Week 27

July 09, 2023

Week 27

Ah, I just remembered that a friend does a fine blog of their travels with 4 wheel drive and caravan - in Australia - always well researched and interesting!

Horrie put in one of his past issues that if "anyone wants to stop getting these, just put it in an email".

Same goes for me - no misgivings or hard feelings. (It started off for my Aussie kids and grandchildren, after all). It's become a Sunday morning habit for me now :)

The two Greek workers have moved in.

They are plasterers (apparently). They don't speak English at all - and one has just a little bit of Nederlands. But, they can speak German, Greek, Russian and Yugoslavische (Serbo-Croatian??). They have plenty of work in the Province of Groningen, where the Government is paying home-owners (up to €100,000) to get their homes repaired after the earthquake damage.

So, I'm having to adapt my rental record-keeping :) and hope that Google Translate is doing it right.

(I think this says Bond and 1 month rent in advance - paid).

Το Bond εξοφλήθηκε στις 2 Ιουλίου

Ενοίκιο 1 μήνα καταβάλλεται 2 Ιουλίου

Gas production will be stopping in Groningen completely - shortly - after contractual arrangements have been sorted out.

There is (now) an election coming up... there have been several "Political Party Announcements" on TV. One Party had on their platform that they would "re-open the gasfields and compensate Groningers appropriately". There are probably enough billions of Euros to do that, but I doubt if it will happen.

Gas use

Dutch energy use fell to its lowest level since 1990 last year because of high energy prices, latest figures from statistics agency CBS have shown.

Gas consumption in 2022 was down 21% on the previous year because of a scale-down of gas-intensive activity caused by soaring energy prices, the CBS said. Oil consumption went down by 4%.

The Dutch energy mix consists of oil, gas, renewable energy, coal and other sources, such as nuclear energy and waste. The use of renewable energy went up but coal remained steady.

Households showed the biggest reduction in gas consumption, with a fall of 22%. Contributory factors were the warm weather and efforts to minimise gas use, such as shorter shower times and lower house temperatures in winter. The services industry used 15% less gas.

The government has "fallen" - over immigration. The governments are almost always coalitions - which I think is a good thing because more people seem to get their "voice" - but they are sometimes fragile - and in this case they couldn't agree on immigration policy.

I've been reading about the possible implementation of a "burgerraad" - a Citizen's Council - to help and advise the government...

A citizens' council is a process in which citizens help the government to make decisions. It is an extension of the democracy we know. The citizens' council does not replace elected politicians. It does, however, ensure that ordinary people also have a say in political decisions.

Whether there will be a citizens' consultation, and on which question, is often determined by politicians. The idea of holding a citizens' council can come from the government itself, or from society itself. It is important for the success of a citizens' consultation that there is enough support for the process in politics and in society . For example, by ensuring that everyone promises to take the results seriously. Such an agreement about what the questioner will do with the results is called a mandate.

In any case, most things will go on as usual - but no major decisions or policy changes - until the next election - probably in November.

On Fridays my first job is to get the paper and copy the cryptic crossword for the family members who do it (together, via Whatsapp).

A couple of news items caught my attention:

The first was that in the peat areas of Opsterland (our local government area) the cycling paths collapse due to the oxidation of the underlying peat. They are going to experiment with a lightweight plastic material as an alternative.

The 2nd article refers to the introduction (2030) of a road tax on the number of kilometres driven. The proposal is for 8 cents a kilometre - taxing the use of the vehicle, not the ownership. (I rather fear that it will be in "addition to" rather than "instead of" - but the article is quite clear that it is instead of).

Friesland and the polder Flevoland are recognised as requiring longer average driving distances than the other provinces - in Friesland it is calculated that the new tax will be €137,00 more than the road tax presently paid. (But drivers in 8 of the 12 provinces will end up paying more).

2030? I guess I won't have to worry about it too much :)

The weather

Storm Poly on Wednesday

"The worst summer storm ever recorded in the Netherlands"

Photos from Ben in Amsterdam

We had a Code Red warning in Friesland. We shifted one of the caravans on our campground, just in case (I have a leaning tree that I have been eyeing off for firewood).

Kids were sent home from school. We called off a couple of clients - so I didn't have to go to pick them up. The rest made it on time and the storm was largely over by the time they had to go home.

In Amsterdam, a tram was literally blown off it's tracks...

And, as if the storm damage wasn't enough, they have begun cutting down the trees in Ben's street. Last year we saw some protests and lobbying for a petition against it - - obviously failed - I'm still not sure what the objective is - a few more parking spaces? or some new trees coming??. We shall see...

More weather.

On Saturday, we were going to go to Joure with the boat - but we were expecting 34°C temperature - so we stayed home and had a bbq with Janny's Mum instead.

Any shade in Joure would have been hard to come by, we think.

I finally repaired our old, old bbq from about 1997. I had some old oak lying around for about 10 years...

And on Sunday morning - we are planning for another hot day but there are code red and orange warnings issued for "down South".

Rammstein

On Friday, Janny went to see a musical "spectacular" in Groningen - at prices starting at €95,00 - there were 70-90,000 people in attendance on each of two nights. The band is "Rammstein" from Germany - Janny went with about 15 people from our village. She took earbuds...duh! The permits for the event included a decibel rating of 103. Thankfully, my attendance wasn't required :)

Tjeerd and I got the shutters back on inside the house...(the round disc on the front of the house indicates the location of a fire hydrant in our front lawn).