recycling - how hard can it get!

The Christmas decorations were packed away yesterday, and today it was time to get rid of all the junk that has accumulated over the holiday period. I loaded a box of paper into my car, and a big bag of glass bottles, as well as two sacks of plastic waste.

The paper and cardboard comes from packing from presents and household goods, but because John runs his business from home, he also generates a lot of paper and carton waste and I make regular trips to get rid of that.

The bottles usually go to the bottle bank along the street, but the snow and bad weather meant that the volume was greater than I could carry, so thats why that was going in the car.

The plastic - thats another story. At the beginning of 2010 the Netherlands invented Plastic Heroes, to encourage recycling of plastic. there were TV adverts, and leaflets from the council. I was pleased to recycle, and began to collect plastic enthusiastically. The council provided us all with special plastic sacks for the waste, and a schedule of pickups - one a month on a tuesday! We soon found that once a month was not often enough, as a household we generate at least three sacks a month. but the first month I happily put my sacks out on the appointed tuesday, along with the other householders in the street. The sacks stayed outside our houses for a very long time, being blown around by the wind and attacked by the ever present crow colony, who scavenge anything that does not move. eventually a little truck came round and picked up the bags, and we began our recycling cycle once again.

Each month was the same, householders hopefully put out their bags of plastic on the designated tuesday, and around 2 days later they are picked up. Its got to the point where, if you see a plastic sack on the street, you put yours out in the hope that something will happen, a sort of collective optimism which is always dashed. Thats why the bags were in my car today.

I drove off to the council tip, and joined the many other women doing the same thing. We were helped by the council workers who helpfully pointed out where different items had to go, (they very rarely help physically, if they do, they unerringly pick up the lightest item in the car, and leave you to struggle with the old matrass or kitchen sink that needs to be ditched)

So I trotted around, climbing the ladder to put the plastic in a huge dumpster, and hoisting the paper above my head into the crusher. The bottles I carried over to the bottle bank to find that it was full. there being no other place to dump them, I loaded them back into my car, and drove to the supermarket to use the bottle bank there. Then I drove to the council offices to pick up more bags for the plastic recycling.

Getting home, I found that John had received another delivery of computer components, and the empty box and all the packing material were neatly stacked in the corner of the living room.

tomorrow I'll tell you how I get to return all the faulty modems to the supplier after John has installed new ones! or maybe not :)

just when do you call in the vet?

After losing Snuffie three weeks ago, I have become super sensitive to our other animals needs.
Last week Maxie the cat stopped eating, and began vomiting. After a sleepless night listening to the cat throwing up every few hours, I got her to the vets straight away.
It was the same vet who saw Snuffie, so I felt relief when he seemed very upbeat, and diagnosed her with a sensitive stomach lining, due too hair balls made worse by her shedding hair more in the hot weather. He gave her an injection, special diet food, and a paste which should work as a calming agent in her stomach and help her pass hair easily without it forming balls.
Within 24 hours she was up and hungry, and found no problem eating the diet food, which is designed to be easily digestible. She does not really like the paste, however, so we have to put it on her paws for her to lick off.
Today she had finished the diet food, and I had to give her the normal cat food. She ate some of it, but was sick later, so it looks like she will have to go back to the special diet food for a little while yet. She goes back to the vet wednesday, so we will see how she is by then.
We felt we had "fixed" Maxie, and what else could go wrong, but on thursday we went to get Ulo out of the field to find she was bleeding from a wound on her shoulder. She could hardly take a step forward, but we got her to the stall, and Jolanda put her under the shower to clean the cut and cool her off. There was no question that she was lame, so we put her in the stable with plenty of betadine on the cut, and left her overnight.
Next morning we repeated the treatment, and stepped her around; the stall owner felt that it was not so bad, and to give her a few hours more rest then try riding her. That evening we saddled up, and Jolanda began riding, but once in trot you could see she was still lame, so it was back to the shower, and the betadine, and we tucked her up in the stable again.
48 hours later, and we have had to cancel the competition Jolanda was due to ride in today. When I rang to explain the reason, they asked if a vet had seen her, as then we would not have to pay the entry fee.
It never occured to me to call a vet for a cut shoulder, especially with the experienced people we have around us at the stables, but maybe next time I will.

Snuffie 2002 - 2010

Snuffie was an elderly rabbit, and became less and less active. She eventually got an infection which was made worse by the hot weather in the last days. The vet was very good, but it was clear there was nothing he could do, and she had to be put to sleep.
There is a empty place in our garden where her hutch and rabbit run was, and I'm left with a feeling of guilt that I did not do enough for her.

The "Oma Fiets" Craze

She been pestering us for a "big" bike for ages, and we felt that when she got her brace fitted at the beginning of September, a "Big" bike would be a good incentive to view the process positively!
But I did not realise the latest craze is for these traditional designs. Of course Dad insisted on the added features of hand brakes (instead of pedalling backwards, like in the olden days, remember?) and gears. Although why gears are necessary on flat dutch roads escapes me!
The additional features raised the already high price of the bike to something approaching the cost of my first car, but what the heck, she's our only child!
And you've got to admit its a beauty - trendy matt purple paintwork, and rubber baggage strap on the baggage rack, as well as a painted canvas chain guard. All the features are there - but boy is it big!

its too big for me, but I'm assuming she will grow into it, and the predictions are that she will be a head taller than me by the time she is sixteen! And she rides it beautifully, doesn't she. Doesn't she?

Was that a wobble? nah!

A really nasty Ecard!

Ever since 2001, I have made positive efforts to enjoy my birthday even though the majority of the western world are remembering the terrorist attacks on America at the same time. Well, as I always say, It was my birth date before those fanatics chose that day.
I keep the day itself low key, but always try to do something special for myself the day after.
This year was no different, so September 11 was a normal working day, and I downloaded my email in the evening, before we went away for a lovely family weekend the next day.
One of my emails was message from a greeting card company, announcing there was an Ecard for me. As several of my friends use ecards I tried to open it, and even overrode the antivirus warning that popped up - what an idiot! This was no birthday card!
My computer was immediately infected by the win antispyware 2008 virus!
Why do these bxxxxxds do this?
Luckily for me, and unknown to the joker who thought it would be a great idea to trash my computer, my techie husband spends his life fighting this sort of virus attack!
It took him more than a hour, but he hit it with all the anti malware programs in his arsenal, and seeing as it was my birthday, he did not charge me the 90 euro fee which is his normal rate, bless him!
Now I have my computer back in working order, I will be posting pix from our weekend away soon.
So sucks to you - win antispyware 2008!!!!!

Design Disaster!

Jolanda asked for a new bedroom for her birthday - literally a new bedroom, as she wanted to move from the front of the house to the back! The front room has a sloping roof, in the manner of cute cottages throughout Europe, and is an awkward shape in that a piece of it was taken to enlarge the bathroom years ago. The back rooms, on the other hand have four stright walls and flat ceilings (normal rooms, Jolanda calls them).

John was not happy, but with a little persuasion Jolanda and I bulldozed him into the idea. He never likes change, especially change which involves him decorating, as he hates it.

The crux of the change for Jolanda was a trip to Ikea to chose new furniture, Always a difficult session for me, as I steer her to the affordable items, and dissuade her from extras. After Ikea there was another trip to the carpet store to order a new carpet. That done she left it up to me to bring the room together!

A week of sleeping all together in the floor of one bedroom later, I had sucessfully sold the cumbersome old wardrobe from the back room on Marktplaats; Stored a mountain of toys and sundry items from the wardrobe in the attic; painted the room, with the help of John who does not object to doing the edges and ceilings as I am too messy for those tasks; arranged the carpetlayer to put the carpet down; and the room was ready to "dress".

By Saturday evening we had moved all the existing furniture in, put up the mirror, built the new slim and elegant wardrobe and assembled the white fur chair. Jolanda was thrilled, and I must say it all came together beautifully. The minimalistic look which Jolanda desired was achived, and I just had to find places for all the items rejected by her at the last minute so that her bookcases did not look too cluttered!

One thing was missing - the bed needed a new mattrass. It had been on my mind, but its one of those purchases that does not thrill me so I put it off. Weeks later I was coldcalled by a well know catalogue company letting me know of a special deal they had - free delivery on items ordered this week. Too tempting to resist, I ordered not only a new mattrass, but also a new "lattenbodem" for the bed, confident that it would be much more comfortable for my growing child than the existing slats and foam mattrass.

I wanted it to be a suprise, the icing on the cake, so to speak, so I did not say anything, but the delivery came at lunchtime, so Jolanda was home from school. She was really surprised, but even more so when we made up the bed. I had not reckoned on the extra thickness of the matrass, combined with the full lattenbodem, which was much higher than the slats! The bed is now "hospital height" and I as a vertically challenged individual need to jump up to sit on it!

Judge for yourselves if its a design disaster!