47 What Now?

November 26, 2023

47 What Now?

Week 47 Mosquito Bites

Last night we went out for a Brothers and Sisters dinner at a place called Muggenbeet - I did my usual attempt at literal translation and came up with Mosquito Bite - which turns out to be true!

The red line is the route we have taken so many times to Blokzijl. We've seen boats moored here but never realised that it was so close to the excellent hotel restaurant - the Geertien.

So, that's a definite stop for next time!

Janny's brother Sipke lives in Blokzijl, so he organised the dinner. It was 45 minutes by car for us. (about 6 hours by boat).

One of the menu items was "Mosquitobites" as an entree

Before the election...(totally wrong)

It’s a coinflip. There are currently three parties that have the chance to be the most voted one according to the most recent polls: VVD, NSC and PvdA-GL. If PvdA-GL comes out on top, there is a chance for them to form a coalition with all the left-wing parties and one centre party. According to surveys most leftist Dutch people are aware of this and consider a tactical vote for PvdA-GL to get a more left leaning government.

After the election...(totally alarming)

I see it as not unlike America in 2016 - a lot of people are simply not being included in the bounty - they'd accept an obnoxious human being like Trump (Wilders) - just to get even with the system that was leaving them behind. There have been quite a few "mistakes" over recent years and I also think that people were wondering why "we", as such a tiny country, have to do so much??

the gas extraction debacle in Groningen
the accusations of fraud by the taxation office - later declared unfounded - some people lost their homes, such was the financial burden
the stikstof crisis (nitrogen) - the farmers' rebellion and subsequent rise of right wing populism (The BBB - Citizen Farmers Movement)
the Pandemic - handled fairly well (in hindsight) but everyone suffered in some way.
The war in Ukraine
the subsequent energy prices
the immigration "issue" that led to the resignation of the current Cabinet and Rutte's retirement announcement

There seems to be more, but little wonder that Rutte had had "enough" - so too a lot of other people, apparently. (His party had the biggest rate of transference to Wilders).

So, this one line from a story in nu.nl sums it up (for me).

All parties of the old coalition have therefore been punished. quote from nu.nl

It now feels a bit like waiting to see if Donald Trump (Wilders) is going to become "Presidential" - how did that work out?

We've had a fair bit of good fortune along the way - the Tattslotto years of the regugees that we housed here and then the Care Farm years with so much satisfaction and fulfillment by providing something for others less fortunate. Of course, they were both Government policy driven activities - both under a Cabinet let by the CDA (Christian Democratic Appeal) - I learnt on one of my podcasts that over the last 15 years they have declined from 40 seats (and leading the Government) down to 5 seats in this election. Changing times, indeed.

Excellent description of what happened and why - from The Intelligence podcast of The Economist.(first 10 minutes)

(I have subscribed to the Economist in my forlorn attempt to avoid being algorithmed)

https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9wb2RjYXN0ZmVlZHMubmJjbmV3cy5jb20vdG9kZGNhc3Q/episode/YmViYjVhMzEtMDcxNy00OGVlLThmM2YtYTk1MmFmMjE1ODM2?ep=14

Alexander Clarkson, a lecturer in German and European studies at King’s College London, said he suspected “the trajectory of Wilders in power would be that of Haider (Austria) as a populist entirely focused on gaining power yet struggles to use it”. - Guardian

This is a dated (2019) reference from The Brookings Institute - a good history of Wilders' rise through the years...

Understanding The Party for Freedom's politization of Islam

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-biggest-problem-in-the-netherlands-understanding-the-party-for-freedoms-politicization-of-islam/

High water levels

The South Holland storm surge barriers Hollandsche IJsselkering and the Haringvliet locks ~~will~~ did close on Thursday evening. The Ramspolkering near Kampen will probably also follow. High water levels are expected at the same time along the coast, on the IJsselmeer and on the major rivers. That rarely happens, says Rijkswaterstaat.

Our current home renovations started with our energy bill

This story is about early adoption of heat pumps in Norway:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/23/norway-heat-pumps-cold-heating?utm_term=655f4cd358d536a68cf4097b69a69085&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUS&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUS_email

We've started filling the 2nd container! There are 2 walls that have yet to come out, so it will probably get filled - can't go higher than the edge of this one...

Just about all the dirt, concrete and rubble has been dug out - about 140m2 to a depth of 60cm.

The ground water has been pumped out - until it rains again! Waiting to see if the water level rises. We also have to place a drainage pipe here (photo further) - but it will need a trench though the front lawn - funny how it won't run uphill... this has to be done so that the rising water level won't try to raise the new foam concrete....it's the agricultural drainage pipe at the right of the container.

We had a "cellar" - which housed the water meter and a bit of junk. It has now been partially filled so that it too will have a new layer of insulating concrete.

(Have I said before that the key to successful operation of the heat pumps is the degree of insulation?).

Ours will be a "hybrid" system in that the existing hotwater/central heating unit will automatically cut in if the heat pump can't cope - depending largely on the outside temperature. (Although the Norway article says that the newer systems can cope with temperatures to minus 20!)

Yesterday, we had a chap come and re-route the incoming water pipe - this had to be done by the "official" water company, so we were lucky to get it done so quickly. He absolutely knew what he was doing, but it took a bit longer because we had to keep pumping the ground water away.

He dug a hole in about 5 minutes flat - which made me reflect again on just how that is possible here - Janny's dad used to carry a shovel around in his car and was always digging here and there.

The orange cable is our fibre optics - he managed to avoid that!

In the meantime (haha, there is NO down time at the moment), a woman came to look at the apartment next door to ours - she has 3 kids, so it will be a bit cramped - but Janny suggested that she look at ours as a possible future option - (even though we're still in a state of turmoil with boxes everywhere). It feels like it will probably go ahead, so I have to get moving on my ideas for insulating the rest of the apartments. The chap doing the installation in the house says that he can also install heat pumps (for the existing radiators) in the apartments - we'll wait and see on that one.

This is the insulation that we are preparing for the apartments: