Willothewisp

Madurodam Entrance

In the Netherlands we have many cities, some so large that they run into the neighbouring city, others are very modest, but Madurodam is our smallest city. Despite it’s size it is packed with ancient monuments, splendid old architecture as well as the most modern.

Madurodam started in 1946 when George Maduro, a former law student from Curacao was posthumously granted the honor of Knight 4th-class of the Military Order of William, the highest and oldest honor in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. He had distinguished himself in the Battle of the Netherlands against German troops 1940 to 1945 as a member of the Dutch resistance against the Nazis. His parents donated the money to start the Madurodam project in his memory after George died from typhus as a prisoner in Dachau concentration camp in February 1945.

Read more about this intriguing little city.

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See many more Madurodam photos here

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The news from Nina and Judith in the UK is that everything has gone as well as can be expected, which is a great relief to us all. The meetings with the lawyers were horrid as expected and as expected the other side have declined at this point to settle, so now the civil case against the young woman who assaulted Nicky and Judith, ruining Judith’s eyesight in the process, will proceed.  It is hard to believe that it has been two years since the original incident and in that time her eyesight has gone from perfect to bad, to worse, to near blindness and then to poor but workable and now……………………………….. Well let us just be positive and send good thoughts.

     Read More Here.

By Tyjardia.

Geert Wilders

The Netherlands faces the prospect of protracted coalition talks and an unstable government after an outspoken anti-immigrant party scored strong gains at the polls. Here in the Netherlands we had a General Election yesterday, and it has been an interesting one as two themes have dominated it, but the order of those two things is different depending on if you are one of the political class or a citizen.

If you are a member of the political class then the main theme of the election has been the economy, if you are a citizen then likely as not your main concern has been immigration. This split should be screaming at our politicians that the people of this country really do care what years of left leaning policies have done to the social structure of this country and that the politicians have failed to listen to those they are meant to represent.

It is going to be really difficult for a government to form a cabinet this time. The political arena has been completely fragmented because never before has the biggest party achieved only 31 votes, but the rise of the right wing may finally go some way to stopping the immigration madness inflicted upon us for so very long.

The centre-right Liberal Party (VVD) managed to snatch a last-minute victory from the Labour PvdA with 31 seats to 30. The the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) recorded significant gains to end a strong third with 24 seats out of 150 in parliament. The Party for Freedom of anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders leapfrogged the historical favourite Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) of outgoing Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, which ended in fourth place with 20 votes in Wednesday’s vote. This means that the PVV will have to be consulted at length because given its size, it cannot be ignored. Labour has categorically excluded cooperation with the far-right, which made its entrance into the Dutch parliament in 2006 with nine MPs, while the Christian Democrats were also likely to find such cooperation unpalatable.

The Netherlands’ proportional election system historically does not give any party an outright majority of 76 seats required to pass laws, and coalition governments normally take about two months to be cobbled together after an election after which Queen Beatrix would as the politicians to form a government.

The far-right PVV campaigned on a ticket to “stop the islamisation of the Netherlands”, insisting on a ban of the Koran, which Wilders has likened to Hitler’s Mein Kampf, and the building of new mosques. Wilders, who has quite rightly called Islam a fascist religion, goes on trial here in the Netherlands in October on charges of inciting racial hatred against Muslims. The fact that we have such laws protecting mere religions is an affront to the rights of every Dutch citizen, they are an example of the views of the political class forcing their “we know best” laws onto individuals. The simple truth is that too many of the new comers to our country do not integrate, they do not learn Dutch, they do not respect our way of life and most notability they have brought with them intolerance, political murder and violence. The great lie of the political that they make a net contribution to our economy has been shown to be a lie once the balance of immigration tipped too far.

On the economic front we do need to take action as a nation. Spending needs to be cut by about 45 billion euros (54 billion dollars) over the nxt four years and by 20 billion euros a year from 2015 and the public deficit, which was 5.3 percent of GDP last year, needs to be reduced. The first thing that should be done is that the government and parliament need to be shrunk, then lower income taxes and cap civil servant pay rises.

So far 98 percent of the vote counted. Official results are expected next Tuesday.

Author: Tyjardia.

Move Night

Last night was movie night,  we do not have a TV in our household so on movie night we hook up one of the laptops to a projector and a set of speakers. The main living room is equipped with a screen that folds up into the ceiling, but on summer nights when good weather can be assured we sometimes move the entire evening outside. The kids have the choice of the main film, the one shown right after evening dinner, it is largely their movie night after all. The food needed to have a distinctly Mousehunt orientation. I made up a Swiss cheese soup as an easy quick win with sunflower seed crackers. Keeping to theme I prepared grilled cheese toasties with some Dutch cheeses. A Roomano cheese, grilled with some pine nuts because as the cheese has a butterscotch flavour so they go well together. r deserts I baked a Mouse cake, Mouse Moose (mouse moulds), then mouse cookies for during the film.

Tayeska  came in ask where she could find four more chairs and place setttings. So imagine me, knife in one hand slot ladle in the other try to sign “What do you mean FOUR more ? The table sits sixteen, I am expecting twelve, what is the problem ?”. To which Tayeska replies, in sign; “Table sits sixteen, BUT you now have twenty guests, not including children !”. My reply was un-lady like and not suitable for children, but as it turned out it was the least of my problems as I dropped my knife narrowly escaping skewering my bare foot, and hit myself in my face with the ladle as I signed my expletive. Amongst all of this where was my wife ? It turned out that she had spend the afternoon between the open thighs of another woman !!  Read More Here

Author: Judith

Gelukkige Tiende Verjaardag

“Some people, those who have never been fortunate enough to fall in love, truly in love, think that it happens just once with that person, but in fact it starts with just the once and if you are very, very lucky you then go on to fall in love all over again every single day you are together for the rest of your lives.

I fall in love with her every day as we wake and the first thing I see is her sleeping face, every time she smiles as she wakes. Her smile is the sun rising into my life. For eight years I have seen her smiles deepen the laugh lines like parentheses on her lovely cheeks, setting her mouth off from the sentence of her face as though it were a secret known only to me.”

Cees, Peter, Mia, Nonke and I would like to wish Judith and Nina a very happy anniversary, May 12th will mark their 11th year together.

Greek Madness

The screaming headline on the front page of Germany’s big newspaper Bild seemed to say it all “The Greeks want even more billions from us! – 25,000,000,000 Euro !” it shouted out in huge type face.

But we should not think that Greece alone is to blame. The political class of the EU are equally responsible, driving as they have the continued hurried growth of the EU in the face of common sense, and probity.Not only is Greece a complete basket case it is one that should never have been allowed admittance to the EU, and now it should be thrown out in disgrace. It should also show the rest of the EU the idiocy of unfetted expansion. Sadly the EU political elite will now close ranks and pressure the media into the deflection of their own guilt.

It is Germany and France who really stand to loose out if Greece goes under because French and German banks have been the prime buyers of Greek Government bonds and the biggest lenders. This of course raises the question of the banks competence. Deutsche Bank, Hypo Real Estate, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, and Societe Generale all have a great deal of explaining to do about how their “due diligence” failed to spot Greece’s financial black hole for so long.

Read More Here

WoW Blog Site

Lorm-Schrift

Sitting around here in Amsterdam,and not being allowed to do anything during my Convalescence I decided to wade through the mountain of mail I have. I got as far January’s mail, shamefully far behind I know, when I came to this mail from a young man:

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“In what language do the profoundly deaf think? I think in Dutch, because that’s what I speak. But since deaf people cannot hear, surely they cannot learn how to speak a language but nevertheless, they must think in some language. Would they think in Dutch if they use sign language and read Dutch? How would they do that if they’ve never heard the words they are signing or reading pronounced? Do they just see words in their head, instead of hearing themselves, how on earth do they do it?  The more I think about this the more confused I become. I gather you became deaf well after you learnt language is that right? How about your deaf child does he use the same language as yourself? What about those who are blind in addition to deaf ?”

Henk van S, Naningweg, Ooststellingwerf.

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You are not far off being right in your thinking. Let me explain with a little help from YouTube, READ HERE

Author: Judith

Judith Brain Surgery

“And here I am falling,
Oh why am I falling.
Take me to where I belong.
I’m standing here falling,
Before you falling.
If it weren’t for your wings I’d be gone.”

From the moment Judith went into hospital Nicky (8) and Hilke (9) were constantly on at me not to let her have any surgery until they were there when she was woken up afterwards. I have to confess that perhaps I did not pay as much attention at first as I should, wrapped up as I was in my own worries about Judith, but the increasingly difficult behaviour of my kids eventually forced me to take notice. So while I set about trapping six of the neighbourhood cats they had set to roaming the house and cleaning the whipped cream off the kitchen floor, units, walls and ceiling I spoke with the kids while trying not to scream at them. Having spent the last eleven years living at close quarters with first one then two hearing impaired people I am a little surprised that it has given me both an insight and at the same time left me somewhat insensitive to them and their world, but sometimes the rush of life can blind any of us.

Read More and listen to a beautiful song.

Author: Nina van der Roos, mother to several sets of beautiful wings !

You may have noticed that Willothewisp has been a little quiet of late, there is a reason for this. Judith has had to go back to hospital after she developed some problems with the area around one of the metal plates in her skull. She had been scheduled to go back later this year to have both the plates replaced with new ceramique ones after it was noticed that she was developing early signs of her body rejecting the original plates. A couple of weeks ago things suddenly started worsening and her vision was again in trouble so it was back into hospital with her. Given the amount of work already done inside her skull, and her reduced senses, we do not take any chances with her health, hence the swift hospitalisation. The timing was rather unfortunate with Joost so recently added to their family so we have been pooling resources to help out with the child care and as a result we have all been rather busy.

Judith was released today and is convalescing at the town house in Amsterdam. She is comfortable though she does get tired very easily. Happily it is clear that her vision is within her normal range again. Her scalp is sore where it was peeled back for the surgery but it is healing well with the help of Far Infrared Light Therapy.

A big concern for us is the impact on the children, especially Nicholas who has never quite recovered emotionally from the incident with the English tourist and seeing his mother unconscious and bleeding in the street. He finds seeing his mother hospitalised very tough going so we are investing a lot of time in him right now.

I expect things will return to normal by this time next weekend, until then we are forcing rest and inactivity on Judith while supporting Nina and the rest of the family.

Kind regards, Tyjardia vL

Jacopo Tintorett's Origin Of The Milky Way

Breast Milk & The Creation Of The Universe, a story in which I am naked on the couch under the softest of blankets with two males tucked up against me at three in the morning on a cold and snowy winters night as I recount the story of the creation of the Milky Way.

Read the whole story here.