Trivia

Do you know that Ian Fleming created James Bond based on the Dutch Prince Bernhard van Lippe-Biesterfeld.

I googled on Prince Bernhard and found this paragraph... The Bilderberger group, founded after World War II by Britain’s genocidal Prince Philip and the Nazi SS Prince Bernard of the Netherlands, represents one of the key nodal points where the international finance oligarchs meet under US-UK leadership to ratify consensus on larger strategic initiatives. It was for example the Bilderberger meeting held near Stockholm in Saltsjøbaden, Sweden in the spring of 1973 which secured the final consensus for the Royal Dutch Shell plans for the October 1973 Middle East War and the attendant “Arab” oil boycott, which looted Japan and Europe and imposed global austerity to stabilize the US dollar and the Atlanticist banking system. That financiers’ staged oil boycott was the 1973 version of today’s “peak oil” hoax. read more on this site

if you put it in today's context you know nothing has changed and that the western banking system has failed and that the failure goes back to times just after World war II

Everything in perspective

Thanks Ocean, maybe my blog is in the essence a way to put thoughts in perspective. In my native language we say wie schrijft die blijft. It is a saying originally from business administration meaning that it's necessary for the continuity of an organisation to keep the books in a proper way.

At present the expression is used also to say that a writer remains (well)known after death. Of course it's used in relative sense, but it's absolutely true. If one does his work properly he can stay.
Last week I had my RGW and it was worse than the previous one in December 2006. My team leader and I have a different opinion on how to deal with work that has to be done. I can do better maybe.

I'll change some things but what can't be changed, can't.

Yesterday I've had a time trial at the end of the season of the Sunday club-cycling.
The result wasn't good at all. I rode as a sack potatoes on a bicycle. I couldn't make the real speed which is needed on a small distance of 10.4 kilometer. Maybe my season was too long? More people complaint that they had no power. Well, now we'll have a long period to recover.

And of course there is the financial crisis. In fact, months before the real crunch of the stockmarkets in the world France was warned by their economists.
I photographed in June '08 one bilboard in Avignon announcing a debate about the financial crisis and the impact on the real economy.
Did I have a feeling on that moment that things would go this way? No. I didn't.

It's time for a change!

Ocean, Sarah, Caren and all the others, our generation has to do things different!!We got to think out of the box, think local and act global. We got to learn from eachother more.

736th post

I'm blogging 4 years and 3 months now.
I've written 735 posts and used an average of 150 words. I used per post appr. 30 minutes. That makes 360 hours. That equals 10 working weeks of 36 hours.
Per year I could save 2.35 weeks of vacation if I didn't blog. But I do.

I could do the same with cycling. 4 years cycling with an average of 6,000 k a year equals 24,000k. With an average speed of 28k/hr it means I rode 857 hours in 4.25 years.
Per year I could save 5.6 working weeks if I didn't bicycle. But unfortunately I do.

This week I'll have a newspaper again. I didn't have one for some time now and it felt good. But lately I bought again a daily paper called NRCNext. It's a readable newspaper with all the news, though a little brief. When I received a letter of the publisher to have a free subscription I couldn't say no. It's without obligation so why not?
Exactly at the right moment a few weeks before the US presidential election.

My neighbor isn't doing well. I told you a long time ago about. The cancer worsened. The tumors spread to her liver. A few months ago she was told she would possibly not be alive at the end of the year.
Last week she was told that her life expectation is only 5 to 7 weeks. The day before yesterday she told me. She can't believe herself that it goes so quick. Last week she told me she could still wash herself but now she needs help. She isn't tired with life at all but she is tired of being in her house for so long now. She can't do so many things anymore as she is really weakened. She made a list of the things in her house she'll give away to some people. She checked her testimony, her will.
Now her friends will come at the nights, which she fears most, to sleep and watch over her. This week a hospital bed will be brought. They made a schedule who will sleep in her house. Those are the practical things.
Psychologically it's hard for her too. She has to let everything go. She gives her belongings away, mostly paintings, sculptures and things used in other cultures she collected on her journeys a long time ago.
So she follows almost the path of Taoism. I told her to let the things go. Yes, she said till now all my travels were going somewhere but now I'm going to somewhere which is unknown. I agreed, this will be your biggest journey so far.
Okay, we talked about daily life too. About dog's tax. And we laughed.

science versus myth

October 7 2008, an Air France-KLM airliner saw an asteroid exploding several kilometers above the ground. The plane was 1,400 kilometers away.
The pilot and crew saw at the estimated time 2 or 3 light pulses which lasted 1.5 seconds. More about this event on eumetsat.

What did people on the ground in Northern Sudan and Arabia see from the spectacle in the sky? Nothing? It can't be. It happened at 02.45 UTC, early in the morning local time. I don't think nobody saw it.

How do they explain the event? Will this be the basis of a new myth?
It might that people who don't know anything about world economy will link this event with drying up of the help of NGOs and UNHCR.

Burning World

Well, well, well, what's going on? Sarah is not gonna marry (I'm puzzled), the world still has it's financial crisis and smart people say the worst part is over.

Why doesn't anybody except Sarah take it all serious. Of course the world is burning, however you don't see it. It's like a fire in the moor. Under the surface the fire hides waiting for some oxygen.

The burning world also stands for human beings burning fossiles as their energy. It's time for change. Time to choose Obama.

I'm tired; cycled 200 kilometer this weekend. Tomorrow I got to wake up early, so adios.

Bad weekend

This I found on Sarah's blog, LOL



So I could laugh this weekend. hahaha= that means lol laugh out loud

This weekend started with a statement of our Government that Fortis and ABN Amro are bought by the Government. Due to the credit crisis Fortis had liquidity problems. ABN Amro was part of the problems because Fortis bought that bank which they couldn't afford really.

As ABN Amro is my bank I had a bad week, with some worries. Thursday I transferred some Euro's to another big bank/insurer ING, mainly because they made me a good offer.

People of the US, and other individuals, you made a mess of the worldwide financial market and you know why.. You buy to much you can't really afford. You make war which you have to win at all costs.. And poverty in the US and the world is sky high.. there is no balance.. The Netherlands were going that way. Hopefully this credit crisis will be stopped by legislation because what can happen will happen.

The world has to stop the irresponsible self enrichment of (businesses and) private persons (former Prime Minister Wim Kok said it already 10 years ago) because it will bring down the fragile balance there could be on this world.


Another sad thing was the "collission" between my teamleader and I.
We had a conversation about work. I was irritated and negative about a lot of things.
Maybe another time I tell more about it. It's 11 o'clock already.

Who will it be

In November '08 is the big day I think. Hopefully the US-citizens do the right thing and choose for change. I'm a little bit worried as European because what kind of change? More troops to Iraq and Afghanistan to win a war? M. said it, "I rather loose an election than a war" Just a war? Whose Waterloo was Vietnam? It wasn't M's.
Did he win? M. survived and US lost a war. Was it bad? Not at all.

The best way to win a war is to become friends with your enemy.

better

It's Sunday evening at the moment. @ Day's ago I called my doctor and as I already expected he told me that Sunday this flu must be over. I must say I feel a lot better. Tomorrow back to work again. I can't wait what to expect ;-)
I've never been a week off-duty due to illness. So it was a weird week for me. A week lying in bed, sitting on the sofa, listening to nothing, But the silence....

being sick

Since I wrote last post I catched the summer flu. A lot of people are sick, catched the summerflu the doctor told me. Symptoms: fever, headache, a sore throat, painful muscles and so on.

So this week nothing happened. I was just hanging around in my bedroom. I slept for hours and the afternoon was over before I knew it. When the evening came with a low sun shining in my kitchen-window I was out of energy. I even didn't have
the energy to use the Internet since today.

I actually called the doctor. Today he told me it's a summer flu. On the Internet in read that rating non-fresh vegetables can cause it. I think that the food of last Saturday wasn't okay.

This afternoon I got a call from a man who said being the doctor dealing with absences through illnesses who wants to know what's wrong and how I feel, if I were consulting my private doctor and so on. I couldn't hear very clear because my ears were affected too. He asked me some questions and and me when I expect myself being ready for work...Next Monday I told him.
Then he said "It's good to hear that Jan. Hans here.." Then I knew it was a joke.

But a nasty one. No person should be a person he isn't. I couldn't see Hans, I couldn't hear as good as I should. This hurts the reliability of Hans and of anybody else who's on the telephone. I expected a telephone call from someone concerning my absence through illness.

Confidential information

I was just placed some photo's on fotothing. when I noticed that in Belgium campsites have to provide police-authorities with police-notes.
A note on which the traveler has to give private information and his whereabouts. It goes further than the ordinary name, address and nationality. Even the traveler's profession seems to be important. What the heck...I'm traveling-writer and I´m going to Wonderland.

This was the moment something became obvious in my point of view. Is Europe becoming a police-state with an EU-dictatorship? A wise man will say "you'll see".

At work we are transforming to use a kind of Citizen service number. With this number all the information of the Civil Service can be traced and linked to the person concerned. That is scary if you think about it. Big brother is watching us.

hardship

Everything is okay... I quit cycling for a while because of a souring elbow (tennis elbow?) I had a souring headache Friday and couldn't keep attention to the things I was doing. But okay, I'm OK now. My computer is running out of memory and my bicycle is not in perfect condition. But I'm fine. It's nothing to complain about when you read the blogs of the youngsters in Mosul.

After being back for 4,5 weeks I still feel the hardship of cycling through France. I can imagine cyclists in the Tour the France who have a difficult resting day tomorrow. After that there will be 2 days in which the famous TdF will be decided.

I'm okay, the weather here in Holland isn't (much rain, wind and temporarily autumn temperatures) and too much television and internet will kill me.

I still got to write a letter to mme Jaillard, order some photo's and get a new curtain.. (I need one, what I got now is poverty)

An American election campaign

work

In the last weeks I had to accept that my vacation is over. It was very difficult for various reasons. The main reason was the time between arrival and going back to work. It was only 2 days. As I need some kind of structure in my life it was hard work to overcome that change. But at work they had changed the whole department a week before I returned. The majority of the employees work in 3 different teams. The 3 teams have their own room.
For finance, which isn't part of any team, was no room left so my colleague and I were placed in the room of the team which had some free space. It was the noisiest place I've ever been.

My colleague has spent a week on our new workplace and wasn't happy with it at all. He told our department manager about his problem with the new spot. It didn't help. My co-worker felt that our manager didn't listen seriously.
A week later I returned and heard about his complaint, the problem, frustration and the problem between 2 other colleagues who planned the removal. (one can be weak if one stands alone). Wednesday, 3 day's after returning, I told my colleague that I got to talk with our manager about the spot where we ought to work. Thursday I sat somewhere else and Friday too. Our manager came to me and I told my story why I moved to another place. It had to do with all those incentives of constant loud voices, my weakness to process those incentives and of course my medical background.

Monday I had an appointment with our company´s medical officer. And he told the same I wanted. I had his support! Luckily on Tuesday our manager came with an option to move to a quieter place in another team´s room. Last week we moved our bureau´s and worked on an improvised workplace. But it´s so much better. Hopefully next week everything will be installed.

It were stressful weeks after a superb holiday.

Back

After a holiday of 26 days I returned to Utrecht, The Netherlands. In this period I cycled 1846 kilometers to the Mediterenean. I spent some time in Saintes Maries de la Mer, swam in the sea, cycled over the top of the Mont Ventoux, saw the time trial of the cycling tour Dauphiné Liberé in Avignon and a lot more.
I met and spoke with a lot of people.

It was a vacation exceptionelle, an extraordinary holiday.

I'll place some photo's on fotothing

holidays

Last Friday was my last day at work. June 16 will be my first day after the break and in between I'll cycle. Tomorrow May 19 I'll start. The weather will be improving. (It was shivering cold last week and rainy too)
Now I'm packing.

By the way, yesterday I made a nice picture of a giant insect, a dragonfly.



All virtual friends, especially Ocean, take care.

video's from the train going home

Last week I went to Family on a beautiful day.. May the 5th, Liberation day. The day we celebrate the end of WW2 in the Netherlands.

It was the same trip Anne Frank made in 1944 from Amsterdam to Westerbork. The difference is I did it 64 years later and in different direction.
The first 2 movies is what she could have seen in a 1944 setting.





This is a movie of the train coming to a stop at my hometown Utrecht. Hear the sound of the breaking wheels...


Apparently the video's have to be installed with help of youtube ;-)
Next time

Ocean, I'm okay. We had almost 2 weeks of holidays here in the Netherlands. Luckily we had very good summer weather too.

I'll go to the south of France by bike on May 19. (1,500 kilometer) Probably I will not post.