Sunday, 4 February 2018

Week 5 The Problem with Having a Helper

Helper

The trouble with having a "helper" is that I have to actually be doing something in order to be "helped". Obvious, really...

Our new young man started on Monday, although there are still a few things to be sorted out with our Local Govt. regarding classification and payments. In a more global sense, we can see that it is going to be beneficial to him in the long term.
(edit: Janny met with his parents on Friday and they are happy to let Janny sort it all out. The father was at the same school as Janny - she remembers that he also had quite a few problems as a child - that weren't dealt with as well as they are nowadays).

Just for fun, I turned on my My Tracks app (used on the boat to indicate speed and distance)...

The distance around the farm was about 6 km.  The record shows that I also jumped in the car to go and pick up Lucas (22km round trip).


Now, the reason for so much activity is that we spent the morning tidying up one of the apartments as preparation for one of our nephews moving in.

Roughly calculating, I think it must be 12 years since I did a lot of work getting them habitable. We had a couple living there for 5 years and then we used it for dagbesteding (Care Farm daywork) and then for the refugees. So it was high time for a facelift. This time, we ripped out the old carpet, painted the skirting boards and put in some new carpet the next day.




New carpet meant adjusting the door...


Just throwing it in...

Went to have a look at the boat on Friday - on the way to pick up Ben at the Heerenveen train station.
My leaking fuel tank hasn't been leaking - so it must have simply been over-filled.
It doesn't show in the photo, but she is looking a bit slimy green
At the end of February, I have to take her to Grou for some work - if there is no ice.


During the week, Janny had yet another Birthday. Lucas and I detoured on the way back to pick up some cake and flowers.




Kulturele Haadstêd 2018

European Capital of Culture for 2018.
(officially opened last weekend)

Leeuwarden is a city and municipality with a population of 108,249 in Friesland in the Netherlands. It is the provincial capital of the States of Friesland. The region has been continuously inhabited since the 10th century.

Dutch: Leeuwarden (since the 9th century AD)
West Frisian: Ljouwert
Stadsfries: Liwwadden (local "city language")


From the Newspaper...

(not that I had much time this week!)

"Luxury" school absenteeism.

Parents who take their children out of school to go on foreign holidays or skiing breaks could soon face on-the-spot fines of up to €100 a day, the AD (Algemeen Dagblad) said on Friday.

The public prosecution department is considering giving school attendance officers the power to issue fines to parents directly, rather than wait for the offence to be first studied by justice ministry officials.

Cases involving several days ‘illegal’ holiday, tacked on to the end of regular holidays, are complicated to protest and cost more than they bring in in terms of fines, the department says. And simplifying the procedures would raise more money which local authorities can put back into education.

In the 2015-16 school year, the latest for which figures are available, officials dealt with over 6,000 reports of ‘luxury absenteeism’. Most parents get a warning for their first offence and are summoned to appear before magistrates if caught for a second time.

The department plans to start trials of the new system in a couple of council areas as soon as possible, the AD said.

We used to have to ask (almost beg IIRC) if we could take Ben to Australia. "To visit his ageing grandmother" was our best reason - but I'm sure we had the more worldly view that there would be other benefits, educationally speaking. He was sometimes given schoolwork to go on with and in the end, it obviously hasn't done him any harm. 

Local Government Elections Coming Up


A good description here of how it works - worth the read if you are at all interested. My only observation is that voting appears to be taken very seriously - I don't know of any Gerrymandering, voter suppression, stacking the judicial system or other practices designed to help one party or another...(I was careful to say "I don't know of any" - who knows? maybe it's just as bad here and it's only me that doesn't see it!).

http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2018/01/the-local-elections-are-looming-and-you-may-well-be-able-to-vote/?utm_source=newsletter


Elderly in Friesland

Over the next 12 years, it is anticipated that an extra 40,000 65 + people will be in need of care. The number of 85 + will be doubled to more than 9300.
Traditionally, the care would fall under the realm of Local Government. But they are already calculating the extra cost, particularly in the area of personnel costs - it is anticipated that 125,000 extra personnel will be required.
There has already been an expressed desire that people should be more "looking after their own". 

My story of our first approach to the Local Govt. re Janny's parents.


I may have mentioned this before, but we are now 2 years further on and the concerns are becoming more evident.

We had briefly spoken with Janny's parents about them "having a place" at our place. Nothing ever came of it because (apparently) there was some thought of me wanting to go home (fat chance!). So when the need became more pressing and they were looking at suitable houses in the village ( a retirement village wouldn't be Hendrik's "thing" at all) - we all firmed up on the idea of "something" at our place.
Rennie's idea was a "chalet-like" house, a bit further back, but we weren't at all sure what would be "allowed".
So, Janny and I went to the Local Govt. and said that we would like to provide some sort of accommodation at our place.
A "detached" building was NOT possible - unless the parents needed care and then a building of almost any size could be built, so long as it was removed when no longer needed (imagine the cost of that!).

What about building on to our house? Only up to 25 square metres - "but you already have that sunroom" - built by Janny's brother and "inherited" by us - but not official (apparently).

So, in effect we were stymied - Janny and I looked at each other as if to say "so much for that idea". We could go away and think of something else - maybe.

Not sure if disingenuous is the right word - but I asked in "dumb foreigner mode" - Look, I'm an outsider so I don't really understand - BUT I had the idea that the (Federal) Government were actually encouraging people to do things like this (they call it mantelzorg) - is that not something for us to consider?

No, No, came the reply - so Janny and I went away with our tails between our legs...

But, Lo and Behold, that same afternoon we got a phone call saying that it would be OK to build up to 30 square metres.
and so we ended up with the "hayshed" - corrugated iron roof and all! 

This is the photo we got from the council - they do flyovers to see what's been added!



Renewable Energy


Despite its reputation for windmills, the Netherlands is near the bottom of a new table on renewable energy use in Europe, according to statistics service Eurostat.

Only Luxembourg uses less renewable energy as a proportion of overall consumption, and the Netherlands is well below its 2020 target.

The 2016 figures, published on Thursday, show that 6% of the energy used in the Netherlands comes from renewable sources such as biofuels, hydro or wind power, solar or geothermal energy.

This compares with more than 30% in Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Austria and Denmark. By contrast, Iceland – with its abundant geothermal and hydropower industries – uses more green energy than all 28 EU countries with almost 73% coming from renewable sources.

Nonetheless, the Netherlands’ renewable energy share has risen from just 2% in 2004. The EU has a target of a fifth of all energy use from green sources by 2020 and – while some countries have reached their own targets – the Dutch, French and Irish need to increase their rates by at least 6%, says a Eurostat release.

The traditional Dutch reliance on gas has been challenged after a series of earthquakes in Groningen – the region above Europe’s largest gas field – including the biggest since 2012 earlier this January.

Gas extraction by the company NAM has been progressively limited, and the Dutch coalition government has set a target of a 7.5% cut from the current levels to 20 billion cubic metres by 2021.

Further, 

Almost 1 billion Euros estimated decrease in value of houses in the province of Groningen. An argument is now being mounted that the gas company (NAM) has to make restitution for this as well as the damage caused to houses and other buildings.
The govt. has also directed that big businesses have to cease using Groningen gas by 2020. Apparently, it has a low calorific value and is best suited to houses if used at all.

More on the Adventures of Ben

He also had a Research Project to finish (Youth and how they use Social Media) - he got  8.1 for this...(and 9 for the other), so all very good - and to think that he managed all that world travel as well! Maybe just good background for a journalist...
Ben had a story to tell - bearing in mind that he is already plotting as to how he can live in Amsterdam (forever, I think).
He was out with a group going to see a movie - they had a while to wait for the start so one of the girls said: "we can go to my uncle's place to fill in a bit of time". So off they trundled - to a 250m2  Penthouse apartment - with a rooftop terrace "larger than the one at his hotel"!! The niece lives there sometimes because her uncle travels a lot - Ben has also offered to look after the place if necessary.

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