Categories for General

Still feeling a bit sick today. Well, a bit of a cold. Nothing too bad. I hope!

I did go out for a short bit and did some shopping. It wasn’t cold. But it will get a bit colder. Sunny too! Like, for the next two days, all bright and sunny.

I didn’t do a lot today. Played a bit of vanilla warcraft. Together with a new player. She (or he) was nice. We did a quest together in Loch Modan. We made a good team.

I was thinking of this meeting i had with a stranger on the road last Saturday. She asked me why i was walking the tightrope thing. I said it was a practice. And while i said it i almost fell of. The first time ever. We talked for a bit after that. She was nice. A bit damaged.

And then ooh! That little boy! I was eating a sausage bread and a mum and her son came sitting right besides me. The little boy, around four five years old i guess, was scared of the birds. Most kids are not scared at all. They run up to them and chase them away. But this boy dropped some of the fish on the ground. A pigeon tried to eat some of it, but he chased it away. I got a bit upset. I got to the ground, picked up the food and threw it further away. It just felt so mean, to have this food on the ground, which birds love to eat, and then chase them away from it.

Oh well. It is over and done with.

This week i will be going to the Ugo Rondinone exibit in Museum Boijmans van Beuningen here in Rotterdam. I do plan to make a whole day of it. Hopefully i will feel good enough Wednesday. I used to visit it so many times, especially when i was at art school. I did go there a few years back. I still love the place.

Anyway, it is the end of today. I wish you a happy Tuesday. Do something you like. Smile to a stranger. Say hi to your neighbour. Look up at the sky.

*kiss*

This morning i did some shopping in the Albert Heijn. I bought food for my cats, catty litter, Tony Chocolonely milk chocolate, toilet paper and milk.

I also cleaned up my house, i wiped the floors in the kitchen and in the hall. My neighbour came by so i could tell er what she would need to do for my cats once i’m away over the weekend. I looked around my house and realised i needed to clean up!

I also baked a bread. My sixth already! Still doing the rye and spelt bread. I love the taste. Since it doesn’t rise that much, it’s no use kneading it that long. I will try other breads eventually. But for me, for now this bread is great.

Tomorrow i’ll go to the market. Not that i need that much, some more fruit to take with me, some vegetables for a miso soup. I did make a chicken soup Saturday, which is lovely. I still have one cup of that in the fridge.

Wednesday i’ll start packing. I might fit some clothes tomorrow. I need to decide if i’m gonna buy a new legging, or wear one i already have, or wear a pantyhose. Not sure yet.

The perfume i will take with me will be Portrait of a Lady. I bought this one almost a year ago on my birthday. Love this scent.

I also need to pick my ten favourite posts of the past year for my post on Friday. Tomorrow i will start going through them. Looking forward to that!

That is it for now. Kiss!

I fell into this program this afternoon, De Tegenprestatie – The Compensation. It took me quite a search to find a good translation of this word tegenprestatie. It is a combination of two words: tegen ~ counter, and prestatie ~ achievement.

I found the following words:

• Amends ~ Compensation for a loss or injury; recompense; reparation
• Indemnification ~ The act or process of indemnifying, preserving, or securing against loss, damage, or penalty; reimbursement of loss, damage, or penalty; the state of being indemnified.
• Compensation ~ Something, such as money, given or received as payment or reparation, as for a service or loss.
• Exchange ~ To give and receive reciprocally; interchange: exchange gifts; exchange ideas.

In the evening i opened up my Dutch – English dictionary and looked it up. I settled for compensation. I’m still not sure.

The Dutch word is a very specific word in this context. It is a term used by the government for a return for a social security finance you get when you are unemployed. It is a new development, set in motion from around 2015. This evolves around a new term, participation, which is in high use in politics right now. In Rotterdam, the city where i live, this is performed in a vehement form. The program De Tegenprestatie is recorded in Rotterdam. It is a repeat of the transmission in October 2015.

I just came home from doing some grocery shopping. My new bread dough was still in its first rise. I had to wait for a while before i could knead it again, so i turned on the television. As i said in the beginning of this post, i fell into this program.

The language used by the people working at the social services department in Rotterdam is immediately recognizable. You can hear the politics behind it seeping through. The only objective is to get people out of social security as fast as possible, with any payable job possible.

While watching the talks i felt a cold indignation, an anger frowing inside of me. I also felt sorry for the people sitting there, working there. You can feel the training, the days of working together to get the tone right. The computers, the papers, the signatures. It is a world in which i really don’t want to get involved in. It is a dehumanizing environment. With names for talks, De Werkintake, De Inspanningsperiode, names for homework people have to do. This is the civilized shape of slavery. Nobody carries the responsibility for this system. It is shaped by civil servants and politicians in meetings and workshops and symposia. People are not physically hurt, no, but they are hurt by the way they are approached, by the complete lack of humanity with which they are treated.

I’m not sure i have found the right words to express my feelings about this system. I do know, I will rather do any cleaning work, than get involved in this system. I hope it will not get to that. I hope to be something else entirely. I’m working my ass of to achieve that. With this website, ellenpronk.com.

I’m sorry for the people who do not understand Dutch. The entire program can be seen on the human.nl: 2DOC: De Tegenprestatie.

A 31 minute part of this program.

About ‘De Tegenprestatie’

Last week, in my one week off, my one week holiday, my one week of not thinking about posts, what to write, photograph, sing or make, last week i went to a movie. Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In Cinerama, on Wednesday 30 December 2015, starting at 14.10 CET.

I told in The world is terrible i did see the original first movie in 1977 in the cinema. I went together with my nephew. We went out to eat a Big Mac in the new McDonald on the Coolsingel in Rotterdam, before or after.

What I did not mention, i never saw the two upcoming movies in the cinema. I was into new wave music, read less science fiction, and i didn’t go to these blockbuster movies anymore. So yeah, even though i was a sci fi fan for quite some time, that did disappear too for around ten years.

I did enjoy the movie. Especially the beginning. Some parts i was puzzled by. Some parts i felt were taken very lightly.

I will talk about this after the break. Completely spoilerish! So please, if you haven’t seen this movie yet, stay away from that part!

Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer

Read more…

I do enjoy the late December festivities. It is part of the yearly cycle of celebrations. The long nights, the cold, the lights inside the houses and outside on the streets, they do create magic. It’s not that i have a Christmas tree all decorated, but yeah, i do have some Christmas lights wrapped around a small chest. Paper cutouts of geometric Christmas trees turned around a candle.

I enjoy the television. Lots of movies to watch. Harry Potter. Again. Cooking shows. Of course. I do enjoy them. Even though the sweet tones and angelic smiles can be a bit too much for me. Simply Nigella i like, yes. But please show me the bloopers more. I simply can not imagine anyone whisking and cutting and blending with that continuous smile. Still, with all the tv and the cooking shows and the ads on the streets and the Christmas lights up, with all the commercialism and the money making and the people playing for the camera’s, it is still a magical time. I will go to my family this Saturday. Have a little bite to eat. Hopefully it will be nice, we might play a game, we might watch some tv, we might listen to some music. It is not going to be an all festive glamorous time, but still. It’ll be nice.