Week 52 This Week In Wijnjewoude
Happy New Year!!
Housekeeping
I'll probably crash the system by mucking around with a new template.
Just a reminder (as much to myself as anyone else) that I started this as something for my kids and grandkids in Australia - based on an idea I had from letters written by my great grandmother in 1895. The Lizzie Letters. She was in Linton, near Ballarat and her husband was in Melbourne trying to find work. She would tell him about the chooks and the kids and some of the locals. Our Grandmother Else is still a toddler in the letters.... Who knows...... If the internet survives maybe some great grandchildren will read this later? That's the theory, anyway. I was determined that it wouldn't be Facebook.
Also, advanced warning that I may start repeating myself - just put that down to the advancing years....
And nothing special to end the year. Janny's parents and then Janny were all laid low with a "24-hour" bug. It finally got me..... and needless to say, mine was much, much worse!
A little nostalgia
While I was watching the cricket on Friday (from about 0530 hrs) they cut to St. Kilda Beach and then Luna Park... talk about homesick! And nothing special to end the year. Janny's parents and then Janny were all laid low with a "24-hour" bug. It finally got me..... and needless to say, mine was much, much worse!
A little nostalgia
Eldest brother Gerald used to work at Luna Park when he was young... 55 (or more?) years ago!
Cheryl sent me a series of Melbourne fridge magnets, one of which was the "Skipping Girl".
Funny how some things get ingrained and conjure up fond childhood memories.
I lived at St. Kilda Fire Station for a while. Saturday mornings at St. Kilda or Sth. Melbourne Market were good times.
Hundreds of thousands of chickens have had to be destroyed in some areas of Friesland. This is of particular concern to Janny's brother who has chooks for eggs (30,000 a DAY!) and table. It hasn't reached Wijnjewoude yet.
Drachten hospital plans 7500 solar panels by end of next year. The installation is expected to deliver 2600 megawatts per year, about half of the Hospital's normal consumption.
I lived at St. Kilda Fire Station for a while. Saturday mornings at St. Kilda or Sth. Melbourne Market were good times.
Heading in the right direction
We have officially started winter but at least the days are slowly getting longer from now on. I installed an app on my phone that tells me how much extra sunlight we are having each day - up until now, we have had 1 minute longer each day, since the 21st.
The weather has been fairly mild lately. Still cold by Aussie standards....
Around the farm
We're having a week off but still have the refugees and a few kids for (their) holidays. It also gives the parents a bit of respite.
Haven't seen much of our refugees, mainly because I was out of action. We did learn, however, that the Syrian husband had been in the Netherlands for 14 months (his Dutch should be better!) and his family had only arrived about 3 days before they all came together at our place. No wonder they are content to stay inside and simply be "together", after so long.
The Boat
A time lapse video from 2013 (just testing)
Some of our employees
Some of our employees come to us while they are still studying. For example, they can work a full weekend which counts as 35 hours - and then to school and study during the week. We are too small to offer them full-time employment - the sickness laws don't distinguish between a business with 300 employees or 3 or 4, like us. if one of the 300 is sick, it can presumably be covered, but in our case, we would have to pay the sick person AND employ another.
It happened to us once and we resolved to "never again" be in that position. That's why I think the govt. should make a distinction between large and small businesses, say up to 5 or 6 workers. It could easily bankrupt a small business and then nobody benefits. In our case, the woman was not genuine and we even copped a fine for not offering her retraining or other employment!
Anyway, the point of this story is that we "lose" our workers when they get qualified and move on to larger institutions. Three or 4 of them have gone to a particular organisation that covers the full range of care. ie Same as us and then up to extremely difficult, including people "held at Her/His Majesty's Pleasure".
Haven't seen much of our refugees, mainly because I was out of action. We did learn, however, that the Syrian husband had been in the Netherlands for 14 months (his Dutch should be better!) and his family had only arrived about 3 days before they all came together at our place. No wonder they are content to stay inside and simply be "together", after so long.
The Boat
A time lapse video from 2013 (just testing)
Boat Painting Day 1
Boat Painting Day 4
Heading to this.... but a bit darker green. (photo from 2008 Hire Boat trip with Ivan and Louise). This boat was the inspiration to buy ours when we saw it one day - looking sadly neglected but still sound enough underneath.
As I mentioned in a previous post, this boat used to be one of a hire boat fleet operating out of Haskerdijken (near Heerenveen), They were all sold to Air BnB in Amsterdam, to be used solely for sleeping accommodation.
Christmas Shopping
We were doing some food shopping when Janny met an old classmate. They hadn't seen each other for years so they chatted about everyone and everything for about half an hour - in the busiest shopping for the year!
Ina told a story about their trip to America - a road trip from East to West in a camper. Their English wasn't very good but they met people doing the same thing and got on easily. Over here, if someone is a bit depressed or tired it is often said that they are having "a dip" rather than full blown depression. At one of the stops in America, there was a young man sitting by the side of the road at the camp site, looking very down and out. Ina went to him and in broken English, she said, "do you have a little dip?". The guy got very upset at what he thought she had said!
Anyway, it brightened my shopping experience (a little).
Some of our employees come to us while they are still studying. For example, they can work a full weekend which counts as 35 hours - and then to school and study during the week. We are too small to offer them full-time employment - the sickness laws don't distinguish between a business with 300 employees or 3 or 4, like us. if one of the 300 is sick, it can presumably be covered, but in our case, we would have to pay the sick person AND employ another.
It happened to us once and we resolved to "never again" be in that position. That's why I think the govt. should make a distinction between large and small businesses, say up to 5 or 6 workers. It could easily bankrupt a small business and then nobody benefits. In our case, the woman was not genuine and we even copped a fine for not offering her retraining or other employment!
Anyway, the point of this story is that we "lose" our workers when they get qualified and move on to larger institutions. Three or 4 of them have gone to a particular organisation that covers the full range of care. ie Same as us and then up to extremely difficult, including people "held at Her/His Majesty's Pleasure".
One of the Senior Managers was recently charged (with negligence?) because eight (8) of the patients/clients had committed suicide within a 12 month period.
From the Newspaper
Bird flu in Friesland
Solar panels on Hospital in Drachten
The travels of Ben
I should have warned him.......he came off his scooter in Bali. How many times does one hear this? My old mate Merv came home one year covered in scabs from head to foot. Luckily, Ben's was not so bad.
He could even get up at 0200 hrs to go for a mountain volcano hike...
Yes, that's Ben. He sent us this as we were rugging up with beanies and coats to celebrate the end of another year!
Ben will be coming home in a week. Time to think about the future,,, he goes back to Amsterdam (to live) to finish off his studies. If he continues studying, he probably stays under the Govt. assistance program without having to pay it back. If he stops then he will have to get a job...... decisions, decisions....
Hi Ken
ReplyDeleteSkipping Girl Vinegar sign, used to pass it twice a day in the tram on my way to work, I also remember Vickers Ruwolt engineering opposite, all of these factories were situated next to the Yarra and discharged into the river. Looks a lot different now. Of course I am thinking about the area in the 1950's. Purchased my first gramophone at the South Melbourne Market, 5 shillings complete with 100 old 78rpm records. Wish I still had the records, one was an original rerecording of Bing Crosby singing with Paul Whitmans Band, the tune was Its a treat to beat your feet on the Mississippi Mud.
How about that for a load of old reminiscing.
Interesting to see example of what the green will look like. (Still like the red!!).
ReplyDeleteI remember going to the Prahran market also when you were living at St. Kilda.
BTW- I think we need to use a better program for live talking. The quality has been annoyingly poor with WhatsApp lately. (Maybe I'll have to stick to Wifi at home rather than using it when out & about.)
Heard a linguist on radio this morning talking about Melburnians way of talking. Apparently NSW & Qld people when talking about male Allen & female Ellen, say it differently. Whereas we Melburnians say Allen for both, they say Allen & E(say E as in egg)llen.
Thoughts as an almost quarter century outsider????
Melbourne and Perth are the only two cities that are similar. Sydney is a New York wannabe and every other town is a Sydney wannabe. Its only natural that we would be distinct from them given our lack of interest in trying to be like them. I also had another analogy given to me by someone from Sydney who moved to Melbourne. Sydney is a party town while Melbourne is a family town. Interestingly years later she moved to Melbourne to have her family.
DeleteNice update Ken. It looks like Ben is really enjoying himself and I think it lovely that he sends you so many photos! happy new year to you and janny
ReplyDeleteI reckon the green will be awesome.
ReplyDeleteI can get the sth melbourne dimmies in the flake haven fish & chip shop near us. awesome.
Where did Ben stay at Ubud? He got off lucky on the scooter.
I do the daylight thing in Melbourne during winter also - lets me know how many more days I have to ride in the dark. I dont have an app though - makes sense where you are given the shorter days. That also means our days are getting shorter :(