52 Still on Holidays :-)

December 31, 2023

52 Still on Holidays :-)

In a culture devoid of moral education, generations are growing up in a morally inarticulate, self-referential world. ( from a piece in The Atlantic)

It's a subscription required article, but I found it in full here...

https://archive.ph/RZq8h

After decades without much in the way of moral formation, America became a place where 74 million people looked at Donald Trump’s morality and saw presidential timber.

Which makes me worry all the more about the world of Facebook, Tik Tok and X and all the rest. When are things good enough that we "put up with the bad/evil" or bad enough that the bad outweighs any excuses we might make for it's continued use??

On a lighter note...

Apart from being worried, I also had to laugh the other day when Janny's (91 year old) Mum said "stuur (send) me een tikkie" for a printer we had bought her. It was a gift so she didn't have to pay - but a "tikkie" is the term used for easy payments via the bank. (I presume it goes under another name in Oz). I had to laugh because it was just so casual - a nod of the head and "stuur me een tikkie" - I haven't got a clue how it works, so she's ahead of me on that one!

Bookkeeping..

I'm busy with trying to finish off my bookkeeping for the year - I just had a thought about some things that we pay for every month, that may be similar in Australia or totally unique to the Netherlands. For example there was one outrageous tax on the purchase of a new car that even the EU declared that the Netherlands had to get rid of - but even so it has seamlessly been replaced with something else - even the Dutchies just shrug their shoulders knowingly - car = cash cow.

Water is another one - not at all unreasonable, I guess

I have just paid off the Sewage Treatment tax from 2022 - they break them all up into 10 payments...

Also the Provisional Sewage Treatment Tax for 2023 - so next year will come 10 additional payments for the Actual Sewage Treatment Tax for 2023

And the Water Tax 2023

And the actual Water Useage Bill (from a privatised Company)

And we pay more than €200,00 a year to test the water coming out of the tap (legionella).

Our old van incurs an additional road tax of €7,00 a month for fijnstof (particulates) on top of the regular €48,00 a month - and we are no longer allowed to drive it into Amsterdam (The Park&Ride is OK)

Every year at this time there is a constant radio show of the top 2000 hits - and every year we hear "I come from a land downunder".

and every year I remember exactly where I was when Australia won the America's Cup in 1983 - coming down the off ramp of the Burnley Street Overpass on my way to work at the MFB Fire Protection Department...

and every year Janny tells me that she had always thought that one of the lines in the song was "and he had a bite of my sandwich" instead of the Vegemite reference - she had no idea what vegemite was, of course.

And more on water...

I get a weekly email about the water levels in the Netherlands - mainly looking at what is happening in the catchment areas of the Rhine and the Meuse. The email usually comes on a sunday after I have done this - so it would always be dated by the following week.

I have had 3 or 4 emails this week because there has been a lot of rain in the catchment areas and in the Netherlands itself.

https://www.waterpeilen.nl/

High water report December 30

Saturday, December 30, 2023 - 12:23:47

The water levels in the rivers are dropping everywhere and will continue for a few days, but a new rainy period is approaching and the water levels will rise sharply again. This will be the 4th high water wave in a row. In the Rhine it will probably be somewhat lower, but in the Meuse it will most likely be considerably higher than last week. Tomorrow I will delve into the history to see if 4 waves so close together has happened before.

The expectations are based on data on water levels upstream along the rivers, combined with data on precipitation and precipitation forecasts. This makes it possible to forecast water levels in the Netherlands up to approximately 1 week in advance. The longer ahead, the less certain the prediction.

High tide waves along the Rhine often start in southern Germany or Switzerland and take 5 to 6 days to reach the Netherlands. The amount of water added along the way, from tributaries such as the Main and the Moselle, determines how high the wave ultimately arrives in the Netherlands. If there is not much water added, it is easier to calculate the final height at Lobith than if high water waves are also on the way in the tributaries. The coincidence or otherwise of the peaks from the different rivers then plays a major role and that makes drawing up an expectation more difficult. In my expectations I try to indicate this as best as possible.

The situation in the Ardennes is particularly important for the high-water waves in the Meuse. Rain that falls there often arrives within 1 day at the Belgian-Dutch border and, unlike on the Rhine, you therefore do not see a high water wave in the Meuse arriving a few days in advance. High water forecasts along the Meuse are therefore mainly based on precipitation forecasts, which are less reliable for a few days in advance. Especially during rainy periods, when rain areas come and go, it is difficult to draw up an accurate forecast more than a few days in advance for the Meuse.

Information about the Rhine and Meuse river basins

The Rhine has a catchment area of 185,000 km 2 and mainly drains water from Germany and Switzerland, but water is also supplied to the North Sea from France, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Liechtenstein, Austria and even a very small part of Italy. The Meuse has a catchment area of 36,000 km 2 that extends across Belgium, France, Germany and part of Luxembourg.

In addition to the fact that water levels and discharges are now significantly lower than in 1993 and 1995, a number of things have changed in the river area and water safety has improved considerably thanks to all kinds of measures that have been taken.

What few people know is that in 1995 the major problems arose not only because the Rhine discharged a lot of water, but even more so because many dikes did not meet the standard that applied to this water safety. The official standard was that the flood defenses had to be able to withstand a Rhine discharge of 15,000 m³/s, but things almost went wrong in 1995, when the discharge then 'only' rose to 12,000 m³/s.

Nearly 800 km of dikes did not meet the standard in 1995, which meant that there was a risk of failure in a number of places and evacuations were necessary. After 1995, the dikes were quickly put in order everywhere so that they could easily handle a discharge of 15,000 m³/s, so that makes the situation much safer now than in 1995. This reinforcement program was called the Large Rivers Delta Plan and was completed in a number of years. all dikes in the Netherlands have been strengthened and raised, sometimes by 1 to 1.5 m.

Building works...

We decided on the final version of the kitchen - the left half is actually outside in the mud at the moment, so we have a long way to go :-)

We pulled out all the old heating pipes - the couplings are re-useable (again I wonder if they have the same system in Oz?). So, I have been removing them and earmarking some for use in the apartments - when we do the insulation, the heating radiators have to be removed - each joint then needs a new sealing ring. New couplings range from €10 - €25 each!

I've also been recycling as much timber as possible - de-nailing and de-screwing. It's very handy for us that we will be able to use it all in the apartments - and a new project I am thinking of - updating our Day Activity work area.

These are "panlatten" - a pan is a roof tile and the latten (en makes the plural) are used to rest the tiles on. But they are quite often used for many other things.

For example, I am getting them ready for a framework to hang the breathable membrane on for the apartment insulation project.

It's been many years since I've had to worry about satellite TV dishes and cables - haha - I have been known to be doing repairs up on the roof in the middle of the night, just so I could watch the footy! The internet is so much easier these days.

But, I had to reinstall everything for the new residents in Apartment 3 - noteworthy simply because I could still do it :-)