Getting the Dutch Treat

A couple of weeks ago we got invited for a dinner party, at least that is what we thought. The person in question wanted to celebrate with a dinner on Friday and a party on Saturday. We asked if that was a good idea as it can be expensive, a dinner party for 10. Not a problem was the response. Okay. A day or two before the dinner party I asked again if the person was certain to proceed along this path as it can be an expensive exercise. Again, sure we like to have supper with friends. Okay. So we went and had a nice steak and a beer. So far so good. Then the bill arrives. "We are not going to pay that, please split the bill". Christ almighty, we had asked twice. "No problem" and now all of a sudden the bill has to be split. Don't get me wrong; I do not mind paying but after asking twice, anticipating the $$, even I get pissed off. If you invite someone you pay the bill. Period, nothing old-fashioned about that. Do not put me in an embarrassing situation where money is counted as a couple 16 year olds to pay the bill. On top of that everybody is flashing their bank and credit-cards and making a lot of noise on how fancy they are. Goddamn it, use it and take care of your problem after you leave the restaurant. Via-via I heard: "We only asked to join us for a dinner party". Yeah, sure. Joining and inviting is the same in my book. If you want me to pay for my own food, fine. Just say so UPFRONT.

A new woodstove

Also we had a new woodstove installed today, as we want to go green ( ;-) ) and it is easier on the wallet. We have so much firewood standing on our property, it would be stupid not to use that for almost free heat. Another reason for this stove is the fact power outages often occur in rural Rollyview. It is almost a necessity to be independent; you do not want to be out of power at minus 40, right. Secondly the gas bill will drop significantly, so much the stove will pay for itself in about two years. The last couple of weeks we have downed 4 large pine/fir trees and numerous (30-40) poplar trees, providing a nice stack of firewood. Estimated we now have 3 cord (1 cord=4'x4'x8'=3.62 m3) in stock; enough for 2 winters (?). We'll find out.
Unfortunately we could not use our Rais Fokus stove; it is not CSA approved, so getting the building permit (yes you need one for a stove) and the insurance would be a problem.
At first we had set our eyes on a HearthStone stove, model Heritage, beautiful but quite expensive. The one we bought, Drolet Adirondack, at the Co-op Leduc is kind of temporary. Maybe until ATNP.PK soares.

2.7 Million Shares

Today I bought 2.700.000 shares for only $540, ATNP.PK. Imagine this stock soars! But with my luck it will probably disappear altogether. On the other hand if it rock&rolls to lets say $0.50 I'm home free. Share wise I am a millionaire, cool eh! There are 1.82 billion shares issued and today 1.1 billion shares got traded, reason being a SEC's complaint. So I took a gamble and bought it at $0.0002, only time will tell if it pays off. If not then I'm fooked, as they say in Alberta. If it rocks I make a nice buck or two and make a dash to the F350 Powerstroke V8 store.

Back on-line again

At last we are back on-line again. 2 weeks ago a severe thunderstorm passed over Rollyview. We were watching Vos, from the garage, as he dared (needed?) to go outside to pee. All of a sudden a flash of lightning crossed our house horizontally, with a very very loud crack. It was so close by we could smell it, like a gun being fired. Vos was scared s....less, his hair standing out like being hit by 220 (110 over here). He was shaking violently but was able to find the house, he ran inside into the basement; not to be seen for an hour or so.Vos is not so lucky, yesterday he experienced a very loud thunder again while outside; again the basement came to his rescue.
There was no direct hit but probably a couple of sparks (from 50000 volt a spark easily is 500 volt) hit our Internet and TV satellite dish causing the power to fail. I tried to repair it myself, stupid because it turned out to be under warranty. So here we are again; phone still not working.

@ the lawnmower hospital

In case you are wondering, and Dany does, why my grass has not been mowed. Two reasons; first one is the right rear tire is having a puncture, again #3, and the second one is because of the weather. It has rained so much the past 5-6 days the lawn is to soggy to mow, if I tried it it would be ruined. So next time, when dry enough, you could say it will be hayed. To fix the tire is has to go to the Lawnmower Hospital in Edmonton to put in a tube. Somewhere on our property there is a lot of old wire-nail-junk located, I am not sure where as a visual comes up with nothing.

@ special request

I was asked to take some pictures of a green Rollyview instead of the 6 months white version. Taken late in the evening but still a good impression. Take a look at my two-tone F150 to have a indication how much it rained the last week, in total some 90-100 mm rain fell from the sky, in 5 days. Here is the webalbum for your viewing pleasure or click on the picture. Taking the pictures was a funny experience; Vos was running around on our 20000 m2 when he went in our nature reserve (11000 m2 we just let grow) into the high grass, meanwhile I went back into the house to get a coffee. All of a sudden he came galloping back like crazy to find out I had disappeared, he started to get real nervous and me being a sissy I whistled and he litteraly came crashing towards me. One big jump onto the deck (4 risers) and was very happy to see me. "Thanks boss, all them coyottes" I heard him thinking.

Indonesian food

That is a problem over here. The one and only time you can buy it in Edmonton is at the Heritage festival once a year for 2/3 days. Other than that you have to go to Calgary or Vancouver. I do like to drive my F150 but for an Indonesian meal a 6 hour drive to Calgary is, even for me, too much to ask. Solution? Go cook it yourself. And I did, also thanks to the Beb Vuyk Indonesian cookbook my mother gave me early eighties. Slowly it comes back and tonight I noticed I have not lost touch. A excellent Sambal Goreng Boontjes combined with a spicy chicken roast made a perfect meal. And it is not much work, a nomal meal. I will never ever prepare a meal for over 6 people anymore. That, a meal for about 16 co-workers-spouces-partners, leaves you in the kitchen for about 3 weeks (after hours, right) and at prime time you are not hungry and too tired to eat; but I think they liked it and all in all it was a pleasant evening. Anyways I picked it up again; I like the taste of it too much to let go. And it is way cheaper than eating out, still Dutch eh!

Holland on Fire?

What is happening in Holland? When I read nu.nl the last weeks there are quite many reports on fires. Because of the bad economy or the dry (hot?) weather?
Large fires in Soest, Deventer, Oosterwijk, een woonboot, Voorschoten to name a view. Also a lot of violence realted gunshot-kniving casualties e.g. shooting Arnhem, kniving Leiden, stabbing Rotterdam, Gouda. Is Holland going to the boiling point or are these just observations from someone not living there. This one tops it all, and worries me deeply. Everybody is talking respect, where the fuck is it? Gone out of the window, only a word on Hyves?
[Update] Then I read this article. Top 5 spots are taken by countries with the highest tax-rates. So paying tax makes you happier. I wonder about one explanation, "people are thriving because their basic needs are taken care off". Could be much truth in that.

Piss pots

Also known as urinal. Another advantage, for me anyways, of living in Alberta is the fact these devices are mounted at a normal persons height. Instead of somewhere close to the ceiling as in Holland. Maybe the average height is lower over here, still there are many people that aren't that high. So I can take a piss without worrying of touching the piss-pot, and have idea's flowing. And that's better than tip-toeing in front of this urinal, not taking into account the pints of beer you have downed and have to get rid off. Then the problem only worsens; even here in Alberta.

myTruck, myChainsaw and mySelf

Naming convention as Java variables not classes, so you know. A week or 2 ago we had a very severe thunderstorm, they are quite common here in Alberta, but this one was particularly heavy with rainfall and winds that reduced your sight to 50 meters. These storms can turn into a tornado and this one touched down North West of Edmonton. Our friends acreage of Anke and Ralf, east of Elk Island Park was hit hard and a tree just snapped of, fortunately no damage done. But it had to be cleared, and here comes that very Canadian experience I had; A chainsaw (Stihl MS270) in my pickup truck (Ford F150) accompanied by me (52 year old wannabe Canadian) on my way to Anke and Ralf to cut up a downed tree. A couple of hours later the tree was gone and we could start the fire burning the sucker, which is maybe the most fun part. Building fires is real fun to do, not those small ones we did in out 6x6 m2 backyard, just big ones with flames like 3 m high; one of the virtues of living in the country. Building fires and having a beer with family and/or friends. When a tree is just there where it should be, it looks not like much but on the ground it is an awful lot of branches and trunk you have to cut up; and you have to be careful cause the tree and branches are under compression; cut on the wrong side and your saw gets stuck, lets just say I am on a learning curve. Fun it is.

Dutch tactics, Spanish diving hurting soccer’s growth in North America

Article from The Ottawa Citizen, which I 100% agree to:
"Why, oh why did the dirty Dutch trade beauty for the beast in Sunday’s World Cup final?
When time has passed and our memories of all that was so thrilling about the first finals on African soil, the only thing that will remain in focus will be how the Netherlands tried to kick Spain off the park.
It was a display of outright thuggery in front of 84,000 people in Soccer City Stadium — and it must have left most of North America wondering what, in God’s name, makes this the planet’s most popular sport.
Even Don Cherry would have been wincing at the kung fu antics of a country that, until now, has carried a justified reputation for soccer played in its purest sense.
It goes back to the days when Johan Cruyff was the Dutch hero, the man at the heart of what the world called Total Football. It was a slick passing, fast-paced game full of movement and skill. The world rightly declared it beautiful to behold.
On Sunday night that all changed.
It wasn’t the Dutch who tried to play that way, it was the Spanish.
Maybe we should not be so surprised. Before the game the Netherlands’ most exciting player Arjen Robben was eager to tell us: “We have heard enough talk about how our football is very nice, but it gets you nowhere, we want to achieve something.
“No one in our team is too special to get their hands dirty. I’d prefer to win a very ugly game than lose a beautiful one.”
Well, the Dutch achieved one half of that objective. They got their hands dirty and the game was so disappointingly ugly.
And playing ugly didn’t do them any good because they lost.
The other hint of what was to come, apparently, came from Dirk Kuyt who said his team was going to attack. We must have all hoped he meant attack in the soccer sense, not attack as in flying boots and bodies.
Referee Howard Webb was forced to hand out a record 13 yellow cards and one red card — eight yellows and a red for the Dutch — and there could have been far more.
In the soccer-style sense, the Spanish tried to play their rat-tat-tat passing game, which was admirable. Unfortunately, they also continued their most annoying trait, diving all over the pitch with varying degrees of skill.
On top of all this, players on both sides produced Oscar-winning performances with theatrical protests whenever a call did not go their way, arms spread wide as they sat on the ground or rolled around in agony before leaping to their feet to chase the next pass.
Quick recovery time, don’t you think?
Even worse, from my perspective, was the distinct lack of respect they showed to referee Webb. I lost count of the number of players who screamed in his face. That’s the sort of disrespect that deserves a card. Trouble was, had Webb called everything, there might not have been enough players left on the field to make a contest.
Let’s stop blaming the ref, as the Dutch have been doing, and set aside a minute to congratulate the Spanish, deserved winners and clearly the best team in the world.
On Sunday, 15.6 million Spaniards — that’s nearly 80 per cent of television market share — watched the game and the figure was 90 per cent in the Netherlands.
On Monday, maybe a million people turned out to greet home their heroes in Madrid after what is being judged as one of the most important victories of any sort in Spanish history.
Certainly it was a victory for Spain. But it most certainly was not a victory for the beautiful game. And that’s a crying shame.
Here we are with 700 million people looking on — including major TV crowds in Canada and the United States — and the players cannot provide us with a half-good game of soccer. One team hacks too much, the other dives too much.
I hate to think that I am in agreement with FIFA president Sepp Blatter when he says: “It was not what we expected to see as fair play on the pitch.”
This continent is still trying to warm to the game in a serious way and we get served up something like this."

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

Heavy rainfall expected Tuesday

Well we are going to get a rainfall like I have never ever seen before. There is 50-70 mm rain expected by Tuesday morning. Fortunately our house in on higher grounds, so we will be okay I hope. At least you can argue that he lack of rain last year changed into a surplus for this year, and that is not a bad thing for the farmers here. But what if this amount of rain translates to heavy snow coming winter. We will be seeing some pretty nice snowy landscapes. Only last Friday it was +31C when I left the office. We have a strange summer this year. Joka is off to Holland this week, on a well earned vacation, hope she has better weather and higher temperatures. The outlook weather-wise for this week as per late Tuesday is pretty good, 20-23C and mainly sunny. Maybe tomorrow morning my truck is clean with and by the expected downpour. One very peculiar thing happening here; rain or not most birds keep on whistling, very strange. Probably they are long time used to this kind of weather. The weather over here reminds me of Extremes Series by Nick Middleton. It is pretty extreme for a Dutchman like me, but I like it.

Orange support from Rollyview

Today was THE day, to get rid of 36 (1974) years of frustration. Johan and Emma were fully prepared to take off to the Boston Pizza Lounge in Leduc. They were on their own together with some 12 Spanish supporters. Again no luck, they lost 1-0 to Spain. And I must say the Spanish were the better team overall. Our so called center-piece failed at least on 2 occasions and he was over-classed in diving by the Spanish, as you all could see the referee fell for that and favored the Spanish way too much. Truthfully I have not seen him dive this game, so I will be a bit less harsh. I remember 1974 vividly, we were having vacation in Torralta Portugal when we lost and my dad was in a bad mood anyways as I had forgotten my math-books to study for a re-exam. Fortunately I did not fail. And then in 1978 when in the last minute Rob Rensenbrink hit the Argentinian post at 1 all, the Argentinians finished us off 3-1 in extra time. So 3 finals in a 36 year span; will we ever win the World-cup or will they keep losing it? Well the frustration is gone and real life kicks in; we/they are not destined to win the World-cup. Pity. And more importantly, I will loose $320 for not being first in our company-soccer-pool. That sucks. Big time.

The second 18 km

Yes, this morning I took Joka to the Petsmart and decided on the way back it's about time to pick up cycling again after 2(!!) years. At 8:50am I pedaled on the gravel road #234 towards Rollyview. I had no idea on my bike-fitness so not too far, something around 20 km will do. The first 2 km my legs hurt real bad, not that worse state of fitness I was thinking. After this I got into the groove and had no pains at all anymore, but realized there is a long way to go. It is a pretty rolling landscape here (hence Rollyview?), it goes up and down all the time, combine this with the relatively soft gravel roads and you understand that the 18 km compares to 30 km on tarmac, not a great distance but you have to start somewhere. Maybe I can trick Joka into a bike-ride tomorrow, same route as today about an hour and thru nice surroundings. Next time I will take pictures. Only thing you have to be really careful about are the cars and trucks that pass you, although they seem to be real cautious when passing. There is indeed not much room for error. As a cyclist you are considered a vehicle here in Alberta, when you are pedaling that is.

The first 2 km

Finally put my money where my mouth is. I cycled 2 km. Yes you read that correct, 2 km. On a gravel road, and that is not the easiest way to ride a bike. Fortunately I have 42 mm Schwalbe Marathon XR tires, otherwise I would probably have multiple punctures. After 2 years at last I made a start. My fitness was pretty good, bike-wise. It's gone, toast, out of the window. Have to start all over again, I think I have found a way, at least for the late spring-summer-early fall periods. Theoretically I leave at 6:45am by bike, Joke leaves at 7:10am by car and picks me up half way. That way I can at least start with a 45 min bike-ride a couple of times a week. We start doing that next week or so and see how it goes. At least it sounds like a plan.
I have to re-fit myself, I had a bit of a sore bum (yes-yes only 2 clicks, I know), my legs started to hurt (frontal wind :-) ) and I had to watch the gravel road real careful. Only the city has bike-roads, nothing like in Holland. Unfortunately. That's one thing I really miss out here, cycling. But the plan is there and I just have to make it work. The first, all important, step has been taken the rest will follow by itself. Right?

Origin of the vuvuzela

Actual 1999 BP Advertisement

Landed Immigrants

May 30th 2010 Today we drove to the US border in Carway, with our stamped passports, to leave Canada and re-enter it 5 minutes later, after the visa U-turn and so becoming Landed Immigrants. The US customs were very friendly in a nice new clean building. "I will not charge you the 6 dollar entry fee, as you are doing the visa U-turn" the mean looking but very friendly officer told us. We did the visa U-turn and onwards to the Canadian border and customs. What a grumpy bunch in a very old building. The female officer ripped out our work-visa, started to fill in the Confirmation for Permanent Residence (CPR) and ask me to sign mine. "That's a big one" she said. Huh? How does she know? Probably I looked sheepishly at her; "Your signature is pretty large and may not touch the green box at the bottom of the page" Ohhhhhh! OK, and yes I did touch the green box and screwed up my signature. Who cares! Joka and Emma also needed to sign their CPR and 10 minutes later we were done. Canadian Permanent Residence achieved. Unfortunately Joost could not join us, maybe he will come later. That's up to him.
It was doubtful whether we could make the trip, when we left there was 5 inches of snow and only 0 degrees and a very misty grey morning. We will try it and if need be we just turn and go home. It turned out to be a very nice day, after Red Deer the snow started to disappear and slowly the clouds broke with a comfortable sunshine. As we approached the US border, we drove thru a Blackfoot Indian Reservation. What a mess. Beautiful surroundings but deteriorating ill maintained houses and villages.
We left at 7:15AM to return at 8:15PM and drove 1100 km, it was well worth the trip. All uncertainty gone, no more black cloud for September 2011 and regained some freedom as I could go look for a job across Canada. Only time will tell where we end up.

Passports returned....

May 27th 2010 Our passports have been returned from the Canadian Embassy in Berlin, again using FedEx. Had not expected them yet, all of a sudden Paule phones me up saying our passports had arrived, COOL. So the planning comes together rather nicely. All are stamped with the visa attached to it. For the now I still control the game I am playing, being the stupid and ignorant Dutch idiot. But I am soooooo far ahead. We go to the border on Sunday the 29th of May, to make the U-turn and finalize the immigration process for the 3 of us. Unfortunately Joost cannot join us as he is in Holland waiting for his passport to be returned, which I will do tomorrow using FedEx, again. Another step in the immigration process. Two more to go; U-turn at the border and waiting for the PR cards who will legalize our stay here. After the U-turn we can call ourselves landed Immigrants. And btw the "Decision Made"-post is part of my little game, a sort of smokescreen if you will; because the Migrationbureau knows my Blogger address. They still can forward the April 8th letter, but will they........

Passports in Berlin

May 17th 2010 Our passports have been delivered at the Canadian Embassy in Berlin, Fedex did a good job despite the Icelandic ash-cloud and the apparent overreaction by some aviation authorities. Still we are way ahead in this game, if it turns out to be a game, that is. I still know they don't know I know, and I like that. But they could check and been told the appointment of representative has been canceled as of the beginning of May, but does the embassy relay this information.
The embassy claims to need 10 working-days for processing, does this include the day of delivery? We will find out in due time. Going to the border on the 29th is still feasible (feasable is also correct according to Google Translate).
Waiting and having patience is not one of my best virtues but NOW WE WAIT, no other options, eh. 10,9........