Week 5

Week 5

Old Age Pensioner..... it's official

It seems that I have earned the right to a Dutch pension. They raised the retirement age to 67 but with a transition period that resulted in me having to wait only 4 months past my 65th birthday. Alas, it is not enough to enable me to stop work... I'll put it away as a nest egg for the boat....

Walking in January 168kms

Steenmarter (Stone or Beech Marten) in our roof..

(Not my photos). We have one of these in one of the rear apartments. They are "protected" so we can't poison it or otherwise kill it. Apparently, there are traps available but this is also not legal. They eat the coatings of electrical wiring in houses and cars; can make a lot of noise; they stink and sometimes leave their prey to rot in the roof; they damage insulation material; they eat some crops. Audi have run tests on their cars, just to see what happens and what they can do to prevent the damage.

From the newspaper 1 feb, 2016

Climate Change / Bird Collisions at Schiphol Airport

Last wednesday, a 747 collided with a flock of birds and had to dump some of it's fuel and return to land "under guidance from the fire service" when the pilot reported a vibration in one of the 4 engines.
The number of such collisions doubled in 2015, compared with 2014. One reason given is simply that there are more birds than usual, presumably due to the warmer weather we had towards the end of 2015.
Some of the migratory birds actually stayed due to the warmer weather, but were confused, resulting in unpredictable behaviour around the airport. Over the years, many measures have been taken, including regular mowing of the grasslands, cutting the reeds shorter and growing vegetable crops unsuitable for nesting. "Bird Radar" and special mountings on planes are being developed.

Ben in Spain.....again

Zara

He had 5 days work this week, which meant he didn't go to school.

His Honours Program people put this up on Facebook, just to show what some of "their" people are doing. The last comment was "wonder where Ben will pop up next"?

This photo was from Milan....

http://www.zara.com/ic/en/man/outerwear-c799002.html

Have to search for Ben; he is in quite a few outfits.....

Building Works....

Cutting some of the thatch away..

Lots of insulation....

The building company is being "audited" next week, so they have had to tighten up safety measures at our place. A fence around the whole thing.... and any visitors have to wear a helmet....

IKEA

We have had quite few kitchens from Ikea, over the years; for the apartments "out the back". So, we are now looking for another one for in the new apartment. The quality is as good, if not better than the specialist kitchen suppliers and we think we can install it ourselves, even though this one is more important than the others.
As we arrived at Ikea, there was an evacuation in progress so we had to wait outside, in the cold. Luckily, it only took half an hour and turned out to be an exercise known only by a few of the staff.
...and everybody! got free coffee and cake for their trouble.