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.

Week 4

Week 4

Morning Photo 

- same place, same time, on the way to get Lucas.

Visit to Ben in Amsterdam

His Hotel  Student Accommodation... Casa 400. The bottom 3 or 4 floors still operate as a hotel. The upper floors occupied full time by students. It needs a fair bit of organisation re lifts, keys, cooking facilities, etc., but it is a great way to maintain high occupancy rates and still provide excellent facilities for "normal" guests.

Awful photo.... but the round structure in the courtyard has the word "ZeeSpiegel" on it, indicating Sea Level. So where I took the photo (in the lobby) is actually 3 - 4 metres below Sea Level.

In the carpark....

In the streets...

Ben took us to a few of his favorite places for food and drink. The first was an art deco theatre converted to a very busy restaurant. In fact, all of Amsterdam was busy with far more people than I had expected for a wet and grey Sunday afternoon. Ben led the way rather easily, walking or catching a tram or underground train.

Coffee and Coconuts

How it used to look, built in 1921. Known then as the Ceintuur Theater (American spelling).

And a boutique brewery very close to Central Station.

Ben has to go back to school in Zwolle next week but he has kept his room in Amsterdam and will commute daily until he has to move out. It will then be summer holidays so we might see him for a while. He is now in the process of deciding where he will "study" abroad. Spain, Bali and Korea have all been mentioned; we wait in anticipation...... and in the meantime he has another modelling job in Spain!

Building Works....

15 years ago I put up a plaster ceiling. All has to be replaced now. This was a milk shed at the rear of the house, circa 1965. Luckily, I had a helper to get all the screws out.

All in a day's work.....

One of our clients lives fairly independently in an apartment within an institutional building with other residents - all with varying degrees of independence. He does his own shopping and cleaning, drives a scooter in good weather, and is very mobile for is age - nearing 70!

Anyway, he was at home, doing the vacuuming and included the canary cage as part of his routine. This time, the canary was curious and disappeared  into the vacuum cleaner! We tried not to laugh when he told us and we all agreed that at least it was better that he did it and not somebody else. When Janny took him home, they stopped at a pet shop and bought a new one...... happy ending!

Warmest January 25th  on record...... 14 degrees!

A welcome change after the snow and ice of the past few weeks.

Week 3

Week 3

Summary

Mostly building work this week. (The saying "It's hard to keep your mind on the job of draining the swamp when you're up to your backside in crocodiles", comes to mind).We had a couple more days lost due to frozen roads. The Fire Brigade came to check our "Certificate of Occupation" with a view to accommodating the refugees. A Council representative was also there; he suggested that we might need a temporary change to reflect permanent residents. Slowly, we inch forward on that one.....ahh, bureaucracy developed to a fine art.....

Building works

Concrete floor - although the floor heating comes on top of this (embedded in another layer of special mix concrete).

Danger of freezing again overnight so the concrete was covered with a hot air blower running....

At least they now have a better place to work in for a while - they will use this to prepare the timber frame of the "hayshed" aka "living room" - the new outside structure.

200mm framing! For the insulation.....

Inspiration for the rear wall was found while I was out walking with Zoey......

The existing wall.....the two remaining windows will be cut out (on Monday) and will become doors. The door upstairs will also be replaced and will be almost the same as the one downstairs... The yellow door on the right comes out, to be replaced with a small bathroom window.

 The entire rear wall will  have cladding of the same material used for the "hayshed". (also black)....a bit like this....