Afdalen is gevaarlijk

Sometimes when watching the descents in the mountain stages of the Tour de France I feel like switching off and today I remembered why.

Le Tour

I was never a real follower of the Tour de France until I came to Holland. But it is such a big sport over her it is hard to miss. The Dutch, German and Belgian channels all show it live (on their equivalent of BBC1) every day till the end. So it is easy to follow and I have got into it over the years.

This year I have found it avid viewing. The races are tighter and there seems to be no obvious outright favourite anymore. It is a wide open race. Much shown by the win on stage 5 yesterday by Mark Cavendish. An English rider no less. He told his team manager to lob a cool 1,000 Euros on him before he started the stage. It has been 5 years since an Englishman won a stage (David Millar -Time Trial). And before that you can look back 33 years to Hoban in 1975.

David Millar the only other Brit in the Tour is standing at 5th overall only 47' secs behind the yellow jersey man Kim Kirchen. The mountains are about to come, and everything can change in the Alps, but could we be seeing a possible Englishman in the yellow jersey?. I doubt it.

One thing I really enjoy is the Tour de France website (http://www.letour.com/) which is one of the best ever sporting event websites I have ever come across. It is very current, well-designed and although a bit over complicated, you can quickly get bang up to date if you weren't able to watch a particular stage. No need to Sky+. Just a 2min video and you see what happened.

Lego

I delivered a parcel to a Lego fan today for 550 Euros if you please.
Well I'm sure the 13 hours it takes to put it together will justify the cost.

Review from the Lego Site : "When I bought it I thought it would take a few days to build but it took about 13 hours and its hard to believe the size. The web site does not do the size justice. Its really big, I have other models of Star Wars ships that can fit under it. This is the best model that I have ever done. If you want something that looks nice and a nice challenge, save your money and buy it."

Maastrichts Mooiste

Today my girlfriend and I went on a communial ramble. One thing we always promised not to do. But as this one was so well organised I thought let's give it a go.

The "Maastrichts Mooiste" Week involves walks, runs and various other events. Today was the organised walks. There was a 20K and a 13K walk. Of course we went for the easy one.

The worry was that with 2,000 participants expected it would be too crowded and too full of Dutch walkers with their 'Nordic Sticks' and all the extra kit they think necessary to walk the extreme inclines that you face walking in the famously mountainous country that is Holland.

It didn't turn out too bad apart from the river crossings we had to make where we faced queues of 1hour, 30 mins and 20 mins. The first being run by the local scouts in tiny boats.

Anyway the whole event was well organised and getting 2,000 people across three river crossings in a few hours was no mean feat. They laid on water stops, catering, ice creams and toilets along the way as well as 6 theatre attractions.

Was a very nice route and I have to say Maastricht is quite 'Mooi' but the finish in the ENCI cement quarry is a bit of a contradiction.

Visiting Holland?

Hans Brinker who thought in time and saved disaster

I saw an ad for an interesting site if you are planning a trip to the lowlands today on Scrabble Helper. The site helps you locate interesting geographical features in the Netherlands.

If you are planning a holiday to Holland you will find a lot of these geographical features in and around Amsterdam apparently.

Interesting Geographical Features in The Netherlands

So if you fancy sticking your finger in a dyke like little Hans Brinker then this is the site for you.

Crap Inventions #2

The Triumph Solar bra

Following the automatic cat feeder, the Triumph bra company have come up with a solar powered bra. The bra can power an ipod, display text messages ("stop looking at my tits") and has two refillable drinking pouches. The purpose of the pouches is to increase bra size and cut down use of plastic and aluminium drinking containers.

Triumph Japan hopes the bra inspires people to think about global warming, the dwindling supply of fossil fuels, and the future of energy.

I was particularly impressed by Triumph Japan's website promoting the japanese woman when selecting it's models.

Chasing water

We always thought our first cat was a bit 'dog-like' but now the second seems to be taking on 'dog-like' characteristics in that she likes to catch water. This short clip doesn't show her later excited state when she ended up soaked and looking like a drowned rat in her attempts to drink the water spray.


Nutter!

The Missing Man

This afternoon I went to watch 'the missing man' being flown over the Margraten American Cemetery. Had to queue for 15 minutes to get parked with the other thousands of visitors who went to thank our American brothers in arms for saving this part of Holland.

It was quite a touching ceremony. Nice music and reeth laying etc. And beautiful weather but a long wait for the deafining jets which is the main reason I went. But the hour and a half wait amongst those crosses makes you think about what went on in this peaceful part of Holland.


F16's flying 'the missing man'

Waffling

The Waffle Iron

For a few years now we have had an old Dutch Waffle Iron in the shed. It needed a good 'buff up' so it has never been used. But after we walked past a waffle maker outside the garden centre this afternoon I was compelled to do the required 'buffing'.

And soon after I began waffling. The first two were a bit of a disaster but later attempts were edible and quite tasty. I think a few more bashes and I'll be getting it spot on.

Some Waffle facts from wiki:

"Wafer" and "waffle" share common etymological roots. Wafre (wafer) occurs in Middle English by 1377, adopted from Middle Low German wâfel, with change of l into r. Modern Dutch wafel, French gaufre, and German Waffel, all meaning "waffle", share the same origin. The Dutch form, wafel, was adopted into modern American English as waffle, in the 18th century

The modern waffle has its origins in the wafers-very light thin crisp cakes, baked between wafer-irons-of the Middle Ages. Wafer irons consisted of two metal plates connected by a hinge, with each plate connected to an arm with a wooden handle. Some plates had imprinted designs such as a coat-of-arms or landscape, while some had the now-familiar honeycomb/gridiron pattern (there is evidence that in the 14th century only wealthy kitchens would have irons.

Lekkerrrrrrrrr!

Hot Air Balloon Simulator

I was looking for some info on ballooning weather conditions when I stumbled across this site.

It is a hot air balloon simulator. Very realistically done and very simple to use.

http://www.balloonsimulator.com/

Click on the basket to burn, on the ceiling of the envelope to cool. Drop a marker at the yellow flag and return to base.

At different heights the winds change and you have a small weather balloon to release to guage the winds. It's actualy quite tough, but theraputic.

English tits thriving : Dutch tits not

I read on the bbc website today that the English tits are thriving with climate change and nesting earlier due to the earlier emergance of catterpillars.

The article states that the Dutch tits have not managed to adapt in a similar way. I'm not sure I totally believe this as we have commented several times about the number of tits in our garden this year and they are around earlier than usual.

But there again living in the udder of Holland which is 'Limburg' our demographics usually are better compared to that of Belgium than Holland. There is no mention in the report as to how Belgian tits are coping.

The demise of English comedy

Holland has always been a keen buyer of English comedy. But how long will it last with the current crap coming from BBC3. Scallywags is the latest desperate attempt on a new comedy programme series from BBC3.

Is it any good?

Bag ' o Shite

And use of the BBC3 site i not allowed outside the UK. I haven't seen a decent comedy in the last 3 years.

Cake or Buscuit

The tunnock teacake, the 'original' teacake.

The European court of justice has finally ruled that the M&S teacake is actually a cake and not a biscuit. After around 10 years in discussion it seems the teacake may finally lose it's identity crisis.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/witn/2008/04/080411_teacake.shtml

Good news for Marks and Sparks as it means the VAT paid since the launch of the VAT biscuit tax will have to be refunded (around £3.5m).

I'm not a big fan of the teacake and I would call it neither a biscuit nor a cake, more a glorified biscuit.

McVities are currently investigating the possibility that the Jaffa cake could also be misidentified as a biccie.

Tunnock's, the more popular version of the teacake is not the companies most popular product with the 'Caramel' selling over 4,000,000 bars per week.

Whitby

Whitby from the air

Sir John Craven (he may be no 'Sir' yet but he should be) introduced Countryfile this week from Whitby. It was a windswept Whitby and very quiet than what we are used to see. John seemed to give a good account of the town but he missed several of it's highlights. But still I learnt quite a few things from the programme.

For instance that the time that Easter is celebrated was decided by the Synod of Whitby in 664.
They also visited the St Hilda's Priory, at Sneaton Castle where they showed some insanely happy Nuns at work.


Sneaton Castle where Nuns are insanely happy

But I was disappointed not to see John go for Fish and Chips, Crazy Golf or the bumpy boats on the boating lake. The weatherman from the London studio though was quick to point out the snowy weather was a perfect opportunity to nip in for some Cod and chips.



Magpie Cafe visited by Rick Stein but not by Sir John

They did dabble on the Gothic interest in the town with Dracula (Bram Stoker) and the pilgrimage of the 'said' Goths on the town each year. The locals are now welcoming the event with signs in their windows. "Goths welcome" etc. It won't be long before we see the first "PVC R Us" store set up in the town.

Here is a tribute to the Goth Weekend which started in 94 by local Hartlepool Youtube band maddohartlepool

Hard Times

Last night we watched on DVD 'Hard Times', a BBC Dickens production from 1994 starring Alan Bates, Harriet Walter , Richard E. Grant & Bill Paterson.

In Hard Times, Charles Dickens gives us a close-up look into what appears to be the ivory tower of the bourgeoisie of his day, yet these middle-class characters are viewed from a singular perspective, the perspective of those at the bottom of the social and economic system. Though Dickens' characters tend to be well developed and presented with a thoroughly human quality, the stereotypical figure of arrogant and demanding Bounderby fails to accurately capture the motivations and attitudes of the typical successful businessman of the day and is an indication of the author's political motives. Hard Times, rather than presenting a historically accurate picture of the extraordinary changes brought about by the industrial revolution, is a one-sided attack on the utilitarian value system of the middle 19th century based upon emotional blue-collar appeals for labor sympathy that are not uncommon in today's corporate environment.

Hard Times also features in a small role as Mrs Bounderby, Patsy Byrne, who most will remember as Queenie from Blackadder. According to her Wikipedia entry Patsy is famous for playing round, jolly, often slightly insane old women. In Hard Times she plays a round, jolly, often slightly insane old woman.

TEFAF comes to town

Still missing in action

The TEFAF is back in town and this year they are hitting the headlines before they even started.

A quick reminder for the uninitiated: TEFAF = The European Fine Art Fair. And this year it is scaling the dizzy hights. More money than ever. The city is buzzing with posh cars, suits, limos, posh frocks, and 1000's of frothing mouths from the local supporting business fraternity.

So the fair started today and runs for 10 days and the TEFAF hit the headlines within hours of starting.

On the first day of opening two Mexican men stole a diamond necklace from one of the stands worth 1.2 Million Euros. They were helped by a Costa Rican woman. They were caught at the exit to the exhibition but the necklace wasn't found.

The Dutch media is helping in the case by frequently advertising on the news with any arrivals of Van Gogh, Monet paintings which are selling around the 14-M Euro mark.

Thank god they don't let any rif-raff in.

But yours truly did manage to get a free ticket this year. Valued at 90 Euros.

Best pants on and eat as much as you like before making a quick exit with a diamond necklace.

Lost Teesside

I stumbled upom a nice new website this evening 'Lost Teesside' . It is part of the FMTTM website and chronicals the lost landmarks of Teesside.

The first entry featured 'North Riding Infirmary' , the ENT Hospital on the corner of Newport Road, which I must have passed many a time on the 266 back to Nunthorpe. Some of the text could be better written but this is Teesside remember.

The second entry is the The Royal Exchange which I seem to vaguely remember. Apparently in it's hayday the Exchange set the world price for Iron and Steel.

The Royal Exchange in Middlesbrough, part of 'Lost Teesside'

Silly emails

I tried to register with a UK betting company today not to place a bet but to watch some live darts. And to watch the live stream you had to be registered. Whilst registering I noticed that 'Netherlands' was not an option in the drop down list so I chose Belgium as the nearest country.

I later received a mail explaining why this was.

"Unfortunately, we are unable to accept bets from customers who are registered in the Netherlands and for this reason we have had to close your account.
The reason for bet365 not accepting bets from the Netherlands is that the Dutch monopoly lotto won a case against Ladbrokes in the Dutch courts. The Dutch court held that Ladbrokes were operating illegally under Dutch law accepting bets over the internet from Dutch customers, despite the fact Ladbrokes operate from the UK. However, this is being challenged in both the European and Dutch courts and we are very hopeful that the decision will be eventually overturned. When the case is finally completed we will re-evaluate our position and hope to welcome Dutch customers back to bet365.
To let you know, we are now offering Best Odds Guaranteed on every horse race every day. Just remember to take the price and if the SP is bigger we will pay you out at the bigger odds! You can find out more information by selecting 'Offers & Promotions' from our home page.

The bet365 Team"

I loved the way they explain why you can't use their services but then continue to tell you what fantastic offers they have that you can't use.

Samba comes to the Riverside again

Alfonso Alves has brought the Samba beat to the Boro again. The last time we heard the samba beat was for the signing of little Juninho, for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd time.

But with Alves we have an exciting goalscorer at last. His record in Holland speaks for itself.

45 goals in 38 appearances for Heerenveen is an exciting prospect but can a striker from the Dutch Ere divisie step up and do the same in the Premiership.

Alves set the all time club record with 34 goals in the 2006-07 campaign with Heerenveen, butyou have to look at how easy it is to score goals in the Dutch Eredivisie.

I don't think Alves will find it so easy in the Premier league and whether his £12.5M price tag is justified we will have to wait and see.

One thing for sure he must be glad to be playing in the Premiership and avoiding all those glamorous clubs like De Graafschap, Excelsior, FC Groningen, Heracles, Almelo, NAC Breda, NEC, RodaJC, Sparta R'dam, FC Twente, FC Utrecht, Vitesse, VVV-Venlo & Willem II.

A report from Dagblad de Limburger : from Saturday.

Dollemansrit eindigt met arrestatie
Een dollemansrit van een dronken automobilist is zaterdag geëindigd met de arrestatie van de 26-jarige Maastrichtenaar. De politie had de bestuurder een stopteken gegeven omdat hij slingerend reed. Maar de man negeerde het bevel en ging er vandoor.
Hij haalde daarbij de gevaarlijkste capriolen uit. Verschillende mensen moesten zichzelf in veiligheid brengen door opzij te springen of hard te remmen. Uiteindelijk kon de politie de man op de Burgemeester Bauduinstraat klemrijden en aanhouden. Daarbij raakte een agent gewond aan zijn hoofd. De Maastricht had niet alleen te veel gedronken, maar had ook een ontzegging van de rijbevoegdheid. De politie zoekt getuigen van de dolle rit, die onder meer over de Terblijterweg en de Czaar Peterstraat ging.

And the fantastic translation site says:

Dollemansrit ends drank is Saturday ended with arrest A dollemansrit of a motorist with the arrest of the 26-birthday Maastrichtenaar. The police had the driver a stopper sign given because he swinging reason. But the man ignored the order and were off. He got near it the most dangerous capriolen out. Different men had to bring to jump itself in safety through aside or to brake hard. Finally the police could the man on the Mayor Bauduinstraat klemrijden and arrest. An agent besides touched wounded its head. The Maastricht had not only too much drunk, but also an ontzegging of the rijbevoegdheid had. The police seeks witnesses of the mad ride that went among many over the Terblijterweg and the Czaar godfather street.

The "Different men had to bring to jump itself in safety through aside or to brake hard." was including me as I had to almost dive to the pavement to avoid the pissed-up driver. Not a nice way to spend your Saturday morning if you have to work.