Bits and pieces no 4

…see now you even getting photos…

This edition of b n p is about holland/Netherlands….

1. Some hundreds of years ago the government decided on a fairly unusual basis to tax people…Daniel Im sure there are some interesting cases. They taxed property owners on the width of street frontage….so much a metre. The natural consequence of this was/is that they build narrow fronted deep and high homes. To maximise living space, they built houses with very narrow stairs to the second third and fourth floors which made it very difficult to get furniture into the house….hence the photo… You will notice the little gantry and hook sticking out from the top of the houses …this is to crane furniture up and through the windows at each level !!!!. This is not and exception virtually every house has the gantry…even the ones built fairly recently
2. As far as I can tell there is no place called “ Holland”. The Netherlands has a number of provinces including North and South Holland …but no Holland. yet their football team is called Holland??? …bit like the difference between England and Britain???
3. Not a great place for Emma and Maki. While we there we only saw 3 dogs in a week!!
4. I still don’t get Doonas. Sheet and blankets are so much more adaptable to prevailing temperatures….much more functional
5. I know that our family all speak a second language ????. The people in europe are fantastic the way they speak englsh as well as their native tongue..makes life a lot easier for people like me who only have ‘sign” as a second language.
6. Finally, I went through a place called the “heineken experience” …the history of Heineken beer. Interesting …started in 1850’s then one of the founders sons - Freddie Heineken - took the product to the world. He had crates of beer in New York two days after prohibition was lifted. Also in 1951, he decided that they needed new a new ‘Brand” for marketing purposes. When he saw the new labels etc he decided to add his own touch. He decided that the “e”’s in Heineken needed to be smiling “e”’s so he turned them slightly anti clockwise…you need to check a Heineken label to see what i mean….

…the Mothers detailed report is now overdue and penalities may apply..

Cheers dad/Tony PS I think I mentioned somewhere that beer in Amsterdam is as cheap as water…equivalent to $12 to $15 a Melb slab!!!