@markmccaughrean Die PARTEI has a well established voting basis in students and young people and have generally progressive standpoints. There are definitely worse parties one could vote for – we have our own populist nutters.
@SherlockHans It wasn’t a comment against Die PARTEI as such, who I have only become aware of today. And I see that they have moved on from being entirely satirical to having actual policies.
But I’m unconvinced that mocking & undermining “regular” political parties, as ripe for it as they may be, actually leads to improvements. Rather, it results in people voting for anti-political drain-the-swamp populists who are often barely disguised autocrats & despots in making. See Trump, Johnson, etc.
@Merlyn@f4grx I also find the different paranoias & phobias that different countries have to be quite fascinating, & while some have reasonable historical bases, most seem archaic to me.
But the fact that a regular Dutch bank card can’t be used to pay in a supermarket in Germany also speaks to the antiquated banking system here – it’s bananas.
@markmccaughrean@f4grx I'm just weird. It's convenient until the power goes out. I like cashy money, it makes it real. Ethereal everything is a very strange concept to me it becomes just numbers and I am not too good at those.
@grb090423 Thanks. I can say though that it has been one of the least enjoyable experiences of my life.
Which is slightly weird, since I’ve moved eighteen times before … but never after such a long time in one place, not least all the kids’ stuff & everything else 😬
I'm not looking forward to (one day) having to move from where I am now having been here almost 20 years. Like you, it's the longest I've lived in one place. (Which is bizarre considering it's chock-full of christian RW Tories!)
Poor Tigger must be at his wits end with all the kerfuffle around him.
A snippet from yesterday’s final ride in The Netherlands before heading east – cycling in the golden hour near sunset often brings beautiful views across the expansive landscape 🌞🙂
Thank you, Matt – that means a lot. My cycling here has almost exclusively been solo & an important way of me getting away from things. I mean, I enjoy cycling with other people, but it’s a very different thing.
It has been good though to be able to share some impressions of my rides & I guess hope that other countries will take a lead from what NL has done. Yes, it’s flat here, but that misses the point entirely of why & how it happened 👍
Thankful that this afternoon’s storm was short & sharp, leaving a crisp clear evening for this evening’s final 37km ride ⛈️🌞👍
Thankful also to the good people of The Netherlands, their fantastic cycling infrastructure, & the often beautiful landscape it crosses 🥰
I’ve ridden >97,000km here in the past 12 years, >3,500 hours in the saddle, & it has been vital to my physical & mental health – dank jullie wel 💪🧠🙇♂️
@derickr My pleasure, Derek. Traversing this landscape has become a hugely significant part of who I am now & I’m so grateful for everyone making cycling so important & pleasant here. I’ll be back, I’m absolutely certain.
Another populist, nationalist, & yes, sure, fascist blowhard shifts the Overton window far rightwards, dragging in supposedly centrist politicians, thanks to undeliverable or unsustainable reactionary promises & racist dog whistling.
Yet more evidence that any lessons learned from the disaster that enveloped the world in the 1930s & 1940s have definitely reached their expiry date.
@doddington That will be for someone else to decide. I’m afraid that he has outgrown us & our limited electrical repair capabilities, but we can but hope that there are some more expert people in his future 😬✌️
Made a last pre-move visit to #ESTEC today, in part to hand back a laptop charger that I’d forgotten about 🤷♂️💻
Was kindly greeted at reception by the highest representative of the establishment, Micky the Space Cat, who has been at the place even longer than my 15 years 😽🤷♂️
Saw a few of my science colleagues too & said farewell for now … but I know we’ll be in touch & that I’ll be back soon enough ✊
@Lizette603_23 Heidelberg – a land of narrow valleys & hills, very lovely for many reasons, but not an ideal cycling landscape. And nowhere has cycling infrastructure like The Netherlands – it’s utterly astonishing by comparison to anywhere else & yet totally quotidian & unremarkable when you’re actually here. Sure, it’s flat, but that’s a tiny part of the equation …
“Well, I’ll tell ya. I seen a lot of ‘em & most of ‘em are just pictures on a wall. But there was one film I once saw which I think truly did have the right …
… What was the best film I ever saw? Well, err, you’re looking at it 😄”
I hate getting rid of books, but apparently not half as much as books hate being got rid of 😬✌️
This bunch were mostly duplicates or water-damaged (as was the box, evidently), although perhaps I’ll regret not having those calculus textbooks in my life any more 🤷♂️
Thoroughly enjoying the 2007 documentary “Ian Rankin’s Hidden Edinburgh” on BBC FOUR.
Partly about his famous detective, John Rebus, it’s more about Ian & his life in Scotland’s great city.
I didn’t realise we were undergrads & postgrads at the university at almost exactly the same time, & my daughter now continues the tradition, living & working there.
Also love the use of music by This Mortal Coil, an ensemble also with very strong Edinburgh connections 🙇♂️