People Are Awesome...Yes Indeed!

This is an awesome video showing people being...well, awesome. I've posted a similar one before, they seem to be an annual occurrence. It's four and a half minutes that will have you gasping, laughing, and saying....."AWESOME!"

Elephunkin'

A story which popped up on Facebook recently that I'm sure you'll enjoy...

"In 1986, Peter Davies was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Louisiana State University .

On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Peter approached it very carefully. He got down on one knee, inspected the elephants foot, and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it. As carefully and as gently as he could, Peter worked the wood out with his knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot.

The elephant turned to face the man and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments. Peter stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned and walked away. Peter never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.

Twenty years later, Peter was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenaged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Peter and his son Cameron were standing. The large bull elephant stared at Peter, lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.

Remembering the encounter in 1986, Peter could not help wondering if this was the same elephant. Peter summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Peter legs and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly.

Probably wasn't the same fucking elephant."

hahaha.

Myth-busting

Sigh. Sometimes I really get sick of talking about my work. Don't get me wrong, I find being the editor of a magazine about nuclear power generation really interesting. It's just that some people seem to equate it with selling my soul to the devil. There is a lot of ignorance about nuclear power and most people are happy to stay ignorant, which I find a bizarre trait.
Don't worry, I'm not going to try and convince you of anything; I don't promote nuclear energy, just rational discussion based on facts. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but ignorance is just stupid. As is scaremongering. The technology is not perfect, however I'm more worried about the devastating effects of climate change in the coming few years if energy hungry countries don't use it. If you apply your objections to nuclear power to other energy technologies the results may surprise you. See if you can make it to point 3 below...I bet you'll be shocked. And maybe start wondering about where YOU live.

1.
A preliminary report has found no observable health effects from last year's nuclear accident in Fukushima...Presenting to the UN General Assembly, UNSCEAR's chair Wolfgang Weiss said that preliminary findings were that no radiation health effects had been observed in Japan among the public, workers or children in the area of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. This is in line with studies already published by the World Health Organisation and Tokyo University that showed people near the damaged power plant received such low doses of radiation that no discernible health effect could be expected.

Source: World Nuclear News (WNA)

2.

Figure above: "Nuclear energy is among those energy sources producing very low levels of carbon dioxide emissions from their full life cycle. It is closely comparable with renewables such as wind, solar and hydro in this respect."
Source: World Nuclear Association

3.
"...the waste produced by coal plants is actually more radioactive than that generated by their nuclear counterparts. In fact, the fly ash emitted by a power plant—a by-product from burning coal for electricity—carries into the surrounding environment 100 times more radiation than a nuclear power plant producing the same amount of energy...
As a general clarification, ounce for ounce, coal ash released from a power plant delivers more radiation than nuclear waste shielded via water or dry cask storage."
Source: Scientific American

Truth can be stranger...and more eye-opening...that the fictions many people willingly believe.

Boy Humour

Sometimes the gender gap yawns wide in our house. It's not easy being surrounded by testosterone, and the types of jokes they prefer occasionally leaves a lot to be desired. For instance, we recently had to find a new piano teacher and I was happy to latch onto a local guy willing to take on the boys. His last name is 'Poppel' and for some reason the boys found this hilarious. We were at the dinner table when I told them this, and almsot immediately Niels said "ok, everybody say his name straight after each other."
So there sat the 3 of us saying the name, and predictably this is how the conversation ended:

"...poppel, poppel, poppel, poppel, poppel, poppel, poppel, poppel, poppel. PENIS!"

The two of them practically fell of their chairs in hysterics.  Boys.....

Oh Christmas Tree...

At last, school has finished for the year. The frantic level of activity which bubbles along from mid-November in the build up to Sinterklas, followed by the ensuing hype for Christmas, leaves both kids and parents feeling a bit strung out by the end of the term, so it was bit of a relief on all sides that we had the final, festive goodbye last Thursday night. The school organized a Christmas dinner, with each class festooned with trees, decorations, and candles. Remember this is the darkest time of the year for us, with the sun disappearing by 4:30 in the afternoon, so with the lights turned off and candles lit in every room it made for a magical atmosphere. Each parent supplied some food and the kids quite frankly stuffed themselves on little bits of this and that.
Carl surprised all of us this year by volunteering to sing in the choir. In the central hall area of the school a small enclosure was created with live sheep, Mary & Joseph and a baby providing a touch of realism (the sheep had the best costumes). Behind that a cute choir of 8 girls...plus Carl...sang carols to entertain everyone as the food was laid out and people arrived.
Afterwards the parents can back to enjoy mulled wine and more carols outside before we all headed home, to a well deserved two week break. Holger is away for Christmas so it's just the 3 of us again; last year we spent a month in New Zealand/Singapore so avoided the dark days of Christmas altogether. However we'll make our own fun and have plenty of friends and family to spend time with.

Best wishes to all for a wonderful Christmas!

Best Xmas present ever for baby elephant; rescued from a well by ATE team

Snow Dumpling, Icy Muffin

It's started snowing. At first it was just little crispy flakes that floated down only to melt as soon as they hit the ground. Then these were followed by larger fluffy crystals that settled and eventually covered everything in a fragile white blanket that crunched under our feet and stuck to the bunnies tails. This has been replaced by harder flakes, driven by a strong wind blowing in from the polar region, dropping temperatures and preventing any further melt. We've heard predictions of up to 20cm falling but so far it's nowhere near that much. 

The bunnies are making the best of it. Actually I don't think Dumpling knows what to make of it...he has only seen snow once before and seems to hate the feel of it clinging to his furry feet. He's sitting now in the garden, a puffed-up ball of disgruntled hair, looking for all the world like a grizzled cossack camping on the Siberian steppes.

Punky Muffin on the other hand is an old hand at dealing with snow, and having shorter hair doesn't become caked as much. You can see her here, fussily licking off the last few flakes that were impudent enough to land on her pristine white coat. How dare they.
As you can see I've put a range of snacks in the winter pavillion to keep them happy and dry but at the moment they prefer to sit in the snow and munch on a big branch I sawed off the apple tree this morning (I hold off pruning my apple trees until the winter to keep the bunnies in snacks throughout the long cold months...a bit unconventional but it doesn't seem to do the trees any harm).
They could always retreat to their hutch which is now winterised with perspex sheeting on all sides and a thick warm layer of soft bedding in which they have hollowed out a snug nest. However that would be like kids volunteering going to bed early and is NOT going to happen. Ever. So don't even suggest it. Just keep feeding us snacks.

Fright Night!

Halloween is not traditionally celebrated in the Netherlands, although people are of course becoming more aware of it, largely through American t.v. shows. In general parents tend to pretend that they don't know what it is, largely I suspect because the idea of giving away handfuls of sweets to random kids goes against their inherently Calvanistic (aka tight) attitude. So how blessed they must feel to have foreigners in their midst who are willing to join the fun and have a laugh! hahaha....NOT!
Our boys have been crazy about Halloween since we lived in Singapore; the large ex-pat population of Americans meant there was plenty of activity there. And any reason to dress up in costume is a good one as far as I'm concerned.

Niels - our own Very Angry Bird

This year Carl decided to take matters into his own hands to get kids motivated, and typed out a letter inviting his class to join him in trick-or-treating between 18:30-19:30, in costume, at a prearranged starting point. About 20 kids turned up, in various types of costumes, all dying to get started. Strangely most of the parents seemed to assume I would personally supervise their precious offspring...wrong! If you can't trust your kid to be outside in groups for one hour in the early evening in their own, very safe neighbourhood, my only suggestion is that you supervise them yourself. For the record, we don't exactly live in Amsterdam: this is a very small village.

Carl in his gorilla suit

So after laying some quick ground rules...be polite, don't walk through gardens, be polite, stick together, be polite (did I mention that Dutch kids have no manners? Words like please and thank you don't feature in their vocabulary  I have LITERALLY heard kids in Carl's class say the Dutch equivalent of 'fuck' more often than hello or thank you. Hence the ear-bashing from me about using manners). Then off they went. Unfortunately they had to stick together in one huge noisy group because the other parents were HORRIFIED at the suggestion that their 8-10 year old children walk around in smaller groups unsupervised - see the previous paragraph for my views on that - but apart from that it went wonderfully, and the kids had a blast.
I downloaded a scary sound effect of a creaky door opening following by an evil laugh and set up speakers by the front door. With lights off and jack-o-lanterns flickering on the doorstep it created an eerie, just-scary-enough atmosphere that had the kids shrieking and coming back for more all night. I kept my large pumpkin-shaped soup tureen filled with treats and had fun slowly creaking open the door all night. Our house was unanimously voted the best Halloween address in the neighbourhood!
Personally, I will ensure we do it differently next year having seen some of the parents responses. Carl can invite as many friends as he wants but there will be no letter. The kill-joy attitude by many of the parents was striking...there were dark mutterings about it being 'too exciting' for kids (WTF?), and there were even some who pulled their curtains tightly closed and refused to answer the door to the kids, despite their own children taking part!! What took the cake for me was having one Mum give me the horrified 'oh my god how could you let children go trick & treating' spiel, then when I suggested she accompany her kid herself she turned on her heel, climbed into her car and drove off, leaving her precious offspring standing there!

So yes it was fun, the kids and I had a blast, and a couple of the parents got into the spirit of things and joined in, but it reminded me yet again that I'll never really be Dutch, and when it comes to being parents many of them are a long way from embracing the fun and spontaneity that some other cultures enjoy.

Mia Bella...A True Story

A couple of weeks ago I spent a week in Stresa, on the shores of one of the largest lakes in Northern Italy, the magnificent Lago Maggiore. Although I was there for work it is a spectacular setting, with the deep blue water a stark contrast to the forested hills and soaring snow-capped Swiss Alps in the background. 

While there I was reminded of an incident that occurred a little while ago to two colleagues who were also in Italy – I think it was in Rome – on a business trip. They needed to visit several clients so she arranged a rental car for the trip. He’d heard that you have to be very careful when parking in Italy because there’s a good chance your car will be clamped or, even worse, towed away. So wherever they parked they made sure to buy a parking coupon from the vending machines that would more than cover the time there were there. On the second or third day when they parked in a large car park they had trouble finding the vending machine. She walked one way, he walked the other…but no machine was to be found. They could see that every car parked there had the usual piece of paper so there was a machine somewhere…but where? 

Finally she spotted it, and yelling to him to come over, started rummaging for coins. You know what it’s like, you never seem to have enough loose change at moments like this. He turned out his pockets but between them they didn’t have nearly enough for the rather steep price indicated on the vending machine. He asked some passersbys if they could help out – obviously they took pity on these two middle aged foreigners who didn’t speak a word of Italian, who were gesturing at the machine and clearly desperate to get to the contents. Eventually a small crowd of locals gathered around, all chatting animatedly, having a laugh and waving their hands as they all pitched in to find enough money. Those present called out to more people walking past to come and help these two desperate foreigners by donating some cash. My colleagues fixed smiles on their faces, sweating now not only from the heat but also from the discomfort of being the amusing center of attraction for an increasingly large crowd of spectators, all of whom were encouraging them on with gestures and loud words they couldn’t understand. The simple act of purchasing a parking coupon had turned into the best entertainment of the day; half the crowd were in hysterics, the other half seemed to be slapping him on the back in a gesture of solidarity and encouragement.

Finally, enough coins were gathered, and accompanied by cheers from the animated crowd, she shoved the last coin into the slot, he triumphantly pressed the big green button….and out popped a packet of condoms!

Judo Junkies

A couple of months ago our boys discovered the delights of martial arts. They both now attend the local judo school and delight in showing of their new found talents. I've never had anything to do with this type of sport and I have to admit I am impressed with the quality of the coaching and the respect every student is expected to show towards his fellow students.

And after the tough poses there is always time for a cuddle!

Camping!

This year we had a new yet marvellous phenomenon in our house; both boys went on camp at the same time. The annual Scouts camps are always held during the first week of the summer holidays and this was the first year that Carl would be old enough to join in. If you're trying to spot Carl in the photo above, he's the one in the middle who appears to be blowing his nose onto the head of the scout in front of him. Lovely.

Niels moved up to the Land Scouts this year so headed into the forest in Germany for a week of 'real' camping; nothing provided except a tap for fresh water. Seriously, I think the highlight for all of the kids was digging 'Hudo',  a 2 metre deep poo pipe. I mean toilet. There's something about going a la natural that just appeals to boys.

Carl was off to the 'Welps' camp where he spent a week...ah what the heck, who cares really - he was away and having fun with a bunch of other kids, that's all that matters!

Perspective

Wow, almost 3 months have gone by since I blogged...busy summer or WHAT??

I'm going to ease back into it gently with this awesome picture from Nasa's very cool 'picture of the day' site. which shows what would happen if all the water on earth were bunched up into a ball. Amazing, right? Because while 70% of the earth's surface is covered in water, it's only a shallow layer compared to the earth's radius. So next time you're watering the lawn remember that there isn't really that much to go around!

I know few of you are probably nerdy enough to actually visit this regularly but it is an awesome site. Go take a look. Now. Off you go...

Fluff

Moulting Dumpling meets hair brush...

Northern Italy

For my work I'm helping to organize a conference in Northern Italy, in the lakeside town of Stresa. It's on the shores of lago Maggiore, one of the largest lakes in Italy, and is a stunning location; think deep blue waters with a backdrop of the snow-covered alps.

Although I haven't spent much time here it seems a great place to visit, although I suspect in mid-summer it will be heaving with milions of tourists. Last year I attended an event in Como, another lakeside town in Northern Italy, but I like Stresa a lot more.The locals are friendly, the food was fantastic, and the Prosecco wine delicious!

I'll be back in September and am looking forward to spending more than 24 hours there this time and hopefully seeing a little more of the town.

China #4 - Holding On Tight

When I was up the Pearl Tower in Shanghai I found than observation area with a transparent floor. It was a fun place to spend some time because  as I discovered, you may not think you're afraid of heights, but stepping out onto a floor through which you can see the ground 350 meters below is a daunting prospect.
The best part was watching locals having their photos taken by photographers who charged a few bucks a photo. Every second person lost their nerve, but since they'd paid their money the photographer would grab them by the wrists and physically drag them - on their arse if necessary and sometimes screaming - out onto the glass floor to take their photo. Remarkably people seemed to think this was absolutely normal and despite their obvious terror submitted themselves to this treatment and bore no grudge after they had gratefully crawled back onto the 'solid' floor. Not a single photographer had to drag anyone back!

China #3 - Giant Abroad

Foreground; the venue for the conference I'm organizing in 2013

Last time we talked, I was in China, and there are still some cool things I want to share about that experience. Once I arrived in Shanghai, I had a slew (I've always wanted to use that word!) of appointments/meetings, yet I still managed to find a a few hours to myself.
 I headed to the Pearl Tower, one of Shanghai's most obvious landmarks. Remember I mentioned that Shanghai was busy? Well it seemed that almost everybody had decided to visit the tower today too. Queues of tourist buses were disgorging people out front and I soon found myself in a shuffling line, waiting for one of four lifts to take us up to the first viewing platform. I was dubiously eyeing the lifts, wondering how many days we'd be waiting to catch a ride but the line moved surprisingly quickly. I soon found out why; when the doors opened we were physically shoved into the lift, squeezed in like sardines. I don't know about you but being pressed up against four total strangers, 1 on each side, from my boobs down to my toes is not my idea of a fun cultural exchange. The fact that I was a head taller than anybody else meant my nose was poking into the hair on the back of the guy's head in front of me. In an effort not to either breathe down his neck or inhale his dandruff the best option seemed to be to hold my breath until we reached the top. A smartly dressed attendant recited her touristy info first in Chinese, then in English for my sole benefit. She looked me square in the eyes the whole time which was very disconcerting, and by the time the doors slid open I was red in the face from both the undivided attention and lack of oxygen. Gratefully gasping in great lungfuls of air I resolved to find an emptier lift on the way back down.

The view was predictably impressive but remarkably I was the only foreigner up there. Being such a big city you'd think there would be thousands of foreigners in Shanghai but I was very obviously the only blond walking around. Some of the simpler folk up there apparently were visiting from way out in the country becuase they seriously looked at me like they'd never seen a white woman before. Eventually my worst fears were realized; a young man approached and in halting English asked if he could take my photo.
"Please, hello yes. I take your photo yes".
"No thanks.'
"Yes, I take photo"
"No, I don't want that thanks."
"Yes, please I take photo."
This guy was really persistant. We were starting to draw glances from people around me and I could feel my cheeks getting red again.
"No. Seriously. No photo".  I was having visions of a photo of my head being photoshopped onto some Chinese equivalent of Naked Facebook.
"Yes, please I take your photo...is for my mother."
He moved aside and there were his mum and dad, each about 4 feet tall and 180 years old. Oh.My.God. They were grinning and nodding their heads enthusiastically. What could I do?
As we posed, Ma snuggled up at eye level with my left boob, Pa with my right, I could just imagine what they would tell their friends back home, how they'd met a giant white woman with a huge red head on their trip to the big smoke.
After we said our goodbyes, them smiling so broadly I suspect they had decided their son and I were getting married, I decided I'd had enough for one day and headed back to the lift. Where I found my nose again buried in the hair of the same guy I'd travelled up wtih. At least he didn't want a photo.

China 2 - off to Shanghai

After a few days in Beijing I needed to head south to Shanghai. Rather than flying I decided to take a train so that I'd get to see something of the country. I love train travel anyway; the fact that you just turn up a few minutes before you're scheduled to leave and literally walk on and walk off is so much more appealing than waiting around for hours at airports. Plus trains are usually more reliable and comfortable. The high speed train to Shanghai travels at up to 300 km/hour and reaches it's destination in less than five hours. The adventure started with the taxi ride to the station...if you've never been to China just imagine you are in one of those Bumper Car rides at a fun fair, with the only rules being you've got to stop just before you actually smack into the car in front and it's compulsory to keep one hand firmly pressed on the horn at all times. I eventually made a conscious decision to just not watch where we were going any more because I was convinced we would never arrive in one piece.
Once at Beijing South train station however I was hugely impressed. It's as big as an airport, super modern and easy to navigate. Check in is similar to an airport with all luggage x-rayed, and only ticket holders can access the gates to the platforms (Europe could learn from this!), where we were greeted by chic hostesses and stewards. The high speed trains are super modern and stylish, a first class ticket is still cheaper than flying and if I lived there, I'd never get on a plane again!

It seemed to take forever just to get out of Beijing...that city is truly enormous. In fact it's one of the most populous cities in the world with close to 20 MILLION people living there. Makes you feel a little claustrophobic just thinking about that many people in one place, right?
Gradually the dry brown planes and windswept subsistence farms of the province gave way to signs of spring. Green grass shoots started to appear as we headed south and about two hours out of Shanghai we started passing through hills and even some low mountains. Then suddenly we were passing through the outskirts of a city...and arriving.
Now I know it seems obvious to say it, but Shanghai is really, really big. I hadn't realized beforehand that it's the largest city in China with...wait for it....23 MILLION residents. In fact I'd kind of been looking forward to a slightly larger Singapore, I suppose. Wrong. Shanghai may have a reasonable ex-pat population but there the similarity more or less ends. This is hard-core Asia whereas Singapore is Asia-lite. One of the biggest hassles? You can't just jump in a taxi and go anywhere unless you speak Mandarin. Almost no-one speaks English except for tourist places. If you go anywhere, you have to make sure you get a friendly local to write down in Chinese characters the name and address of any place you need to visit including your hotel so you can get back again. It felt weird to climb in a taxi, say hello, then point to a piece of paper and hope like hell you arrived where you were hoping to go. However it was all part of the fun and I was determined to squeeze in as much as I could during my time there.

China - Part 1, Beijing

This has been a busy month for travel as I spent a week in China, recovered for a few days than popped down to Italy for a quick visit. It's all to do with work and I won't bore you with the details, but the good part is that I got to spend a little time being a tourist and having a look around.
I'd never been to China before so was really looking forward to the experience. I started off in Beijing, visiting a nuclear energy conference which was held at the National Conference Centre, inside Olympic Park. It was kind of strange seeing the famous Birds Nest Stadium, the torch  and the Water Cube, which were such iconic features of the last Olympics.
However the day I arrived I headed into Beijing city with my collague. Figuring we were going to be jetlagged anyway having missed a night of sleep we may as well just keep going and get to see something, we braved a Beijing taxi and walked around the Forbidden City, People's Palace and Tiananmen Square.


"ummmm...do I stand out here?"

My caption of choice for the photo above would be 'spot the tourist'.  Kay and I were literally the only pale skinned blonds in a crowd of thousands. It was the week of China's most important public holiday, Tomb Sweeping, kind of an All Souls day. Tens of thousands of locals take the opportunity to play at being the tourist and visit spots of national importance. The crowds were horrendous. Mao's tomb (above) was hugely popular and at one stage we found ourselves literally shuffling shoulder-to-shoulder through a long pedestrian tunnel which funnelled us into an ever-narrower press of humanity. Just when we felt things were starting to get a bit hairy the crowd in front of us suddenly turned around and started pressing back! The doors had been shut at the far end so we had to make our way out the way we'd come. Fortunately there was no panic and we all eventually spilled back out into the large square but it was an uncomfortable sensation accentuated by the fact that there were soliders and police everywhere, both among the crowd and watching from the edges. Apparently there had been talk of protests being staged on China's social networking sites the week before, so the government had shut down Facebook, Twitter, and all the Chinese equivalents. Locals later told me that as a result probably a fifth of the crowd in Beijing was undercover police/military but fortunately we didn't have any problems.

I was looking forward to seeing the famous Tiananmen Square (above), although it would have been more impressive if it didn't have six lanes of traffic whizzing over it! I never realized that it's used as a major thoroughfare in the city. 

Beijing is an unusual city, very business like and despite China now being relatively open to foreigners most of this capital city was surprisingly untouched by Western influence.It was only early spring so it was quite cold and bare of greenery, which exacerbated the problem the city has with dust being blown in from the Gobi desert. Deforestaton is making this problem worse every year, and as one fellow conference delegate said, it's the only city he's been to where he wants to shower three times a day. In the evening we found a small local restaurant and using sign language and a menu which thankfully included photos we ordered some delicious dishes of celery and lily buds, prawns, and garlic kai lan. It was great to be eating real Asian food again! 

Weeding

This has to be the ultimate recycling plan...I pull the weeds out of the garden, the bunnies eat them, then they fertilize the lawn! Punky Muffin and Dumpling are grateful for every bit of greenery at the moment as the lawn is practically a desert. This winter we had almost no snow so the grass was uncharacteristically exposed for the entire time. This meant the bunnies chewed it back down to the roots and beyond. Hence the wire netting in the background; I've put down grass seed and am trying to get it to grow, although the chilly nights aren't helping at all.

After a winter with no greenery they've become used to me going out several times a day with andive leaves, broccolli stems, apple, bits of banana...basically anything I can give them for a bit of variety to pellets and hay. It's reached the point where as soon as the kitchen door opens they line up and start demanding their snack. At least I can cultivate the dandilions for free!

Off To Camp...

With the weather warming up, the camping season has started for Scouts. Niels is away this week with the Land Scouts, last seen heading east this morning with 4 other boys clutching a GPS. Hopefully they'll find the rendevouz in time to be collected tomorrow!

Carl had a camp with his group recently - thankfully a father & son camp - with a military theme. Here's No. 2 and Proud Dad, ready to report for duty.