MANY HANDS MAKE LIGHT WORK

No man - or woman, for that matter - is an island, entire of itself, and over the last couple of weeks I've been made particularly aware of this thanks to all the help which has been coming in for HomeinLeiden and other things I'm involved with. This homepage is brief but is largely made up of contributions from other people; It's great when we hear from our readership and even better when you send us information or material for the site. THANK YOU! You know who you are .

Open House at the Boekenzolder, Sunday 14th

Have you discovered the Boekenzolder (lit. 'Book Attic') yet? It is the book-borrower's nirvana, being a place in which you are actively encouraged to browse and take away books for free - and somewhere that your own unwanted books can find a loving home (see 'Book Swish' above). It is also a great place to go for a lovely wander around an extraordinary collection of books in many languages and for every age and public.

It's normally open Tuesday afternoons, Thursday evenings and Friday afternoons, but on Sunday July 14 th from 2-5pm it's holding a special summer show aimed at children aged 5-8; there will be reading out loud, music, films, shows, face painting and general jollity and fun for all, and for very little money. Why not go along and support this great initiative?

New link to events listings and social page, Oegstgeest Family Life

If you look at the list under 'Social' on the right at the top, you'll see a new link to a Facebook group called Oegstgeest Family Life . This is - to quote its founder - for families to connect and read/write about events and happenings in and around Oegstgeest, and is doing a fantastic job keeping up with, well, more or less anything interesting which is going on in the Leiden and Oegstgeest area. HomeinLeiden is very grateful to Oegstgeest Family Life for setting up such a great resource, and we'll be working together (read: swapping information!) loads in the future.

Additions to Childcare listings and Schools reviews

Two lovely readers of HomeinLeiden have sent me new reviews. One is of day nursery Harlekijn, a small and friendly place tucked away in a little wood between Oegstgeest and Leiden near the Bio Science park which was inexplicably overlooked when we drew up the 'Childcare' listings!. The other is of the Haanstra School, in the Schools section. Thank you for this information, and if anyone else can help out with reviews like this, yes please!

Orange Integration coffee mornings

It's tricky starting things up; there always seems to be another great activity going on just when you were planning something, and the Oegstgeest Family Group is no exception. There may be weekly coffee/play groups at the CJG on Friday mornings now, but that doesn't mean that Marinde and Ruud Kruis's monthly Orange Integration sessions are stopping - far from it! The Family Group is not competing but working closely with Marinde, and we have various ideas for joint activities in the future! Click here for Orange's details including the address and dates of all the rest of this year's meetings.

Real help with settling in the Netherlands - beyond the relocation package

Other exciting news from Orange Integration is that they have recently started up with offering concrete help to new arrivals here. If you're at the stage when you've been here long enough that you're not getting any more relocation help (if, that is, you were lucky enough to get it in the first place), it can still seem overwhelming, sorting apparently mundane things out in a new country. Do you need guidance filling in tax forms? importing your car? choosing schools? finding a good local builder? arguing with the electricity company? Then the 'Orange Package' might be the right thing for you. Read more here.

Plus Marinde is running a new schedule of Dutch lessons on Thursday evenings from September onwards.