Who: Jolly Kerkstra
Place of residence: Amsterdam
Distance: 101 km (round trip)
Movement time: 3 hours and 26 minutes
The further the better, but Tuesday is too hot for Beerta. ‘Where the old manor farms are, communism is still alive and the yellow rapeseed is blooming!’, Corina de Jong enticed. The fact that Jolly Kerkstra (59) has come to live at least 200 kilometers closer is in her favor today. She moved from Groningen to Amsterdam and after a month and a half received the Saturday newspaper at her new address only zero times.
She is not angry; her name is Jolly. Actually Yolande. “But I turned out to be a very happy baby.” Her mother thought Jolande sounded too heavy, too serious, and made it Jolly – so cheerful, in English. ‘When I got a bit older there were relatives who said: ‘Now we’re going to call you Jolande again!’ But I didn’t associate myself with Jolande at all. I feel Jolly.’
She gave her own children names that are easy to pronounce abroad. One of the three lives in Brussels and normally receives a cut out weekly puzzle by post every Saturday. The rest of the week, Jolly and husband Gertjan read the newspaper digitally. The paper Saturday paper provides the feeling that the weekend has started, she says. The paper Saturday newspaper that is actually delivered would surely be a perfect complement to the move.
In Amsterdam, two children and other relatives live in the area again. ‘We were always those people for whom you had to sit in the car for a long time. That’s funny by the way: in Groningen the story is that the route from Amsterdam to Groningen is much longer than the route from Groningen to Amsterdam. Because those westerners, they think it’s all too far. Well, recently we were in Groningen again and everyone there said: ‘And are you going all the way back to Amsterdam now?’
She says she is almost ashamed that they could buy a house here. Apologies: ‘When we first got together, we bought our first house. That was still possible then, while we were not rich at all. Over the years you grow with the market. We got lucky with that. It’s not so obvious when you’re young now.’
Jolly has a design trash can on legs. On my way back, which leads along the Amstel and with the farmers’ protest flags waving in the warm wind, she spreads two peanut butter sandwiches in the kitchen. “Well with bits, don’t you mind?” She also gives a banana and a granola bar.
The skipper of the ferry between Nes aan de Amstel and Nessersluis expresses a little concern: ‘You need not cycling today, huh!’ At Ed Kroket in Breukelen I get two bottles of red spa while I ordered blue, but according to Ed I said really red. Pleasantly delivered advice from a snack bar guest named Henk: ‘Take it easy.’ Under the cold shower in Utrecht I also feel jolly.
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