First reaction: glad I don’t live there. And then I made this comparison. It doesn’t differ that much actually.

CDA 14% – Konservative 10%
VVD 21% – Venstre 26%
PVDA 20% – Socialdemokraterne 25%
SP 10% – Socialistisk Folkeparti 13%
GL 7% – Enhedslisten 2%
PVV 16% – Dansk Folkeparti 14%
D66 7% – Radikale Venstre 5%

So, in Holland we celebrate Sint Maarten by kids going around town with lanterns, singing songs at doors, collecting candy (I wonder if this is actually related to trick-or-treat). How lanterns and candy are related to a bishop sharing his coat, I cannot tell.

In Denmark they eat duck the night before St Morten’s day. The reason for this, is because St Martin didn’t want to become bishop and hid in a stable filled with geese, where the geese betrayed him with their honking. That’s why they eat duck! Logical eh?

Yeah, it’s a bit far out.. But I like both candy and duck, so I won’t complain.

I can only conclude with: A cada cerdo le llega su San Martín!

Just venting here…

1. About 2005

The tax office sent me a letter 2 weeks ago, requesting all kinds of documents back from 2005 to prove my income, and that I owned a house, etc… I spent the whole easter looking for these documents, overturning EVERY box I have and was getting very worried. And then I found out, by coincidence, that my ex girlfriend has the docs…

But still, why do they need the docs. If the tax office would work together with the various communities, they could just ask them for the docs. This is such a waste of paper. It seems that they’re just doing it as an employment project for people in Limburg (where my tax office is located and sort of the Jylland of Holland).

2. About 2007

Because I lived in Holland until April 2007, I need to file a report for that. But, they never contacted me about it. So I decided to call them myself. Apparently my situation (self-employed, emigrated) does not seem to exist in their automated response system. I spoke to 20 different persons (I wonder from how many departments), explaining the situation every time. The last one is going to send me a form. But she said: “If you order this form, you are obliged to fill it in and return! Are you really sure you want this one?”. Oooooook…. How the hell would I know??

Damn, even here in Denmark I get confronted with this guy. While I’m very pro freedom of speech, I think he gets way too much (media) attention. Please, can everybody just walk on and IGNORE this guy?

I hereby denounce his point of views (so did Fogh!). Seriously, come on! He makes me hide my Dutch passport :/

See the program here if he doesn’t make you sick yet. The program is in Danish, but the interview in English.

Funny how he gets cut off every time he tries to point out his statements.

I guess I paid attention to him too now…

Makes sense only for dutchies. Although, there is a Wildersgade in København.

Never before have I been so looking forward to a book being delivered: The collected works of J. Slauerhoff, my favorite dutch poet/writer (and ship-surgeon). 2 kilo, 1672 pages, I CAN’T WAIT!

I’d share some writing, but unfortunately it has never been translated to English…

FINALLY, a supermarket that understands how to do business!

Dirk van den Broek is the first supermarket in The Netherlands to accept credit card… Now let’s hope that the rest follows, including that tourist-unfriendly NS (dutch railways)!