August 3rd 2023; Orange!!!

We been helping our friends Marya and Roger to plant a lot of native trees on a plot along the Otaki river. The 'Friends of the Otaki river' want to create one of the most beautiful walks in the region. A nice track next to the river and amidst just native trees. Nienke and I are contemplating to donate as well and create our own spot in name of the kids.

Orange fever is in the air. At the Council the departments decided to adopt a team and make a contest of who had the best 'pod'. Nienke managed to influence the draw and her team ended up supporting the Dutch of course. It was surprising how many orange items we were able to find at home.

A friend of us managed to get us tickets for the Netherlands USA game. So I started preparation early. To change the somewhat dirty clogs, with a typical farmers motive on them, into supporter worthy footwear, they needed many layers of orange paint.

Temperatures have dropped considerably. It may be the hottest month on earth ever, but down under we do not notice that so much. Stormy winds as well. Our recycling bin has tried to walk to the gate on it's own a few times already. Tennis yesterday was one of the most challenging ever. Throwing up the ball for a service was practically impossible. Some interesting lobs.....

We've started planting natives in a few areas on our property. Carrying the mulch up the hill is quite a job. Tried backing up the trailer up the hill, but just like Verstappen I am better in going forward. Must be losing weight I think, lost my breath anyway.....

Is this outrageous?  To be honest, I am not really a fan of female football yet. But I did not want to miss the chance to be part of a small orange party in Wellington. You just can't appear underdressed at such an event, so I am wearing anything Nienke did not already drag to the Council.

What a pair ay? Unfortunately dogs were not allowed in the 'Cake tin' (the nickname of the Wellington football stadium). If you have ever seen the insultingly ugly collection of steel you might wonder who drunk the architect must have been. He did not win a price for the horrible bowl in our capital. If it is not the whirling wind that chills your bones to almost freezing point, it's the sun that prevents half the crowd from seeing almost anything of the game. The stadium is probably, just like Wellington itself, completely designed by a planner in London. Completely ignorant to local circumstances and oblivious of hills and mountains. 

Compliments to the staff of the Dutch embassy. The pre-party was very well organised and the orange flags, they handed out, made the parade to the stadium outstanding. At the head of the parade a group of women, not exactly appropriately dressed for the cold weather, danced enthusiastically, followed by a Dutch drum band, also dressed in orange. Behind them hundreds of orange fans waving flags and trying to follow Nienke in singing Dutch football songs. I'm afraid too many of them have been away from the homeland for too long, as hardly anyone knew the lyrics. Here is a small impression of the Parade and the stadium.

With Landa and Rutger in row YY. A bit away from the pitch, but not as exposed. Lots of yanks all around us. Apart from their flag on practically every garment, they were quite unimaginative. No songs either, just the boring chant U S A. They started very slowly with the U, a few seconds later followed by the rest. After the 1 - 0 by the Netherlands that prompted a funny Dutch guy to scream in between their letters 'what's the score?'. It was obvious they were not amused. By the way, my clogs have been photographed about a hundred times, and not only by the rednecks. After the game we went to the Dutch embassy as we were invited for a reception there. We did not have time to go home and had no other clothes with us, so we were a bit underdressed in the presence of  two ministers of sport, the minister for long term care and sport, and a few others in grey suits. She (Conny Helder of the VVD) pretended to be interested in general practice here in NZ. I have bad experiences with VVD ministers. The only reason they almost always have health in their portfolio is to make the budget for health as unhealthy as possible. 

In the weekend we participated in an exercise; getting Te Horo disaster ready. As you can see our neighbourhood was not very well represented in the Community hall. Nienke and I had even driven around half a day, dropping of flyers in letterboxes. 'It won't happen in my time' is what most people think. Kiwi's only learn the hard way..... The biggest danger is the Hikurangi subduction zone (nice video with explanation here). A big earthquake there will cause a tsunami on our side. As it is overdue, why worry? Scientists have made a model of the disaster, scary???? Well, after the quake we have about 5 minutes to seek higher ground.... Good thing is, that's where we live now.

For some reason the campervan did not want to start. The house battery was functioning, but the car battery did not. Couldn't charge it as it was completely empty. 'Just bring me the battery' said David from our garage. Opened the hood and the lack of a battery was quite obvious. Turns out it is located at Nienke's feet. Connected to multiple wires as well. A job for another time.....

Another job done. This is one of the steep slopes on the sides of our house. Just difficult and dangerous too mow on the ride on and a lot of work with the weed wacker. So we just plant it out with flaxes. Picked up a bunch from a friend of ours. Managed to avoid the waterpipes this time. 

A small success story. One of our old iPods had a dead hard drive. Ordered a new one in China, with a new battery. Opening the thing is harder than the average driving exam (including all the lessons). When I finally got everything in place again, the headphone jack did not work anymore. Must have broken one of the tiny cables. So I ordered that as well from China. After some more fiddling with three pair of glasses on (the screws are the size of a hair follicle), I now have a perfectly working iPod again with a 512 GB hard drive. Who needs Spotify. Go and watch the documentary about Spotify on Netflix.

Yes, they finally started work on our new garage. Under a beautiful rainbow, that must be a good sign. I did point out all the pipes to Kyle, the confident driver of the truck, digger and compactor. 'Sweet as' was the reaction. Just spent a few hours correcting the work after all. I'm not very fond of Putin's Russia but I prefer to have the pipes pointing up in the air and not aiming for Moscow.