Week 4

I have signed up to a new Frysk Nijs (Friesland Tourism News) website/email and in going through some of the old news, I found this.

The site is in Dutch (not Frisian)...presumably to encourage Dutch tourists.

This, via Google Translate

Frisians struggle with vagina (from 2019)

It cannot have escaped your notice: All of Friesland and since this week all of the Netherlands - and next week all of Europe - is busy with the most authentic Frisian translation of vagina. According to the translation machine Taalweb Frysk recommended by the Afûk, it is simply “fagina”. Done, right? So no.

Albert Hendriks pauses and consults with 'Professor De Haan'.

The Afûk is the official institute of the province of Fryslân that promotes “it Frysk” (the Frisian language) and also teaches it. If a Dutch gynecologist is in any doubt about the main body part of a Frisian girl, he can turn to the Afûk. Do not pronounce as afuck, but afoek because of the roof on the û. The serious cultural institution has a nice accommodation with a bookshop on the Boterhoek, opposite the Frisian tower of Pisa, the Oldehove. So in Leeuwarden.

Playful
But apparently 'fagina' is not proto-Frisian enough and so the following more playful words were suggested: pleasure doaske, pûs, stew parke, slûsdoarren, flaphúske, knyperke, fagrûntsje, prûmke, ditch, prudish, slit, pussy, foarbips, mussels ûnderein, piemelboartersplak, pompebledsje, paradyske, skelpke, slúfke. But 'flomke' would now have been chosen as the Frisian word for vagina. But the Afûk and its scientific partners know nothing about it.

Flomke
I asked True Frisian girls like Fokje, Fetsje, Feikje, Femke and Froukje, but they said they had no idea where 'flomke' comes from. It could have been a girl's name. Botanically speaking, 'Blomke' is the closest. Perhaps the Fryske Frucht Foundation should consider this, because the blossom period is approaching. Flomke, a genetically modified edible blomke, a new regional product! Culinary Fryslân knows what to do with that.

Kutding
Anyway, thanks to the Frisians, a big taboo has been broken in the Netherlands. It is now finally possible to speak freely about the vagina. According to a sexologist who recently spoke in Leeuwarden, the vagina is a shit thing, a failed industrial design. It should be redrawn. Well, go to a ship design office in Heeg or Sneek. There they put a cabin sloop upright on the computer, on the transom, on its rear, and with a little imagination you immediately see why most boats have a woman's name. I wonder which skipper will baptize his new boat Flomke this spring. Until the moment, the launch, the climax, I keep with Professor De Haan, the Kening fan 'e Heide, “piipskoft”. That is nothing dirty, but just Frisian for a break.

Albert Hendriks, March 4, 2019

Note: I checked

https://taalweb.frl/

and "flomke" was not found, so maybe they thought better of it, after all. (Or maybe it was all just tongue in cheek).

Rioting...

On Monday morning, we woke to the news of rioting and looting in the Netherlands - the map showed nothing newsworthy in the three Northern Provinces. Janny was upset and I guess a little ashamed - I was surprised - it doesn't fit my orderly, regulated view of the way things go here.

Tuesday morning saw more of the same and many people being interviewed said that they couldn't believe it, either. The Tuesday evening news said that some of the (local) Football Clubs had been approached with a view to assisting the police. This was an interesting intervention - I wonder if the clubs had initiated the idea because the "football hooligans" may well have been getting some of the blame. So, just to prove that they weren't involved the Supporter Groups set more than 300 of their members in the streets with the objective "not in our streets or shops".

As an aside, the football supporters groups have been known to arrange fights amongst themselves, just for the sport of it all.

By Wednesday morning it seemed to have been a lot quieter overnight. The Police spokesperson also said that they had requested help from both the German and Belgian Police, just to get their numbers up in the streets.

Wednesday morning also had SNOW for my early morning walk with Boeke. The cat, Tassie, normally comes for this walk as well, but she took one look outside and then raced upstairs instead!

Not much snow, but it kept going and it was enough to slow me down to 40 km/h on the way to pick up Lucas.

And it was all gone by lunchtime, as it turned to rain - for a few days!

I try not to complain about the rain (it keeps the boat afloat, after all). BUT, seriously this is wet! The next door neighbour asked to borrow my "dompelpomp" (submersible pump) to try to empty his blocked drains - ours were all blocked as well, but Janny took to them with a shovel (while I had my afternoon nap).

And we're expecting Minus 5 over the weekend...

Fish migration river

https://www.friesnieuws.nl/vismigratierivier-afsluitdijk-moet-ijsselmeer-en-oude-vissersplaatsen-nieuw-leven-inblazen/#more-21929

The Afsluitdijk (Closing dyke) dividing the Waddenzee from the Zuiderzee (South Sea) was finished in the early 1930's. They have since discovered that there was a mistake as far as the fish were concerned. The migratory fish have been coming and going only at times when the gates were open. This has badly affected the fishing industry inside - The water is now known as the Ijsselmeer and includes the reclaimed land (polders).

They are going to build a fish migration river about 4 kms long, which will mean that there is a permanent hole in the dyke.

The fish smell the fresh water and migrate to breeding gounds as far inland as Switzerland. With the permanent opening, it is expected that fish stocks and varieties will increase in the Ijsselmeer.

The Ijsselmeer is also the major drinking water reservoir for the Netherlands - the winding nature and length of the river means that it (the Ijsselmeer) will not be adversely affected by the saltwater.

(When I first came here, I often wondered where the drinking water came from as there were no major dams as far as I could tell - in 2018, we had a particularly dry year and it was then that I learnt about the role of the Ijsselmeer as drinking water storage).

https://www.rivm.nl/en/soil-and-water/drinking-water (in English)

RIVM is the National Health authority, also looking after the Covid pandemic.

The quality of drinking water in the Netherlands is excellent. The Netherlands sources its drinking water from groundwater and from surface water. (All that rain!) The drinking water companies purify water from these sources, producing drinking water that complies with statutory requirements. These vital institutions also monitor the quality of drinking water from source to tap. RIVM National Institute for Public Health and the Environment is the Dutch government’s knowledge centre for our supply of drinking water. Working in close collaboration with the government and the drinking water companies, RIVM helps to ensure that clean drinking water comes out of household taps.

Sunday Morning

We're about to head off to Amsterdam to pick Ben up - he's coming home for Janny's birthday.

Under the curfew and lockdown rules, we are allowed to have ONE visitor!

Last week I mentioned about my feeling of paying tax twice for our income from the apartments; BTW (GST) 21% as the money comes in and again as income tax when they calculate it at the end of the year. It's probably only a "feeling" as we are supposedly passing it on to the occupants...

Anyway, our accountant advised that we can just squeeze under a new taxation ruling - KOR

(KleinOndernemersRegeling - they like to make one word out of several) - which literally translates as Small Undertakers Rule. Ondernemer is probably better translated as entrepreneur or simply business to avoid confusion with Undertakers...whereas onderneming translates quite easily to undertaking.

This means that we don't have to pay BTW (GST) on amounts under €20,000 annual income.

We don't pay BTW on the Care side of the business, so it only applies to the apartments. It seems a bit dodgy to me, that they would see the apartments totally separated from our other income - but I'll gladly go along with it - it saves about €4000,00 a year AND a lot of mucking around on my part, trying to calculate the share belonging to the apartments - rubbish collection, energy bills, internet usage, maintenance, etc.

Tidbits from the week

Almost back to normal, lots of walking, bookkeeping, reading and a bit of work - all good Lockdown stuff.