Weeks 6. 7 Stormy Weekends

Stormy Weekends

In a word...WET

First Ciara, then Dennis and an early forecast of Ellen (which may not eventuate).

As you'd expect, I only see that the spoutings and drains are blocked when it rains.

The old Drizabone gets a good workout.

Storm Ciara washed this piece of a shipwreck ashore...

The piece is 8 metres long and estimated to be 250 years old. Unfortunatley, beachcombers have already removed many pieces. It was hoped that it could be lifted in one piece.

Still, we live in hope of better weather...(as we find work to do indoors).

Our prototype of a "groentebak", a raised vegetable garden bed, at a height easier for the clients.

And work continues for "de Swingel", the multi-purpose community centre in the village.

Painting the cupboard doors - for behind the bar.

and the pièce de résistance...

a large photo on the folding door

The photo was taken locally by a chap who is now living in Nevada. Janny knew him from school days and still keeps in touch. Needless to say, he is very pleased that his photo was chosen.

The photo (stickers) are computer generated and each strip is numbered and can be easily replaced if need be.

The ceilings are just about finished - painted and replaced as required.

The curtains are to be replaced... the table on the left is a billiard table...but with no pockets. We always had a billiard table when we were kids - it was later restored for my 21st birthday...so the no pockets thing is very strange for me, although I do remember storys about Walter Lindrum - I think he did amazing things on the tables with no pockets.

Anyway, I was also surprised to learn that this particular table is heated! It is someone's job to arrive early and "turn the heating on" - so that the early players don't suffer any disadvantage. Must be a cold climate thing...

The Bar

and completed...

In the news...

A North Sea Dam

The map above shows a Dutch proposal to build a series dams around the North Sea to protect Northern Europe from the threat of rising sea levels. The project has an estimated cost of €250-€500B – “merely 0.1% of the gross national product, annually over 20 years, of all the countries that would be protected by such a dam.” Although it’s somewhat questionable how accurate that is.



On the map, 3 dams would be built:
A 161 km long one between Brittany and Cornwall
A 145 km long one between the North of Scotland and the Shetland Islands
A massive 331 km long one between the Shetland Islands and Norway

A total distance of 637km, which would work out to less than €1B per km.

One reason for the potential lower cost is that the North Sea is not all that deep, while it has an average depth of 95 meters it is much shallower in certain sections.

The project could in theory help to protect 25 million people who may be impacted by rising sea levels over the coming decade. The project is the brainchild of Dr Sjoerd Groeskamp, oceanographer at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, together with his Swedish colleague Joakim Kjellson at GEOMAR in Kiel, Germany.

Bad Drivers...

About 2000 drivers each year are sent to "Driver Re-education" classes - under threat of losing their licences if they don't attend.

A recent investigation has revealed that the classes are "practically USELESS" as far as changing poor driving habits.

This one affects us - ie in the Care Sector

Health minister Hugo de Jonge is lobbying for a change in EU regulations which require large local authority healthcare contracts to be put out to European tender. De Jonge was in Strasbourg earlier this week to talk to MEPs about the issue, which he says should not be considered suitable for the free market. ‘Care is not a market, let alone a European market,’ De Jonge said on Twitter. Local authorities in the Netherlands are currently responsible for youth care, services for the elderly and home nursing but under EU rules must open the contracts to companies from all over the EU. ‘We’ve never had a Polish or a Portuguese youth care service supplier tendering for a Dutch contract,’ he said. ‘It takes a tremendous amount of red tape and it does not help either the quality or the continuity of care services.’ De Jonge said the issue is a particularly Dutch one, because of the way care services are organised in the Netherlands. And he admitted that getting support for change would be a long process. De Jonge said he hoped that MEPs would call for a review of the way the current rules are working and that this would be the first step towards changing the system. De Jonge, a minister on behalf of the Christian Democrats, said just under a year ago that the use of market forces in the domestic healthcare system had gone too far and needed to be limited.

Housing shortage...

The housing crisis in the Netherlands has turned into a housing emergency, the head of the Dutch real estate agents’ association said on Thursday. New figures show that house prices soared a further 8% in the final quarter of 2019, boosting the average price of a home to €326,000, NVM chairman Onno Hoes said. The lack of supply and continuing demand is leading to continuing pressure in the market nationwide, Hoes said. ‘I keep reading about a housing crisis, but I now dare to talk about a housing emergency.’ Not only is there a shortage of existing buildings – the number offered for sale fell by 4% in the final three months of the year – but few new homes are coming on the market. Little change is expected in the near future. The national statistics agency CBS said at the end of last year that the number of permits for new homes fell by 25% in 2019, despite government pledges to boost supply. This ‘vicious circle’ means first-time buyers will find it even more difficult to buy a home in 2020, Hoes said.

The travels of Ben...

Luckily, he seems to be getting planty of work, enough at least to pay for his Travelling Habit.

He has a very nice shared apartment in Cape Town - the windows are fitted with bars - but thieves tried to "fish" his belongings through the bars...

He had all his important stuff with him....but they did manage to snag a bag of dirty clothes!

Ben was the "driver" for this photo shoot

A day off...

In another photo shoot, Ben was in a 6 storey house on the side of a mountain. They had just finished the photos - of him wearing different clothes - when he stepped backwards into the swimming pool! Laughs all round....

The line in the lower middle of this photo is the edge of the pool!

...and the view from the pool...