Persoonlijke aantekeningen door Niek de Greef over cultuur, politiek, media en maatschappij. Doorleefde essays over het hedendaagse leven.
It is such an extremely hot day by Dutch standards. I added the latter because I am talking to my colleague, via Zoom. He is in India, and it is 42 degrees there.
I am reading a great story by Tommy Wieringa, about two brothers who run a restaurant together. One is in the kitchen, the other does the serving, and they have been trying to make each other’s lives miserable for years. A cup of coffee makes me break out in a sweat.
A cup of coffee makes me break out in a sweat. I open the doors early in the morning to bring a slight coolness into the house, but it’s mopping with the tap open. My forearms stick to the desktop. Tomorrow it will be 20 degrees and raining. Then, I will think back wistfully to this hot day.
Bij ons terras ontdekken we een wespennest. Ik maak een rondje om het huis en ontdek er nog twee, een in de schuur en een op het dak. Ik bel de wespenverdelger. Voor 125 euro behandelt hij twee nesten. Die op het dak lijkt hij niet veel zin in te hebben.
Mijn collega wijst me op een site waar je hetzelfde spul kunt kopen als dat de verdelger gebruikt: https://www.online-tuincentrum.be/Tuinapotheker/Insectenbestrijding/Permas-D-Wespenpoeder-tegen-wespen-en-mieren-400g/
Ik twijfel. Maar 125 euro vind ik ook veel geld.
Two fine lists from The Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/jan/01/marginal-gains-100-ways-to-improve-your-life-without-really-trying
https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2000/jan/08/weekend7.weekend5
56 Call an old friend out of the blue.
18 Go out, don’t stay in.
43 If you have the choice, travel by train, not plane.
72 Always use freshly ground pepper.
Many (of my) ideas are too big and, as a result, execution takes far too long. I don’t finish them.
Just today I killed a couple of big ideas. One I chopped up into small ideas, with heads and tails.
I read about Jeff Bezos’ boat. To get it from the shipyard to the open sea, the Hef, the Koningshaven bridge in Rotterdam (“a Dutch city”), had to be taken apart.
There is a lot of fuss about that. I can only think, “Don’t be silly. Jeff really needs that boat.”
But seriously, put yourself in the man’s shoes. You have so much dough you don’t know what to do with it. Then, of course, you start taking space trips. And buy insanely big boats. What else are you going to do with all that money. Shouldn’t we all have a little more respect for Jeff Bezos’ problem?
