Alex Fixes a Boat

Alex

Today our young guest writer Alex de Leeuw is back to tell us all about the fun time he had with his cousin and one of his friends as they helped my girlfriend, her brother and myself get our boat ready to be put in the water. As always I have translated for Alex since he is only a young Dutch lion and is still learning English.

—————————————————
Alex Fixes a Boat 1
Mijn neef Jack het Luipaard en mijn vriend Mr Koala kwamen op bezoek vandaag. We hebben Stuart en zijn vriendin geholpen met het klussen aan hun boot.

My cousin Jack the Leopard and my friend Mr Koala came to visit today. We helped Stuart and his girlfriend work on their boat.
Alex Fixes a Boat 2
Eerst moesten we er voor zorgen dat we het juiste gereedschap hadden. Het is heel belangrijk het goede gereedschap te gebruiken bij het klussen aan een boot.

First we had to make sure we had the right tools. It is very important to have the right tools when working on a boat.
Alex Fixes a Boat 3
Mijn neef Jack gebruikt hier een groot schuurapparaat om de boot te schuren…

My Cousin Jack used a big sanding tool to sand the boat…
Alex Fixes a Boat 4
…en ik gebruik een klein schuurapparaatje (maar dat vind ik niet erg)…

… and I used a smaller sanding tool (but I did not mind)…
Alex Fixes a Boat 5
…en Mr Koala gebruikt een borstel om schoon te maken.

… and Mr Koala used a brush to clean.
Alex Fixes a Boat 6
Toen namen we een thee pauze, want het was wel veel en hard werken.

Then we took a tea break because it was a lot of hard work.
Alex Fixes a Boat 7
Toen deed ik nog wat meer schuurwerk, zodat mijn neef Jack kon gaan schilderen.

Then I did some more sanding so my cousin Jack could paint.
Alex Fixes a Boat 8
En toen we klaar waren, hebben we op de boot gespeeld. Ik heb gewonnen met verstoppertje spelen.

And when we were finished we played on the boat. I won hide and seek.
Alex Fixes a Boat 9
Ik ben de koning van de wereld!

I’m the king of the world!
Alex Fixes a Boat 10
Klaar!

Done!

Stuart

Stuart is an accident prone Englishman who has been living in the Netherlands since 2001. Even his move to the country was an unintentional accident, the result of replying to a cryptic job advertisement he found one day in a local British magazine. Since then he has learned to love the Dutch (so much so that he married one of them) and now calls the country home. He started the blog Invading Holland in 2006 as a place to share his strange stories of language misunderstandings, cultural confusions and his own accident prone nature.

12 Responses

  1. VallyP says:

    Oh Stu, you and the girlfriend are so lucky you have a crew of helpers…Alex and his mates must have been working really hard to paint your boat siuch a beautiful blue ;-)

  2. Invader Stu says:

    They were working really hard and they really enjoyed it. We had to do hardly anything. They wanted to do it all themselves.

  3. Nienke says:

    Mr Koala looks so handsome brushing the boat… Is he a single koala?

  4. Invader Stu says:

    Well… Mr Koala is indeed single but he is also under age. I guess the ‘Mr’in his name is a little miss leading.

  5. A Touch of Dutch says:

    Adorable & they did a great job!
    I especially like their tea break, “King of the World!” & Alex’s T-shirt. I love these posts so keep ’em coming :-)

  6. Alison says:

    So nice of them to help out with all the hard work! I’m sure you’ll repay them with some fun trips on the boat this summer!

  7. Dave Hampton says:

    This really puts me in the mood to go sailing again. I used to get out a couple of times a month, then a couple of times a year, but with warmer weather (hopefully) close at hand, it’s time to get back to it.

    So, where will you go? ‘Looking forward to pictures on the water when things get launched: ‘great job to all on the painting!

  8. Invader_Stu says:

    A Touch of Dutch – We bought Alex that T-shirt when we took him to London a few months ago. He really likes it.

    Alison – Oh yes. They will have to come with us at least once.

    Dave Hampton – We’re not sure where we will go yet but we plan to get a lot of use out of the boat during the summer.

  9. Anita says:

    Mmm, good way to improve my Dutch.

  10. Invader Stu says:

    Anita – I’m thinking about suggesting to Alex that he becomes a Dutch teacher.

  11. Ryan says:

    AW! This is AWESOME!

    This made me think of doing a youtube video for stuff like this (x.X)

  12. Pam says:

    I heart this! So adorable and hilarious all at the same time! I love the Dutch/English translations. I’m putting you on my reader now!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.