Post-molestation trip to V&D

Friday morning I had a meeting at the Vroom en Dreesman to talk things over. We felt irritated to start with because he kept us waiting in an (instinctively) unsafe area... It was my second time back into town. The first time feeling like a heroic achievement. This time around Aldith was there with me to talk to the manager, Joost Rompen.

He let us start the conversation. I started by thanking him for escorting me to the car and taking care of the footage. Then it was time to question all the things that went wrong. Such as having no security pressent, not taking action themselves, not calling the police, and most important of all, the cashier that I was looking out for, had not bothered to even ask me if I was OK.
Joost Rompen handled the conversation very professionally, speaking only truths, informing us about the non-existing protocol an even acknowleging his mistakes and apologizing. Phew....that does help and feels like a real relief.
It turns out that there are pics of the culprit's faces and they did make their payment with a debit card...soooooo if the card wasn't stolen they should be able to trace them. Concluding,...the shop has corrected its mistakes adequately...we are now sending a letter to the head office to urge them to
do something about their lack of security. .....still no shopping spree...but it is Saturday now....and a huge bunch of flowers was delivered to my home.
Feeling a little better about this...and being able to move on in the right direction again.


By the way, Aldith made the flyer. For the occasion...I have turned GREEN.

Flu(s)terred

First of all, welcome to all my new friends at Twitter. I had 55 views on monday which is tremendous. I have been writing this blog since Spring 2007 when I was diagnosed with Cancer of the Thyroid. Since then I try to live my life to the fullest. It is great hosting you all here and thankyou to Aldith for showing you the way to my blog. Do come by every once in a while and take a seat at birdsperch.blogspot.com.

So what brought y0u here. As a (usually) law-abiding citizen, I try to live a decent life. The past years (as of the death of Pim Fortuyn, to be exact), deterioration has set in in Dutch society's behavior and mannerisms. It seems like unsociable behavior is becoming more and more accepted. I always believe that correcting people around you it the beginning of the solution to head towards a better World.
Last Saturday evening I made a quick trip into town to exchange a DVD box which Kiara had purchased but in which the actual CD was missing. Seeing as Christmas is now behind us, the shops have gone into full-blown discount season. I decided to check out the lady's department and found myself a decent little black skirt which I had been looking for for quite a while. I was pleased with myself and queued up infront of the cashier's desk.

A lady stood in front of me and was making a scene. The jumper which she was trying to buy had no price tag, and the lady behind the till explained for the umpteenth time that Benetton was a store within the V&D shop. She could not help because the Benetton people had already gone home. This scene kept repeating itself and the woman's daughter was throwing a full blown tantrum because she couldn't have the jumper. The kid was starting to irritate me but the woman was even worse as she started to harass the cashier. I decided to open my mouth and tell the cashier that their was no need to give in to this woman's attitude. She turned around and told me it wasn't my business. I replied that infact it was because by this time she had kept me waiting for 10 minutes already. I then told her she was hard to deal with and that her daughter was well on her way following her in her footsteps. She then stormed at me an hovered over me, her nose bearly touching mine. I could feel her breath. I looked back at her but did nothing. My non-response ticked her off then she made a fist and went for my head. Her husband casually joined in. Two Turks came to my rescue. She managed to batter me on my head, right where my bone is still brittle for the huge tumor on my head. He did so too, and I got 2 or 3 kicks, leaving me bruised. This woman kept coming at me. Her husband was calling me crazy and telling his wife to give up on the gorilla. Each time she came back at met the Turks helped me. Eventually they went to the other row and I followed them. The woman was still in the other row and when I asked the guys to stay with me until she was gone, she heard it an threatened to follow me to my car. After paying, she demonstratively walked around the area beckoning at me that she wasn't through with me. I asked the shop people to get security. They told me he had gone home!!!! Eventually the managers helped me out but refused to call the cops because they figured they wouldn't come (it was closing time....he was in a rush to get home). They brought me to my car and I drove straight to the Police station. The officer there did a wonderful job, jotting down my story and calling the shop to tell them off. He advised me to go to the hospital to get everything checked. I have to say,....physically I am managing but the emotional damage is huge. I was in tears all Saturday evening, and I had a few nightmares, each presenting another sequel to what had happened. On Sunday I went to the hospital. They reported my bruises. It is now monday night....and I still feel really queezy...I'm afraid I am deal with a bit of a psychological trauma. Trying to move on now.
I found out that the shop got everything on surveillance vids, and seem to remember the woman in question used a debitcard to pay. Hoping that justice will prevail.

Holiday season 2009

This past holiday season has been pretty wild. It started a week before Christmas when Kiara starred once again.

This time in the school x-mas play. She was surprised to be allowed to play Herod instead of a sheep for once. Aldith and Paula came along. Paula has been there every single school year to support her. We always close off the evening with gingerbread goodies and hot chocolate at my house. The production this year was pretty good compared to other years. I was happy to see it! The following weekend I organized a Christmas lpotluck brunch for the African actors in Kiara's Musical. Together with the other kids parents we hosted an afternoon of food and spontaneous entertainment.It was a wonderful way to start-off the Christmas season. I had gotten my shopping done early which left me with a few free days with Kiara. We headed for Zevenaar to my parents home to join in the celebration preliminaries. By this time Holland was covered by a thick blanket of snow. We managed to visit Tineke on her birthday, and in the evening I met my old friends for Zevenaar in town. But the next day we went shopping in CentrO in Oberhausen, Germany. It is supposed to be the largest mall in Europe. It was really snazzy to say the least! (Oh that's a lovely old-fashioned word) We had to be back home on time because on Christmas Eve Marcus and I had planned to celebrate with the children. I was pleasantly suprised to find out that Marcus had gone way out of his way decorating his home and the table for a nice family meal. He had even bought new plates, which made me all mushy as I had been the one to revive Christmas in his household last year. What a huge


compliment and how lucky I am to have someone as attentive as that! We set about cooking in the afternoon and it was my very first time cooking quail. It was fabulous! Many gifts were to follow and that was just the beginning! The next day we went back to Zevenaar. Practically the whole family was there from my sisters to my nephews and neice, and even the 3rd generation was present. We sat, talked, exchanged beautiful gifts, dined, prayed and sang.

After Christmas day Kiara left to be with her father. I was exhausted and rested for 3 days. Kiara came back on the monday. The next day she went to the movies and spent the night at her friend Martine's. It was nice for her to find the time to do normal things again. The following day we were invited to Serena's home. Serena is one of the other children who plays in the Musical. We had a lovely dinner and Kiara spent the night there. It was cold an icy coming home and I was lucky enough(read sarcasm) to have to stop to change the light bulb in my headlights. I asked someone to help me, but I'm afraid men aren't what they used to be. ;-). My own Marcus fixed the problem the next day. Boy was it freezing cold!

On New Years Eve we were home. I fixed Kiara, Marcus and myself a lovely meat fondue meal, followed by a chocolate fountain. We had invited friends to come around after 0.00 hrs but nobody turned up except Henk and his wife Carla and daughter Kim. I was a little disappointed after all my work, especially since I had a terrible flu coming on. Until now that is the status quo.
On New Years day we went to Marcus' mother. We grilled and all 3 kids were there to celebrate with us. On Saturday we tied up the holidays with a visit to the cinema. Angélique, my sister, treated Kiara, her friend Jermaine and myself to Avatar the movie and dinner. Apart from the flu I have been struck with terrible pains in my groin since monday. Trying to figure out what that is. I don't suppose being this busy has helped.