I briefly paid a visit to the grocery store this morning, enjoying the moments of sun on my face. How nice it is to feel the sun again! We also opened the bedroom window to get a bit of fresh air in the apartment.

We are not there yet, but: Events to take place again with rapid testing and a CoronaCheck app from nltimes.nl. The government wants to start experimenting with small-scale events to see how it goes. Tomorrow there will be a football game with 1,500 fans separated into six “bubbles” with different rules (article from rtlnieuws.nl in Dutch). For example, bubble #1 has the following rules: wear a face mask unless sitting, restaurants and cafés are available at all times, seat placement is determined in advance but you can sit next to other participants, etc.

One of the key requirements for starting events again in the summer is that testing must be scaled up to at least 400k a day, with a test certificate available for checking via a CoronaCheck app. Of course, keep in mind the Netherlands is also holding general elections next month so it looks good if they announce initiatives like this.

In other, random news: if you want to see map of all the trees in The Hague, check out the “Haagse Bomen app” at ddh.maps.arcgis.com. Larger green circles denote older trees, whereas purple and orange circles denote “monumental” trees, with orange ones owned by the city and purple ones owned by a private citizen. Most of the monumental trees are in the city centre.

Above is a 2013 photo of the tree next to Grote Kerk (Big Church) in The Hague. According to the app website it is 120 years old!

It has been a bit of a confusing day, especially due to speaking Dutch as a second language. A few times I have had to stop and ask Marco what this or that meant, as my knowledge of judicial terms (even everyday judicial terms) isn’t that great.

The Dutch courts unexpectedly struck down the Dutch curfew law which said that everyone must be inside between 21:00 and 04:30, unless you have a valid reason. I say unexpectedly because I didn’t even know there was a court case going on. The Dutch anti-lockdown group Viruswaarheid (Loosely translated: Virus Truth) went to the courts to strike down the curfew. The curfew had been in place since 23 January and was extended on 8 February until the early morning of 3 March. And then suddenly it was gone – or so we thought. I can’t say that I’ve been pretty disrupted by it, beyond Roger coming over earlier in the weekend. (Note: Roger is pretty much our only contact for some months, with a few rare exceptions.) Oh, and also that Marco has to get up early to bring the garbage down. The Hague decided that you can only put your garbage out between 04:30 and 07:45, rather than late in the evening the night before. Ick.

Curfew must be scrapped immediately, court rules from nltimes.nl. The court didn’t say that the curfew itself was wrong, rather that the government did not follow proper procedure and bring it before the Tweede Kamer (House of Representatives) and the Eerste Kamer (Senate) before bringing it into law. The government instead used an “acute emergency” ruling to bring it to pass. The court disagreed that it was indeed an acute emergency.

Viruswaarheid says there will be a party in the streets tonight; the leader invites everyone to go outside and celebrate after 21:00 (article in Dutch, from nos.nl). That does not sound like a good plan…

The Dutch government said wait a minute – we want to appeal that, and we want to keep the curfew active while we’re appealing. Government appeals against curfew ruling, also from nltimes.nl.

The government appeals, and the sitting is scheduled for 16:00. During the hearing, the leader of Viruswaarheid accuses the courts of not being impartial, and he says he wants a different court to hear the case. A special court will look at his request, saying they need until 18:30 to decide, give or take. It’s 19:00 now… At 19:08 the court said that they are dismissing his request for a new court.

So like I said: a confusing day. At the moment, the curfew has been struck down, until the court says otherwise. For now. We will see.