Windigo
Kitchen witch
- Joined
- 29 Jul 2019
- Local time
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- The Netherlands
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A typical Dutch urban view.
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- Thread starter buckytom
- Start date
Lullabelle
Midlands, England
Not everyone is in lockdown
indianwells
Senior Member
The view from our garden this afternoon. Great weather relaxing with a beer, I am enjoying this lockdown...
With a view like that you can't complain. How lovely!
indianwells
Senior Member
I will never complain, when I think of the poor souls in towns and cities all over the world in flats with no outside space my heart aches for them. This is a truly cruel situation for so many people and I do count my blessings every single day.
Some people don't mind being in flats in towns and cities, though. I'd be perfectly happy in a posh downtown hi-rise!
Some people don't mind being in flats in towns and cities, though. I'd be perfectly happy in a posh downtown hi-rise!
Would you be happy if you couldn't leave the flat? I'm not sure people in flats in cities who have to isolate are so happy. Not being able to go out into the open at all is very depressing and claustrophobic. Also there are many poor families with young children cooped up in small flats. I can't begin to imagine the stress that has caused.
I'm lucky that I have quite a reasonably sized terraced house. Not huge at all but not tiny - and it has a garden. I would go crazy if I was isolated in a small flat with no access to the outside.
Yep, I'd be fine. I don't go outside in my own yard unless I have to (mow, put out the trash). I'm one of those who could easily live in a biodome two miles beneath the ground. I don't like the sun, I don't like the grass, I don't like bugs flying about.
Let's see...I got up at 5:40AM today and it's now 4:30PM. I went out first thing with the dog, and again around 1PM with her (and to get the mail), and other than that, I've been sat inside all day. I'll probably go out once more with the dog, and when I do go out with her, I just stand on the porch and keep an eye on her and only venture after her if she starts to wander.
Tomorrow, I envision much the same, although MrsTasty may want me to sit outside with her. I'll do that if I must, but my preference is to stay inside. I like a controlled climate, and I get my walkies on a treadmill (two miles a day, no bugs!).
I thought you said elsewhere that you liked to go out to shop for food. Would you be OK if you couldn't leave the flat and had to get food delivered?
I'm really quite capable of being reclusive and have tendencies in that direction but the idea of never going outside I don't like. Claustrophobia sets in. For the last 7 weeks, the only place outside I've been is my garden. And that is only for a little time each day. I've not been out elsewhere.
[Mod.Comment: Last few posts are veering off topic. Probably my fault!]
Well, I'm not helping!
First, indianwells, I want to be clear and point out am in no way disparaging your view, it's lovely indeed, and enviable. My point was just that I'm sure there are some folks quite happy tucked up in their little urban hidey-holes somewhere.
Yes, I do like grocery shopping, but keep in mind, that's walking from my climate-controlled house to my attached garage, getting into my car, which is climate controlled, then parking and either walking across a park or a car park, depending on my choice that day (and it's all car park these days), into a climate-controlled store, and then the reverse home. That's why, regardless of the weather (and it gets <bleep>ing cold here), I don't always wear a coat, because my true outside time will likely be three minutes or less.
I would miss grocery shopping, but I'm quickly growing used to that. I think I may have even overcome my strict aversion to online ordering non-food items, although I've been waffling on buying a much-needed vacuum cleaner because I can't get out and touch the ones I'm considering.
But that has nothing really to do with whether you're rural, suburban, village, town, or urban - once you're cooped up, you're cooped up, if you're like I am and not apt to go sit on the deck or the front porch.
MrsTasty hasn't been out once since March 8th, to have her blood drawn, and she's happier than a pig in sh...ellac right now. I hear it about once a day, after her FB time, where she reads about people going stir-crazy, and she says, "I don't get it. Apart from going on holiday, I don't care if I never leave the house again."
I do, once a week, go out on Kroger's app to see if anything is available to ship to me (I live too far out of town for shop delivery), and everything is "temporarily unavailable to ship," though I can get it at my local shop - otherwise, I think I'd be ok ordering all my pantry items, and just dashing in for my produce and perishables. I don't know that I'd ever be ok with someone picking out my produce, as I watch those jugheads doing that at my local Kroger, and I know how much care they put into selecting produce (zero).
Do any of you folks have horned frogs? They are actually lizards, but have been called horned frogs or horned toads in Texas for ever. They are even the mascot for TCU (Texas Christian University).
I don't have them in my area. About fifty miles West of me is where you start to see them.
CD
rascal
Forum GOD!
We have a lot of Dutch people arrived here after the war. I've worked for two Dutchmen, both hard working and very generous people. Still friends with them to this day, although I havnt seen them in a few years. The Dutch here are sometimes seen as frugal. But never to me. They both treated me like a son.
Russ
Nice day out, 72F/22C, but I'm sat inside drinking punch and watching a vampire movie:
Windigo
Kitchen witch
- Joined
- 29 Jul 2019
- Local time
- 5:50 AM
- Messages
- 7,677
- Location
- The Netherlands
- Website
- www.instagram.com
Being frugal is the national stereotype, and true to a point. The generation after the war (my parents generation, boomers) were raised with austerity and kept that habit, especially when it comes to food and cooking. Also, Dutch women were largely educated by the 'household schools' which considered frugality a religious virtue and a housewife's duty. This comes from Calvinism, a very popular Dutch protestant traditition.
So being tight on money and always looking for the best deal has long been a national virtue, and it still is ingrained in the nation's psyche because such things don't go away entirely in one or two generations. My friend and my generation (early millenials, 80s kids) are less frugal than our parents and more willing to spend money on food and going out to eat but it's still not quite as common as in other European countries.
My cooking and eating habits are considered exotic by many Dutch people, the usual way of eating here is two meals with a simple sandwich and a simple carb/meat/veg dinner and maybe a dinner out once every two weeks to try something 'exotic' like Chinese or other countries foods. It's certainly a healthy lifestyle, but rather boring.
A famous anecdote is that after the war, the American president came to visit the Dutch president and he got offered a cup of tea and exactly ONE small biscuit as a welcome. That's when the Marshall plan was realised, because we Dutch must have been really short on food!
