To all my readers, i wish you all the best for 2010. That that year may bring all you want and could wish for. Lot’s of love, peace and happiness to all.
And ofcourse, a great christmas.
Popularity: 21%
Today my grandmother passed away. She was 94 years old. The last couple of months had been hard on her. Thankfully those hard times have now passed for her, and she has moved on. I’m not sure what comes after this life, but I hope it will bring her peace.
She has always played a big part in my life. There are so many great memories of her. On the 5th of december this year we celebrated Sinterklaas. This had become a tradition in the last years. With Sinterklaas you give gifts to your family or whoever you celebrate it with. She had always been ready for Sinterklaas weeks and weeks before. This time, shopping for gifts was not an option anymore. She however still managed to give everyone a small piece of paper with some personel comments on them. I’ll treasure those.
The way i remember my grandmother is someone who was exceedingly strong. She went to college in a time that that was very rare for women. She became an apothecary and ran two apothecaries together with her husband. When she lost her husband at an early age, she continued the business and raising her 5 kids.
After retiring she had all the time in the world for her social life. The grandchildren had been joking for years that we would have to give her a mobile phone because you could never reach her as she was out every day. She played bridge, she played golf, she worked in the garden and she saw a lot of people.
The fondest memories i have were of playing golf with her, which she did till the age of 93. She was fanatic in her wish to win, and positively glowed if we, playing together, got a good score and especially if we won a price. She could be come amazingly irritated if it didn’t work out as she wanted, or if she didn’t play good enough for a price. However, only irritated with herself, never with some one else. Even though at that age her distance was not good, i learned that less distance but straight shots were very effective. Her puts saved the day on many occasions.
Other great memories were of spending summer with her at the sea-side. Everyone staying in her house. Family but even friends could come over. Eating dinner with 8-12 people in the dining room. At the beach. Getting an icecream once a day from her. Seeing the life guards help my grandmother to put up the chairs and wind breakers.
She had her own mind, which no one could change. Her opinions were strong and she kept to them. Until the last she didn’t want help, and tried everything to minimalise the help she got. She was living at home right until the end as she wanted. She had been independent her whole life, and wouldn’t accept that she needed some help in the last months.
She showed so much strength always, never complained about things, and had such a positive attitude. The grandchildren all doted on her. She’ll be severely missed.
Popularity: 17%
This week a 14 year old boy was found murdered in the woods near Urk, the Netherlands. Within a day two boys were arrested, one of 13 and one of 15 years old in relation to this murder. Bit by bit the story is coming out in the press. It seems that the 14 year old victim was in love with a 16 year old girl from Urk as well. The 13 year old was also in love with the same girl. The love sick 13-year-old is supposed to have said that he would kill the 14-year-old when he heard about the love triangle.
For now the story is under investigation, and we’ll probably hear what really happened within the next weeks or so. I can only speak out my condolences to the family of the 14-year-old and hope that the guilty get the punishment they deserve.
It’s amazing that a 13 and 15-year old would batter a friend, because that’s what the 14-year old was of them, to death over a puppy love. Because, even though it may seem like real love, at 14/15 there’s plenty of time to change that feeling, and it would probably have. There are just not that many people in the world who are still with their childhood sweethearts when they grow up to be adults..
A shame.
Popularity: 9%
Recently the Dutch government passed regulation to start implementing a so-called km-tax. This means that instead of the old fashion road-tax and taxation on buying a new car, the taxes will be paid based on the milage you make with your car. To do this, every car will get a small system built in that measures the distances travelled, routes taken and sents that information to a collection agency. The collections agency aggregates all that info and then sents you a bill.
There are some pro’s for this way of collecting taxes:
- You pay for the usage of the roads, not for owning a car.
- The prices of cars will go down
However, there are in my opinion very big issues with this system. The most important being the privacy issue which is currently being downplayed a lot by the Government. At the end of the day the information of all your travels will be registered somewhere. There is absolute no guarantee that this information will not be used for any other purposes than billing somewhere in the future. Allthough the Government may say that this will only be used for billing, we all know that as soon as they find another reason for it, this information will be used. There is absolutely no way that the regular Dutch civilian will be able to influence a decision like this later on.
The other big issue is that a lot of the road taxes were given to the states. When these road taxes are no longer taxated, the states will receive less income. And that is something that they are absolutely not willing to do. The first ideas about other forms of taxation to compensate the road taxation have allready been heard. Possible forms can be a resident tax or some other form. If these residents taxes are implemented, that will mean that we’ll be double taxed instead of, as the Government says, a tax-neutral change in taxation. You’ll be taxed for living somewhere, and you’ll be taxed for the use of your car. This is a flagrant disregard of everything that has always been promised regarding the new form of taxation.
So to recap:
- You’ll be followed everywhere
- You’ll pay at least double what you did before…
Well.. good plan, or not? I’m sure it will be a good plan for the Government, but for the Dutch civilians, this will be another way to just increase taxes, without getting anything in return.
A clear example that the Dutch government are really out of touch with what their constituents want….
Popularity: 35%