Stop/Start

Where are you from?!? Make up your mind

My partner and I love watching football - so we're in for a treat with the Euro-2008 championships this year (none of the British countries made it through, our home country did, of course they did!)

Now, our team is doing great - of course they are! - but watching the games and especially listening to the announcements about our team's  results and future matches we think gets everybody a bit confused about who's playing.

Imagine seeing an announcement on the TV-screen showing the next match: The Netherlands - Romania while the announcer says: it's Holland versus Romania tomorrow, if the Dutch team plays like the last tw otimes they are bound.... etc.

I won't go in the historical 'facts' about this, but it is strange, not? English speak English, Germans speak German, Fins Fins, Danish Danish but the people from The Netherlands speak Dutch and why has the country two names? It's almost enough to give us, the Nederlanders - sorry the Dutch - a split personality.
Not that that is a strange thing on its own, just listen to our National Anthem:

William of Nassau, I am of German blood
Loyal to my fatherland I will remain until I die
A Prince of Orange, I am free and fearless
The King of Spain I have always honoured.

Even the writer of the anthem couldn't make up his mind on what was the most important fact.

Anyway, enough ponderings on some very weird historical facts (mix-ups? cases of mistaken identity?), let's just say we're rather flexible as a nation: Dutch, Nederlands or Hollands - as long as our team plays well ;-)

My non-entry to MZM's 'What I've learned from Odd Jobs'

Sorry Robert, you'll have to count me out this month - too much to do, too little time I'm afraid.

Plus I feel I've lost two whole days doing all those odd jobs that come with selecting, buying, receiving and installing a brand new pc! And then teaching it how you like it to behave.

My old pc ('only' 2.5 years old) couldn't really cope any more with all I'd asked from it - sometimes you could even hear it 'chomping' away to try to fulfill all the commands I made. Starting it up every morning became a tiresome task - I could do all the odd jobs belonging to open up of the showroom, doing the washing up, open and file the morning post before it was truly up and running and emails were coming in. So high time to retire it.

It arrived last Thursday, new tower and wide flat screen with some programs installed (and I've to relearn MSOffice all over again, been working with Office 2000 since, well 2000). That wide screen is something you really have to get used to! But nice too, I can now run two programs next to each other (that's something the dear 'Doctor' forgot to mention in his 'Does size matter' blog-post of last month) - increasing productivity! (I hope, but am also sure I'll find more odd jobs to cramp into the day this way.) Only, my own website has changed colours! What used to be dark creamy now looks greenish on this new screen - and small!

Anyway, the other odd jobs with my new pc:

• making coffee for the chap who brought it in and was going to help me install most other hardware and software
• making space on my overcrowded desk so two flat screens could sit side by side for the coming days
• rummaging through odd boxes to find old cd-roms of my frequently used programs - and the licenses to go with it
• untangling cables, plugs and wires - not just once
• killing to Windows hideous start-up and turn-off music
• printing instructions from the old pc to discover that the printer was no longer attached to it - so making pdf-files instead, copy-paste to the new pc - click print
• making back-ups and restoring back-ups - to find that some files were corrupted - copy/paste whole files (good thing memory stick nowadays are given away as 'marketing' items - filing space a plenty)
• getting frustrated why the mouse isn't working - not so handy having two mouses (mice?) in front of you and trying to use one for the pc it's not connected to
• re-structuring the My computer and My Documents lay-out the way I wanted. No, I don't want it there - I want it right there. Not there I said - there. (Ended up with three sets of My Documents, three sets of Documents & Settings - now it's behaving a bit better)
• Revisiting all the frequently used websites and feverishly trying to remember all log-in details and passwords
• Emailing support services for programs that simply refuse to work the way they used to
• Finding old emails - supposedly copied over but lost in the deeps of the new pc
• changing the templates of this blog and the kiss2 blog because on the new wide screen both look, well, small!
• testing the webcam on skype again, to discover the installation cd-rom is missing (found it after two days in a box with business cards!?!)
• deciding when not to start up the old pc anymore and let the new pc do all the work (and so getting back my desk)

I'm getting there. Can't even do the washing up on my normal pace, the new pc is oh so eager to get to work.
So once again: very sorry I couldn't make it this time Robert - things have just got back to normal (well I hope, haven't had time to discover all the new features of the MSOffice 2007 software yet - that's got to be great fun so I'm told)
But see you next month on WILF

Typical conversations - in my head

Human beings are peculiar - we think we are the only living creatures on earth that do just that: think.

I for one 'think a lot' - and frequently almost complain that I can't switch off my mind and thoughts. I hold whole conversations in there (I call this 'living in my head') - and sometimes it 'does me head in'!

But apparently it is a very healthy and even profitable habit!

This morning reading the Saturday Times my eye fell on the following sentence:

"People who talk in themselves are people with a more active life in their heads and more fantasy."

Thomas Brinthaupt (psychology professor at Middle Tennessee State University) found - after a study among students - that individuals who talk to themselves in daily situations tend to be impulsive, creative, problem-solving types.

(Tried to find the article on-line but failed - not interesting enough I presume)

Finally: it's official - 'living in my head' is normal ;-)

Merry Christmas

Musical Christmas greeting  Have a good  and merry time with all your loved , near and dear ones!

Taking a short break

We're off to The Netherlands tomorrow to meet up with

History - a lunch meeting with one of the finest Directors I ever worked for during those 19 years at Nedalco

Present - diner with Ton's family on Saturday evening, diner with my family on Sunday afternoon/evening.

Future - discussing wood flooring products with our main supplier/manufacturer and taking more (and better) pictures of their quality wooden furniture for our own new 'division'.

Back on Wednesday late afternoon again.

In the meantime - with thanks to Peter Allen -

a Musical Christmas greeting from me to you

Lukas, the skeleton man

Last weekend and beginning this week we took a 'work' holiday to The Netherlands. Besides visiting both parents we travelled further up north to Ton's sister - installing a wooden floor for her, that's where brothers are for, not?
We finally had a chance to see my brother-in-law's workshop. Lukas is an artist - in his spare time, he's daily/nightly work is nurse. His workshop is definitely in need of some urgent repairs, the main reason for going to his 'atelier' was to empty several almost overflowing buckets - roof is leaking badly. But he doesn't complain, the atelier is part of a school building nominated for renovation and in the mean-time there's nowhere else that's as cheap and as social as there.

Walking around Lukas' atelier I decided to rename him in "The Skeleton Man".

This 'painting' is what greets you as soon as you enter. At first it almost gave me the creeps! But after another, closer, look it is a very intriguing art-work.

Other skeletons, mostly bird sculls, are draped around iron bars, plant stems, coat hangers etc.

Bike frames, skeletons by any other name:

A white head with gleamy eyes and teeth, something that when placed in the proper place would scare IMHO even the most heroic person.

And I guess these are the remains of a pc-geek ;-)

So after Lukas Schotanus becomes famous, remember where you saw him first: here!

Our 'traditional' Home Town

As mentioned yesterday in the post on our 'adopted' home-town I'm on contribution two for Robert's meme "My Home Town - a new meme": Bergen op Zoom, our traditional Home Town.

Bergen op Zoom, in the South-West part of The Netherlands (between Antwerp - Belgium - and Rotterdam) where I was born in 1962, is a rather old market-town (received city-rights in 1266), steeped in Traditions.

Many of our town's traditions stem for the Catholic Church, but then 'adjusted' to the Burgundian mentality Southern Netherlands is known for.

Like 'Vasten-avend' (Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash-Wednesday when Lent starts). A very Catholic tradition but with a typical Bergen op Zoomse 'twist' - if we can't dress-up, have lots of music and fun it ain't worth our time. Where do you find a town in the whole world that dresses-up its bell-tower "The Pepper-box"? (And has a voice for that matter, our greatest actor during the children's carnival party on the Monday afternoon - and which voice from high above gave Queen Beatrix the giggles during one of her visits in the 90's during Queens-day, where for the occasion The Pepperbox was even dressed-up in a diner jacket)

And we dress-up ourselves too, of course. Some 'costumes' are known to be handed down from Granddad (more like ransacking Granddad's wardrobe or attic) and many wear voiles curtains, a tradition blue farmers-blouse (boerenkiel) or a heavy leather raincoat. And the strangest head ware you can find, even lamp-shades and bird-cages are used.

And age doesn't matter when it comes to celebrating Vasten-avend, as young as 6 months up to 95 year olds join the three week festivities, with the Grand-Finale weekend starting Saturday before Ash-Wednesday and ending on Tuesday 11.45pm sharp (a marathon party to be honest, we all need three days off after that - resting our tiered feet, strained voice-muscles and sore heads)

As for the music, it's all 'home-made'. The last time we were part of it there where over 70 music groups, in our town's dialect also known as Dweilbandjes (verbatim translation: floor-cloth band) with as many copper instruments you can handle and one or two little drums and of course one very big drum. I used to play the trumpet in a teenage dweilband - the age where most musicians start and many continue to play in these bands even if they are retired (and invent names like: "Pa still knows how")

Talking about music, some of these Dweilbandjes progress to become Jazz-bands - old fashion Dixie to Brass bands and the odd modern funk. (That Bergen op Zoom has one of the best known Music 'academy's' shouldn't come as a surprise any more.) 32 years ago a new musical tradition started: The annual Jazz-weekend. (Where this year we managed to talk double Dutch.)

Really steeped in Catholic tradition is the annual 'Maria-ommegang': Tribute to Our Lady for keeping our town safe during war, floods and other disasters. Again, a time to dress-up, to 'act' (biblical scenes in this case) and for music. Whole families are known to take part and over the years are promoted to more difficult roles in the procession. Some start as little sheep's-herder - real sheep! -  and end up many years later as Mozes or even portraying The Devil (favourite role of one of my cousins - he always looked really 'spooky').

That's in a nut-shell Bergen op Zoom, the town we left in 2000 for our adopted new Home Town in The Garden of England, Kent UK.
You know what's funny? When beginning May this year I had my 'dreaded' 10 minute presentation every BNI member has to go through every 7 - 8 months, I used the traditions of our home-town and the traditional industries in our home-town to explain our www: Why we do, what we do, the way we do it.
We've been raised that way: traditional.

(forgot to tag others, sorry Robert. In good tag-traditions I would like to hear/read about their home-towns from:
Both Mike and Fred at TheHeavyChef Project - South Africa, with a UK-Dutch influence
Pete Aldin at Great Circle - Australia
Ann V. Michael at Manage to Change - US of A

My 'adopted' Home Town

Robert, my turtle friend, over at Middle Zone Musings has tagged me (again!). This time he wants to know about our home-towns. I told him we had two Home Towns, the one we both came from in The Netherlands, Bergen op Zoom (will write My Home Town post on that next) and the one we've adopted as Home Town: the lovely village of Charing in Kent UK. The main reason for me to include this post is to introduce the new fixed page on the Stop/Start blog: In and around The School House Garden, where I spent many 'after work' holidays.

We moved here, by chance ended up in this lovely village is more accurate, May 2000. First in a small apartment, the next year to a large house right on the A20 and in February 2002 we moved to the School House, right in the middle of the school grounds. (It's summer holiday now, hooray, nice and quiet!)

We live and work in Charing, our showroom is 100 meters across the road, handy for my lunch-break. According to Richard C Charing is a 'villagy village': still many shops and businesses and loads of people 'around', not just a sleeping-commuters village. There are: two convenient stores, one library, one hotel, two B&B's, three pubs, a doctors surgery and pharmacist, two accountants, a hair-dresser, a post-office, a florist, a wooden flooring shop - of course -, 8 restaurants, 3 garages, a factory freezing fresh vegetables and many home-based businesses. And a school, complete with notorious school-run twice a day.

We loved Charing from the day we first set foot here, we still love it and will always love it. And hopefully we will fulfil my item 3 of the Gotta-Get-Goals meme here too.

Next post will be on our Home-Town Bergen op Zoom: Traditions, traditions.

Real Double Dutch!

One and a half week ago we had the pleasure of entertaining two English guests in our home town Bergen op Zoom: Pete and Ross, two local - business - friends from our 'home-village' Charing, Kent. Nice couple, a little - tiny according to Pete - older than we are (we're mid and end 40).

We live and work in the UK now for already 7 years, speak, think, write, talk English most of the time. But to each other (that's me and partner Ton) we still speak Dutch (although more and more sentences are being peppered with English words and phrases). Pete and Ross speak only English.

And we had to translate various questions from waiters for them, not a problem. No, not a problem at all, we are used to switch from Dutch (among the two of us) to English every day.
Only, it seems we're effected with a Double Dutch effect when it comes to the other way around.

After having the Dutch question translated in English, hearing the answer from Pete and Ross in English.......

we answered in English to the Dutch waiter!!!!
And not just once, over five times!

Off Jazzing ;-)

We're away for a few days:

Visiting family, visiting friends, but mainly........

Jazzing during the annual jazz-weekend in our home  town: Bergen op Zoom

Back on Tuesday, see you!