Little Mr. Causes Time Travel...

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

When Little Mr. was a toddler, he spied a tablecloth on our dining room table.

I’d avoided tablecloths for a long time before this point because he had been previously crawling and hoisting himself up during his attempts to move from the horizontal to the vertical, but this was a special occasion:  the Dutch St.Nicolas and the whole family were due at our place for a buffet lunch.

I should have known better.

I’d made a large gingerbread house and spent way too much of the night before assembling and decorating it: the dining room table had all the plates and glasses lined up at the end, plus the gingerbread house.

I was busy ferrying things back and forth from the kitchen to the table but then decided to get a photo of a gingerbread before everyone arrived so retrieved the camera.

I was absent from the room for a grand total of  maybe one and a half minutes so imagine my horror when I  returned to find Little Mr. tugging heartily at the tablecloth for all he was worth.The result of his efforts was that an entire line of glassware and plates now overhung the edge of the table above his head, and the gingerbread house a little further along was not far behind.

I put the camera down on the nearest chair and sprinted to the table to save kid and crockery and since Little Mr. gave one more determined tug before relenting his grip, ended up on my knees in front of the table with both arms outstretched as the only barrier against between the table items and gravity,  yelling hysterically for adult reinforcements in the shape of Himself.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Himself duly arrived and removed leaning glasses and plates off my arms,  and we were almost finished when there was a horrible crash.

Little Mr., having discovered the camera laid within reach in haste, picked it up and then threw it on the floor. The damage was ridiculous but fatal.

The camera body sported a large dent  where the battery was, which also broke the door off the battery compartment.

To add insult to injury, my very beautiful (but clearly not structurally certificated) gingerbread house then had it’s roof  cave in and became a decorated ruin about five minutes before the guests arrived.

We sent to camera back to the manufacture in an effort to have it repaired  but they said it was hopeless. Stupidly the camera itself still functioned, but since the battery could not be removed or recharged it died once the juice ran out.

Now fast-forward to last weekend I was sorting though some stuff I’d shoved in the back of a cupboard and lo… this broken camera resurfaced.

I’m still debating if I should try somewhere else to get it fixed, and so loathe to throw it away, I went to put it on my desk. For some reason I stopped when I passed by the desk later and looked into the camera where the chip would be and to my surprise there was a chip still inside it…  … with photos dating  from April 2008!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

These photo’s pre-date my blog by just over a year.  There were also a lot of photos of Little Mr. as a toddler so this chip must have been forgotten in the camera all this time.

So I’m taking you on a mini-time-travel-tour.

This is a walking tour that Himself, Little Mr and I made in the centre of the Hague a the time (for a reason I’ve long since forgotten, Kiwi Daughter was elsewhere on this day).

The Hague is not Capital of the Netherlands (that distinction goes to Amsterdam) but it is the seat of government.

The first of what became the old parliament buildings called the Binnenhof   (the inner court)  was completed in the 13th century, and new parliment buildings (not pictures here) were added directly next door in the 20th.

The Ridderzaal  (knight’s hall) that looks a little like a mini castle is the central feature in the complex of old buildings and is still in use as the venue where the official opening of the Dutch Parliament takes place on the third Thursday of September each year.

These photos are just a few of the buildings that make up the Binnenhof complex… Let’s take a look…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The octagonal turret is the Dutch Prime Minister’s Office…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)