Feels like Minus 16

 

Sunday morning:

We had a Code Yellow weather warning on Saturday night - for the COLD temperature and the chance of ice on the roads. Warning of "feels like" Minus 16 overnight.  The ice warning is for later today, but we'll be long-settled in front of the fire by then.

(I'm finishing this off on Monday morning due to cricket commitments) For Monday, the three Northern provinces have a Code Orange warning - mainly for ice on the roads.

At the moment (Sunday) it is...

...as I have just returned from taking Boeke for a walk

On Christmas Day Janny & Ben joined us for a walk over the heath...

and a visit to Janny's father's grave (at the 1295AD church just down the road).

We're totally enjoying the time off after a particularly trying few weeks...

Janny's sister, Ankie, who works for us, was first exposed to Covid and had to be in quarantine and then later tested Positive (with her husband) and so was not able to work

We had to have a routine and avoided any stress as we just got on with it...even though it was fairly demanding and tiring.

First a walk then light the fire and then Janny headed off in one direction to pick up clients and I in the other direction to pick up Lucas.

I had my Covid Booster shot on Tuesday - the Moderna version - and managed to have a few hours in bed on Wednesday...

...during which time Tjeerd did a lot of work on his own.

Another artistic piece outside...

and he rearranged the garage (yet again) so that we could fit 3 cars in...

and he pulled the ice out of some blocked spouting!

We're burning! through the firewood at an alarming rate, so we've had to test a couple of storage areas to see if they are "dry" enough... (best between 10 and 20)

Some "cold" photos...

A heating/hot water unit (from 2006) had to be replaced in one of the apartments. Luckily, the installers react pretty quickly for things like this in winter.

This type is fairly safe but there were reports from Belgium that they had a rash of carbon monoxide cases due to faulty installations.

There was also a boat fire near Zaandam - during the cleanup, the firefighters found a body. They think the cause may have been leaking gas sylinders.

We enjoyed having Ben home for Christmas. He worked for a few days - most of his freelance work is online and he keeps at it for hours on end - so much so that I had to encourage him to "go for a walk in the forest", just to recharge. He does gym work and jogging when he is in Amsterdam (and other places).

While he was here in Friesland he had to go to his bank to get a letter saying that he can support himself if need be, if he goes to South Africa. At this stage, it is still in the planning for the start of February - he has a contract for modelling work AND he can still do his online freelance stuff.

He has been eyeing off a pretty important full time job, but is reluctant to give up his travelling.

We did roast turkey on Christmas Eve - just for four of us, including Janny's Mum.

 For Christmas Day it was again just the four of us for Beef Wellington - which worked rather well. "Roasts" are not a thing here as far as I can tell - I really have to search for the right sized meat - but even the Albert Heijn Supermarket had some "on special" for Christmas. And Janny's Mum thinks that it is a real treat - which makes it even more worthwhile.

After dinner, we played some games, which Rennie is still quite good at - even at age 89!

One of the card games is a form of Whist which we call "Shit on Your Neighbour" or "Poepen op de Buren" in Dutch.

Rennie totally surprised me when she said "Nu ben ik in de shit" - (now I'm in the shit!) which made me laugh and to say my Mum would never have said shit - I'm pretty sure. 

It led to an interesting discussion about it just being words, after all. Janny remembered kids at the swimming pool saying shit in a normal conversation - and they were surprised to even learn that the word meant "poep" or "stront" (manure).

Sunday

Janny had her booster shot in Assen, so we dropped Ben off at the train station over there.

On Sunday afternoon we went for a forest walk with Boeke and finished off with Gluhwien and apple strudel at the local restaurant - set up at an outdoor tent because of the Covid restrictions...

Boating

Sealing  obligation for waste water tap postponed until January 2023.

After reviewing public comment, the government has deferred the idea of putting a seal on the waste discharge system in boats. ie. they would have to be pumped out, rather than just opening a tap and discharging it when no-one is around. If the "seal" is found to be broken there must be a please explain. The main argument is that there are still insufficient pumping out locations available.

We have a "dry" system and people are working on boat sewage treatment systems - but they are still too expensive.

And lastly...

I think I get dismayed at the way information technology is going - dismayed because I was an early adopter even in the Fire Service. Later, I really had to encourage my kids to get computers so that we could "connect" over the internet - when we were already living in the Netherlands (late 1996). My first "conversation" was with someone from Saskatchewan - I remember being so excited - he was talking but I didn't have a microphone, so all I could do was type! My, how things have changed since then!! Most of it unbelievably good - but some despairingly bad.

So, this struck a nerve...it was a comment about an article in Medium (It was about America, of course, but there are signs of it here amongst a few politicians)

Information technology has evolved to a point where the stupid think they are well-informed. But they aren't. Mobs of people believing utter horseshit. The problem isn't just that people have higher priorities than the "big" issues; it's that they can be roused by evil men to believe that anyone who does care about those issues is out to get them.