Posts Tagged With: Coronavirus

Ginger molasses cookies at Lebkov (Or: Spicy and sweet in one bite)

Posted on September 13, 2020 by Niki

Check out this photo of a lunch I recently had at Lebkov café here in The Hague:

Sparkling water, a BLT sandwich and a ginger molasses (!) cookie. The cookie was awesome. Perhaps they added a bit of black pepper to it? It had a kick, that’s for sure. It was interesting to taste both spicy and sweet at the same time.

A bit of corona-related news, since it has been a while:

  • from nltimes.nl: infections are increasing. There has been talk of extra measures in the three big cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague. The number of infections there has been high. However for now the three cities have agreed with the Dutch cabinet to be more strict about corona rules and close down areas of concern faster (read: not much will change, I think).
  • from omroepwest.nl in Dutch: Sinterklaas festivities in The Hague altered this year. There will be no parade, but Sinterklaas will still arrive by boat in the Scheveningen harbor. (If you are not sure what the Sinterklaas holiday is, check out this 2013 article over at utoday.nl: What the bleep is… Sinterklaas & Zwarte Piet?)
  • from nltimes.nl: Amsterdam postpones New Year’s fireworks ban over Covid-19. It really, really seems like a lifetime ago, but in January 2020 there was was a lot of talk about banning most consumer-bought fireworks due to a number of incidents, including incidents against paramedics, police and firemen. Yikes. Amsterdam has put a temporary hold on the ban due to the fact that the promised alternatives (city sponsored fireworks shows and similar) just aren’t reasonable in these socially distanced times.

Otherwise, the days are blending into each other now. I really had to stop and think of what month it was the other day. I was trying to remember when certain TV shows would restart, and then I realized it’s impossible to tell for most shows. But otherwise Marco and I are doing fine.

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More than applause (Or: Shoes at the Malieveld)

Posted on September 5, 2020 by Niki

While out walking today I spotted some shoes by the Malieveld. And by “some shoes” I actually mean hundreds of pairs of shoes. Today healthcare workers held a demonstration called #meerdanapplaus (more than applause). You can probably guess what that is about – it’s great that everyone claps for healthcare workers, but what about giving them a raise and hiring more workers to to prevent burnout? The sector did receive an 1000 euro bonus and is slated to receive a 500 euro bonus next year but more could be done.

Due to the corona restrictions, the healthcare workers couldn’t be there in person, so they sent their shoes instead. (After the demonstration the shoes will be sent to various charities.)

In a similar vein, do you remember my post about Irma Sluis, the Dutch sign language interpreter who stole the hearts of thousands with her “panic buying” sign? In Dutch panic buying (or hoarding) is translated as hamsteren, since hamsters are known to squirrel away food. Since there was no official sign for that term in Dutch sign language, it was created earlier that day.

The Tweede Kamer (Dutch House of Representatives) passed a motion earlier this week to recognize Dutch sign language as an official language (nos.nl, article in Dutch). The language is used by about 15,000 residents. The law also states that Dutch sign language interpreters must be used more often by the government, for example during important press conferences. The article mentions the fact that sign language courses have seen a huge boost due to the “Irma” effect, although there is still more that could be done. At least it is something positive to come out of this crazy year.

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Sliding away… (Or: Collapsing canal wall in Amsterdam)

Posted on September 1, 2020 by Niki

Here’s a strange news story from today:

The good news is that no one was hurt. And for those of us who like to see the destruction in action, there’s a 21 second video over at this nos.nl news article: Kademuur in centrum Amsterdam deels ingestort.

It’s Tuesday, so the Dutch public health institute has released the weekly Covid-19 numbers (from rivm.nl, in English). It’s actually good news, to a degree: we’re either stable in comparison to last week (number of infections) or doing slightly better (number of hospitalizations and deaths). Because there are more people getting tested, the number of positive tests has gone down as well. The only less than thrilling news is that The Hague has more infections than last week – 331 this week versus 278 last week.

There was also a press conference tonight, about six months after the first coronavirus patient was reported in the Netherlands. I can’t believe it’s been six months! The biggest update was that nightclubs and discotheques are not yet allowed to reopen, with no reopening date set at this time. The prime minister talked about how we are getting frustrated with the situation but we need to stay alert, especially as schools are reopening and people are coming back from vacation.

The Dutch corona app CoronaMelder (Corona reporter) will be delayed until about half September so that testing locations can be expanded first. It should have been in use nationally from today. It is currently in testing, and anyone who receives a notification from the test app can get tested without symptoms. However, at the moment the general country is being asked to only get tested if they have symptoms. These two policies obviously don’t match, hence the slight delay.

There’s more on the press conference over at nltimes.nl: Nightclubs to remain closed, frustration with Covid rules is understandable.

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Good news! (Or: Longer opening hours at the Central Library)

Posted on August 30, 2020 by Niki

Being the book nerd that I am, I am happy to read that The Hague’s Central Library would go back to its normal opening hours starting tomorrow, 31 August. The library branches in Escamp, Scheveningen and Segbroek will also have their normal opening hours from tomorrow. The rest of the libraries will hopefully go back to their normal opening times in the beginning of October.

Personally, I’m quite happy about this, as I used to make a quick trip to the library after work. But with the corona opening hours being 12:00-17:00 Monday-Saturday, this usually wasn’t possible. And something always came up to prevent me from going on Saturday…

View of the Central Library from Pathé Spui (movie theatre chain), March 2019

And if that does not give you enough of your library fix, the Central Library is also holding their annual book/film/cd sale next Sunday, 6 September from 12:00-17:00, on the 3rd floor. Or the 4th floor, if you’re American (see Wikipedia’s article about floor numbering in different cultures). Heh.

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Shopping is dangerous? (Or: Issues with corona banners in Amsterdam)

Posted on August 26, 2020 by Niki

A few weeks back, Amsterdam began an experiment with face masks in certain busier parts of the city (amsterdam.nl). The experiment runs through the end of August, after which it will be evaluated to see if face masks will still be required. This has been a bit controversial, with some store owners reporting that revenue is down up to 40% in comparison with other Dutch shopping streets that do not have this requirement (nltimes.nl).

Some of the streets also have banners hung up between the buildings letting people know which side of the street they should be walking on (see Tweet below).

The problem is that the bottom of the banner contains small pipes to help weigh them down so they do not move around that much in the wind. And what did we have yesterday evening and today? A huge wind storm. It turns out that the pipes were not properly secured, meaning there was a risk that the pipes would fall out, possibly injuring shoppers in the process. Opps! The streets were closed for 3-4 hours today while the fire department removed all of the pipes.

In other news:

  • Cafés violating customer privacy with Covid contact data (nltimes.nl). Restaurants, cafés and terraces must now ask you for your contact details, per the Dutch government. It’s not required that you leave your contact details, but it is strongly encouraged. I’m sure the stories linked above won’t help the government’s case, though. Example: a journalist left her contact details at a restaurant. Shortly after she left the restaurant she received a phone call from the bartender asked if she wanted to have a drink with him sometime. What???
  • Overvallen door een plensbui? Weerapps minder betrouwbaar door afname vliegverkeer (omroepwest.nl). The title is: Do you find yourself in the middle of an unexpected, quick rain shower? Weather apps are less trustworthy now that there are less flights taking off. The article talks about just that – when a plane takes off it automatically measures the outside temperature and wind speed as it rises in height. That information is also passed on to the Dutch weather service to help predict weather changes. During the lockdown (when flights were very scarce) the Dutch weather service released an extra weather balloon to gather additional data points for their weather reporting.
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Of course there’s a book for that (Or: The first corona novel is spotted)

Posted on August 24, 2020 by Niki

Here in the Netherlands we already have at least one corona related novel, a novel that I spotted earlier this month at the library. The theme is about two strangers, both writers, who meet each other at a vacation park and start to fall in love amidst the chaos of corona, social distancing, quarantine and hoarding. But I decided not to check it out, thinking that anything written that fast can’t be good. And I’m not a big fan of romance novels anyway, even if it’s only a side theme.

And you know what the crazy thing is? When I was looking up a review of Quarantaine I found one dated 15 May 2020 from Het Parool. 15 May! That’s just over two months, three at the very most, from idea to publication – that’s insane. The reviews over at bol.com (like Dutch Amazon) are a bit better, at least. It gets four stars over there. But still. Romance? No thanks.

If you read Dutch, I’ll recommend instead Het Station by Joris van Casteren. Joris spends some months at Amsterdam Centraal back in 2014 or so, gathering stories of conductors, security guards, passengers, cleaners, the homeless and more. It was quite interesting but that’s probably because I’m a fan of trains and trams and metros and… you get the idea.

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Yum yum yum (Or: Homemade ramen soup)

Posted on August 20, 2020 by Niki

Marco has outdone himself yet again. Here’s a look at our dinner tonight:

Ramen soup with Japanese noodles, super snaps, pork, carrots, fresh ginger, pickled red ginger, green onion miso, onions, seaweed and sesame seeds. Therefore, I say: yum yum yum! Go Marco!

Here’s a sign that we live in a different world now: HTM laat meer trams en bussen buiten spits rijden, tijdens spits juist wat minder from omroepwest.nl. HTM, the public transportation company of The Hague, has altered their schedule for the rest of the year. They will be offering fewer buses and trams during weekday rush hour, but more buses and trams outside of weekday rush hour. Because, really, what is rush hour these days? Sure, some people go to work, but a lot less than before the corona crisis hit. They will also review the schedule at the end of the year to see if it should be extended into 2021.

Today was a bit of a madhouse in the city centre, although I missed it due to being hard at work. Which is probably a good thing. There were more demonstrations from the group “Viruswaarheid” or “Virus truth”. The demonstrators are against the corona measures the government has created. See also this article (with videos) at nltimes.nl: Covid protestors fight with police in The Hague; 1 cop hurt. But note you do see some idiots.

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Annastraat in The Hague (Or: Side street in the city centre)

Posted on August 19, 2020 by Niki

Today I’ve chosen a random photo of the city centre for you. Take a look at Annastraat:

As noted, it’s in the city centre: not far from the Grote Kerk and just around the corner from restaurant Milu, where Marco and I held our wedding reception back in 2013, although it was a different restaurant then.

DutchNews.nl has updated their coronavirus article with the changes announced during the press conference: Coronavirus in the Netherlands: what you need to know, update August 19

In and other news: Germans must walk their dogs twice a day, new law will say from theguardian.com. And each walk must last an hour. In theory it sounds good for dogs everywhere. Yet in reality it seems too hard to enforce. Does it take older or sick dogs into consideration? Or bad weather (freezing temperatures or scorching temperatures)? Personally I don’t expect to see this law lasting long… but you never know.

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Dinner in front of the TV (Or: Another Dutch press conference)

Posted on August 18, 2020 by Niki

There was another press conference tonight, held by the Prime Minister Mark Rutte. The main highlights are:

People are urgently asked, but not required, to limit home gatherings to a maximum of six guests. And if you cannot accommodate social distancing for yourself and your six guests in your apartment then you should not be inviting six people over. This advice is because most of the cases seen are occurring within private areas. An unexpected twist: Rutte advised that people who wanted to meet up should instead go to restaurants or cafés, where social distancing was easier to maintain, a health check was done, contact details were saved and fixed seating was required (all of those in theory).

People are also reminded that the rule is still ‘work as much as possible from home, where possible’. There was some unfounded hope that going back to work after 1 September would be allowed, however that was never officially said and now the number of cases are growing again. Therefore Rutte decided to make it clear that working from home would remain the norm for the foreseeable future. (See also: my work saying we’re now officially working from home until at least the New Year. Yikes!)

The length of quarantine will be reduced from 14 days to 10 days. The advice remains that you should get tested if you develop symptoms while in quarantine. While it seems counterproductive to reduce the number of days, it is the government’s attempt to weigh the smaller risk of developing symptoms during days #11-14 and making it easier for people to accept going into quarantine. At the moment the government cannot require that you go into quarantine, though they said during this press conference that they are looking into changing the law to permit that.

The RIVM posted the weekly numbers on their website earlier today; weekly updates are provided every Tuesday. Corona cases are about the same as last week, with hospitalizations and deaths slightly rising.

Later tonight the mayor of Amsterdam is expected to announce regional measures on top of what was announced nationally. Rotterdam is expected to follow with additional regional measures later this week.

In the meantime: stay safe everyone!

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The beginnings of a protest (Or: Who needs corona laws?)

Posted on August 16, 2020 by Niki

Today’s photo comes from Malieveld yesterday morning, just before lunchtime. Apparently there was a demonstration against the upcoming coronaspoedwet (corona emergency law) that the Dutch government is currently working on.

This is actually the beginning, as people had just begun to arrive. In the end the demonstration grew to a few thousand people. There’s a video at nu.nl: Zo’n 2.500 mensen demonstreren tegen coronaspoedwet op Malieveld.

On the way back there was a group of three people who took up most of the path. Since they didn’t move to the left of the path I deliberately made a wide arc and started walking in the grass for a while to avoid them. I figured they were part of an anti-corona demonstration so they probably couldn’t care less about keeping the proper amount of space between me and them.

In other news: Mind your Ps: Amsterdam installs plant pot street urinals to improve toilet manners from dutchnews.nl. Interesting idea. It can only help – people are going to find a place to pee whether or not one of these exists. If you’re lucky, they find a corner in the shadow. If you’re not, well, then, you need to look the other way. Generally there is a bigger problem with outdoor peeing (wildplassen in Dutch) at night, so it makes sense that the urinals are only open at night; during the day the plant urinal “doors” are closed. (There’s also hidden urinals near the Grote Kerk in The Hague – they only pop out of the ground at night. During the day you only see an innocent looking circle on the ground.)

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