Looking back on 2008

2008 proved to be a big year for us: first of course the sudden and sad passing of Bernt’s dad. Then leaving our beautiful place in Tasmania, spending three months in Europe and getting settled back in Melbourne again. Other big things were Christopher going to school full time, Bernt’s mum illness and last but not least – Bernt finally ‘finding his feet’.

Leaving Tasmania
After we’d left Tasmania some people commented on how ‘Tasmania hadn’t worked out for us’… But that’s not how we experienced it at all! We loved living in Tasmania, and probably would’ve stayed if it we’d had family there.
Both Doris and I didn’t really experience our grandparents. We’d like Christopher and Annabelle to have that special relationship, and also know their cousins and aunts and uncles well. We have chosen to live overseas from our family in Holland, but we don’t have to live ‘overseas’ from those in Australia also…

We definitely miss ‘our’ house up on the hill with the gorgeous views, and are finding suburbia somewhat hard to get used to again. And we’d take the ‘Hobart rush hour’ anytime over the Melbourne one!
We knew we’d always regret it if we hadn’t tried living in Tasmania – so no regrets here!

Looking back on Europe 2008
We’re quite happy that we took the opportunity to spend three months in Europe this year, but our (read: Bernt’s) plans had been a bit ambitious. Travelling with two young children is not easy (as everybody was telling us beforehand) and was hard for them. Not much stability, which is what children need early on in life. Between leaving Taroona and settling in Bentleigh East, we slept in more than twenty different beds. Fine for Doris and me, but too much for especially Annabelle.


One of Bernt’s goals for the trip was to improve the kids’ Dutch. Well, it actually had the opposite effect: because the four of us were together all the time, we practically only spoke English. At least in Australia when Bernt was alone with the kids we spoke Dutch…

We feel very grateful we got to spend some more time with especially mama and Bernt’s family and friends in Europe. We all gained experiences and memories we’ll never loose.

And possibly most importantly: it was the catalyst for what seems to be the final trip in Bernt’s journey back to good mental health and a happy life for all of us.

The end of the European trip was a bit unsettling for us. We had to say goodbye to mama, knowing that this was most likely the last time we’d see each other.

Then we came back to Melbourne not having a home of our own to return to. We expected to be able to find a rental place quickly, but that took almost two months. We stayed at Doris’ parents part of the time, but they don’t really have the space. Luckily Doris’ sister Diana offered her hospitality: she was in their newly-built home in Beaumaris that had lots of space.

We still didn’t know whether Christopher could get a place at the Melbourne Montessori school. Because he needed something to do, we booked him at a crèche at the ABC Learning Centre with his cousin Natalie. This was not a big success – he didn’t like it much and we weren’t too impressed with some of his new behaviours, that also seemed to rub off on Annabelle.

After looking at oodles of houses, we found a nice 3-bedroom weatherboard house on Centre Rd. We’d initially avoided main roads, but this house is on a corner, and has its driveway on the side street, taking away one of the big disadvantages of main roads. We still have the traffic sound though but that really only bothers us in the main bedroom…

We had applied for the house, and also got an interview for Christopher at the Montessori school. On the Monday morning while we were driving to the school, we received a call that we’d been accepted for the house… and an hour later Christopher had been offered a place at the school… it was a good day!

A funny thing happened then: Christopher had to have an assessment by himself with his future teacher, Nirmala. Christopher can be very stubborn (where did he get that from?) and if he doesn’t feel like it, it can be very, very hard to get him to do anything. This was one of those situations: he didn’t want to do anything that Nirmala asked him. She was at her wit's end and even called people at the other campus to see what else she could try.
Then a policeman came into the classroom for some unrelated matter, and a few seconds later Christopher walked up to Nirmala saying ‘So what did you want me to do?’…
We have no idea where he picked up this respect for the police, but it sure helped!

Christopher started with two half days one week and then went full-time: 5 days a week from 9 til 3. After the second half day Bernt picked him up and he said: ‘Daddy, I had such a good day at school today’, repeating that to Doris when she got home that night!
We are really impressed with the Montessori education so far, and it seems to agree with Christopher well too. Of his own account he started helping us at home: setting the table, helping doing the dishes and cleaning up after himself. And he only just turned 5.

He still loves school too: on one of the last days before Christmas when we were dropping him off before school, he said how much he liked school… isn’t that what every parent wants?

Christopher hadn’t been interested in computers at all, actually not wanting to touch the mouse. That all changed when he found out that you can find trains on the internet… in no time he was ‘driving’ the computer and watching train videos on YouTube… Back in Tassie we got close to our download limit one month, whereas Doris and Bernt hadn’t used the internet more than normal. That turned out to be Christopher’s YouTube videos…
We incidentally had to limit and monitor his YouTube use more when he started staging crashes with his trains and generally becoming a bit destructive: the videos he loved most had quite rough behaviour in them.


Annabelle is just a gorgeous two-year old. She is so girly, loving her clothes – especially pink ones. She loves being outside and playing with Christopher, and misses him a lot when he’s at school. She often still calls him ‘brother’, although she can now say ‘Christopher’.
Annabelle is very determined and can be stubborn. She may want her Teletubbies bowl for dinner time after time, but then suddenly change her mind and want the ‘Olle and Appie’ plate. She’s very clear in her choices, and when you ask her something she might think about it for a while, but always has an answer. Not something you’d expect from a 2-year old.
She can be quite moody, but switch to her bright, cheerful self in an instant – a bit like her dad used to be (and not just as a kid ;). With being two come the ‘terrible twos’, and she’s not skipping those… When she’s in one of her moods she can be very, very loud, and she’d be impossible to reason with (she’s only two after all). We regularly have to resort to putting her in the car, or in her room by herself.

Regrettably Annabelle has been suffering from a severe case of constipation for a long time. We eventually linked it to her great love of milk, and switching to low-fat milk and diluting it helped. We now have the constipation under control, but her bowels have to re-learn how to work, so she’s still having problems.

Bernt’s mum is continuing her slow decline. It has become quite hard to have a telephone conversation with her – especially when there’s nobody close to her because she might drop the receiver from her ear and wouldn’t be able to hear you. Regrettably in November a little growth was found under her breast, which the GP removed a few weeks later by which time it had grown considerably. The autopsy confirmed our fears: it’s a form of secondary cancer, possibly coming from mama’s lungs.

Doris is doing well – being the loving, stable, hard-working centre of our family. She started back with her old boss in Melbourne, and recently had some business issues resolved that she’d been trying to change for the past 4 years - quite a relief. She is working in Richmond, which without traffic is only a 20 minutes drive, but Melbourne traffic has gotten so bad that it normally takes her over an hour. That’s something that will have to change in the next year: there are oodles of pharmacies just on Centre Rd…

Besides being with the children, one of Doris’ favourite pastimes this last year has been studying The Keys videos, created by Maharaji (Prem Rawat). Maharaji’s message is one of Awareness and common sense, not unlike Eckhart Tolle, Landmark and numerous other aware teachers out there, and resonates well with Doris.

Spain

The summer in Holland was pretty typical: a few rainy days, and very few days above say 24 degrees.
Although we were only 30 minutes by bike from the beach, we only went there once to swim. The kids love the beach, but the weather just wasn’t good enough.
Bernt’s sister Anne Marie and her family were going to Spain on their summer holidays, so we decided to fly to Barcelona and spend some time with them there.
It was good, but would’ve been a lot better if Bernt had been feeling better.

Going to Spain also gave us an opportunity to visit Rob and Plony, our dear friends that live south of Barcelona.
And Bernt could do the one thing he really wanted to do this holiday: spend some decent time at La Sagrada Familia – the magnificent church in Barcelona that the architect Gaudi designed but never got to finish.

England

Friends generously allowed us to rent their campervan again – the same one we used in 2005.
Initially we were going to take it to England, maybe Ireland and then down to Spain, possibly by ferry. However we simplified our plans considerably to just visiting England: Annabelle wasn’t travelling very well and the camper didn’t have air-conditioning.

We took the ferry from Calais to Dover (campers with their gas bottles aren’t allowed on the ‘Chunnel Train’ – a good thing: a few weeks later there was a huge fire in one of the tunnels, disrupting traffic for months).
Being in an English-speaking country was a breath of fresh air for Doris, mostly because she could understand the street signs!
We visited the wonderful Legoland near Windsor, and then drove up to Drayton Manor Park near Birmingham, where they created Thomasland – of Tank Engine fame of course… Christopher (and Annabelle) loved it!

Our plan was to spend a second day at Thomasland and then to drive south to spend a few days in London, but mama’s health made us go straight back to Hengelo.

After getting back to Holland we didn’t feel like continuing to travel with the camper, so we cleaned and returned it on Sunday. I needed a lift to get back home and José, one of mama’s nurses offered to come along so Doris didn’t have to drive (she never got behind the wheel in Europe…). José and I had a good conversation driving back; talking about her 16 year-old daughter whom José is taking care of by herself.
Then on Tuesday morning Gerben called – José had passed away, aged only 51. She’d had a heart-attack the night before, but it didn’t seem serious and the doctor told her to get some extra sleep. Her daughter found her the next morning.

If this doesn’t rub your face in the uncertainty of life, what will? But still, it didn’t really hit home with me yet…

Trains and Model Trains

Trains played a huge part on this trip, and not just the life-size ones. The weather wasn’t all that good in Berlin, and we’d seen a brochure for an indoor entertainment centre for kids. But next door we found MiniaturWeltenBerlin (miniature world Berlin): a huge model railway, which Christopher found heaps better than any play centre…

At MiniaturWeltenBerlin they have modelled large parts of Berlin, including the magnificent Berlin Zoo station, and even an airport with planes taking off and landing.
It is absolutely amazing what can be done with model trains these days. Thanks to advances in computer technology, model railroads have become very realistic. Trains are individually controllable and can be told to go from one station to another on the far side of a huge train network. The computer software determines a route, and switches and signals are set so the train can make its journey, without crashing into any other trains.

This is such a far cry from the model trains that Bernt used to play with when he was a kid… But, they’re still using the same HO scale, so his old trains are still useable. Christopher love of trains, combined with his dad’s love of electronics and computers makes for a great hobby for the future: the trains and tracks have already been taken to Australia!

Miniaturisation has gone so far that they even have little model cars driving around, fully individually controlled, being able to start, stop and turn anywhere. In these miniature worlds they simulate accidents on the highway, and have police, ambulances and fire engines coming to assistance with lights and sirens blaring. Fascinating and fantastic!

Model Train Exhibitions are popping up all over Europe. Especially in Germany they are hugely popular – it’s a great hobby for long winter nights, and is a wonderful outlet for the ‘Deutsche Gründlichkeit’ (German thoroughness).
The biggest Model Railway in the world is Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg; it’s one of the most popular permanent exhibitions in Northern Germany. Of course when we heard about that Christopher had to go to Hamburg too. So we used the last travel days of our Eurail pass to go back to Germany, and even did a one-day return from Hamburg to Berlin to visit the Berlin Train show once more. We did all this travel from Amsterdam CS with our favourite high-speed train, the German ICE.

Miniatur Wunderland is utilising a couple of stories in an old warehouse in the Hamburg docks area (I could imagine the Beatles walking around there in the early sixties).
They’ve of course modelled Hamburg, but also Scandinavia, Switzerland and the USA. For the Swiss section they’ve partially removed the floor of the top story so as to model huge mountains and valleys in the Swiss Alps. Absolutely breathtaking.
Among others the USA section encompasses Las Vegas and lots of freeways. The freeway signs have live-updated traffic and temperature information, and Las Vegas looks rather boring during the day. But wait until night time, which in miniature worlds only takes half an hour… it comes alive, just like the real thing!


In Holland there’s a big model railway in Rotterdam, which was definitely worth a visit too, as was of course Madurodam, which was our favourite and thus warranted two visits!

Italy and Berlin

On June 27, the day after Henny’s birthday, we left for our first trip. We’d organised a Eurail pass from Australia which gave us 7 days of first-class(!) rail travel in Europe. These passes are only available to non-residents of the European Union, and are great value, although you do need to pay a bit (and sometimes a lot) extra for special trains like the Thalys.
Christopher the train fanatic sure got his fix this trip, with lots of high-speed trains! It started with the Thalys from Amsterdam to Paris, and the TGV to Geneva. We spent the night there and left early the next morning for Venice, on a beautiful train trip through the Swiss Alps.

After two days and nights in Venice we took the high-speed Italian EuroStar to Rome.
We’d booked a car in Rome to drive to Sorrento, on the beach near Naples. We had a hard time finding the car rental agency near Rome Central, so Doris and Annabelle stayed with the luggage while Christopher and I went to find the agency. It all took an enormous amount of time, while Doris and Annabelle were sitting in the heat at the large square in front of Rome Central – luckily in the shade of a tree…
In the rush to pack the car and get going, I left a small backpack next/under the car, so we lost some luggage. Luckily nothing irreplaceable but it definitely inconvenienced us, and I was beating myself up for being so stupid…
We had a nice one-room ‘apartment’ near Sorrento and had a lovely time there. We visited Capri, went into its Blue Grotto and saw Pompeii. There’s a lot of natural beauty in this part of Italy too, and excitement in the form of crazy Italian drivers…

When we were back in Rome a few days later we tried to recover the backpack from Lost and Found and tried to make a report at the police station, but to no avail. Things are done differently in Rome: despite mucking about for over an hour, we couldn’t make a police report: the police at the station just wouldn’t open the door!
Similar thing with getting train information: on a Sunday afternoon there was an hour’s line outside in the sun at the platform. Two people in a smallish room are all they have to serve all those people waiting for information… Compare this to Amsterdam CS where they have quite a few counters open at all times and use a numbering system so you can wait your turn while sitting in comfort.
Having said this – it just seems to be the relaxed Southern European way, and we did enjoy Rome. Being there for only two nights we used the hop-on, hop-off tourist bus system so we could see the main sites and get around relatively easily. Doris especially liked Rome and we’d love to visit it again in the future.

Our apartment in Rome was again only one room (in the owner’s own apartment) with part of it converted to a small bathroom and kitchenette. The high ceilings (it was in a huge, old apartment building) allowed for an extra bed above the bathroom and kitchenette, so they could advertise it as a 3-person apartment (and we even fit four…)

From Rome we flew to Berlin. We weren’t sure how the kids would go travelling by train, so we’d looked for cheap flights out of Rome. A good destination was Berlin, a city that neither of us had seen yet and would like to experience. Air travel has become very cheap in Europe: four one-way tickets with EasyJet (booked months in advance though) only set us back €170.
Berlin is a great city. It feels very alive and vibrant, with lots of interesting, sometimes quirky things to see. After the German reunification a lot of money was poured into Berlin, and it again became the seat of government. This must have attracted lots of interesting people, including artists and architects, which is visible everywhere. It’s an old city that feels really young.

From Berlin we took the German ICE in the direction of Holland – by far our favourite high-speed train. We only took it until Hannover, so we could go back to Amsterdam via Hengelo – crossing the railroad bridge on the Enschedesestraat, 50 meters from mama’s house!

Henny Tönis

We’d visited Henny and Nel straight after we arrived in Holland, and Christopher and I were at Henny’s birthday too. Henny is my mum’s cousin: his mum and my grandmother were sisters. He's also my godfather and has always been a very special part of my life – not unlike a second dad. I’ve got really fond memories of visiting them in Bussum when I was a kid, and riding my bike from Hengelo to there (a 130km trip). We always kept in close contact, and I could never fool Henny – even when I myself didn’t realise I wasn’t being straight, he’d say: ‘draai er nou ‘s niet omheen – wat bedoel je nu’ (now stop avoiding the issue, what do you really mean…).

One of our most special memories is that Henny and Nel made the huge effort to be at our wedding in Australia in 2004.

On July 8 while we were in Berlin I got a call from my sister Anne Marie that Henny had passed away that morning. He quietly slept-in, without any suffering.

Even though we knew he wasn’t well, it still came as a shock, and it’s a huge loss for everybody. To me it’s literally like I’ve lost two dads this year.

The huge turnout at the condolences service and the funeral showed how much Henny was appreciated and loved.

Birthdays...

Both Annabelle and Bernt had their birthdays in Holland. Because Annabelle had never celebrated her birthday in Holland, and Bernt’s last was his 25^th, we had a combined “1^st and 26^th” birthday party on June 21. We organised it at a restaurant near Hilversum, centrally located in Holland to minimise people’s travel time. It was lovely to see a lot of our Dutch friends and family there, including Bernt’s godfather Henny who was just about to turn 81 himself (June 26, the day after Bernt’s birthday).
Henny’s health had been going downhill for the past couple of years and he hadn’t been outside the home for quite a while, but he insisted to Nel (his wife) that he wanted to be at our party.

Oma Roelofs

The first trip we made of course was to Hengelo, where Bernt’s mum lives. This is almost a two hour drive from Velsen, when the traffic is good. Like Melbourne and lots of other place, traffic is getting busier everywhere, and with bad traffic you could easily double the travel time. Luckily we were seldom affected by traffic because we could pick our time of travel. This was extra important because Annabelle didn’t travel well anymore. We had to plan our trips around Annabelle’s sleep: more than once she got so upset and screamed so much that we had to stop the car and let her have a tantrum outside.

It was really good to see mama, but she got quite a bit older in the past few months since Bernt last saw her. She’s completely confined to a wheelchair now, and is becoming more and more forgetful. She still recognised us, although at one instance in August she thought I was somebody else: ‘No, that’s not Bernt’, she said to the nurse.

Mama has the best 24-hour care imaginable. There are 6 nurses on rotating shifts, and they’re all really good. Thanks to them mama is looked after in a way that a nursing home could never provide.

Mama has probably been having a few TIA’s in the past months. They are Transient Ischemic Attacks, where the blood supply to a part of the brain is interrupted for a while. The symptoms are stroke-like, but last less than a day.

On August 8, the day after papa would’ve turned 80, mama had quite a severe TIA. She seemed mostly paralysed on one side and in such a bad shape that one nurse wasn’t enough to get her in- and out of bed. Mama could also barely talk anymore.

Because it looked so serious we decided to have the last sacraments administered to mama. We were near Birmingham in England at the time, and received a call from Gerben around 9pm. We packed up the campervan and drove through the night so we could be there.

Mama did recover quite well though: it was a case of three steps back and two forward.

'Our' Car in Holland

Gerben had collected dad's car from Hengelo. The last time I saw it was a lot worse for wear: my dad's driving hadn't been all that accurate the past year, and it was full of scratches and dents. But his insurance paid for the repairs, and it looked a lot better than it did in February. It's THE best car I've ever driven, and in a way I hate to admit it's a Volvo... But they've gotten their act together in the past 15 years or so (since the 240 series), and instead of a slow, hard to handle tank, this Volvo S80 handles great, runs very smoothly and gives you a very comfortable ride. So we were really lucky that we had access to the car: it was going to be sold, but we kept it for the time being.

Our House in Holland

After the delay with the internet apartment scam, we only had about three weeks to find a place in Holland.

So we emailed about 30 real estate agents, mostly in Utrecht and Amersfoort, because we wanted a place in the middle of Holland. Then Bernt started calling real estate agents, and ended up talking to Frieda, a lady in Amsterdam whose advertised apartment was not available anymore: the owner couldn't afford the mortgage repayments (it's hitting Holland also). However she suggested another place - a 17th century cottage in Velsen Zuid, bordering the North Sea Canal between Amsterdam and the North Sea. This sounded perfect, although its location isn't quite in the centre of Holland. When Frieda heard we were from Australia she really started talking: she owns a plane which is stored in Albury, Victoria. A few weeks later I was talking with Cecile, one of our Dutch friends in Melbourne, and it turns out she knows Frieda!

After Gerben had checked out the house, we decided to take it - our house was organised!

After spending a few hours at Gerben and Tanja’s place, we went to our temporary home in Velsen Zuid, about a 30 minute drive. The house was perfect for our stay in Europe. It’s in ‘Old Velsen’ - a pocket of Velsen that was separated from the rest of Velsen when the North Sea canal was dug. There are about 30 houses there, all from the 17^th century and heritage listed. Our landlord was Jan – a lovely man in his late 70s, and we took an instant liking to each other.

Jan’s a limousine driver and used to live in Venice Beach in California for years - I often went to the beach in Venice when I lived in California. Jan also has a house in Amsterdam and divides his time between there and ‘our house’, which was split in two separate residences. Our house wasn’t always right on the canal: the canal was widened several times over the centuries to allow for ever bigger ships, and after the last widening in the 1960s Jan’s house ended up being waterfront property. One way to increase the value of your home… just gotta hope that they won’t widen the canal again…

Having the canal as our backyard proved enormously entertaining for us and the kids. We were so close to the canal that when a big ship passed it would get dark in our house! The most amazing ships would go past – lots of cargo ships with tugboats, huge cruise ships, dredgers that went back and forth from their dredging to the North Sea to dump the dredged materials, floating cranes, and even a ship carrying a complete A380 (the largest passenger airplane in the world).

The house itself was pretty small and basic, but absolutely fine for what we needed, and we settled in quickly.

Going to Europe

We flew Malaysian Airlines - partly because they allowed Annabelle (5 days before her 2nd birthday) to fly as an infant, and hence at 25% of the full fare. Most other airlines require the child to still be one year old at the time of the return leg. We're full of praise for Malaysian Airlines: on both the Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur, and the KL to Amsterdam section, they had blocked-out a seat for Annabelle, even though we were really not paying for a seat for her. They were also very helpful and considerate on board, and their in-flight entertainment system kept Christopher occupied for a large part of the flights!

It is getting much easier to fly with the kids now they're a bit older. Christopher was great, and Annabelle was really good most of the time, apart from one huge tantrum in the middle of the night while people were trying to sleep after we'd left KL. She's starting to get a bit of the "Terrible Two's", or the 'ik ben twee en ik zeg nee' (I'm two and I say no). A little thing can set her off, and she'll scream her lungs out, lay on the ground arching her back and there's no reasoning with her. Usually taking her away from Doris works, because she'll settle down once she's reunited with Doris.

We arrived at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport early in the morning on Wednesday June 11. The arrival was much more pleasant than almost 4 months earlier (on Feb 12) when Bernt heard there that his dad had passed on an hour earlier.

Bernt's brother Gerben came to pick us up and it almost felt like we hadn't been away. We went to Gerben and Tanja's place and still saw Anouk before she went off to school (she's having exams with the end of the school year almost there), and Tanja woke Charise up, who, just like Gerben, can sleep in really well: she has been known to not get up until after noon (after a late night though). It was lovely to see them all again.

Ripped Off: Sending Unaccompanied Luggage

Since we were going for such a long time, and we got a reasonable airfare but with a low luggage allowance (only 70kg for the four of us), we decided to send some things separately. I'm describing the following in a bit of detail so other people don't fall into the same trap we did.

We found the most economical way to send our extra items was so-called unaccompanied luggage, and the company with the best rate was Jetta Express at Tullamarine: $7 per kg plus $85 for insurance, airline tax etc. You drop it off at their office, they select an airline it will be sent with and you pick it up at the destination. I called them twice to confirm everything, and that was how it would be: there wasn't going to be anything else to pay, anywhere, and I specifically asked them about fees at the destination...

So we went there on the way to the airport. After I'd given them our 17kg box with Christopher's trains and other things we weren't going to need in a hurry, and paid them $204, they said: "Oh, and in Amsterdam you'll have to pay for customs clearing costs - about €80... Needless to say I got quite upset but being last minute, we had to go with Jetta Express: they had us by the proverbial short and curlies.

The box was going to be in Holland on June 16 at the latest. I called the Dutch collection phone number on Friday June 20th to arrange the pickup. However it had only just arrived in Holland then, and still needed to go to the company that would clear it through customs. I called this company, they wouldn't receive it until Monday (one week later than promised), and it possibly wouldn't be available til Tuesday the 24th. And the cost would be €135... DOUBLING what we originally paid! The contents of the box were probably not even worth $400!

So we were lied to about the cost and the delivery date, which in the end was Tuesday the 24th: it took exactly two weeks from when we dropped it off in Melbourne. Needless to say we aren't going to use Jetta Express anymore - on the way back we'll use plain old surface mail.

Almost ripped off: Internet House Scam

We found an apartment on the internet that we could use during our time in Holland. It was in the center of Amsterdam, quite close to the Central Station. They required quite a high deposit (because they supposedly had had problems with previous tenants) but the rent was almost too good to be true. And as they say, when it seems too good to be true, it usually is...

Luckily Bernt's brother Gerben could check the house out and even though it was in a closed-off area, he spoke to one of the people going through the gate and asked him. And it was a known scam: the lady regularly gets people knocking on her door wanting to move in.
We immediately contacted the police in Australia and Holland, and managed to keep the scammers on a leash for about a week. Regrettably though the police was very unhelpful (Australia) and slow (Amsterdam), so we couldn't aid in catching the culprits.
The thing that made us suspicious was that they wanted to get the deposit via a Western Union money transfer - which is untraceable, and can be collected at any Western Union office anywhere in the world...

Following is the email conversation that we had with the scammers (in reverse order, as per normal email histories). I've deleted our contact details from the conversations.

______________________________

From: Bernt
Sent: Monday, 26 May 2008 17:34 PM
To: 'bhrtanova@yahoo.com'
Subject: RE: appartement

Hello Hrtanova,

We'll be arriving on Tuesday June 10th, at 7 in the morning, after a 30 hour
flight from Melbourne. We wouldn't have slept much because our two young
children would've kept us up during the flight, and of course they're
jetlagged and tired too after such a long flight.

But it won't matter, because we'll have your wonderful apartment at the
Imogirituin 41 in Amsterdam, with beds ready for us to go to sleep in.

So we'll be meeting you around 8am at your apartment, dreary-eyed but happy
that we're finally there and can move into our home for the next three
months.

However, there will be nobody there because you scammed us.

Do you realise how much pain, hurt and suffering you have caused people with
your dishonesty? I don't understand how you sleep at night.
Do yourself and the world a favour and find an honest job. Somehow your
actions will catch up with you.

Bernt
________________________________
From: Hrtanova Barbora [mailto:bhrtanova@yahoo.com]
Sent: Saturday, 24 May 2008 1:39 AM
To: bernt
Subject: RE: appartement

Hello,

Thanks for the mai..Yes,i understand your concern about showing your
lawyer the contract..Ok.so i will wait till monbday..Please by monday,i want
everything finalized.ok.

Hope to hear from you on monday unfailingly.

Regards.

--- On Fri, 5/23/08, Bernt wrote:
From: Bernt
Subject: RE: appartement
To: bhrtanova@yahoo.com
Date: Friday, May 23, 2008, 1:02 PM

Dear Hrtanova,

Sorry for this delay, but it is out of our control that our lawyer
fell ill. Just like you neede to have the contract drawn-up by your lawyer,
my wife insists we have our lawyer check the contract before we sign it. I
am sure you can understand that, and we really want your appartment. She
should be back on Monday, and we can arrange everything then.

Thank you very much,

Bernt
________________________________
From: Hrtanova Barbora [mailto:bhrtanova@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, 23 May 2008 21:41 PM
To: bernt
Subject: RE: appartement

Hello,

It seems you are not serious..I just know you are wasting my
time....Besides,am i renting room to your lawyer and there is no part for
him to sign in the contract..so why are you waiting for his recovery before
you sign the documents and make the payments..You mean you are doubting
me....Infact,i don't like a tenant doubting my trust..Do you think i am
after your money..You are the one that needs house and not me..I pray you
don't regret loosing my nice flat.Well,the ball is in your court.My lawyer
has really been expecting the papers,yet you have not sign it. Well,i will
respond to other tenants that my flat is still vacant..ok.

Regards.

--- On Fri, 5/23/08, Bernt wrote:
From: Bernt
Subject: RE: appartement
To: bhrtanova@yahoo.com
Date: Friday, May 23, 2008, 8:47 AM

Hi Hrtanova,

It turns out my lawyer got the flu and took the day off
sick. She will hopefully be back on Monday. I hope you can keep the
appartment until then, thank you,

Bernt
_______________________________
From: Hrtanova Barbora [mailto:bhrtanova@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, 23 May 2008 18:21 PM
To: bernt
Subject: RE: appartement

Hello,

Haven't you receive confirmation from him..Please let me
know if you are serious with the rent or i answer other tenants.

Regards.

--- On Thu, 5/22/08, Bernt wrote:
From: Bernt
Subject: RE: appartement
To: bhrtanova@yahoo.com
Date: Thursday, May 22, 2008, 9:49 AM

Dear Hrtanova,

Yes we will, we want to get this organised as soon
as possible too, since it will give us the peace of mind that we do have a
great place in Amsterdam!

With warm regards,

Bernt
________________________________
From: Hrtanova Barbora [mailto:bhrtanova@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, 22 May 2008 19:41 PM
To: bernt
Subject: RE: appartement

ok..But please,hasten the signing and the payments.

Regards.

________________________________

--- On Thu, 5/22/08, Bernt wrote:

From: Bernt
Subject: RE: appartement
To: "'Hrtanova Barbora'"
Date: Thursday, May 22, 2008, 8:40 AM

Dear Hrtanova,

Thank you for your emails and the contract
documents. I called my lawyer this morning to check the documents, but she
hasn't returned my call yet. Her office said she was in meetings most of the
day. Since it's now past 6pm in Australia, I hope to hear from her tomorrow.
I'll contact you as soon as I have confirmation from my lawyer that the
documents are fine to be signed.

Sorry for the delay, cheers,

Bernt
________________________________
From: Hrtanova Barbora
[mailto:bhrtanova@yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, 21 May 2008 19:02 PM
To: bernt
Subject: RE: appartement


Hello,
I have attached the original documents to
this mail,you print it out and sign it then you make the deposit payment
via western union and attach the receipt from western union office to the
fully signed contract documents...Then scan it back to me..As soon as i
confirm it ,i will book for my flight and come over to on time before June
11 which you intended to move in so that i can view you my apartment and
handover you the keys for you to move in.Incase you don't have a scanner
presently,,just send me the western union details such as MTCN,SENDER'S NAME
AND ADDRESS,AMOUNT SENT. Then,you can post the documents to me.

Details for the Payment..
Name : Hrtanova Barbora
Address: 308 NORBURY AVENUE,LONDON,SW16 3RL.

Hope to read from you soon.
Regards.

--- On Wed, 5/21/08, Bernt wrote:
From: Bernt

Subject: RE: appartement
To: "'Hrtanova Barbora'"
Date: Wednesday, May 21, 2008, 3:15AM

Dear Hrtanova,

Thank you for your mail, and that is
great news that you can organise the parking for us like this.
However the photos you sent were the
same you sent last time, and I believe the two photos which show a bed seem
to be of the same bedroom.

Nevertheless, that's a minor issue,
so we'd like to go ahead with organising the lease, because time is running
out. Here are our details:

Bernt and Doris

Move in: June 11, 2008
Move out: September 16, 2008
Passport number
Nationality Dutch
Phone number

That should be all the details you need, I'm
looking forward to getting this all organised!
Sincerely,

Bernt
________________________________
From: Hrtanova Barbora
[mailto:bhrtanova@yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, 21 May 2008 2:54 AM
To: bernt
Subject: RE: appartement

Hello,

Thanks for your mail..Yes,the
parking space are at that rate but residents pay 2euros for 4hours.so you
don't have to worried about that,it will be taking care of as soon as we
reach into an agreement..Also,concerning the second bedroom,it the same
arrangement with that of the second bedroom i sent you..lets i forget,i
sent you two bedrooms pictures..I have resent it..ok.

So pls i want you to provide the
following details so that i can forward it to my lawyer to prepare the
documents as soon as possible.......
Name in full...
Address in full.
Date of move in and out...
Passport id number...
Nationality...
Phone number.....
As soon as we sign this documents
,then you can make the deposit payment and the receipt from western union
office will be attached to the fully signed documents and sent back to me
for proper documentation and future references....Because a receipt will be
issued to you.
So pls,i hope you understand me
and i want you to make haste so that i can book for my flight and come over
in time.
Hope to read from you soon.
Regards.

________________________________

--- On Tue, 5/20/08, Bernt wrote:
From: Bernt
Subject: RE: appartement
To: bhrtanova@yahoo.com
Date: Tuesday, May 20, 2008, 8:39 AM

Dear Hrtanova,

Thank you again for your mail. My brother has just had a look at the apartment, and it looks great - we're very interested in renting it from you!
There is one question though: we will have a car in Holland, and my brother noticed that it's all paid parking around the apartment - at the rate of more than 2 euro per hour until midnight... We assume that residents can get a discounted parking rate, so could you possibly arrange that for us?
And do you have photographs of the second bedroom, or otherwise can you tell us what bedding arrangement it has?

Thank you very much in advance, with
warm regards,

Bernt
________________________________
From: Hrtanova Barbora
[mailto:bhrtanova@yahoo.com]
Sent: Sunday, 18 May 2008 4:43 AM
To: bernt
Subject: RE: appartement

Hello,

Thanks for your mai..i will be
expecting your mail on tuesday..But i will like to tell you that there is no
problem with me coming over to hand over the keys to you but i have to
confirm your seriousness before i can come over..ok.

Hope to rread from you soon.

________________________________

--- On Sat, 5/17/08, Bernt wrote:

From: Bernt
Subject: RE: appartement
To: bhrtanova@yahoo.com
Date: Saturday, May 17, 2008, 7:26AM

Dear Hrtanova,

Thank you very much for your email,
and it all sounds great. My brother will look at it on Monday night, so I'll
probably email you on Tue if all is well, and I have no doubts about that!
We can transfer money via Western Union, or maybe if you are going to be in
Holland you can meet with my brother and he can give you the money. We will
be arriving on Tue June 11, early in the morning, and it would be great if
we could have the keys to your apartment then.
Do you also have photographs of the second bedroom and bathroom?

We will be in contact soon, with warm regards,

Bernt
ABCD (Annabelle, Bernt, Christopher and Doris) R
________________________________
From: Hrtanova Barbora
[mailto:bhrtanova@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, 16 May 2008 23:30 PM
To: bernt
Subject: RE: appartement

Hello,

Thanks for your mail..Well,there
is a prking space right infront of my apartment,you might not be able to get
it very well on the Map,also,thanks for your understanding..I understand
your own points also,your brother can check it out for you,so when you are
ok with it,you can supply the following details for the contract..

Name in Full..
Address...
Nationality...
Passport Id number...
Date of move in and out...
Phone number....
Sex..................Male or
Female.
So as soon as i send you the
contract ,you print it out and sign it then make the transfer of the payment
to the details i wil give you and attach the receipt from western union
office to the fully signed documents and scan it back to me.

Hope to read from you soon.

________________________________

--- On Thu, 5/15/08, Bernt wrote:
From: Bernt
Subject: RE: appartement
To: "'Hrtanova Barbora'"
Cc: "Doris Do"
Date: Thursday, May 15, 2008, 9:23PM

Dear Hrtanova,

Thank you for your quick reply. The
apartment looks really nice, and we are interested in it, and we are very
interested for the whole period we are in Holland, which is from June 11
until September 16. I just need to show my wife (who is still asleep - it's
6:30am in Australia), and I was also wondering about parking our car: I
looked on Google Maps and couldn't see any cars on the Imogirituin. Would it
be possible to park within walking distance - the car doesn't need to be
right outside our door.

Also, which building is your
appartment in on Google Maps (if you enter 'Imogirituin 41, amsterdam,
netherlands' into http://maps.google.com , and
select 'satellite' you will see a satellite photo of the area).

I fully understand your concerns
about reliable people in your appartment, and we feel the same way. Too many
people are dishonest, and it is even more sad that a real estate agent
treated you badly. You won't have any concerns like that with us!

My brother lives in Oostzaan, just
north of Amsterdam, and I just spoke to him. He is going away for the
weekend, but could drive past your appartment on Monday. If all is well we
would transfer the security deposit to you to secure the appartment.

Thank you very much, and I'm looking
forward to hearing from you,

Bernt
________________________________
From: Hrtanova Barbora
[mailto:bhrtanova@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, 16 May 2008 4:34 AM
To: Bernt
Subject: Re: appartement

Hi,
Thanks very much for your Kind interest in my apartment, i am
delighted to let you know that the apartment is still very much
available for long terms period of a year , presently no one is
occupying my apartment and it will be a great priviledge
renting you my Nice apartment located at the city centre of
Amsterdam. I need someone reliable, responsible, tidy and trustworthy
who will take very good care of my apartment as am away and
i will be very happy renting my apartment to a very
trustworty,responsible and Reliable Tenant .....

My apartment is a two bedrooms Flat which has separate
toilet and bathroom,a room cost 250euro per calendar month
and 700euro for security deposit payment for the period of
your staying in my apartment which is refundable while at the
end of the Contract ....Myapartment is available in either a
room or the whole apartment,the whole apartment will cost
you 500euro per calender month PLUS THE SECURITY
DEPOSIT OF 800euro and the bills includes all charges
such as water, gas and electricity,Access to internet service.

Also,there are Blankets and bedsheets in my apartment and i will want it to be well taking care of. Before we proceed with this contract,we need to introduce eachother formally......

Some vital Informations about myself,I am Miss Hrtanova
Barbora,i was born in Amsterdam,but my father is from Czech
Republic.I study International Relation in Czech Republic where
i aquire citizenship,I finished schooling and i was employed by
a multi national Company in Czech Republic,I was transfered to
United Kingdom june 2006.Presently i work with a Discovery
Company here in UK,I am a very Honest Landlord which has
the fear of God in him....... Actually the apartment belong to my Late Mother,who died
early last year 2007 and since then i have assumed the Total
Control of the apartment...I gave the apartment to an Agent
before but it was later i discovered he rip me off and also
exploit the Tenants and since then i have withdrew his services
as the Agent of my apartment.

DETAILS ABOUT MY APARTMENT..........
Address : Imogirituin, 41
Amsterdam java-island
Amsterdam 1019 RL Netherlands.
85 m2 attic sittuated in the center of the Eixample District

equipped with telephone and ADSL
internet connection.
Number of bedrooms:2
Number of bathrooms:2
Max number of people:5
Floor:Ground floor.
Monthly rental price: 250euros.00
per room,Whole Apartment

500 including all bills
Security Deposit: 800euros
Pictures available:YES

AMENITIES AVAILABLE.OUTSIDE
City View Lift
Balcony Terrace

INSIDE
Kitchen
American Kitchen Fridge & Freezer
Oven
Microwave Dish Washer Crockery
&Utensils
Bath Shower Hair Dryer
Towels

Extra features
Internet Dial Up Internet Broadband
Cable/Satelite
TV
Stereo/Radio System DVD Player
DVD/Music Collection
Library Telephone Fax
Central Heating Air Conditioning

Pets Welcome
You will be confirming these upon our meeting to view the
apartment together and signed up the contract,therefore i will
come down to meet you in person to know you and hand over
you the keys as soon as i confirm your deposit payment
because i have to confirm your seriousness before coming
down to meet you and take you to the apartment myself.....

This is Due to my past experienced of meeting tenant without
confirming their seriousness and readiness, it was later i
realised that most of them have no money ready for the rent
but to view the apartment,even some will not show up again
after my arrival to Amsterdam which i wasted my time and
money for nothing, since then i have been adviced by my
lawyer not to meet any tenant without confirming his or her
deposit payment, so i can only be available for viewing when i
confirm your readiness and seriousness then i have attached
the pics of the apartment to this mail so that you can have the
idea of the apartment.

Also, i want to give you some of the terms and conditions that guild the renting of my apartment as follows: The Tenant Will Pay a month Rent and Security Deposit in Advance to the Landlord Before Moving in to show a Good Sign of seriousness and the Security Deposit will be refunded back to the Tenant and the return of funds must be completed not later than 2 days at the ends of the Contract. The parties each wish to peacefully occupy the premises during the term of this agreement.

The parties agree that they and their respective invited visitors will not
i. Commit any act, which results in serious disruption of the
rights of each to peacefully occupy the premises
ii. Commit any act, which results in physical harm to the
parties, a member of her household, visitors or neighbours
iii.......... Cause or allow invited visitors to cause a nuisance.
iv.. Commit any form of harassment on the grounds of race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age or disability,
which may interfere with the peace and comfort of the
environment, or cause offense to each other, a member of her
household, visitors or neighbours.
v. Play or allow to be played any radio, television, record or
tape recording or musical instrument so loudly that it causes a
nuisance or annoyance to the other party.

(b) Use of Premises: The Tenant agrees to use the premises for residential purposes and not to operate a business at the premises nor to use the premises for any illegal purposes...

Regards. So please let me know if you love my apartment so that we can proceed with the contract.

Hrtanova.
+447031931775

--- On Thu, 5/15/08, Bernt wrote:

From: Bernt
Subject: appartement
To: bhrtanova@yahoo.com
Date: Thursday, May 15, 2008, 1:46PM

Dag meneer/mevrouw,

Mijn vrouw vond uw appartement op
expatriates.com . Wij vroegen ons af of het
beschikbaar is van 11 tot 27 juni, en van 9 juli tot eind juli.
Zou u ook een adres en wat fotos kunnen sturen?
Hieronder volgt wat algemene informatie:

Wij zijn een australisch-nederlands gezin met twee jonge kinderen (2 en 4).

Wij zijn een professioneel gezin: ik ben elektrotechnicus (Universiteit Twente)
en mijn vrouw is apotheekster.
Wij zijn voorzichtig en netjes met dingen, en onze kinderen zijn relatief
rustig en gedragen zich goed.
U kunt meer informatie over ons vinden op onze website: http://therfamily.blogspot.com/

Wij kijken uit naar uw antwoord.

Met vriendelijke groet,

Bernt
ps - indien u ons wilt bellen, graag
niet later dan 2 uur 's middags in Nederland bellen (Australië loopt 8 uur
voor op NL)

In Melbourne for a week

Then it was time to go to the boat - the Spirit of Tasmania which was taking us back to Melbourne and mainland Australia - the end of our time in Tassie! We had enjoyed our time here so it was with mixed emotions that we were leaving. But it was really good to go back to Melbourne and the exciting and somewhat uncertain times that lay ahead.

This was going to be our third different bed in a row since leaving Taroona, and the kids had been really good with that. Especially Annabelle who last year was quite sensitive to different environments on our trip to Europe was not having any problems. As long as she had a bed to sleep in she was fine!

We got a good dose of Melbourne traffic - people in Hobart joke about its rush hour which is from five pm until 5:05 (in reality it's a bit worse than that), but Hobart traffic is a breeze compared to Melbourne. We arrived on Tuesday June 3 at 7am, and there had been an accident outbound on the South Eastern Freeway, so it took us til past 9 o’clock to get to Doris' parents house - more than double what it should take.

Doris' parents extended their wonderful hospitality once again - the two spare rooms became our bedrooms and we took over the garage with all of our stuff from the cars. It felt really good being in Melbourne again, and Christopher and Annabelle were immediately very comfortable at Doris' parents place. Christopher of course remembered Ong Ngoai and Ba Ngoai (granddad and grandma) really well, and Annabelle made it her home immediately too: we're still not sure whether she liked it there for them or for the Dja Dja (which is what she calls Cha Lua - a traditional cooked Vietnamese pork sausage roll we all love). Even weeks later in Venice she threw a tantrum wanting to go 'home' to Ong Ngoai and Ba Ngoai's house for Dja Dja...

We had a week in Melbourne, which was spent finalising things for our three months in Europe and catching up with friends, some of whom we hadn't seen since we moved to Hobart. Before we knew it was Tuesday June 10, and we were ready to fly to Amsterdam. Dad took us to the airport and we were ready to board the 'big plane' as Annabelle put it: she had just started putting words together.