it in the Netherlands..

It was on the last day of the year pretty noisy outside, lots of fireworks went up into the air, a bit like you can see in the Netherlands. It was not allowed to light any fireworks before 9 PM but nobody really cared about that. It didn’t matter to me either, I was too busy with other things, such as making ‘oliebollen’ (Litteral translation would be ‘oil balls’, these are Dutch pastries, similar to doughnuts but round and also called ‘Dutch doughnuts’).

It was the first time that I made oliebollen myself but fortunately it all worked out ok. The basics are very simple, especially when you follow the instructions To prove it, here are some pictures of Dutch oliebollen in Hawaii:

They look good, don’t they? I thought they did and they were really tasty also. Michelle loves oliebollen so she was also happy that I was going to make them. Her mother also ate one and she liked it too. So this can be done another time and so we will. Who knows, there might come a new tradition of eating oliebollen on New Year’s Eve haha (by the way, a nice detail: it is believed that the current doughnuts are originally taken from the oliebollen which the Dutch settlers brought to the USA hundreds of years ago).

I thought to be smart and lay down on my bed for an hour at around 5 PM.. yeah right.. well ok, I have laid down on bed for an hour but it was like everyone decided to start with their fireworks at 5 PM so I came out of bed at around 6 PM again since I wouldn’t get any sleep anyways and we went downstairs about 10 minutes later since there was another BBQ and because everyone was lighting up their fireworks. We practically lighted up fireworks for the entire evening, this mostly because there were more people and it was a bit like taking turns.

Today we went with others to the beach and had a picnic there. After the picnic, Michelle and I went towards the graveyard where her father is burried. She already told me that there would be lots of people who would BBQ, light fireworks and drink. A bit like celebrating the new year with the people who passed on. I had seen this before in some Asian movies, that people brought food and drinks to graveyards but I never experienced this before in real life, until today.

We also went to the graveyard during last Christmas and I already thought it was such a nice view to see that almost every grave has had or would get a visitor, there were flowers everywhere. She told me that it was basically a tradition that people did this. The trip to the graveyard today wasn’t much different. It is a tradition which, I think, is really here because of the Asian influences on the island. I think that there’s nothing wrong with that. I really think it is beautiful that the people here really have a place in their heart for those who moved on, this is in Europe sometimes different, unfortunately.

Anyways, Michelle and I took a few pictures today so we could give you an idea of how the place looks like:

It may look on the pictures like it was cold here but that wasn’t really so.. it was about 85 degrees Fahrenheit here today (29-30 degrees Celsius) and it cooled down later in the evening to about 73-74 degrees fahrenheit (23 Celsius) (this may look warmer than it really was, especially compared to the summers in the Netherlands). The smoke that you can see is no fog, it is smoke coming from BBQ’s and fireworks.. the smoke stays here on the island a bit longer than on other places. We also lighted some firecrackers at Michelle’s dad and at some other people that she knew. It was something unusual for me as we don’t do this in Europe but I have to admit that I think it is very beautiful that the people do it like this and remember like this

But ok, I am quite tired from last night so I think I am going to make an end on this post for now.

Happy New Year wished to you from Michelle and Jeroen!

We see and hear every night a lot of fireworks ever since Thanksgiving and the closer we get at the end of the year, the more it basically is. Officially this isn’t allowed, of course, and is it only allowed to light the fireworks between 9pm and 1am on New Years Eve (there are more days on which it is allowed, though, such as Independence Day and during Chinese New Year). Whenever men lights fireworks outside of these hours, they have the risk to receive a fine of 2,000 and 20,000 dollar or even receive jail time.

The fireworks that we hear and so see much are mostly rockets and other aerials. Unfortunately it is not legal to have this fireworks and is it not allowed to be lighted by the normal consumers.. there are more rules that are different than in the Netherlands by the way and while I can understand some of them, I do not feel all of these rules as some are just contradictionary…

As said, it is illegal to light aerials. They made it illegal because of the densely populated areas and of the fires that may come because of these fireworks. I can imagine this rule being enforces, everything can be really dry and if it is not the buildings, then it is at least the nature that can be destroyed. I really do not like this rule but I do understand where they come from.

Something else which I find quite strange is that you need a permit for certain fireworks. I can imagine the concept of a permit or license to light fireworks but the way they enforce it here, it is just to get money from the residents.

You need, for example, a permit for every 5000 firecrackers, also for some other fireworks by the way but this is an easier example. A small box of firecrackers already exists of that amount and the costs of these are about 5 to 10 bucks, depending where you buy it. I assume this price is about the same in the Netherlands. However, you need 1 permit for this which costs an additional 25 dollar.. that makes the whole thing a lot more expensive all the sudden! And what to think about a bit more fair amount such as abox of 20,000 firecrackers? You will need four permits.. that is 100 dollars. Last year I had a string of 50,000 firecrackers.. you can calculate what it would ave cost me in permits alone if I was to buy that here.

What do you say? A maximum number of permits? No.. there isn’t any, everyone can buy as much permits as he or she likes as long as the buyers are 18 years or older. I recently read that someone had 64 permits for fireworks.. ummm.. 64 times 25 dollar is still 1,600 dollar.. ka-ching!

And speaking of the cash register, they sure know how to fill the one of the state, last year they sold about 290,000 dollar in permits alone. What they used the money for? I have no clue.

By the way, these permits really make illegality happen. I received a pricelist, through people who Michelle knows, of ‘illegal’ fireworks. That means, fireworks which can be sold through the stores but without a permit. 3 strings with 20,000 firecrackers would cost 165 dollar… hmm that is 55 dollar per 20,000 firecrackers and 13.75 dollar per 5,000 firecrackers.. if you would do it legal, it would be 25 dollar per 5,000 firecrackers and 300 dollar in permits alone for the whole amount. No wonder people are finding their stuff elsewhere.

Michelle and I only bought fireworks which doesn’t need any permits and we bought in the stores, by the way. We bought some paperless crackers (I doubt it’ll be any good but they are legal) and some fountains. I really believe you need fireworks when it is New Year but I think it will be better not to spend hundreds of dollars for a minimum of fun, no thanks.

One last remark, by the way.. in the Netherlands we are used to name the fireworks on a list, you give it to a store associate who then will retrieve the fireworks for you from a concrete bunker or something similar. Here, in Hawaii, it is completely different. Lots of fireworks, and I mean really a lot of pounds, of fireworks are just in the middle of the stores. You just go there with your cart and put whatever you want inside your cart… it is, of course, much easier, but is it also safer? I don’t think they ever experienced what we have experienced in Enschede (Google on ‘Enschede Firework Disaster‘). I think it is quite unbelievable that they have such hard rules while, at the same time, they have such insecure storage locations for the fireworks (but oh well, I know some more examples of those things haha).

Anyways, if you are to be lighting fireworks this year, do it safely.. We wish you a happy New Year!