Week 13 Trees Crossing the Road

Week 13   

Trees Crossing the Road

This is our road in summer with some leaves! The local council wants to remove "some" of the trees; to allay everyone's fears about losing something special, the Mayor(ess) said "just those that are starting to cross the road". These are all oaks and another row of beeches has been planted alongside the cycling path. One advantage is supposed to be that people drive more slowly, but they have claimed a few lives even in the years that I have been here.

So, the common sense approach would indeed seem to be to remove those that are closest to the very edge of the road.  Janny was at a meeting (in her Local Action Committee role). Some people were totally against it, so as usual we will wait and see.

To aid in their deliberations, my thought was that it would save on transport costs if they would like to drop the wood off at our place.....I'm not holding my breath!

A Barry Langley Photo from 2009

A more recent photo

Meeting with Local Council

Now that the Certificate of Occupancy, Zoning, and "informing the locals" have been attended to, we had a meeting with the woman from the council who started the ball rolling. It was mainly to introduce another woman who will be taking over the role, but we did have a chance to put some ideas on the table. Luckily, I had done some preparation and made a checklist which we worked our way through. So much better when it is YOUR checklist! It was in English but this is rarely a problem with people at this level.

If the Council were providing the housing, then they would be able to "break even" with their costings. We are a "for profit" business and so we need to make a profit, obviously. My checklist included all the things I could think of that would incur extra costs if we have people living in the apartments.

      Our asking price is more than they were expecting (or hoping) but it became obvious that they hadn't yet considered all the things on the list. We will probably reach a compromise but the big item is the GAS usage; it is almost a cultural thing that people learn about "closing doors", "putting an extra jumper on" and so on, just to keep the gas bills under control. (I think the first thing Janny's Dad ever said to me was "deur dicht!' (Close the door!) - I also remember knowing what he meant without understanding the language).

     Part of our role will be to help the people to learn about things like that. When they get their permanent house, it will be subsidised, but they will still need to pay for their own gas and other utilities.

     We did learn that the Council will be receiving (from the Federal Govt.) €50 per week for adults and €30 per week for kids. With 10 adults across 2 apartments, we get close to our asking price, but if we get our preferred families then we may have to reconsider. We'll wait and see what they come back with.

Disposable Income

Only because I mentioned above about the cost of heating/gas bills, I thought again about something that has occurred to me over the years. I have often wondered just how much of one's income here is committed to "cost of living", with the resultant "disposable income". I'm only thinking of "normal" people both here and in Australia and I only think of people I know - family members, usually. I have firefighters, teachers, nurses, care workers, business owners, computer people, farmers, hairdressers.

It is not based on any research whatsoever, but my gut feeling is that "normal" people in Australia have more "disposable" income and that the principal reason could well be climate, or in other words heating bills! Add the horrendous cost of owning and running a car, the 21.5% GST...... and don't forget every factory and workplace has to be heated, thus adding to the cost of everything that is produced.... I might be totally wrong, but it is something that has nagged at me for 20 years now.

Ben to Hong Kong

As reported earlier Ben is definitely going to Hong Kong. He has applied for a scholarship. He had to write a "motivation" letter in English and will later go for an interview if selected. It's not huge but at least he might be able to eat when he is there.

     He also had to choose some subjects to study when he is there; these included Basic Chinese, a couple on The Influence of Language on Culture (these are of interest to me) and a few related to Journalism, New Media and Film. The final list has to be approved by his own University (Windesheim).

     Ben was home for Easter but spent the whole time studying for exams scheduled for the following week AND doing his preparation for getting to Hong Kong! Heavy workload....

......but wait, that's not all!! It is Saturday as I write this and Ben is in Rotterdam for a photoshoot. I don't know all the details but apparently an English photographer wanted some "redheads" for a special project, so Ben was invited....Ben's photo (below) is taken from the hotel. More later.

Ben in Hong Kong - We did a stopover in 2006....

I'm hoping it's an April Fool's Joke.....

The latest Watersport Almanac reported that a "leaked" report from Den Hague is proposing dearer diesel for watersporters! This could be made possible by introducing another colour or aroma to the diesel. They do this already for farmers in the form of "red diesel" which is cheaper; they often do spot checks on normal vehicles to see if anyone is misusing it; the fines are huge. I'm hoping it is a joke because of the way it was reported; the politician is supposed to have said something like "imagine all these people enjoying themselves without being taxed". It is envisaged that the tax would amount to €250 per year, or more for the larger motor boats "but they can afford it".

Please and Thankyou

Over the years, people have asked me "what do you miss"? In the beginning it was always (and still is) family, friends, workmates, sport (there's only so much soccer one can take). On a few later occasions I was moved to say what I miss most is "Please and Thank you" - a little bit tongue in cheek, but with a fair degree of truth. Today, I was unfortunate enough to be in bed with a bout of Sciatica (never had it before, but that is my best guess).... but, I WAS fortunate enough to hear a podcast discussing the different uses of the word "please" in England compared with America. Apparently there is a difference and my Australian experience would be that of England. If anyone would care to listen, it can be found here

http://www.theallusionist.org/

For my purposes today, suffice to say that the podcast finished up by saying that our English use of "please" doesn't appear in Scandinavia, for example, which got me wondering about the Germanic languages such as Netherlands. A lot of it has to do with the listener, of course, but I really do feel as though I am being ordered around if I don't hear something that I can at least interpret as "please". While I'm reminiscing, I remember Janny's family laughing at me because I was being so "polite" at the dinner table; it was just normal for me (apart from being conscious of creating a good impression).

Lastly, my painting job...

Probably the cause of my sciatica..... but at least it is done!. The floor surface has been prepared and the floor coverings and curtain rails come on Tuesday.