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2006-03-03 13:41
In the Netherlands, the semiformal status of engagement to be
married is largely in disuse - persons simply content themselves with
an "understanding", until the time comes to make everything officially
official. This is because the Dutch are of course very informal and
relaxed about stuff and other stuff.
If you do want to make things officially official, however, and one
(1) of the said you has foolishly neglected to be Dutch, you will
need: a birth certificate and a certificate of no impediment, both
legalised ("apostilled") in Blighty, which such legalisation
("apostillation") is only valid for one (1) calendar month for Dutch
purposes.
So far so fair enough, at least until the EU does the sort of thing
the EU is supposed to do and streamlines the mutual acceptability of
its members' many documents, but the usage that there is of these such
documents is to acquire the status (which we have acquired, of course
- nothing second-hand for this 'bladet) of ondertrouw. This is
partly the booking of the wedding, but is also partly a formal legal
status in its own right, and is entirely acquired by appointment
(10:00-16:30 only, both parties to be present at the municipal offices
with full documentations and about EUR 600).
And of course if any of the witnesses (of which there must be either
one (1) on each side or two (2) on each side) should have aggrevated
the negligence to be Dutch copies of their passports will also be
required.
But the Netherlands, of course, is very unlike Chermany. When all the
paperwork is in order, they give you an ondertrouwcertificate
decorated with jolly colour pictures of balloons.
[Permalink]
2006-03-03 11:08
It is
the Foopball Worldcup!
England football fans heading to Germany for the World Cup are getting
free language classes. So are they conjugating verbs?
"Meine Hobbys sind: Fussball sehen, Bier trinken und schlafen."
[...]
The Goethe Institute in London is teaching fans heading to the
summer's World Cup a basic grasp of the language.
The Beeboid has gone with "Lieblingmannschaft" for "favourite team",
but this skronked our very considerable Sprachgef�hl so hard that we
put it up against the vastly preferable "Lieblingsmannschaft" in a
Google Fight, and our candidate stormed home with 81,200 votes to
200. (They also can't decide between "Schiri" and "Shiri" for "ref"
in a sidebar. What was that about the British and their hilarious
langwidgeskills again?)
[Permalink]
2006-03-02 16:15
� Thing the first
It is at Amersfoort, not at Zwolle, that we change treins when we
change treins on the way from Schip-Schip-Schiphol to Zweetieville.
It would be a big help if we could remember that too, not least to our
Zweetie's emergency travel advisory service.
� Thing the second
The concierged pay-toilets at Amersfoort station shut at 19:00. After
which you can use the disabled ones, in the unlikely event that you
can find them.
� Thing the third
It may soon host Europe's largest indoor tennis stadium.
[Permalink]
2006-03-02 14:02
A discussion on rec.travel.yoorp mentioned the excellent
Italian proverb "Il servo attacca l'asino dove vuole il padrone" ("The
servant puts the donkey where the boss wants it").
This is a sentiment we are rediscovering an application for, as our
many tutors at the University of Openness express their many opinions
about the most appropriate way to send assignments through the post.
They all have rationalisations for their personal quirks, but neither
we nor the donkey feel equal to the challenge of assessing their
coherence. Eeyorrrr!
[Permalink]
2006-03-02 09:56
�1. Pussycats
Pussy-cat pussy-cat, where have you been?
"I've been to London to look at the queen."
Pussy-cat, pussy-cat, what did you there?
"I started sneezing to give them a scare."
[Apologies to Mother
Goose]
Naughty pussycat!
Au nom du principe de pr�caution, le gouvernement fran�ais a demand�
mercredi aux propri�taires de chats de la r�gion de la Dombes, o� des
volailles et des oiseaux sauvages sont morts du virus H5N1 de la
grippe aviaire, de ne pas laisser leurs f�lins domestiques se promener
� l'ext�rieur.
In the name of the principle of pr�caution, the French gouvernment
on Wednesday asked cat owners from the r�gion of la Dombes, where
volailles and wild birds have died of the birdfluvirus H5N1,
not to allow their many pet cats to go outside.
�2. Sun city!
It
is ancient Egypt in the news again:
Archaeologists announced [on] Sunday that they have discovered an
ancient sun temple containing large statues of the pharaoh Ramses II
under an outdoor marketplace in Cairo, Egypt.
The temple was found in a suburb of Cairo called Ain Shams. The site
was once part of the ancient city of Heliopolis, which served as the
center of sun worship in ancient Egypt. The chief sun god, Re, was the
patron sun god of Heliopolis.
"Heliopolis", though? Is it that the 'Gyptians spoke Greek or that
the name is slightly anachronistique or what?
�3. You could start by calling them "Roma", Mr so-called "Pope"
It
is our biscuitless friends at the Vatican:
The Vatican began a campaign [on] Tuesday to attract Gypsies to
Catholicism and away from Protestant groups, urging Catholic priests
and others to help Gypsies in their difficult, everyday lives so that
they could win their trust and evangelize them.
(We're not a sub-editor at the Intergalactic NYT Scrapbook-Tribune, but
we'd be curious to know what the comma's supposed to be for in
"difficult, everyday lives".)
[Permalink]
2006-03-01 16:20
I know an old chicken who swallowed a flu,
I don't know why she swallowed the flu,
I guess we're doomed.
I know an old cat who swallowed a bird,
How absurd to swallow a bird!
She swallowed the bird who swallowed the flu,
I don't know why she swallowed the flu,
I guess we're doomed.
[[src]
[Permalink]
2006-03-01 15:44
�1. Honkety-honkety-honkball!
It
is Robert Eenhoorn and the Dutchy-Dutch Honkballsquad!
Netherlands manager Robert Een(1)hoorn understands that the inaugural
World Baseball Classic will be the premiere showcase for his country's
fledgling baseball program.
With that in mind, the former big leaguer decided that it would be
best to have his squad leave the frigid Holland winter behind and pack
its bags for a two-week pre-tournament training camp in Florida.
Is it that honkball ("base-ball") has the property that ice-hockey
does that the FDR's native team is actually more or less completely
useless once shorn of its foreign imports?
Nederland's first match is a week today, honkball fans, and you can
get live broadband coverage of the whole tournament for $9.99, if
you're deranged enough not to care that "live" means and is limited to
meaning exactly what it says and that the timezones involved are by no
means convenient for a Yoorpean audience.
�2. A conversation
As I was heading for the Supermarkt at lunchtime I passed a
canvasseuse who asked "Are you a member of Greanpeece?".
"No", I replied, on the grounds that I am not.
"Well I think you should be", she said.
By this time I was past her, so I had to twist more than somewhat
round to say, "I don't".
We certainly hope she was just being random because we were wearing
our boring black coat and were more than usually clean-shaven, and we
would not like to think we could readily be mistaken for a dirty,
smelly hippie in such a condition. Greanpeece, indeed. Bah!
�3. Farewell silly Gal�cticos!
It
is Real Madrid, whose excellent policy of buying the world's most
expensive foopball players but never winning any trophies may have
reached its use-by date:
Florentino Perez was like an indulgent parent finally admitting he had
spoilt his children when he announced his resignation as Real Madrid
president on Monday.
[...]
Perez had been responsible for the "Galactico" policy of signing the
world's best attacking players during his six-year tenure at the
Bernebeu.
Bah! We for one were still enjoying the policy, albeit not as much as
Bar�a fans must 've been.
[Permalink]
2006-03-01 13:58
It is but a perturbation of ze circulation of ze
traffique:
La neige qui est tomb�e abondammant dans la nuit sur la Belgique a
caus� des embarras de circulation et de nombreux accidents sur le
r�seau routier de plusieurs provinces wallonnes et dans le Brabant
flamand.
The sn� which fell abundantly in the night on Belgium has caused
embarrassments of circulation and of numerous accidents on the traffic
routes in Glorious Walloonia and possibly elsewhere.
We can't get any fresh sneeuwchaos stories from the Nederland either.
Come on, persons!
[Permalink]
2006-03-01 10:57
Otto von Bismarck
may or may not have said at least one of the following:
Je weniger die Leute dar�ber wissen, wie W�rste und Gesetze gemacht
werden, desto besser schlafen sie nachts.
Wer wei�, wie Gesetze und W�rste zustande kommen, der kann nachts
nicht mehr ruhig schlafen.
(Wikipedia is too cool for sources, of course.)
The Engleeshings we've seen attributed to him are less excellent, so
we will volunteer, "He who knows how laws and sossages are made can no
longer sleep peacefully."
[Permalink]
2006-02-28 16:00
But EnglandandWales's cricket tour of India has got off to a
fairly wretched start, with the captain having flown home with a knee
injury, the second in line also home for a fambly crisis, Jones the
Ball off sick again as per all too usual, poor lad, and two (2)
untried spinners and one (1) that's been tried and found wanting.
And Sir Frederick Flintoff will be making his debut as captain, as
well.
[Permalink]
2006-02-28 13:06
�1. Fat Day
It is Fatday!
La ville de Binche s'est r�veill�e sous quelques rares flocons de
neige mais fid�le au rendez-vous, le Gille, figure embl�matique de la
Cit� m�di�vale, a rev�tu son habit de folklore pour battre le pav� en
ce dernier Jour Gras.
It is smelly old Binche in Belgium and their glorious history and
cultual on this Fat Day!
�2. Codify me harder!
It is Gordon
Brown, Tony Blair's annointed successor and constitutional reform wonk:
More widely he enthuses about a recommendation from the Power
commission in which a written "concordat" between Parliament and the
executive is established. Such a concordat would allow MPs to hold
ministers more rigorously to account and in a context in which the
powers of both were more clearly defined.
"The relationship between the executive and Parliament should be
clearly defined and written down".
�3. Giant psychedelic lion!
It is Sesame Street, Jim, but not as we know it:
India is to get its own version of the children's programme, Sesame
Street, complete with a giant psychedelic lion who is supposed to be
descended from maharajahs and who loves bhangra music. The television
show, which will be launched this summer, has been adapted for Indian
children.The main action will take place in a galli - one of the
narrow side streets that are choked with cycle-rickshaws, cows and
market stalls.
�4. Bad Serbia! No biscuit!
It
is slightly odd:
Serbia will come under intense international scrutiny today as it
becomes the first nation to defend genocide charges, while separately
facing censure for failing to surrender war crimes suspects.
Belgrade will be accused at the International Court of Justice of
sponsoring ethnic cleansing in the 1990s which led to the worst
massacres on European soil since the Second World War. Previously,
only individuals have been charged with genocide, the most serious war
crime.
That's all very well, except it isn't: the point of trying individuals
is that you can punish them afterward - what happens to "Serbia" if it
is found guilty?
We don't buy into fundamentalist Liberal (and Libertoonian) ideology
on individuals as the One True Site of Agency, but they are certainly
much easier to lock up.
[Permalink]
2006-02-28 10:23
It is Fat Tuesday, and it is spring in Blighty.
We'd still rather be elsewhere, though.
[Permalink]
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