Jane's Journal

Any time someone indicts an entire demographic: red flag.
They say "the Jews, the gays, the blacks." If you hear that out of anyone's mouth: red flag. They want to declare they know everything they need to know about you without actually having a conversation with you. That takes effort, by the way, to learn who people are, to learn the nuances that distinguish one person from another, one person's thoughts, behaviours, actions, motivations from another. One of the greatest travesties what it is to be human is to tribalise in that way.
Generally, if someone feels comfortable categorising demographics in that way, it means they don't know many people from that demographic. That's really all that means. You've led an isolated life.

Neil de Grasse Tyson in his "How to Tell What’s Real Online" video on YouTube.
I love how the video is mainly aimed at encouraging people to think for themselves and not blindly trust what they read on the internet - but at the same time just drops this bombshell that applies to current affairs and the political landscape as well.

Gisteren kwam het nieuws naar buiten dat Facebook en Instagram 'traditionele' foto's van Zwarte Piet (met blackface) verbieden en mensen die regelmatig deze regels overschrijden zullen worden verwijderd van het platform.
In mijn kennissenkring waren er gelijk twee mensen die heel recalcitrant een blackfaced Zwarte Piet plaatsten. Eén ervan ken ik uit mijn studententijd en ik vroeg hem of dit nou écht de heuvel is waar hij op wil sterven. Dit is waar je een punt van maakt? Hij verwijderde mijn comment dus ik heb hem gelijk ontvriend.
De ander is de partner van mijn nichtje Gea, die een post van iemand anders deelde. Nou is Gea ook zo iemand die allerlei onzinmeme's en hoaxwaarschuwingen deelt, dus die snooze ik regelmatig; en zo ook haar partner die verder nooit wat deelt op Facebook wat ik kan lezen.

Wat nog veel tekenender is, was míjn reactie hierop. Ik ben er zó klaar mee dat iedereen maar vind dat alles moet kunnen en dat ze alle recht van de wereld hebben. Ze hebben schijt aan hun medemens en diens gevoelens, het belangrijkste is hún leven. Fok de wereld.

Ik vind dat je best rekening kan houden met je medemens.
Dat ik niet per se in een risicogroep zit, betekent niet dat ik gewoon maar alles kan en mag doen tijdens een pandemie. Zelfs als ik geen gevaar loop, kan het nog wel zo zijn dat ik andere mensen in gevaar breng. En dat wil ik niet, dus ik houd me aan de regels. Ik accepteer dat we nog steeds niet alles weten van dit virus en welke maatregelen nu eigenlijk werken. Ik ga niet met mijn vuist schudden dat de overheid droeftoeters zijn, maar ik doe gewoon mijn best.

Dat ik fijne herinneringen aan het Sinterklaasfeest heb, betekent niet dat ik een stereotype erdoorheen mag drukken als het andere mensen pijn doet. Er zijn zo ontzettend veel mensen die zoveel pijn ervaren vanwege dit stereotype beeld. Omdat ze jarenlang gepest zijn en een trauma hebben. Omdat ze er op deze manier elk jaar mee geconfronteerd worden. Elk jaar wordt dat korstje eraf gerukt omdat er een aantal mensen weer op de barricades klimmen om met grote woorden hun punt duidelijk te maken.

Je zou kunnen beargumenteren dat niemand meer kroketten mag eten, omdat ik vroeger gepest werd met mijn naam die o zo leuk rijmt op kroket. Dat is appels met peren vergelijken. Mensen lopen nu niet massaal plaatjes van een kroket op mijn tijdlijn te gooien omdat iemand kroketten verbiedt.
Maar dat is wel wat er nu gebeurt op Facebook -- elk jaar de Zwarte Pietendiscussie en nu alle recalcitrantjes die heel parmantig Zwarte Pieten posten.
De jaarlijks terugkerende discussie over Zwarte Piet is ontzettend pijnlijk, en beide kanten hebben jarenlang gediscussieerd en ze zijn geen stap dichter bij elkaar gekomen. Daar komt geen oplossing meer uit. Dus de enige mogelijkheid die er nog is, is om dan maar de discussie verplicht op slot te gooien. Veel succes op je barricade. Dit is nu klaar.

Mijn rechten eindigen waar die van een ander beginnen. We zijn allemaal gelijk en het is écht een fijnere wereld als we allemaal een beetje rekening met elkaar proberen te houden.
Ik ga een rustig dagje hebben, met pakjes versturen en zo min mogelijk contact met andere mensen (oké, Eisirt mag blijven. En mijn lieve vriendinnetjes ook). En misschien kijk ik of Ivi zin heeft in thee. Ze volgt het nieuws al een hele tijd niet meer, dus dat is een perfecte theedrink kandidaat.

It's been nearly two weeks since we returned from France and entered self-induced quarantine. This Saturday will be 2 weeks exact.

When reports came in from China, the western world wasn't very worried yet, it seemed. Almost like we didn't take the reports seriously. Even though China built an emergency hospital to take care of their numerous patients in a week.
When the virus hit Italy, I must admit I hestitated to leave home. When I looked up Val Thorens on Google Maps, it said we would be nearly 200 kilometers from Turin, as the crow flies. Of course, the crows can fly over a glacier, the actual road would take a massive detour. I wasn't very worried about how close we would come to northern Italy when we left.

And then we took our pee-breaks along the Péage in France. Next to horrible toilets mostly without toilet seats, we ran into so many people. Everyone stretching their legs or getting a baguette along the rest stops. Most of the bathrooms had "bacteria-blowers" to dry your hands with. They are great for spreading everything including water droplets off your hands throughout the room.
While in Val Thorens we followed the news, of course. There was a moment when I wondered if we would be allowed to go home again, as Macron would speak to the nation on Fridaynight. We saw the Dutch speeches on TV, where people were urged to stay home.
Our trip home was mostly the same as our trip down to France: cramped, meeting far too many people along the way, and having some fast food in Luxemburg.

Once home we decided on self-quarantine. I'd already canceled my Monday-morning fitting and e-mailed Anne-Miek to please stay home, do not take the train to get to work. Eisirt and I spoke through the plans. There's no telling what we might have brought home with us from the numerous rest-stops we visited on the way back.

I would do parcel-runs on Mondays and Thursdays only. Any order coming in on Tuesday could be rescheduled to ship out by Thursday. Any order placed on Friday would go out on Monday. The parcel run would see me in the atelier for maybe half an hour to pick the orders and pack them. Then I would take the parcels to the post office, where they would be scanned by the nice lady and go off. The post is still working, and as long as it does there's no need to close the webshop.
After dropping off the parcels, I'd go to the supermarket for a grocery run and pick up supplies. One of the things we were very short on was hand soap, ironically. Luckily the Lidl was still very well-stocked when I went in that Monday.

So far, almost every Monday or Thursday saw me picking orders and doing a grocery run. Eisirt went out once when I didn't have to go. Groceries were still well stocked, and we always pick up a little extra milk to keep us just in case the next designated grocery-day there are no parcels. No parcels means no groceries unless something urgent is required. When I ran out of butter I ate my sandwiches with mayo instead for two days.

We've been boggled by the behaviour of other Dutchmen. Droves of people visiting the beach or the forest, walking close enough to eachother to pick up whatever is floating around. I've been outside of the flat THREE times in two weeks. Eisirt's been ONCE. It's not rocket surgery. It just takes discipline and planning to keep your distance and stay inside.

But I've been itching. It's a five minute bike ride to Plan-B, and I can lock the door behind me. Nobody will get into the atelier unless I unlock the door. I don't need to speak to anyone, to meet with anyone, or to be in contact with anyone. I can just to something useful instead of sitting on my ass at home all day.
Except that....well...that's just it. Don't go out unless you have to.
Principles only mean something if you stick by them when it's inconvenient.
I wonder sometimes if I'm not lying to myself by reasoning this way. Will I really not get into contact with other people? Maybe I'll leave something on a door handle...or pick something up from one.

The following are all not really worth mentioning, but the reality is with the stories floating around right now we all pay extra attention to what we're feeling. We're all slightly hypochondriac; what if it's THE VIRUS?
I've had an evening where I had the feeling I couldn't breathe deeply. It was gone later that night.
I had a bad energy day yesterday, where I took a nap during the afternoon. I felt a bit better afterwards, but not great.
I felt a bit feverish before and after my nap, but not seriously enough to take my temperature. It feels normal now.
My shoulders have been acting up, but that's probably because of all the knitting I've been doing. The shoulders were so tense it developed into a half-migraine (I've never had a real migraine, but only these mock migraines due to bad posture or sore neck and shoulder muscles) but it is mostly gone now. Shoulders are still sore, so I should probably not knit as much in one go for the next round.

All of these are very, very, very minor complaints. Okay, the shoulders are really rather sore still. But the shortness of breath is really not worth mentioning.
If I had COVID-19, it wouldn't have gone away as quickly as it did. Young people of 16, people my age too, are in the ICU on breathing apparatus.

The best news I read today about it all was the NOS.nl article stating:
"De maatregelen die de Nederlandse overheid heeft genomen om de corona-uitbraak zo goed mogelijk te beheersen, lijken ervoor te zorgen dat de groei van de uitbraak afvlakt. "
(The measures taken by Dutch officials to control the spread of Corona as much as possible, seem to slow the growth of the outbreak." -- translation mine).

Despite Dutch people still flocking in herds, this is good news. It's not a certainty yet, but it seems that 'the exponential growth has been halted'. This means the hospitals can still keep up with the demand for healthcare and overall less people die.

It's still insane how the world changed seemingly overnight. One day we were on holiday, the next we were quarantined. And there's no end in sight yet.

Next week Eisirt will be back to work, unless they lock down the parcel- and postal services as well. If that happens, we'll be right back here.
And as of next week I'll see how working half days at Plan-B will go on the days that he has to work as well. I have plenty of solo stuff I can do, and it'll be good to be useful again. But if I meet droves of people in the building, it's going to be a very short experiment.
We'll weather this.

Last year I had the luxury to be able to skip work when temperatures rose over 30 degrees C - but the hot weather didn't last too long. But this year, like it or not, I can't really skip work. Not that I get a lot of work done, mind you. On Tuesday I came in, took out a pattern that needed alteration, stared at it blankly, and it put away again. I swear it's not a difficult thing that needs doing, but it was already to hot to focus.

I try to work half days, wearing my coolest and least restricting clothes. I went to work today in less clothes than I would normally wear to the gym. A capri sports legging and tank top count as 'underwear' in my book, but this afternoon saw us at 37°C!!!
Despite the heat, I managed to clock a good five hours of work, sewing pre-cut t-shirts. Nothing intricate, but having the feeling of doing something useful in any case. I left work at three and was blasted by the sun on my way home.

There was a spell of rain this afternoon, but nothing too serious. I'm glad it didn't make the whole atmosphere around the house humid and unbreathable. However, I am going back to the couch to sit in the artificial wind and enjoy my home-made foot bath. Kwibus loves it, there are little plastic rings in it he can yoink.

Tomorrow I have a brainstorming appointment at 10am, which is good. Let's hope it'll be cool enough to think. And this weekend I have a larp -- which means I will be sitting in the shade complaining about Southerners and their weird weather in a horribly fake Russian accent.

Since I had so much fun last time I knitted a big project, I decided to track my progress knitting (hopefully) the fastest sweater ever!

This was all muse's fault, who decided I should have a warm sweater. We She made me inquire about yarn I saw on the ZevenKatten website and so I arrived home with 80 euro of lush wool for a sweater last Tuesday.

Truth is, when I'm home alone and doing my knitting and sitting still all evening, it gets very cold. When it was freezing outside just last week I just couldn't get warm. I deserved a warm sweater! I checked my library, and lo' and behold, the pattern I had gotten for free around New Year's just happened to need worsted weight yarn. And one of my favourite yarns is Cascade 220 - a worsted weight.

I knitted a test swatch on Thursday and soaked it, using a meat thermometer to make sure my water was no warmer than 30°C to get an accurate gauge. This is probably the most work I've ever done to prepare for a knitted item. After blocking, it looked like this:



View the Ravelry Progress page here.

About the Yarn:
This yarn is so gorgeous in so many ways. It really blocks beautifully, and the yarn doens't pill at all. I knitted Windsong's cowl with Cascade, and I wear that often. Kat has a pair of fingerless mitts in the fingering-weight variety and they are still as gorgeous as the day they were knit. (Quite unlike the Harvest Cardi in Malmedy yarn from Anell, my first Big Knitting Project, which is pilling like crazy after half a season's wear.)
Secondly, it's a heather colour, which means it's not completely solid in colour but has small flecks of colour. There's grey in there, and violet, and everything in between, making it a colour with depth.
Thirdly, it's a worsted weight, which is a little thicker than I normally work with (that can be a relief to the fingers!) and it goes much faster than knitting socks.

About the Pattern
This pattern called "Boden" by Amy Miller was free for a limited time. It's an A-line sweater with a large cowl neck. The hem is longer in back than it is in front, and is shaped with short rows. It's a top-down pattern so I can fit at any time.

About the name
This one was a little more difficult. I normally name my projects after the name of the pattern, to make it easier to remember or browse back. But this time "Boden" didn't quite fit for me. I looked up the etymology and it's indeed a German word for 'ground'. Since Dutch and German are so much alike, I decided to name this project "Bodemloos".
The past few weeks have been rather rocky when it comes to news and current affairs. Trump's first week in office as POTUS has not been very good, some of the decrees and decisions he made this first week have really hurt me. Martin Belam's tweet "As long as you live, you'll never see a photograph of 7 women signing legislation about what men can do with their reproductive organs." hit home. The Dakota pipeline, which was so recently an issue, is back on the table. Everything was like a slap in the face.
But there was more, and much closer to home as well. Our MP Rutte wrote an open letter to the Dutch people, which stated a lot of things that are wrong with this country, but ended up sounding more like a patronising dad than a leader. And then the fake news exploded, with spoofs of that letter, confusing even more people. The upcoming elections in the Netherlands -- scary stuff when loud-mouthed people gain more votes than social people.

Today I stated I don't really understand the world we're living in anymore. I've done so very often in the past, and probably will do so a couple of times in the years to come. I hope we can still sympathise and empathise, and extend an open heart to the people around us, because if we can't, we're in for one hell of a time.
And to summarise that feeling: it's a bottomless pit -- Bottomless = Bodemloos. And because sometimes snuggling up in a warm sweater in your home, where you're warm and safe, is all you want. Because after the week we've had, we can all use a snuggly sweater.
(And then tomorrow, we can GO OUT and MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE!!)

The plan!
I'm very busy during the day but my evenings are pretty empty. That means I can knit, knit, knit like the wind and hopefully finish this sweater soon. Wouldn't it be lovely if I could wear it this winter?

More (very) soon!

The pair of mystery socks I had on the needles were finished in record time. The second sock took me just 2 days, thanks to a broken sewing machine in my weekend. Since I can't post pictures yet, you'll have to settle for my description.

After weighing my yarn I was happy to see I still have enough left for another pair. This yarn is so cheerful.
"Gute Laune Socken" the woman at Willert Wolle called them. "Happy feet" might be another description.

After what happened in Brussels this morning, we could all do with some happy feelings.

No worries -- I won't spoil anything. And I ask any commenters not to post any spoilers either.

So, this Star Wars thing has been massively hyped, hasn't it? I though it was bad in October with the Back to the Future thing, but now there's a new Star Wars movie out and we've got BB-8 oranges in the fruit department and Kylo Ren batteries (as if lightsabers work on regular batteries! Phah!)

We wanted to take a bus to the centre of Eindhoven since my bike is in the repair shop, but one bus driver just flipped us the bird and drove on, so we caught one later. We made it to the theatre by 15:55, while the movie would start at 16:00 -- and of course all the tickets were already sold out. That made us right on time for buying tickets for the 19:00 show, which we did.
Then we had a few hours to burn.

I've lived in Eindhoven for nearly 2 years now, and never really took the time to discover the city centre. So we sauntered around the streets and I must admit to be completely horrified. It was SALE everywhere, of course, but lots of stores holding a closing sale (as in: closing down). I dislike shopping for clothes with a passion, but now I realised the shopping district has massively changed over the past few years.
Large chain stores are still open, mostly brand clothes, each one vying for the lowest prices. Fashion has become a wear-once-and-throw-away culture. I wonder how long it's going to take until we combine 3D printing, plastic reclamation and fashion, making clothes that are reclamated at the end of the day and printed in a new form the next day. The next step will be Star Trek-like food replicators and grocery stores will become extinct.

We were also looking for a book store. Guess what? Book stores don't exist anymore because the Kindle killed them. We have nearly 100 euro in book gift coupons, which we can't spend anywhere in the centre of town. We'll have to Google for a specific specialty store in order to buy books. This has been Mankind's best gift of knowledge since the 1440s when we developed the printing press.
Books have become a novelty item; I'm apalled and horrified.

When we were developing blisters, we turned to the Bengel and had an early dinner, taking along the remainders in a doggy-bag. I'm really glad that tradition came over the pond, I'm always so sad to throw food away.

And then we went to see Star Wars - The Force Awakens, which was great!
It was only available in 3D and we went to the IMAX 3D version. This was my first 3D experience. I had expected it to not work for my weird eyes or weird head, but of course it went fine. I wore my glasses and they combined with the 3D glasses well enough. My brain does feel a bit tired now, but that might also be attributed to the excitement. The 3D effect was really nice, and I think it does add to the movie-going experience.

Sir Terry Pratchett died today, age 66. Another great mind of the past generations passed away.
I am glad to read he died surrounded by family with a cat sleeping on his bed, which urges me to say Death was always fond of cats.

I was introduced to his works by a book I got when I left my final student job, but only got into the work of Sir Terry because of NoKey. I was very impressed by Sir Terry's many references to modern culture and less modern history and often laughed out loud reading his books. He had a brilliant way of working with words, sometimes turning slang or street language, or even literature into something quite unexpected, as my icon here illustrates.

His last three tweets read:
"AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER."
Terry took Death's arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night.
The End.

(Read more on the BBC News website)

Onze Blokker gaat sluiten. Of beter gezegd: de Blokker op het nabij gelegen Kastelenplein, waar midden- tot kleinbedrijven heengaan om een langzame klandizie-luwe dood te sterven, gaat dicht. Met kortingen tot wel 70% werd een totale leegverkoop beloofd. Aangezien ik al een Blokker-vrachtwagen had zien staan, vermoedde ik dat het wel mee zou vallen met de koopjes. De beste dingen zouden met de 30- en 50% kortingsronde al wel verkocht zijn, en alle fruitige koopjes waar je echt iets mee zou kunnen, zouden met de vrachtwagen al afgevoerd zijn naar andere filialen. Op zich een goed teken, want Nederland zonder Blokker is hetzelfde als een biertje zonder schuimkraag: het kán wel, maar het is wat futloos.

Vanavond, koopavond, was dan het moment om eens te gaan kijken. Ik kon nog wel wat kleine huishoudelijke kleinoden bedenken die de Blokker wel zou hebben en die ik dan, als ik met de hand over het hart zou strijken, best voor 70% korting zou willen aanschaffen. Ik ben al tijden op zoek naar kleine schepjes om muesli of waspoeder uit een bewaarbus te scheppen (een gat in de markt voor Marskramer, Blokker of Ikea, want geen van deze drie voor de hand liggende winkels heeft ze standaard in hun assortiment!). Weckpotten, bewaarbussen en zelfs plastic placemats stonden op mijn "ach, doet u mij deze dan maar" lijstje. De placemats zouden ten dode opgeschreven zijn en in hun nieuwe leven een veel nuttiger bestaan als sock-blockers gaan leiden.
(Toevallig heb ik nét een nieuw paar sokken opgezet op de no. 3 naaldjes!)

Na een korte stop bij Zeeman (voor Super Soft Baby Acryl) en Hema (voor nieuwe handdoeken en theedoeken) liep ik de Blokker binnen. Het leek alsof er een oorlog had gewoed. Niet alleen was het een slagveld van koopjes, nieuw en oud, ook was het de plek waar ongewenste koopjes naartoe zouden gaan om te sterven. Hup-Holland-Hup merchandise daargelaten, er lagen Decoratieve Dingen voor minstens zes verschillende feestdagen, handige gadgets die al jaren waren vervangen door een app, of electronische plugins die voor mysterieuze doeleinden gebruikt konden worden.
En er was niet een plank, maar twéé hele kásten vol met DVDs. De helft van de Harry Potter films, als je het niet erg zou vinden dat je met drie Half-Blood Princes naar huis zou gaan. Zes verschillende "Lady's Night" uitvoeringen van 'i am sam' en 'the English Patient'. De Sex and the City films sprongen in het oog, met name omdat Gooische Vrouwen opvallend afwezig was. Mega Mindy en de Muppets sloten de rij. Leuke koopjes, ware het niet dat geen hond dat soort films daadwerkelijk op DVD zou willen bezitten en de enige DVDs die mij deden twijfelen films waren die ik toch al op DVD bezit (Fifth Element).
Ineens werd het nut van de Blokker vrachtwagen me duidelijk. Die kwam niet om nuttige dingen af te voeren, nee! Die kwam om de restanten uit andere filialen hiernaartoe te brengen om ze voor een habbekrats op te dringen aan de arme inheemse bevolking van Koeterwaal Eindhoven!

Nadat ik een blik op het aanwezige aardewerk had geworpen liep ik snel de winkel uit. Het behoeft geen verdere uitleg dat ik niets gekocht heb.

The third day airplanes  arrive at Eindhoven airport carrying the bodies of flight  MH17.

 

An enormous operation of Rijkswaterstaat trucks and police who close down highways to allow the hearses through.
The people gather along the road every day to day their final respects.

After Everdingen, I see firemen and policemen line the roads as well, making an already impressove sight heart-wrenching.