Orange feelings

Well, the unlikely has happened. The Netherlandshas made it to the final of the Eurovision Song contest. Even crazier, at the bookmakers we’re in second place. I’m not sure what is worse, not being placed at all or being second. We have to wait and see what it will be Saturday evening. As soon as this is over we can prepare ourselves for the WK football. Another occasion in which the Netherlands will be orange coloured all over. This is something I really looking forward to. I always enjoy watching the football matches and even watch the other countries playing. Our television will be decorated with the “beesies and wuppies”; I’ll wear my orange shirt and Basil his orange t-shirt.

Furthermore wewill  have the front of the house decorated with flags. The only one not interested in football is Jan Cees, unless our Dutch team wins and makes it to the semifinals. That’s the moment he starts watching. No true fan, always in disbeliefe about the qualities of our team.  

Just a few hours to go and we will know who has won the song contest and then we will see further.

Fourth of May.

May four, eight o’clock, as long as I can remember is a moment in which we sat in front of the television watching the Waalsdorpervlakte.  Nowadays there’s also a broadcast of the commemoration at the Dam in Amsterdam. 

Prior to the official ceremony there’s a ceremony in the “Nieuwe Kerk” which is attended by the royal family and members of the government. This is a more formal ceremony. In contrast to the Waalsdorpervlakte in which only the victims of the Second World War are being remembered, at the Dam they remember all who  died in wars all over the world.

I’m more impressed about the simplicity of the Waalsdorpervlakte ceremony  for the civilian and the relatives than the one at Amsterdam with all the dignitaries. Maybe it’s because I grew up with watching the Waaldorpervlakte on television.

In the Netherlands there’s always the two minutes of silence at 20.00 hours sharp. It’s a widely adopted custom in our country to be quiet at eight for a few minutes. This is noticeable when you’re traveling; at the airport, at the railway station and even along the roads; especially the older people park their car for a moment. The last years some people have been worried if the younger people will continue to remember this day and especially the reason why. I don’t think this is something to worry about. Of course we have to face some idiots, who can say or do terrible things and have no respect whatsoever. Besides that, we’re living in a country with a lot of different cultures, people who came here with their own war memories. So the accentuation of remembrance day will move to general remembering. However, when I see the long waiting queue to enter “het Anne Frank Huis” I think there’s no reason to be afraid the Second World War will ever be forgotten.

Motor GP Jerez, Spain

        

The MotoGP  races will take place at Jerez in Spain this weekend. It’s only two years ago we were there ourselves. Due to all the photos on Facebook of the riders, the memories of our visit are coming back. We  had a wonderful time and enjoyed it very much. 

There is a big difference between the South European motor fans and the Dutch ones. The Spanish people are much more emotional. Of course with a Spanish winner the crowd is yelling and celebrating. Its one big party. It was a joy to see. I guess a bit the same as foreign people do when they see us Dutch with all kinds of orange cloths, flags and make-up celebrating a King’s Day or a WK football match. So every country has their own habits. We were in Spain for a week and unfortunately we had bad luck with the weather. The temperature was around the 18 to 21 degrees. Now and then a drop of rain as well. We rented a car and we drove for approximately 1500 kilometres from Sevilla to Gibraltar and everything in between.

The only way to the Rock,

Gibraltar was nice, a small British spot in Southern Spain, with wonderful weather. The weather was the only thing in which it was different from the UK. We also visited the rock with all the apes. A huge tourist attraction, but barring de view and the apes it’s not really breath-taking. On the other hand, when you’re there, just go and see for yourself.  Furthermore we visited the beautiful Horses in Jerez, next to mystery “Sandeman”. 

You know, the guy from the sherry in the  television advertisement broadcast long time ago. Unfortunately we had to leave before the feria started in Jerez. I really regret that I didn’t know this when I booked the tickets. Now I ‘m hoping for another short visit to Andalusia in the future.

 

Sandeman Sherry

European Song contest 2014

I don’t know how this is experienced in England, but here in the Netherlands, there’s always a lot to do around it. Everyone has something to say about who should represent our country, or what the song needs to be like. As soon as the artist is known, all hell breaks loose. The song is not good enough; the outfit is not the way we expected, and so I can go on for half a page. After the big success of Anouk with her song Birds last year, which had the same criticism beforehand, we were expecting a lot when Ilse de Lange was named as the new candidate to represent the Netherlands. Then the first criticism came at the moment we heard she wasn’t going on her own, but with Waylon, as a temporary duo, the Common Linnets. 

When we were recovered from this shock, they presented the song  “Calm after the Storm”. Needless to say, no one was impressed about the song. Ilse de Lange has had several hits, with internationally appealing rhythms and then this is what they come up with. No one understands.

However it has to be said; this song needs time to get used to, almost the same as last year’s Birds of Anouk. After hearing it more than once it’s not that bad. Unfortunately, they only have one chance to impress, and I’m afraid this will not be enough. I’m not really into the European Song contest and won’t be disappointed if we don’t make it to the final, or over enthusiastic if we do make it to the final. I just like to watch it and like to see all the excitement beforehand in the media. If I’m home I will watch it, or a better description; I’ll hear it when I’m busy doing something else on my IPad.

King's Day

Our first King’s day, after having queen's days as long as I can remember. If my memory of history lessons is not leaving me totally I think we have them since Queen Wilhelmina became queen in 1898.

Although it’s not the really high day that it used to be. In my childhood all the shops were closed and everybody had a day off to celebrate. Complete families were competing in all sorts of games organised by the so called oranje committees . Most of the games were the old Dutch games. I guess this was to remember the good old days. Nowadays most shops are open and not everybody has a day off. I expect this day will become more and more commercial to persuade people to go out and to have fun, in the hope they are going to spend money on food and drinks.  In the big cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht, it always start on the night before: the king’s night. There is a variety of music and shows to go to and with nice weather it’s always very crowded mostly with people who have had too much to drink but always seems to have a lot of fun.
When I was young I lived in Apeldoorn and my grandparents were living in a nice part of the town called ‘the Parken’ just across “Het verzetstrijderspark and the historical building Marialust” .

 There was always a three-day fair where we always went with my family. The fact that my grandparents were living next to the fair was very useful. After  my parents had given us money my grandfather always asked us if we already had money for the fair. We never lied, but just said yes we have some: then my grandfather always said: something is not enough, and gave us a handful of money. This ritual also happened with my grandmother and so we always went off to the fair with more money than my parents would like us to spend. I have to explain that my grandparents were relatively wealthy and always spent a lot of money on us on every occasion.We of course did not complain about this at all. On the other hand, I know we were spoilt by this and it took us a long time to get used to the fact we couldn’t run to them when we wanted something right away when we were getting older. The time that grandparents spoil their grandchildren disappears as children get older unfortunately.

Secretary’s day getaway

As some sort of tradition all the secretaries of the RSM have a surprise getaway each year on secretary’s day. This time we were invited by the director of the Wereldmuseum for a lunch and of course, he had a hidden agenda and gave us a grand tour along all the conference rooms and their facilities. His main goal was to convince us to suggest to our bosses that the next time we have to organise a conference to go to the Wereldmuseum. And it has to be said, it’s a really wonderful old building with several nice rooms all with an amazing view on the Maas and the Erasmus Bridge. After this tour, which also included a part of the museum, we had a guide who was a bit weird. Or maybe this is normal for artistic people. I have to admit, I’m not really into art and for me all paintings are the same. I can see a whole museum in 30 minutes. When the guide finally decided we were finished with the tour we all went back to Cheryl’s wedding room to eat a really tasty lunch. First a salad with fresh tuna fish, which tasted wonderful and after this a truffle soup which I I didn’t taste. This was followed by small sandwiches with smoked salmon, chicken filet or “cheese “kloosterkaas”. 

This delicious food ended with a very nice dessert combination of coconut, chocolate mousse and something else. That something else was a jelly with a taste I cannot describe unfortunately. By then we were full. Our next step was to go to the Kookstudio 25 to prepare and eat (yes, you read it right food again) a High Tea. Luckily we had to drive for 20 minutes and because Ingrid was born and raised in Rotterdam she drove us there in her cute cabriolet.

Cheryl and I did the talking so Ingrid could keep her eyes on the road. After 30 minutes we were still driving but there was no sign of the Kookstudio. At that time my phone started beeping with incoming messages asking where we were. I will leave out the complete sightseeing part, and end it with; finally we arrived at the Kookstudio, 45 minutes late. We received a warm welcome with a Prosecco and a small bite to eat. In the meantime the master chef explained to us what was expected from us and how we could manage this. I have to say, it was funny and instructive and in the end we all managed to serve a really good home-made recipe from what we had to make. We all had different food to prepare; I made cupcakes together with Mariska. Cheryl and Myra were in charge of the sandwiches and so we had about ten different meals. After this cooking and baking we had to eat again.

Unfortunately, we were all not very hungry anymore so there were a lot of left overs. I forgot to ask what they do with all the good food afterwards. Lastly we had coffee or tea and then we received a bottle of Prosecco and so our annual secretary’s day out come to an end.

Results and Improvement

Okay, I did it. The CAE exam, and though it’s not the highest score ever, it was enough. I scored 65 out of 100, all together not so bad. I had a very low score on reading, and that’s a bit unsatisfying. That Use of English and speaking were not so good was expected. I‘m now thinking of doing it again, or just wait and see when I’m ready to try the last one in this row the CPE exam. In the worst case I fail that one and improve the CAE results in the same time. One thing is sure, if I really want to improve I have to write and read a lot more. Therefore I try to post more frequently. Let’s see if this will work out.