Windows painted on the outside...

[Post published by Liviu on Liviu's [in Netherlands] Blog]


News: 22nd of June: We got painted on the outside all the other half of the windows of the building, as part of De Key's regular maintenance works on the building probably.


It's not that fair for me as a tenant (whose contract shall end in less than a month) to offer support to these maintenance works of De Key:

1. I had to clean my room on the inside once the work was finished and
2. I had to suffer disturbance due to the noise and smell of the paint.

Will I get a discount for that? No.
Does De Key get free cleaning work for that? Obviously.
Not fair: I lose. I must admit they're smart doing it this way...

The fair solution?
De Key should have done these works during the free period of the building, i.e. 16th of July - 15th of August, but that would have meant to pay themselves for the cleaning, wouldn't it? So, why do that when they can get it for free? :)

Note: I said correctly on the outside, because they will inform us when the windows shall be painted on the inside too in the near future...

So, how was my day?
After my windows got painted on the outside, the smell of the fresh paint kicked me out of the room, so I continued my Amsterdam's-famous-churches visit.
When I got back... it was time to do the cleaning...

I'm looking forward for another (and bigger) round of cleaning when the windows shall get painted on the inside...


Updates:

23rd of June: 2nd round of paining on the outside. Well, at least the workers do a great job. The downside is it's disturbing the tenants, i.e. the students.

24th of June: some sort of a final check and further adjustments to the outside window painting works done for the side I live in. I had to leave the stress after they checked the windows of my room and decided to visit Permuseum.

I voted AGAIN

[Post published by Liviu on Liviu's [in Netherlands] Blog]


Do you remember when I voted the first time?

Well, now it's the second time :)
If interested, feel free to check the website for these elections (in Dutch).

However, there were 2 elections held at the same time.

• Good news: I voted in the election regarding building a parking garage under the Singel canal, near Marnixbad. (I wish they would build some of these in Bucharest, too.)
• Bad news: I was not allowed to vote in the election for the House or council or whatever, 'cause I don't understand very well what that was all about from Google Translation.

Side note 1: On 4th of June, I have also received a flier/advertisement in my inbox from VVD [wikipedia; official site] - Mark Rutte on the first page, of course, as all politics fliers display their party leader on the first page.
Hey, have these people understood that I am a regular voter (wherever I am living) and started courting me? ;) mmm, no. Actually most inboxes had such a flier inside. Hey, I'm a regular voter therefore I demand more attention! :))
First I confused VVD with PVV [wikipedia]. Remember that Geert Wilders (the leader of PVV, who wants to kick Romania & Bulgaria out of the EU among others) and also resembles Corneliu Vadim Tudor? My bad for the confusion.

Side note 2: now I'm part of the West District/Neighborhood, which has been reconfigured some months ago, in order to include some small neighborhoods like Kolenkit, Bos en Lommer, WesterPark etc.

Volcanic ash from Iceland

[Post published by Liviu on Liviu's [in Netherlands] Blog]

I finally decided to inform myself on the volcano eruption in Iceland, which blocked most flights in the EU. I admit I had no idea the situation was so terrible!
There has been and is so much volcano ash above the Netherlands, according to the map provided by the BBC article on the volcanic ash from Iceland. (I mean, it's Benelux, England, Northern Germany and a tiny bit of Northern France that are the worst hit.)

Are we gonna die?
No?
Why not?

... 'cause we gotta keep working? Ok, fine, back to work, people! Show's over, folks!


As you suspect, I did not notice the ash in the sky. Basically, if I have not been informed by the world media on the eruption, I wouldn't have known about it.
Therefore, I lied when I said the situation was terrible.


And now, a stupid joke/question I invented:
Regarding England and France, since all flights have been and shall be stopped for several days, will this get British Airways and Air France decrease their strike days quota this year? (I mean, given this situation, they have already earned several free days, right?)