52 Still on Holidays :-)

Week 13 

I'm in the middle of installing a new computer - this one - so I'm surprised that I have even come this far...

Anything I saved during the week is on the other computer :)

So this is a short version this week...

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”

One of our younger Day Activity clients,Wessel, turned  20...so more cake!

This photo was from Lucas' birthday. Wessel is on the left...

The Country Women's Association Cooking Club have started again :)

Little wonder that I'm putting on weight...

Ben's apartment tax implications

We're thinking of helping Ben to buy an apartment in Amsterdam. The housing market is a bit impossible at the moment. Some of Ben's mates were able to buy (in Amsterdam) a few years ago, but it is getting further and further out of reach for Ben.

So, we have been investigating how we can help him out. One or more of our own projects will have to fall by the wayside but even they don't feel that important any more, as everything has stalled. Managing comfortably seems to have a value all of it's own (everything has to have the rider these days - "as one gets older").

As recently as last year, parents could give their children €100.000 tax free to aid in buying a house. This has now been cut to €28.000. One of the reasons given is that the extra cash only aided people to offer more than the "asking price" in order to secure the purchase. We saw that here in Wijnjewoude that the final price far exceeded the asking price. (Just as an aside, I'm pretty sure that auctions aren't a thing here).

The cynic in me says that the Government have simply tightened up so that they can get more tax out of it. After all, if you can afford to to gift €100.000, then the tax bill of 10% is not going to worry you too much.

There is also a "gift" provision (to children) of €6.000 per year allowable, tax free.

So we would be able to gift Ben €34.000 to add to his own deposit. He earns and saves pretty well, so it seems more and more like a good idea - particularly after our discussions with the accountant last week.

I mentioned the thought of helping Ben to old firie mate Andrew - who then sent me this article from The Age - indicating that many young people in Australia see their only chance of buying a home is to have help from their parents...

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/banking-on-mum-and-dad-most-prospective-home-buyers-are-relying-on-inheritance-survey-finds-20230329-p5cw4u.html?utm_content=setkas_wife_accused_of_plotting_to_kill_him&list_name=3C1D28D0-7E1E-4DC0-9DD3-A961CC5360DB&promote_channel=edmail&utm_campaign=am-theage&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=2023-03-30&mbnr=MzA1NzYzMDQ&instance=2023-03-30-07-17-AEDT&jobid=29582277

Briefly,

Issues around housing have intensified with rental vacancy rates in most capital cities at or below 1 per cent, and house prices doubling over the past decade while Australians are among the most indebted home owners in the developed world due to super-sized mortgages.

The monitor is based on a survey of almost 5000 people and includes questions last posed in an Australian National University survey on housing conducted in 2017.

Despite a softening in the national property market over the past 12 months, Australian housing is among the most expensive in the developed world. Median-priced houses are approaching 10 times household income in many capital cities.

The monitor found the combination of soaring prices and the tightening rental market has left many Australians fearful they will never own a home.

The beginning of "Water Wars"??

This from the EuObserver (I can only read one article per day, so I have to be selective about which one). This one caught my eye in light of recent warnings of global water shortages...

French protestors are set to gather across the country on Thursday evening (30 March) to demonstrate against escalating police violence in a dispute over (16 proposed) agricultural reservoirs, particularly a bloody clash last week in Sainte-Soline.

On Saturday, 25,000 people assembled in the rural town in the Deux-Sèvres department in southwest France to protest against the construction of the water reservoirs, which protestors say amounts to the 'privatisation of water.'


Photographer Joanie Lemercier, who attended the rally, told EUobserver violence erupted almost immediately when military police preemptively fired grenades at a portion of the crowd early in the afternoon on Saturday, which by the latest count left 200 people wounded, 40 of whom suffered severe injuries.

Around the farm...

Tjeerd and I replaced the old range hood in one of the apartments. A gas safety valve mechanism still has to be removed (For the Groups Accommodation permit the exhaust hood had to be linked to the electricity, so in the event of a power failure, the gas would shut off). It is no longer a "required" item.

There was already a hole in the wall...

I took this photo to show the thickness of the wall...

We made a temporary cover, to be used as a pattern to cut the stainless steel cover - when we borrow an electric "nibbler" to do the cutting.

The old wiring will go when the gas installer comes to remove the shutoff valve.

We also put some plaster up and covered a few holes - just tidying it up a bit. It's still a work in progress after 26 years...  :)

Ben in Mexico

He got another modelling job - something to do with the same barber shop - this time they gave him a haircut!