Moi! From North of 53

Feejit shows a lone Canadian visiting XS4all today. To the person on the west shore of Hudson Bay, about mid way up - hi there!

The day after celebrating my 5th year in NL, my klusjesman delivered the following devastating news: last year's painters ignored a motherlode of houtrot and painted right over it; a felony compounded when, not seeing houtrot, the next contractor installed double glass windows. When said klusjesman started his job, he discovered the whole miserable mess, plus the loose balcony. And, to put a "punt" to this series of disasters, today the much-welcome morning sun glinted on - - a crack in one of the newly installed windows. So, I looked outside to watch the world outside and ponder life for a while. And asked myself, "Aren't you homesick for Canada yet?" (Answer - "No", and "No, I don't know why!)

Horrors! Destruction of historic buildings on the Hoge der A! It is too late to save them. What will be built in their place? Who was behind this? I have huge misgivings about what might be built to replace them. Where are the plans for the public to view? This is an Architectuur Misdaad because of the destruction. It could be worse depending on what's coming next. Watch out, everyone who cares about this city!

Zara is the new winkel in town. They took over a historic building on the Herestraat and, unlike other shop owners, did not destroy the appearance of the building. Instead, they did something almost completely unheard of - they respected the historical structure and made the best of it, both inside and outside. Wish I had pictures! Zara - well done!

The bill came in for all the calls I made to Ziggo's customer service. I see why they have long waits on "hold" and a useless but time-consuming script for customer service. And I called enough times, and got nowhere all of those times, enough to know their script by heart - up to and including the part where they put me on hold to listen to music for several minutes before disconnecting me.

Bottom line: I ended up paying Ziggo for one month where I had no internet service because Ziggo was too lazy to re-set or repair their malfunctioning gateway. I paid Ziggo more than the equivalent of one month's internet service for the pleasure of calling their customer service line. They have maximized the art of making money by doing nothing!

Goodbye Ziggo - I found someone else!

My trusty installatie bedrijf came to move a geizer and install a groepenkast. Who would ever think that lifting floorboards in search of a water pipe would get someone sprayed by said water pipe? Yes, that happened because a different someone long ago nailed down the floorboards without thinking what was underneath. Water seeped and creeped down the ancient wiring to the light in the WC where some of it actually accumulated inside the lightbulb. (The installatie man brought the bulb back to his place of business as a souvenir). The fellow disconnected things to eliminate the fire hazard. But that's not all: a nail from the floorboards also pierced electrical wiring. And the project has only just begun...

Ziggo. Need I say more? I've been without internet since January 8 because their gateway won't work. Ziggo steadfastly insists there is no problem but, if there is, it must be my problem. Well, thanks to unnamed friend who did something like spoof a new IP address for me causing Ziggo to automatically assign me a new gateway to the 'net, my problems were solved - the internet was back. Alas, after a power outage, Ziggo reassigned me to the malfunctioning gateway resulting in no more internet. We countered that again with a spoof IP, but with no confidence that the connection will last. With such a tenuous link to the 'net, I've been looking around for a new internet service provider. We'll see.

In my former life, I was President of a mining venture in Canada. It was a two-person venture in need of three (or more) and a candidate was invited to an interview to pitch why we should choose him. The candidate and my business partner were acquainted with each other. They chatted for a few moments before sitting down with me. Before introductions could be made, the candidate looked at me quizzically and asked, "What are you doing here? Are you taking the minutes or something?" "Sir, you are clearly off to a good start - you have just insulted the President". Actually, it isn't funny. It happens to us women all the time, even in 2009. The assumption of being less than, worth less, worthless - afflict us at every turn and at every venture, forcing us to have to prove ourselves over and over again - making the respect of our colleagues very precious indeed. It comes so much harder to us after all.

Lately I've had deep thoughts about addiction, specifically addiction to cigarettes. At some level, we know it's suicide, but the resulting sickness and death always seem to happen to somebody else, someone so much older, etc. It's just about impossible to imagine that you could be there one day too, hearing the doctor announce your imminent death from a preventable disease, all because you smoke. Smoking. Such a heavy addiction. I quit 32 years ago and it seems like less. The dreams about smoking lasted for years and, once, I woke up wondering if I really did have a cigarette the day before. In my dreams, I played the game, "How many cigarettes can I smoke - and still say I quit?" In another dream I was smoking, then remembering I had quit, and stubbed out the cigarette at the same time I was lighting another... My husband quit later in life, at 52. At 53, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Six months later he was gone. I could hardly believe it. His lost years hung before me like a mirage. Then I thought about why cigarettes are still marketed, knowing the human cost. I realized there is another side to this story - the savings. People on the side of health and productivity and life are in the newspapers counting the costs. But, somewhere in the unpublished darkness there could be people counting the savings: the years of pensions not paid, social services not used, the income from taxes raised and, suddenly, the health care costs begin to look small in comparison. It begins to look like it is profitable for governments and cigarette manufacturers to market cigarettes. When I see the populations that are smoking heavily, I see populations that the government has no interest in keeping healthy, like the poor, and the marginalized. Cigarettes can be used for genocide. Is this another side of the story? Through addiction, people kill themselves - problem solved. No guns needed. This post is long enough for now. I may have more on this another time. No promises.

The Architectuur Misdaadkaart is growing. There was a gathering of builders in the Martini promoting their wares last week - so many daders, so little time! Coming soon: A misdaad in progress right in the city centre! Right now, there is a fence, a big hole in the ground, and a poster naming the dader and accessories to the crime. With pictures! I feel sorry for the residents of the nice little houses on the opposite side of the street because the view from their perspective is going to be something awful. On the other hand, the residents of the new monstrosity get to look at cute little houses and can pretend they are part of historic Groningen. The pictures have been added to the gallery and I haven't yet put them in this post. Means: it'll take time to connect the photos in a meaningful way, so I'll describe: The row of cute old houses goes with the poster of the planned nieuwbouw. The row of modern townhouses goes with the Gardepoort.

The liberals are courting voters again, and brushed off a stale old promise that worked for them before. It goes like this: make a promise, get the votes, and, once elected, say there's no money to fulfill the promise. It works every time!

Stale promise number 1: They promise to start a National Child Care Program. They've been promising this one since before my kids were born. My kids recently graduated from university. No childcare program. The Liberals have really run this promise into the ground. When I saw it on the front page of the Toronto Star this week, I could hardly believe my eyes. When it fully registered, I laughed myself silly.

The next day, more stale promises were trotted out: pay equity was one. Looks like the Liberals are looking for more women's votes this time. Ah, pay equity. Would be nice in a land where women earn something like 75 percent of what men earn.

Men earn more even in female dominated fields like nursing and administrative assistant. Fresh out of college, the difference in starting income for females and males doing administrative work is 20%. Enough to make one pound one's head against the table. It hasn't changed much since I was a bright-eyed highschool graduate and finding that my male contemporaries had well-paying jobs, and were buying cars and houses, starting families... and the most I could afford from my earnings was a single room in a rooming house. Even when I worked as a secretary to the President of a national organization, I could not afford my own apartment! Good grief!

Pay equity. They've been promising that almost ever since I started working, and now I'm almost ready to retire!

I guess the Liberals are counting on a good percentage of the voting population to be too young to realize how old these Liberal promises are.