The Netherlands got a little taste of “orange mania” this week as Saturday was Koningsdag (English: King’s Day) in The Netherlands. Of course you see some wacky items that come about this time of year – both for the previously mentioned holiday but also for the FIFA World Cup in June.
See at Albert Heijn. “Hup Holland Hup” translates to “Go Holland Go”
Don’t forget to check out the title on the can. See also this previous post, Hup Holland.
Today I unexpectedly had to give up my now old Albert Heijn bonus card (bonuskaart). They have been announcing for a month or so that new bonus cards were coming, though at the top of my Albert Heijn app it said ‘fill in your new bonus card number before January 6’ so I thought I had a bit more time. Perhaps it was a language barrier issue – I said yes to a packet with the new card in it (so I could look it over) and then all the sudden the cashier was taking the bonus card off my key chain and throwing it out. Opps. Maybe if I had said no, I would have been able to keep my old one for a bit longer.
The biggest controversy with these cards is that they also offer personal deals beyond what is offered to everyone else. Nice, huh? Well, of course to get those deals you have to activate your card and give up more personal information about yourself. (For the record this does not bug me THAT much, except for giving out my phone number.)
At first I was concerned because I didn’t want to activate my new card right away – I thought I had more time. But after getting home and reading through the instructions, it does say that the card can be used right away. It says: Deze nieuwe kaart vervangt uw oude Bonuskaart. Uiteraard kunt u met uw nieuwe Bonuskaart gebruik blijven maken van al onze Bonusaabiedingen. Daarvoor heeft u niets te doen. U kunt deze nieuwe Bonuskaart meteen gebruiken aan de kassa.
Exception: if you want to see previous purchases you need to make an online account and register your card. I can no longer see previous purchases on the Albert Heijn app (newest version, iOS7). As soon as you update the app you are required to do this, whether or not you have an old or new card. It ‘forgets’ your old card.
the card itself (with option to cut off the blue part and use it on your key chain/”sleutelhanger”), as mentioned at the bottom in Dutch)
I’m not quite sure how it works in this country – previously I was using a copy of Marco’s card – but perhaps it is not as common to require personal information for grocery cards as it is in America. Perhaps the old cards had no personal information on them at all and only collected anonymous data about shopping patterns. Whereas in America you usually have to give your address, phone number, and email. Whether or not they were actually valid was up to you…
Of course, like anything new, there are issues to address: there is no pin-code or password needed to see prior purchases online, and almost all of the bonus card number is displayed on the receipt (only a few standard numbers are missing). Though that article is from September so perhaps it has been fixed already.
what you get if you activate. 1: exclusive deals. 2. faster air miles (note these is not the same as airport air miles!) 3. gifts.
various coupons you can receive if you activate before the 27th of December. ‘Welkomstdeals’ -> Welcome deals
Yesterday Marco and I took a bus from Central Station in The Hague to Wassenaar, a nearby suburb of The Hague, for the birthday party of a friend’s kid. While we were waiting at the bus platform I decided to take a picture of a McDonald’s advertisement that seems to have sprung up everywhere in the last few days. (In actuality, most advertising spaces seem to go to the same advertisement, and the advertisements change every week. So you are usually bombarded by the same advertisement over and over.)
It’s a picture of a sundae (available in chocolate or caramel) with the tagline “ook lekker op Mondae”. Also tasty on Monday. While most of the tagline is in Dutch, they did not change the name of the day from the English Monday to the Dutch maandag for the joke, as that would kill the joke a bit.
Of course we did not stop at McDonald’s before going to Wassenaar, but we did stop at Starbucks in Central Station and split a vanilla latte. Yum. I can still vividly remember how excited Marco was when the first Starbucks arrived in Schiphol airport. Of course that worked well for him because he was constantly visiting America for the yearly Wrestlemania trip or the other 3-4 trips to see me.
It wasn’t much longer after that (a year or so) before the Starbucks opened in The Hague in the Central Station. But then it wasn’t as special, because you could just walk there to get a good coffee. You no longer needed to hop on a plane. ;p
The weather has changed after the first few days of September (when we actually hit 30c/86f). The last few days have been nothing but rain, rain, and more rain. It was pouring about 10 minutes ago and I am afraid to look outside to see if it still is.
After a slow start to the summer, we have been spoiled by some moderate, dry weather since then. Of course I am only worried because the wedding is in 11 days… it is truly crazy to realize that!
Today’s the start of another week (and the start of another school week). I was able to get my textbook on Thursday morning (Taaltalent) so I do not have to worry about that anymore.
Here’s a random photo from a few weeks ago. The sign amused me, but I’m not sure why:
Of course there is a stereotypical bike nearby.
If it was me, I would have drawn a line from “sure you do” to “yes”, rather than “buy a new pair of jeans”. The person who originally said no to a new pair of jeans needs to still agree that they need a new one. Seen at Baretta Jeans.
Random, I know.
I must admit that in the 9 or so months I have been in the Netherlands, I have never seen a 1 euro cent piece, much less used one.
But a few days ago I found one:
1 euro cent, 5 euro cents, and an American quarter (25 cents), for size comparison
It was actually in my wallet, of all places. I guess I was given it as change. It’s quite possible that I received it while I was in Dublin’s airport waiting for the flight home. It’s actually quite tiny – much smaller than the euro 5 cent piece.
But I’ve never seen it in use in the Netherlands. I’ve seen a few signs saying that it isn’t accepted at certain stores, but that’s the only reference to it. The reason the 1 cent piece isn’t used here is because when you pay with cash, the prices are rounded up or down to the nearest 5 cents. If you use your debit card, then you pay the exact price.
A few weeks ago Marco and I were at a Dutch store called Big Bazar. One of the bins was full of tiles with sayings on them – who knows what culture had them first – translated into Dutch.
Ervaring is leren van je fouten. Sommige mensen hebben veel ervaring!
Experience is learning from your mistakes. Some people have a lot of experience!
Love is in the air… Jammer genoeg kan ik niet vliegen.
Love is in the air… Unfortunately I can’t fly.
(jammer genoeg = unfortunately/sadly/regrettably)
Tomorrow is Koninginnedag, or Queen’s Day. It’s also when Queen Beatrix abdicates the throne for her son, Willem-Alexander. There will be a lot of events going on, especially in Amsterdam where the main festivities are (schedule). One of the local movie theaters in The Hague will also be showing the abdication live.
Here are some pictures of the various random things you can buy to mark the event. I already did a blog post on the first photo, but the rest are new:
Frilly orange scarves and more
Albert Heijn “Wuppie” – royal version. (you receive one for every €15 you spend).
Today Marco and I visited the new Selexyz-De Slegte book store in The Hague. The two stores merged after Selexyz’s previous store front was taken over by a real Apple store (not just an official Apple supplier store). The Apple store hasn’t opened yet though.
The store itself was a bit of a disappointment because I couldn’t find the language section. It seems like the first floor houses the Selexyz materials, and the second floor is the 2nd hand materials (from De Slegte).
But one thing I did come across was a small board game section, complete with games translated to Dutch.
It even had the Settlers of Catan! (Kolonisten van Catan, originally a German game)
Two different sodas (“pop” if you’re from Chicago… And no, Marco/Roger, not ‘Pop! Pop!’ from Magnitude.)
It’s Holy Soda! On the bottom of the label it says 100% goodness, so I am sure they are playing off that with the name. Of course, next to it you have Good Energy. Compare that with the Spam energy drink from a few days ago…
And then, also at Albert Heijn, you now have… Mountain Dew in bottle form (0,5 liters/17oz).
The scary thing? This bottle is empty. That’s right, the bottle is also neon green! In America, it’s a bit darker to make it look more like regularly colored soda. At the moment it costs €1.09, or $1.43. Not horrible considering it’s an import product. It’s been cropping up everywhere lately. First the can form at Subway a year or two ago. This year more stores have been selling the cans. And now the bottles are for sale as well.
Personally, I will just call the color radiation green.
I saw a link this morning which reminded me of an experience I had a few weeks ago in Etos, a beauty&etc type store. I was with Marco’s mother. I came across the baby aisle and was confused to see a sign over the infant formulas, similar to this one from another website:
http://www.nrc.nl — sign in an Amsterdam Etos store limiting customers to one baby formula item
It turns out that the melamine milk powder scare of a few years ago in China has, since the beginning of the year, caused a shortage of baby formula in countries as close as Hong Kong and as far away as Europe or, and the Netherlands in particular. It has also affected the UK.
And that is my random news of the day.
