Category: COMMENTARIES


SURVIVING HEAT WAVE

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July 1, 2021

Recent heat wave here in Western Canada, British Columbia, was over 40C in most areas. Resulting among others in over 400 deaths in the Vancouver area alone, mostly among seniors. [ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/sudden-deaths-heat-wave-b-c-1.6086770 ], deaths related to this heat.

For the past 50 years in Canada I have been subjected to many heat waves, some during travel for work (Ottawa) and also Quebec, Montreal, during summer. I learned then that in addition to drinking lots of water, which really is only for your inside, that also the outside of your body, the skin, is heating up tremendously.

One fact is: Heat always rises, while water always runs down. Meaning, that during a heat wave, the body temperature rises, and the upper part of the body needs to be cooled down as long as the heat wave lasts, that means 24/seven.

How to take at least simple precautions: Use a cotton kerchief for the neck (I have many from my Cowboy days in Alberta), soak it thoroughly in cold water and tie it around your neck. This prevents heat rising to you head, and knock you out. Secondly, soak your T-shirt in cold water and wear it. As the body heats up, this needs to be repeated hourly. In addition, if I have to go out somewhere, always take a bottle of cold water, to re-soak and drink. I have done this regularly for every bicycle trip as well.

I survived this last heat wave, alone, without anybody helping me, and I am over 80 years old.

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Coffee – Cafe – Kaffee

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August 31, 2020

COFFEE – CAFE – KAFFEE

2020 the best year of my life, with a world wide pandemic, virus here, there and everywhere. What’s a person to do to have at least a feeling of a social life, especially if you are alone. Often I go out (in fact daily) for a walk, or take my bicycle, to the park, sit down, have a coffee. Better, yet, sit somewhere in one of the newly created outdoor cafes. Even sitting alone at a table feels better than sitting alone at home. YUK !

Coffee for many years has become an important part of my traveling life. In Europe, and on the continent. Victoria, BC, Vancouver Island: Although I have not tested all cafes, some are good, some not so, some are too expensive for the quality of coffee.

A decent cup for C$2.00 is pretty good. Murchies, 100 year old pattissery and eating place downtown. Not bad. Crust Bakery on Fort C$ around 2.00, also, but must sit outside, lots of street traffic. Other places (being that Starbucks closed down a lot) can go anywhere from C$2.50 to even over C$up to 4.00. Too expensive. My Italian shop in Victoria, on Blanchard, has the best Italian imports, everything (dozens of different panettones during Xmas season), and also a little corner cafe to sit. Regular coffee not so strong, espresso, Americano good. Prices good. [Reminds me of my Panettoni story: During Xmas 2015 went to Italy, from Cannes, bought a big Italian Panettoni, took it home to Canada in my suitcase.]. Yet, nothing beats a good Weihnachtsstollen.

While traveling in France, spending three months in Cannes, Mediterranean, ordering a coffee/cafe would always mean tiny cute little Espresso, good, but one shot. Netherlands, where I worked and lived for eight years is different again: You want to find a Cafe to sit down for a coffee ? Unless you intend to smoke pot or get some cannabis, those places are the ones. Real cafes bakeries for a coffee and dessert are bakeries (bakkerij patisserie). Germany, Berlin: There is a tiny historically old section, the Nikolaiviertel, one can sit down outside, have wonderful coffee, mostly coffee implies a little can, and have a cake. [Founded about 1200, the Nikolaiviertel of Alt-Berlin, together with the neighbouring settlement of Cölln, is the reconstructed historical heart of the German capital Berlin.]

St. Petersburg, Russia, is huge, a wonderful city. Near the Neva strolling along the Nevsky Prospect down to the landing dock for ships going to Finland, found a nice little restaurant, have a coffee. Good.

[Every morning I make my own cappuccino in my old-fashioned Italian Espresso machine.]. Continue enjoy, as long as you look at each other from the distance.

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Grizzly Bears in British Columbia

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April 4, 2019

Grizzly Bear trophy hunt – meaning that a bear is being killed and stripped of its pelt, and that more than ever it is the European (so-called) hunters who come to British Columbia, to partake in the (rather liberally set provincial quota for) hunting and killing those animals.

[ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/grizzly-bears-overhunted-in-b-c-say-researchers-1.2417306 ] .

So, what is the point exactly of stripping a bear of its pelt and hanging it up on the wall ? Or do they use the bear pelts as carpeting ? Or do they think that there is a major market for any of its parts ? maybe in China ?

I cannot see the point of it, yet. For example, a Norwegian traveling all the way to the most Western Canadian Province, British Columbia, in order to return back home with the skin of one of the most intelligent animals. One of the remnants of a Grizzly bear population that has been shrinking to only pockets in Western Canada.

While the BC government claims that set quotas are scientifically proven (or, should I say “clinically proven” ?), scientists here who study the Grizzly bear population know otherwise. [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/grizzly-bear-kill-limits-being-broken-across-bc-study-says/article15301716/ ]

And don’t you hate it, when a government agency (these are not professionals or scientists, but politicians with no science or even statistical background), determines how many bears can be killed in one season. Don’t tell me, female bears are also included ? ! And who is controlling the hunt ? Any member of those BC governmental agencies ? Is anybody out there in the cold and the wilds to check if the “right” bear is killed ? [Reminds me of the Right Whale in the 19th and 20th century, who were almost completely exterminated. – http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/north-atlantic-right-whales-hunted-to-the-edge-of-extinction-405848.html ]

For those visitors from out of Canada, don’t touch our bears, leave them be, go hunt your own (people) or animals, whatever they be.

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Los Angeles Adventurer All Suite Hotel Inglewood

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March 6, 2018

Los Angeles Adventurer Hotel – passing through

[ http://www.laadventurerhotel.com/ ]. Address:  4200 W Century Blvd, Inglewood, CA 90304.

In summary, this hotel is at best a backpackers inn, it is awful. 

My recent experiences summarized. On my way down south to Mexico I needed to stay overnight in Los Angeles, CA. I had booked this hotel using http://www.booking.com. It is near LAX, L.A. Airport and advertised a number of included FREE services, such as BF, free Airport Shuttle to and from, free popcorn, free glass champagne on arrival, and whatnot. When entering the small messy lobby, there is a list on the wall listing all of these free included services and extras. These are included in the room price.

I have not seen any of this FREE stuff. I arrived late L.A., called shuttle service at this hotel from the airport outside an area which is reserved for shuttle buses from all L.A. hotels. We waited 40 minutes till a large black van arrived at the Airport, to pick me up.

This hotel is noisy, smelly (cannabis smoking), and the reception on my first arrival there was unacceptably rude with another guest, a Chinese man. Yelling and insulting this man, making nasty discriminatory comments on his being Chinese, and threatening to call the police. Just because he had requested another room. His room did not have a workable shower. Was scary this situation. In all my travels, this was a first for me.

I spent a few hours, getup early and got the hotel shuttle alright, to bring me to the airport. On my return back to Canada, I needed again to stay overnight at this same hotel.

Calling the hotel shuttle service from the airport, no response, a different company responded. I took a taxi to the hotel, cost US$25. The room I got was nice, I must say, with a nice clean renovated bathroom. The TV was on, the remote belonged to a different machine, no way to turn this off. So I pulled the plug to shut down this noise.

Got up early again, again no BF.

How they charge beats me. On arrival they take again a credit card for so called incidentals, although my cost for this room is already charged by booking.com on my MasterCard. The incidentals referred to apparently are a number of little bottles inside the rooms, sample liquor bottles, in case a guest actually uses them. I would not touch any of this with a pitch fork. On departure a guest will then be asked if they took any of this. Nobody does. Then the reception make out another receipt with another charge US$35, and on same receipt a refund of -US$35. Checked my MC account online, if in fact all of this has been charged correctly. Between the (incidentals) amount the night before and the refund the night after, there is a difference in US to C$ conversion. For many guests this seems beneficial to this hotel. Credit card charges are to Crown Airport Hotel Inglewood. Check it out: [ https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Hotel_Review-g32525-d77998-Reviews-Crown_Airport_Hotel-Inglewood_California.html ].

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How the Gestapo operated

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April 16, 2017

Propaganda or eyewitness news ?, which in other words means my own personal experiences. Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei) was an equivalent to today’s citizens’ control and spy organizations, but operating within a fascist dictatorial rule, like in Nazi Germany. Nazi derived from National Socialist, the type of government under a dictator, subjecting citizens to very strict rules of obeisance. The only rule under the Nazi regime was: If you are NOT with us, you die. The punishment of choice was the guillotine (head shorter). During those times of WWII, a large number of extremely dedicated SS officers were needed for this Gestapo to function like a well oiled machine to keep the population under control. Control being the operative word. The Gestapo being the enforcers. Since they mostly operated enforcing their terror on civilians (the regular German army was at the Front, Russia) this had been even more traumatic, especially to small children. In order for this system to function as well as it did, an important aspect of it was the reliance on certain dedicated Nazi citizens to report on others, like neighbours, friends, even family. That is exactly what happened to us, my mother, sister and myself. A neighbour in our building, probably a superNazi, called in to the Gestapo reporting that my mother forbade us children to say Heil Hitler in school. I was 5 years old at that time. One day, our door bell rang, there were two Gestapo officers at the door, came in, checking out our flat even the attic, they thought my father who at that time was at the Russian Front, was hiding somewhere. Because my mother had two little children, that saved her life. Later that afternoon she tried to commit suicide, taking pills. I’ll never forget. And all this in the middle of the war, being subjected to daily and nightly bombings. Question remains: “What is so different now compared to then, with Government spy organizations controlling and terrifying citizens ?”

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Exercise your brain, prevent dementia

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December 26, 2016

Is this really true ? I plan to test this assumption. For most of my life I have worked with computers, since the beginning of the sixties. The old IBM machines we worked with often needed special attention, like actual manual manipulating. Later main frames, system development, programming, big main frame conversions, IBM and VAX machines, all languages, up to creating the first ADABAS/NATURAL fourth-gen language systems. My job. Then following the laptops, all Windows systems, starting with the Windows 1, later XP (my favorite), then installing the 7, now Windows 10. Piece of cake installing and converting from one to the next. In between, adding one Apple iPad. Just working with devices of course cannot prevent dementia in later life. On the contrary. Versatility of feeding your brain, thinking for yourself, overloading yourself with not just stereotype Internet junk, and spoon-fed dictionaries. Versatility for me includes also reading a book, writing and publishing on the Internet, playing chess daily, and never relying on anybody else to do any thinking for me. The best ‘brain-food’ is languages, preferably more than just one (or as we always say: English, Irish and Rubbish). Plus, travel comes cheaper when speaking the language of the guest country.

To retain memory function, why not try remember all international phone numbers, all passwords without ever once having to look it up. That’s what I do. In other words, practice your brain like doing physical exercise (mine is swimming, and cycling and walking). Next year will be my eightieth. Hoping for myself to still have a nice healthy and well-functioning brain.

From the Mayo Clinic:”dementia describes a group of symptoms affecting memory, thinking and social abilities severely enough to interfere with daily functioning. Typically, dementia is always assigned to “the elderly”. Those whose memory often goes back over seventy years. [Remember: “A victim never forgets.”]. The dementia described by the Mayo Clinic, however, fits almost 100 % of most young people. Texting on their devices, pulling down dictionaries to complete entire phrases without ever having to think for themselves, or addling their brains with drugs. Good luck to you all !

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Canadian War Veterans in Holland

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May 4, 2015

How Canada’s war veterans of world war 2 perceive themselves in Holland. According to them: “The Dutch people remember us and are grateful for what we have done for them.”
Myself I worked, lived and had a family in Holland for many years, also re-visited The Netherlands many times. Never noticed – even in recent years – that anybody in Holland even cares about Canada in that sense, as the Canadian 90-year old veterans see themselves.
Little anecdote, several years ago, published in our news papers: Canadian war veterans – decked out in medals, berets and full wartime regalia – travelling to Holland again for some reunions. Using the train. The conductor in that Dutch train asking for the tickets. Apparently the old guys had not paid enough fare. The Conductor requested them to pay up. One of the old timers complaining, mentioning what they were up to, (and should the Dutch not let them travel for free? in the back of his mind). NO, said the train conductor, “you pay what everyone else pays”.
Big outcry here in Canada about this incident. How dare they ??

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Reality of WWII

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September 8, 2014

[ http://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=55/Bombing-of-Hamburg-Dresden-and-Other-Cities-World-War-II-Database ]

My home town – was right close to Berlin, right smack in the path of the major bomb corridor between England and Berlin – destroyed to 90 %. I was two year old when Canada declared war on me (I take this personally). And I was seven years old when the war officially ended, but unofficially continued with bombings still going on in certain areas. Hah ! Now, were those the same people who after all that destruction pretended to have invented all sorts of ‘Anti War’ symbolism ? In their little war mongering minds they may have thought that (He, it is now seventy years ago) we forgot ?
A victim never forgets ! And when I am a hundred years old I will still remember. After all, two year old babies did not start WW2, nor did they march with rifles slung over and shoot (uselessly, I might add) at the flying bomber aircraft in the air.
Of course, the bombings still continue, even seventy, eighty or who knows hundred years after 1945 [ http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/unexploded-wwii-bombs-pose-growing-threat-in-germany-a-859201.html ].
You can read into this whatever you want, published on the Web by historians, not by people who were actually right in the middle of those bombing raids – victims, little children. So, to all those who were inside those aircraft and dropping their loads onto civilians, do not come with stories of MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR.
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