The Rooke Family Blog: April 2025

Wednesday, 23 April 2025

A day for the ducks…

Every duck must have it’s day. And the annual duck race on the Luggie was to be no exception.

Even with the forecast a bit fowl there was no ducking out of it, as spectators flocked to the banks to cheer those ducks on. It was no ordinary Easter Monday – this was a going to be a quackstravaganza in Waterside with kids activities, raffles and the highlight being the duck race itself.

And it was a quacking good race! The crowd went absolutely beak-onkers as the ducks floated past, with a feather-ruffling finish that had everyone on edge. But in the end the winner was 327 by a beak…

Ach it was a waddleful day… here’s hoping next year’s race is equally quack-tastic.

(Apologies – but I’m just winging it for content just now. Maybe I’m just mallard-justed 😂)

Videoclip: Duck Race

Or you can watch the video here

Wednesday, 16 April 2025

Planes, trains and automobiles....

And bikes, boats, trams, cars, canoes and feet...

And that’s how we rolled around the Netherlands. A true medley of transport.

Our primary reason to visit the flatlands was to see my niece and her husband (hoorah!), Chloe and Alex. Chloe just happened to be conducting a family concert of Cinderella (Assepoester) at The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam in the Easter holidays, so we needed little more excuse than that to plan a trip. And blessed with sunshine the whole week we had a simply marvellous time.

We had boat, bike and foot tours of Amsterdam. Much time was spent in the beautiful and bohemian city of Utrecht including a canal trip round the canals, and we had a stunning day at the world’s greatest Spring garden in Keukenhof. But mainly we just spent lovely time with Chloe and Alex, and with each other when they weren’t there. And I must say a massive thanks to C&A for being such amazing hosts, tour guides and all-round entertainters💗.

We also ate far too well, including sampling bitterballen, stroopwafel, broodjes, appeltaart and pannekoeken; as well as having some wonderful Indonesian, Vietnamese and Japanese cuisine. Utrecht is a really cool and gorgeous city. It's small enough to walk around the centre and admire all the independent shops and cafes, yet large enough to get lost whilst absorbing it's beauty, laid back feel and vibrant atmosphere. Highly recommend a visit if you’ve not been.

And then the bike tour in Amsterdam left me simply flabbergasted at the power of the bike when streetscapes and regulations are properly thought through, and the gardens at Keukenhof was a sensory cornucopia. Above all everything in the Netherlands just really worked well. It was really clean, slightly quirky and innovative. There were many things I'd love to replicate back here.

So whilst I loved the whole trip, it was another reminder of the cracks that are really starting to appear in the UK’s offerings. In the last few years I’ve been to a number of different European destinations and each one has left a similar impression on me. Fundamentally our streets seem to be losing their diversity and vibrancy; they’re becoming less places for people to enjoy and thrive in, and our culture seems to be losing its focus on civilisation. I don’t propose to wax lyrical about the reasons I think this is happening, suffice to say though we’ve much to learn from Europe and need to turn our ship around before we fall further and further behind.