Californication

It's almost Californian, said Mr T this morning when he drew back the curtains. To be fair, the sky was undeniable blue and we probably had just had the hottest May weekend ever in the Netherlands, but I’m not convinced Haarlem could ever be compared to the west coast of America.

There are many subtle differences – the first the fact that sunshine is a rare commodity – and when it does happen, like this weekend, the Dutch go crazy. They strip off, take-off to the beach or the local park and catch those rays (and if they can add some beer and loud music into the mix then all the better). Good job it was a weekend or there could have been an awful lot of sickies…. 

On Friday, we took a picnic to the beach where I felt overdressed in my shorts. Less than ten days previously we had strolled along the same seafront wrapped up for the Artic.

We had friends to stay, I’m glad they got to see the Netherlands at its very best, but I had to keep defending my negative attitude to the local climate.

It’s not always like this, I complained, which fair enough, they understood. The last time they visited us we’d battled through Amsterdam in zero degrees and the pouring rain. This time we did the nice stuff. We visited the tulip fields, we had dinner on the beach, we hired a boat  for a lazy tour of Haarlem’s canals. I could almost get to like it here – if the forecast for the coming weekend wasn’t predicting a temperature drop of ten degrees… Another reason I know that despite the warmth and those blue skies I'm not in California. It just won't last.

To be honest at the moment the only place I really want to be is back in the UK, and this is because I need to be 'out there' promoting my (as yet) unpublished book.  At the moment I am simply dipping my toes in from afar (and talking of dipping toes in, yes we did try and I can confirm that the North Sea is VERY COLD). According to several publishers' websites, I need an ‘on-line presence’ before they will even look at my manuscript.  Well I do have an on-line presence but it has very little to do with writing novels, and as someone with zero confidence about their own ability, I’d find it very difficult to set myself up with my own ‘author website’ when I’ve done very little but have a couple of short stories published on line and come runner up in a national flash fiction competition. However, I sense it will have to be done, especially as I currently lack a ‘physical presence’ in the all important world of writer networking. Watch this space.

Meanwhile, look at the tulip fields. Beautiful.