time and ice

A few hours ago I finished the 4th day of the working week. My goal to have dinner earlier is working. The food is cooking. This evening sauerkraut and a sausage is on the menu.
Meanwhile I listened to the radio, a discussion about the introduction of the Euro 10 years ago.

Yesterday I thought about time. How a day felt when I was 10 years old compared to now, so many years later. Yesterday it was a busy day for me and when I finally did the dishes I realized that when I was a little boy time felt the same.

One day I had a busy school day. After school I played (mostly soccer, the European football) outside with the other kids in our neighborhood. When it was time to go home to have dinner with my father, mother, sister and little brother the day was almost finished. But there was a children program on the only TV-channel we had. That expanded the day and made it long.

Yesterday the day was long. But with washing the dishes the evening fell. The time after that last action was an extension of the evening. It almost felt like the years when I was a little child.

It's cold in the Netherlands and Europe in common.
In Germany temperature dropped to-33 degrees C. In Utrecht it was -10C. The Dutch attack the ice, they made a track on the ice floor and then they are ice skating.
The media is giving the low temps since X-mas much attention. Now they even talk about the E-word. You shouldn't talk about. It's the famous and heroic Elfstedentocht.

When I talked with my mother on January 1th she said something about the low temps and that if the freezing temperatures remain an Elfstedentocht would be possible, we had almost quarrel about it and certainly different opinions. Last week ice didn't get any better in Friesland.



Temperatures on January 6th 10:20pm.

I live in the centre of the map, the darker blue area, while Friesland is in the light blue (under the 3rd and 4th island from the left)

Of course so much happens in the world today. War in the Gaza, economic crises everywhere and so on. But the Europeans got to count their savings.
Where would the Europeans be today if they didn't have the Euro, where would the world be if the Euro wouldn't exist. 1999-01-01 Is the day introducing the euro- as an accounting currency. 2 Years later the physical coins and banknotes were introduced. That was a negative part of the whole conversion. The Dutch had to let go their famous Guilder, our Gulden, the golden coin, a save haven times long ago. But in today's turmoil it would have any change to keep it's worth. 6 Years after it's physical introduction the Euro is a part of daily life in Germany, France, Belgium, Italy and in other countries.