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Life in the Netherlands

The Dutch Make the Best Commercials

Posted by on Mar 14, 2013 in Life in the Netherlands | 0 comments

The Dutch Make the Best Commercials

Have you seen this one? It is one of my favourites. Can you figure out what the advert is for?

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Queen Beatrix to Pass the Crown to Her Son, Willem-Alexander

Posted by on Jan 29, 2013 in Life in the Netherlands | 2 comments

Queen Beatrix to Pass the Crown to Her Son, Willem-Alexander

After 33 years on the throne, Queen Beatrix announced last night that she will be stepping down as Queen and passing the throne to her son, Prince Willem-Alexander, as of April 30th. It’s going to be one hell of a party!

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An Important Lesson When Owning a Bike

Posted by on Jan 22, 2013 in Life in the Netherlands, Photography | 0 comments

An Important Lesson When Owning a Bike

Bikes and the Netherlands. They go together like travel and passports – regularly used, get you from a to b and, unfortunately, sometimes lost or stolen. In a country that has more than 13 million bikes and a population of approximately 16.5 million people there are bound to be some bike thefts. And that’s why children in the Netherlands learn the importance of locking up their bike at an early age – ideally to something that is unlikely to move, like a lamppost.

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The International Film Festival Rotterdam 2012

Posted by on Feb 29, 2012 in Life in the Netherlands, Netherlands, Travel | 0 comments

The International Film Festival Rotterdam 2012

It has become a bit of a tradition to attend the annual International Film Festival Rotterdam. Each year always comes as a surprise at how much I enjoy the films that I see and how enjoyable the general atmosphere is at the festival. This year was to be no different. This year I saw two films rather than just one: A Shape of Error At first glance, the description of A Shape of Error was quite interesting. Interesting enough that it landed the movie onto my short-list. Abigail Child uses home-movie aesthetics to reconstruct a life in a time when film still had to be invented. Based on diary...

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The First Episode of the Sinterklaas Journaal

Posted by on Nov 10, 2011 in Life in the Netherlands | 6 comments

The First Episode of the Sinterklaas Journaal

While in other countries children eagerly count down the days until Christmas with chocolate calendars and endless enthusiasm for the question “how many days now?” Dutch children get to start the waiting game early with the celebration of Sinterklaas. Sinterklaas, an elderly gentleman dressed in quite serious looking red and gold clothing comes complete with white hair and a long beard but it is there that all the similarities with Father Christmas/Santa Claus and Sinterklaas end.  Take the following: Father Christmas/Santa Claus Sinterklaas chubby skinny utilises...

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An Unhealthy Addiction

Posted by on Nov 1, 2011 in Life in the Netherlands | 4 comments

An Unhealthy Addiction

I lifted the knife and plunged it straight into the slightly bumpy flesh.  It took a bit of pressure but after only a few moments the decapitation was complete and the innards were exposed.  Now came the part that most people disliked the most – ripping out the slimy, stringy insides. However, this was all part of the process to me.  Only after it is done can the real fun begin. My addiction to pumpkin carving is a relatively new one.  Sure I had grown up in a country where pumpkin patches and hay-rides went together with autumn as well as milk goes together with cookies but I never...

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