Wim (78) has been in the IKEA restaurant almost every day for seventeen years

« Yesterday morning a Belgian at the table at the right at the right sandwiches ate, » says Annie Vergouwen. « Ácht? » Wim Houtepen laughs. « Really, » says Annie. Her husband Ad Broere and table companion Jos Poppelaars nod, they also witnessed. « Croissaints and kaiser rolls and omelettes, it all went in. »

Pentecost Monday in the Ikea of ​​Breda. The store is just open, but the tables in the large self -service restaurant are quickly occupied. Day people who prepare themselves on their day off for the search along three -seater benches, living kitchens, doormats and storage cupboards.

Wim (78), Jos (76), Annie (77) and AD (74) rarely buy anything. Yes, batteries and lamps and a pair of work gloves. They come for the restaurant. Not only today and yesterday. Ad and Annie from Sint Willebrord (« Yes, Tutoyeren Mag ») come four times a week, Jos from Breda also picks that up with ease and Wim Houtepen (78) takes the lead: he skipped almost no day since his retirement in 2008. He regularly comes twice a day. He is probably added to a visit or ten thousand, but he does not keep up with the count. He sometimes skips on Sundays. Then he finds it too busy and drinks his cappuccino in the McDonald’s further down the Breda Woonboulevard, together with Jos and one or two others.

Wim Houtepen lives from the Ikea group closest to the store. Two minutes by bike. « Look, there he lives, » says Ad, pointing out the window to a row of apartment buildings on the other side of the main road. « Can he keep an eye on his wife. »

He just looked for something to do. He had always worked full -time, as a maintenance carpenter at the housing association. The Ikea was nearby. He saw some acquaintances, a group formed.

Being together

They are in their favorite place. White table in the corner, window and radiator in the back, unobstructed view of the entire restaurant. On the left the decline band (« Set your tray back, tack! »), Right for them the coffee machines. Yes, Pentecost, it’s a little busier today than normal, they say. Just like on rainy days and when « the Belgians » turn out to have a day off. They don’t care: the home department store and the shoppers are its backdrop, it’s all about being together. « Sometimes we fill three tables here, » says Annie. Jantje is not there today. Gerrit is to Mallorca. They drink the coffee for free, with their Ikea Family Card. Wim conjures the Oranje pass from his card holder. « Ikea Family, Wim Houtepen. »

Wim wakes up at six o’clock without an alarm clock, eats a few slices of bread with cheese or strawberries, drinks two ‘bowls’ filter coffee and is in the Ikea at half past nine. No, his wife is not coming. He finds it too drafty here. « Air conditioning. » She is now probably ‘brushing and washing’, says Wim. « She likes that. » Annie nods. « I also have a tic of. This morning I already put all the rooms upstairs. Stamping and dusting and everything. » She and her husband Ad have just returned from vacation, she says. Turkey. Apartment in Marmaris. They have been coming for sixteen years.

Annie was a desk clerk in the town hall of Rucphen, her husband Ad was plasterer. They come to the IKEA to be « just off ». In the afternoon they regularly visit the restaurant a second time, but by bike and not by car. « Then she sometimes brings a Koekske for us, » says Wim. « Yes, » says Jos, « and for me a whole meal. Nasi or macaroni or hachee, for the microwave. » Jos has been divorced for years, had lat relationships and is now alone for a while. « Last had made your potato soup. »

« Look, » says Wim, « There Hanneke goes, he also comes here every day. With the sharing taxi. » Hanneke is a small, old woman on her way to the decline. « There are many people here who come every day, » says Annie. The ‘Chinese’ are also there today, three women and two age men at a round table in the middle of the restaurant. Further on is a fixed group from Dongen.

Day older

A tanned man in Bleek yellow shirt walks on the foursome. « Very Gerrit! » It sounds. Back from Mallorca. « I landed at half past three last night. » He takes a chair from another table and serves an anecdote. « I drive home, I am arrested on the way by the police. I drove 84 where I was 50, they said. I said: you can still be 70? Anyway, they stretched the hand over the heart. » « Then you’ve been lucky, » says Ad. Gerrit asks about the holiday in Turkey, Annie says that she found the trip tiring, it is all via Düsseldorf nowadays, first two by car, then waiting three hours, plus three hours of flying and then to the apartment and you just get a day older. Gerrit nods.

Then Jos tells Gerrit that a Belgian at the table next to them ate eight sandwiches yesterday and leaves the company the table for the day people.

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