boats * bikes * bargains
Friday, June 12th, 2009by Rachael
Burgum, Holland
It sure is a pleasant place to be staying.
Now that the harbourmaster is satisfied the children will not rip up his lawn, kick their ball onto expensive boats or be a general nuisance, he’s become quite friendly. In fact, yesterday he sold us two bikes!
Grandpa had seen two boats signposted “Te koop” and surmised that it was highly unlikely two boats would go under the same name in one marina, and so it probably meant “For sale” or “Do you want to take me out for a sail?” or something similar.
The same sign was on two folding bikes over by the shower/toilet block (sidetrack: it’s been so nice staying here and having real flush toilets and showers that spurt water – it’s not that we don’t like our onboard facilities, quite the contrary, we are most thankful to take our kitchen and bathroom along with us wherever we go – but we are just super appreciating not having to put the sink up to use the toilet, not having to wait for the water to drain away, not having to empty the loo, being able to stand up under a shower instead of crouch in a cupboard).
Back to those bikes. Having established they were indeed for sale, our interest in them was piqued….when you start thinking about buying something, you take notice when it falls across your path! While they weren’t the best bikes we’ve seen, there was nothing wrong with them when we compared them to many we had seen being used in Asia! And they were cheap – even by our tight-fisted standards, and by the time half-Chinese-blooded Rob had sent quarter-Chinese-blooded-Jgirl14 to bargain for them, they were even cheaper still, the cheapest we have seen yet.
Mr HarbourMaster can’t have felt ripped off though – he accepted our offer and this morning had procured another old dunger of a bike and offered us that as well. A real old dunger this one! But such a bargain, we had to counteroffer and take it.
So, with a little person on the back of each bike, we can now move ten of us at once by pedal-power if we need to.
But they weren’t the only bargain…..
On a rack outside a shop was a sign offering jeans for 2.95 – that is cheap in any language. In fact, in a country where you can’t get a loaf of bread for under a euro, 2.95 sounded way too cheap……so I checked.
”Ja ja zwei something that sounded German-like for 95”
Worth trying on….given the state of my new-but-already-baggy jeans after the little Incident In A Tunnel. I had fully intended mending *those ones*, but at 2.95 and a shopping expedition that lasted only four minutes flat for jeans that fit, it was another bargain worth snaffling up. The ripped jeans are too good to throw away – maybe we’ll refashion them into something else.
(Just quietly…..I was heading in to town to find the cheap underwear shop Rob had seen yesterday…..and you know what? I found three of them, but in none were you able to try on before buying. I don’t know about you, but I think buying a bra without trying it on first is potentially not going to be such a bargain after all. Even a pack of undies that you have not been able to look at could be a disaster. At least my tight new jeans will hold everything in place <wink>)
rayres