Every SWF-picture published here is shot with my trusty Google Pixel 7 smartphone and unedited, unless stated otherwise.
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Sometimes I take a different route to one of my local supermarkets. And yes, I walk. There are three different supermarkets, two vegetable shops and two bakkeries within a circle of ten minutes walk from my place. So you know I don't live in a suburb in the United States.
On one of those walks I passed a local community center.
Unfortunately they only have (from free to cheap) workshops for the elderly. As if people in their thirties or young teens can't feel lonely or want to know the ins and outs of the art of macramé. A missed opportunity.
So, in my role as chairman of the residents' committee, I proposed things like offering young teens who were born in other countries the opportunity to read Dutch comic books and learn the language of their new - albeit maybe temporary - home in a comfortable environment and play old Dutch games with their native peers. People learn a lot playing local games with local people and they don't even need to speak eachother's mother tongue.
Syrian, American and Ukrainian refugees could learn how to ride a bike. Not just technically how to use the mode of transport but also how to engage in traffic. The center could teach people in their thirties how to pass time without looking at a phone screen...In my humble opinion a community center could do so much more than reinforcing the idea that old people can only be sad and lonely and eat soup because of their false teeth.
The municipality would not even have to hire teachers; Teens could teach the elderly how to become a Youtube Creator while a retiree could teach the young folk about the joy of dissecting a whole chicken and making their own chicken nuggets which are not only better tasting but also cheaper and healthier than the overly processed stuff that goes by the same name.
The other day I found myself enjoying the Spring skies over the town of Dieren, some three hours away from my hometown of Amsterdam by train and bus. Visiting a friend:
Had a stopover at Arnhem trainstation:
This was my view from the Dieren trainstation overlooking the town:
Yes, a lot of smaller towns have their own trainstation, making it quite doable to travel from one place to the other by public transport in The Netherlands.
Are towns and cities well connected by public transport in your part of the world?
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This week's poem I wrote last Winter, while working in the UK.
It's about a cat:
That Beautiful Princess (a #poem)
Just being in her presence
made his racing mind slow down
Touching her
gave him more peace
than the end
of a decades old war
He wished he could
just lay on the bed
beside her forever,
ans ask for nothing more
But soon enough
the'd have to say goodbye
Perhaps not forever
but just the thought
made him cry
Being apart would not
love him less
For he'd carry her
in his heart,
the beautiful Princess
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