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Waiting game (Or: Press conference in the Netherlands tomorrow)

Posted on April 20, 2020 by Niki

Tomorrow the Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte will announce what coronavirus measures will be lifted, and in some cases what measures will be extended. For us normal folk, it’s a guessing game.

One expectation is that the ban on events will be extended. Some Dutch mayors are hoping for an extension of the ban until 1 September: Burgemeesters willen tot zeker 1 september een verbod op evenementen (nos.nl, article in Dutch). This one I do expect to happen as it’s unlikely that the government would ignore them.

Another measure that people are quite interested in is the re-opening of schools. Scholen open of langer dicht? ‘Zelfs leerlingen beginnen school nu te missen’ (nos.nl, article in Dutch). The headline reads: Schools open, or closed for longer? Even students are beginning to miss school now. Yikes! Meivakantie (“May vacation”) begins next week, from 25 April to 3 May. After that… working parents everyone are looking for a break. If we see any change here, it might be the elementary schools opening first.

The other big one is whether or not restaurants will be fully open, rather than just open for takeout and delivery. This one I don’t expect to change any time soon. June at the earliest. However, that doesn’t mean restaurants can’t plan in the meantime. For instance, some restaurant owners on the Scheveningen beach have presented how they see life in the ‘1.5m society’: Strandtenten klaar voor serveren op anderhalve meter: ‘Zee aan ruimte’. (nos.nl, article in Dutch).

Work is another interesting dilemma, especially in the office – that one I can’t predict. I don’t think they are ready to lift the ‘work from home if you can’ advice, so I expect we will be working from home a bit longer. But perhaps they will remind businesses that now is the time to start thinking about how it will look in the future.

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Categories: Transportation, Working & Volunteering | Tags: Coronavirus, COVID-19 | Leave a comment

Birthday cupcakes (Or: Delivered at a safe distance)

Posted on April 19, 2020 by Niki

I am one of the lucky folks who should be celebrating a birthday during these corona times. Officially I’ve said I’ll celebrate it later in the summer (I mean come on: when will I ever have a chance to celebrate my birthday in the summer again? Who could pass up that opportunity?).

On Friday I received an email from my workplace’s HR department, wishing me a happy birthday and telling me they would be delivering cupcakes on Saturday (yesterday).

The delivery itself was anti-climatic but still tinged by the coronavirus: Someone rang the doorbell. I open the door. The box of cupcakes have been carefully left on the doormat, with the deliveree standing at the edge of the stairs at a safe distance. She points to the box, we exchange the standard pleasantries, and then she is gone again.

Cupcakes! Yum!

Categories: Working & Volunteering | Tags: Birthdays, Coronavirus, COVID-19 | 2 Comments

Anyone need some toilet paper? (Or: A treasure at Albert Heijn)

Posted on April 18, 2020 by Niki

This photo is from last Tuesday, April 7. I just had to take a photo of this much toilet paper together in one spot (who knew that would be an important photo):

There’s some things to note with this photograph:

While this photo was taken on April 7, it was only the second time I had seen a lot of toilet paper. The first was a few weeks previously at another Albert Heijn in the city centre.
This photo was taken from the side. The pictured path is well travelled, so I didn’t want to be in anyone’s way. I have to remember that social distancing after all. I’d say this was about one third of the toilet paper on offer.
This Albert Heijn receives these ‘voordeelpaks’ (bonus packs of 40, or sometimes 48 rolls) only in weeks when the toilet paper is on sale. During normal weeks you can’t purchase this many rolls in one pack.

Otherwise I would say most things are back – maybe pasta and rice are still a bit low, but they are definitely always at least half stocked. Pasta sauce is still a bit hit or miss, as noted in a previous post.

What is your local grocery store still missing in these coronavirus times?

Categories: Everyday purchases | Tags: Albert Heijn, Coronavirus, COVID-19 | Leave a comment

Metro newspaper (Or: Another victim of these crazy times)

Posted on April 17, 2020 by Niki

Metro is a free daily paper that is primarily distributed at train stations to commuters. It was started in 1999. As you might expect, all of their income comes from advertisements.

I was just thinking about them last week – I took a responsible social distancing walk to The Hague Centraal train station and spotted an empty Metro container. I remember thinking to myself that it made sense that there were no newspapers inside – there weren’t any commuters to be seen! The Netherlands has seen a roughly 85% drop in public transportation use since mid-March.

Because of this, the newspaper announced on March 19 (link in Dutch) that they would temporarily be stopping with the print edition of Metro. Yesterday they announced that they would be moving forward as a purely digital newspaper (link in Dutch).

It’s actually hard to imagine that the print version is gone. The best part about the paper was that it was free – because that meant people would leave it behind in the train when they were done reading it. That way the next bored person could have something to read as well!

Empty boxes at Gouda train station, normally filled with newspapers

The (cropped) image above was taken by Wikimedia Commons user Donald_Trung and can be viewed and downloaded at this Wikimedia Commons link.

Categories: Reading, Transportation | Tags: NS | Leave a comment

Supporting local businesses (Or: Takeout? Delivery?)

Posted on April 16, 2020 by Niki

Okay, I’ll admit I’m not a big fan of delivery. I would gladly do takeover over delivery any day. I think I am in the minority, though!

Check out the sign by the local Momiji Sushi and Momiji Ramen. They are special enough to have two websites and two entrances (normally) – even though they are run by the same company and you can walk from one part to the other.

A sign saying they are open for both takeout and delivery, and giving their opening times.

I am definitely a fan of the color work on that sign. I think maybe I’ll suggest we get some sushi… or ramen… this weekend. Yum!

Fun side note: “Ramen” means “windows” in Dutch. Let me tell you, Marco loves to make jokes about their windows every time we walk past. (I love that. Usually…)

Support your local business and stay safe, everyone.

Categories: Food, The Hague | Leave a comment

King’s Day changes (Or: Celebrations now dubbed “Woningsdag”)

Posted on April 15, 2020 by Niki

The National Association of King’s Day organizers announced today that Koningsdag (King’s Day) will become Woningsdag (Home Day) this year. Even if you don’t speak Dutch you can see the subtle change in the word to encourage people to stay at home while celebrating Koningsdag.

King’s Day is a day of birthday celebration for King Willem-Alexander who is turning 53 this year. It is a nationally recognized holiday where (most) people don’t need to go in to work. Previously the holiday was known as Koninginnedag or Queen’s Day until Princess Beatrix abdicated the throne in 2013. She also celebrated the day in April, in honor of her mother. Probably a good thing for us as Princess Beatrix was born in late January – brrrr.

Here are some of the activities planned for the Woningsdag later this month:

hanging Dutch flags outside (both for the king on his birthday and for each other)
bell ringing between 09:45-10:00 throughout the country
singing of the national anthem at 10:00
NOS (the national broadcaster) will air a program at 10:10 looking at previous King’s Day events
a digital market for clothes in the afternoon. I have no idea how they will make that work – but the Dutchies are well known for their King’s Day flea markets. See also:

The king will read some of the digital letters written to him by children
At 16:00 there will be a toast to the king in which everyone can participate (woo! alcohol at 16:00!)
In the evening NOS (the national broadcaster) will air a program looking at how Woningsdag was celebrated throughout the country

For more information, see:

Koningsdag wordt Woningsdag met digitale kleedjesmarkt en thuistoost (nu.nl)

Kings Day will be celebrated at home this year, with church bells and a toast (dutchnews.nl)

Corona maakt van Koningsdag dit jaar Woningsdag (nos.nl)

Hmm. Right now a Google search for Woningsdag returns just under 8,000 hits. Let’s see how that increases in the next few weeks…

Categories: Holidays | Tags: Koningsdag | Leave a comment

Easter 2020 (Or: A bit smaller and closer to home)

Posted on April 12, 2020 by Niki

Happy Easter, everyone! It’s a quiet holiday – we’ve opened the windows nice and wide today to get that spring breeze circulating through the apartment. This year Marco and I ordered Easter Brunch from a local restaurant, FOAM Catering. You can find them at Frederikstraat 44.

We were tempted after Marco saw the menu on Facebook:

We went with the meal and added one massive chocolate chip cookie and one banana bread muffin to the spoils. Check it out:

From left to right we have the massive chocolate chip cookie, and then next to that the banana bread muffin (sort of hidden). In the box above we have the two sandwiches – BLTA (tempeh bacon, lettuce, tomato and avocado – YUMMM!) and the wakame baguette with scrambled tofu, chives and tomato. I can easily say it is the best tofu I’ve ever had. It was great and did actually look like scrambled eggs. You can see the scrambled tofu container in the lower right, as you needed to warm it up separately and then add it to the sandwich.

Underneath the sign “Like our food?” is the mango jalapeño gazpacho, my second favorite item after the BLTA sandwich. It wasn’t that spicy, and the mango wasn’t too sweet. To the right is the scrambled tofu, as earlier mentioned. In the box on the far right is the coconut power balls and underneath the two brownies. Sweets wise we kept it at the coconut power balls, which were unbelievably tasty. We saved them until last and had them with a cup of coffee. The two closed containers in the far back are the extra scrambled tofu and gazpacho.

If you’re in The Hague I would definitely recommend this restaurant – it was well worth the price and we’re already planning our next visit. And without this experience I wouldn’t have ever known tempeh bacon existed, so that’s a definite win.

Stay safe, everyone!

Categories: Food, Holidays | Tags: Easter | 2 Comments

Good Friday (Or: A bit of sun and relaxation)

Posted on April 10, 2020 by Niki

Happy Friday everyone! ☀️ We made it to the weekend.

I would also like to give a shout to my mother who has an irregular job which is not only Monday-Friday – hope you’re getting some time off here and there!

It has now become routine to check the numbers from RIVM (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment) in the afternoon, as they release statistics about the coronavirus deaths and hospitalizations around 14:00 every day. They seem to have increased their server load in the last week or so as the site doesn’t freeze around that time anymore.

RIVM Statistics in English

Note: The Netherlands has increased testing capacity in the last week, so the number of confirmed cases is going up due to that. They are now able to test healthcare workers outside of hospitals, including workers who work in home healthcare.

The statistics regarding ICU beds can be found at NICE (National Intensive Care Evaluation) although that page is not available in English. Daily numbers are released sometime after 16:00 each day. Also note the time stamp at the top of the page is whatever the time was when you visited the site, not the last time that it was updated. But keeping an eye on the ICU beds is important is this country as we needed to quickly increase our numbers to be able to handle the expected strain in the ICU.

In either case, the numbers aren’t complete yet as some hospitals send in their reports a day or two later. For example our country generally has a higher number of deaths on Tuesdays as they include deaths over the weekend and on Monday.

Here’s a photo from The Hague Centraal train station earlier this morning:

*Care for each other, keep 1.5 meters distance*

ProRail is responsible for the infrastructure and capacity of the rail transport lines, while NS (which I mention sometimes in this blog) is responsible for most, but not all, of the passenger transport in The Netherlands.

And a look at the current tram schedule at the train station:

At the moment, trams operate every 20 minutes during the day on a weekday and every half hour in the weekend.

Stay safe!

Categories: The Hague, Transportation | Tags: Coronavirus, COVID-19 | Leave a comment

An empty Malieveld (Or: Coronavirus trumps good weather)

Posted on April 9, 2020 by Niki

Ahh, weekend! It’s an early one, but we’re getting four days off. My work gives both Good Friday and Easter Monday as paid holidays, and Marco took tomorrow off and gets Easter Monday as a paid holiday. This has been a long work week. It’s not the work itself, just the constant working from home situation, I think.

This is the end of week #5 for working at home, and my expectation is that we’ll also be working from home in May as well. Or at least partially working from home so that the social distancing and 1.5 meters rule can be enforced on the work floor. For instance by saying only half the workforce can go into work each day, and alternating who goes in each day.

So hopefully that explains the long walk Marco and I took in the afternoon yesterday – sometimes you just need to get out and stretch. Here is a look at Malieveld – unbelievably empty on a day when temperatures reached 71F / 22C. It was the first time I took off my jacket in many months, I must admit. And the first time in a while that I wondered if I should have put sunblock on…

There were a few people in the grass in the distance, but not many. You can also see that the grass still hasn’t completely recovered from the farmer protests back in October of last year. Check out this aerial photo: Reddit link.

Looking forward to sleeping in a bit tomorrow. And maybe stretching my legs and going for a socially distant walk at some point.

Categories: The Hague, Working & Volunteering | Tags: Coronavirus, COVID-19, Malieveld | Leave a comment

Warmth and sun (Or: Cautious wanderings)

Posted on April 7, 2020 by Niki

Oh, sunny days! (which makes me think of the song “Oh Happy Day” from Sister Act 2 – obligatory YouTube link).

But today’s temperature was about 66F / 19C. Spring is coming. I took a break from work to take a short walk, finding bits of sun while practicing my social distancing responsibly…

I took a photo of the old city hall, where Marco and I were married in September 2013. See the stairs in the lower right? We took some wedding pictures there. I was reminded again of how much taller Marco is than I am, as I had to stand a few stairs above him in the pictures.

Blast from the past (blog post from September 19, 2014 to be exact): Holding hands (Or: A year ago today)

There was another press conference this evening with Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Healthcare Minister Hugo de Jonge. For the most part the message was Hou vol! Or “Keep going! You’re doing great!” With a few exceptions, we managed to use our common sense and stay home over the weekend, only going outside if needed and going out alone, etc.

There was also a reminder that Easter was coming and we needed to celebrate it at home responsibly and not travel throughout the country to visit family. With a similar amount of “You’re doing great! Don’t stop now!” and a reminder that the only way the country can consider relaxing the measures (piece by piece, slowly) is if we all individually and collectively make smart decisions in the near future. You get the idea.

Minister de Jonge also mentioned that the government was looking into two apps to help in the fight against the coronavirus: one app to let you know if you have been in contact with someone who had later been diagnosed with the virus, and another app to help potential patients stay in touch with their doctors. They don’t know if the apps will be compulsory (my guess is no, as people tend to be stubborn around here) and how they will work with regards to privacy and user data.